It’s Basic… Stupid!

July 10, 2012 //
13

Want to know how to increase sales, breed loyalty, and save money on expensive marketing? You would think everyone would. Even if you are not a business owner, or manager, you must realize that if you deal with clients it is in your interest to increase sales, breed loyalty, and save money on marketing.

However…

It never fails to amaze me how many businesses just throw it all away by forgetting the very basics of being in business. I hate buying anything – not because I don’t want to part with the money, I just want to make the process as simple as possible. I can’t be alone in this. Why does me – giving you my money – have to be so complicated?

The Basics:

1: Answer the G.D. phone!

Here is a revelation. If your phone is ringing, and it is going unanswered, then by definition you are not answering the most basic needs of your customers. They actually WANT to talk to you – the least you can do is answer. Please note: voice-mail is not answering a phone call. If you are paying a receptionist to put calls through to your voice-mail all day, why not just get a automated phone tree to do it for you! People really hate those, but at least you’ll save some money on the receptionist, and clients will appreciate the honesty of you not wanting to talk to them.

2: Answer Emails!

See all the above, and…

Email is easy! I’m not expecting an instant response. I have not tied you up on the phone for a couple of minutes trying to give you my money. I am all but inviting you to make me wait. You don’t even have to read my terrible handwriting – I’ve typed everything out for you! But please have the courtesy to at least think about answering my email with 24 hours (I’ll even give you more time if it is a holiday or a weekend). To be honest, there is not a lot of excuse for not answering within a couple of hours – but I understand, who needs customers!

3: Don’t insist that I use your website if a: has the wrong information on it, b: has out of date information on it, or c: has no information on it at all.

4: Don’t ignore me in person…

You know, I hate pushy sales people just as much as the next person; but there has to be a happy medium between being accosted every few feet in a store and being unable to find anyone or feeling you are interrupting a social event with your pesky request to give them money.

5: The Tyranny of Choice:

“I’d like to buy a widget to fix my whatsit”

“What kind of widget?”

“Don’t really care as long as it fixes my whatsit!”

“What color of widget would sir like?”

“Eh, red I guess…”

“We don’t have any red widgets sir.”

“Well I don’t really mind what color it is I only want to fix my whatsit – what colors do you have?”

“*sighs* I’ll go look for you. We have X widgets in green or blue, Y widgets in blue or black, and a Z widgets in green and black.”

“What is the difference between an X, Y, or Z widget?”

“Well they come in different colors and the prices are different.”

“Is that it?!”

“I’ll have to get Terry from technical Support to talk to you about that, please hold…”

“But…”

“This is Terry, I’m sorry I can’t get to the phone but please leave your message after the beep and I’ll get back to you as soon as I feel like it… maybe.”

*click*


As I explored in the post Marketing from the Ground Up, what a business sells and what their customers buy are not necessarily the same thing. The staff member in the above example is selling (and I use that term in its loosest possible sense) widgets; but the customer is trying to buy a fix for his whatsit If the business aligned its goals with that of the customer the interaction would have been over  in seconds.

6: Just sucking in general.

Do I really have to call / email you 2 -3 times to get anything done? Could you at least pretend like you are pleased to see me when I walk through the door? How about sweeping or mopping the floor once in a while? If you know you are about to screw up – how about a little warning? And if you are really feeling like pushing the boat out – how about an apology for the screw ups when they happen!

You know, the customer is not always right but the basic concept of a customer can’t be wrong all the time.

For your viewing pleasure, Monty Python open a cheese shop and get a customer!

Categories Business, Customer Service, Management, Marketing

Book Review: The Carrot Principle by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton

June 10, 2012 //
0

“When I make a mistake I’m recognized 100 percent of the time; when I do something great, I’m not recognized 99 percent of the time.” – A complaint from a hotel industry employee identified  in The Carrot Principle.

At times it seems like books on leadership and management are a dime a dozen. Yet it is rare to find a book that deals with the traditionally warm and fuzzy areas of recognition and people management that actually tout the results of studies and delves into statistics. That is what makes The Carrot Principle different.

