One Word That Matters

This is the word my Grandmother (who was my fifth grade homeroom teacher) taught us never to start a sentence with. According to a study described by an Inside Influence Report that same word is a powerful word for persuasion as well.



Because.



Put this powerful word to work for you by having Clients give you feedback as to why they choose to do business with you.



Read this link above, you'll be glad you did. Why?



Just because.

It's Just You and Me

I was at Best Buy last night and the lines were long - much longer than I expected. As I stood in the serpentine line I was near register 9 and overheard Allison with a flustered Customer. She said, "Take your time. Don't worry about those other people in the line. Right now, it is just you and me."



I secretly hoped that when I got to the front of the line I would be directed to register 9.



I got my wish.



I told Allison that I had overheard her conversation and I applauded her. After getting over her shock at getting this kind of feedback from a Customer, she said, "She couldn't find her card in her purse and she seemed to be stressed out so I tryed to calm her down."



Best Buy is fortunate to have Allison at register 9.



And I was fortunate to witness this truth in action: All of us as Customers want it to be treated as if, "It's just you and me."



Thanks Allison.

Memory, But Much More

There is an interesting exercise in memory and observation to be found here.



Go check it out and then come back.



How did you do? (Perhaps I like the exercise because I succeeded!)



Our brains are amazing organs that allow us to recognize patterns and then move on to solving the next problem. This pattern recognition trait helps us survive and thrive in a million ways, mostly subconsciously, every day.



The challenge with this trait is that too often we don't really observe a situation, a problem, or a person's behavior because we based on initial or cursory information or brain has recognized a pattern and therefore locked into a solution or a label.



If you didn't succeed in the exercise above, ask yourself how many pennies you have seen in your life, and ask yourself how many other things that you should know well do you misinterpret, mislabel, or just plain miss the details?



The skill/habit of observation is what I'm talking about. You will become a better leader, coach, trainer, team member, parent and person when you improve and use your powers of observation more consciously.

The Busiest Shopping Day of the Year

It is 7:00 am. By this time yesterday morning I was already in my 4th store. Do you think I'm crazy because I went out on this zoo of a shopping day? Maybe I am - after all the first store I went to had 2 local television crews capturing the initial rush of people and madhouse that ensued.



Overall I went to eight stores before I returned home. And while there were crowds of people in each store my experience as a Customer was quite good. A couple of times I wished I could find someone to help me, but that was understandable given the crowds. The Guest Services desk at one store was outstanding, and while I stood in line longer than I would like (again, understandable) my check out experience was great at each as well.



As I review the specific reasons people did well, I found people to be focused on helping Customers, smiling (and some even mentioned they thought the big crowds were "fun") and very proficient.



I applaud the stores I visited for training people to have the skills they needed and applaud the individuals for having a great service attitude, even on what could be viewed as a very tough day.



For more on a recent great Customer service experience, read this entry from Holly Power's blog, Independent in Indy (I'm proud to have Holly on my team and after reading this you will see one reason why.)



p.s. I didn't name any of the stores, because people reading might get clues about what they are getting for Christmas - I can't take that chance! :)

A Spelling Lesson

My daughter Kelsey is in kindergarten and has homework each night. Part of her homework involves drawing pictures of words starting with the letter of the day. Yesterday it was T. She was working on that homework and apparently was ready to label a picture. She asked me from a cross the room, "Daddy how do you spell TV?"



I thought for a minute about spelling television rather than TV, but quickly moved past that notion. I replied, "capital T, capital V" with enough pause between the letters for her to stay with me.



After a pause she asked, "Daddy, you just spell TV, TV? Is that all?"



"Yes" I said.



She replied with a smile in her voice, "That was easy."



There are (at least) two lessons in this quick story.



First, practice is a good thing. There is homework every night, but it doesn't take her long. It engages the parents, reinforces the learning and is building a good habit and value around practice and effort.



Second (and the one that really struck me), not all tasks are as hard we thought. Too often as adults we make things too hard. Examples?



- Consultants mystify their work to increase the perception of what they can do.

- People assume a new task will be hard, just because they've never done it before.

- We build processes for things that could be done in less time than it takes to build the process.



I could go on, and perhaps you are in your own mind.



Don't make your work harder than it is. Don't make your training difficult or complex than needed. Don't make your Customers jump through hoops if they don't have to. Don't complicate your messages or tasks as a leader.

A Happy Ending

I worked all day Tuesday then in afternoon I flew from Indianapolis to San Francisco, via Chicago. I was a typical trip. The first flight was full and delayed, leaving me for a bit to wonder if I'd make the connection. Made the connection fine and arrived in San Francisco on time. I got some work done on the plane, read some and it was pretty uneventful, except for the water.



