"The secret of managing is to keep the guys who hate you away from the guys who are undecided." - Casey Stengel, New York Yankees

"Want to turn customer input into real innovation? Stop asking customers what they want and start asking customers what they want your product or service to do for them. Don't ask customers for solutions (what they want), ask for the outcomes they are looking for."

"The mundane is like a cancer. The busywork of our lives prevents us from actually living." - The father of Paul Orfela, founder of Kinko's

"Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending." - Maria Robinson

"Happy employees create happy customers, and happy customers buy more stuff."

"Let's be clear: The Net is not about technology, it's about people -- a fact that is obvious to everyone except to we programmers. The most important things we, as humans, need to do -- commercially or socially - is to connect with others. An online community is no substitute for real-world interactions. In fact, the most successful online communities are the ones that throw parties, sponsor events, host get-togethers - help members meet one another face-to-face in the real world." - Craig Newmark, founder, Craigslist

"Some day, in years to come, you will be wrestling with the great temptation, or trembling under the great sorrow of your life. But the real struggle is here, now, in these quiet weeks. Now it is being decided whether, in the day of your supreme sorrow or temptation, you shall miserably fail or gloriously conquer. Character cannot be made except by a steady, long continued process." - Phillips Brooks

"No answer is also an answer." - American Indian proverb (Hopi)

"Repetition is important, especially when you're trying to change the way a company thinks." - Bill Zollars, President, Yellow Corp.

"I love deadlines. I especially like the whooshing sound they make as they go flying by." - Scott Adams, Dilbert

"I don't like that man. I'm going to have to get to know him better." - Abraham Lincoln

"When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change." - Wayne Dyer

"If you want to make enemies, try to change something." - Woodrow Wilson

"In giving presentations, use the 10/20/30 rule....use only 10 slides, take 20 minutes maximum, and use at least 30-point fonts." - Guy Kawasaki

"Never let yesterday use up too much of today." - Bob Danzig, "Vitamins for the Spirit"

"Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says "Make me feel important." Not only will you succeed in sales, you will succeed in life." - Mary Kay Ash, Founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics

"When I work with insurance companies, my goal is to help them improve their policy renewal rates...not to fix the car perfectly nor quickly." - Patrick O'Neill, owner 911 Colllision Centers

"Universal Studios employees have their favorite film on their nametag. Some organizations have the service-giver's hometown on their nametag for the same reason - it humanizes, gives a talking point, adds a dimension to the person providing the service. Revealing something personal about yourself is a sign of trust. Which, given, prompts trust in return." - A tip from Chip Bell

"If you don't go to a person's funeral, they won't come to yours." - Yogi Berra

"Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you will help them become what they are capable of becoming." - Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

"People will pay more to be entertained that they will pay to be educated." - Johnny Carson

"Computers are incredibly fast, accurate, and stupid. Humans are incredibly slow, inaccurate, and brilliant. Together they are powerful beyond imagination." - Albert Einstein

"Resist the temptation to mandate exactly how your staff serves customers. Instead, identify the desired end you want achieved (Nordstrom's desired end is "Every customer returns asking for a salesperson by name") and give the employee the responsibility to find the best means to achieve that end."

"There is no delight in owning anything unshared." - Seneca, Roman philosopher

"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." - Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

"What a Club this would be if every member would try to do only half of what they expect other members to do." - Sign in an American Legion Clubhouse that Tim Russert Sr. belonged to.

"Customer is King": 4,440; "Customer is Queen": 29 - Results of a Google search carried out by Stephen Farber. SOURCE: Quoted by Tom Peters when he was presenting for us recently. Tom uses this figure in a section of his talk that deals with how women have the real power as customers, but that most suppliers are too ignorant to notice.

"Emotion is the great differentiator in a world where sameness increasingly rules. In an excess economy, success comes from attracting the emotional consumer, not the rational one." - Kjell Nordstrom, The World's Funkiest Business Guru

"Relationships are all there is. Everything in the universe only exists because it is in relationship to everything else. Nothing exists in isolation. We have to stop pretending we are individuals that can go it alone." - Margaret Wheatley, Turning to One Another

"It's more important to make a decision than to worry about making the right decision." - Paul Weitz, Director, "In Good Company"

"Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires...courage." - Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882, Poet and Essayist

Would you like to know the secret of success? Here it is. If you want to be a successful husband or wife, learn to see life from your spouse's point of view. If you want to be a successful parent, learn to see life from your child's point of view. If you want to be a successful businessperson, learn to see life from your customer's point of view. If you want to be a successful employer, learn to see life from your employee's point of view." - Rick Warren

"Expression of gratitude is a sign of maturity."