“I’ve come to realize success doesn’t come from being a powerful leader; it comes from leading powerful people.” – The Carrot Principle.

Based on a 10-year study of 200,000 managers and employees, The Carrot Principle’s central theme is that managers who provide frequent and effective recognition generated significantly higher levels of employee engagement, productivity, and retention. Of particular interest, however, is that recognition levels also have an impact on operating margins. This takes The Carrot Principle out of the fuzzy box and into the profit and loss one. What is quite startling about the results of the 10 year study is that the need for recognition by employees from their employers is a global requirement but that the nature of that recognition changes from country to country.

In a bid to seem like a serious business book, The Carrot Principle can at times be a bit on the dry side – we are talking statistics after all for the first couple of chapters, but the book more than makes up for it in the later chapters. Perhaps the most surprising thing about the carrot principle is that the book actually gives useful ideas and tools for implementing its suggestions.Charts, templates and lists and lists of suggestions are all here. My particular favorite section of the book deals with all the usual excuses that managers give for not recognizing their employees and knocks them down one by one – including budgeting and complaints from upper management.

If I have to pick a fault with the book it would be that it is very much written with the large corporation in mind. This, perhaps is not surprising given that O.C. Tanner, the appreciation consultants behind the  research for the book and its supporting documentation, are writing for their clients. However, this is a minor quibble in an otherwise excellent book and a superb set of tools.

(Clicking on the cover above will take you to the book’s Amazon page and contribute to my book buying habit / problem.)

Categories Books, Business, Leadership, Management

Compounding the Issue

May 31, 2012 //
0

The legal status of compounding, particularly in Arizona, has come into sharper focus of late with the never ending stream of pharmaceutical products going on back order which has left compounding pharmacies as the only source for several medications.

After numerous articles appeared in the AZVMA’s magazine regarding the legal status of compounding multiple people asked for my input and so I decided to reach out and do a little digging. Because I did not explicitly state that I would be writing about this situation when I talked with various people, I have decided not to quote anyone. Therefore this post is purely my opinion as to the current state of regulations in the State of Arizona and how they are interpreted by the various boards and agencies. Some of these issues may well transfer to other states, but regardless I would urge anyone with an interest in this subject to contact the agencies most directly responsible – including the agencies in Arizona (in your State or Providence you may find that not only are you under the State VMA practice act but also must follow the Pharmacy board Practice Act – which is the situation in AZ). I have no great expertese in this area at all other than an interest in the subject. From my personal experience and that of the friends and colleagues who helped collate this information for this blog post all the various agencies and players has been very open and honest about the current state of play in Arizona regaurding compounding.

What is Compounding?

This is a surprisingly complicated questions to answer. In essence, compounding is the act of changing the nature of a FDA approved pharmaceutical product. Adding a flavoring to a medication, crushing a tablet and combining it with a liquid medication, and obviously creating a medication from a set of ingredients are all examples of compounding. Interestingly, taking a liquid inject-able medication and dispensing that medication for use orally is also considered compounding as the method of FDA Approved administration is being changed.

So what is the difference between compounding and “off label use?”

It is my understanding that “off label” essentially means using a product in a way that is consistent with the labeling of that product but is not explicitly defined. For example, using an inject-able medication that is licensed for dogs as an inject-able medication for a cat would be an example of off label use. However, taking that same inject-able medication for dogs and using it as an oral medication for a cat would be an example of compounding.

It should also be noted that the “off label” use of medications carries considerable risk to the prescribing veterinarian and it is always recommended to get the owners express consent and be sure to check the latest literature about using any product in this way.

Can a Veterinary Hospital Compound for its own internal Use?

Technically no. Only a pharmacy can compound, but it does seem that the major issue for the Pharmacy board and the State Veterinary board is the dispensing and re-dispensing, of compounded medications.

What is the legal issue with dispensing compounded medications?

TITLE 4. PROFESSIONS AND OCCUPATIONS

CHAPTER 23. BOARD OF PHARMACY

 

Supp. 11-4

 

Authority: A.R.S. § 32-1904 et seq.

