January 2009
December disappeared in a blur without me finding the opportunity to get the boots on for a Ramble. And January is heading the same way, so a belated Happy New Year! This month’s Ramble is mainly about communication.
- Communicate!!!!!
- First Take One Horse ...
- Concrete Customer Care
- Unhelpful Advice
- Catwalk Communications
- Naked Virgins
- Circulation Details
- And Finally
Communicate!!!!!
“Keeping customers informed may be the premier element of good service.” Tom Peters.
Yes! Yes! Yes! As Basil Fawlty once put it - “Next contestant, Mrs. Sybil Fawlty from Torquay. Specialist subject - the bleeding obvious.” Good communications seems such an obvious business essential and yet it feels more like getting blood out of a stone to get a communication from some businesses at times.
Back in March 2008, one Ramble item was titled, ‘I’ve called to say nothing’. I pointed out that calling a customer gives us the opportunity to tell them that we are ‘on the case’ even if we don’t have a conclusion to whatever we might be doing. I expressed the view that it is better to over-communicate than under-communicate. I still take that view but I would add that the quality of the communication is important. We tend to do business with people we know and trust. Frequent communication is a way of building trust and a sound relationship with the customer. But before you communicate, put yourself in the shoes of that customer. Is the communication likely to be welcomed, even helpful, or will it be an irritation? As US marketing guru, Seth Godin, puts it, “Following up on an impersonal spam email is twice as dumb as sending the first one. Invest the time to do it right the first time.” (Note: Please use the ‘delete from circ’ link if you don’t wish to go on any more Rambles!)
First Take One Horse …
A while back I read a fascinating piece on how to improve your ability to communicate with people in your team. In the Fresh Business Thinking newsletter Brian Chernett told of a day that he had spent with his team learning rapport from a horse. To work with a horse, you first need to create rapport.
To quote from the Horses For Courses website (
Chernett goes on to say, “I’m a strong believer in continuous change and improvement. Just as you cannot ask horses to do anything that involves sudden change, so it is true of business and the people in your team. Change is best when it happens naturally and progressively. If you create a sudden change, it may not only be the horses that will be frightened.”
Concrete Customer Care
I read this story on Trevor Gay’s Simplicity blog (www.simplicityitk.blogspot.com). It is so extraordinary that I’ll repeat it here. It concerns a couple who went on holiday to Crete. The husband was in a wheelchair and so they had requested a ground floor room at their hotel. When they arrived they discovered that there had been a mix up and they were in an upper room. The hotel manager was able to sort this out and allocate a ground floor room. However, there was still a problem getting in and out of the hotel. Much to their astonishment, when they got up next morning they discovered that the manager of this family run hotel had had a concrete access ramp built.
As you can imagine, all the original problems were overlooked when this amazing story of customer care was recounted. Communications do go wrong sometimes but it’s what you do next that really counts.
Unhelpful Advice
Advice by its very nature is usually focussed on how we could do better, how we could improve. The only problem is that the recipient of the words of wisdom may be left with the impression that they are doing everything wrong. I saw it recently in a business forum where someone asked for a view on their new website. By the time a number of people had aired their views, the person asking the question was totally demoralised.
I experienced the potentially negative aspect of advice recently. I was due to deliver a short speech. I planned to do it without notes. During a practice run in front of some experienced speakers, one of them expressed concern that I would forget what I was to say. Then a second person chipped in to question my wisdom. The possibility of forgetting my words hadn’t crossed my mind until that point. But then I started to worry. In the end I had notes but didn’t refer to them. I had them to reassure my audience as much as having them as insurance for myself.
The very fact that the possibility of failure is put into someone’s mind makes it more likely to occur. When offering advice or critique it is worth remembering the words of US businesswoman Mary Kay Ash: “Sandwich every bit of criticism between two thick layers of praise.”
Catwalk Communications
Last week a brief article that I had written was published on the Enterprise Nation website (
The online fashion retailer Asos (www.asos.com) recognises that its relationship with its customers is a big factor in its success. One of its website ‘rules’ is that you are never more than three mouse-clicks away from making a purchase. Another rule is that a web page must not take more than three seconds to load. But their biggest challenge was how to communicate the look and feel of their clothes for online buyers. Simple (to the customer): they have created an online catwalk. You find the item that you are interested in buying, click on the image and a model wearing it walks up and down the catwalk. Brilliant! Pity they only cater for 18 to 34 year olds!
Can you think of an equally imaginative way to communicate with your customers during 2009? It certainly works for Asos, as their fortunes continue to soar whilst those around them falter.
Naked Virgins
Over Christmas I read Richard Branson’s latest book, Business Stripped Bare. Let me nail my colours to the mast. I am a huge fan of Branson and this book just increased my admiration for him and his way of doing business. But beyond that, it is one of the best business books that I have read.
Not surprisingly people and their interaction comes high on the Branson agenda: “In an ideal business everyone should have a rough idea of what everyone else is going through. Banter is essential. Anonymous, over formal, regimented surroundings produce mediocre results. Niggling problems either fester or they end up on your desk. No one runs that extra mile for you.”
He goes on to quote Albert Einstein: “What a person does on his own, without being stimulated by the thoughts and experiences of others, is even in the best cases rather paltry and monotonous.”
Branson recounts being invited to join a lunchtime meeting of consultants and analysts working for McKinsey & Co. One of the consultants stayed in touch. Years later Branson asked him why. The simple answer was, “You turned up with a sandwich and a fruit juice. You made time for us.”
As Branson observes, it says something about the state of business when people are surprised that someone like him should walk into a room and eat a sandwich with them.
Circulation List
You have received Random Ramblings because you have subscribed to it or you have been in contact with me recently and I thought that you might like to see a copy. If you no longer wish to receive Random Ramblings, click here to be removed from the circulation list.
If you know of anyone who might like to read Random Ramblings, I would be grateful if you would forward it to them. If someone else forwarded Random Ramblings to you, and you would like to receive your own copy, click here to be added to the circulation list.
Privacy Policy - It's very simple! We don't pass your details on to anyone.
And Finally
Own goal! I spotted this piece on Seth Godin’s blog (http://sethgodin.typepad.com). Hurray I thought. He is advocating a relaxed, fun approach to business. And then I read the last sentence!
“Having goals is a pain in the neck.
If you don't have a goal (a corporate goal, a market share goal, a personal career goal, an athletic goal...) then you can just do your best. You can take what comes. You can reprioritize on a regular basis. If you don't have a goal, you never have to worry about missing it. If you don't have a goal you don't need nearly as many excuses, either.
Not having a goal lets you make a ruckus, or have more fun, or spend time doing what matters right now, which is, after all, the moment in which you are living.
The thing about goals is that living without them is a lot more fun, in the short run.
It seems to me, though, that the people who get things done, who lead, who grow and who make an impact... those people have goals.”
Have a great 2009 and score lots of goals!
David