I was talking with a client over lunch yesterday and we were discussing some of the goals she had and that they seemed unattainable. The more time we spent talking, the more I realized the problem wasn’t with her goals but with her goal setting abilities.
We all have “Goals”, but the truth is, that when analyzed, most of us only have dreams-- not goals. So what’s the difference? Simple really, a goal is a final outcome someone has planned. Yes Planned! If you have a goal without a plan then it is just a dream.
Over and over again I have interactions with people that think they are real goal oriented with a one year, five year, and ten year plan. But when I ask probing questions I find out they really only have dreams. Now this isn’t to say that dreams can’t come true, but if you want to achieve a goal you need a plan.
I can comment on a personal example to help clarify this thought. Since I was a young child watching the “Wide World of Sports” I always thought that a tri-athlete was the pinnacle example of strength and conditioning. I can remember thinking to myself, ’someday I want to compete in a triathlon’. That was a dream. About two years ago I made a personal goal to lose weight and get back into shape. I focused my goal on being able to compete in a triathlon and check off that bucket list item once and for all. I sat down and worked out a schedule of exercising, diet, and month by month weight loss goals. I then started walking, then biking & swimming, and eventually running. I just registered for my first triathlon, on October 16th. I also put together a more focused training schedule that included weight training, running, swimming, and biking daily, to prepare for this event. I will let everyone know how it all turns out but there is little chance I will not accomplish this “goal” unless I give up on it, because I have a goal, and an action plan to accomplish it.
Now that we understand the difference between a goal and a dream, let’s look into the next biggest problem with goal setting. Too many people put time limits on their goals. In many cases this can cause destructive behaviors, internal stress, and a reduced level of patience. You become so focused on falling behind that you end up abandoning your goal, or you start to let other things in your life become effected. Also, you can get so drawn into accomplishing that goal within a certain time frame, that you will miss other opportunities that can have a greater impact in your life than completing the original goal itself. Furthermore, things change. Outside influences may change that directly affect your ability to attain that goal. Therefore, your goal has to be a moving target, both in time and effort. There is nothing wrong with having an approximate time frame attached to a goal as long as you understand that the timeframe is not the driving factor, the goal itself is what should be important.
To summarize, when goal setting, you must have the duality of the goal itself and an action plan in place to achieve it. The action plan should be a detailed, step by step program, without time constraints. It should also be an adjustable plan to make room for changes due to outside influences.
You should treat each goal as you would a vacation. Before you go on a vacation, you check the weather, air fares, hotel prices, etc. You plan your route, budget expenses, and make allowances for the unexpected. Just like a vacation you want to plan the details of your goals. Focus on what needs to happen to obtain the goal and plan step by step activities to achieve the goal. Only once you have a comprehensive plan of baby steps can you start implementing the required efforts to accomplish the goals you have set for yourself.
Finally, if you take the time to put together a solid action plan, the only thing stopping you from achieving the goals you set forth is you. Stay focused-- but fluid, and there won’t be any goals you cannot achieve.
Friday, August 26, 2011
Friday, August 19, 2011
What is Value in the Service industry?
We all know what value is when we are buying the “Big Gulp” at our local 7-11. It’s obvious! For ten cents more you get nearly 30% more. No brainer right?
In the service industry it is not quite as transparent as at your local convenience store or even with your favorite product. Service is an invisible product that most customers have to experience before they can decide if they are happy with it or not. Think of a restaurant. You can’t go out, order your food, consume your order, and then not pay because you were dissatisfied. You have to, pardon the pun, “eat it” and just not patronize that establishment again. While you can, and I suggest you do, complain about your dissatisfaction, you have little recourse at the end of the meal.
Why complain? In many cases the owner or manager will not know that there is a problem unless someone tells them. While I am a firm believer that a good manager needs to have processes in place to measure how they are doing, few actually do. I always preach that you need to worry about what people are saying, but what they are not saying is even more important. Most people will look you in the eye and tell you everything was fine, then tell everyone they know, about the awful experience they had, and never use your service again.
In some cases customers go after the cheapest price, throwing caution to the wind, and ignoring the signs of value, and get exactly what they bargained for, poor service and quality. However, in many cases it’s not that simple. A customer’s motivation was not just price, but they wanted the best value. Many poor service minded companies have great ad campaigns, and lure in unsuspecting customers who find out too late that the real signs of value didn’t exist.
So what are the signs of value in a service industry? My belief is that you need to focus on a few key points.
Reputation What is the reputation of your service provider? To start with, reputation is paramount. While yes it is possible to use a service with a great reputation only to have your expectations fall short. In general, the only way to build a reputation of excellent customer service is by covering all key points consistently. When you consider how easy it is for the general public to voice their disappointment within the online world, it is more important than ever to focus on complete customer satisfaction. So a company with a good reputation most likely earned it.
The Experience How would you rate your overall experience with your service provider? The other day I was sitting in a doctor’s office filling out paperwork and thinking to myself, in today’s electronic age, why couldn’t I have filled this out online prior to coming into the office? Instead I have to sit here and try to recall all the pertinent information and sit around and wait for the receptionist to enter all my information into their system. That is not thinking about the “customer’s” overall experience. If they were, they would have an online portal, for patients to enter and update their information, while having access to all their medical records. This would also save the doctor administrative time for entering and updating patient’s records.
As I have stated in previous blogs the overall customer experience, in my opinion, is the single largest reason that customers open their wallets, and develop loyalty to a service provider. It is also the number one reason a customer will never grace you with their patronage again if it was a bad experience. You need to focus on each step of the customer’s buying experience and do everything you can to make it as pleasurable and free flowing as possible. Remove any barriers that slow down the process, and make your service easier to use than any other service provider.
Dependability Can you count on your service provider? One key component to offering a great value to our customers is that when we say we will be there, we are there on time. When we say the job will cost this much, and be done by this time, that is exactly what we deliver. I have experienced many occasions of poor customer service in this area. Not to pick on doctors, but I have never shown up for a doctor’s appointment and been seen at the time of the appointment. Why is that? How is it that I can build a job that takes over a year to complete and finish it on time but a doctor can’t keep an appointment? If your customers can count on you to do what you say, and do it when you say you will, that is a huge value.
