Blount - People Love You: the Real Secret to Delivering Legendary Customer Experiences

Cover image: Karen Harmon
Cover design: C. Wallace

Copyright 2013 by Jeb Blount. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Blount, Jeb.
People love you: the real secret to delivering legendary customer experiences/Jeb Blount. pages cm
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-118-43324-9 (hbk. : alk. paper); ISBN 978-1-118-55587-3 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-55588-0 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-55582-8 (ebk)
1. Customer services. 2. Customer relations. I. Title.
HF5415.5.B56 2013
658.812dc23
2012041952

Printed in the United States of America.

For Mom and Dee

About the Author

Jeb Blount is a leading expert on how human relationships impact account management, customer service, leadership and sales. He helps many of the worlds leading organizations accelerate revenue growth and profits through focus on interpersonal relationships.

Jeb is the author of six books, including People Buy You: The Real Secret to What Matters Most in Business; People Follow You: The Real Secret to What Matters Most in Leadership; and Power Principles. He has published over 100 articles on account management, leadership and sales and his audio programs have been downloaded more than 6 million times on iTunes. More than 200,000 business professionals subscribe to his weekly newsletter.

As a business leader Jeb has more than 25 years of leadership experience and has served as a senior executive with Fortune 500s, SMBs and start-ups. In 2006, Jeb founded SalesGravy.com . Under Jebs leadership Sales Gravy has experienced triple digit growth and today SalesGravy.com is the worlds leading sales employment website, helping more than 7000 employers hire better salespeople fast.

Today Jeb spends much of his time on-site with his clients training leaders how to transform their organizations, drive change and improve performance by first improving human relationships with communication, coaching, sales process, and account management and customer service strategies.

To engage Jeb to speak to your team or group contact to learn more about our unique training programs and how we can help you and your company deliver legendary customer experiences.

Whats Love Got to Do with It

As I boarded the 737, I looked longingly at the folks who were comfortably ensconced in their large, leather, first-class seats, sipping on pre-flight drinks. I glanced again at the seat assignment on the boarding pass in my hand, reminding myself that I could do anything for two hours.

I routinely fly more than 100,000 miles a year. Because of the time I spend in airports, and in the air, most people would never guess that I am terribly claustrophobic. I want to sit in an aisle seat, preferably in an exit row or in first class, where there is plenty of room and I can get up easily. Im so claustrophobic that in most circumstances if I cannot get an aisle seat I will cancel and rebook my flighteven if it means I get home a day or two later.

Today I had no choice. One of my clients, who was having issues with revenue growth, was preparing for an important board meeting and needed my help with developing a strategic plan to get him out of the hole. Hed called the day before to say that all of the companys executives would be at a meeting in the corporate office the next day, and he wanted me there in person.

Id booked my flight at the last minutegrabbing the last available seat on the plane. But that meant that I would be spending the next two hours sitting in what I considered the seat from hellthe very last row on the plane, right next to the window. I just prayed that the two people sitting next to me would be small people so I wouldnt feel so trapped. Id begged for another seat when I arrived at the airport but the flight was full. So, I decided to make the best of it. I put a grin on my face; I had a book, my iPod, a snack, and a bottle of water. I could do this.

When I reached the back of the plane, I smiled at the flight attendant who was standing between the two restroom doors, watching the plane slowly fill to capacity, and reminding customers to place only one bag in the overhead storage compartment. I said, Hi, how are you doing?

She looked back at me with a scowl on her face, and said nothing.

I responded with a more caring tone of voice, Having a bad day?

To that she responded, scowl and all, Every day here is a bad day!

I got the message loud and clear: Shut up and leave me alone. I hate my job. I hate this company. And I hate passengers.

So I squeezed into the small seat, stuffed into the back corner of an already cramped airplane, and prayed that I would make it through the ordeal without being dragged off the plane in a straitjacket while news reporters explained to the cameras how a business man had gone nuts, forcing an emergency landing. As the two biggest people Ive ever seen sat down next to me, my chest felt crushed with anxiety; the straitjacket seemed like an increasingly real possibility.

The conversation Id had with the flight attendant continued to play in my head over and over again, like a recording on a loop (perhaps a good thing because it kept my mind off of my plight). The flight was pure misery. Not just because of my claustrophobia but because the entire flight crew seemed to be, well... mean . They barked orders at grown men and women. They did not smile. Overall, they were unpleasant.