Great Service Is a Choice


No one can make you serve customers well. That's because great service is a choice.

Read this story of, Harvey Mackay about a cab driver that proved this point. He was waiting in line for a ride at the airport. When a cab pulled up, the first thing Harvey noticed was that the taxi was polished to a bright shine. Smartly dressed in a white shirt, black tie, and freshly pressed black slacks, the cab driver jumped out and rounded the car to open the back passenger door for Harvey. He handed my friend a laminated card and said:


"I'm Wally, your driver. While I'm loading your bags in the trunk I'd like you to read my mission statement."


Taken aback, Harvey read the card. It said:

Wally's Mission Statement:


To get my customers to their destination in the quickest.

Safest and cheapest way possible in a friendly environment.


This blew Harvey away. Especially when he noticed that the inside of the cab matched the outside. Spotlessly clean! As he slid behind the wheel, Wally said, "Would you like a cup of coffee? I have a thermos of regular and one of decaf."


My friend said jokingly, "No, I'd prefer a soft drink."


Wally smiled and said, "No problem. I have a cooler up front with regular and Diet Coke, water and orange juice."


Almost stuttering, Harvey said, "I'll take a Diet Coke."


Handing him his drink, Wally said, "If you'd like something to read, I have The Wall Street Journal, Time, Sports Illustrated and USA Today."


As they were pulling away, Wally handed my friend another laminated card. "These are the stations I get and the music they play, if you'd like to listen to the radio."


And as if that weren't enough, Wally told Harvey that he had the air conditioning on and asked if the temperature was comfortable for him. Then he advised Harvey of the best route to his destination for that time of day. He also let him know that he'd be happy to chat and tell him about some of the sights or, if Harvey preferred, to leave him with his own thoughts.


"Tell me, Wally," my amazed friend asked the driver, "have you always served customers like this?"

Wally smiled into the rearview mirror. "No, not always. In fact, it's only been in the last two years. My first five years driving, I spent most of my time complaining like all the rest of the cabbies do. Then I heard the personal growth guru, Wayne Dyer, on the radio one day. He had just written a book called ‘You'll See It When You Believe It’. Dyer said that if you get up in the morning expecting to have a bad day, you'll rarely disappoint yourself. He said, 'Stop complaining! Differentiate yourself from your competition. Don't be a duck. Be an Eagle. Ducks quack and complain. Eagles soar above the crowd.'"


"That hit me right between the eyes," said Wally. "Dyer was really talking about me. I was always quacking and complaining, so I decided to change my attitude and become an Eagle. I looked around at the other cabs and their drivers. The cabs were dirty, the drivers were unfriendly, and the customers were unhappy. So I decided to make some changes. I put in a few at a time. When my customers responded well, I did more."


"I take it that has paid off for you," Harvey said.


"It sure has," Wally replied. "My first year as an Eagle, I doubled my income from the previous year. This year I'll probably quadruple it. You were lucky to get me today. I don't sit at cabstands anymore. My customers call me for appointments on my cell phone or leave a message on my answering machine. If I can't pick them up myself, I get a reliable cabbie friend to do it and I take a piece of the action."


Wally was phenomenal. He was running a limo service out of a Yellow Cab. I've probably told that story to more than fifty cab drivers over the years, and only two took the idea and ran with it. Whenever I go to their cities, I give them a call. The rest of the drivers quacked like ducks and told me all the reasons they couldn't do any of what I was suggesting.


Johnny the Bagger and Wally the Cab Driver made a different choice. They decided to stop quacking like ducks and start soaring like Eagles. How about you?

A man was sitting by a lake. He was throwing small pebbles into it from time to time. A young boy happened to cross by. He was intrigued to see that after every few minutes or so, the man would toss a pebble into the lake.

The boy went up to the man and said, "Good pastime, this stone throwing, he?" "Hmmm," said the man. He seemed to be deep in thought and obviously did not wish to be disturbed.

Sometime later, the man said softly, "Look at the water, it is absolutely still."

The boy said, "Yeah, it is."

The man tossed a pebble into the water and continued, "Only till I toss a pebble into it now do you see the ripples?"

"Yeah," said the boy, "they spread further and further."