ARTICLE 1. ADMINISTRATION

Section

 

Neither the pharmacy permittee nor a pharmacist employed by the pharmacy permittee provides a compounded pharmaceutical product to a pharmacy, medical practitioner, or other person for dispensing or distributing except that a compounded pharmaceutical product may be provided to a medical practitioner to administer to a patient of the medical practitioner if each container is accompanied by the written list required in subsection (I)(5) and has a label that includes the following:

a. The pharmacy’s name, address, and telephone number;

b. The pharmaceutical product’s name and the information required in subsection (I)(4);

c. A lot or control number;

d. A beyond-use-date based upon the pharmacist’s professional judgment, but not more than the maximum guidelines recommended in the Pharmacy Compounding Practices chapter of the official compendium unless there is published or unpublished stability test data that shows a longer period is appropriate;

e. The statement “Not For Dispensing;” and

f. The statement “For Office or Hospital Administration Only.”

The upshot of above article is that medical practitioners, such as veterinarians, in the state of Arizona cannot purchase a medication from a compounding pharmacy and then repackage it for sale – dispensing in other words. A compounded medication can be bought and used internally but if a patient needs compounded medications to go home they need to be dispensed directly by the compounding pharmacy.

What does the Future Hold?

The re-dispensing of compounded medications by medical practitioners, according to the Arizona Pharmacy Board, will never be allowed. However, veterinarians being able to compound medications themselves and then dispense them to their clients does have a brighter future.

The AZVMA are planning to submit legislation to ask for a compounding exemption for veterinarians. However, this legislation has not been written and its passage is by no means guaranteed. It is also worth noting that if an exception for veterinarians is passed there will be significant regulations that practitioners will have to comply with to allow for the creation of compounded medications. There are also potentially areas where Federal law will trump State law with regards to compounding.

So Where does this Leave Us?

I have been informed by several reliable sources that both the pharmacy board and the veterinary medical board are not currently actively seeking out compounding cases to find veterinarians in violation. There is an understanding that compounding should be a tool available to Arizona veterinarians and it is considered a significant priority to have the law changed. However, it should be understood that should issues arise it is against the law and is potentially a source of liability.

The re-dispensing of compounded medications, however, is a black and white issue. Patients who need a compounded medication must have it dispensed by the compounding pharmacy.

This post is only meant as a starting point for your own research on the subject, and as a primer as far as the various issues.

As usual, comments, questions, and general abuse are always welcome.

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Categories Arizona, Regulations, Veterinary

Killing Kittens with QR Codes

May 1, 2012 //
12

A QR Code - I dare you to scan it!

QR Codes are those funny square barcodes that have popping up on magazine ads all over the place for couple of years now. The idea is to allow an easy way for smart phone users to enter a web address or contact information by just “scanning” the code on the printed page. A paper hyperlink if you like. Unfortunately, there seems to be huge misunderstanding about how QR Codes are actually used in the real world. This leads to an unsatisfactory user experience which hurts the brands involved and the entire concept of QR codes. QR codes have enough problems without brands making things worse!

QR codes are a short term fix until smart phones are clever enough to read and follow printed links for themselves. This technology is very nearly there, but until it is all the way there we are stuck with QR Codes. To make matters worse, there are two competing systems: the Microsoft Tag and the more conventional black and white QR codes that everyone but the Microsoft fan boys use.

There are four huge implementation mistakes that I see on a daily basis – I have got into the habit scanning every QR code I see in the hopes of seeing something cool, but mostly so I can feel superior to whomever implemented yet another bad QR code.

QR Code Mortal Sin #1 – Making the QR code too small to scan

Yes, I kid you not. Considering how expensive ad space is in most magazines and newspapers it always amazes me when I see QR codes that are so small that my iPhone 4S (arguably one of the most advanced smart phones currently out) cannot focus on them. I do understand that ads get re-sized for different magazines and different months but that copy often stays the same, but it all just feels lazy. Get rid of the QR code for crying out loud if you are going to perform a major re-size on a regular basis. Think of it as printing the wrong phone number or web address.

QR Code Mortal Sin #2 – Not having a landing page that is optimized for mobile devices.

