Meaningless Words? Are There Such Things?

I was waiting in line in for my turn at the cashier when I saw this bond paper sized poster printing which read: "The customer is why we are here." I paused for a while and asked myself this question: Is this poster printing reminding the cashier that we are the one paying for her salary? Or is there to remind me that I deserve only the best service? For whatever reasons the management might have, custom posters such as these kind of tickled my thought process.

"The customer is always right." "Employees are our greatest asset." "The customer is why we're here." You see print posters in businesses across the world. But do they mean anything? Do they actually remind whoever needs reminding that they should be thankful to customers for giving them their jobs? Or are these useless slogans that are meant to be more of propaganda in the sense that they are hollow words without real meaning? Do they motivate anybody at all?

Just to give you an example, yesterday I was at this hotel in Los Angeles and all of a sudden, my wifi connection was cut as I was about to send an important email. I went up to the lobby desk to ask them what happened and they said that there must be some problems with the router as their connection was still ok. I was told to go to the business center three floors up by the manager as he hurriedly left to attend to another customer. Meanwhile, this front desk clerk suggested that I just use the computer inside the reception so as not to inconvenience me any further. However, upon the return of the manager, he admonished her for allowing me inside a restricted back office area.

Ironically, what caught my eye in the back office is a print poster in bold type, ‘The Customer is why we are here.' So, just how useful are those clichéd slogans? These mantras are nothing but a farce. If we businesses really walk their talk, then they could have approached this differently. Yes, I understand that there were rules but as far as I know, a wise manager would know how and when to make an exception to the rule. Bending the rule just a little bit to help a customer would certainly go a long way. Imagine how I would have reacted if in the first instance, the manager told me that it was a restricted area but because I am a loyal guest, she would allow me use of the area. Wow, this statement could have made a huge impact! Do you think I would still stay in another hotel when I am in town? I can assure you that I would have made that hotel my second home. But that's another story.

What I propose is for these businesses to walk their talk. And if they cannot follow where their mouths are, maybe they should replace them with something a little more real.

So, what meaningless slogans can you replace (or at least destroy) today? Hmmm... I wonder what would happen if you changed some at work... would anyone even notice? That's the problem. It's not like anyone reads these things, let alone applies the message. Motivation - especially when it comes to a deep concern for the users - does not come from saying it. It comes from a culture of meaning it.