Nightmare at 2:00 A.M.
April 30, 2009
As you work with your customers, always keep the mission, vision and values of your organization in the front of your mind.
Of all the problems that organizations face when serving their customers, the simple truth is that most simply do not understand what business they’re in. They lack a clear view of the type of services that will meet their customers’ particular needs and expectations. An experience I had in Atlanta very late one night is a prime example of how this lack of understanding can have a dramatic impact on how a customer views a particular organization.
My client base includes businesses, associations, government agencies, and educational institutions all across North America. Sometimes, two clients may book programs on successive dates that are on opposite sides of the country. Normally I try to reschedule these situations, but on this occasion, it was unavoidable.
So at a little past noon, after having spoken to about 400 people at the American Society for Quality’s annual convention, I began the long trip to Atlanta where I would speak the following morning. My flight was scheduled to arrive in Atlanta at 11:30 p.m. With time to pick up my rental car and drive north out of the city, I would arrive at the hotel sometime around 12:30 a.m.
I should note here that my office always confirms my travel plans during the day of travel, making sure that the hotel, in particular, has my room preference and my arrival time noted. This case was no exception – they had called the property directly and confirmed that my room would be waiting for me.
To my complete dismay, when I arrived at the hotel, at 12:30 a.m., I received some sobering news from the front desk clerk. They didn’t have a room for me. “You mean you don’t have a non-smoking king?” I asked. “No, I mean we don’t have any rooms left.” I offered to have them upgrade me to one of their deluxe suites. They said there were none of these available either.
Needless to say, I wasn’t happy, and anyone who knows me can imagine the conversation that followed. I won’t bore you with the details, but it did involve the manager, the fact that I stay with that hotel chain frequently, and that I present customer satisfaction programs to thousands of business professionals annually and use real-life stories to illustrate my points.
The manager spent a few minutes on the computer and said that they had a hospitality suite I could use. What is a hospitality suite? A large room used to hold meetings and host small receptions. “Where do I sleep?” “On the fold-out couch.” Not a very exciting prospect after having traveled cross-country for most of the day; but it was late, and I was tired.
The front desk clerk and I went up to look at the room. Big mistake. This non-smoking room literally reeked of cigarette smoke, and the foldout couch had been folded out…and slept in!
A trip back downstairs to meet with the manager finally yielded one last option: the Presidential Suite. Now we were getting somewhere! We went up to the top floor and entered the room. Beautiful furniture. Kitchen. Dining room. No bed.
“There’s no bed in the Presidential Suite?” I asked. “Where does the president sleep, on the floor?” No, as it turned out, this was the “sitting room” of the Presidential Suite. There were actually two adjoining rooms that were the “sleeping rooms.” They would bring in a rollaway cot for me to sleep in. Did I mention that this property was part of a major, well-respected hotel chain?
After a long and heated discussion with the manager, he stated that it was perfectly appropriate for a frequent guest with a confirmed reservation who had been guaranteed a room that morning to sleep in a smoke-filled room on an unmade fold-out couch or on a rollaway cot.
I ended up staying at a Fairfield Inn across the street. It was 2:00 a.m. before I finally got to sleep.
Needless to say, I will never stay at that property again, and I’ve written a long letter to the hotel’s CEO. But just as disturbing as the experience was, what was more distressing was the fact that the hotel staff didn’t seem to understand what business they were in.
One of the national chains recently ran an ad on television that shows a person giving a presentation and tripping over cables, dropping his material, and falling asleep. The “tag line” is “Never underestimate the importance of a good night’s sleep.” To a frequent traveler flying in from the opposite coast and arriving in the middle of the night, the most important thing is a “good night’s sleep.” No one at that property grasped that idea.
As you work with your customers, in normal situations and in difficult ones, always keep the mission, vision, and values of your organization in the front of your mind. Remember why you are in business and understand in each situation which one of your customer’s needs you are addressing. This will help ensure that your customers’ needs are met and maybe even let you rest a little easier.
The “Team” Approach to Basketball
April 28, 2009
A basketball great shows that by focusing the efforts of your team in their specific areas of expertise, you have a greater opportunity for success.