Communication Can you get a hold of your service provider? Every one of my customers has my cell phone number and when they call 24/7/365 I answer it or call them back within the hour. When you consider that we touch over 400 customers a month, just in the Tampa market alone, you might think I am crazy. However, because I have a great team that understands the culture built here, my phone rarely rings.
The key to good communication is to always answer your phone and talk with your customers. Don’t be afraid to say, “I don’t know-- but I will find out”. All too often I hear peers and students tell me that they don’t call the customer back until they have an answer. That is a quick way to be perceived as non-accessible.
In many cases poor communication is why people are considered undependable. You need to be clear with your customers, explain exactly what you will and won’t do, and when you will do it, or if you simply don’t have an answer right this minute-- tell them, but then get them one. Clear and concise communication will eliminate most cases of conflict or perceived unmet expectations.
Safety How safe is you service provider? Safety is one of the key points that most customers overlook. Depending on what service you are buying, safety could and should be your biggest concern. When hiring a service provider you are allowing unknown individuals access to your facilities, employees, customers and possibly sensitive areas. You want to know what kind of pre-hire screening, drug tests, background checks and training the company does before you just give the technicians carte blanche to your empire. In many cases they will be working around your customers, employees and the general public. You need to know what kind of training they have had to safeguard any risk of injuries. In our line of work we are actually working on the electrical systems, which are the life blood of your building, not to mention all the risks associated with electricity. We spend thousands of dollars per technician, and hundreds of training hours to make sure that we keep our customers and technicians safe. Our technicians understand the risks involved prior to beginning any project. We not only make sure our customers know our safety process, but get feedback from them to continually improve our methods to insure the utmost safety practices are being implemented, to protect our customer’s systems, employees, assets, and the general public.
Most of our customer’s general counsel and risk managers are aware of the importance of safe work practices and have put in place minimum requirements for those larger companies. But if you don’t have these resources you may want to ask a few questions before deciding on who you are going to grant access to your company’s assets.
• Do they have a written safety program?
• What training do they give to their Technicians?
• What safeguards do they implement to mitigate risks and protect the general public?
• What is their EMR (Experience Modification Rate) rating?
• What PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) do they provide their technicians to avoid injury?
While some of this may seem to be over the top, think about what it will cost your company if there is an accident on your site? Lawyer’s fees, Insurance claims, Workman’s comp claims, etc… not to mention the bad press you might receive, especially if you are found negligent. It truly isn’t worth the risk to save a couple of bucks.
In closing, while the economy continues to shrink, and everyone continues to tighten their belts, we all are looking to find a better deal and to shave a few bucks off our costs and budgets. However, I urge everyone to stay focused on what you are cutting. We all should be looking for better value, but that doesn’t always mean a lower cost. What we are really trying to do is ‘do more with less’. This takes some thought and strategizing, not just finding cheaper options. Bring in your service providers and see what they can do to help you. If they are true business partners they will listen to your issues and come up with options that can help. If they don’t they are not really business partners, they are just vendors. You need to find the “Big Gulp” companies that will help you figure out how to get 30% more for only ten cents. Those are your business partners and that is VALUE!
In the service industry it is not quite as transparent as at your local convenience store or even with your favorite product. Service is an invisible product that most customers have to experience before they can decide if they are happy with it or not. Think of a restaurant. You can’t go out, order your food, consume your order, and then not pay because you were dissatisfied. You have to, pardon the pun, “eat it” and just not patronize that establishment again. While you can, and I suggest you do, complain about your dissatisfaction, you have little recourse at the end of the meal.
Why complain? In many cases the owner or manager will not know that there is a problem unless someone tells them. While I am a firm believer that a good manager needs to have processes in place to measure how they are doing, few actually do. I always preach that you need to worry about what people are saying, but what they are not saying is even more important. Most people will look you in the eye and tell you everything was fine, then tell everyone they know, about the awful experience they had, and never use your service again.
In some cases customers go after the cheapest price, throwing caution to the wind, and ignoring the signs of value, and get exactly what they bargained for, poor service and quality. However, in many cases it’s not that simple. A customer’s motivation was not just price, but they wanted the best value. Many poor service minded companies have great ad campaigns, and lure in unsuspecting customers who find out too late that the real signs of value didn’t exist.
So what are the signs of value in a service industry? My belief is that you need to focus on a few key points.
Reputation What is the reputation of your service provider? To start with, reputation is paramount. While yes it is possible to use a service with a great reputation only to have your expectations fall short. In general, the only way to build a reputation of excellent customer service is by covering all key points consistently. When you consider how easy it is for the general public to voice their disappointment within the online world, it is more important than ever to focus on complete customer satisfaction. So a company with a good reputation most likely earned it.
The Experience How would you rate your overall experience with your service provider? The other day I was sitting in a doctor’s office filling out paperwork and thinking to myself, in today’s electronic age, why couldn’t I have filled this out online prior to coming into the office? Instead I have to sit here and try to recall all the pertinent information and sit around and wait for the receptionist to enter all my information into their system. That is not thinking about the “customer’s” overall experience. If they were, they would have an online portal, for patients to enter and update their information, while having access to all their medical records. This would also save the doctor administrative time for entering and updating patient’s records.
As I have stated in previous blogs the overall customer experience, in my opinion, is the single largest reason that customers open their wallets, and develop loyalty to a service provider. It is also the number one reason a customer will never grace you with their patronage again if it was a bad experience. You need to focus on each step of the customer’s buying experience and do everything you can to make it as pleasurable and free flowing as possible. Remove any barriers that slow down the process, and make your service easier to use than any other service provider.
Dependability Can you count on your service provider? One key component to offering a great value to our customers is that when we say we will be there, we are there on time. When we say the job will cost this much, and be done by this time, that is exactly what we deliver. I have experienced many occasions of poor customer service in this area. Not to pick on doctors, but I have never shown up for a doctor’s appointment and been seen at the time of the appointment. Why is that? How is it that I can build a job that takes over a year to complete and finish it on time but a doctor can’t keep an appointment? If your customers can count on you to do what you say, and do it when you say you will, that is a huge value.
Communication Can you get a hold of your service provider? Every one of my customers has my cell phone number and when they call 24/7/365 I answer it or call them back within the hour. When you consider that we touch over 400 customers a month, just in the Tampa market alone, you might think I am crazy. However, because I have a great team that understands the culture built here, my phone rarely rings.
