Anything for the Customer

Bob and I stopped at the Le Jardin Smoothie shop at the Hyatt Waikiki to check our e-mail following my presentation to the staff at Seafood Village.

Le Jardin owner Ellen Poon whipped up a great fresh vegetable juice drink. It was delicious. She asked me if I would like to have something to eat, and I told her that I would be going out to dinner soon. She said, “How about a piece of toast (on the house) to hold you over until dinner?” When I said, “Okay”, she asked, “White or whole wheat”. I asked for the whole wheat.

A moment later she returned saying, “We are out of whole wheat”. I told her that I really didn’t really need it, and she said, “Okay, I’ll give you a rain check”.

A few minutes later Ellen appeared with two nice pieces of whole wheat toast, and said, “This bread is about as fresh as you can get”. I was shocked. She actually sent someone running to get some whole wheat bread to fulfill her commitment to me.

Well, guess where I will be grabbing smoothies, juices and sandwiches from now on when I am in Waikiki. Service sells! Stop by and meet Ellen; you will be glad you did.

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Off to South America

I woke up this morning to a 60 book e-mail order for the BoConcept stores in South America.

No sooner had I signed the books, and Masae got them packed for shipment when Bob called with another order of 300 books to send to Scandinavian Designs in Petaluma, California.

It is so fulfilling to think of salespeople I have not met (yet) learning how to increase sales by using the Pro-Active, No-Pressure Selling System taught in Retail Selling Made Easy; especially in South America.

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Best Retailer of the Year 2007

The Hearts on Fire Diamond Company held their 2007 Hearts on Fire University this past week in Las Vegas. At that event they name “Best Regional” and “Best National Retailers” of the year out of a field of 570 stores.

This year Moyer Fine Jewelers in Indianapolis, Indiana won both the Regional Mid-West and Retailer of the Year awards.
Congratulations to owner Dan Moyer, sales manager Kerry Phillips, and the entire staff at Moyer Fine Jewelers.

Success Dynamics is proud to list Moyer Fine Jewelers as a client. As a part of their Morning Report we recognize the sales associates in their store for their sales of Hearts on Fire Diamonds.

We also track Hearts on Fire sales for James and Sons in Chicago. They were named “Best Mid-West Retailer” at the 2006 convention.

Other Success Dynamics clients tracking Hearts on Fire sales are:
The Wedding Ring Shop, Naser Jewelers, Pave Fine Jewelry, Wesche Fine Jewelers, and Southborough Jewelers.

25 Years of Smiling
It was 25 years ago that University professor Scott E. Fahlman got people adding to their e-mail messages.

I have been saying, “Keep Smiling” longer than that. A smile goes a long way. It can change how you feel as well as how you make others feel when they see you.

Click here to read 10 good reasons to smile. And then… KEEP SMILING; no matter what is happening around you.

Fighting Skin Cancer

As reported in an earlier blog post, years of unprotected surfing has left me with sun damaged skin.

REMINDER:

1. Sun damage to the skin is like the odometer on your car; accumulative and irreversible.
2. There is no such thing as a healthy tan.

Last month I put my ego in my back pocket and posted daily progress photos of my face following this Blu Light with Levulan treatment. I did this to encourage everyone to be careful in the sun. This procedure burns more than your worst sun burn.

This week I will do the same with my right arm. Oddly, my right arm is in worse shape than my left. It is normally the other way around, because of driving.

This week long procedure burns away layers of skin, while identifying and destroying keratoses (pre skin cancer lesions) that lie beneath the skin waiting to erupt into skin cancer.

TIP: Wear sun screen daily, AND avoid direct sunlight as much as possible while still enjoying Hawaii.

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Tropical Paradise

Masae finished this original oil painting this weekend, I named it, Pictures Plus framed it, and today she drove it out to Britton Art Gallery in Haleiwa.
By the time she drove back to Honolulu it was already sold. Maybe I can retire sooner than I thought.

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Carolyn Pollock

Carolyn has been nominated for another Q-Star Broadcasting Teamwork award! This is like the Academy Awards for people appearing on QVC.

We are proud to have Relios Jewelry using the Morning Report in their Texas Jewelry store. Bill and Carolyn Pollock make a wonderful product, and do a super job of selling it through fine jewelry stores across the country.

See Bill and Carolyn on QVC selling their designer collections, Sincerely Southwest Saturday morning at 3 AM ET (12 AM PT) and 4 PM ET through 7 (1 PM PT through 4)

Saturday Afternoon – Lunch Hour

When Honolulu Design Center owner Peter Skaaning and I duck out for lunch, we are usually in a hurry to get back to work, especially on a Saturday (Game Day).

We went into one of our favorite “fast food” spots the other day, waited in line, placed our order, paid, and then heard the person at the register say, “This may take a while because my manager is out somewhere and I am all alone”. With that he headed into the kitchen to prepare our sandwiches.
Several more somewhat shocked people were left standing in line. He got our order started and then came back to the register to take more orders. Meanwhile we sat there waiting for our food.
While we both admired this young man’s willingness to “do it all”, we couldn’t help but wonder what was going on in the head of the manager to leave him there like that while she “ran an errand” or something.
There are always other things to do, but none of them should ever take a priority over customers.

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What a show!

We were thrilled to see the USAF Thunderbirds doing a “practice run” in front of our eyes today. I took the photo above from our lanai, with my cheap Sony digital camera. To see some real photos visit the Honolulu Advertiser’s Photo Gallery.
You might also want to see them in action on this video. Pardon the commercials.
The big event will be this Saturday. Today’s Advertiser had all of the details, the most important being; unless you are there for the show, stay away from Waikiki, as they expect 150,000 people to be on the beach for the show.
Here are some more fabulous photos.
Just click on the little numbered boxes or “left/right arrows”.

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September in Hawaii

Yes, we do see fewer visitors in September than we do in the busy months of July and August. That does not have to equate to less sales.

September travelers are generally speaking more affluent travelers. They are not dependent upon school schedules or summer vacations. They select September as the time to visit Hawaii specifically because it is not as crowded.

Fewer travelers mean easier upgrades on airplanes and hotel rooms. Restaurants are not so crowded, making for better seating choices. These are people who may be “pampered” back home, possibly even “spoiled” by great service because of who they are.

If you keep that in mind, and give every customer the service that he or she expects, your September sales can surpass those done in the “busier” months.

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