How Many “Oh’s” Does It Take to Lose a Customer ?

Sometimes just one “Oh” will make your customer never want to do business with you again. With so much competition in the world today, companies must be very diligent in reinforcing the basics of doing business with their customers. Great companies don’t take things for granted and don’t assume that once taught, their people will always do the right thing when it comes to taking care of their clients. Success is never final and constant training and reminding of the basics is critical if you are going to succeed today. Service Merchandise had over 400 stores and sales of $4 billion. Montgomery Ward had over 500 stores and sales of $6.6 billion. Circuit City had over 1520 stores and $12 billion in sales. What did these companies all have in common? BANKRUPTCY! There are lots of reasons why companies go bust, but don’t let one of them be lack of reinforcing the basic rules for success.

My wife recently went online to find a particular gift for our son. She was just trying to buy two DVD movies for him. She Googled the titles and found they were only available online. The company she contacted said they could ship it to their local store faster than they could ship it to our home. She wanted the movies by a certain date, so she choose to have them shipped to the store, even though it meant she would have to go pick them up. Then the nightmare started. This merchant has quite a sophisticated website and thousands of stores, but somewhere along their chain of command they forgot about reinforcing the basic reasons for their success.

Annie encounter delays, excuses, countless minutes being placed on hold, poor language skills where she couldn’t understand what the customer service rep was saying, and several phone disconnects. She heard statements like, “that’s not my department” … “that’s not my half of the store; I handle the front” … “The person who handles that will be in tomorrow” …“the person who checks in the items is new and misplaces orders”. The statements of incompetency went on and on. Annie described one person at the store who was called to assist, this way:

A woman came out from the back carrying a Big Gulp size drink wrapped with a dirty napkin. She was very unkempt in appearance, needed to wash her hair and brush the food crumbs off her blouse. OH!

Her encounter with this person wasn’t at all helpful. In fact, they told her she should have called before coming to the store even though Annie had received an e-mail from them saying her items were there. Annie told her she did call and was instructed to come to the store because of the e-mail. They still couldn’t find her order.

The founder of this great company once said, “There is only one boss, the customer, and they can fire everybody in the company … from the Chairman on down … simply by spending their money somewhere else.” Well, he was right. Annie simply stated to me she would never be ordering anything from them online again. Could another great organization be following in the steps of Circuit City, Montgomery Ward and Service Merchandise?

How many “Oh’s” does it take to lose a customer … ONE!

A Culture of Ownership

I have a client who is an extremely large freight company with an amazing delivery-on-time ratio of over 99%. But, it is not just getting the merchandise there on time that makes them so good, it’s getting it there on time and undamaged. They concentrate on getting their people to think like an owner, to try and recognize problems and take ownership of the problem rather than leave the problem for someone else to fix. (In most cases, fixing a problem after-the-fact, costs more and results in a seriously upset customer.) So, they have instilled a Culture of Ownership throughout their organization by showing their people how and when ownership of a problem should take place and the costs associated with no one doing so.

They put together a short film for a training conference as a case study, using an actual client event. This “event” could have been corrected countless times had anyone taken ownership; but no one did. Here is a quick look at what the film identified.

The freight company’s salesperson finally convinced the client, who manufactured golf carts, to give them a try at shipping their carts around the country; an order for three truck loads. Did the salesperson go check how the golf carts were packaged? No. He just turned in the order to operations and moved on to the next customer.

Operations sent over three trucks to pick up the golf carts. Did those three drivers check to make sure the golf carts were packaged correctly so they wouldn’t get damaged in transit? No. They just loaded up the golf carts and took them back to the main terminal. Then they proceeded to off-load the golf carts, so they could be placed on individual trucks to be shipped out the next day.

Did anyone in the terminal (over a hundred people), who walked by the golf carts while they were sitting on the terminal floor, recognize that they were packaged incorrectly and would easily be damaged in transit? No.

Not one person took ownership of the problem. No one was looking out for the company or for that matter the customer. Did the golf carts arrive safely? No. Every one of them was damaged. Did the freight company pay the claim? YES! If one person had taken ownership, thousands of dollars would have been saved, along with keeping a HAPPY customer.

If your company is going to be successful you need to get your people thinking like an owner; taking ownership of any issue that could negatively affect your company or the customer. The short film by the freight company said it all …

Create a Culture of Ownership and watch your profits SOAR!

Drawing Your Life Line

This weekend I was the recipient of some rather profound commentary on life. It didn’t come to me via some world renowned scholar or teacher; it was casually presented to me on the way home from playing golf with my 21 year-old son, Tyler. We were talking about his first few years away at college and he interjected into the conversation the following: (let me paraphrase to the best of my memory)

Dad, to me, life is like a line. It can be a straight horizontal line from birth to death, where you don’t do anything but basically exist, so there is nothing to cause the line to go up (representing you did something good) …or … causing it to go down (representing you did something bad). I understand there will be times that my line is flat, which is okay, because you need to take some breaks, vacations, and just relax.

I decided my important decisions in life should be based on what makes my line go up. If I study hard and get an “A” on tests, the line goes up. When I played basketball, I didn’t worry about the entire game, only what I could do to make the line go up: scoring, rebounds, and steals would all add up to helping the team. I see kids doing some really stupid things in college which does nothing to help their line go up … so I don’t do them. I am all about making my line as high as I can.

So, when I have to make a decision about doing something or not doing something, I think about my line. It helps making a decision so much easier.