The basis for every non-compete contract ever written...."It's not the BANK, it's the BANKER"

"There are four ways, and only four ways, in which we have contact with the world. We are evaluated and classified by these four contacts: what we do, how we look, what we say, and how we say it." - Dale Carnegie

"Customers will tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear." - Bob Shaff

"The best things in life aren't things." - Art Buchwald

"Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future." - Niels Bohr

"I couldn't repair your brakes so I made your horn louder." - Unknown auto repair shop

"The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past...we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude...I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it." - Charles Swindoll

"Men have to play good (baseball) in order to feel good. Women have to feel good before they can play good." Mike Candrea, UofA Softball Coach, in response to the question "What is the difference in managing men's and women's baseball/softball teams?"

"Watch your thoughts; they become your words. Watch your words; they become your actions. Watch your actions; they become your habits. Watch your habits; they become your character. Watch your character for it will become your destiny." - Unknown

The most beautiful words in the English language:
    Your own name...everyone
    "I love you"....everyone
    "It's benign".....Woody Allen
    "not guilty"....Maxim Gorky
    "check enclosed"....Dorothy Parker
    "the meeting is cancelled"....most employees

"The secret to being boring is to say everything!" - Voltaire

A barbershop's reaction to a new shop that offers $10 haircuts: A sign in their window that says: "We repair $10 haircuts."

"She got me to thinking that we all have our own stories. Connecting with each other in the process of our story and its accompanying thrashing about is always worth doing. After all, we are walking together, and the exposing of ourselves to others creates openings to reflect on our own experiences, often giving us greater insight." - John Fischer, Purpose Driven Life

"Discovery consists of looking at the same thing as everyone else and thinking something different." - Roger von Oech

At Harley-Davidson....."We ignite passion and stir in a sense of freedom in our customers and employees." We stay close to our customers by: being one of them; being accessible; and being immersed in our customers' world.

What customers want:
    The real thing
    To feel understood
    To be entertained and engaged
    To join, to become a member

"Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I may not forget you." - William Arthur

"What's the one thing we could have done better to improve your stay?" - Renaissance Hotel front desk clerk at customer check-out.

"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around." - Leo Buscaglia, Author and Speaker

Tom Peters' Rules for Success: "Make a careful list of all things done to you that you abhorred. Don't do them to others, ever. Make another list of things done for you that you loved. Do them for others, always."

"Be careful the environment you choose for it will shape you; be careful the friends you choose for you will become like them." - W. Clement Stone 1902-2002, Author and Businessman

"76.45% of all statistics are meaningless." - Anonymous

"Efficiency is doing things right. Effectiveness is doing the right things."

Raising Culture is like raising a teenager....you've got to constantly check in with them..."How are you doing? Where are you going? Who are you hanging out with?"

Calvin Coolidge once said, "Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent."

"The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it." - Henry David Thoreau, philosopher

"What we need, what every organization needs, are people who are committed to the company and its mission. You can't buy commitment; you can't mandate it. You can only invite it. And to invite it, you need to engage the passion of every employee."

Jan 26, 1784, In a letter to his daughter, Benjamin Franklin expressed unhappiness over the eagle as the symbol of America. He wanted the turkey.

"I believe that we are solely responsible for our choices, and we have to accept the consequences of every deed, word, and thought throughout our lifetime." - Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

"The only man I know who behaves sensibly is my tailor; he takes my measurements anew each time he sees me. The rest go on with their old measurements and expect me to fit them." - George Bernard Shaw

"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." - Bill Cosby

"I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value." - Hermann Hesse

Always try to take the high road. Do your best to create friends and not enemies. Endeavor to end things on good terms. As one wise person said, "Never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty, but the pig likes it."

My friend David Garfinkel, a copy writing genius, says there are five important answers you need to get from your customers, directly or indirectly.
    What do you like about buying from us?
    Why did you buy from us in the first place?
    What problems did you have before you bought from us?
    How did we help you solve those problems?
    How are things better for you now?
"That last answer," he says, "is very important. It's what a positive result looks like to a real customer, and it's going to look the same to your other customers and prospects when you tell them about it."

