Video: Are You Putting Your People At Risk?

Are You Actively Putting Your People At Risk? from Kevin Burns on Vimeo.

Workplace Expert, Kevin Burns argues that companies who do not care about their people enough to ensure that they follow safe procedures it could be argued do not care about their customers either. How you do one thing is how you do everything. How can you say you care about your customers but not the people who serve your customers?

Why Customers Don't Care How Good You Are

Customers don't care how good you are. They care about how good you are .... for THEM.

Motivational speakers will boast about anything nice said about them like, "he received a 4.2 out of 5 from our delegates." Huh? Isn't that for internal use? Then there's, "our group really liked him" or "he was fun, entertaining and lighthearted," or "our people warmed up to her quickly." How exactly does that make a business different? How is the group now better than when you arrived?

But what about outside of speaking? Being liked is not a measure of organizational success or strategy. How many friends you have on Facebook is not indicative of your ability to help make your organization better. Your Twitter follower-count doesn't help build healthier bottom-lines for your customers. The fact that you've worked hard to connect with 2600 people on LinkedIn says to me that you don't do much with your day. So how is your organization going to benefit from you?

If you want to build a Culture of Performance, you've got to start with what it is you bring to the table that benefits the organization. Each person plays a role in Culture. It's not about how much you are liked. It's about how much you are respected for your contribution to bettering your workplace and your customers.

What are your specific strengths? How is your organization better because of you? Get your people to answer those two questions and you have a solid foundation to build a Culture of Performance.

Look At That Dufus - And Other Things You Think

Picture yourself standing in a bank line. OK that's not really a stretch to think about standing in a bank line because if you go into the bank, you'll stand in line.

So pretend you're in the bank. You see a guy about mid-twenties walk into the bank with long, curly, unkempt hair, a scraggly, long beard of four-to five inches wearing a too-small blue suit, wrinkled yellow shirt with skinny black tie and Jesus sandals on his feet. What's your first thought?

Is it , "Oh he looks like a hard worker?"

Is it, "I'll bet he gets the girls?"

Or is it something like, "Ha ha ha, look at this clown?" (Using your inside voice of course.)

You make judgments like this. Your people make judgments like this. Your customers make judgments like this. So, how come you aren't working to remove these kinds of judgments in your workplace? This is exactly the kind of stuff that prevents an mediocre Culture from becoming a great Culture.

In the absence of information, people make judgments and come to their own conclusions. If you want to improve the Culture of your workplace, you've got to start conversations that knock down the barriers to information and also take away the judgments. Workplaces will never be cohesive if people feel uncomfortable around other workers.

Remember, people bring their boatloads of old baggage from every other job and life experience they've ever had. If their past bosses couldn't be trusted, they won't automatically trust their current boss. If co-workers stole from them in past, they won't trust their current co-workers. If they were back-stabbed once, they'll be cautious about letting anyone get close to them again. Old baggage comes with new workers. Old baggage can fill up a workplace if you don't start having conversations with your people and earning their trust and respect.

Why Courier Companies Are Hated

I got a phone call from a courier company the day after they attempted to deliver a package. No one was home - for one hour. That's when they showed up. The call came from an automated system from the company's 1-800 number announcing that because I wasn't home when the delivery attempt was made, I would have to drive eight and a half miles to get my parcel - and past two retail locations of the store I purchased from.

I was not joyful that the company had called me to tell me that I would have to drive over eight miles now to get a parcel that was at my door earlier today. However, I would have been joyful had they called ahead to tell me a day or two in advance that my parcel would likely be delivered on one of two days. I would have been ecstatic that I didn't have to expend my time and money to retrieve a parcel that the courier company was paid to deliver. Besides, if I have to pick it up, it's not courier anymore - it's mail.

For those that may be unfamiliar with what courier companies do when they are unable to deliver a package, here's how it works. If a parcel is unable to be delivered, it must return to the depot where it is offloaded from the truck and loaded onto another truck to go to a retail location for pickup the next day. There is increased handling, wasted fuel (two trips with same package) and lost time for every parcel that can't be delivered because no one was home.

So, I began to think that if a courier company is able to tell you where your parcel is (tracking), which truck it is on at this moment, the hours that a pick-up location will be open and they already have your phone number to be able to generate the call, why can't they call ahead a day or two to announce when the parcel is likely to be delivered? That way, if I wasn't going to be home, I could make arrangements with a neighbor to accept the parcel for me and leave a note on the door for the courier to deliver next door.

