WAVE, don’t SAVE

Have you ever wondered why some people in the same field earn several times as much as you? Or, why some businesses seem unaffected by “the economy” as their sales continue to increase each year? Or, why some resort destinations continue to attract greater numbers of tourists year after year?

There are many factors that can contribute to this phenomenon, but one explanation could be the efficiency curve. When this curve is drawn, it looks like the profile of a ski slope moving down from the left to the right. On the left vertical axis, is the percentage of time and effort required to produce a result. At the bottom horizontal axis, is a time line. When you first start a job, learn a skill, or produce a product, it usually takes a heavy investment of time and effort to accomplish a desired result. This learning phase requires less time as you persist in an activity, and as you get better you begin to move downward on the “ski slope” as your time and effort percentage decreases.

At this point your efficiency, output, or income increases dramatically. Eventually, you may get to the point where you get the same results in one hour that it takes a new person ten hours. It could also answer why some businesses sell 10 times more per square foot than similar businesses—they have developed a skill or strategic advantage to excellence.

Now let’s ask: “What skill should one master to move their career or business on the fast track?” There are many things that contribute to success, but if you were to choose one, this skill would have the greatest impact on your future results.

The Carnegie Institute of Technology analyzed the records of 10,000 people and came to the conclusion that 15 percent of success is due to technical skills, and 85 percent of a person’s success is due to personality factors. This could be described as a person’s human relations skills, or the ability to work with other people to accomplish an organization’s goals. This includes the ability to effectively communicate with others and be sensitive to their needs.

Les Giblin, in his book How to Have Power and Confidence In Dealing With People, mentions another study by Dr. Albert Edward Wiggam. Out of 4,000 individuals who lost their jobs in one year, only 10 percent were unemployed because they could not do the work. The other 3,600, or 90 percent, lost their jobs because they had not developed the personality for successfully dealing with people.

Joe Gandolfo was one of the most successful salespeople in America and number one in his field, having sold more than $8 billion of life insurance in a ten-year period. He wrote a book titled Selling is 98% Understanding Human Beings…2% Product Knowledge. Gandolfo was extremely knowledgeable about his product, yet he felt the human relations aspect was far more important, and this allowed him to sell 100 times more per year than other top producers in his profession.

What would happen to your business if your greatest competitive advantage is the ability to understand the needs of your customers better than the competition, and provide excellent service to them—or what is often referred to generically as “customer service?” If we apply the efficiency curve to customer service, it means that as we consistently improve our ability to interact with customers or tourists, we will offer a better experience that encourages them to return more often to spend their money.

A lot of money is being “invested” trying to encourage more tourists to visit the islands. How much of that money is spent on training key people and everyone in general to “Welcome All Visitors Enthusiastically” (WAVE)? What kind of first impression is made as tourists step on Saipan soil?

The last time I got off the plane and walked to get my luggage at the local airport a guy in uniform had a dog on a leash sniffing every person that walked by. What a great first impression to the islands, a butt sniffing dog “Smelling All Visitors Enthusiastically,” or SAVE for short. If we continue to SAVE our tourists, we can pretty much wave goodbye to them as they plan their next vacation somewhere else.

Likewise, if you don’t continually improve the human relations skills of the staff in your business by consistently developing better customer service skills, you can wave goodbye to your customers as they leave to explore other competitive options.

(Rik is a business instructor at NMC and Janel is the owner of Positively Outrageous Results. They can be contacted at: biz_results@yahoo.com)