What is the basic concept of a QR Code? To get a user to take out their smart phone and try to interact with your brand! So why make the experience horrible by making them constantly re-size and peer at a tiny writing on a tiny screen?!

QR Code Mortal Sin #3 – Using QR codes in Stupid Places.

Why, oh why, oh why, would you put a QR code in your email signature? Who is it for?! Are you really expecting a user to open up an email from you on their computer, see the QR code in your email signature, and then get out their smart phone and then try and scan the code from screen of your PC?! How about a simple link in your signature instead that you can just click on, or when you get the email on your smart phone, just touch! Because you can add a QR Code to your emails doesn’t not mean you should. This also goes for using a QR code for a picture on social media sites or on billboards on the side of the freeway.

QR Code Mortal Sin #4 – QR Codes that give a page not found error (also known as a complete waste of everyone’s time).

*sigh*

Nobody wants to do this!

As a little experiment, I scanned all nine QR Codes in the May 2012 edition of Veterinary Practice News that flopped onto my desk the other day. I used my iPhone 4S and the QR Reader for iPhone App by Tap Media (one of the most popular readers on the App Store) and if I encountered problems I also tried Red Laser App that includes a QR code reader. For Microsoft Tags I used Microsoft’s own reader App.

I only one bad URL during this test, and that was solved by using a different app do kudos to everyone involved for avoiding the most heinous of the QR Code mortal sins! Unfortunately, the new app just brought me to a slightly more involved , but admittedly mobile friendly, version of the same ad I was already looking at  (this actually happened to me twice during this experiment). Points for mobile friendly chaps, but a little originality would not go amiss either. I only had one QR code that was too small and therfore impossible to scan with any of the apps – they shall remain nameless but will surely burn in hell. Sadly, five of the QR Codes I scanned led to non optimized sites that were difficult to interact with on a mobile device. That leads me to believe that someone in a meeting somewhere said “we need to have QR codes on our ads because they are cool,” but did not actually think about what they were actually going to use the QR Codes for.

One company, however, did a really nice job however: Erchonica – who make cold lasers for wound therapy. They used both a standard QR Code and the Microsoft Tag which led to an optimized YouTube page with videos of Erchonica’s lasers in action. Very simple idea , and gave the reader something that they could not get with the printed page – video. Interestingly enough, another QR Code I scanned also took me to a YouTube page – however it had not been defined as a mobile page which seemed like significant missed opportunity. So nice job Erchonica – I even watched the video!

The rather nice implimentation of QR codes on the Erchonia ad in this month's Veterinary Practice News.

The bottom line of all this is that QR Codes can be a great little tool but are seriously misused. This hurts wide scale adoption and wastes a lot of time, energy, and money. As for the title of this post? I invite you to watch the great Scott Stratton, who is responsible for my current obsession with QR Codes, on the subject.

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Categories Content Marketing, Marketing, Veterinary

Dr. House’s Gifts to Veterinary Medicine

April 3, 2012 //
3

As House M.D. ends its eighth and final season I wanted to say thank you to the show for a number of things as they relate to my professional world and give it a (little) bit of a hard time for couple of others. I should make perfectly clear that I am a huge fan and that apart from a couple of minor missteps the show has been amazing television. I apologize for any spoilers!

Parasites and Zoonosis

I freely admit that I do not watch a lot of hospital shows. Apart from the odd episode of ER, House is really the only medical show I have had much time for. But House, as far as I’m aware, has had more than its fair share of parasites. From a veterinary perspective this is amazingly refreshing. As someone who seems to spend their life talking about zooanosis to doctors, staff, and the public, it is great to see some worse case scenarios played out in fiction, with a grounding in scientific fact.

Any one remember the episode with the giant tapeworm? I bet if you’ve seen the episode and your pet(s) have ever had tapeworms you won’t soon forget it. Or there is the episode autistic boy with roundworms, the team members infected with Naegleria fowleri, the homeless woman with Rabies, or the woman who catches Bubonic Plauge from her pet dog. Admittedly these are all extreme cases, but the mere fact that they are on television in some ways is a minor miracle considering that most people do not even want to talk about parasites and zoonosis.

