Mitch’s Blog

First, the latest newsletter, Management Is Responsible For Customer Service, is now available.

So, the article is obviously about customer service, and in that article I take the position that management is often the most responsible for making sure that good customer service is happening with their businesses.

Last week, I conducted a meeting at the site I’m consulting at where I talked to one of the supervisors about monitoring the customer service of the department, important because this particular department is on the front line of the business when people come into the facility.

The point I made was that sometimes, to get good customer service, management needs to get the employees enthusiastic about the work they do because it all boomerangs after that. When employees feel good they work good, and if they interact with the customers they impart good feelings upon the customers, and when customers feel good, they not only come back but they tell their friends about their experience and everything works out well in the end.

Why is it that people don’t put out exactly what it is they want in life anyway? We all want good customer service when we go places; why can’t we remember that when it’s our turn to serve?

It’s hard to overcome perception by the masses. However, Microsoft is about to try to do that very thing by beginning a marketing campaign to counter Apple’s commercials about the viability of its Apple products against Microsoft’s operating system.

Speaking at the software monopolist’s annual Worldwide Partner Conference, Brad Brooks, Microsoft’s VP of Vista consumer marketing, publicly confessed, “We broke a lot of things. We know that, and we know it caused you a lot of pain. It got customers thinking, hey, is Windows Vista a generation we want to get invested in? We’ve faced these challenges before, and we’re going to solve them again,” Brooks said. “There’s a conversation going on in the marketplace today and it’s just plain awful. We’ve got to get back on the front foot.”

The company claims that 77,000 devices work under Vista today, twice as many as at launch, and that 99 per cent of the major business applications are compatible with Vista. For some people, they’re saying it’s about time; for others, they still don’t care.

Customer service is a dicey proposition at any time, and the perception Microsoft gave when it released Vista is that it didn’t care for its customers as much as its bottom line. It started out with their basic system needing way more power to work properly than most people already had on their computers. Sure, there was information out that told people they might need to beef up their computers, but not only did the general public not get that message, but apparently many computer makers didn’t get the message either, as they installed Vista on new machines that weren’t powerful enough to run it properly.

The next problem was their creation of four different versions of the same product, each one more expensive than the other (the initial version costs $300), but the initial version, the one they were marketing to the general user, didn’t have any of the things that Vista was touting as the reason it was so special in the first place. That was disingenuous and condescending to its main customer base.

The only reason a company like Microsoft gets a free pass into getting another shot as often as it does is because it’s still the big dog in the computer world when it comes to operating systems. Imagine most of us treating our customers with such disregard and being able to woo those customers back our way time after time as if we were the only ones who offered those products. It reminds me of Seinfeld and the Soup Guy; would any of us be ready to accept abuse time after time just to get a particular product?

We’re not infallable, but we always need to make sure we try to put our best foot forward at all times when interacting with the customer, even when the customer isn’t right. And who knows, maybe one day we’ll all grow to be big enough to get away with customer abuse; if I do, I still won’t do it.

One of the things I often talk about is how staff needs to be trained well enough so that they know how to do their jobs well. However, there are times when I wonder if it’s not the training we’re doing as much as the people we’re trying to train.

How many people have seen the Tonight Show with Jay Leno? He often goes out on the street and asks Americans questions to every day things that we all hope most people know, but it turns out they don’t know. Most people are either really not that bright or aren’t paying any attention to current events. These are the people who vote in elections based on personality and charisma instead of who just might be the best and brightest person to lead the country. Sometimes the smart people do it to themselves because, if you remember your school days, people who are really smart alienate those who aren’t; I’ve never really been sure why, but it probably explains why the smartest kids either keep to themselves a lot or run the school newspaper.

In any case, I’ve always thought that some of what we see on the Tonight Show was scripted; I just find it hard to believe that people have no idea what’s going on in the world, or where anything is in the world, including the United States. Well, the video below, not from that show but from a British television show, proves that we need to boost up the educational standards of today, and do some teaching on the news also. This is sad,…

I’m lucky that I get to travel most of the time by car. Yeah, there’s a lot of people who might not enjoy driving upwards of 3-6 hours, but for me, I like some of the conveniences that come with being able to do that, though I will admit that, when it’s time to come home, I’d rather be home now.

When I travel by car, I take a lot of stuff, mainly because I can. I like the convenience of having my own stuff, whether it’s food, drink, or other things. Otherwise, I might as well just fly in and out.

To make sure I remember everything I need, years ago I created a checklist of things I want to make sure I have with me. Some of those things are necessities; who else has gone on a trip and realized they didn’t pack underwear or socks? Some of these things are just because; do I really need a bag of snacks, or soda and water?

