Service with Respect #service

I think everyone knows that times are tough. There would hardly be a business in the world that is not suffering a little at this time.  Yes, you may have the best product but people in general (the consumers) are seeking the best at the cheapest prices.  Everyone is seeking a bargain, coupled with the best service that you can offer and they want nothing less.

 

As more and more people put their business online, those that are left with staff on the floor must target the customer who is not wanting to get on the computer to ‘go to cart’.  Therefore, the business that actually has a sales floor, rather than a virtual salesroom, should start to look at the service they offer and really preen their skills. The people that still physically go to the shops, still believe in service. They  believe that they, the customer, are deserving of this service at the best of price. They want the best quality service and product at the same price as those they have checked out online, who offer no hands on service.

To the businesses that still offer an actual store front as opposed to a virtual storefront, I take my hat off to you. You are dependent on staff who offer first impressions. Staff who are versed on product knowledge. Staff who can get to know their client’s needs and budget in an efficient time frame and offer them service that cannot be found online. Above all encourage clients to visit again and again. 

To the staff, you must remember that your bosses are risking everything to employ you in the model of face to face service.  They, the bosses, need you to keep the service at the highest level and have repeat service or sales from their clients.  

Not many business I know, do not expect the customer to come back in their store unless of course you are an undertaker. A return visit from that client may be of huge benefit, owing to their business being listed in the New Testament (who cares about The Yellow Pages) and that their business will in fact gain media support, without paying a single cent on advertising.  But seriously, even this business needs people to see their business as one that gives the best possible service. And for people to seek that service for their next loved one that may be in need of their product. 

As staff we need to make ourselves that service agent who is as efficient as, and is striving to be the 007 of service and performance.  We need to be that sharp shooter but, we need to be able to understand our mission and those of our bosses and clients.  A hard task I know but our employers have entrusted us with their livelihood and in turn need our figures to ensure ours as well.  Without those figures in the till, we may find ourselves on a mission impossible on the unemployment queue. 

Having said that, yes our employers should, and are legally bound, to provide us with conditions that are legislated. But, we as employees must give our bosses respect and thanks that they (our bosses0 have entrusted their businesses in our hands. Therefore, we need to work harder to keep us in the luxuries to which we have become accustomed, through our job. 

We and the employers must be mindful of our consumers as well, and afford them the respect, and quality, that they have sought, rather than a service equivalent to that which is offered online.  They have chosen to enter our doors and are seeking face to face, hands on service. 

As employers we must supply our staff with the best product knowledge and upskilling we can afford.  No-one wants to enter a business with staff that have no product knowledge and lack the skills to talk to clients. 

Having said that, how many of us have gone online to a virtual store and found it too difficult to navigate owing to it being overcrowded and difficult to find a particular product and get to  cart?  Therefore, if we are wanting our business to attract people to our floors we need to make our shop front look as professional as we believe we are.  We must make our stores as consumer friendly as possible.  The first impression we want, when clients walk through our doors is smart, snappy and visually directional.  Our stock must be as clean as the day it was delivered.  We don't need customers to think our shop front is that of a very ordinary second hand shop. 

Being an employer or an employee are both tough jobs but, we together, must find common ground and respect each other in our individual roles. We need each other to survive.  Therefore, we need work together for our common benefit. 

If we haven't respected each other in the past for our roles, we must start, and take on board that we are dependent on each other. We must take into consideration that there is also a third party involved and that is the consumer. Yes, it is a difficult task but with communication and encouragement on all sides we can make it happen.

Unless we realize and work on our skills, and the service, we supply, we are not going to survive. Therefore, we need to work together on a remedy or, we too, might find ourselves dependent on computer service, computer employment, computer purchases, and indeed computer counselling. Let’s cherish that we have a chance to have that personal touch rather than the cold keyboard that seems to be taking the world by storm.

These are my thoughts 

freegreatpicture.com

 

Time for a New Song #acceptance

Much doom and gloom is around us all so let us stand and sing in unison. It’s time for a new song! In the words of the song, ‘Don’t weep and moan because he’s blown, just face the world and smile. Coz when your crying, don’t you know that your make-up starts to run, and your eyes get red and  scrappy…. but when your smilin’ keep on smilin’  the whole world smiles with you.’ 

Yes, I have cut and pasted the lyrics but I am sure you get the picture. We need to embrace the positives that we have. We need to reject some of those negatives and steer them towards positive thoughts.  Let’s not let that evil overpower us, let’s cast those devils to the wind and cry for them to leave our presence and take their horrid attitudes and stick them where..… oooops!! I believe I’m probably getting a tad too descriptive at this point but again, I think your get the picture. 

So many of us live in a world where bullying, selfishness, alienation, greed and ambiguous love exists.  It’s time to sing a new song where pure unadulterated love and caring are set free to reign -  love that has no limitations, love that has no rules but to love and be loved in return,  no hidden agendas. It’s time for a new song where caring for our fellow man/woman has no limits and no thoughts of cost or time or energy - a caring for others that we do not expect the return of said to boost our egos, a caring that is beyond mere words.  A caring that puts us on the edge and makes us think, have we actually done enough.  And enough is non-existent in the caring and loving fields of our lives.