So thank you Dr. House for spreading the word about zoonosis and parasites. Every little helps!

The Diagnostic Process

One of the great gifts that House M.D. gave the veterinary, and probably the wider medical community at large, was giving the public a greater understanding of the diagnostic process. Admittedly, House’s methods are often very unsound, but that fact the he and his team regularly are a loss for what is going on is extremely refreshing. We all in the veterinary profession have heard the complaints:

“Why do you have to do that Parvo test?”
“Why do you need that bloodwork?”
“You did that expensive bloodwork and there is nothing wrong!”

Even a casual viewing of House M.D. shows what is supposed to be one of the world’s foremost diagnosticians performing tests that come out negative and going down blind alleys searching for an elusive diagnosis. By bring the diagnostic process into the living room, House has helped acquaint the public with the idea that a certain level of trial and error are to be expected in any evidence based search for answers.

On more than one occasion I have used the show to help explain to a frustrated client why it took three separate diagnostic tools or lab tests to get diagnosis and why we couldn’t just immediately go to the correct one. So thank you Dr. House for helping to shed light on the diagnostic process!

Superstar Bad Behavior

I went into at some length in a post a couple of months back about what I call “The Steve Jobs Effect.” This is this the phenomena of some doctors, and other professionals, feeling that because they are so good at what they do, it excuses almost any level of behavior. Now House M.D. is very much fiction and levels to which the character of House delves would lead to his dismissal by pretty much any employer – never mind at a medical facility. The sarcasm, plain offensive behavior, and even harrasment, does make for great television, but, although it rarely reaches the epic proportions of House – it does happen in real world.

So not so much thanks, Dr. House, for reenforcing the stereo type that great skill can excuse bad behavior!

The Cuddy Episode

Every now and again on a long running T.V. show the writers shake things up by imagining the world they have created from a different perspective. On the show House M.D. this took the form of a very underrated episode from the perspective of Dr. Lisa Cuddy, the Dean of Medicine (Hospital Administrator to you and I).

The episode (5 – 9), shows the administrator doing very administrator type things – facing off with a vendor, placating the Board, dealing with major H.R. headaches (being short staffed and theft). The episode also deals with the thorny issue of billing and a patient who does not feel they should pay their bill (sound familiar). It is great to see these challenges, admittedly extremely exaggerated for added drama, and that these types of issues as just as much the part of running a medical facility as what the viewers watch Dr. House do every week.

I do have a problem with the episode however. After doing a great job of explaining to a patient why their bill is fair, the episode ends with Dr. Cuddy ripping up the patient’s check. I understand that it is supposed to show how kind-hearted the star of the episode is, but it undermines everything she states earlier in the episode. I also don’t buy that the character would do this.

So thank you Dr. House, sort of, for a great episode showing the role of administrators everywhere.

I, like a lot of people, am going to miss House M.D. But I am grateful that we’ve been able to have eight great seasons of television, and even more grateful that an intelligent show has shown some of the issues that I personally and professionally care about. So long Dr. House, for all your faults, we’ll still really miss you.

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Categories Management, medical, Veterinary

The Cost of Servant Leadership

March 10, 2012 //
1

“There is great joy in leading with authority, which is serving others by meeting their legitimate needs.”

– James C. Hunter, The Servant

For a large part of my management career I have been a strong believer, practitioner, and proponent of Servant Leadership. Servant Leadership is pretty much self explanatory. In a nutshell, a servant leader leads by serving those for whom he is responsible for – employees and customers. In last month’s post we talked about what I call “the Steve Jobs Effect.” Servant Leadership, depending on your point of view, could be called the opposite of “The Steve Jobs Effect.”

However, recently I’ve encountered a darker side to Servant Leadership…

As a servant leader, I believe it is my responsibility to ensure that fairness, standards, and openness are at the center of what I, as a manager, do. I believe it is my job to try and bring out the best in people. To remove the road blocks that staff members might encounter in performing their jobs or specific tasks, or empowering them with tools so that they can overcome those road blocks themselves. To me, Servant Leadership means that, fundamentally, I believe in people. It means that I have faith that people want to do a good job and respond better to encouragement, and a fair process, than threats, shouting, and summary dismissals.