Complicated just got simple.
Confusing just got clear.
Indecisiveness just turned into action.
It’s all about a higher line mentality.
What are you doing to make your line go up today?

Your life is a line – it just depends on how “you” want to draw it.

Chipping Away At Success

Michelangelo made incredible statues by chipping away at giant blocks of marble. He envisioned the finished piece before ever raising his mallet and kept chipping away until his masterpiece was completed. Every day you need to chip away at becoming better. If you intend to be successful, creating your own masterpiece, you don’t do it overnight.

For over 20 years, I have been a professional speaker and have addressed the top companies in the world on numerous issues that would help their people perform at a higher level. In preparing for over 2,500 programs, not once have I had anyone tell me their people were lacking in the hard skills, technical knowledge or the book sense they needed to succeed in their industry. Instead, I have always been asked to address subjects that have to deal with what is referred to as soft skills.

Unlike hard skills, which are about someone’s skill and ability to perform a task, soft skills are more broadly applicable to successfully running an enterprise. Soft skills are the behavioral competencies people possess. Also known as people skills or interpersonal skills, they include talents such as strategic thinking, communication skills, team building, leadership and management skills, negotiation skills, conflict resolution, personal effectiveness, productive and inventive problem solving, along with selling skills, to name just a few. Top executives understand that a person’s soft skills are an important part of their individual contribution to the success of the organization.

The mistake I see people and companies making is that they get consumed with dealing with everything else and not taking a few minutes each day to develop soft skills. You don’t create these soft skills overnight. Keep in mind Michelangelo’s method of creation; small chips carved away to uncover the beauty that was always there in his mind. Every day on a personal or corporate basis, make sure some sort of “Chipping Away” is taking place.

Don’t let a day go by that you or your people have not gained “A Small Chip” of knowledge, skill or talent.

REALISTIC OPTIMIST

I am the eternal optimist; just ask my wife Ann. She will tell you I can watch a movie that is really bad and the whole time I am thinking it will get better, the plot will improve, the actors will become better actors, and the ending will be great. As a motivational business speaker it would be a very bad thing if I didn’t look at things that way. But, I am also a businessperson who has owned several companies, worked with over 2,500 other companies and interviewed over 10,000 employees, managers and senior executives, so I understand where optimism needs to stop and realities must be addressed.

Former President John Kennedy would assign a person at each cabinet meeting to take the opposite view of what was being proposed, even if they agreed with it. Their job was to try and shoot holes in the plan, find the weak points or destroy it altogether, if they could. He felt if a plan, idea, or suggestion couldn’t stand up to their tough questions, the plan sure wouldn’t stand up to the real world when they tried to implement it. He knew because he was the President that many times people would publicly agree with him, even when they really didn’t agree. He understood that the only way to get real answers was to take the fear of reprisal out of the picture.

If you are having meetings and everyone is agreeing with you, then you don’t need to have any more meetings. Disagreements are healthy; President Kennedy insisted on them. Zappo’s, the internet shoe selling company who went from zero to $1 billion in sales in 10 years, changed its business plan four times. A&P, who had over 16,000 stores, didn’t pay attention to their customers’ ever-changing demands, didn’t adjust their business plan, and now they have about 300 stores.

It is great to be optimistic. I want to be surrounded by people who know we can get it done. But, I also want to be around people who will face reality and change when necessary; then get it done. That’s the way we’ve always done it, works for delivering great service, having great attitudes, being timely and efficient. Those are all critical to your success. But, when your market changes, when customer demands change … you have got to be realistic. Take a look at all the different menu offerings at McDonald’s today compared to what they offered 10 years ago … oh, how things have changed.

I have said it before, but it is worth repeating; if you don’t like change, you are going to hate extinction. If you are going to stay ahead of your competition then address the real issues and ask the tough questions. To survive in this ever changing marketplace, I suggest you become a REALISTIC OPTIMIST.

Look for the Bigger Picture

Sometimes we get so wrapped up in the fine details that we never move forward. Sometimes all we see is what is wrong with a new idea rather than what might possibly be right with it, even if only a portion of the idea will work. Maybe we should take a lesson from our own mind (brain).

Aoccdrnig to a rsechearer at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in what oredr the ltteers in a word apaepr, the only iprmoetnt thing is that the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can still raed it wouthit a porbelm. This is bcuseae the human mind deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the word as a wlohe.

I remember doing a speaking engagement where a lady came up to me afterwards with a hand written note pointing out the one misspelled word in my program. Normally, I would have been very thankful for her pointing out my error, but not this time. The manner in which she delivered her message was condescending, with a hint of glee that she had found a mistake. I had over 150 slides in my program that day, with several thousand words and she found the one typo. I wonder how long she sat there thinking about my typo, excited she found my typo, relishing in the fact that she found a mistake I made … rather than trying to get something out of my message.

My message to you today is get past the little things. Look for the bigger picture. It is safe to say that most great discoveries came out of countless attempts, errors and mistakes. If you are going to …

► base a person’s creative intelligence on their ability to spell every word perfectly
► shoot down an idea because it has never been done before
► not promote someone because they are not as detailed as you
► fire or not hire someone because they don’t conform to your fashion beliefs

than do yourself a favor and don’t pursue a career that has anything to do with managing a company, leading people, or creating new and better ways to succeed.

Yes, soemtmies it is tugoh to see the big pcitrue wehn all you are dniog is fdinnig falut.