 

yourdreambuilt.com

It’s time to take on the love of the innocent, and remember the simple approach to life,  a life that everyone is equal that everyone has their voice, and together as one voice we can move  mountains. 

It’s time for a new song that embraces the aged, the children and the in between’s on life’s treadmill.  We are all equal after all, in the eyes of anyone’s God. The Gods that we worship are built on love no matter what denomination we believe in.  The rules that are read into our God’s love are just written by people who may as humans, isolate and persecute others for just being themselves. So, it’s time for a new song  to bring back the unified chorus of the people to our religions.  Our Gods have never wanted anything but love and caring.  It is the human element that has destroyed people, put up barriers, built prejudice, built hierarchy and taken the simple love from our beliefs.

It’s time for a new song that our politicians remember they are elected by the normal people and in being elected, they are there to carry out the wants and needs of the people who voted for them.  They are not there to dictate their prejudice and their pet hates. Their job is to be the voice of the people who elected them to office. Their job is to ensure that the needs of the people are priority with health and well-being of their constituents at the top end of their agenda.  Their job is not to glorify themselves and believe that they are untouchable from the mortal man/woman. 

So too our religious leaders, they should be the voice of God. Their bias and prejudice should not give them the right to condemn, to cast judgement, to  isolate minorities owing to their personal bent on life.  Our Gods are built on love, and only humans interpreted the very essence on which our religions are built in the first place. 

So let’s scream it is time for a new song and cry out loud that we are equal, that we are worthy of a voice, and that we will join in unity to make this gloom and doom turn to better place that we can co-exist, and fear will be a thing of the past.  Yes, there will always be some tough times but together through love and caring we can make this world a better place that we may all keep on smilin’ and share a love that has more power than that of evil.

Let’s make this our challenge - to think positively, to encourage others to join with us to stomp out fear, prejudice and hatred and bring in love and caring to make this world a better place.  

                                     When You're Smiling - Louis Armstrong

The Devil is alive and well!!

 As movies and drama series often ask you to believe that their stories are fictitious, and that the characters are those of the imagination of the writer, then this is too. But a word of warning, if one of these occurrences appears to be something you have witnessed or are experiencing, please seek help for either yourself, or the person, you see in the story line. 

In a time when through death most people are unified in their grief, we watch as family and friends alike are divided without support, without compassion, without resolve and indeed without closure.

Instead these mourners try to fathom the depths of evil of this little old lady in the beret.  They stand breathless, hopeless, and in total despair as to how this shriveled up old person could have woven her incantations on them and her victims.  
 

Ten years of love and friendship eroded and white anted. Ten years of dividing and conquering relationships that were built of rock, respect, and generosity of the heart Ten years of breaking someone so as to control their very being. Ten years of building her cult - handpicked disciples of evil.  
 

The outside appearance of this three time married, doting mother was nothing but a veneer to hide her heart of thorns and broken glass. That veneer was as impenetrable as titanium and as cutting as a diamond blade. Those that attempted to love in a human fashion were soon beaten to submission to adhere to the rules of the cult and its leader.  
 

The rules of this cult, which by all purposes was to appear as a normal family with the highest standards of love and integrity, was merely a sham for worship, praise, adoration, and thankfulness to be in the angel of deaths presence. For the privilege of being part of this club, members needed to totally believe every word she uttered in her address to her people.  One must never doubt the supreme leader for fear of retaliation and humiliation. 

One must worship her as if she is the very essence of the meaning of love. Her soul and her heart is to be the temple of which her followers must strive to enter its doors. And believe it, she will not allow entrance unless she is the very shrine on which you worship. 

Let it also be known, that her children do not immediately inherit divine entrance to her tabernacle of evil. They too must bow to their dominatrix of power and corruption. To attempt leaving her controlling manipulative arms is to be exiled to a million humiliations and to publicly be stoned at the foot of her temple. No friends, no family, no joyful baggage, unless by proclamation from the divine ruler, must enter her temple walls.
 

On marrying the high priestess of pain and evil, her new consort will be hypnotized to believe that to live side by side her will be a life of joy and happiness. However as the ink dries on the wedding parchment, he is lulled into biting that apple as was given by that little old lady to Snow White. The people of his previous kingdom are shut out slowly but surely. The family and friends of his kingdom are exiled and his armies are depleted, discredited and forced to retreat as her spell takes over his very mind and soul.  He becomes powerless and his mind so brow beaten, he must obey or face her wrath. He succumbs to her spell, having no troops, no support, and no arsenal left in his reserves. 
 

As time goes by this priestess desires the need for a new lamb to be slaughtered at her alter. She needs to narcotize and rid herself of this old sheep that has become tiring and too time consuming and indeed no spring lamb. 
 

