When you want to make a difference… just listen. Mother Teresa was a mere 5 feet tall and is known as one of the most humble people in the world, living her life with an attitude of complete joy toward serving others. And yet, Mother Teresa was an extremely powerful woman, changing lives worldwide. If I could choose anyone in the world to listen to me when I have a bad day or am contemplating some big decision in my life, I’m going to choose the person I think will be the best listener, of course. But what exactly does that mean? Listening requires humility, but humility can serve a very powerful role –– just think of Mother Teresa. If you can master the skill of listening, you can create change and influence where it otherwise may not happen. Good listening requires the ability to put the focus for the moment on someone else and take yourself out of the equation completely. Set aside your opinions, your advice, your preconceived notions, and your desire to talk about yourself… just listen. Our first inclination when someone comes to talk to us is to try to remedy their situation as quickly as …
How travelers can take advantage of local movements to plan their trips with expert recommendations A quick Google Image search for “buy local” returns logos and images for campaigns spreading across the country –– covering every state, county and city from Santa Monica, California, to Monadnock, New Hampshire. This local push in communities isn’t new; it’s just received a lot of publicity in the last couple years as a strategy to improve local economies. It’s good news for communities and the green movement. It’s also good news for travelers. With the rise of local awareness, there are more ways than ever to get the insider scoop on cities. Locally owned business registries are expanding in content and viewership –– not to mention new blogs dedicated to local restaurants, events and markets are being published every day. Searching keywords like, “keep it local [city]” or “local businesses [city]” should produce some great results to help you plan the itinerary for your next trip. But, my favorite way to find out about a new city, with the best results, is to check out their weeklies online. Every major (and pretty much every minor) city has one. Weeklies are rich with local favorites …
Raising the expectation – why the culture of a company should be focused on serving the customer. I used to hear the adage, “The customer is always right,” but it seems now that whenever I’m standing in line at a retail establishment or holding in a phone queue, the phrase has become, “The customer is a necessary evil.” What happened to the focus of serving and making the customer happy? Having a customer is a privilege for any company, and serving that customer should be the company’s mission and purpose. At Monscierge, our goal is to meet our customers’ needs before they even know they have them, to always pleasantly surprise our customers with exceptional support and to serve them. This, we believe, should be the minimum standard for a company who has customers of any kind – but then, go one step further. With every customer contact we have the honor of experiencing, we want to not only meet their needs, please them and make them glad they’re our customer – we want to find one extra way to be of service. We’re not here to make sure they just have no complaints; we’re here to serve. How have …