My thought was to send him a note and let him know that as I had read his email on a phone, that much detail was too much to manage on such a small screen and the fact that I care enough to respond should have been a happy event. Not an opportunity to point out where I had made a mistake.  I also mused on what this said about his management style when he was so quick to correct a total stranger from whom he wanted help.  But as I went to hit send, I wondered, what would this accomplish?  Best case he would take my words to heart, not be so quick to judge and take care of people more in the future.  But is that really likely?  I decided that it wasn’t.  So now I have a bad feeling about this individual and he’ll never know.  I did not share the experience with the person who got his resume from me so it will probably never amount to anything, but if I’m ever called on to deal with him, it won’t be something I want to do.

So the point here is, think about your email responses before you make them.  If you send someone an email, be sure that on whatever device they have they can get the salient points.  Be sure it isn’t going to take too much time to get to those points and that the points are what they need right away.  At some level leaving some questions to later means the person will start a dialogue with you to get the answers and isn’t that what you want any way?

Also, if someone misses something or makes a mistake, don’t automatically forward your original message with the information highlighted unless you want the other person to feel bad.  Instead, think of a couple scenarios where they would have missed it to help yourself feel good and answer it again.  Maybe add a little more detail or phrase it differently.   I laughed at Disney when the trainer told us the most common question people ask on Main St. is what time is the 3:30 parade?  While the question itself sounds stupid, we all know of a ton of situations where something is scheduled for a specific time and doesn’t happen then.  Also, if you aren’t where the parade begins, you aren’t really asking when it begins, you are asking when it will go by the space you are standing in.  The trainer went further to say the staff are all trained to answer the intent of the question with when the parade will go by the spot where they are and then also to refer people to great places to be able to see, or where there are seats, or other helpful hints.  No one feels stupid – in fact, it is part of a better experience.

So today I didn’t send the two paragraph response putting this person in his place for being obnoxious.  But it also made me think more about the emails I did send this morning and how they might be taken.  Just re-reading an email before hitting send can make all the difference.

First, when going into a meeting, turn off your cell phone.  That’s an easy thing and no one should have to be reminded.  Take out your pen, and put your cell phone on vibrate.

Next, if you are in a public place, put your cell phone on vibrate.  The meeting we were having was in a small coffee shop so when the person at the next table received a phone call.  It rang so loud we all jumped.

When you answer the phone, think about the people around you.  I can’t tell you how many conversations I can recount to you from the last week of paying attention that were people just talking loudly on their cell phones.  I’m tempted to start commenting – wouldn’t the person on the phone be surprised?!

Keep conversations short when you are in public.  In you are in line somewhere or at a restaurant, keep it short. It is frustrating when you are holding up the world so you can finish your conversation.  And exactly how is a company suppose to provide you customer service if you are on the phone the whole time?

Be conscious of when you check your phone during a conversation with someone else.  If you know there’s an important call coming in that you have to take, warn the person up front.  If the phone rings and it might be a school or other issue, let the person know you have to check for that reason.  Otherwise, focus on the person in front of you and let the phone go for awhile.

And just to invoke a little common sense, if it would be reasonable for another person to say, “shhhh” to you in that location, don’t take a phone call. The library, a church, a lobby of an office, a movie theater, a quiet restaurant, etc. are all places we would shush you so do it yourself!

The bottom line here is as the face of your company, your behavior speaks volumes about who you are and what your company is about.  If you are rude with your phone, regardless of your intentions, your company will be judged that way.  If you take my call and are in public, I will wonder who can hear what we’re saying and how conscience you are of confidentiality.  If you infringe on my lunch or meeting with your phone, I will assume you are insensitive and don’t care about other people.  Not the right messages, right?

1. If you find something interesting, stick your whole face in to really investigate it. Sometimes you will be unhappy with what gets on your nose, but more often it is something fascinating!

2. Dream big – some day you really might catch the bunny if you just stick to it and believe you can.

3. Leave your mark in many places (I know, this is gross but go with me) –  the more people who know you were there the better!

