The Pedestal Group

I’m always talking to people about getting into their customer’s heads and walking around in their shoes.  It is something I think about A LOT.  Today I saw this video on hula-hooping from the hula-hoop’s perspective.  The people who made it took a woman who is obviously really good at hula-hooping and attached a camera to her hula-hoop.  The result?  The camera is basically standing still and she moves like crazy.  If you didn’t know what the video was, it would take awhile to figure out how she could move like that!

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!

People are always saying you should follow your passion.  It sounds great, but can be difficult for people to do.  However, when you get to talk to someone who has succeeded, you really get what they are talking about.

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!

Or someone else will! I know we all try and I recommend to clients all the time to review your procedures to make sure it is easy, but here’s one we should all check out.  I needed to contact a vendor based on an email he sent me.  Here’s his phone number (a little bigger than it is in his signature so you can see): 

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?