Archive for May, 2007

You know the drill,

You’re looking for a phone number or an address so instead of picking up a phone book, does anyone use these any more, you use your computer or your PDA to do a search. With the phone number in hand, you place the call.

I just looked up Sunbelt Rentals for the use of an extractor to clean a carpet at our rental property. The website only showed an 800 number without listing all their locations or offering a find-a-location query.

For a second I thought it odd that none of the phone numbers were listed. I also then commented to myself, “It’s their money, maybe they have a switch board that will route the call.”

What happened was even better…

When I dialed the number the voice mail prompts were simple. Did I want to be connected to my nearest rental facility? I did. I pressed the appropriate button—and since the phone system had captured my area code and local prefix—I was transferred to the Sunbelt location right down the road.

Flawless.

It’s the first time I’ve had this happen, and I loved it.

Note: The structure makes it simpler all the way around. One number, no fixing websites, no human errors, etc.

It took my son and me about 45 minutes of walking the nursery’s grounds to find a perfect tree that would not grow too tall or too wide and add color year round to our garden. We both felt very good about the purchase as the crew helped us load the tree into our Suburban.

I remember how excited I was at the new addition. I couldn’t wait to plant the tree in the ground.

Like any tree-planting project, you’re supposed to dig the soil to give the root ball some space, add some fertilizer or nourishment, plant the ball of the tree, and then fill back in the dirt. I thought I did everything the right way.

Then we waited, Waited for the white little flowers to blossom, which they did in a wonderful display. Next we waited for the leaves to expand in this reddish-green combination. We waited and waited and waited as the leaves never grew more than about an inch long.

As we’re both not experts on trees, we thought that maybe another year would do the trick.

Spring turned to summer, then fall, then winter. I remember myself looking at the tree with anticipation of the next year’s seasons where the tree would finally have become acclimated enough to grow big and strong.

About two weeks ago, trees around our area really started to punch with color; spring had definitely arrived…and yet nothing grew on our tree. My first inclination was to give it time. Then I scraped some bark off a limb only to see brown, the sign of a dead branch. I remember saying to myself, let’s give it a little more time (as if a dead body will come back to life with just a little more sun).

Nothing happened.

This week I trekked back to the nursery with a snipped-off piece of branch to get a professional opinion. Probably dead. Bring it back in. With a year warrantee, we could get another without paying out again.

Sue, the professional, also took the time and initiative to walk me around the lot to show me other potential trees while recommending other trees for the island. She knows that I’ve spent quite a lot of time and money on our landscaping. Our first year in the house we spent US$750 on just black plastic and shaping products such as edgers. We have 4 islands and manicured beds around the home, so in gardening material costs, this is a bit of an investment.

Today when I returned the tree, Sue was not there. A man said he could help me. His first reaction was to pick up the tree, point to a spot, and inform me the tree had been eaten by rodents and that the tree was killed by the removal of the bark right above the root ball. He elaborated saying that once the bark is gone, so too are the nutrients to the branches.

In a nutshell, “The tree did not die but was killed by either insects or by rodents. Sorry.” The implication was that the warrantee did not hold up. I was out of luck.

At this point he had numerous options to salvage his customer.

He’s got to have known that I was not a happy customer after losing a US$220 tree.

He could have said, “You obviously spent time picking out this tree for a special spot, let me show you some other options around our lot.”

“Do you have a replacement tree in mind?”

“I’ve got so suggestions that might be a great replacement tree. Follow me.”

“Was this tree important to your landscaping?”

“I’m sorry about the tree dying, Let me give you some pointers on how to stop this from happening again, and then I we can select a new tree together.”

These would have all been a start in moving the next sale along as well as keeping me as a customer.

But no, his final words to me were, “Would you like me to get rid of it for you?” as he grabbed the trunk of this 10 foot (3 meter) tree. “Yes,” I replied feeling bad for the tree and a little hurt that my tree was gone. Next think you know he was walking around the corner with the tree leaving me standing the doorway.

I remember thinking, “There are so many other nursery’s to choose from in the future. I guess I just go home now.” I so much wanted a new tree. The guy, who I believe is the owner, never thought about the emotions of the buyer. To this customer, getting rid of the tree was not important; helping me was.

The problem with the scene is that management, even the owner, has not set up an approach to dealing with returns in a way that keeps customers coming back. As a result, everyone, from the customer, to other employees, and even to management/ownership suffers.