4.  Move quickly and decisively. Don’t dilly dally around.

5. If you come to a decision point, consult those you need to and make a quick decision. Even if you don’t get to go the way you want, moving forward is better than standing still.

6. Following the same course on a regular basis is fine but periodically, change it up! Going out of your comfort zone may yield new things to experience (see #1).

7. If there is something new on your route, it is important to notice, investigate (again, see #1) and know what it is about. Knowing your market is key.

8. If someone new comes along, greet them as a friend first. Offer to play, be nice, show you are a good guy. You never know what they have to offer.

9. If someone else is walking as well, be sure you keep up. Getting left behind isn’t fun – and you may have to drag your cohorts with you to do it.

10. Always clean up your messes. It isn’t right to leave them and they may end up in someone else’s space which is not being a good neighbor.

11. Just because the big dogs walked there, doesn’t mean you have to as well. Sometimes it is good to know where they went and go somewhere else. Why try to compete with that?

It is time to go back and make sure the rest of the world can talk to us, use our products and follow what we are saying.  There is no reason in the world to use your business short hand with customers unless they have been down this road before.  Don’t expect them to know WHY your product does what it does.  Did you know if you put in your documentation a couple different ways people use your product they might find another reason to use your product and it becomes even more indispensable?  Gold!

And if you are thinking, no one reads the documentation, think again.  I bought a baking stone from Pampered Chef years ago.  It came with this stand that was a little weird but worked to keep the hot stone high off the counter so I didn’t scorch my counter when I used it.  I was at a friend’s house and she had the same stone.  Only her stand was actually a rack – you put under the stone so you have handles to put it in the oven and take it out.  How did she know to use it that way? She read the directions.  Genius.   Guess what I do now when I buy cookware!

So sit down and think about how you would explain what you do with a client to your mother, or your grandfather or someone who doesn’t know it.  They love you and want to understand so there’s no judgment or  grumpy.  Then recognize that if you define a jargony term for me and I get to use it later as if I know it, I get an ego boost. Bonus!  Next time you are with a new client, tell them WHY your product or service does what it does, tell them HOW they interact with it, and make sure they know what they need to know.  You’ll keep customers longer, I promise.

And by the way – I still use my handles as a stand.  And so does my friend now!

With this particular client, it is extremely rare for him to call and not get me.  Or if I can’t answer right then, he hears back pretty quickly.  So when he didn’t get me and he needed help, he immediately went to thinking I wasn’t available.  And actually, this example isn’t as far out as it sounds.  I often get voice mails at the end of the day that start, “you’re probably gone for the day” and it may only be 4:30.

So, take a look at your process.  What are those norms customers come to expect?   Pay close attention to those things you pride yourself on – fast turn around, responsiveness, etc.  What if you have a situation where your normal response isn’t possible?  Can you do something to let the customer know everything is okay but in this one instance things are different?

In my case I promised the client if I were going on vacation he would get notice.  In fact, all my clients would.  In the past, I’ve been able to manage the calls quickly and still enjoyed my vacation so that works too.  But it was really important that we have that conversation so he is confident he can get help when he needs it.  What confidence do you need to ensure?

Obviously, setting expectations up front is key.  Everyone should understand, in writing, what is going to happen.  But as the videos show, clients often know the rules and yet try to change the game after the fact.  I think the restaurant is the best example.  The prices were stated on the menu, the couple ate and enjoyed what they ordered, but now want to negotiate down the price.  At the end, they finally agree to pay what they should but with the expectation that they learn how to make the food at home.  For those of us who trade time for money, this isn’t as funny a video as it should be.  Even without the tools, training and experience, the client wants to bring the service “in house”.

So what can you do to prevent THIS?  You set expectations at the beginning, but the real key I think here is to make sure you continue to sell your client on what you bring to the table.  If something looks easy, the client assumes it is.  It is a delicate balance but it is critical to get it right. Some things that can help:

Never talk about the value of your service being tied to your own expenses. Recently I had someone tell me I had to appreciate her costs because she had 5 people on staff. Bottom line, not my problem. If it isn’t worth what you are charging me for the value I receive, I’ll negotiate – and negotiate hard.  For instance, did all 5 people actually touch MY project?