But what happens when certain employees don’t, despite your best efforts, respond to this process? What happens when employees actually consider the process, and therefore you, fundamentally flawed? What happens when trust, fairness, and even faith, turn out to be misplaced?

The answer, of course, is simple – nothing.

While individual failures are disappointing, and extremely disheartening, they are part of the process and they are the cost of servant leadership. Nobody is perfect – including servant leaders – and not everyone will necessarily understand what you are trying to do, or why. However, if you have surrounded yourself with people who you have treated with respect, fairness, and who tried to make a success in both their lives and their jobs they themselves will be the ones to remind you – verbally or by their actions – of a simple fact:

Doing the right thing, whether it is ultimately right or wrong, is never a bad thing.

Certainly we should learn from our mistakes, but individual failures in a sea of success should not make you give up or consider the odd failure anything other than an unfortunate side-effect of the process. To all those disheartened, discouraged, and disappointed, servant leaders out there please don’t loose the faith. If servant leadership was easy, it wouldn’t be special, they wouldn’t call it leadership,  it wouldn’t cost anything, and it wouldn’t have value.


For those who wish to know more about Servant Leadership I strongly recommend James C. Hunter’s The Servant.

If you have any leadership crisis of faith stories or issues please feel free to comment below.

Categories Books, Business, Leadership, Management

Managing the Unmanageable

January 31, 2012 //
5

We’ve all heard the excuses:

“They just care so much…they are very passionate.”

“You should have seen them a few years back – they are really mellow now in comparison to then!”

“They have a lot on their plate at the moment.”

The bottom line is that a lot of people, in a lot of businesses, get away with being badly behaved because of who they are. Maybe they bring in more business than anyone else, maybe they have been around for a very long time, maybe your business genuinely does depend on their work. None of this, however, overcomes the fact that behavior that would not be tolerated from most members of staff is quite often considered part of who these “superstars” are.

This phenomenon can be called “The Steve Jobs Effect.”

I’ve been reading Walter Isaacson’s excellent biography of Jobs. For all that I admire the man for his dedication to the user experience, and to creating great products (I’m writing this on an iPad, while listening to an iPod, and checking Twitter on my iPhone), I can’t help feeling that I would have had nothing to do with the man had I met him while he was alive. That is not a very popular opinion these days, but even if you ignore all the dubious dealings, and less than perfect life choices, it is difficult to argue that Jobs was anything other than a horrible person to work for.

Tantrums, routinely losing ones temper, and humiliating those who report to you, are not how most people want to be treated, and at the end of the day, as a management or leadership strategy, it does not work and it is not acceptable.

There are essentially three ways to deal with people who’s idea of management is to induce fear and to shout louder than anyone else.

1: Accept it.

2: Fire them.

3: Work with them to improve.

It is interesting to note that Steve Jobs experienced all three.

As mentioned above, just accepting bad behavior from any employee is the road to ruin.

Firing them is a viable option, but since they are a superstar, you will have to think very carefully as to the ramifications of termination.

Working with them on their behavior is really the only option unless you feel it is either you or them.

In reality, most businesses are going to accept bad behavior from their “superstar” employees, but ultimately this does no one any good as the employee will probably end up being fired for going too far. Not to mention opening up the business accusations of creating a hostile work environment. It is important to understand that this kind of behavior is about the person themselves – not the people that surround them and are the aledged triggers. Bad behavior makes the badly behaved feel good. It is a way of telling themselves that they are doing something without actually having to do anything other than shout or throw things.

The challenge, of course, is to try and work with these individuals to limit the worst of the behavior and solve the underlying issues that set them off in the first place. This does require a certain amount of “pandering” for want of a better expression, but since the alternative is to fire them you do what needs to be done. It is important to note, however, that the disciplinary action, up-to and including termination has to be an available option, and as a manager you have to be prepared to use this should the situation demand it.

