Celebrity Service

Have you ever been somewhere and received service that had you totally delighted? I mean you totally did not expect it, yet the service was such that it created a memorable experience for you rather than just mingle well camouflaged among the thoughts that you would have had for a lifetime. When you talk with your friends and colleagues afterwards you totally rave about how the service made you feel important - you were made to feel like a celebrity.

Would some of these statements describe your service experience?

• I didn't have to ask for anything really, they brought it before I thought it. 
• When they described what the experience would be and then exceeded it, I thought I found my piece of heaven.
• I felt like family there! 
• Have you ever been pampered; having your every need catered to? ....just when you thought that was all, then they catered to your wants? Wow!

You begin to get the picture. The experience that you received made you feel so great, that as you think about it, you realized that you received Celebrity Service.  Sure you can use the term, my only caveat is that you don't try to own it, but to share it thereby raising all the service standards one at a time with everyone that you come into contact with regardless of where in the world you are.

What's celebrity service? You get the opportunity to decide it, since there's no cookie cutter approach. It can be a standard that has application across cultures, races, classes, and creeds. It doesn't matter who you interact with, it matters that you made an extremely positive difference to their lives that they not only feel the gratitude of being on the receiving end of the service, but goes a step further in their wanting to serve whoever they come in contact with in a way that makes the experience most memorable.

• It goes beyond good customer service, since the emphasis is not on whether or not the other person is a customer.  
• It's not about differentiating between the internal / external customer. 
• Class demarcations like first, club, executive cannot define it. 
• It's personal; in that the experience of one person's celebrity service does not define that of another.
• Those with whom you interact must feel special, almost as if they are the only one that mattered at that time. Yet the feeling of celebrity service must extend beyond the interaction that they have had with you.
• Celebrity service is the journey, not a destination to be reached. 
• It is tangible, yet vague and wispy; neither governed by stars nor ratings.
• Celebrity service is when your people skills become you most important marketing asset. Not being governed by if the environment is highly classy or rustic. 
• It is reached by training in standards, where the key elements being developed are better people, not better looking environments. 

Here's the clincher. It's something that the Old Caribbean offered that enabled people to speak about going back to their holiday domiciles before they even left to go back home. Celebrity service is enchanting and enhancing. I love it when I experience it, but I love it more when I give it. 

The secret is that it isn't just something that takes place at work, but goes into the household. It's:

• spousal 
• family oriented 
• colleagues cooperating 
• church related 
• just good hospitality 

Are you ready for celebrity service; willing to experience it and to demonstrate it? I would love to hear / read your stories. Be the celebrity hosting other celebrities. Changing you mindset and behaviors can result in better life experiences! We all owe it to ourselves to have a quality of life that's exemplary. Here's another secret. It's service offered in an environment of love and care.  

Opportunistic employment - A potential conflict of interest?!?!

There's a pattern developing among entities that are in businesses that require training. It is the behaviour that has the following steps:

• requesting proposals 
• trying to get the training provider to prepare a comprehensive document which outlines the elements of the training
• then trying to do the training themselves using the template that they would have received from the training provider and any additional information that would have been provided in the attempts to seal the deal. 

Often a poor job is done since the end user trainer does not have the benefit of the comprehensive information the bonafide trainer would have had. In many cases they are not suitably qualified on the subject area, but attempt to read and bluff their way through.

Is this value for money to the entity? In these economic times, more companies seem to want to adopt this approach and in so doing compound their already challenging situations. Keep reading as some may feel that I'll outline a procedure here, and you may be right, but it is not the one that you expect.

Trainers modify your sales techniques so that when you provide information within your proposals, you outline what you'll do, not how you'll do it. Too often, we feel that it's necessary to tell of the tasks required to do the job, when the true value's in the results. Once you follow this path it should reduce, if not eliminate this practice of people wanting to be opportunistic trainers when they are trying to supplement their income along with what they're getting from their job. It should reduce the potential for conflicts on interest.

This can be applied to a cross section of professions and is so rampant, it needs urgent address.

Life Happens...

The days are going by so quickly, that getting on here just to do a quick post seems to be a challenge. Sure... more experienced bloggers will say, you have to schedule the time. However I'm telling you, it's just crazy how time is going by. When was the last time you had time to just stop, observe, and realize a couple of things?

I remember my last vacation like it was yesterday. Literally, days are going so quickly, I can remember things that took place 5 years ago like it was yesterday. Thing is every time I think about going on vacation, my workload increases significantly. It's like clients think I'm not going to come back. Some of my colleagues say that in order to bump revenues up, maybe we should constantly think of going on vacation. Though it gives me a chuckle, I sometimes wonder if they may be on to something.

Over the past number of months, I've been seeing people going through all kinds of changes. Is it all financial? No. But many seem to be the spin off of financial circumstances.

There are many people who are in the following situations:

• More month than money
• More ideas than available resources 
• Living pay cheque to pay cheque
• Financial strains due to family situations - death, life, marriage, divorce, growing children, aging parents, challenges that come with the job, challenges that come from being without a job, the list goes on

How are we as a people coping? This atmosphere of busy-ness seems to creating a life / lifestyle that keeps us, as a people, on the treadmill. So can we do about it? 

Every now and again, we need to stop and recreate. 

What is it that we are seeking? What keeps us going at this frantic pace? What is it that keeps so many people up at night? Surely, it can't be anything new as this seems to have been happening for ages. 

Are we doing it for - Honor?

I then did some research from a biblical perspective. It's easy nowadays with the online access to e-bibles and found the following:

• "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you..Exo 20:12
• After these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, "Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God! rev 19:1
• Pray for us; for we are confident that we have a good conscience, in all things desiring to live honorably.Heb 13:18 

There are many more passage on honor, but these stood out with me. 

Are we honoring honoring of father and mother as commanded that we do in Exo 20:12? Are we functioning under the shadow of the almighty so that we experience not only the salvation, but the glory and honor and power of God? How can we be close and not be affected? if we aren't affected than are we close enough? Are our lives honorable? Put another way, if we looked at ourselves from the outside, would we want to be in the company of ourselves? 

What do I mean? Many of us use these words to describe ourselves and our situations:

• stressed, rinsed out, beat, lick up, under the weather, etc. 

We behave as if we are in total control and are not accountable for the way we live. We we do realize accountability, it seems that we prefer to acknowledge what other people think rather than what God thinks of us.

If you need to recapture some measure of honor in your life, why not look in the bible at the examples that are within the word. Remove the constant panic and apprehensive by reading all of the Basic Instruction Before Leaving Earth and really getting personal; knowing the contents for yourself.

Once, I had a picture of God asking me "What have you done for me lately?", like you I first thought that was Janet Jackson's song, then I realize who's the composer. I decided to get busy, cause it wasn't about all the activity that I thought it was - going to church, singing in the choir, leading classes. None of that stuff mattered. Was I leading the life that God would be proud of what what counted?

1. Was I cussing and swearing all the time?
2. Was I setting a great example for the children around?
3. Was I being an excellent example for the surrounding adults?
4. How was I ministering to those who observed me but never said a word to me?
5. Am I experiencing the life worthy of Kingdom Living?

I got a "NO!" 

I also got a here's what you need to do - Get to know me personally through my word and you will experience the lifestyle of Kingdom Living. 

Does it mean that we won't have struggles still? I hardly think so, but there hope.  

Richard Blades is a Business Consultant & Trainer who lives Barbados, West Indies. You can find me on Google Plus and Twitter my handle's richieb93