What you do isn’t “easy” or “simple”.  It is cake for me to re-route email into a folder in Outlook through a rule.  I’ve done it a million times. It is a simple task because I’ve done it as many times as I have, I use rules all the time to help keep myself organized, and I spent the time to figure out how to make that work.  I’m not saying it is brain surgery, but at the same time the PROCESS to achieve the result is simple – the RESULT it achieves is not.  Meaning, if I create a rule for a client and route email directly so she doesn’t have to manage 20-100 emails a day, how much time have I given her back each day?  Isn’t that worth the $15 it would cost?  Seems like a no-brainer.  But I have to make sure she understands that it is the RESULT that is important – not how simple or easy it was to get there.

The hardest one – recognize that for every client who negotiates, you can get one that understands your value.  The hair salon client in the video should either get a haircut and that’s it or kicked out. She clearly has no business in that chair or has some reason to believe it is reasonable to negotiate like that. The stylist doesn’t care if her husband likes highlights and it isn’t his job to worry about it.  He needs to get clients who appreciate what he does and how he does it versus someone who would treat him like that. A very polite, “I’ll be happy to take care of you, but prices are not negotiable” should end the discussion.  By negotiating, you’ve set yourself up for all kinds of headaches. Because people like that LOVE to tell their friends about the “great deal” they got.  And then you get more clients like them.  Go for the ones that get what you do.

So have a laugh, and then look at your clients to see which ones could have segments on this video themselves.  If you have any, it is time to start phasing them out.  Do a little negotiating yourself!

But obviously fun camera stunts is not the point.  The point is, from the camera’s point of view, the activity seems totally different.  The hula-hooper (we’ll just make that a word) had no idea the video would look the way it does. Even if she did, she had to really stop and think what it would look like.  My hunch is they expected it to make a person really dizzy. (But, kudos for even considering there is another perspective!)  So, how can you attach a camera to the other side of your interactions?  Do you have someone you can trust to give you that kind of feedback?  Someone who has experienced your customer interaction from the other side that could really show you what it looks like?

I’m also thinking about this because I know a business owner who is making mistakes that are from a lack of sitting in the other person’s shoes. She is reacting too fast and not paying attention to the details giving off a vibe that she really doesn’t care. Also her responses are very canned so she gives the impression she doesn’t want the business. It is frustrating to watch because she isn’t like that – she’s really caring and is just overly excited to get the business. So I have to find a way to sit her down and talk to her about these problems without hurting her feelings. Personally I would like to see her succeed but I don’t have any vested interest in her business. If she takes the discussion well, she can learn from it.  If not, well, we’ll have some weird interactions at some networking events but otherwise it won’t bother me.  But at the same time it will take time out of my day to do something that isn’t pleasant and may hurt her feelings. So I’m in a quandary.

So, rather than be this individual and put me in this position with you (please don’t!) – I ask you:  What have you done lately to put yourself in place of your customers?  Have you done the little things like called yourself when you aren’t there?  If it rings 18 times while it forwards to multiple numbers I will guarantee you are losing calls. Or, if your voice mail goes on forever, people give up.  In this cell phone world, people make calls as they are walking into meetings and have people staring at them waiting for them to get done!  (If you have to leave a bunch of information at the beginning of your message, start it with the key to skip the message.)  Have you filled out your forms, or given yourself a proposal?  What information do you really want and need?  Make that easy.  Have you tried to file your emails and then look them up by subject?  Blank subjects or subjects that aren’t related to something specific (i.e. “Thought you might be interested” vs. “Interesting article on Widgets”) means if the person wants to go back and pull that out they have a hard time.

If you have a coworker, use them to walk through your processes as a client.  Have them ask “why” you are doing everything you are doing.  Most things should be self-evident but if it isn’t, that’s when you have to question.  Because the key to remember is the customer, like the camera, sees the hula-hooper going around it vs. the other way around!

For instance, I got to spend a couple hours with Patti Boyert over at Boyert’s Garden Center.  I just have to say – WOW.  I am not a gardener, much to my mother’s chagrin. It isn’t that I can’t grow things, I just don’t know because I don’t want to. I don’t care about it!  So talking to Patti, who loves it, is fascinating for me  because she truly does. And she knows EVERYTHING.