I had my shoes off and had the whole row to myself, so I had materials spread out all over. Suddenly my foot felt damp. Then I noticed water dripping....



The person in row in front of me had placed a 1.5 liter bottle of water in the seat direct above my feet. The bottle apparently wasn't completely closed. I had wet socks, a wet pant leg and I poured water from one of my shoes.

I moved rows, dried off and enjoyed the rest of the flight.



The taxi ride from the airport was 13 minutes to downtown - normally it would be 20 plus. The speed gain wasn't because of a lack of traffic, it was because my driver was apparently preparing for a NASCAR audition.



All of this led up to arriving at the Hotel Rex. Nicole Jackson, the front desk host asked if she could help and I told her I was checking in. My name wasn't on the reservations list - until the following night, when all of the rest of the team I would be working with would be there.



Then she informed me she had no other rooms.



I was tired and suddenly homeless. Nicole quickly offered to find me another room, negotiate me a better rate, offer to store my bag full of workshop materials, and to top it off, when making the reservation, told the person on the other end of the phone that I was pleasant!



The five block walk to the other hotel went quickly - after all, I'm pleasant! :)



In the end, Nicole turned a potentially bad service moment into a gem by her quick action and by going above and beyond the call of duty.



If you are ever in San Francisco and looking for a unique hotel experience, please consider the Hotel Rex. And tell Nicole hello for me.

It's Your Responsiblity Too

Imagine going into a Burger King at about 11:15 pm after a long shift at work. You are tired (and obviously hungry). When you walk in you see what appears to be the lone employee sitting behind the counter. After waiting to be greeted and standing at the counter for a minute, you make eye contact with the sitting employee and ask to place your order.



The employee (still sitting) says, "You'll have to wait ten minutes, I'm on break."



This happened to a friend of someone on my team.



The person, after asking again, not sure that the employee was serious, and receiving the same, "You'll have to wait ten minutes, I'm on break." decided to leave.



This is a true story told to me last week, and of course, is an awful example of Customer Service.



I don't share to complain about Burger King, but rather to ask myself, what would I have done about it? The two people I have talked to both said they would have called the 800 number and reported it. I'd like to think that I would, but up until now, I'm not sure I would have.



Why should we?



Because the owners and managers of this Burger King can't be there every hour the store is open. Without feedback on employee performance (or lack thereof) they can't improve it.



We can all shake our heads at service this bad, or we can give the feedback - not just in indignation for being wronged - but to improve the situation long term.



If we would all give feedback for service that is less than outstanding, we would begin to improve the service we all receive.



The only thing that we as Customers can do to improve service more is to make sure we provide feedback when we are delighted by the service, but that is a topic for another day.

What are You Spreading?

Energy is contagious, and as you go to work today (or meet with Clients, or go to e meeting, or walk to the coffee pot) you will be spreading whatever it is that you are carrying.



There are two basic kinds of energy - positive and negative. If you are carrying positive energy with you you are spreading:

Enthusiasm



Speed

Action

Success

If you are carrying negative energy you are spreading:

Stress

Fear

Fatigue

Failure

So the logical question is what are you carrying?



As a leader... to your Customers... to your team... to those you are training?



If you aren't carrying what you want to spread, do an energy adjustment before you walk away from your computer.



Remember - you are contagious!

Every Interaction Counts

When working with organizations on building a Customer Service culture, building awareness of the Customer's importance or helping with skill building, I often have people share a personal Customer Service horror story and a success story. This exercise leads to conversation about how it feels to be the Customer, what kinds of things matter,and helps everyone to see the power an individual interaction can have.



One of my debrief questions for this type of exercise is to ask how many people still do business with the company they had a horrorific experience with (few do). Alternately, I ask how many still do business with those who provided them with a WOW experience (most all do).



In recently reading How Full is Your Bucket a story was shared that validates emphatically this point of view.



The authors studied 4,583 call center representatives from a major telecommunications firm. They discoveredthree representatives who scared off every single Customer they spoke with in a given day - and those Customers did not return.



The book accurated summarizes that, "The company would have been better off paying those three represntatives to stay home."



The study also found 7 reps that retained and engaged every Customer they spoke with. Want to bet that those Customers were Customers for life?



This is the internal view of the Horror and Success stories... a view I thought was worth sharing.

Customer Service Disaster or Opportunity?

Reuters UK today told a story of Customer Service disaster.