I believe, that the tools you use to work with the badly behaved “superstar” are pretty similar to those of working with an under performing employee. Coaching sessions, inserting yourself into issues before they turn into explosions, and winning enough trust and respect from both sides to come up with workable solutions. If you can show your badly behaved “superstar” that praise, cooperation, and the basic social niceties (please and thank you go a long way) actually work, and makes their lives better, then hopefully they will adopt some of those tactics as their own.

I am however a realist. I can complain that the Arizona Sun is hot, and I can do things to modify the environment to lessen its impact on me, but I cannot change its nature. Many badly behaved “superstar” employees will fall back into bad habits if you do not stay on top of things and call them behavior that crosses the line. It is important not to back down – but also not to fall into their way of handling conflict. They are wrong, you are right, and you have to have the courage of your convictions.

Ultimately, the badly behaved “superstar” employee may have be a superstar somewhere else. The chances are the superstar of your business is not Steve Jobs. If they are, maybe you need to be somewhere else.

The great Malcolm Tucker from the BBC’s superb “The Thick of It” showing how not to people manage. WARNING: Very strong language!

Do you have any experiences with  the badly behaved superstar – Care to share?

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Categories Business, Leadership, Management, Uncategorized

Being a Customer Sucks!

January 3, 2012 //
2

Why does being a customer suck?

Does it at your business?

Are you being honest?

How would you know if it did?

What happens when you walk into a restaurant you’ve never been to before? Do you stand there for a moment wondering whether you need to seat yourself or wait to be seated? Do you go up to the counter and order? How open are they going to be to changing one of their dishes to meet your needs?

O.K., enough question marks.

As a restaurant owner, or any business owner for that matter, it is obvious how your business works to you, but your clients almost certainly don’t walk through those doors every day -mores the pity.

Education of the client is often held up as a key component in a lot of service industries to solve these issues (yes veterinarians, I’m looking at you). Our job, as delivers of services however, should be to hold our clients hands through this process and make it as painless as possible. Clients should not need to become experts in how to deal with us, or the industries in which we work.

As I discussed at some length in this post about marketing and branding, what you sell is not necessarily what your clients are buying. The customer experience should reflect this. I had a recent customer service experience that brought this all into sharper light. Because the owner of the business is a friend, I’m not going to go into that particular experience directly, but it did cause me to re-evaluate what I do, how I respond to clients who do have issues, and do some thinking at length about what “customer service” actually is. Instead, let me tell you about my bathroom…

A while back I had a bathroom tiled. I spent a significant amount of time picking out exactly the right shade of tile that I wanted and the size. At the end of day one of the installation however, I come to find out that the tiles are actually two slightly different shades. I talk with the installer and the answer is “Well that is how they come – It is to give the effect of real marble.” Well, I did not want two tone tiles, I wanted them all the same color. Who is right here, and who is wrong? The store, and the installer, are both perfectly right – the tiles are manufactured that way and I’m sure that for most installations it would have made lots of sense, but that was not what I was purchasing! I was purchasing my bathroom tiled in a particular shade!

Interestingly, I was was in a locally owned and operated store a little while later and happened to look at their tiles. Their display was actually setup so that for tiles of the type I was looking at, all the shades of the same batch of tile were shown together as a single piece rather than just an individual tile. This removed the “different shade shock” that I had experienced when I had bought tiles for my bathroom.

Other than showing my bad taste in tiles, what does this experience tell us? It tells us that it is very difficult to forget information or view things as if we don’t know about that information. Chip and Dan Heath, in their book “Switch – How to Change things when change is hard,” have an excellent exercise that you can use with staff – or even just friends – that shows this in action. Give a volunteer a piece of paper with the name of a very common tune written on it and get them to ‘knock’ out the rhythm of the tune on a table and see if the others in the room can guess what tune it is. Try it with a number of different tunes and people. Those knocking the tune out will find it really hard to understand why everyone else in the room can’t guess correctly. The reason for this is that they are hearing the tune in their own heads along with the knocking. They have knowledge which everyone else in the room does not. Not only are they unable to communicate that knowledge, but they don’t understand how or why everyone else in room does not have that knowledge – it is an alien perspective to them.