The drive to succeed in business can be very similar to the drive to win in a competitive sport. Many articles and books written on the subject describe how a particular team’s game strategy can be applied to business to help team members achieve greater performance and effectiveness.
In team sports, no one exemplified this approach to teamwork better than the Boston Celtics great, Bill Russell. A recent issue of Sports Illustrated called Russell “the greatest team player on the greatest team ever.” The Celtics dynasty, which lasted from 1957 to 1969 and comprised 11 championships in 13 years, stands as a definitive example of how one team can completely dominate a sport.
Bill Russell was the driving force behind his team’s success. His goal for the team was to be the best in the world…not next year or the year after, but right then. And his game approach to defense would often paralyze an opponent’s offense. He commented, “You don’t have to block every shot; you just need to make your opponent think you’re going to block every shot!”
It was this attitude about teamwork that exemplified his brilliant career. He felt that an individual can attempt to be their very best, but it’s far more satisfying when you can help your team be its very best, which is a much more difficult task. “If I play well, that’s one thing. But to make other people play better is great.”
To Russell, successful team play involved encouraging each individual to do what he does best. “Remember, each of us has a finite amount of energy, and things that you don’t do well take more concentration. If you’re fatigued by that, then the things you do best are going to be adversely affected.”
This same approach to teamwork can be applied to the workplace. Try to ensure that members of your team spend the majority of their time on what they do best. All employees bring to the team a unique set of skills and abilities. Channeling their efforts in these areas will allow them to make their best contribution to the team.
By focusing the efforts of your team in their specific areas of expertise, you not only give your team a winning approach, but also a greater opportunity for success.
I Said It All…
April 24, 2009
I love music, and a house concert is probably the best way to enjoy it. Instead of a noisy arena or even an acoustically sound concert hall, listening to live music quite literally in someone’s living room is a fantastic experience.
We had the opportunity to do just that last week, as we got to enjoy not one, but two great artists, Dave Turner (www.daveturnermusic.com) and Valorie Miller (www.valoriemiller.com).
And when I say “living room” I mean just that – we were sitting on a couch, with Dave’s piano and Valorie and her guitar about four feet away. They played separately, and then together, with help from a bass player whose name I can’t remember. (He was very good, though!)
The styles of the two artists were different – Dave’s songs were lively and funny. Valorie’s were much more subdued and introspective.
Their personalities were also very different. Dave was very animated, and joked with the audience throughout his performance. Valorie, on the other hand, was much more subdued, keeping her comments to a minimum.
At one point, between songs, she commented, “I guess I don’t like to talk a lot. I figure I said it all when I wrote the song.”
Listening to the lyrics and watching her perform, I understood what she was saying. She put so much into the songs and was so focused in performing them, that a cute story or anecdote would probably have reduced their impact, not enhanced them.
She was clearly deliberate in everything associated with her music and it showed. What about you? Do you need to explain everything, or do the quality, creativity, and results of your work speak for themselves?
Even if you’re not playing music in an intimate setting, investing a little passion in whatever you do makes a huge difference everyone can see.
The Dogwood Tree
April 24, 2009
Because of the warm weather we get here in North Carolina at various times during winter, there are lots of “false starts” as to when spring actually begins. It certainly fools the daffodils that poke up though the ground and bloom, only to shrivel up and die a few days later when the normal lower temperatures return.
Just last week, though, I went out into our backyard and did a double-take. The dogwood tree on the side of our property was in full bloom, and it was absolutely magnificent!
We’d planted the tree about five years ago, but it never really seemed happy there. We pruned the tree, and fertilized it properly, but the leaves never seemed quite as green and healthy as they should have, and the flowers always seemed a bit anemic. This year, though, it was completely different – bright white blooms virtually covered the tree to the extent that you could hardly see the branches underneath.
When I commented on this to my wife, she said, “Maybe it just needed some time to get used to us.” Now, I’m not a big “give each house plant a name and talk to it in an encouraging way so it will thrive” kind of guy, but there was something that rang true in what Lorie said.
We’ve had clients book programs with us years after first seeing me present at conferences they attended themselves. We’ve had people invest in our resources after “sitting on the sidelines” for months. Things like these actually happen quite frequently.