"Think of the prospect as a probable purchaser. WOW!" - John Patterson, NCR

There's an old business adage that says, "All things being equal, people want to do business with their friends. And all things being NOT so equal, people STILL want to do business with their friends". It is estimated that more than 50% of sales are made and business relationships are kept because of friendship. - Jeffrey Gitomer

"One does not discover new land without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a long time."- Andre Gide

"The front-desk's purpose is not to check people in. That's its function. The purpose is to welcome the customer." - Theo Gilbert-Jamison, V-P. Training & Organizational Effectiveness, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company

"If you chase two rabbits, both will escape." - Anonymous

"We each have all the time there is; our mental and moral status is determined by what we do with it."- Mary Blake

Life is lived forward but only understood backwards.

People don't care how much you know until they know how much you CARE

"If you find common subjects or interests (common ground) with a prospect, you can establish a business friendship; and people are more likely to buy from a friend than a salesman." - Jeffrey Gitomer

"Weakness fixing might prevent failure, but strength building leads to excellence. Focus on strength, and manage around weaknesses." - Marcus Buckingham, coauthor of First, Break All the Rules and Now, Discover

"Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but rather we have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit." - Aristotle

What can we do to leave this world a better place? What could we do in our everyday interactions with others that would leave them feeling better, more secure, more important, more welcome, more comfortable, more appreciated than they did before their interaction with us?
Here are some of things that popped into my head.
    We can be more understanding.
    We can extend a kind word.
    We can give heartfelt thanks.
    We can offer a warm welcome.
    We can give genuine compassion.
    We can listen from the heart.
    We can go out of our way.
    We can share a big smile.
    We can deliver a hearty laugh.
    We can try a little harder.
    We can respond quicker.
    We can reach out and touch.

"There is always a better way of doing things, and either you or your competitor will find it"

"Character is doing the right thing when nobody is looking," (My favorite quote of all time.)

"The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it." - Henry David Thoreau

Life can only be lived by looking forward. It can only be understood by looking backwards.

Here are my prime two philosophies of sales -- "People don't like to be sold, but they love to buy," and "All things being equal, people want to do business with their friends. All things not being equal, people still want to do business with their friends." If you understand those philosophies, then you can understand the guiding principles that will drive your success. - Jeffrey Gitomer

"If you do what you've always done, you will get what you've always got"

If the horse is dead, get off.

If you're in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging.

We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true. - The Times Book of Quotations

"Sports do not build character. They reveal it." - John Wooden, UCLA basketball coach

When I'm talking about getting and keeping customers, I say, "As Bill Gates said, 'When you lose a customer, you lose two ways. First, you don't get their money. And second, your competitor does.'" And pantomime stabbing myself in the heart, which usually gets a laugh.

"The world is divided into people who think they are right." - Anonymous.

It can also be fun and frivolous, like, "Women born since 1960 are likely to have more husbands than children." This can lead into a talk on changes in society.

"How important is friendly? To me, if there are 100 qualities of a successful customer service person or salesperson, friendliness is in the top 3, and may be the top one.." Jeffrey Gitomer

But being in front of the customer doesn't help if you do all the talking.

This makes sense when you realize that Container Store their President, Kip Tindell, really means it when he speaks lovingly of the company's "Foundation Principle" that goes, "One great employee is worth three good employees." He also told me that "At this point, if we tried to hire someone who was not conspicuously great, there would be a revolt."

"A great employee is worth 1,000 times more than an average employee. Why? Because of the quality of her ideas." Nathan Mhyrvold, former chief technology officer at Microsoft.

"Customer service is perception minus expectations." Craig Tysdal, President and CEO, NetSolve Inc., in Fast Company magazine

PEOPLE MAY NOT REMEMBER EXACTLY WHAT `YOU DID, OR WHAT YOU SAID, BUT THEY WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER HOW YOU MADE THEM FEEL.

"Genuine listening ability is one the few true forms of competitive advantage." Feargal Quinn, Superquinn

You walk into a restaurant and the woman at the front steps out from behind her appointment book, flashes a warm smile and says, "I am so glad you decided to visit us tonight." Quick. Guess what kind of experience you will have.

If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well. - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Every calling is great when greatly pursued. Oliver Wendell Holmes.

The question is NOT how to innovate, but how to INVITE ideas that you may not otherwise encounter.. Vinton Cerf, MCI WorldCom

You can't control the length of your life -- but you can control its width and depth.

Let us not judge life by the number of breaths taken, but by the number of times the breath is held, or lost, either under a deep emotion, caused by love, or when we stand before an object of interest and beauty. W.H. Davies

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

A related quote......Measure wealth not by the things you have, but by the things you have for which you would not take money.

