Me and Dentists and Help

Yet another dental escapade has me singing the Delighted Customer tune.

I have several crowns on my teeth. Why my favorite type of candy has to be chewy, gummy, jelly types is beyond me, but crowns and chewy candies do not mix. Plus, I love candy.

I was sitting in my hotel room one recent evening, watching a favorite show on TV and chewing some chewy, gummy candies. I should say candy, because it was the first piece I put in my mouth when my crown came off.

Oh, that feeling. You know it instantly. I ejected everything out of my mouth and wiped the red candy bits from the crown.

Great. Now I have a loose crown and am afraid it's going to come off in the night and choke me. I power through and rise early to find a Walmart and buy some temporary adhesive. Stick it on and arrive on time at my appointed dealer.

I get one sentence out of my mouth and the dang crown comes loose! So I try to nonchalantly hold it down with my tongue and talk and finish up my presentation with the loose tooth. Uggh!

When I get out, I use the GPS on my phone to find a dentist, rush in and beg the ladies at the desk to fit me in to their 9:30 hour with the dentist to glue my crown back on.

To my chagrin, this is an orthodontist. But, to my delight, the crew empathize with me and begin making calls to find a dentist who can help. They phoned several, and eventually found one for me. They even drew me a map to the office.

It sounds so simple now, but believe me, I was so relieved, so ecstatic that they would and did help me. These people in another town who will never have a chance to gain my business, who will never have me refer someone to then, yet they efficiently helped me. Ahhh, it is great to run across Good Samaritans.

These professionals COULD NOT have done that if they weren't experts at customer service. They absolutely COULD NOT have successfully and cheerfully done what they did if they didn't go about their jobs all day every day with enthusiasm and joy at helping people.

They proved another point for me that our brains kick in to another gear when someone needs help. We really do well at helping. Managing then becomes a job of setting that context for your staff... you are here to help (versus serve, or service). People come in to your business because they need help, you are there to provide help.

You will have a difficult job teaching professionalism, even customer service to adults that apply at your employ. But you definitely can hire for that. And you can set the expectation from the start that helping is what we do. It makes a difference in your customer's experience and morale at spending money with you and it makes a difference in your bottom line to have this type of staff on board.

Answer yourself honestly and ask if every person in your employ would have performed this way to a wayfaring stranger walking into your building. If you even pause, or if any person would not, then my question to you is "Why are they taking up your space?"

Don't Help Him; He's Drowning

I still remember a lesson from swimming class when I was a sophomore in high school... yes that was eons ago. Anyway, the point was made that while people are drowning, thrashing around, fighting for their life, that is the wrong time to jump in and try to save them. Their panic will cause them to climb on top of you and not allow you to pull them to safety, possibly even drowning you in the struggle. Instead, the instructor advised that you let the person wear out and then jump in and pull their tired, hopefully limp, bodies to safety.

This is similar also to the successful method for escaping an undertow in the ocean. Instead of madly paddling toward the shore, the swimmer should ride along with the tow parallel to the shore until they are eventually released and then can successfully make their way to the shore.

It is counter-intuitive in the moment to not fight and struggle, but makes perfect logic if you are able to step out of the moment and analyze.

I can't help but draw a similarity between my stubbornly clinging to a method or tool because I am comfortable and have succeeded this way before. Yet, when things are not progressing, that stubborn clinging keeps me repeating the same thing but hoping for different results.

I must not wear myself out, but somehow try to become limp and either allow myself to be pulled to safety, or watch to see logically another way out of my predicament.

Sometimes It's Good to Blow

I was on vacation last week. Many public restrooms were experienced. There was a stand out in San Jose'. After I washed my hands I walked over to the wall for what I thought would be the standard hand dryer or towel dispenser, but the thing on the wall wasn't standard.

It looked like an upside down opened-up hair clip. I figured out from the picture on the apparatus that I was supposed to put my hands fingertips down and pull my hands up. It was the coolest thing because it was an "air blade" that used a very high pressured air to wipe the moisture from my hands. Worked spectacularly.

Look at it here.

I hadn't given it another thought until I ran across an article today about Dyson who is the manufacturer and how they invented a new blade-less fan when they were inventing the air blade.

What an exciting company they are. Think how fun it would be to work there. Everybody knows who they are, and wants what they have, even if they can't or won't shell out the bucks to own one of their vacuums or fans or whatever.

I can't help it, I am inspired by excellence in every form. Now that was delightful.

Lloyd Schiller is My New Best Friend

If you're tuned in to service business, you already know the name of Lloyd Schiller. We were fortunate enough to hear Lloyd last week in Detroit. He is so energetic, so smart, so "let's go after what we want." His enthusiasm and desire to win are contagious.

Here's a sample of something that he shared:

• Customer with just 1 positive service visit = 33% intend to buy next vehicle there (Toyota survey)
• Customer with 5 positive service visits = 67% intend to buy next vehicle there
• Customers who like their advisor = 71% intend to buy their next vehicle there (JD Power survey)

Email Me and request my notes - there are too many ideas to put here, so let me know if you want a big list that I captured from him.