And this is why you absolutely have to maintain ongoing relationships with your customers, members, clients…and prospects. Too many people make a sale, put a “tick mark” on a chart somewhere, move on to the next person, and completely ignore the lifetime value sitting, untapped, in the customer they just served. Why? Because they figure the customer just bought something, so what’s the value of this person to me now?
When we bought a new car back in October, we witnessed this first hand. Entering dealership after dealership, we had to “run the gauntlet” past four or five salespeople (all standing around doing nothing productive) as the one who was “up next” virtually pounced on us, almost salivating at the prospect of actually selling a car.
Prior to this, we last bought new cars in 1993 and 1995 from Toyota and Jeep dealers, respectively. Do you think in all that time we’ve heard anything from the salespeople who sold us those vehicles? Not a chance.
It’s as if they’d planted a tree, seen no flowering or growth, and then stopped caring for it.
It would have been far better to stay in touch with us with a regular print or e-mail newsletter, and then invite us, after, maybe three years, to a special, nicely catered, Open House Event, where we could test-drive the new version of the Toyota Camry we had bought – if for no other reason than to get a whiff of that great new-car smell.
And if the salesperson who sold us the original car had moved on, then a new, aggressive, hungry salesperson could have done minimal research to collect all the unattended leads and taken them over as his own.
But this didn’t happen, and now these very same people are blaming the economy for their sub-par sales numbers.
Yes, the economy is a factor, but not cultivating and maintaining long-term relationships is an even bigger issue. If things are slow where you work, then now is the best possible time to develop these relationships, so when things pick up again and people are ready to spend, they’ll do business with the people they know and trust.
It may not happen next week, or even next month, but one day you’ll wake up and see that all of the time, effort, and money you’ve invested will start to pay off, just like the work and patience we put into that sad dogwood tree that has turned it into something truly amazing.
Learning to “Fly”
April 23, 2009
Taking a well-earned vacation made it easier to develop some fresh ideas to a nagging problem.
When you’re trying to find a creative solution to a challenging issue, sometimes the answer can be found in a place where you hadn’t thought to look.
Over the past year, I had been thinking a lot about how I could add more value to our leadership programs, how to better demonstrate the concepts, and how to add a team-building component to help the groups work together more effectively. As I worked on this in my normal environments of home, work, and client sites, I kept coming up with the same ideas.
When my family and I took a trip to Club Med in Sandpiper, FL, recently, I was able to free my mind from the normal routine and explore some new directions and insights.
The Club Med family villages are great places for a family vacation. There are activities for everyone. The children have a great time in the Kid’s Club, playing tennis, golfing, sailing and even participating in a circus show. The parents are also free to participate in a variety of sports activities geared towards adults; and Club Med provides GOs (Club Med staff) to provide instruction in all of these activities.
One activity that our entire family enjoyed during our vacation was the flying trapeze. This is not a swing that you might find hanging from a tree in your backyard, but a regulation-size flying trapeze like you would see in a circus.
During the course of the week, you can learn how to climb the ladder (no small task for some people) and step over onto the platform. There a circus GO would help you grab onto the bar of the swing, step off and “fly.” You then learn how to pull your knees up and link them over the bar to get in position for the catch. Once you’re able to do this, a circus GO on the opposite swing will grab onto your wrists and actually catch you as you’re swinging. This is an exhilarating and amazing experience to say the least!
What I began to notice as I watched people learning the trapeze was how the circus team seemed to know intuitively how to instruct each person individually depending on their level of readiness to perform this activity.
When a person was willing and interested, the circus team took a more hands-off approach and offered more general instructions. “Climb the ladder until you reach the net, turn around to the other side of the ladder, climb up to the top, and step over onto the platform.”
When a person seemed nervous and apprehensive, the circus team gave very specific instructions on performing individual parts of the process. “I can see you’re a bit nervous. Just climb up six steps until you’re even with the net, then we’ll take it from there.
And even though I was on vacation, I couldn’t help but notice that their approach to leadership, in the broad definition of influencing people’s behavior, was similar to the approach we teach in our leadership programs. This, of course, led me to thinking about how I could incorporate this example of leadership into my teaching.
