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Highly successful bass fishermen do no catch bass by using a “one-size-fits-all” approach. The fisherman needs to draw a number of lessons from his past fishing experiences and to try and relate what will be obtaining in the dam with his or her past experiences.
This gives the fisherman an idea of what to offer the bass at that particular moment.
Given that no two days are exactly alike in life, the fisherman still needs to use his past experience together with his personal gut feeling to come up with the bait that is likely to do well.
Above all, the focus is to ensure that the bass will be satisfied and bite the bait. The reason why many fishermen fail to think like bass is that at times they fall in love with certain baits and stick to them religiously.
This makes them lose the opportunity to catch bass because bass are attracted to different kinds of baits.
The fishermen at times stops bothering whether these baits are an appropriate mix for the particular day and particular dam. At times fishermen think in terms of what appears good to them not what appears good to the fish.
It is interesting to note that some seemingly ugly looking bait or even torn bait does very well on certain days than seemingly good looking and attractive baits.
The guiding principle is that the quality of bait is determined by the fish and not what the fisherman thinks is. This supports the notion that quality is what is perceived by the customer and not what the manufacturer thinks.
One Bible verse reinforces what is implied by thinking like a bass so as to catch a bass . It says “. . . thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself’’ (Luke 10 v 27).Some interpret this verse as do unto others what you would expect them to do unto you .
We do not assume that our neighbours are going to die quickly or move to the next suburb in the very near future. It is safe to assume that in order to live happily at our house, we also have to co-exist happily with our neighbours because they are an integral and permanent part of our value chain. Do you love your neighbour?
Customer service
Customer service principles and practice are derived from “loving your neighbour as yourself’’ and “thinking like a bass in order to catch a bass’’.
One clear demonstration of “loving your neighbour” is by putting “yourself in the shoes of your neighbour just like a fisherman has to think like a bass in – order to enjoy a good fishing day.
One who loves her or his neighbour demonstrates the following long-term attributes: Empathy, trustworthiness, ability to help others, credibility, reliability, integrity, trustworthiness, genuineness, and many other good qualities
What destroys customer care?
Unreliable computer systems
The computer era heralded a new dawn and optimism for customer care excellence. We were persuaded to think that with the click of a button all the needs of the customer will be catered for (particularly in the service industries).
Currently a lot of customers are failing to access service due to the systems failure. How often have you been told that you could not be assisted because the system is down? In most cases the employees do not see anything wrong in turning customers away. At times even if the computer is working, a tired or lazy employee can just use that excuse to relieve himself or herself of that burden.
They forget that it is because of the same customer that they have a job and if that customer stops coming then they would be out of a job.
As much as the fisherman can spend his time lamenting about the lack of good dreg on his reel which makes him lose big catches, he has a responsibility to either fix the dreg or buy a new reel to improve his catch.
The fisherman loses his capacity to catch big bass if he does not anticipate and fix the reel in order to be suitable for catching big fish.
So thinking like a bass involves putting into place systems and processes which can accommodate catching a big bass.
If the fisherman thinks his bait can attract a big fish, he should be prepared to catch a big bass. Do not look for customers if you are not mentally prepared to serve them. A company which fails to come up with a mitigatory plan for system failure is just a s good as the fisherman who fails to fix his dreg and assume that a big fish will not break his/her line.
Customers like fish fight for their rights. The big fish continue to pull on the line until it snaps and a dissatisfied customers vote with his feet.
The fisherman wins with a bankable and reliable reel. Similarly, a reliable and bankable computer system is key to achieving service excellence.
Ladies and gentlemen, computers are here to stay, let’s make them work for the benefit of customers.
Our customers deserve to be respected and loved. We must always think like customers in order to get repeat business from them as well as to convert them to become our free advocates and sales representatives for our company.
The writer is a managing consultant at CLC Training International. E-mail [email protected]
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