Do It

Act Differently Until the Different Starts to Feel Normal

Customers Are in Charge

For the past 13 years, Netflix has been distributing DVDs to its subscribers.  They remade the home movie viewing business and have just about pushed Blockbuster and all its ilk right out of the business.  In 2008, Netflix began offering streaming videos to subscribers on a limited number of movies.  And so now the customers are remaking the business again.  Even though it isn't available on all movies (yet) the streaming service is being used by over 61% of subscribers.  And this jump really just happened, by doubling, in the last 6 months.  Netflix didn't go out and market this service, or change pricing, or do anything to drive this behavior.  But customers like it and are doing it and are forcing Netflix into having to adjust their business model.  Here are the stats.
That's the way it should be.  But boy does it make you sit up and pay attention.  You are not in control.  Your customer really, really, is.

Where I Spend My Time

I realized one day as I was moving down the road, literally, that I was not present.  Be Here Now is a mantra my boss used to preach but I thought it had to do with the meeting or workshop we were currently engaged in.
But Be Here Now popped into my head as I was driving and I realized how I wasn't.  I was thinking about my next stop, about what I needed to do when I got home, about who I needed to call, blah, blah, blah.  The thing is, to put it bluntly, if I had died right then, I would've been there... somewhere in the Kansas countryside.  I didn't like thinking that my head wasn't there.  I wasn't being there. And it's really sad to think of how much time I spend thinking about the next thing, and the due dates, and the to-do lists, and even what I should've done or said.
So I stopped thinking ahead and behind right then and realized how blue the sky was.  How wonderful air conditioning in my car on a summer day feels.  How much I like singing along with that song.  How much I like seeing so much in every direction... the beautiful expanse of green prairie.
It was kind of weird too because somehow I felt lighter or younger or something.  I decided to start really being here now, even if, and especially if, behind the wheel is where I feel like I hafta be most of these days.

Count to 3

Someone said with pride "we treat everyone the same".
Really?
WOW!  That is so not the way to be successful.
The hardest thing in the world is what we do everyday, which is reading our situation and responding effectively.  That takes listening... a lot.  It takes asking those questions that we know we should ask, but then really hearing what is being said in response and then formulating our next questions and responses and actions based on what is really actually happening right then.
Why do most people complain about a sales situation, or some sort of service experience?  They weren't heard!  They were treated in a "factory" way.  The same as everybody else.
I'm working on turning off my "reaction-ing", by listening to the answers.  It's like counting to 3 before responding.  Trying not to formulate my next sentence until I've heard everything that a person has said.  If I slow down a bit, there is a better chance that I will hear and respond to what IS, instead of what I expect.

Perfection

If you don't make mistakes, you're not working on hard enough problems.

Not My Department?

Customer Service is not a department... it is an attitude.

PMA

Before you can be, you have to think that you are.

Where Would You Go?

A client asked me a powerful question the other day and I have been obsessing ever since.
He said: "Who has the best service department... where do you go?"
Do you know what stood out to me, what was compelling enough about any of 25 different places?
ENERGY

• A place that wanted me there.
• The people have something behind their eyes.
• The people who work there want to be there.

And since then, since realizing who is best, where I go, I've fired a few providers... not automotive service providers, but restaurants, retail stores, even web sites.  I've fired places that suck the energy out of me.  I've fired places that infect me with their bad energy.

I am so done giving my money to businesses that don't incubate excellence.  If the employees there don't want to be there, for whatever reason, neither do I.  If the business doesn't care if I am there or not, then neither do I.