We were walking through the greenhouses talking about plants.  On the scale of subjects, plants for me ranks just slightly above football. But there I was, diligently taking notes. Until she started explaining how to select plants for your yard.  She suggested I get down closer to plant level and look across the greenhouse to see what jumped out at me.  What a cool idea! I saw things I didn’t see just looking around and suddenly wanted to know what they were and where they would work in my yard. She talked about how to take care of the plants and why she doesn’t carry certain varieties. Interestingly enough, she doesn’t carry one type of daisy-looking flower that my husband bought elsewhere last year because they get “heat stressed” and die. Sure enough last year they made it to June and then died. I was disgusted that we had plants for no reason and here it wasn’t me, it was the plant!  If I had talked to Patti, I would have known what to buy instead and had plants all season.

Another thing she recommended was bringing in pictures of your yard. Then she and her staff will make recommendations on what to get within your budget. So I don’t have to figure it out?  Because look -when I say I don’t do this, I’m not kidding. When it says “shade”, I’m the one asking my husband does that mean under the deck or could it handle it if there is a little sun?  Turns out, talking to Patti, it means it can handle morning sun but not the hot afternoon kind. And it doesn’t matter any way because I can show her my yard and she’ll tell me what will work where. No guessing, no worrying, nothing!

She then showed me an area where she had planters all lined up full of plants. She said people bring their planters from the previous year back in and she fills them. Drop them off in March, pick them up in May and you are out the door with a beautiful pot or hanging basket! So that means other people don’t have this weird collection of pots and planters underneath their decks! Genius.

This all comes back to passion because Patti was able and willing to talk about plants and growing them for as long as I was willing to listen.  She had ideas and ways to get someone not interested at all excited about the day when the rain stops and I can plant some things.  And, she gave me a list of what I need and the supplies so I don’t have to worry I’m missing something or don’t know what to do. And she never made me feel stupid when I had to ask what “dead heading” means since to me that’s something to do with a band. It was important to her to share her love of what she does with me and made me get excited too. Now that’s following a dream.  Thank you to Patti and Boyert’s for all the information and I’ll be back soon!

Now I am not going to tell you I was super-careful when I dialed or anything, but quickly looking at this information I dialed 880…. NOT 330.  So now I’m dealing with a vendor for one of my clients and I couldn’t even read the phone number quickly! Are you kidding?

So I ask you – beg you – plead with you!  If you are a sales person, be sure it is easy to contact you in multiple ways.  A friend of mine recently pointed out that you should have your email address in your signature so if people are using a cell phone, they can click on your email address. Or, if the email is forwarded and that person has you in their address book, the email address still comes through.  You should also spell out your web address rather than just have links so it is easy to click on it.  And while cutsie fonts are fun for party invitations, get them off your email signature.  It doesn’t help anyone if they can’t call you because the font is so flowery they can’t tell an 8 from a 3.

What ways can you think of to make it easy for your client?

In my second encounter, the person who said it then followed up with a description of a program he put together. It was amazing to me because what he was saying was he THOUGHT about each step of the project but what I and another woman in the group heard was DO.  Two different styles that are so ingrained we couldn’t even hear it described differently.

This led me to several discussions with people to see if that is true.  I know there are tons of situations I walk into without much of a plan.  I’ll go to a networking event with a goal to meet 3 or 5 people, but not necessarily knowing who I want to meet or much about them.  Or I’ll start a project that has an outline but isn’t fully flushed out because much of what we discover needs to be done can be managed on the fly – definitely more my style.

And then I started a project with someone who is definitely a thinker.  For him, there is no question everything happens at least twice. And it may be more because after the initial think, he takes the first step and then thinks through it again.  My inclination is to yell, “ready fire aim!!!” a couple times but in reality, he just has a different work style and he’s been successful with it.