We need a renaissance of wonder. We need to renew, in our hearts and in our souls, the deathless dream, the eternal poetry, the perennial sense that life is miracle and magic. - E. Merrill Root

"There are two statements about human beings that are true: that all human beings are alike, and that all are different. On those two facts all human wisdom is founded." -Mark Van Doren, American poet (1894-1972).

Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending. - Carl Bard

The job of the Marketing VP is not to know what the customer wants. His job is to ask what the customer wants. As soon as he knows what the customer wants, he's wrong - because the customer keeps moving.

Excellence is an art of inches. It's not the grand gesture that makes a hero, but a thousand little things done right.

I just completed my first book. I enjoyed the experience very much. I plan to read another one very soon.

Feelings are the lights on the dashboard of life. Anon.

Thoughts at 50: I'd like to live where I could have a clothesline again. I'd like to be 25 again and know what I know now. Just for a week. OK, a day.

Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody's watching.

The first step in making any wish come true is giving it a voice.

Don't spend your time paving the cowpaths. Do it better. (Don't just improve the old ways of doing business, create new ways.)

Make your customers feel that they are being served on "the good china" whenever they come in contact with your company.

The problem with most businesses is that they can't see the trees for the forest. The forest is a company's customers perceived as an aggregate (the people who buy our stuff); trees are those same customers perceived as individuals.

Saturn says that 25% of the sales decision comes from the product, 25% from the marketing of the product, and 50% for the after the sale service.

A winback question for "lost customers": Where did we fail to meet your expectations?

Have customers complete "scorecards", not surveys. Scorecards are unique to each customer (e.g. lineups, teams, batting order), as opposed to surveys.

"I never realized that! Why has it taken 29 years for me to realize that?" Mother of two, on noticing that Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and The Alphabet Song carry the same tune.

Give out a ROSE award….(Recognition of Service Excellence)

Nothing in fine print is ever good news! Anon

"Ideas won't keep. Something must be done about them. When the idea is new, its custodians have fervor, live for it, and, if need be, die for it." Alfred North Whitehead, 1938

When your cup half full, be sure to sip frequently from it, and don't worry about what will happen when it's empty.

Motto from the Mayo Clinic…..The best interest of the Patient is the only interest to be considered

An optimist makes opportunities out of difficulties, and a pessimist makes difficulties out of opportunities.

You don't marry one person, you marry three.....the person you think they are, the person they are, and the person they are going to become as the result of being married to you.

What I do best is share my enthusiasm. Bill Gates/Bob Shaff

Continuous improvement…..1/10th of 1% per day x 5 = ½% per week x 4 = 2% per month x 12 = 24% per year x 4 = 96% per 4 years.

People always ask 3 questions about you when they meet you for the first time…..1) Can I trust you? 2) Are you committed to excellence? 3) Do you care about me?

The Cheers Bar......the ultimate customer loyalty program......Sometimes you just want to go to where everyone knows your name....and everyone's glad you came.

"Because of its value, some people have called feedback "the breakfast of champions." But it isn't the breakfast; it's the lunch. Vision is the breakfast. Self-correction is the dinner. Without vision, we have no context for feedback. We're just responding to what someone else values or wants. But with a clear sense of vision and mission, we can use feedback to help us achieve our vision." Stephen Covey

Perspective.....From a hayloft, a horse looks like a violin.

Confidence is feeling that you have something to say; arrogance is feeling that you have nothing to hear. Confidence is when you have something to teach; arrogance is the belief you have nothing to learn.. So arrogance is believing in your own perfection. When you think something is perfect, if you don't change or improve, you just sit there waiting to be surpassed by competitors. Dale Dauten

I've always felt that confidence is the deeply-held belief that you can help others and continue to learn yourself in so doing. Arrogance is the belief that you can help others but have nothing left to learn yourself. And smugness is a position of arrogance but without the skills. Alan Weiss

A smile is the same in every language. Everyone smiles in the same language.

While you can be efficient with things, you can't be efficient....effectively....with people. Steven Covey

Hard work pays off in the future, laziness pays off now.

A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the other one.