The result is a new program I developed called “Learning to Fly.” This three-day leadership retreat combines the fun of a Club Med trip, the excitement of the flying trapeze, and the practical value of our leadership training and Eight Rings™ programs.
I had been thinking for some time about how to enhance the effectiveness of our leadership programs. Once I got on vacation and stopped dwelling on the problem, the concept of using the trapeze for a comprehensive leadership retreat presented itself fairly easily.
When you’re facing a challenging problem, or you simply want to get some fresh ideas, try a change of scenery or a new environment. It can be as simple as getting up and taking a walk around the office or as complex as a six-month sabbatical. Once you learn how to relax your mind, the ideas can begin to “fly.”
Add a Little Starch to Your Customer Service!
April 21, 2009
A dry cleaners show how the way you handle mistakes can make the difference between losing business and enhancing customer loyalty.
Unless you’ve been living on a remote island, you’ve probably noticed a significant decline in the level of customer service being delivered over the last few years. Things that should be fairly simple and straightforward end up becoming complicated and difficult. And most of the time, people don’t seem to be especially interested in doing the right thing to correct the problem.
People have a right to expect excellent service, but from time to time, mistakes do happen. It’s how you handle the mistakes that make the difference between losing business and enhancing customer loyalty.
We take our clothes to the same dry cleaners every week. They have a drive-up window to make drop-off and pick-up easy, and the quality of the cleaning is good. One major convenience is that they provide us with several “express bags” that are labeled with our name and ID number. This allows them to automatically record our name and bill our credit card without making us wait for a claim check.
One time, however, we ran into a problem. During the course of the week we had dropped off several of these express bags. When I returned later in the week to pick up all of the cleaning, there seemed to be some clothes missing. They ran my name through the computer again, but came up with nothing. And because of the express service, I didn’t have a claim check for the clothing.
I assumed that my wife had picked up the other clothes and returned home. As it turned out, she hadn’t, and I was missing a pair of pants and a shirt that I needed for a trip the next morning. When I called back and spoke to the manager, he asked me to describe the items I was missing. “Okay,” he replied, “I found them!”
What had happened was that the ID label had fallen off the express bag, they had hand written a note with the information, and the note had fallen off, leaving them with no way to know whose clothes they were. An innocent mistake. But the way in which they handled it made a huge difference:
Manager: “Can you come in and pick the clothes up before we close?”
Me: “That’s going to be difficult; my sister’s family is visiting from Connecticut and we’re trying to get out of the house for dinner.”
Manager: “Hmmm, how far do you live from here? Maybe we could bring it out to you.”
And that’s just what he did. The mistake was theirs, he apologized for the error and then took responsibility for the error by personally delivering the clothing to our house.
In establishing the patterns of quality service that you provide customers, recognize that they will appreciate your business even more when you can resolve a problem quickly, decisively, and to their satisfaction.
Check Your Bill…
April 17, 2009
I know a lot of businesses are struggling right now. Some may be tempted to “start bending the rules” just a bit, violating my own personal guidelines of not doing anything in my business that’s illegal, immoral, or unethical. I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, but recently it’s become more and more difficult. Let me explain…
It was spring break from high school last week, so my wife and daughter went up to New York for a “girls-only” trip to visit family. We had booked a car for her to pick up at the Albany airport for four days for a total of $101.65. Not bad – a little over $25/day for a car.
But when they arrived at the counter, the agent handed Lorie a contract indicating a total price of over $240.00. Without missing a beat, she stood up ramrod straight, and said in an almost defiant voice, “Uh uh – that’s not even close!” She then produced the printout of the confirmation showing the correct amount, at which time the agent apologized and said that he didn’t see the discount code in the record when he printed the contract.
Okay, innocent mistake #1.
While they were enjoying the beautiful “mid-30s and sleet” weather of upstate New York, a similar situation was unfolding down in “sunny and mid-70s” North Carolina…
When I had broken my foot last year and wanted to get back running as quickly as possible, the doctor had recommended a “bone-growth stimulator” – a device that uses ultrasound waves to speed up the healing process. But when we checked with the insurance company to see if it was covered, we found out that we’d be on the hook for about $1,200 in deductibles and co-pays. I told them, “thanks but no thanks,” I’ll just take my chances with the normal healing process.
