May 2008
This month’s Ramble is quite random!
Ø How To Find Better Staff
Ø I Do Not Believe It!
Ø Rocking Horses and Apostrophes
Ø Navel Gazing
Ø Stellar Customer Service
Ø I’m Just Browsing
Ø What Does Your Voice Look Like?
Ø Circulation Details
Ø And finally
How To Find Better Staff
Want better staff? Simple! Believe in the ones you already have!
Remember last month where we saw how telling students their performances in tests were better/worse than reality caused their subsequent performance to be better/worse? Well, other studies have shown that telling the teacher that groups of new students were better/worse academically than was the case, had a similar effect. It seems that teachers adjusted their teaching up or down according to the perceived student ability. The result was that in subsequent tests the students’ performance went up or down in line with the teachers’ beliefs.
Assuming that the manager/leader operates in a coaching environment, it follows that believing in and encouraging employees will lead to higher performance. A word of caution though. Additional responsibility should not be ‘given’ by the manager; it should be ‘accepted’ by the employee.
I Do Not Believe It! (Said in a Victor Meldrew voice)
Apparently the UK has 3,000 business support schemes run by 2,000 organisations at a cost (to you and me) of £2.5 billion! And two thirds of that budget is spent on telling business where to find the advice they need … yes, that’s £1.67 billion just to point people in the right direction!
Rocking Horses and Apostrophes
At times I am sure that most of us suffer from ‘busy fool syndrome’. Or as American author Alfred Montapert put it, “Do not confuse motion and progress. A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress.”
Business associate Trevor Gay (www.simplicityisthekey.com) and I have been discussing effective use of time. I am inclined towards perfectionism and had a certain sympathy with BBC’s ‘The Apprentice’ team that spent three hours debating the use of an apostrophe in a piece of advertising material. Of course, important as is correct punctuation, they left themselves short of time to carry out even more important tasks. Consequently they were given the ‘benefit’ of Sir Alan Sugar’s views on their use of time.
Trevor had a tight deadline to meet for a magazine article. Knowing he only had a couple of hours he focussed on the task and finished it in an hour. I wonder whether we would all do better to allocate a limited, but realistic, amount of time to a task and then force ourselves to meet the challenge even if the odd apostrophe does go astray. (By the way, I do have a one-page guide on use of the apostrophe if anyone should need help in that direction.)
Navel Gazing
I’m sure we’ve all been there. We arrive outside a shop just after 9:00am only to find a notice telling us that the shop won’t open today until 10:00am because of staff training. Great, they train their staff. Not so great, they have forgotten that they are there to serve the customer from nine o’clock ... every day.
Recently I was shopping in my local town. I went into one shop and was studying the contents of a shelf when a manager/supervisor walked directly in front of me without a word of apology. She was followed by another employee who stood blocking my view of the products while they discussed the contents of an adjacent shelf. They then walked back in front of me and disappeared without any sign of recognition that I existed. I have a way of dealing with this sort of customer care (lack of). I took my business elsewhere.
It is so easy to focus on doing the filing, updating our websites, checking the shelves, briefing staff, generally improving our systems or whatever it might be and to completely overlook the sole reasons we exist. They are called customers!
Stellar Customer Service
Given what I have just written, you might be surprised to find that my award for stellar customer service goes to a company whose shop was closed when we visited! A few weeks back we went shopping in Solihull. One of the reasons was that my wife wanted to visit the Lakeland store (www.lakeland.co.uk) to buy a couple of items that didn’t warrant the cost of the mail order delivery charge.
When we arrived, the shop was closed for refurbishment! As she shops there from time to time, my wife was disappointed that she hadn’t been advised in advance of this closure. I know what you are thinking, but yes, this is the standard of customer care that Lakeland normally delivers!
On returning home she emailed them to express her disappointment. A return email from Lakeland said, “Sorry madam, but don’t worry, give us a call and we can mail order what you want and we’ll waive the delivery charge.” When my wife phoned she was told that, in fact, they would send the goods for free. Gosh!
