In this transcript, Lee Cockerell talks to a business coach on Thrive15.com about customer service training and how to create a magical organization through learning the truth!
Lee Cockerell: Number six, learn the truth. You think it’s so good to know the truth when you’re trying to make business decisions or if you have teenagers? Because all teenagers lie, by the way. We have a program, Judge Judy, she said you can tell a teenager’s lying because their mouth is moving. Let’s look at number six. Learn the truth. Learn the truth, if the shoe fits, find out it fits so you don’t marry the wrong person. Seriously, the truth is everything. I want to tell you, in your business, if you don’t know the truth, you’re making a lot of bad decisions and the reason you don’t know the truth is because your people don’t trust you. Learn from a business coach.
They don’t trust leadership. We got examples everywhere in the world. They don’t trust leaders. Look at our Congress. We don’t trust them. It’s unbelievable and young people are getting more and more untrusting of leadership and you’ve got to make sure in your business that your leaders are on top of this and creating relationships and getting to know your people better and building a trusting relationship and all those things we’ve already talked about this morning, being available, making them feel special, treating them like individuals, helping them with their education and development and then, when they trust you they’ll tell you the truth.
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Then you’ll make better business decisions, because when you make the business decisions without knowing the truth, you make the wrong decisions. You could have been so much better. It’s one of the most important things you do. Get people to feel so comfortable they know you will not bite them when they tell you something you do not want to hear, and by the way, they know. The person cleaning the bathroom knows more about cleaning the bathroom than you’ll ever know in your whole life. They know how long it takes, maybe it takes twelve minutes, but they take thirty minutes. It’s a little easier.
Make sure you know, because when you know, you can set the standards. When you know, you give better advice. Knowing the truth. If you have children, somebody said, you ever hear somebody say, I didn’t know my daughter was on drugs? Or I didn’t know my son was building a bomb in his room? If you have teenagers, you should go in their room every fifteen minutes, because they have no judgement. They’ll do anything. Don’t trust them. You don’t have to tell them that, just keep an eye on them. Put a tracking device on their body somewhere, on their car.
Don’t believe anything they tell you, because they all lie to get what they want and sometimes your employees lie because it’s safer. You get to retire alive that way, because if you speak up and you don’t trust your boss and he bites you, you could be out of a job. This is the number one problem in America. Maybe here too, people don’t trust their boss so they don’t tell him. Why should I? It’s not my, what do I get out of this? It’s unsafe. How do you learn? You walk around, you get to know your people better. You have a better relationship with them. You walk your business, they see you every day.
You’re checking things, you’re asking questions. That’s how you learn the truth. That’s how you learn the truth. You got to be available. People got to see you, they’ve got to know that you’re going to check. When I ran a hotel, the Marriott, I ran a little hotel up in Springfield, Massachusetts. Every morning I got to work at 6:00. I went up to the top floor and I walked all the hallways to make sure there was no room service trays in the hall, food from last night and I checked the elevators to make sure nobody was dead in there before the guests got out of their rooms. Learn from a top business coach.
I made sure the newspapers were in front of every door. Went down to the kitchen, saw if we ready for breakfast, checked to see if the food was dated. Every day. I went down to the front, checked to make sure no cigarettes in the driveway, clean, looked good. Yeah. At 11:00, I did it again. At 5:00 I did it again before I went home. I used to come in at six, find room service trays. I don’t like that. Some bloody piece of meat from last night, dirty dishes. It wasn’t long before the room service manager came in at 5:30, because he didn’t want to deal with me any more, because if I have to find these every day, I don’t need you.
Things got better and better and now I start walking, after a month, there’s no trays anymore. Papers are delivered, everybody, expectations. Because Lee’s going to check everything, he’s going to check. They see me every day. When they get comfortable, they start telling me the truth, because they get comfortable with me. When they tell me I don’t bite them. Thank you, I appreciate that. Then they help me. It’s a simple thing. Take it from a business coach.