This is just like my tile sales man and installer who could not understand why I did not know what they knew about tiles. It is also the same phenomenon that has you hesitant and unsure in the lobby of a restaurant you’ve never been to before – the big sign saying “please wait to be seated” can be a huge relief. I’d also argue that this is one of the reasons why chains are so successful. Familiarity is easy!

So what does this all tell us?

Well perhaps we need to start really listening to our clients and thinking about their experience and how it is not our experience. It might sound trite but customer service is about serving the customer. If we have a lot of education deliver to a client, perhaps the problem is that we have not made things simple enough. Of course, if the client wants more information they need to have it, and we need to have the resources to hand to help deliver. But we also know, from numerous studies, that very little information is actually retained when we deliver large amounts of it in person. We also know that lots of choices actually result is less decisions being made.

Clients are not stupid, but they don’t have, and shouldn’t need, a manual to use our businesses or get the services we are trying to deliver to them. One of the reasons why Apple’s iPod, iPhone and iPad are so successful is that anyone can use them from day one with the minimum of instruction. Our businesses and services should be the same way.

Being a customer can suck – but it is our job to ensure that it doesn’t!

 

A check list for removing suckyness from the customer experience

  • If we have have to explain things over and over how can we stop the need for explaining?

  • Do we get frustrated with our clients lack of knowledge – perhaps they are not the problem?

  • What do our clients complain about?

  • How successful are we with our recommendations?

  • Do we have compliance issues?

  • When issues arise, how could they have been avoided?

If you have any additions to this list, or have any customer service stories to share, please let me know in the comments!

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Categories Business, Customer Service, Leadership, Management, Marketing, Veterinary

The State of Customer Service (infographic)

December 28, 2011 //
2

Found this great infographic  (many thanks to ClickSoftware).

Categories Customer Service, Management

Book Review: Violated Online – How Online Slander Can Destroy Your Life & What You Must Do to Protect Yourself, by Steven Wyer

December 17, 2011 //
0

 

Violated Online is a interesting book for a number of reasons. But by far the most interesting thing is the quandary at it’s heart.

Wyer runs a company that specializes in Search Engine Reputation Management (SERM) and Violated Online is essentially a 200 page pitch for the SERM industry. In case there is any doubt, SERM is essentially the same as the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) practiced by online marketers to ensure that search engine results reflect the results that they want.

The fundamental idea at the heart of Violated Online is that we live in a connected world and that information is easy to find or publish. That this world can be a scary place, and that things have changed, should really come as no surprise to anyone.

It is hard not to feel while reading this work that the author would rather go back to the “good-old-days.” By its own admission, Violated Online states that a lot of personal information was always available offline, but that now this information is a lot easier to access and somehow this makes the internet is a bad thing. It is interesting to reflect that only 10 years ago we gladly gave our social security numbers to department store clerks, or any other number of people, to bring up account information. Just like we have all learned to control our personal information, we also have to take responsibility for our online presence.

To be fair, Violated Online, makes this exact argument. However, most people reading it will only take away from the near hysterical tone is the idea that to protect themselves they need to stay off the internet or employ a SERM company. For example, some of the advise is practically useless for the average person – registering every single web address permutation of you and your families name. Great advise for a business, or someone in the public eye, but more than a little over the top for most people. It is easy to forget that in the days before the internet, if the major media misquoted or focused on an individual, there was very little recourse. The internet can magnify these problems but it also provides an avenue for correcting those mistakes. Violated Online makes no such comparisons or admissions.

However, the biggest issue with this book is that on the one hand it bemoans that individuals can be anonymous online, and then rails against social media’s use of proper names and identities. You can’t have it both ways! The online identity issue is significant, but it needs to be handled with education about when you can and can’t rely on online information and who posted it.

Violated Online is an important book and is well worth reading, despite its problems. Just don’t buy into the end of the world scenarios and take away its most important message – take control of your life online before someone else does.

(Clicking on the cover above will take you to the book’s Amazon page and contribute to my book buying habit / problem.)

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Categories Books, Marketing, Search, Social Media
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