The way I see it, the infrastructure already exists to automate calls so why not improve the delivery rate, reduce lost revenue from additional handling and substantially improve customer satisfaction by calling a day or two before? Any organization can call you to tell you that they didn't deliver. How hard would it really be to re-program the automated phone system to call residential numbers a day or two in advance?

Sometimes, all it takes to provide excellent service is to put yourself in the shoes of your customer. Are you forcing your customers to go out of their way to do business with you? Does your service policy and procedure benefit you or your customers? The answer to that question really is the difference between mediocrity and greatness.

Why Customer Service Courses Don't Fix Culture

I drove out of my way today to gas up the truck and to pick up a few groceries. There is a gas station and grocery store just two blocks from my house, but I drove about a mile out of my way because I normally get superior service at the other store - but not today.

The teenage gas jockey filled the truck to $43.87 - but didn't bother rounding up to $44.00 - that would have required an effort of adding thirteen cents to the gas tank. If you've ever had to add up your monthly fuel receipts, you appreciate rounding up. He didn't wash the windows either. In fact, I drove back to the pumps to have him wash the windows because the sign reads "Full Service" - not half-service.

In the grocery store, the checkout clerk completely ignored us. No announcing of the total, no eye contact, no "thank you." Not a word was spoken. No smile on her face. Simply boredom with a side of "I don't want to be here."

It used to be that I would get exceptional service at this grocery store and gas bar. The manager, who I've spoken with many times, is a gregarious man who is always smiling and speaking with customers. But the store has developed a service problem, one the manager hopes to correct with part-time courses and certifications in customer service. The courses are voluntary with a duration of six months.

Here's the problem: staff must desire to serve customers for voluntary customer service courses to look attractive. People who are bored with their jobs won't make a 6-month commitment to learn anything. They're watching the clock. Customers are an annoyance. They're actively disengaged from their work. This isn't a "service" problem - it's a Corporate Culture problem.

Doing just enough to not get fired has become "how we do things" around this store. If poor service and a lousy attitude aren't aggressively discouraged, then they are passively accepted. It's stuff like this that creates an awful culture. No 6-month course is going to change that because the people who love to serve customers will likely be the ones who sign up take the course - not the ones who NEED the course.

Before you seek out the long, hard, expensive way of addressing your service problems, make sure it's not a culture problem first. If only 10% of your staff want to improve and 90% want to remain actively disengaged, your culture will swallow your service improvement attempts. You need to first create a culture that supports your improvement efforts.

How To Win Back Unhappy Customers

I made a harried phone call at 4 pm to track a flower order - one I placed online but one that hadn't been delivered on the day it was supposed to. The company web site had taken my order, my credit card info and my delivery instructions and sent along a confirmation. But no phone number, no store ID and no person to contact. So I started calling the individual stores.

First store - 4:00 pm: (the closest geographically) "Nope, we didn't get the order here. How did you place it again? You could try this number and take your chances. Good luck."

Second store - 4:25 pm: "No it wasn't our store and I don't know how to help you. I don't know the codes to get into the system to find out where your order went. I just started working here a few weeks ago and I can't help much. But try this number (same as first store gave me). What? They're not answering? Hmm, then I don't know what to do. Sorry."

Third store - 4:30 pm: "I'm not sure who would have gotten the order but let me make a couple of calls and I'll call you back (which she did ten minutes later with the number for the fourth store)."

Fourth store - 4:45 pm: (a forty minute drive away) "Yeah we got your order and we'll call our delivery guy to get that out to you pretty quick here. Oh, you're not going to be home? Oh yeah, it does say you'd only be there until 5. Well what do you want us to do? Forget it? Really? Well OK. Yeah, we can refund your money but that's going to take a couple of days. Sorry."

But here's where it all changed. The fourth store called back the next morning and the store manager, who personally had messed up the order, offered this: "Mr. Burns, I am so sorry what happened yesterday. I messed up. I didn't read the order right and I wasn't on the ball. There are no excuses. I'm so sorry that we missed the special occasion. But the buck stops here. I'm the one who messed it up and I'm the one who is going to fix it. Your credit card has been reimbursed but I still want to send you your order today and I will pay for it, if you will accept it, as well as a $25 gift certificate in our store. Will you accept my apology and allow me to fix what I messed up? Please."