A few days later, an empty padded bag is pushed through the door. It is muddy and appears to have a footprint on it. It is from Lakeland. Puzzled as to what can have happened to it we ponder what to do. It is rather embarrassing to tell Lakeland that their free goods haven’t arrived, and yet we feel that they deserve to know that there has been a problem.
My wife emailed the lady she had originally contacted. The lady was concerned as to what could have happened and wanted to talk to the delivery company, but in the meantime despatched another (free) parcel. This duly arrived safely.
We are so impressed with the customer care ethos (as we have been in the past) that my wife wrote to the MD to congratulate him and to praise his sales lady for the way she had dealt with the issue.
A few days later a picture postcard of the Lake District arrived. It was handwritten by the MD thanking my wife for her letter. Wow! Now that is what I call stellar customer care!
I wonder how many businesses begrudge giving anything for free and yet would happily spend thousands, even millions on advertising campaigns. I wonder which is the more effective approach to influencing the customer? I think I know.
Others winning Random Rambling awards for friendly and efficient customer service this month are A-Plan Insurance in Sheldon (www.aplan.co.uk), Hotelshop UK (www.hotelshopuk.com) and Majestic Wine (www.majestic.co.uk), although zero marks for Majestic’s difficult to read website colours.
I’m Just Browsing
On the odd occasion that we go into a shop and are asked if we need any help we often say, “No thanks, I’m just browsing.” Unless we are on holiday and it’s tipping it down and so we are really just in there to stay dry, this probably isn’t an entirely accurate statement.
What we are actually doing is searching for information of some sort. Maybe we are looking at different types of product. Perhaps we are checking prices. There can be a number of reasons. So why don’t we take up the offer of help?
Of course, we may be embarrassed to admit that we just want to know the price before going to look elsewhere, but the chances are we don’t want to be on the receiving end of a hard sell. When it comes down to it, we don’t trust the sales person to give us impartial and knowledgeable advice. And if we do accept the offer of help, the sales person can be reluctant to say what they really think. If we are determined to have a particular (inappropriate) product, it is a brave and honest advisor who will do their best to dissuade us. However …
A few years back I updated a cottage with a new kitchen and bathroom. The lounge had false beams on walls and ceiling and was rough plastered so that it looked like Christmas cake icing. I didn’t have the enthusiasm to strip it all off so I painted the plaster a salmon colour to reduce the cake effect and to tone down the contrast with the beams.
When I came to sell it I ‘interviewed’ several estate agents. One asked if I was intending to decorate the lounge! I explained that I had only recently done so. He said no more.
Another agent asked the same question. She was made of sterner stuff and made it very clear that I had got it wrong. I admired her honesty, repainted the walls in cream and hired her agency!
You may be well advised to take the brave option and try to save the customer from themselves. If they ignore your advice you may be better off without them because when it all goes wrong they will blame you anyway. Telling them, “I told you so” is unlikely to bring you much benefit either!
What Does Your Voice Look Like?
It is generally reckoned that the words we use only account for 7-10% of the effectiveness of our communication; the rest is down to tone of voice and body language. And the most important aspect of body language is eye contact.
People who have met Richard Branson, Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair or Princess Diana say that they felt like there was no one else in the room at the time; that they were the full focus of attention, even if the conversation was very short. The reason? Yes, you’ve got it, eye contact!
Want to keep the attention of everyone at a meeting? Look each of them in the eye briefly as you speak. For that instant just speak directly to them before looking at the next person. And swivel from the hips as you pan round the room, as this looks more natural than twisting at the neck.
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And Finally
Organisations frequently merge in the (nearly always mistaken) belief that this will somehow make them better. As always, the inimitable Tom Peters has a view on such follies, as expressed on the planned merger of Delta and Northwest to create the world’s largest airline:
“Really Big & Crappy + Really Big & Crappy = Shockingly, Gaspworthy Sucko Monumentus.”
Loosely translated from the American I think it means he isn’t impressed!
David