"And soon, the water is still again," offered the man.

The boy said, "Sure, it becomes quiet, after a while."

The man continued, "What if we want to stop the ripples? The root cause of the ripples is the stone. Lets take the stone out. Go ahead and look for it." The boy put his hand into the water and tried to take the stone out.

But he only succeeded in making more ripples. He was able to take the stone out, but the number of ripples that were made in the process were a lot more than before.

The wise man said, "It is not possible to stop the movement of the water once a pebble has been thrown into it. But if we can stop ourselves from throwing the pebble in the first place, the ripples can be avoided altogether! So too, it is with our minds. If a thought enters into it, it creates ripples. The only way to save the mind from getting disturbed is to block and ban the entry of every superfluous thought that could be a potential cause for disturbance. If a disturbance has entered into the mind, it will take its own time to die down. Too many conflicting thoughts just cause more and more disturbances. Once the disturbance has been caused it takes time to ebb out. Even trying to forcibly remove the thought may further increase the turmoil in the mind. Time surely is a great healer, but prevention is always better than cure."

Before you allow a thought or a piece of information to enter your mind, put it through the triple filter test of authenticity, goodness and value.

The park bench was deserted as I sat down to read beneath the long, straggly branches of an old willow tree.

Disillusioned by life with good reason to frown, for the world was intent on dragging me down.


And if that weren't enough to ruin my day, a young boy out of breath approached me, all tired from play.

He stood right before me with his head tilted down and said with great excitement, "Look at what I found."


In his hand was a flower, and what a pitiful sight, with its petals all worn-not enough rain, or too little light.

Wanting him to take his dead flower and go off to play, I faked a small smile and then shifted away.


But instead of retreating he sat by my side and placed the flower to his nose and declared with overacted surprise,

"It sure smells pretty and it's beautiful, too.
That's why I picked it; here, it's for you."


The weed before me was dying or dead.

Not vibrant of colors, orange, yellow or red.

But I knew I must take it, or he might never leave.

So I reached for the flower, and replied, "Just what I need."


But instead of him placing the flower in my hand, he held it midair without reason or plan.

It was then that I noticed for the very first time that weed-toting boy could not see; he was blind.


I heard my voice quiver, tears shone like the sun as I thanked him for picking the very best one.

You're welcome," he smiled, and then ran off to play, unaware of the impact he'd had on my day.


I sat there and wondered how he managed to see a self-pitying woman beneath an old willow tree.

How did he know of my self-indulged plight?

Perhaps from his heart, he'd been blessed with true sight.


Through the eyes of a blind child, at last I could see the problem was not with the world; the problem was me.

And for all of those times I myself had been blind, I vowed to see the beauty in life, and appreciate every second that's mine.


And then I held that wilted flower up to my nose and breathed in the fragrance of a beautiful rose.


Sue Divine "Even Kings and Emperors with heaps of wealth and vast dominion cannot compare with an ant filled with the love of God."
Author Unknown

In Phoenix, Arizona, a 26-year-old mother stared down at her 6 year old son, who was dying of terminal leukemia.

Although her heart was filled with sadness, She also had a strong feeling of determination.

Like any parent, she wanted her son to grow up & fulfill all his dreams. Now that was no longer possible.

The leukemia would see to that. But she still wanted her son's dream to come true.


She took her son's hand and asked, 'Billy, did you ever think about what you wanted to be once you grew up? Did you ever dream and wish what you would do with your life?'


'Mommy, I always wanted to be a fireman when I grew up.'

Mom smiled back and said,

'Let's see if we can make your wish come true.'

Later that day she went to her local fire Department in Phoenix, Arizona,

where she met Fireman Bob, who had a heart as big as Phoenix.

She explained her son's final wish and asked if it might be possible

to give her 6 year-old son a ride around the block on a fire engine.

Read more...

LOOK OUT FOR THE LAST STORY... IT WILL KNOCK YOUR SOCKS OFF

Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child.

The winner was:

A four-year-old child, whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman, who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sa there.

When his mother asked him what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy just said, 'Nothing, I just helped him cry.'

(This one is for each of you - be a soul mate to anyone and everyone... we need you and your empathy/compassion. ..)

