<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:georss='http://www.georss.org/georss' xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1484915185353967869</id><updated>2011-07-31T02:33:25.617-07:00</updated><title type='text'>Are You Being Served?</title><subtitle type='html'></subtitle><link rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://are-you-being-served.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1484915185353967869/posts/default?max-results=100'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://are-you-being-served.blogspot.com/'/><link rel='hub' href='http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/'/><author><name>Arjun Venkatraman</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05742494509362640981</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='24' src='http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-D4Yl4VmqI30/TdbXoWpoSzI/AAAAAAAACHQ/sKe27AR9uWs/s220/mebw.jpg'/></author><generator version='7.00' uri='http://www.blogger.com'>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>1</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>100</openSearch:itemsPerPage><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1484915185353967869.post-924878014617893015</id><published>2008-04-27T01:53:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2008-04-30T23:10:09.735-07:00</updated><title type='text'>Welcome! Are YOU being served?</title><content type='html'>&lt;span style="font-family: arial;"&gt;You have customers. That may sound ridiculously obvious if you do sell something or funny if you don't sell anything. Many people, including myself till recently, have a meaning that they associate with the word "customer", that is limited to someone who buys what you sell, or someone who you serve at a counter, or someone you provide a service to in exchange for payment.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: arial;font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;"  &gt; When I say "customer", I'm really talking about anyone who potentially is in  a position to take what you have  on offer. &lt;br /&gt;That includes many who  you may not even know are your customers in some way.&lt;br /&gt;It could be your child, who you hugged or  it could be your boss who did not like your proposal for change.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: arial;"&gt;It could be your child, who rewarded you with a smile when you gave them a hug, or it could be your dad who told you how proud when you got that big promotion at the office, or it could be someone who thanked you for holding a door open for them.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: arial;"&gt;You are my customer already, even if you didn't know it, because you're reading something I wrote. And when I look at the world from this new definition of the word customer, I'm deeply touched by the sheer number of customers I have and what a privilege it is to be able to serve so many people. In one sense, my life is an immensely successful business.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: arial;"&gt;I also started to see how many people I am a customer to and what a gigantic impact they have on my life. I also started to see that almost everyone around me, whether they know it or not, is really really interested in serving their customers.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: arial;"&gt;"Are you being served?" is an expression of my natural desire to be of service that I share with you.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: arial;"&gt;"Are you being served?" is :&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: arial;"&gt;* A place for you to share your experiences in serving your customers&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: arial;"&gt;* A place for you to come and develop yourself in the skills that will allow you to be of service to your customers&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: arial;"&gt;* A place for you to find who your customers really are and what you love about them&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: arial;"&gt;My ultimate goal is to develop "Are you being served?" into an educational program in the area of customer service.&lt;br /&gt;One that trains and empowers people to &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:100%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: arial;"&gt;get only  a resounding “YES” in answer of  the question "Are you being served?" &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: arial;"&gt;This is my invitation to you, to come and find out what's possible for you and your customers out of "Are you being served?".&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: arial;"&gt;Some ways in which you could participate:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: arial;"&gt;* Write for this blog. Share your experience. Shares don't have to be impressively long. Anything that you felt inspired by while serving a customer belongs here. Sharing allows you to re-live those moments that were important for you and it has immense value for people who you share with.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: arial;"&gt;* Write a whitepaper or article describing a technique or skill that you've found effective in serving customers. The intent of a whitepaper is for people to be able to reproduce the level of results you've produced, in their own lives.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: arial;"&gt;* Ask for support and coaching on specific areas inside of customer service that you'd like to develop yourself in. If there are no coaches available for your particular area, find someone who you think could be a great coach  and have them participate.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: arial;"&gt;* Be a coach. Coaching people will allow you to develop your skill and mastery of it. It's also a great way to make an impact that will extend beyond your imagination, through the results created by the people you coach.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: arial;"&gt;* Ask for support with organizing an interactive session where you and other people who you think are great with customers can meet, share experiences and exchange ideas. A group session is also a great way to network.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: arial;"&gt;* Think up different ways in which you can participate :)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: arial;"&gt;This is a very young project and that's great because your participation at this stage can really impact the way it will ultimately go.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: arial;"&gt;Thank you for your time, and I look forward to hearing from you.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: arial;"&gt;I can be reached at:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a style="font-family: arial;" href="mailto:arjunsdarkside@gmail.com"&gt;arjunsdarkside@gmail.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1484915185353967869-924878014617893015?l=are-you-being-served.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://are-you-being-served.blogspot.com/feeds/924878014617893015/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=1484915185353967869&amp;postID=924878014617893015' title='3 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1484915185353967869/posts/default/924878014617893015'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1484915185353967869/posts/default/924878014617893015'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://are-you-being-served.blogspot.com/2008/04/welcome-are-you-being-served.html' title='Welcome! Are YOU being served?'/><author><name>Arjun Venkatraman</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05742494509362640981</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='24' src='http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-D4Yl4VmqI30/TdbXoWpoSzI/AAAAAAAACHQ/sKe27AR9uWs/s220/mebw.jpg'/></author><thr:total>3</thr:total></entry></feed>
