Are you playing small?

I read a book recently: The Celebrity Experience by Donna Cutting.
It's focus is on Giving Red Carpet Treatment to Your Customers.
Giving them a Celebrity Experience.
And it got me thinking:
How often do we give ourselves a Celebrity Experience? How often do we treat ourselves as well as we would our best customer?

We treat our best clients with kid gloves. We give them more than what they've asked for, help them in any way that we can, and truly provide them with top notch service because we not only value their business, but because we care. Donna mentions these things in her book and rightly so, because at its core, customer service of any kind, requires that you care about your customers.

You are your own customer, too, though aren't you? You give yourself more than what you promised, top notch service, and the best of treatment, too, right? Well, maybe. But the reality is so often we put ourselves dead last - even after those customers that might be less than your favorites.

Why is that? When I am working with coaching clients and i see them do this, I will remind them to treat themselves as well as they would their best customers for two reasons:

1. If you are not taking care of you, there won't be much of you left to share with your customsers.
2. Putting yourself last, particularly if you are an Entertainer or Relater, will a type of stress that makes it difficult for you to perform at your best. This stress will come out in your tone, your expressions, your actions, and everything else you do. How can you take care of customers in a way they will value when you are stressed out and everyone can see it.

Make sure you are giving yourself a Celebrity Experience as it is one of the best ways to ensure you will be able to share such a high level of service consistently with your own customers. :)

Stay Contagious!

M