The key to good communication is to always answer your phone and talk with your customers. Don’t be afraid to say, “I don’t know-- but I will find out”. All too often I hear peers and students tell me that they don’t call the customer back until they have an answer. That is a quick way to be perceived as non-accessible.
In many cases poor communication is why people are considered undependable. You need to be clear with your customers, explain exactly what you will and won’t do, and when you will do it, or if you simply don’t have an answer right this minute-- tell them, but then get them one. Clear and concise communication will eliminate most cases of conflict or perceived unmet expectations.
Safety How safe is you service provider? Safety is one of the key points that most customers overlook. Depending on what service you are buying, safety could and should be your biggest concern. When hiring a service provider you are allowing unknown individuals access to your facilities, employees, customers and possibly sensitive areas. You want to know what kind of pre-hire screening, drug tests, background checks and training the company does before you just give the technicians carte blanche to your empire. In many cases they will be working around your customers, employees and the general public. You need to know what kind of training they have had to safeguard any risk of injuries. In our line of work we are actually working on the electrical systems, which are the life blood of your building, not to mention all the risks associated with electricity. We spend thousands of dollars per technician, and hundreds of training hours to make sure that we keep our customers and technicians safe. Our technicians understand the risks involved prior to beginning any project. We not only make sure our customers know our safety process, but get feedback from them to continually improve our methods to insure the utmost safety practices are being implemented, to protect our customer’s systems, employees, assets, and the general public.
Most of our customer’s general counsel and risk managers are aware of the importance of safe work practices and have put in place minimum requirements for those larger companies. But if you don’t have these resources you may want to ask a few questions before deciding on who you are going to grant access to your company’s assets.
• Do they have a written safety program?
• What training do they give to their Technicians?
• What safeguards do they implement to mitigate risks and protect the general public?
• What is their EMR (Experience Modification Rate) rating?
• What PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) do they provide their technicians to avoid injury?
While some of this may seem to be over the top, think about what it will cost your company if there is an accident on your site? Lawyer’s fees, Insurance claims, Workman’s comp claims, etc… not to mention the bad press you might receive, especially if you are found negligent. It truly isn’t worth the risk to save a couple of bucks.
In closing, while the economy continues to shrink, and everyone continues to tighten their belts, we all are looking to find a better deal and to shave a few bucks off our costs and budgets. However, I urge everyone to stay focused on what you are cutting. We all should be looking for better value, but that doesn’t always mean a lower cost. What we are really trying to do is ‘do more with less’. This takes some thought and strategizing, not just finding cheaper options. Bring in your service providers and see what they can do to help you. If they are true business partners they will listen to your issues and come up with options that can help. If they don’t they are not really business partners, they are just vendors. You need to find the “Big Gulp” companies that will help you figure out how to get 30% more for only ten cents. Those are your business partners and that is VALUE!
Friday, August 12, 2011
Relationships In Today’s Economy
With our economic state in peril, everybody is trying to do more with less. This is putting a major strain on most employees and owners. As we look for new cuts that need to be made, most companies think the first cut to be made is in marketing and business development. The ironic part is that marketing and business development are what will bring new work in the door. If we continue to cut our business development efforts, we will continue to cut our customer activity.
One big part of business development efforts are relationships. We get so bogged down with work that we no longer take the time to go to the networking events, trade shows, community and charity events, etc… This turns out to be the death of new and repeat business.
In a downward economy, relationships become even more important than ever. Your customers are receiving on average 3-5 phone calls a day trying to sell them a replacement for your services. While in the past these calls would be ignored, your customers are starting to pay attention, since you are no longer in their face reminding them that your product is superior and that you do care about their problems.
The truth is that you still care but you just don’t have the time to give them that special attention you once did. Don’t worry though, your competition does. As market shares shrink and customers go away, your competition, is finding more time to call on your customers and if you are not going to give them that special attention, they will.
The trick is not to get caught up in the reduction of workforce. Stop cutting and start building. Continue along the same path that got you where you are today. Offer that service that no one else can in today’s economy. I have seen record sales and we have not been able to hire fast enough in this current economic condition. The reason is that as everybody else is shrinking and cutting back, we are expanding and hiring new customer solution providers. I refuse to cut anything that effects the customers overall experience. I refuse to cut anything that affects the quality of our service.
More and more companies are going out of business playing the, “I can sell it cheaper than you can” game. This is leaving a tremendous void in customer support. There are thousands of new customers every day looking for a replacement to the company that just went under. They need a solution and they need it fast. Focus on being that solution, and offering them the kind of personal attention that has been lost in this recession, and you too will start to see the success that I have been lucky enough to experience.
With this comes great responsibility. Do not ever take for granted the trust your customers have put in your organization. It is easy to get lost as work starts to pour in and priorities must be set. Your top priority must always be your customer’s needs. You must continue to genuinely care about their problems and offer quality solutions. Keep those relationships growing and you will see your market share continue to grow; they are the life blood of your organization.
Friday, August 5, 2011
Time Management
Time and time again I get asked the question, “How do you do all you do?”, or at least something similar to that question. Basically people want to know how I am able to run five division offices, write these blogs, network and work on business development, perform at public speaking events, volunteer and organize philanthropic events, train for a triathlon, etc. etc. etc. Besides the fact that I spend little time on non-productive things, and work every hour I am not sleeping, the simple answer is time management.
I would like to start out by saying that time management isn’t possible without the right team behind you. I have the great fortune of having an amazing team of highly talented people working for me and that is the bottom line reason why I am able to manage my time.
As I have said in previous writings you are only as good as your team and they will determine your success. You must hire the right people and get rid of the garbage. When you have inadequate, lazy, or narcissistic team members, you spend your time managing them and not your time. Those individuals will account for 80% of your problems, and will also drag down the morale of the high performers. However, on the other side, when you have true “Rock Stars” across the board, as I have, you won’t have to spend any time worrying about what they are doing. All you have to do is support them and empower them to make their own decisions. Don’t get me wrong they still have objectives and are accountable for them, but you don’t have to worry about how they get those objectives done, only whether or not they achieved their goals.