So what do I do with this information?  Well first, I respect my client and understand he has a different work style.  To help him do his planning, rather than have an open discussion, I’m giving him concrete examples to look at to direct his thinking.  That also gives me actions I can take making me happy.  As I interact with people, I’m definitely putting them on the “thinker/doer” continuum because I don’t believe people are either/or in most cases, but fall on the line somewhere.  It helps with how I work with people on committees and as clients.

So are you more thinker or doer?  How do you deal with the other?  I would love to hear from some thinkers because right now, nothing is happening twice for me!

I have a client in need of a database product.  In the course of my evaluation of software, I went to the top software’s website.  I’ll be nice and leave them anonymous.  They have an on-line chat feature so I used it.  Twice “Alex” greeted me and asked how he could help and twice while I was talking he hung up.  I, thinking both times were software glitches, tried a third time. I got “Stephanie”. We got through her questions for me and she indicated I needed an account rep.  Great. On to the next part of the process. Instead, the person who left me a voice mail was Alex. When I returned the call, I was told they couldn’t connect me to an account rep without the client name. When I questioned why they needed that, it was because they might already be in the system.  Since they haven’t ever looked into a database product, I knew that wasn’t the case but when I said so, I was told I had no way of knowing that in a tone that sounded like he thought I was lying. Needless to say the call went downhill from there.

I did speak with another rep and when we talked about the client name piece, the second rep indicated that if they help a customer who is already assigned elsewhere, they don’t get the “credit”.  And there is no way to reassign an account from one rep to another so if I want to talk to someone at this company, I have to work through Alex. Period.  Oh -and just for fun – all the account reps and managers are in Vegas today at a sales kickoff meeting.

So basically a new customer calling in has to give their name, phone, company name, address, and email address so that the rep can see if they are in the computer and if they are, transfer them to someone else who may or may not be available.  It is not in the best interest of the person who answers the phone to answer any questions the caller has because it may not be their account.  And at the end of the day, they only get “credit” (I’ll translate as commission) for those accounts assigned to them.  None of this takes the customer’s needs into account. AND THEY SELL SALES SOFTWARE!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, I ask you – when was the last time you jumped through your sales process hoops as a customer?  Do you set up road blocks or systems that encourage the wrong behaviors?  Are people on an incentive plan to help customers or themselves?  It is definitely time to take a look.

SEVEN printers later, I have two quotes. One came with two sentences of “we’re here in the mornings to talk about this” and the other doesn’t even have any text on the email!  And worse?  One of them sent me a note back the first time around telling me why they couldn’t take on the project (too small of a quantity, etc.).  I had to write back additional questions to get them to consider the job!  Four of the others didn’t return phone calls or emails and the fifth one was very service-oriented, but was three dollars a piece higher than is in the budget. So now I will take my business to the people that at least have some information in their email, but I am left feeling extremely unhappy with the whole experience and will continue looking for a good printer.

Can you imagine your customers feeling like this?  I’ll bet big money the owners of these print shops have no idea this is what I’ve gone through.  I’m confident they are all (most) nice people who care about their businesses.  I am hoping nothing bad happened to the first one!  But, at the end of the day, six printers will lose business because I couldn’t get them to do their jobs.  It has been said before, but obviously could do with repeating:

Respond to people – if you are not going to be in the office, set up an out-of-office message and TEST IT.
Every communication with a customer or prospect is a marketing piece – be sure you represent yourself well at all times.
When sending quotes or contracts, keep in mind this is an email that will be saved so make sure you put some context into the email itself.
Talk about what you CAN do.  Can’t run 100 pieces?  Tell the prospect you can run 250 and 100 is not in their best interest due to the high cost.
Follow up.  Not one single company has followed up on their information. It was left to me to handle.

Don’t make things hard for customers because they won’t do business with you.  Instead, make it easy because service is everything!

First, Hunter is a group of independent insurance agents.  That means they represent multiple products and do the shopping around for you.  They can offer a wider array of options than agents tied to one company and can really understand how the different discounts, programs and options from each carrier can work for you.

Second, the people who work at Hunter are awesome.  Whether they have been there 1 year or 40, they all truly care about the customers and talk about them as individuals.  I got to work with one woman recently who, when looking at a 900 person customer list, was  talking about things that needed to be adjusted by individual.  It was impressive.

