When you see that someone’s
business is booming, you might wonder what makes him so successful and what gives wings to his business. The single answer (at least the best one) to this is
COURTESY as skilfully summarised by a business advisor: “ I don’t know of a more certain key to success than courtesy. It will take you further in this world and cost you less than any other quality you could possess…” Courtesy is simply part of good manners and it generates
goodwill i.e. a
customer’s decision to ruturn to the place where he has been well served. For a customer to make such a pleasant decision means that he appreciates your behaviour towards him, that you have shown him courtesy. Nevertheless, being courteous doesn’t just consist in repeating pleasant words such as
welcome, please, I’m at your disposal, thank you and the like. These words must come from your heart, you must mean them sincerely when you utter them. Pronouncing them with your bare mouth
won’t make you find favour with your customer. Courtesy that raises goodwill implies adopting the YOU
attitude. This is the art of introducing oneself in the customer’s world so that you show him that his interests are yours. Through the You attitude you get outside of yourself, you release yourself from attention focused exclusively on your single
person and you assume the other person’s point of view and you try to see things as he does. This because you have the responsibility to satisfy the customer. Therefore you should put yourself in his place such that what you tell him is exactly what you would like to be told, for this assures goodwill. In one word, courtesy means cherishing the customer’s goodwill and complying with his desires. Thereby he will feel like a king with his servant and that’s what assures his goodwill. Another significant component of courtesy is smile. The kind of smile in question is the heartfelt and thoughtful smile, not merely the superficial one on your face. A faked smile is quite easy to recognise and will never guarantee goodwill. In contrast, a sincere smile given to a customer will prove magic: smile breaks language barriers, creates a common bond, builds a platform of understanding and rises assurance of mutual consideration and respect. The magic power of smile was best stated by a world traveller as follows: “ A smile is the one thing the people of every country can understand”. This gives smile the status of a universal language that helps you make good impression on people in general and on your customer in particular. Courtesy is an investment that pays dividends just like other investments do and it has a pervasive quality that is valuable at millions of dollars. So if you show courtesy, you will soon realise that it is not just the right thing but the profitable thing as well because its amazing and wonderful advantages on your business won’t go unnoticed.
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