One of the things I remember most from my days training with
the Dale Carnegie organization is that you have to earn the right to work with
your customer.
Basically, this means you need to do your homework to learn
as much about your customer or audience, the product, and the subject matter as
possible. If you know it inside and out,
no one’s time is wasted and you can solve a problem for your customer. People
love solutions and will listen if you have one.
I was on a flight from Chicago to Newark. The flight, like
most these days, was full. The boarding agent was trying to board people as
quickly as possible so the flight could leave on time and the flight attendants
were doing their part inside the plane to help people find their seats.
I was one of the first people on the plane, so I had a
ringside seat for the show. We had about 10 minutes to go before departure and
the overhead bins were all full. Customers had to start taking their bags off
the plane and checking them to their final destination. Then the flight
attendant and gate agent began to squabble about people having their coats in
the overheads.
Suddenly the gate agent began randomly taking coats out of
the overheads and throwing them into the center aisle of the plane, not even
asking whose coat was whose. Then the passengers began to get irritated and
argue. Soon, 10-15 people were screaming at each other with no solution in
sight.
About that time, a flight attendant from the back of the
plane began to move forward picking up coats and quietly returning them to the
customers. Within five minutes she had the situation under control. The
difference between her and the others -- she presented a solution and took
action to move the situation in a positive direction.