So all that is great, but my biggest surprise was when I recently went to a part of the office I hadn’t been in before.  Often companies talk about their commitment to customer service.  But in this office, the President’s office is on the far side of customer service.  To get to him you have to walk through the service team.  To be in his office you hear the customer service team helping customers.  And the best part?  When I said something about it, at first the president didn’t seem to know what I meant. It was so natural for him he just said, “I need to know what’s going on”.

As someone who supervised customer service departments before, I can tell you the single best way to find out what your customers are talking about is to hang out in the department.  You will hear one side of the conversations, the discussions after the calls, and see where the customer support team needs help.  In this case, Warren can’t help but know what is going on and that is a real show of commitment.

Many companies talk about valuing their clients, but at Hunter Insurance it is not only reflected in what they do, but even down to where they sit.  Very impressive!

The thing that is impressive about MaxHire is their commitment to their customers.  I am so impressed, over and over again, by their commitment to finding solutions even when the situation is out of the ordinary.  They have also worked incredibly hard to find partners their customers really need.  They have added several recently and more are on the way that get right at the heart of what their clients do and make their lives easier.  That is exactly what you want to see from a company!

So I wanted to celebrate this company for a moment and recommend you find those organizations you would like to celebrate.  Who is doing it right?

My initial introduction to the organization was through one of their customer support reps, we’ll call her Amy.  I observed her with several clients and each time she was engaged, clearly knew her products, and was able to solve their problems.  Each one left with a smile on her face and with goals and reasons to come back soon.  My second visit involved Jeff.  Jeff is new and the first thing out of his mouth when someone comes in for an appointment is “I’m new”.  Immediately clients move to uncomfortable.  He wasn’t able to answer any of the questions put to him although he promised to find out and follow up, and he really only knew anything about the products he’s used himself, which were few.  At the end of the meeting, the clients had the same or more questions and didn’t look happy.  The third consultant, Lori, had a terrible time with time management.  When I arrived she had one client but as they moved to her office, two others arrived.  She was so concerned about the “back up” she clearly did not give the current customer the time she needed.  Interestingly enough at one point she told the customer that if she “could come back when she had more time” Lori could get into more stuff with her.  The customer then indicated she had “all the time in the world” much to the shock of Lori.  She had transferred her time stress to the client and not even realized it.  In addition, she didn’t listen to the client ask questions and then had to answer what she assumed had been asked.  After the third question that wasn’t answered, the client quit asking although on her notepad she had many more questions.  The fact that Lori didn’t notice the notepad or the list of questions was a surprise to me.

I have given this client a proposal that starts with unifying their offering before we start marketing.  First, we need to get Jeff training on the products as well as customer service.  Inspiring confidence is his number one job so we need to help him do so.  Also, I checked in with him two days later to see if he had followed up on all the questions and he confessed he was behind on that.  We quickly created a system so he can track the questions and answers and learn where to get them as his plan was to “just ask Amy”.  We also put in place a goal of calling the client before she got home so that upon her arrival was a voice mail letting her know what her options were.  This should gain Jeff a strong following. Finally, Lori needs some serious work.   Helping her learn to focus on the person in front of her is job number one.  I would like to see Lori in a situation where there aren’t other customers waiting but I believe there is always something else that needs to be done so I’m not convinced she is cut out for a service position.

Am I really recommending they not market their company?  In the short term, yes!  At this point there is a one in three chance that a customer would receive the products and service we would be marketing.  This will not create the kind of referral culture and customer loyalty we would want out of a program.  Until these issues are addressed, the majority of people will feel misled and unhappy with the company.  Nothing can sabotage a marketing effort faster than customers with bad experiences!

So take a hard look at your organization or hire someone to do it for you.  Have them make sure what you are selling is what you are providing and that customers will have a good experience.  If the problems can be fixed by training, like Jeff, then get the training needed immediately.  If the problems may not be trainable, then find the right people to do the job. And finally, if you have someone or multiple people setting the standard for service, be sure they are rewarded and are recognized for doing so.  The worst thing that could happen to this company would be Amy leaving!