So once you have the right team to support you, time management becomes easy. All you need to do is analyze the following:
What needs to be done? You need to know what needs to be done each day. This means that you need to have spent time planning this day out, knowing what has to get done and who is going to do it. Don’t under estimate the importance of this step. Many people do not go into detail about what needs to get done and then all the little things you thought were not important enough to plan for start piling up and knock you off your plan. This is no different than budgeting money. Studies have shown that most people that have financial distress, have it as a direct result of not budgeting for the little things. I will give you one example. Some people don’t figure their morning coffee into their monthly budget even though they stop at the local gourmet coffee shop every day to get it rather than making it at home. If you average $3.50 a day for that morning latte, assuming that you only have one, you may not think to include something so trivial into your budget. However, when you add up all those little purchases over the month, you have totaled $105 dollars a month, for that one coffee. David Bach wrote a book called “The Automatic Millionaire” where he discussed ‘retiring on a latte a day’. It is staggering what happens when you start to invest that $3.50 a day. But that is a whole separate subject. The point is that if you don’t plan for all the little things they will become your nemesis in time management.
What do you need to do? The next step is what do I need to accomplish today? I plan out each day the night before (coupled with my weeks, month’s and yearly plan). I analyze every task that has to be done as to whether or not it needs my attention. You see, I don’t waste any time doing something I can have someone else do. I only focus on what needs my attention. If something comes up that one of my “Rock Stars” can handle, it gets delegated to them. That way I can stay on task without interruption. You should never spend time doing something you can have others do for you. Also, I would add that you want to put your focus on what you are best at and not waste time doing things you don’t enjoy or are not as proficient in. Some of the worst managed companies are that way due to micro management, and managers that are not willing to empower their team.
When does it have to be done? You also need to understand when the deadline is and make sure that you have allocated enough time to finish the tasks in a complete and polished manner. When I start my day I have my planned objectives for the day and my day is not over until the final objective is complete. Yes, that does mean there are times when I will only get a few hours sleep but I am committed to my schedule. What is the purpose of putting together a schedule if you are not going to follow it? Remember that your schedule should include recreation and relaxation time.
Make time for Murphy! One thing I can tell you is that no matter how well you plan your day, week, month, etc…, something can, and will, go wrong. If you are not making plans for Murphy, then you shouldn’t even bother making a schedule. Many of the people that I speak with will tell me about how stressed they are and how behind they are at work. I find that they are very structured people and they take the time to plan. What they are generally missing is planned time for the unexpected. Look at it this way, if you plan for something to go wrong and it doesn’t; then you get those much needed hours of sleep back. So what’s the harm?
Know when to say no! Undoubtedly, the biggest reason for blown schedules and poor time management is not knowing when to say ‘no’ to more work. While no one wants to be the one to tell their boss, or even worse, a customer, “NO”. The fact is that there are only so many hours in the day, and if you continue to say yes to everything, either you will need to add unproven staff to handle it or you will fail to meet expectations. Neither should be an acceptable outcome. You have to prioritize and make the tough decisions as to who will get your time and who will not.
To summarize, while there is no great insightful trick to managing your time contained within this article, all of the principles exist. There is no quick tip or trick to proper time management. You either are going to dedicate yourself and be disciplined to your schedule or not. Unfortunately, some people are not disciplined enough to stick to the required structure to be a good time manager. The simple fact is that when all is said and done, all you need to do is “Plan Your Work and Work Your Plan”.
I would like to start out by saying that time management isn’t possible without the right team behind you. I have the great fortune of having an amazing team of highly talented people working for me and that is the bottom line reason why I am able to manage my time.
As I have said in previous writings you are only as good as your team and they will determine your success. You must hire the right people and get rid of the garbage. When you have inadequate, lazy, or narcissistic team members, you spend your time managing them and not your time. Those individuals will account for 80% of your problems, and will also drag down the morale of the high performers. However, on the other side, when you have true “Rock Stars” across the board, as I have, you won’t have to spend any time worrying about what they are doing. All you have to do is support them and empower them to make their own decisions. Don’t get me wrong they still have objectives and are accountable for them, but you don’t have to worry about how they get those objectives done, only whether or not they achieved their goals.
So once you have the right team to support you, time management becomes easy. All you need to do is analyze the following:
What needs to be done? You need to know what needs to be done each day. This means that you need to have spent time planning this day out, knowing what has to get done and who is going to do it. Don’t under estimate the importance of this step. Many people do not go into detail about what needs to get done and then all the little things you thought were not important enough to plan for start piling up and knock you off your plan. This is no different than budgeting money. Studies have shown that most people that have financial distress, have it as a direct result of not budgeting for the little things. I will give you one example. Some people don’t figure their morning coffee into their monthly budget even though they stop at the local gourmet coffee shop every day to get it rather than making it at home. If you average $3.50 a day for that morning latte, assuming that you only have one, you may not think to include something so trivial into your budget. However, when you add up all those little purchases over the month, you have totaled $105 dollars a month, for that one coffee. David Bach wrote a book called “The Automatic Millionaire” where he discussed ‘retiring on a latte a day’. It is staggering what happens when you start to invest that $3.50 a day. But that is a whole separate subject. The point is that if you don’t plan for all the little things they will become your nemesis in time management.
What do you need to do? The next step is what do I need to accomplish today? I plan out each day the night before (coupled with my weeks, month’s and yearly plan). I analyze every task that has to be done as to whether or not it needs my attention. You see, I don’t waste any time doing something I can have someone else do. I only focus on what needs my attention. If something comes up that one of my “Rock Stars” can handle, it gets delegated to them. That way I can stay on task without interruption. You should never spend time doing something you can have others do for you. Also, I would add that you want to put your focus on what you are best at and not waste time doing things you don’t enjoy or are not as proficient in. Some of the worst managed companies are that way due to micro management, and managers that are not willing to empower their team.
When does it have to be done? You also need to understand when the deadline is and make sure that you have allocated enough time to finish the tasks in a complete and polished manner. When I start my day I have my planned objectives for the day and my day is not over until the final objective is complete. Yes, that does mean there are times when I will only get a few hours sleep but I am committed to my schedule. What is the purpose of putting together a schedule if you are not going to follow it? Remember that your schedule should include recreation and relaxation time.
