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The Pawnshop Chronicles: Street Wisdom for the Business World by Jack E Rossin Chapter 6 Providing good service to your clientele is not a matter of putting up a poster in the backroom to remind everyone to be nice. Client service, whether it’s in a law firm or a dress shop, emanates from the management. If you treat your staff well, and show them respect, then you can expect that they will do the same to your customers. Build Loyal Customers with a Loyal Staff A customer came into the pawnshop to hock a record player. It was an Emerson automatic. The kind that could hold six records and then drop them one at a time onto the turntable. Naturally, we needed to make sure it worked before considering a loan. So, we played our one and only record, a 33-1/3 recording of the Nat King Cole album, “Ramblin’ Rose.” We probably played this album 10 times a day, every day, during the seven years I worked there. We played it when we were testing record players coming into hock, and we played it when we were demonstrating record players to sell to customers. It was part of the culture of the pawnshop for all of us to sing along with the record every time we heard it. So, Nate and Willie and Ben and Inky and I, no matter where we were in the store, no matter who we were waiting on, would join in: Ramblin' Rose, Ramblin' Rose Why you ramble, No one knows. Wild and windblown, That's how you've grown. Who can cling to a Ramblin' Rose? It was just another day in the pawnshop. The people who worked at Nate's Loan Office were family to me. Nate was the father figure. He was the one with the experience and the smarts. He had years of success in running a pawnshop and then retired. His partner Ben came from the clothing industry. Ben was looking for a new business to become involved with, and Nate was looking to come out of retirement. There were others who worked there. Inky was with us for three years. Lots of high school kids worked there, including many of my friends. Willie was two years younger than I and worked with me. His father was our general contractor. Willie’s brother Punky and I went to high school together. At the height of the Vietnam War, I was deferred and Punky was drafted. He was killed overseas. Punky's name is on the wall of the Vietnam Memorial. I write a lot about the customers and what we did to win their business. But, winning the loyalty of your customers starts by winning the loyalty of your employees. It's a domino effect. The staff at the pawnshop was treated well. We were all paid fairly. The year I worked full time at the pawnshop, I earned $10,000, which was a huge amount of money in those days. We received bonuses for doing things well. And, we were part of the family. We experienced the joy and the sadness of a family. And, of course, we sang family songs together... Ramble on, ramble on, When your ramblin' days are gone, who will love you with a love true, when your ramblin' days are gone? If you believe that great customer care will result in strong profits and growth, then you must invest capital and time in the people who most interact with your customers—your staff. Jack Rossin is a marketing consultant who specializes in Presentation Skill Training. For more information how he could make your team present more dramatically and more successfully, visit his web site at www.jackerossin.com or call 617-527-0265. To Chapter Seven
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