The manufacturer of the device then called us to say that if I wanted to use the device, it would be covered at 100%. Well, this was good news. Just to be sure, I confirmed – about five different times – that we wouldn’t have to pay even one dime for the machine, and the person on the phone confirmed this.
So you can imagine my surprise when I received a bill from the manufacturer for $741.53, While leaving several messages with both the manufacturer and my doctor, I continued to receive bills, each with more urgency (and an increasingly threatening tone) – three bills, to be precise.
When I finally got through to them, they apologized and said it was an error. The next day, they called me back from the doctor’s office and said the manufacturer had some rule where they had to bill the patient three times before they could write off the balance.
Innocent mistake #2. Or was it?
You see, no one told me about the “three bills and you’re out” policy. Had we not been paying attention, or if it hadn’t been for such a large amount, it might just have slipped into the “bill pay” pile and gotten paid – for an amount we weren’t even supposed to be charged!
And had Lorie not been alert and attentive at the rental counter, she would have been on the hook for more than double the correct amount for the car.
There’s an old expression that says, “If one person calls you a horse, you figure he’s a fool, and send him on his way. If two people call you a horse, you assume they’ve been drinking, and laugh it off. If three people call you a horse…buy a saddle!”
In just the last week, we’ve had the equivalent experience of “two people calling us a horse.” When it happens a third time, I’m going to assume these situations – and others like it – are being done deliberately to try and squeak out some additional revenue.
The bottom line for you: assume nothing – double check everything. It’s probably just an innocent mistake, but you never know…
Don’t Redesign…Reorganize!
April 17, 2009
If you watch the news or read the commentary in the local and national papers, you’ll surely come to the conclusion that the end of civilization as we know it is just around the corner. I’ll agree, it’s not the rosiest time I can recall in my adult life, and yet far too many people are making the situation more complicated than they need to by not taking charge of their environments.
Fortunately, this is not the case for our Inner Circle Gold Coaching members, and for one in particular, whose situation may be familiar to you.
I had a 30-minute call scheduled with this member to review proposals she had received for redesigning her company’s web site. She wanted to increase the amount of business that was directly attributable to the site and was uncertain about which vendor was the right one to choose.
She had sent me the proposals in advance, so I had a chance to review them and, more importantly, take a detailed look at the web site as it existed currently. Not surprisingly, this exercise revealed the need for three specific enhancements:
- Dedicated landing pages for specific offerings
- A “triage” function on the home page to immediately guide visitors to the correct page
- A compelling offer that would convince visitors to leave their contact information so a follow-up sequence could be initiated automatically without leaving the next action in the prospects’ hands
In stark contrast, all three of the vendors’ proposals were focused on improving the “look and feel” and “flow” of the site.
This, of course, is the very real danger you face every day if you don’t take firm ownership and control of your marketing. There’s a vastly different set of skills required to design an attractive web site than to design a site that will generate revenue – and these skills are almost always mutually exclusive. In fact, it’s extremely rare to find someone who can do both tasks skillfully.
As frequently happens when I’m talking with members who “get it” and are clearly going to act on what I’m recommending, the 30-minute call expanded to a little over an hour, with an extremely simple summary of what should take place: the site didn’t need to be redesigned; it needed to be reorganized. And, as a bonus, this was going to be an easier, faster, and less costly exercise than all three vendors had proposed.
In addition, it will ultimately be a more profitable approach.
Be extremely careful whose advice you take. Web site designers know about designing web sites. Media sales reps know about selling media. You need to be the one who knows about marketing and growing your business, and you have to makes sure everyone else understands it as well as you do.
The True Meaning of “Servant Leader”
April 16, 2009
Find out how George Vanderbilt created a positive working environment for his employees that encouraged innovation and performance.
We have read about the “new” model of the servant leader, where the manager’s purpose is to create an empowering environment where members of the team can truly excel. But the concept of the servant leader goes back more than 100 years.