Meanwhile, the consort’s battle weary family, friends and expatriates attempt to break down the walls of the temple to free their narcotized hero from the slaughter. But, by this stage he is too weak, too anaesthetized to accept their help.  He has nothing left but to succumb to the encyclical as written by the devil herself.  
 

As his days are numbered, and he has outlived his usefulness as consort, signed his kingdom over, and tightened her borders from his family, friends, and fellow comrades, he calls on his sudden death to free him from this mortal life. There is nothing left for him. She has depleted his capacity as a man.  She has meticulously over ten short years gained total control  of his very being as do cult leaders. She has become his attorney of well-being, his attorney of time and indeed his attorney of execution. 
 

As the consort finally closed his eyes in peace, and lay at the cold entrance into the afterlife, not once did the evil priestess call on those that cared and loved him in his mortal life.  After all one must realize their place. Only she who must be worshipped, and glorified, must bask in his death. Only she who has controlled his very existence, and calculated his demise, is worthy of grief.  Those left behind must realize that the crocodile tears are a divine right and are cultivated so as not to wash the blood from her shrine. She does, however, live from the blood that she has sucked life from.  
 

As his celebration of life was celebrated, his weary followers were deleted from his life story.  His family and friends were deleted from his history.  Instead, his hypnotic state was glorified as per the hand of the devil, to only recognize her presence in his life and, a few anecdotes from those that are of her faith.  
 

As the days have turned to weeks, his cabinet of followers and family has had memorials of their own. They have discovered that this Priestess of evil has raped and pillaged many kingdoms before.  She has built walls around each, and every, kingdom that she has conquered.  She has taken many hostages, and until now, had tied their tongues so as not to showcase her blood bathed Temple of Evil.  
 

In the next few weeks we will discuss how this Evil Woman has worked in a pattern. Her evil is calculated to the tee. Just as a spider lures its prey to its web, just as a cat plays and toys with its prey before finally pouncing, just as an assassin stalks his victim before finally pulling the trigger, just as sure as night turns to day, the die is cast and there is no turning back.

Her depth of evil is fathomless and that those who have experienced her wrath must cling to what is keeping them safe thus far.  

symbolism.wikia.com

Everyone is a victim of this priestess! Some simply do not yet know it!!!!!!!!!

Sitting on the Fence #courage

How often do we want something, believe in something? Whether it be a simple want or justice, or equality, or clarification to a situation, quite often we all are guilty of sitting back and watching others do the hard yards. Then, when all the work is done, we reap the benefits or, if the outcome is not successful we can honestly say we were not involved in the exercise.  We sit on the fence and bask in the glory of success and not ruffle a feather, and appear neutral if the outcome goes the other way. 

Quite often, even family loyalty is something we sit on the fence with too. We appear to be behind and trust someone 100% but, in fact we have placed our bets fifty/fifty so we,ourselves, don’t get hurt when the race is run. We simply say we do not want to be involved!  It’s so much easier to let others sort it out, to believe in someone and let them take the fall.  Believe me I have been there.  I have watched someone make the point, backed them from the fence and then, when the outcome is sorted, I can go either side of the fence depending on the outcome and, I have not lifted a finger, or broken a nail, so I look like the nice guy.  

 

thesource.com

Sitting on the fence and being the nice guy is safe, it’s convenient, and it’s less time consuming.  But to be a nice guy on the ground pursuing equality, fairness, justice, and resolution is a much harder option.

 

Where would we fence sitters be today without  the on the ground nice guys such as Martin Luther King Jnr, Mahatma Gandhi, Helen Keller, Aung Suu Kyi, Nelson Mandela, Coretta Scott King, John F. Kennedy, Eleanor Roosevelt, Mother Teresa, Harvey Milk, and the list goes on?  You’ve got it, without these nice guys, we would probably not even have a fence let alone a world. 

These nice guys fought for our very liberty, justice, equality and peace. They believed in something, stood their ground and battled head on, not a wishy washy one among them. They felt strongly for and stood unabashed to defend truth and justice. Some of whom suffered persecution, imprisonment and even death for the very rights and benefits we so luckily have today. 

So where do we go from here? Do we sit on the fence and watch injustice?  Do we sit and watch as others fight our battle?  Do we sit on the fence and say we don’t want to get involved? If we continue on this path, we have no conscience, we have no credibility, we have no compassion. If we continue on this path we do not even have the true ability to love or to care.  We are just empty shells, hollow and emotionless. 

I know what sort of nice guy, I want to be.  I want to stand for justice, for truth and, for equality for all and I will not sit on the fence and take the safe option. When the day comes to close my eyes for the final time, I want to be proud to say ‘I tried’, ‘I cared,’ and ‘I loved’.

It won’t happen overnight but wouldn’t it be nice for everyone to stand their ground proudly and get involved - to make a difference and to promote truth and justice for every man, woman and child. 

Just my thoughts!

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