Customer Experience

In one of Warren Buffet's speech on how to have a successful business, he urged his audience to make a friend out of every customer.

Some of his pointers:

1.  Don't worry about things we cannot control or change, but one thing we could change is customer experience.  We want the customer to think of our company the moment they need a product in that area.  For example, if you want to have fried chicken, who do you think of?

2.  In order to provide good customer experience, we need to first give our employees good experience. If I am good, having just one of me is not enough for the company to succeed.  We need to learn to multiply ourselves.  Meaning, impart essential skills and values to the employees, ensuring they are happy working for us, and that they think like us.

3.  Surround oneself with people better than us.  This way, we learn good practices, and we get challenged to do better.

4.  Ask ourselves, what speciality can we bring to the party, meaning, what skills or ideas do we bring to our organisation to benefit it.

5.  We may not get it right the first time.  This is OK.

Since most of us are not into business, here's how we can use the above in our daily life:

1.  Very importantly, focus on things within our control.  Like how we portray ourselves. Pay less attention to what other people say about us.  Buy what we need or want, instead of easily getting attracted to what advertisements say.   

2.  Treat people nicely, so that they will treat us nicely too.  Don't be rude to waiters or salespeople. When I encounter people who are rude, whether acquaintances or strangers, I will just give a short stare and walk away.  My stare is the kind where I-am-letting-you-know-you-are-rude-but-I-will-not-bother.  

Because for people who are rude by nature, they will usually encounter lots of problems with others, and there is no need for me to waste time squabbling. However, when it is my students who showed rude behaviour, I will teach and advise.  Kindness begets kindness.

3.  The Chinese has a saying: When you get close to red, you will be red.  When you get close to black, you will be black (近朱者赤，近墨者黑). It can be roughly interpreted as : Nurture determines a person's character.  

If you surround yourself with people who are not motivated, you will not have the motivation. Sometimes, negative-thinking or crazy-thinking people may be fun to be with, but they bring us nowhere.  In extreme cases, they may even get us into trouble, because they always get into trouble.  Hence, hang around positive-thinking people.

4.  Know our strength.  Do our best in whatever we do.  Where possible, go into a job/career in an area that you love to do.  

Look at the glass half full instead of half empty.  By staying negative, we see difficulties. By staying positive, we see opportunities.  When we are depressed or stressed, look for a close friend to talk about it.  Keeping it to ourselves will make the depression worse.

5.  Make sure our boss knows our strength from the beginning.  For example, I am a very meticulous person.  And I always let my boss knows this (I will bring this up when I have a new boss, or when I am at a job interview).  This is to allow our boss to assign us appropriate work, so that we can shine.

6.  It is OK to not succeed on first try.  The more important thing is to reflect and improve.  Also, through careful planning and regular review, we should be able to increase the probability of a success on first try.  If it is work or group project, we need select a good team (people who are good, and perhaps better than us).  Do not be afraid that other colleagues will steal our limelight.  If we are good, the boss can see.

And yes, it is OK to smile at people we do not like, sincerely.  Show people that we are better than them.  Sometimes, when troublesome people sees your wisdom, they will back off.