Tactful Relations with Customers JOHN W. FERGUSON ASSISTANT TO CONTRACT AGENT CHICAGO EDISON COMPANY "The best advertisement is a pleased customer. You may sell your patron the best goods the market affords, at a price which he cannot better, and yet the whole of the battle is not won. There is a seductive fellow across the way, perhaps, who hypnotizes his customers by a gracious manner. They like to trade with him because he interests them. It is a grace, or a manner, or a charm that it may not be easy to name or to describe. He is tactful, pleasing and gracious, and the influence of his manner and disposition is felt throughout his establishment and by his customers. 'Business is not merely a "machine"; the machinery of business is only an accessory; it must be vitalized, if it is to be successful, by a personal equation which attracts instead of repels; which pleases instead of offends. It makes no difference whether this quality of pleasing is inherent, or is the result of genius, or is acquired by a studied effort, it is both a powerful and an indispensable thing in business. You may win some trade through a series of duels, winning custom over and against your rivals by cleverness or generalship of selling, but continued prosperity will largely depend upon the quality of pleasing which must emanate from you and dominate your establishment.'-PRINTERS' INK. THE Tactful Relations With Customers 'HE question of the tactful treatment of customers, while a subject which has probably occupied the attention of individual members of this association, is one that I believe has never been raised to the dignity of a discussion or of a paper read at the convention. The discussions held at the annual conventions have heretofore been mainly on matters pertaining to the purely operating departments of the business. Without in any way deprecating, or wishing to take one jot or tittle of importance from those departments and the technical questions particularly interesting them, I maintain that the time has come when the daily relations of those departments with the public must be considered, and the duties and responsibilities of the purely business departments (so called) should be taken into consideration. As I am fully convinced that the subject is one in the discussion of which it would hardly be possible to spend too much time—as it is a subject that strikes directly at the life blood, i. e., the income of the central station company—and as it is a subject that intrinsically effects the standing in the community of the corporation, be it a railroad, a lighting and power plant, or any other form of public service, it is my opinion that a full and ample discussion of the subject must sooner or later result. To central-station managers, it is a question of the utmost importance. On them devolves the duty not only of defending and advancing the interests of those who are financially interested in the corporation, but, and almost more important, is the duty assigned them as representatives of the franchise rights granted by the body politic, to which body they will be held for a strict accounting. A question to-day seriously occupying the atttention of the public-and one that, if not provided against by the just and tactful treatment of customers, will surely in the near future play an important part in our political life is that of municipal ownership of public utilities. It is not my intention to discuss the pros and cons of this issue, but, as you, gentlemen, or most of you, represent such public utility corporations, it is fair to assume that you are opposed to any legislation looking to a change in existing conditions. Then you should show by your methods in operating your companies that you recognize the limitations, as well as the privileges, vested in your franchise rights. You should show by your acts your realization of the fact that those rights have been granted by the people, and that they have at all times the right to demand from you an account of your stewardship: that your duties well and courteously performed will disarm criticism, while such duties neglected or discourteously performed will result in a just upheaval that will bring disgrace to you and disaster to the financial interests you are chosen to defend. The responsible head of any company should therefore see to it that there are placed at the heads of the various departments under him men who will realize the neces TACTFUL RELATIONS WITH CUSTOMERS. 119 sity of tactful treatment of those with whom they come in contact. The methods of the various employees will in most cases be found to be in line with the methods of the head of the department, and for this reason suaviter in modo, fortiter in re, mildness in method, force in execution, should be the governing principle for all heads of departments in the central-station company. Never losing sight of his duty to the company, though at times the fulfilling of that duty may cause temporary displeasure to the customer, it is always possible to so perform the duty that the minimum amount of dissatisfaction shall result, and this should be the object of the head of each and every department in every company. Of course we all know that it is impossible for the head of the department to look after every detail. He is not a success unless he is a detail man, but that should mean his having his department so systematized as to produce the detail when he may need it. He should therefore surround himself with such assistants, and so impress upon them their duties to the company and the public, both by precept and example, that the tactful relations with the customer may be maintained without jeopardizing the best interests of the company. From the office boy and the elevator conductor, through all the ramifications in the organization of a great company, up to the president, upon each and every one depend the reputation of the company and its popularity, or lack of it, with the public. The office boy of to-day may be the president of to-morrow; the bookkeeper or bill clerk may later be the comptroller; but this can only be if he so fulfills his duty as to impress favorably the outside public, to accomplish which he |