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Teacher Debbie Moon's first graders were discussing a picture of a family. One little boy in the picture had a different hair color than the other members. One of her students suggested that he wa adopted.

A little girl said, 'I know all about adoption, I was adopted..'

'What does it mean to be adopted?' asked another child.

'It means', said the girl, 'that you grew in your mommy's heart instead of her tummy!'

(This one is for all mothers, grandmothers, aunts, and 'moms at heart'... 'teachers,' need I go on?)

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An experienced & wise master grew tired of his apprentice complaining. One morning he sent the apprentice for some salt.

When the apprentice returned, the master instructed the unhappy young man to put a handful of salt in a glass of water and drink it.

"How does it taste?" the master asked.   

"Bitter," spit the apprentice.

The master chuckled and then asked the young man to put a handful of  Salt in the lake nearby.

The two walked to the nearby lake. After the apprentice swirled his

Handful of salt into the water, the old man said, "Now drink from the lake.."

As the water dripped down the young man's chin, the  master asked, "Now How does this taste?"

"Fresh & Sweet" remarked the apprentice.

"Do you taste the salt?" asked the master.

"No," said the young man.

At this, the master sat beside the young man who so reminded him of Himself at one time and held his hands.

He told the young man, "The pain of life is pure salt; no more, no less.

The amount of pain in life remains exactly the same. However, the amount of bitterness we taste depends on the container we put the pain in.

So when you are in pain, the only thing you can do is to enlarge your sense of things . . .

"Stop being a glass. Become a lake."

 

TRUE INSPIRING STORY.. WHEN
A LIZARD CAN, WHY CAN'T WE?.

This is a true story that happened in Japan.

In order to renovate the house,

someone in Japan breaks open the wall.

Japanese houses normally have a hollow space between the wooden walls.

When tearing down the walls, he found that there was a lizard stuck there

because a nail from outside hammered into one of its feet.

He sees this, feels pity, and at the same time curious, as when he checked the nail,

it was nailed 5 years ago when the house was first built !!!

What happened?

The lizard has survived in such position for 5 years!

In a dark wall partition for 5 years without moving,

Read more...

While we all pray for each other that one should not come across any obstacle in life, I have a different view after read the following.

We must come across obstacles and need to pray for each other to overcome obstacles (with some pain) and progress.

One night recently my daughter, Elizabeth, was showing me an aquarium full of tadpoles. She had purchased a whole bag full of them for her children (my grandchildren) to watch grow from tadpoles into frogs. It was fun watching all of those little wiggly creatures swimming around in the aquarium! It brought back many fond memories of my own childhood, playing with “critters” down at my grandparent’s house.


I noticed that there was a big rock in the aquarium. When I asked her why she put a rock right in the middle of the tadpoles’ environment, Elizabeth told me an interesting story. I can hardly believe that I have lived almost fifty-nine years without having heard it because it is so good.

Elizabeth said that when she went to the pet store to buy the tadpoles, the gentleman told her to be sure to put a big rock right in the middle of the aquarium. The tadpoles must have this obstacle to give them the incentive to climb up and thus split their little wiggly tails so that their legs can begin to develop. If they have no rock or obstacle to climb up on, they will never turn into frogs. They cannot learn how to hop by just swimming around in water. They must have something causing resistance to give them the incentive to leap forward.

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There was a good-natured millionaire in the town. Three beggars thought of approaching him for help. The first man went to the millionaire and said: "O Lord! I want five rupees. Please give me." The millionaire was taken aback at this man's impudence. "What! You demand five rupees from me as though I owe you the money! How dare you? How can I afford to give five rupees to a single beggar? Here, take these two rupees and get away," he said.

The man went away with the two rupees.


The next beggar went to the millionaire and said: "Oh Lord! I have not taken a square meal for the past ten days. Please help me." "How much do you want?" asked the millionaire.

"Whatever you give me, Maharaj," replied the beggar.

"Here, take this ten rupee note. You can have nice food for at least three days." The beggar walked away with the ten rupee note.


The third beggar came. "Oh Lord, I have heard about your noble qualities. Therefore, I have come to see you. Men of such charitable disposition are verily the manifestations of God on earth," he said.

Read more...