IT’s a Hard Job

You don’t know how to spell their name.

Pieter.
Jenifer.
Cindee.
Lisa. Leesa. Lissa.

Spelling is personal. And nothing says “I don’t really care enough about you as my customer” than a simple spelling mistake. (By the way, my name isn’t Howard. I get called Howard all the time.)

If you’re on the phone with a customer, don’t guess the spelling of their name. Ask. A former manager of mine used to keep a section of his cubicle devoted to all the misspelled address labels from various magazines and other vendors.

A favorite quote of mine is from business guru Tom Peters: “HOW CAN YOU TRUST THE AIRPLANE MAINTENANCE WHEN THEY CANT WIPE THE COFFEE STAINS OFF THE FLIP TRAYS” 

I’ve literally been thanked by prospective customers just for having taken the time to ask them how they spell their name. And that goes beyond just spelling. If they say S on the phone, you need to make sure it’s not an F. It’s extra work. It’s extra time. And it’s the little difference that might be what keeps you ahead of the competition.

Why you should add “bottle service” to your menu

To:EVERYONE
From: President
Subject: URGENT: read this right now.

If you get an email marked “urgent” from your supervisor, do you immediately comply with the directive?

Some of you will, some of you won’t. If you’re in a workgroup, that’s a problem. If you don’t have uniform response to how you prioritize things, how will your brand provide consistent service? What is an emergency to one person is a “I’ll get to it when I can” to another. That’s one reason hospitals are so stressful for visitors. Try caring for a loved one in a hospital and pressing the call button and waiting – very tough. Your priority is not the priority of some of the nursing or other medical staff. They have to manage multiple priorities and relative importance, not absolute importance.

The reason we often get in trouble is a very normal combination of time management, differing priorities, differing motivations, and differing ambition and/or attitudes. Read the rest of this entry »

Triple-checking your work? STOP!

Are you triple checking your work?

Why?

To be extra accurate? Because you entered it wrong before? Because your boss told you to? Because it was in the job manual?

If your workflow requires that much checking, your system needs an overhaul.

Suppose you’re entering invoice information into QuickBooks and you need to ensure that all your line items are accurate. You might double or triple check that. Why? Because your order entry system is likely detached from Quickbooks, necessitating double entry.

So the time you’re putting into being extra careful each day or week could instead be going towards developing a system that doesn’t require the double-entry and instead uses what QuickBooks includes in their product. Or you could invest in an automated tool that exports and imports the information so that you don’t need to retype it. Yes, that may take hiring a programmer or developer or other whiz. But in the long run you’re going to make fewer errors and all that time you’re checking and double-checking can go towards more substantial and rewarding tasks.

Computers may be a bit dense and concrete regarding our intentions and wishes, but they are rarely inconsistent or sloppy. We, however, are both inconsistent and sloppy. So we check our work all the time. We have to write “this leg” on the leg we’re about to amputate, or we have to put pieces of string on our fingers to remember to do things.

No, it’s making a key entry system based on a card you already own, like your own credit card, or making one that’s based on your fingerprint. Or another idea that’s out of the box.

Innovation in your business may come from getting rid of all this apparent “thoroughness” you’re trying to implement. Double-check? Ok. Triple check? You’ve got a problem.

Our consultants can give you ideas on how to streamline your business. Learn more here.

Afraid to send out that invoice?

Ever had a waiter or restaurant manager tell you that they took something off the bill without you having to ask them to do so? Remember how that made you feel?

You’re about to send out your invoice to a customer. Do you dread their reaction? Are you excited for them to get the invoice?

One way to measure how you’re doing as a service professional is to measure how YOU feel about sending your customer a bill. Of course, most people don’t like receiving a bill in the mail. But if they know that they just got a:

- great deal
- discount to resolve a satisfaction issue (without asking for one)
- offer for future discount
- thorough explanation of services rendered
- prompt, predictable and punctual delivery
- flexible payment method

all in one bill, then they might feel just fine about it.

The great thing about sending an invoice to a customer is that you have a chance to do something BEFORE you send the bill. Maybe add a credit. Or explain a charge so they don’t have to go through the discomfort (and hassle) of having to ask you. Be proactive.

But if you dread or have to hesitate on sending it, look in the mirror and ask how you got to that point. I love having clients tell me “I really appreciate how much you just helped me, I look forward to your next visit!” and I get to respond “I look forward to sending you my invoice!” knowing that they feel great about the value they received.

Your invoice is a part of your service, and shouldn’t be an after-thought.

3 “choice” mistakes made by service professionals

People in professional services (doctors, lawyers, accountants, technology consultants) occasionally stumble on a predicament: their customer may want to do the “wrong” thing. The thing that the pro feels isn’t the best choice.

At this juncture, the pro has to decide whether the customer is “right” in wanting to do something unorthodox or discouraged, or whether they will try to persuade them of the foolishness of their choice.

Mistake #1: assuming the customer wants to do the “right” thing and not giving them an option. Read the rest of this entry »

IM-terruptions

I see your name right there on my chat window. I have a question. All I have to do is click on your name and ask it. How easy is that? What could possibly be the problem?

Now we can reach anyone any time, and here’s the problem: not every issue requires immediate action. Read the rest of this entry »

Please don’t recommend this to other people

Internal recommendations (within your team) are not as innocent as they seem.

They’re actually great ways to avoid owning responsibility. They’re speed bumps. They are harmfully harmless. Read the rest of this entry »

(dis)please advise

People love the phrase “please advise”. You shouldn’t.

That’s one way you go from “techie” to “consultant”. Techies do what is asked of them. Consultants tell clients what they should do so that the client can follow their advice and guidance.

If you’re a stickler for business writing, here’s more on the phrase

And here’s an attorney who uses it and loves the phrase, but check out the comments, many people despise it…

Boomerang: I love you. I hate you.

I’m not one to use the term “revolutionary” casually. But this tool is revolutionary if you’re a high-frequency email person.

Boomerang, I love you.

Here’s the typical experience I have with most web tools:

read a blurb about it
sign up (mainly so I can get a short username)
wait for the agonizing 13 seconds to get the email confirmation and activation link
try the site for a minute
move onto something else
forget about the site until I get a “we miss you” email

Not with Boomerang. I saw the brand mentioned online, gave it a try, and proceeded to use the tool probably 25 times over the rest of the day. By the next day, it was painful to work on a browser without Boomerang installed (works on Chrome and Firefox as of this writing).

So, what is it? Boomerang is a deceptively simple tool/service that does 2 things very well:

SEND your emails in the future, and RETURN emails to you in the future. Try it now.

Underwhelmed? That’s to be expected. The simplicity is part of the elegance. Now stop and think about your emails. Read the rest of this entry »

20 years of work reveals 15 pearls

We’ve been doing some bragging this year. It’s our 20th year in business. One of the best parts of celebrating this milestone is the great perspective it provides. Had I known when I started the business with my brother that we’d be doing it for two decades, I suppose we would have done a few things differently. So in no particular order, here are some lessons we’ve learned:

1. Don’t let great people go. We’ve lost some amazing employees over the years. Some were outside my control, but many weren’t. I should have been a much, much better boss. I put a happy customer ahead of a happy employee. It was based on a good intention but was poor execution, and short-sighted.
2. Don’t let bad employees stay. Sometimes we were afraid of the consequences and didn’t act quickly enough when we had a bad fit. Family-owned businesses are apparently notorious for “quick to hire, slow to fire” – we had our share of these, and the pain and aggravation could have been avoided. Read the rest of this entry »