Customers of cable firm NTL got a surprise when they called for Customer Service recently, hearing a message, obviously changed without company knowledge:



"You are through to NTL customer services. We don't give a (expletive) about you. We are never here. We just (expletive) you about, basically, and we are not going to handle any of your complaints. Just (expletive) off and leave us alone."



The article ends by stating the NTL management has issued a press release saying that the message has been changed and that they apologized.



Now, put on your leader hat and think Customer Service. What NTL did was standard stuff. The question is, what might you have done differently to turn the disaster into an opportunity?



I could provide some ideas, but I'd rather end this with the challenge for YOU to think about it. The next time your team is together, pose this situation and brainstorm what you might do. It is a good mental exercise, but beyond that, it might give you great ideas of things you can do now, to further WOW your Customers.

Favorite Words

I've always kept a list of favorite words in my mind. Some, because I like the way they sound, and some because of their meanings. One of my all time favorties - for both reasons (especially the meaning) is serendipity (click HERE for a definition).



Imagine my surprise and delight today when I found a list of favorite words for the year, and that serendipity was #2! Check out the list and the definitions. Clearly some very cool words. Any of them on your list?



Serendipity is a great word and something I love in my life, but too often organizations assume good Customer Service will happen, due to , well, serendipity! This of course isn't true - good Customer Service comes from clear focus, consistent hiring and training and a myriad of other processes.



We can't leave it to chance.

Above My Desk

Above my desk is a bulletin board.  I won't tell you everything that is on it - I'm not sure I want the whole world doing a psychological evaluation of me based on the contents of the board!



There is something there though that I think is instructive and worth writing about - my buttons.  I have several buttons on my bulletin board.  They read:

• Dream Bigger! (the button we produce)
• Just DO It!
• Who are "They" Anyway?
• Go For It!
• I'Mpossible
• Blazingly good
• Ingeniuous
• Ask!
• Bring Your Brain 

 

What do these buttons have in common (other than a very large percentage of them having exclamation points?)  They are all positive, empowering messages that I read every day that I am at my desk.



Why should this matter to you?



Because it is a good practice to fill our minds with positive, affirming messages!  Try it for yourself.  Put a quotation, saying or other positive message in your work environment.  Post similiar things in the environment where others work.  Want people to keep their Customers in Focus?  Choose messages that help reinforce the Customer Serice focus that you are creating.  Use the bulletin board, your office doors, or a space in your break room to share those messages with others.



If you need ideas or quotations, check out my two quotation services, Powerquotes and Powerquotes Plus.  These are two of many sources you could go to to stock your work area with positive messages.

Discover Theirs

Sometimes a cluttered desk leads to mass cleaning, which leads to things being put in a file, never to be found again. Other times when those files are reopened, serendipity happens. Such is the case today.



(By the way, one of the advantages of writing a blog is that I can keep a file called "Blog ideas" which will likely lead to more serendipity in the future!)



I found a comment in the Reader Feedback section of the April 2003 issue of Fast Company. It was written by a student named Rich Reed who wrote,

"When I've been an assistant for someone, my goal has been to learn how that person thinks and then try to flow with her. The same has proven true when I have helped a guest or a Customer with his or her situation or concerns. So don't bring Customers into your reality: Discover theirs."

This is one of the most profound thoughts I have ever read about Customer Service, or service in general. When people say "the Customer is always right," this is what they are really saying. In the Customer's mind they are right. When we can do more than put ourselves in the Customer's shoes, but put ourselves in their reality, we will know how to satisfy, delight and WOW them.



Your task today is to figure out how to get into your Customer's reality.

Great Questions

Yesterday's Wall Street Journal (April 13, 2004) had a headline "The Best Innovations Are Those That Come From Smart Questions." The article talks about Dr. William Hunter, President and CEO of Angiotech Pharmaceuticals (www.angiotech.com) and how the questions he asked both to start his business and now to grow it very rapidly are literally the core of the business.



Angiotech's business is to add drugs to medical devices to increase their effectiveness. Hunter is quoted as saying, "Medical equipment makers typically ask surgeons, 'How can we build a better stent?' and then you get the answer, 'You should make it more flexible, easier to see and stronger.' But we've been asking 'What does the body do to these stents and why do they fail?'"



Without reading the rest of the article you get the major point. The better questions get us more valuable answers.



So the next time you are trying to solve a vexing problem, satisfy a customer, create a new marketing strategy, or coach an employee, start by crafting the questions you want to ask of this situation. Then craft a few more, coming at the situation from a fresh perspective. The time spent in this sort of planning is well worth it.