These days the most important things I need to remember to bring with me are my pills and, unfortunately, my insulin. The pills are actually easy; with the insulin, since I’m on a pen, I have to always check to make sure I have enough, and if not, then I not only have to remember to transport another pen, but I have to pack it and keep it cool in some fashion so that it not only stays cold, but it can’t be allowed to freeze either, so I can’t just pack it in ice by itself; I have to wrap a towel around it and then pack it in ice. Kind of an inconvenience, but it has to be done.

In business situations, instead of checklists, we talk in terms of procedure manuals. In essence, procedure manuals are step-by-step checklists of how people should perform specific types of jobs or checklists of rules. However, what I see most often when I go into a consulting gig is that there are no manuals around, and I’m left to help educating people on how to do their jobs, while not really having enough time to work on procedure manuals myself because I know I’m not going to be there for the long term.

Still, even without always having the time to create procedure manuals, I do create checklists, because one has to have a plan of attack when working on getting things done, and helping to keep remembering everything that has to be taken care of. Checklists are positive ways of highlighting everything that needs to get done.

So, what’s on your checklist?

Do you watch Clean House? Basically, it’s a show about people who accumulate so much clutter in their lives, for a variety of reasons, that they have no idea where to start to get out of trouble. So, instead of even trying, they just continue doing the same thing over and over until the Clean House crew gets there and helps them out in some fashion. Sometimes it’s a major challenge getting people to let go of the past, but eventually, with the help, people own up to their responsibilities and get things done, and the transformations that are achieved are amazing.

Sometimes, this same type of thing happens in a work environment. You find one problem, decide to investigate it a little bit more, and suddenly, before you know it, you have a “clutter” of an issue that’s going to take many steps and many people to fix. I have known a lot of people who, when they see the first few things will shut their eyes, act like the problem doesn’t exist, and go in a different direction, leaving the problem to someone else.

It’s never fine to do that, but it’s worse when you’re going to be around for a long time and may have to deal with this issue later on. Not only that, but what many miss is that they can look like a hero by identifying the problem, and then having some kind of idea on how to resolve it. True, many times the people at the very top hate having problems brought to them, which is a shame, but they love it when the person bringing the problem also has a fix.

Every single time, things can only get better, even if there’s a step, or multiple steps, backwards for a short period of time. But one can’t legitimately avoid issues and problems forever. And it’s best to take your best shot at the time you find them rather than waiting for them to possibly escalate. When it’s all been taken care of, you’ll be amazed at what you’ll see. And you’ll probably be happy also.

There’s a new study out as of Friday that indicates that black and white people in America think differently. Okay, that’s not really news. What also isn’t news is that many black people feel that white people know little about their real backgrounds, and probably don’t care.

What is news, though, is some of the things this study, presently residing on BlackAmericaStudy.com, has found. For instance, around 71% of all blacks are online, and my personal demographic, baby boomers, has the highest rate of online users. I’d have thought younger people would surpass us, as they do in the general population, but nope.

Another one that was sort of shocking is that 91% of black people consider themselves Christian, but only 46% go to church; not sure why I thought that number would be higher.

One that isn’t shocking is that a high number of black people, 72%, want to invest more money into stocks, but 50% feels banks and other financial institutions don’t understand their needs.

Only 12 - 16% trust the police, government, or other institutions of the same type.

And this piece is disturbing:

• This segment is more pessimistic in their view of their life and future.

• Health: Only 17% believe they have a healthy lifestyle and 49% are stressed about their health.

• Finances: 4 in 10 earn less than $25K a year and nearly a quarter are unemployed.

• It is not surprising that 65% are stressed about their financial situation.

• Future: Only 20% believe things are getting better for them (by far, the lowest
segment).

There’s a lot more information that can be downloaded from the site above, and I hope you take a look at it. Oh, one more thing; it would seem that 51% are more comfortable with being referred to as “African-American” rather than “black”; interesting,…

The latest edition of the TTM Newsletter, Strive To Be A Leader, is now available.

If there’s anything that can start to get me upset, it’s constantly being interrupted when I’m talking. I don’t mean when someone is looking to clarify something I said, necessarily. I mean when you’re trying to say something, or ask a question, and the other person interrupts me to start answering a question I haven’t finished asking, or throwing in detail that I haven’t had a change to give yet. I think it’s rude, but it also proves something else.

Many of us have lost the art of listening. Studies have shown that most people are usually ready to respond to the first few words a person has said and are already working on their response while a person is still saying their piece. This means that, quite often, we miss out on something that might have made our responses more pertinent, and oftentimes people end up either asking someone to repeat what was just said, or giving an answer to a question that wasn’t really asked, confusing everyone.