Make time for Murphy! One thing I can tell you is that no matter how well you plan your day, week, month, etc…, something can, and will, go wrong. If you are not making plans for Murphy, then you shouldn’t even bother making a schedule. Many of the people that I speak with will tell me about how stressed they are and how behind they are at work. I find that they are very structured people and they take the time to plan. What they are generally missing is planned time for the unexpected. Look at it this way, if you plan for something to go wrong and it doesn’t; then you get those much needed hours of sleep back. So what’s the harm?
Know when to say no! Undoubtedly, the biggest reason for blown schedules and poor time management is not knowing when to say ‘no’ to more work. While no one wants to be the one to tell their boss, or even worse, a customer, “NO”. The fact is that there are only so many hours in the day, and if you continue to say yes to everything, either you will need to add unproven staff to handle it or you will fail to meet expectations. Neither should be an acceptable outcome. You have to prioritize and make the tough decisions as to who will get your time and who will not.
To summarize, while there is no great insightful trick to managing your time contained within this article, all of the principles exist. There is no quick tip or trick to proper time management. You either are going to dedicate yourself and be disciplined to your schedule or not. Unfortunately, some people are not disciplined enough to stick to the required structure to be a good time manager. The simple fact is that when all is said and done, all you need to do is “Plan Your Work and Work Your Plan”.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
The Customer Experience
When I first came to M.C. Dean, one of the first things I did was to implement the Ultimate Customer Experience (UCE). What is the UCE? Good Question. The UCE is an internal plan I developed a long time ago to set myself apart from the competition. It is a series of actions to help improve our customer’s overall experience with the company. This simple action plan is used to help improve our image, brand, and how the customer feels after we have left the job. From the first contact, to the completion of the project, the UCE goes through a step by step process to put the customer first and show pride in everything we do.
I originally got the idea after buying a car from an Arrigo dealership in Palm Beach Florida. Buying a car has always been an unpleasant experience for most people. This particular dealership made an effort to make buying a new car a pleasurable experience. No haggling to get the best price, no high pressure sales people, no stupid questions, just great service at a great price. Since then, every time I have bought a car, I have continued to travel to West Palm Beach to buy through this dealership, and every time it is a pleasure to do business with them.
I figured out that if they can make buying a car pleasurable, then I should be able to make using an electrical service just as pleasurable and the UCE was born. Obviously I cannot divulge specifics about the UCE but it exists everywhere if you look around.
Ever wonder why Best Buy continues to crush their competition? Think about it! There are many bargain big box retailers that have the same products for less money. Why would someone go to a place where they know the product will cost them more? Simple! Whenever I plan to buy any electronic device, I only go to Best Buy because of the customer experience. I can go into a Best Buy and be greeted almost immediately by someone who asks me if they can help. No commission based sales people, just employees that truly want to make sure I get exactly what I need from the store. The associate will spend a limitless amount of time telling me all I want to know about the product, from a highly technical perspective or a simple consumer’s point of view. Best Buy’s associates always seem to be very well trained on all the products they offer. They will ask me specific questions about what I like and how I plan to use it and will narrow it down to the perfect product for me, whether or not that happens to be the most expensive, or the cheapest product. They only care about my overall experience. Then once I select the product, the associate will walk me to the cashier and check me out, no lines no waiting. I am in and out quickly with the perfect product for my lifestyle. No one tried to make me fit into their product, or sell me the most expensive product and accessories to boost their commission. This is what I mean by the customer experience. It is not always about price, even in today’s economy.
On the other side, my wife and I took a trip to Las Vegas a couple months back. All I ever heard was how amazing Vegas was and how you have unlimited food, drinks, entertainment, etc… anything to keep you in their hotel. From the moment we checked into Treasure Island, the experience was horrible. We stood in line for nearly an hour just to check in. They had a check-in counter that was a half a mile long but only two people working behind it. We were some of the lucky ones, since they actually had a room ready for us when we got up to the counter. Unfortunately the rest of the nearly 100 people behind us would be sent away until the cleaning crews had finished prepping more rooms. Really? You had reservations! It couldn’t have been a surprise how many people where going to check in that day.
Things just got worse from there, from the $28 dollar a person buffet filled with substandard food, to the joke of a show performed outside on a pirate ship. Just when we thought things couldn’t get any worse, they locked us out of our room and told us that we had only reserved one night, even though we had proof that we had booked it for the following three days. They would not let us in the room to get our proof, and told us that all our stuff was probably in lost and found. Probably?! They didn’t even know where our stuff was? After what seemed like hours of screaming and yelling, we finally got back into our room where all our stuff was still untouched, thank God. Up until that point we had visions in our heads of people picking through our personal belongings in a lost and found room. We showed them the proof that we were right and they were wrong, to which we got a “Sorry for any inconvenience” from the night manager. No comps, no free buffet vouchers, no credit vouchers, nothing-- after wasting several hours of our time that extended into the wee hours of the morning! Not what you would have expected. There were several more examples that Treasure Island could care less about their customers, but I won’t bore you with those, I think I got my point across.
While the Treasure Island example is on the bottom of a customer experience scale, you would be surprised how many companies don’t rank much above that. How many times have you gone out to dinner just to be ignored by the wait staff? How many times have you stood in line at the DMV like cattle waiting to be butchered? There are more examples of poor service in our world today than of superior customer service. In this economy, you can’t afford to disappoint a customer. Like the old saying goes, ‘if you are not willing to take care of your customer somebody else will!’
Throughout my career I have dedicated my efforts to one principle, ‘Because of the customer, we exist!’ I will not tolerate even average customer service from any member of my team, let alone poor service. The only way to survive in today’s economy is to offer superior customer service and quality, at a fair price. People will always be willing to pay a little more for true quality and a good buying experience. If not, Best Buy, Target, Rolex, etc… would not exist.
So the question you have to ask yourself is; do you have an Arrigo or a Treasure Island kind of philosophy? Pay attention to your customer’s needs, listen to their problems, and offer quality solutions, or somebody may be writing a blog comparing you to Treasure Island. (((Ouch)))
I originally got the idea after buying a car from an Arrigo dealership in Palm Beach Florida. Buying a car has always been an unpleasant experience for most people. This particular dealership made an effort to make buying a new car a pleasurable experience. No haggling to get the best price, no high pressure sales people, no stupid questions, just great service at a great price. Since then, every time I have bought a car, I have continued to travel to West Palm Beach to buy through this dealership, and every time it is a pleasure to do business with them.
