How can the Golden Rule apply uniquely to your customer relationships so people decide to do business with you based on the experience rather than your pricing?

This month over 1 billion people will celebrate the birth of Jesus. His Golden Rule is a proactive approach that is foundational to any competitive customer service program. Jesus encouraged people to take the initiative to do something good for others.

The teaching of the Golden Rule is the basis for active good and mercy in dealing with other people, and certainly applies to our wonderful customers.

I used to think the Platinum Rule, which is to treat others the way they want to be treated, is an extension of the Golden Rule. I realized recently I was wrong. If you look at the way Jesus lived he clearly meant the Golden Rule was to treat others the way they want to be treated.

Think of your customers. When they call you with a need or a problem, they want to be served based on their needs rather than your return

policies, support response times, service limitations and other excuses that are made to protect your profits.

Let me just give you one example: I believe this is why Zappos provides free shipping when someone buys something and when they return it. It is because if the roles were reversed with their clients, that is how they would want their online shoe company to behave.

I encourage you to consider how you can better demonstrate the Golden Rule. Look at what others are doing, like

Zappos

,

Costco

and

Nordstrom's

. As the year comes to a close this Christmas and holiday season figure out a least one way that you can provide a better customer experience in 2011 and beyond.

MEETING IDEAS

GOLDEN RULE is about really putting yourself in the place of the customer so you can discern how to provide a superior experience with your company that creates lasting customer loyalty and raving fans.

Here are some quick ideas how you might discuss this with your team. If we were doing business with our company:

1. What are the three services that would be most important to us when making a decision whether to make a purchase?

2. What return policy would we want when a product broke, or we just changed our mind and did not want it anymore?

3. What are the biggest hurdles for people to use our products or services? How can we make it easier for our customers to overcome these hurdles and fully enjoy using our products and services?

4. Describe every aspect of the ideal customer experience if you were purchasing from our company, including when everything goes right and when everything goes wrong.

5. Specifically what can we do differently in 2011 to provide a better experience for our customers?