A story about heaven and hell.......a person came up to St. Peter, and was asked if he wanted to go to heaven or hell. Offered weekend demo to hell. Went to hell, found beach, sun, beer, music, wonderful time. Came back voted for hell. Went to hell, found fire and brimstone. Went to devil asked...."What happened to the sun, music, and fun?" Devil said...."You were a prospect, now you're a customer"

The enemy of the "best" is the "good". Steven Covey

Geese fly in a "V" formation to make the journey less tiresome and they "honk" to encourage the lead goose. "HONK" at someone today.

"To hug your teammates after a game is far more exciting than sitting at a podium by yourself saying thank you." Danny Wuerffel, UofFlorida QB upon receiving the Heisman trophy in December 1996

The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook. - William James

If a dentist is looking to increase revenue, he should extend hours, be easy to book, and offer no pain treatment. If he is looking to increase customer satisfaction, he should reward his employees.

A note on packaging....pay attention to your customers' "Out-of-Box" Experience.

The finest sales training, leadership, management, and customer service program in the world......in 4 words...."Ask Questions and Listen"

If you go back in history, all the changes take place when a new prince is made king. And then the king kind of works hard at keeping things the same. But the king of Coca-Cola is trying to change the thing every day because if we don't change, we're going to be left behind. Robert Goizuteta, Coca-Cola

The Gettysberg Address, 10 Commandments, 8 Beatitudes...all simple, profound, lasting value, and hard to do. It is the same with customer service, customer satisfaction, customer enthusiasm, employee satisfaction....it easy to give them lip service, very hard to do.

In days like the "nanosecond 90's", customers have more choices than ever, leading to greater expectations, and to crunched time schedules. The impact of a simple thank you, a smile, a friendly greeting, an expression of empathy becomes magnified 10 fold.

Do 100 things 1% better, not one thing 100% better

Service isn't good unless the customer says so.

Change the bottom line on your face.....smile!

Always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers. Steve Covey

Go for customer enthusiasm, not just customer satisfaction.

The only way to get better is to listen and act on complaints, since only 1/25 customers complain.

The top 5 motivators for employees to go the extra mile, according to Blessing/White, Princeton.... Having responsibility for the results of one's work Having a sense of worth in one's job Being recognized for one's effort Knowing the organization makes good use of employee skills Being encouraged to challenge the way the organization does things

There are no right answers, so get a lot of answers and try the ones that seem best...Tom Peters....WOW

Bump into customer service stories.....post them everywhere, talk about them, reward them, publish them, etc......#46 Tom Peters WOW

You want "inconsistent service" - Personalized to the person or situation.

Train the hell out of them, give them all the info on the finances, and put them in discussion groups with peers and senior management....Tom Peters

Medicine needs to be "Accessible, affordable, and affable".....Dr. John Wild

I act as a customer compass, always pointing the way the customer wants.....a magnifying glass, an antenna, a specialist.

Creativity often consists of merely turning up what is already there. Did you know that right and left shoes were thought up only a little more than a century ago? Bernice Fitz-Gibbon

You can buy a person's hand, but you can't buy his heart. His heart is where his enthusiasm, his loyalty is. You can buy his back, but you can't buy his brain. That's where his creativity is, his ingenuity, his resourcefulness. Steven Covey

The person or company who stops being better, stops being good. Oliver Cromwell, early 17th century on continuous improvement.

Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint on it you can. -Danny Kaye

Different isn't always better, but better is always different. The best companies are the ones eager to experiment with different. The best bosses are the ones who force you to be better, while the best employees are the ones determined to change the company. Dale Dauten

There's always a better way to do anything. Bob Shaff

Collect and tell W.O.W. stories (Walk on Water)

Attitudes are caught, not taught

Under promise and over deliver

A tree which is constantly shaken will not bear fruit. Too much change.......

Once a week, call someone you weren't going to call because it's been a while.

Do more than what's expected of you. And less of what would be expected from you.

Good ideas are sometimes nothing more than simply paying attention.

The most powerful management tool is a well-placed "thank you".

Goals "MAGNETIZE" your mind for ways to succeed.

A good way to judge people is by observing how they treat those who can do them absolutely no good.

The mark of an exceptional company is how it treats exceptions. Joe DeGeorge, Federal Express

If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, "Here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well." Martin Luther King, Jr.

A young woman was explaining to a friend why she had decided to marry one man rather than another. "When I was with John, I thought he was the greatest person in the whole world." Why did you choose Bill, the friend asked. "Because when I'm with Bill, he makes me feel that I'm the greatest person in the world."

"What would you like me to do?"....a magic question

Never teach a pig to sing.....it wastes your time and it annoys the pig.