I figured out that if they can make buying a car pleasurable, then I should be able to make using an electrical service just as pleasurable and the UCE was born. Obviously I cannot divulge specifics about the UCE but it exists everywhere if you look around.
Ever wonder why Best Buy continues to crush their competition? Think about it! There are many bargain big box retailers that have the same products for less money. Why would someone go to a place where they know the product will cost them more? Simple! Whenever I plan to buy any electronic device, I only go to Best Buy because of the customer experience. I can go into a Best Buy and be greeted almost immediately by someone who asks me if they can help. No commission based sales people, just employees that truly want to make sure I get exactly what I need from the store. The associate will spend a limitless amount of time telling me all I want to know about the product, from a highly technical perspective or a simple consumer’s point of view. Best Buy’s associates always seem to be very well trained on all the products they offer. They will ask me specific questions about what I like and how I plan to use it and will narrow it down to the perfect product for me, whether or not that happens to be the most expensive, or the cheapest product. They only care about my overall experience. Then once I select the product, the associate will walk me to the cashier and check me out, no lines no waiting. I am in and out quickly with the perfect product for my lifestyle. No one tried to make me fit into their product, or sell me the most expensive product and accessories to boost their commission. This is what I mean by the customer experience. It is not always about price, even in today’s economy.
On the other side, my wife and I took a trip to Las Vegas a couple months back. All I ever heard was how amazing Vegas was and how you have unlimited food, drinks, entertainment, etc… anything to keep you in their hotel. From the moment we checked into Treasure Island, the experience was horrible. We stood in line for nearly an hour just to check in. They had a check-in counter that was a half a mile long but only two people working behind it. We were some of the lucky ones, since they actually had a room ready for us when we got up to the counter. Unfortunately the rest of the nearly 100 people behind us would be sent away until the cleaning crews had finished prepping more rooms. Really? You had reservations! It couldn’t have been a surprise how many people where going to check in that day.
Things just got worse from there, from the $28 dollar a person buffet filled with substandard food, to the joke of a show performed outside on a pirate ship. Just when we thought things couldn’t get any worse, they locked us out of our room and told us that we had only reserved one night, even though we had proof that we had booked it for the following three days. They would not let us in the room to get our proof, and told us that all our stuff was probably in lost and found. Probably?! They didn’t even know where our stuff was? After what seemed like hours of screaming and yelling, we finally got back into our room where all our stuff was still untouched, thank God. Up until that point we had visions in our heads of people picking through our personal belongings in a lost and found room. We showed them the proof that we were right and they were wrong, to which we got a “Sorry for any inconvenience” from the night manager. No comps, no free buffet vouchers, no credit vouchers, nothing-- after wasting several hours of our time that extended into the wee hours of the morning! Not what you would have expected. There were several more examples that Treasure Island could care less about their customers, but I won’t bore you with those, I think I got my point across.
While the Treasure Island example is on the bottom of a customer experience scale, you would be surprised how many companies don’t rank much above that. How many times have you gone out to dinner just to be ignored by the wait staff? How many times have you stood in line at the DMV like cattle waiting to be butchered? There are more examples of poor service in our world today than of superior customer service. In this economy, you can’t afford to disappoint a customer. Like the old saying goes, ‘if you are not willing to take care of your customer somebody else will!’
Throughout my career I have dedicated my efforts to one principle, ‘Because of the customer, we exist!’ I will not tolerate even average customer service from any member of my team, let alone poor service. The only way to survive in today’s economy is to offer superior customer service and quality, at a fair price. People will always be willing to pay a little more for true quality and a good buying experience. If not, Best Buy, Target, Rolex, etc… would not exist.
So the question you have to ask yourself is; do you have an Arrigo or a Treasure Island kind of philosophy? Pay attention to your customer’s needs, listen to their problems, and offer quality solutions, or somebody may be writing a blog comparing you to Treasure Island. (((Ouch)))
Thursday, July 21, 2011
High Performers Are Grown Not Found
I was asked the other day, “How do you find so many great employees”? The answer is you don’t! I am very proud to have the pleasure of working with some of the best people in the industry. They are not “employees” but team members, and I am as close to most of these people as I am with my own family. Actually when you think about it, I spend more hours a week with them, than I do with my own family. You have to feel this about your team if you ever want to be successful. Rarely will a person give you their unwavering loyalty if they don’t believe that you truly care about them first.
I have made it a point throughout my career to hire people with the right attitude and mind set, more than looking at candidates with the proper skill sets and resumes. I know that many companies focus on degrees, and the quality of the resume. However, they spend little time getting to know the person and their qualities. Over the years I have had my fair share of employees that were over qualified and under motivated thrust upon me, and was expected to continue offering the same level of customer experience and profitability. It seems more often to be the case that these types of individuals can’t seem to follow directions. They are incapable of learning anything, because in their mind they already know everything. Even after several discussions and warnings about what they are doing wrong or need to improve on, they only hear the compliments and ignore the constructive criticisms. Then when it comes time to remove them from the team, like the cancer that they are, they are shocked and don’t understand what they did wrong.
The problem with employees that boast an impressive background and years of experience is that along with those credentials comes an ego to match, and years of bad habits. It is much harder to break someone of their bad habits than to teach someone the right way upfront. I always preach to my team members, if you hire someone with the right attitude and train them, they will only know one way to do things, your way.
Now don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that my way is the only right way to do things. What I am saying is that everyone has different ways to get things accomplished, and different companies have different policies. If you have a particular structure of how things get done, you want everyone to follow that format. Along the way there are things that can be modified, improved, or changed, but that is done through collaboration and teamwork, not unilaterally by one person who is convinced of their preeminence.
So how do you find and grow the right team members? The easy answer is, find the people with the right personality traits and give them the proper training and support. You need to understand what you are looking for in order to find the right personality traits. For example: you wouldn’t want someone that is overly aggressive to handle customer service complaints, nor would you want someone who is an introvert to be your head sales person. There are many types of personality tests out there that can give you a good insight into a person’s personality traits. While I highly support these tests, I also think that you need to spend some time with a candidate before making a decision on hiring them since some people just don’t test well.
