By Jeffrey Gitomer

There are rules and then there are rules. Most salespeople don’t follow them. Most service people don’t follow them.

Instead, they follow their policy. Policy rules are made by the company for the protection of themselves. The rules I’m talking about are the ones that will attract a customer, create a purchase, keep them loyal, generate profit and generate referrals. The REAL rules.

Cost Cutting

Policy and sales, or policy and loyal customers, have little, if anything, in common. Policy doesn’t attract customers.  Instead it usually (always) repels them.

My last two flights on US Airways have been less than stellar—plagued with unfriendly, unprepared people “doing the best they can” or “just doing their job.” In retrospect it’s laughable, but in the heat of the moment, it’s maddening.

You’d think that a company like US Airways, on the ropes, in the depths of financial disaster, fighting for survival, would pull out all the stops to serve their customers better in order to sell more tickets. Not even close.

I won’t bore you with the details, but last night I asked for the phone number of a “boss” at the Charlotte airport. I called the “elite” chairman’s preferred number. (NOTE: I have been a member of that group since its inception and just received a letter of congratulations as one of their 500 top customers. There was no phone number on the letter. What a disgrace.)

Anyway, I asked the very nice woman at the chairman’s desk to have this guy call me and she “couldn’t guarantee anything,” so I asked her to e-mail me his number. Silence.

After a long pause she said, “We don’t have e-mail, Mr. Gitomer.”

“You’re kidding, right?” I said.

“I wish I was,” she said with a sigh.

“Anyone ever ask you to e-mail them?” I asked.

“Every hour of every day,” she said.

Pathetic.

Now understand that not having e-mail is, in my opinion, not a problem. It’s a symptom. The problem is that US Airways and many of their brethren have no understanding for what it takes to attract the business they so desperately need.

Lousy food. No high-speed computer access in their clubs (some airlines finally have it in their clubs, but US Airways is still “investigating it”). Poor service. Unfriendly people. Fewer pillows and blankets on overnight flights. They call it “cost-cutting.” It’s actually “costing” them millions in lost revenues and loyal customers.

Businesses don’t recover from financial ruin by cutting costs. They do it by building sales. What good is cost cutting without a revenue base? I think that’s economics 101.

Remember the last CEO of American Airlines who cut costs, cut employees, but gave himself and the board millions of dollars in bonuses? Forced to resign. Has anyone heard from him? I hear he’s now a waiter at Shoney’s.

It never ceases to amaze me that big companies sit in meetings and actually think their policy decisions are good.

Policies are designed to frustrate both employees AND customers. Wow. Drive me away. Let me take my money and vote for the competition.

Here are the lessons

1. It’s always about the service. Attracting customers is hard. Keeping them is much harder. Creating positive word of mouth is hardest.

2. Don’t milk, cut, or save just because profits wane. Attract harder. Serve better. Wow your customers wherever possible.

3. Treat customers well. Treat employees better than customers. The employees are the ones to carry the message to the front lines of customer communications.

3.5. Make your policies have answers and solutions that address a positive outcome in every customer interaction.

Why am I on this rant? Why am I the last angry consumer?

Go shopping or call any retail business. See if you notice any difference. I don’t. And I wish I did.

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