I walked off the lot without a tree, so now this guy had a disappointed customer. No new profits were in the cash register, so future expansion plans may have to be placed on hold. Employees didn’t get that rush of doing a great job, either. In addition, management will have to try to attract new customers to fill the void, which is expensive…yet ownership has less profits because he lost a customer.

A vicious circle.

Here’s the solution: Give your employees the words, steps and actions to take in as many different situations as they can possibly handle. Words, steps and actions that produce the best outcome for the organization. And use those words yourself!

Consider the emotional investment made by a customer. Think about how buyers, like trees, shrubs and perennial plant buyers, can mull through inventory for quite some time to find just the right item. Shape, size, color, blooming seasons are all taken into consideration.

For this organization there should be a policy to give the bad news and then use one of the phrases above to help the buyer shift mental gears from feeling negative about the past to looking ahead to something positive in the future. The dead product should not have been important at the moment. I like this one, “The majority of our customers spend time picking out the perfect tree, What I’d like to suggest is that we take a walk so that I may show you some other options for this location”….(and start walking.)

If management thinks this proactively, think about how many customers they may salvage!

What about your organization? Are you up to speed on how staff are engaging with clients to create significant future returns?

Can you think of anything in business that if not addressed earlier would be a positive? I can’t.

*Starting your strategic planning early so that you’ve got time to think things through.
*Preparing for a presentation early so that you can gather all the right data, graphics and practice.
*Shipping the goods earlier rather than last minute to reduce tension and costs.
*Contacting clients and customers before they are in the middle of their project.
*Calling in advance that you’re running late so that arrangements can be made.
*Securing the conference facility early enough to have all the options available.
*Testing your product early enough for the results to be complete.

The list could be endless.

Think of it in terms of your personal life. Picture purchasing gifts for all your holiday and birthday recipients while you go about your daily routine and then packing them up for distribution in the future. When the day arrives you smack a label on the box and off it goes (saving you the next day air costs) or even better yet, eliminating the need to rush out to the store last minute. (Other emergencies might also happen such as sickness, relatives, injury, etc.)

For some of you don’t take this the wrong way. Doing in advance does not mean so far in advance that you ruin cash flow, invest in older technology, lack important information, etc. It’s taking the time to optimize when is the right time and then taking care of business in a timely fashion.

This strategy creates and fosters better working relatiohnships, enables creative thought, frees up valuable time such as for personal lives, decreases last minute rush charges and fees, etc.

It’s becoming tougher and tougher to maintain security within a world where data about anyone can be found anywhere at any time. USAA, the largest single location bank in the world without satellite offices, asks questions that keep the caller on their toes to insure as much security as possible.

Today, the first representative asked me two questions including verifying my information. The second representative almost stumped me. She asked a terrifying question, “What’s your wife’s birth date?”

Of all the information a man carries in his head, I bet you this one is a challenge for most men. Luckily the date came quickly to mind. (I also imagined a group of executives laughing as they created this question. “Guys are going to flip over this one,” they probably screamed.)

With personal fraud increasing, the only way to insure you’re doing the right thing is to ask the tough questions, even if you do give panic attacks every so often.

Mind you 19 years ago I forgot Lorrie’s birthday, so I’ve had the date tattooed all over my body.

When a car company believes one of the best features it offers is a DVD player to keep children entertained, something’s wrong.

If you’ve not seen the commercials, Chrysler infers that children may get out of hand being stuck in a car, so if you supply them with a DVD, everything will stop. In the commercial, a bus full of kids stops yelling and carrying on (like kids) and when the driver flips down the DVD panel, they all stop and are mesmerized by show.

Chrysler’s not wrong in that parents do use the DVD as a baby sitter; it’s that I have troubles with this approach.

What are your thoughts on how institutions should address issues that might not be in the best interests of children long term? Tough question if it sells cars.

I have no clue where I found this paragraph. (If you know the original author, let us know.) I just thought the content was a great idea. My own add would be that instead of going immediately to action, one can place the ideas in an idea bank and then review the ideas against those you already have in progress. You may find the ideas are good but not good enough to bump other projects or ideas….

When attending a convention, take a stack of index cards. (Trivia: One index card is cheaper than one Post-It Note!). When you are listening to a presentation, and think of something you want or need to do, put the idea on an index card (one idea per card only!). This applies whether it is an idea you gleaned from the presenter, or something you remembered that you need to tell your staff. At the end of the day, go through the cards and take care of anything that needs to be handled immediately (e.g., call spouse to water the plants!). Keep the others in one place. At the end of the convention, sit down (with your staff if you have one), and make a decision on next step for each action.