Too many companies put ads out and then have one, maybe two, half hour interviews and then make a decision. I challenge everyone, to have multiple interviews and take them out of the office and spend some real time getting to know who they are and how they will add value to your team.
Once you have decided on whom to add to your team, your job as a manager is to understand their goals and aspirations and help them achieve those objectives. You have to truly make their career a priority point of your efforts.
The final portion on growing a high performing team member is support. If you go back through my blog you will find a series called the “football management style”. This describes in detail what a manager needs to do to develop a high performing team. The same holds true for an individual, your team is only as strong as its weakest member and the lessons taught in that series applies to a team of one or more.
When I think of quality people it makes me think about tomatoes. What? Tomatoes? Stay with me here, I promise I haven’t lost my mind. A friend of mine went to Italy for a vacation. He sent me a post card from Florence raving about the tomatoes he had there. Over the next several days I received texts and emails from him raving about the food and the wine. Upon returning to the states we got together and he went on and on about how amazing the food was in Florence. He had never tasted anything like it before. I thought to myself, how great can it be? I mean we have some pretty good restaurants here and I came from an Italian family up-bringing, I’ve had real homemade Italian food.
Over the next several months, my friend kept telling me how he had to readjust to the “American food”. He claimed he was ruined for life after eating in Italy. It wasn’t much after that, I was watching a special on The Food Network about Italian food. They went into the whole history of Italian farmers, and how their family’s reputation rested upon the quality of their tomatoes. Generation after generation has cultivated the land and built their farms in the perfect weather conditions for growing tomatoes for the sole intent of producing the greatest tomatoes ever grown. They further went on to explain that Florence was the leader in producing the best tomatoes Italy had to offer. Things started to come together and I began to understand where my friend was coming from.
The next day I started thinking about the story. I also started thinking about the years of dedication it took to produce such a spectacular product. Then, as I do with everything, I started applying it to work related issues.
Consider how this applies to the above subject of hiring the right people. The chance of you going out and buying the perfect tomato right off the shelf (hiring the perfect team member) is unlikely. If you want perfection, you will have to put the effort into growing it. The first step is to make sure that you have the right seed (attitude & ethics). Then you must have the right soil and atmospheric conditions (working environment). Finally, you must tend to your tomato plant and put effort into supporting, pruning, and cultivating the plant and enriching the soil (support, training, re-investment, etc…). All of these lessons apply to growing a high performing team member. Only when you dedicate yourself to growing a premium product can you expect to cultivate excellence.
I have made it a point throughout my career to hire people with the right attitude and mind set, more than looking at candidates with the proper skill sets and resumes. I know that many companies focus on degrees, and the quality of the resume. However, they spend little time getting to know the person and their qualities. Over the years I have had my fair share of employees that were over qualified and under motivated thrust upon me, and was expected to continue offering the same level of customer experience and profitability. It seems more often to be the case that these types of individuals can’t seem to follow directions. They are incapable of learning anything, because in their mind they already know everything. Even after several discussions and warnings about what they are doing wrong or need to improve on, they only hear the compliments and ignore the constructive criticisms. Then when it comes time to remove them from the team, like the cancer that they are, they are shocked and don’t understand what they did wrong.
The problem with employees that boast an impressive background and years of experience is that along with those credentials comes an ego to match, and years of bad habits. It is much harder to break someone of their bad habits than to teach someone the right way upfront. I always preach to my team members, if you hire someone with the right attitude and train them, they will only know one way to do things, your way.
Now don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that my way is the only right way to do things. What I am saying is that everyone has different ways to get things accomplished, and different companies have different policies. If you have a particular structure of how things get done, you want everyone to follow that format. Along the way there are things that can be modified, improved, or changed, but that is done through collaboration and teamwork, not unilaterally by one person who is convinced of their preeminence.
So how do you find and grow the right team members? The easy answer is, find the people with the right personality traits and give them the proper training and support. You need to understand what you are looking for in order to find the right personality traits. For example: you wouldn’t want someone that is overly aggressive to handle customer service complaints, nor would you want someone who is an introvert to be your head sales person. There are many types of personality tests out there that can give you a good insight into a person’s personality traits. While I highly support these tests, I also think that you need to spend some time with a candidate before making a decision on hiring them since some people just don’t test well.
Too many companies put ads out and then have one, maybe two, half hour interviews and then make a decision. I challenge everyone, to have multiple interviews and take them out of the office and spend some real time getting to know who they are and how they will add value to your team.
Once you have decided on whom to add to your team, your job as a manager is to understand their goals and aspirations and help them achieve those objectives. You have to truly make their career a priority point of your efforts.
The final portion on growing a high performing team member is support. If you go back through my blog you will find a series called the “football management style”. This describes in detail what a manager needs to do to develop a high performing team. The same holds true for an individual, your team is only as strong as its weakest member and the lessons taught in that series applies to a team of one or more.
When I think of quality people it makes me think about tomatoes. What? Tomatoes? Stay with me here, I promise I haven’t lost my mind. A friend of mine went to Italy for a vacation. He sent me a post card from Florence raving about the tomatoes he had there. Over the next several days I received texts and emails from him raving about the food and the wine. Upon returning to the states we got together and he went on and on about how amazing the food was in Florence. He had never tasted anything like it before. I thought to myself, how great can it be? I mean we have some pretty good restaurants here and I came from an Italian family up-bringing, I’ve had real homemade Italian food.
Over the next several months, my friend kept telling me how he had to readjust to the “American food”. He claimed he was ruined for life after eating in Italy. It wasn’t much after that, I was watching a special on The Food Network about Italian food. They went into the whole history of Italian farmers, and how their family’s reputation rested upon the quality of their tomatoes. Generation after generation has cultivated the land and built their farms in the perfect weather conditions for growing tomatoes for the sole intent of producing the greatest tomatoes ever grown. They further went on to explain that Florence was the leader in producing the best tomatoes Italy had to offer. Things started to come together and I began to understand where my friend was coming from.
The next day I started thinking about the story. I also started thinking about the years of dedication it took to produce such a spectacular product. Then, as I do with everything, I started applying it to work related issues.
