Our Customer...

I went to a car wash here in Honolulu today and I saw a plaque on the wall with a list of things that a customer was to the carwash. I read it and I had to write it down because it is so true for almost any job or business you own. And it is especially true for any scrap business. I wanted to share it with everyone:

Our customer is the most important person in our business.
Our customer is not dependent on us, we are dependent on him.
Our customer is not an interruption of our work, he is the purpose of it.
Our customer does us a favor when he calls, we are not doing him a favor when we serve him.
Our customer is a part of our business, he is not an outsider.
Our customer is not a cold statistic, he's a flesh and blood human being with feelings and emotions like our own.
Our customer is not a name or a face or a number, he is an individual.
Our customer is not someone to argue or match wits with.
Our customer is a person who brings us his wants, it's our job to fill those wants in our service.
Our customer is the lifeblood of this or any other operation.
Our customer is the person who buys our services, pays our salaries, and goes to the polls and votes.
Our customer deserves the most courteous and attentive treatment we can give him in our operations.

Just some food for thought for all of you (especially those who, like me, rely on regular contacts and clients for their scrap).

I have seen this exact same sign/ list many times myself.
Unfortunately I remember it well in that so many of the places I have seen it made it noteable by how well they failed to live up to 90+% of it.
I remember it on the wall of a tire place I went to once and after managing to pizz me right off I pointed it out to the owner and got a serve for being a smartarse. Needless to say I never went there again.

Being the non easily swayed type I am, I tend to look at these things as basicaly meaningless. It seems like a lot of lip service to me. I think they would be better putting these things in the staff room and keeping them in front of the management and employees.

I always think if the business lived up to and did these things, they wouldn't need to put a sign up for me to know what I am to them.
That pretty much pans out for the places I have found exceptional service from and are my favorite places to spend my heard earned.

I just thought this was something interesting. I mean, it's good to have as a reminder. I tend to think that I have very good customer service (often times at the expense of the company) but every so often even I have to be reminded why I'm doing what I do and who I am dependent on. Especially when things are going good and you have a lot of scrap coming in, it's so easy to think "I don't need this customer's CRT" or "This person's scrap isn't worth the drive" or "This customer can wait because without me where else is he going to put his stove." But when things get slow (as they often do) it is these customers that will keep you afloat.

Even when a customer wants you to pay for something they'd otherwise throw away. It's so easy to think. "Who the h*** does this person think they are?" (we've all done it at some point). But they don't know the kinds of margins we're working with (sometimes WE don't even know the kinds of margins we're working with) and, just like us, they want whatever they can get out of it. Who doesn't? But instead of arguing with the guy and getting mad, just remind yourself that THEY are doing US the favor and pleasure of serving them. They can very easily just trash what they are giving you or, even worse, give it to your competition. But they are sacrificing their time to call you and meet you and sacrificing space to hold the item for you. The least you can do is compensate them with a pleasant and stress free experience and a polite explanation as to why you can't pay him for his pile of rusty pipes.

Scrapping seems like a very solitary thing to do. You often go hunting by yourself, you break down by yourself, you go to the yard by yourself. But if you want to expand, you'll have to make connections with clients (even a successful Curbco operation can benefit from having lasting connections with clients) Long story short, we all need reminders sometimes.

That's just good business.
now to get employees to undertake your "Mentality" takes a whole different set of people skills. No plaque will accomplish it, Respect will.... sometimes Fear
my .02