I came across something like that this week while out of town. In essence, I learned that the people where I am have been doing something for close to seven years that they never had to do. My supposition is that someone mentioned something way back when that someone else decided to run with, then they went to clarify what they’d been told and either asked the question incorrectly or the person answering the question either didn’t wait to hear the whole question or decided to just answer the question that was asked without further probing. This has caused my client to lose a lot of money over the years doing something that they never should have done in the first place.

I’m a pretty good listener, but I’ll admit that there are times when I’m not quite understanding what I’m being told. The art of communications says that sometimes it’s not the listener’s fault, but the listener always has the opportunity to ask for clarification if they’re not sure what the other person said, or is having trouble comprehending it. That happened to me today, where I had someone tell me three times what she was told to do some time ago, and the third time she changed it up slightly and I finally got it. I was listening hard, but her terminology and phraseology wasn’t jibbing with mine, which was leaving me confused. That happens sometimes when you’re in another state and realizing that different words are often used for the same thing.

Of course, if I hadn’t been listening, I wouldn’t have known to ask her to say it again, and the answer I eventually gave her wouldn’t have been close to correct. Listening always gives you a chance to get things right, and it makes the person you’re listening to feel as though they’re a valuable commodity in their eyes. Good leaders and managers have mastered the art of listening.

Of course my wife will tell you that I don’t always listen to her. Sure I do; I just don’t always understand her!

Barack Obama is going to be the democratic nominee for president. It’s an interesting time for me, because I never thought I would see a black man as a viable candidate in my lifetime, and yet, here he is.

Senator Obama is already gearing up for what he’s expecting will be a tough fight. He’s also saying he’s ready for things to become racially charged, which has been an interesting dynamic already in the primaries, and is really expected to heat up in the general election. And, it seems, he’s not alone in believing it’s coming.

A CBS News poll showed 30% of Americans harbor some feelings of racial prejudice. For those folks, who say race is a factor in their presidential choice, Senator McCain leads Obama by nearly 20 points, 56 percent to 37 percent, while, at the present time, Obama is ahead of McCain in general by 15 percentage points.

There are some columnists who believe this race, or at least what we’ve had to date, has already been about race, so it makes sense for it to continue. In the challenge against Senator Clinton, Obama clearly lead in the black vote, whereas Clinton not only lead with women, but she led with hispanics also. This has led some of the columnists to say that there’s a double standard against white voters who say they will vote for McCain because he’s white.

I don’t like that argument, but it’s a tough one to debate against because it’s most likely true for the most part. The true is that people will most likely vote for or against someone who’s like them or not like them in some fashion, whether it’s race, sex, religious preference, wealth status, etc. Some people base their candidates qualifications on physical presence or demeanor instead of qualifications. Let’s face the fact that there are more people watching American Idol than watch the political news shows on Sunday mornings put together.

At the same time, it’s an interesting dynamic that age is working against McCain, where 50% of the American public feels that the age of 71 is too old to elect a first time president. I’ll be watching to see how that will play as the political ad season begins in earnest.

Race versus age; are we ready for this election year?

I never think about Josh Groban until I hear a song that he’s singing. He’s got an amazing voice, and I often wonder why he’s not a bigger deal than he is.

Anyway, I came across a beautiful video he did that’s posted on Nick Grimshaw’s Beautiful Summer Morning blog, and rather than just posting the video here I thought I’d do us both a favor and send Nick some love for finding the clip, and also hoping you’ll go and watch the video for yourselves. You’ll feel glad that you did.

I was reading this particular post on the Great Leadership blog, titled Ethics And Leadership, and instead of rehashing the entire tale I’m going to encourage you to click on the link and read the story for yourself. I will talk about its concept overall, though.

Sometimes things just don’t go right. None of us are perfect, so things are going to go wrong from time to time. No one with any real sense is going to get upset over mistakes or breakdowns that occur every once in awhile. What people get upset with are two things. One, not knowing that there was a potential problem, especially if someone else knew about it, and two, allowing problems to keep occurring time and time again instead of making the correction needed to move forward.

I’m someone who’s always believed that it’s better to tell the person I’m reporting to that something isn’t acting right, or hasn’t been acting right, than to let them find out from someone else later. However, I’ve also always believed that if I can, I’m going to offer a suggestion, or go ahead and put through the correction, so that when I tell what has happened, I can also say what was done or can be done to fix things.

As a consultant, oftentimes management won’t divulge things to me because they believe it makes them look bad, but their employees tell me a lot of things. Then I have a chance to get things fixed, which makes employees happy and existing management scrambling instead of embracing the help. Then they feel that they need to explain themselves in front of the people they ultimate report to instead of just owning up to the flaws and being happy that some of them can be fixed.

So, if you discover problems, or someone else discovers them, embrace them and fix them, then move on. Be honest; if you read the story, you’ll see that if you’re not, sometimes you’re found out.