Consider how this applies to the above subject of hiring the right people. The chance of you going out and buying the perfect tomato right off the shelf (hiring the perfect team member) is unlikely. If you want perfection, you will have to put the effort into growing it. The first step is to make sure that you have the right seed (attitude & ethics). Then you must have the right soil and atmospheric conditions (working environment). Finally, you must tend to your tomato plant and put effort into supporting, pruning, and cultivating the plant and enriching the soil (support, training, re-investment, etc…). All of these lessons apply to growing a high performing team member. Only when you dedicate yourself to growing a premium product can you expect to cultivate excellence.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
The Shovel
The Shovel
A pretty funny thing happened between my wife and me, and I thought everyone might get a kick out of the story. It also shows the importance of training in the workplace.
One beautiful Florida day my wife and I were working outside in the yard. My wife loves gardening and I was pressure washing the driveway. My wife had decided that she wanted to dig up a large area of the yard to build a berm and add some new landscaping. This required quite a bit of digging with a shovel. She had little experience using a shovel for anything more than a few minutes at a time and was having a really hard time with the task she had undertaken. Seeing that she was struggling I walked over to her and asked her if she knew how to use a shovel. She looked at me with a snide grin and said “You are not funny. Just go back to your pressure cleaning.” So I walked away figuring she didn’t want my help.
After a couple more hours she was really struggling, covered with sweat, and obviously angry. Once again I walked over to her and said “Why don’t you let me show you how to use that shovel.” She said “seriously, if you don’t get away from me I am going to hit you over the head with this shovel.” Once again I walked away and figured you can’t teach a giraffe to water ski.
Later that night, my wife and I were having dinner, and she was complaining about how bad her back, hands, and feet, hurt from all the work she had done in the yard. I sympathized with her but explained she wouldn’t be in as much pain, if she would have used the proper form and techniques when digging. She looked at me with dismay and said “what?” I told her I had been trying to show her the proper way to use a shovel all day but she kept dismissing my attempts. She said she thought I was just being a smart @#$. (I guess I should let everyone know I do have a tendency of being that way from time to time.) She further stated, “who would have thought that you could use a shovel wrong?”
Of course by the end of dinner the whole thing was my fault, and I was the bad guy for not explaining that I wasn’t kidding, there really is a right way and a wrong way to use a shovel. I made up for my wicked ways by rubbing her back and feet and finishing the digging the next day.
The reason for this story is to illustrate the importance of training for your team. Just asking them if they need any help isn’t enough. To start with they may not think you are sincere, as my wife did in the above example. Secondly, they may be afraid to say they don’t know how to do something. Think about it, how many people would honestly say, “I don’t know how to use a shovel.” Sounds ridiculous, but in most cases people don’t know the correct way to use a shovel.
Training is one of the most important things you can do to promote the success of your team. You should always be training your team, from the newest member, to your most senior member. I have been doing this same job for most my life and I still don’t know everything, and I still enjoy training. There are many areas where I can expand my knowledge base, and even on subjects I think I’m pretty proficient in; I tend to learn something new. Then again, with my memory, maybe I just forgot it. Either way, it is good to refresh information you think you already know. I have always tried to act with the philosophy that I am training my replacement. I want to surround myself with the smartest and most driven people in the industry, and teach them how to move up the company’s corporate ladder, and eventually replace myself. Unfortunately, not everyone subscribes to this school of thought, and in fact many are afraid to give their team training for fear they will replace them. I believe that to be successful you need a team of people that want your job, and it is my responsibility to help them take it from me.
I hope you enjoyed the story and find value in its teaching.
A pretty funny thing happened between my wife and me, and I thought everyone might get a kick out of the story. It also shows the importance of training in the workplace.
One beautiful Florida day my wife and I were working outside in the yard. My wife loves gardening and I was pressure washing the driveway. My wife had decided that she wanted to dig up a large area of the yard to build a berm and add some new landscaping. This required quite a bit of digging with a shovel. She had little experience using a shovel for anything more than a few minutes at a time and was having a really hard time with the task she had undertaken. Seeing that she was struggling I walked over to her and asked her if she knew how to use a shovel. She looked at me with a snide grin and said “You are not funny. Just go back to your pressure cleaning.” So I walked away figuring she didn’t want my help.
After a couple more hours she was really struggling, covered with sweat, and obviously angry. Once again I walked over to her and said “Why don’t you let me show you how to use that shovel.” She said “seriously, if you don’t get away from me I am going to hit you over the head with this shovel.” Once again I walked away and figured you can’t teach a giraffe to water ski.
Later that night, my wife and I were having dinner, and she was complaining about how bad her back, hands, and feet, hurt from all the work she had done in the yard. I sympathized with her but explained she wouldn’t be in as much pain, if she would have used the proper form and techniques when digging. She looked at me with dismay and said “what?” I told her I had been trying to show her the proper way to use a shovel all day but she kept dismissing my attempts. She said she thought I was just being a smart @#$. (I guess I should let everyone know I do have a tendency of being that way from time to time.) She further stated, “who would have thought that you could use a shovel wrong?”
Of course by the end of dinner the whole thing was my fault, and I was the bad guy for not explaining that I wasn’t kidding, there really is a right way and a wrong way to use a shovel. I made up for my wicked ways by rubbing her back and feet and finishing the digging the next day.
The reason for this story is to illustrate the importance of training for your team. Just asking them if they need any help isn’t enough. To start with they may not think you are sincere, as my wife did in the above example. Secondly, they may be afraid to say they don’t know how to do something. Think about it, how many people would honestly say, “I don’t know how to use a shovel.” Sounds ridiculous, but in most cases people don’t know the correct way to use a shovel.
Training is one of the most important things you can do to promote the success of your team. You should always be training your team, from the newest member, to your most senior member. I have been doing this same job for most my life and I still don’t know everything, and I still enjoy training. There are many areas where I can expand my knowledge base, and even on subjects I think I’m pretty proficient in; I tend to learn something new. Then again, with my memory, maybe I just forgot it. Either way, it is good to refresh information you think you already know. I have always tried to act with the philosophy that I am training my replacement. I want to surround myself with the smartest and most driven people in the industry, and teach them how to move up the company’s corporate ladder, and eventually replace myself. Unfortunately, not everyone subscribes to this school of thought, and in fact many are afraid to give their team training for fear they will replace them. I believe that to be successful you need a team of people that want your job, and it is my responsibility to help them take it from me.
I hope you enjoyed the story and find value in its teaching.
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