Separating From Your Competition

Phil is sitting in my office with complete determination that he is going to do whatever it takes to grow his business. We have the typical conversation. He believes he brings a lot of value to his customers. I agree with him. People need the service he has to offer. I ask him a simple question, “So how much would you like to make in a year?”

He pauses, looks down, then answers, “I would be happy with $200,000.”

“Great. Now how much would you spend to make $200,000?” I ask.

He answers, “I don’t know. Maybe $5,000” Read more

Seeing the Elephant in the Room

In one of our recent seminars we conducted to help business professionals step into the new economy, I spent some time on the concept of awareness. Because we look at a situation through our own lens and bias, we inherently limit our perspective. It is part of being human. Our brains do not work in such a way which allows us to focus on more than one thing at a time.

Imagine looking at an elephant in a room. Two people are looking at the exact same object. One person describes the elephant as having a tail, a large round surface area and rough gray skin. Read more

Outlast Your Adversity

I recently reconnected with an old college teammate to recall a running route which punished us each Sunday morning during cross-country season. I ran throughout college as a distance runner in an intensive program in upstate New York. I can remember running over 45 miles in three days and wondering if I was going to simply break like a toothpick.

On Sunday mornings after grueling races the day before, we would faithfully head out at 7 AM on our 17 mile Ellison Park runs. We sounded like a graceful stampede in rhythm running along waterways and into small towns. Some mornings, I relied heavily on my teammates just to pull me through the workouts. Showers and brunch at 9:30 AM started our days. The majority of the campus was still in bed. We were just trying to recover enough to do our 4:40 mile repeats the next day. Read more

Test the Welcome Mat

One of the best ways to know for sure if customers really count is to evaluate how an organization deals with complaints. At one of our Dream Retreats, we learned from a participant whose daughter manages a Limited, Inc. store location in Arizona that the company will dismiss a store manager who receives three unresolved customer complaints.

At first, we were somewhat taken aback by the severity of this practice, but after a little research into the effects of customer complaints on the bottom line, we realized that the policy makes very good sense. The Technical Assistance Research Programs Corporation of Washington, D.C., which publishes statistics on customer complaints, has found that for every customer complaint that an organization receives, there are 26 other dissatisfied customers who will remain silent. Each of the 27 dissatisfied customers will tell 8 to 16 others about the experience, and 10 percent will tell more than 20 other potential customers. If you do the arithmetic, you will find that three complaints translate into more than 1,000 potential customers hearing about poor service a company provided. No company can afford to drag its feet when handling customer complaints.

We have been wowed many times by Disney’s exceptional attention to guest problems and complaints. One example occurred when we were visiting Disney World with a group of clients.

After we had all checked into the hotel, we quickly departed for dinner. As we were riding along in one of the in-park buses that shuttle visitors around Disney World, the driver asked us how our rooms were. One of our clients mentioned that the faucet in his bar sink had an annoying drip, and he added taht he hadn’t had time yet to report it to maintenance.

“Sir, I’ll take care of it for you,” the driver assured him.

We didn’t give it another thought, but when we got back from dinner about 10 o’clock, the faucet was fixed. And then, more impressive yet, shortly thereafter the driver showed up on his own time to make sure that the problem had been taken care of. This is the level of service you should aim for when you ask your employees to treat every customer like a guest in their own homes. The bus driver was truly committed to making the guest experience the best it could possibly be. That is service with a capital “S.”

— Obtained from the book, The Disney Way by Bill Capodagli and Lynn Jackson

Winning: Prove You Care

The pursuit of excellent service as an owner of a business or a consumer seems to be an elusive goal. In my time with business people, this topic is difficult work. It requires thinking in the place of the customer. What do your customers want in the area of service? First and foremost, your customer is thinking about themselves, not you. As a consumer, you think the same way with the vendors who service you. What is it we all want when we give our cash to a business? We want to know they care. Their service is one means they show this. How they position and create an experience is another way they can show they care. Have you ever walked into a business and felt the owners were seeking how little they could give for your business? They are thinking about themselves also, to their own detriment. They lose.

Here is what the business person who shows care looks like: Read more