I recently visited the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC, one of the largest homes in America. Set in the beautiful hills of western North Carolina, it is truly an amazing sight. The estate originally included over 125,000 acres; and the 250-room mansion, completed in 1895, featured 34 master bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, 65 fireplaces, three kitchens, and an indoor swimming pool.
Its original owner, George Vanderbilt, personally oversaw the construction of the house and was responsible for many of the innovations that made it a truly state-of-the-art home. When most houses in America had no indoor plumbing, this mansion had hot and cold running water. When most homes still used outhouses, this house had modern-styled bathrooms. At a time when electricity was still in its infancy, electrical outlets and appliances were visible throughout the house. And while the telephone was still a novelty, the Vanderbilt estate had a fully integrated intercom system that connected the entire house.
All of this information was described during the main tour of the house, but where I really began to appreciate Vanderbilt’s forward-thinking leadership was when I took the behind-the-scenes tour. Not only did we visit the kitchen area, electrical power plant, laundry room, and boiler room (all extremely well conceived), but we also visited the servant’s quarters and learned about the procedures that kept this house operating smoothly.
The tour guide explained that during the late 19th century, servants in these large homes were usually cramped three to a room in very tight quarters in remote parts of the house. They had to use outbuildings to attend to their personal needs. And they had to trudge up many flights of stairs to respond to the various requests from the owners and guests.
On the other hand, servants at the Biltmore had private or semi-private rooms with windows offering amazing views of the mountains. The state-of-the-art indoor plumbing installed in the main part of the house was also extended to the servants’ quarters. And the internal phone system was designed so that calls were routed from central dispatch areas to the part of the house where the staff member was needed so that time, and more importantly, energy were not wasted running from one part of the house to another.
Because of caring treatment of George Vanderbilt and his concern for the welfare of his guests and his employees, there was a long waiting list for employment at the Vanderbilt Estate, and the turnover rate was virtually zero.
Today, with dwindling loyalty and the do-more-with-less mentality, isn’t it time to create a positive working environment that encourages innovation and performance and makes it easy for people to be productive? As a servant leader, you’ll be amazed what an empowering environment can do to make your employees truly excel.
A Magical Obsession
April 14, 2009
Focus is very important when attempting any task or project, but it’s also important to remember that focus is actually a range, with distraction on one end and obsession on the other.
With the level of complexity in our jobs and in our lives today, the ability to focus on the task at hand and eliminate distractions is a necessary skill. But having too much focus can be as great a problem as having too little.
In my business travel, I have found Chicago to be a very exciting and somewhat magical city. As I incorporate magic regularly into my training programs, I appreciate this city’s very active community of magicians who specialize in close-up card magic.
The central figure in this community until his death was the legendary card man Ed Marlo. Many of the classic card plots, slights, and methods used by magicians today were developed by him.
Every Saturday, these magicians would gather at a local meeting place and engage in what is called “session work.” This is where one person presents a theme, such as cutting to the four aces, and everyone in the group presents similar tricks in an attempt to outdo each other.
One day, Ed Marlo and his wife were joining the group for a birthday celebration at a fancy hotel restaurant. Everyone met and rode in one car to the restaurant. On the ride there, someone had proposed a particularly difficult card problem to which there was no apparent solution. The group discussed several options on the way over, but the discussion was cut short by their arrival at the restaurant.
As they were about to sit down at their table, they noticed that Marlo was missing. They checked for him at the bar, in the restroom, and in other areas of the restaurant, but no one could recall having seen him there.
Finally, someone thought to check the car, and there was Ed Marlo, with a pack of cards spread out in front of him, working on his FIFTH solution to the problem. He was so focused on the task at hand that he hadn’t even noticed that they had arrived at the restaurant!
Sometimes we can become so engrossed in a situation that we focus all of our energies exclusively in that area at the expense of other equally important tasks. Ed Marlo was so caught up with finding a solution that nothing else mattered. And once he discovered one solution, he simply had to find another.
Focus is very important when attempting any task or project, but it’s also important to remember that focus is actually a range, with distraction on one end and obsession on the other.
Keep this thought in your mind as you tackle your next project. Are you usually distracted? Completely obsessed? Or somewhere in-between? Sometimes all it takes is a little magic to refocus your energies to the task at hand.