That's how you build strong service and win back lost customers: you are accountable, responsible and you make it right, no matter what it takes. People mess up, sure they do - and most would make up some lame excuse to not have to put their tail on the line. Some will protect themselves instead of keeping the customer. Some will use the "I just work here" clause to abdicate responsibility. And then some will damn the torpedoes and do it anyway - just to make it right. I am now a satisfied customer - one who is prepared to cross the city to get my flowers from here on in.

There is "WOW" or there is "not-wow." Fourth store gets a WOW - even though they messed it up the first time. That's how you win back unhappy customers.

How To Protect Your Market Share

So what happens when your competitor, who once had a terrible reputation for apathy and poor service, re-brands, re-tools and re-launches itself with a bold new strategy to take back the market share you stole away when they were performing badly?

In fact, their former customers (some of your current customers) have noticed and are showing your competitor some respect and giving them another chance to regain lost trust. What is your next step as a manager?

If your current customers (even if they were once someone else's customers) are showing respect to a competitor, it's because they are not fully satisfied with your service and/or product. People don't jump ship to another supplier when they are completely satisfied. They jump because there is something missing.

A recent survey of senior executives showed 80% believed that their organizations offered a superior customer experience. When surveyed, only 8% of their customers actiually agreed. That's a 72% disparity between what managers believe and what the actual truth is.

Managers, when this happens (and hopefully you do it before this happens) you go back to basics. Figure out what you did to capture those customers and build a new culture around some old values - values that were attractive to customers. Don't sit around and wait for senior management to be shown the difference between 80% and 8%. By the time they figure it out, you'll be experiencing layoffs.

Coach your people back to basics. Make it simple. Make it meaningful. Make your customer the most important person in your life at that moment and make them feel it. No company can compete with that. No way.
--
Kevin Burns - Management Attitude/Culture Strategist
http://www.kevburns.com/

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks- Finding Your Excellence In A Wasteland of Mediocrity

Subscribe to Kevin's Managing with Attitude Blog by Email

5 Reasons Why Middle Managers Create Culture

Culture, it could be argued, starts at the top. But at that point it is simply a vision, a direction.

Corporate culture is not a plan - it is the result of a plan (or the lack of one). It only becomes a culture once the front line people, the average everyday workers, start to act in accordance with the vision. If they do the opposite of the vision, then the vision becomes a nothing more than a daydream.

But get the middle-manager to see the benefit of the vision and you have one powerful ally in your strategy to make the culture vision a reality. Mid-managers are the people who touch the front-line worker every day. They are the people who either garner their respect or lose it (on senior management's behalf). If you want to get something done (especially shifting your organization's culture) then here are five reasons why you need your middle manager:

1. A strong culture attracts good people. 
2. A strong culture reduces stress-induced sick days. 
3. A strong culture increases employee engagement. 
4. A strong culture silences the dissident voices. 
5. A strong culture attracts better customers. 

Now you tell me one of these things that a middle manager doesn't do.

Middle managers create the culture you have. If you want to improve your culture, improve your management training. The rest follows.

--
Kevin Burns - Management Attitude/Culture Strategist
http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Finding Your Excellence In A Wasteland of Mediocrity

Subscribe to Kevin's Managing with Attitude Blog by Email

Tag-Teamed by Excellence

I'm on the road this week in Ottawa so I asked where we should have supper. One of the people in our group offered four chain restaurant names that were in the area. All four served basically the same mediocre food with the same mediocre ambience. In fact, you could have swapped out the signs on the front of the buildings and you'd have been hard-pressed to know the difference. It's why I never eat at any of these places: I would simply be rewarding them for their mediocre product and service.

So I took a chance on a restaurant that I had never tried before. Although the food was just slightly better than ordinary, it was our waiter who showed me what happens when employees engage on the job.

Ashley is a twenty-something male server. This guy had personality and a really good sense of confidence. He engaged us all in conversation, honest conversation, including his stint as a musician in a Christian rock band that traveled the four corners of Canada in a Ford Econoline van.

It was Ashley who captained our table while he and four other servers tag-teamed us. One brought drink refills, one brought the food, one cleaned up around us and one looked after getting us our bill. All five servers were cordial, efficient and engaging.

This is how you do it managers: you engage your people and coach their strengths so that they can engage their customers in the same way:

• Let your engaged and engaging people loose on your customers to be who they are - not who you dumb them down to be 
• Trust them to be beyond competent - think excellent 
• Let them shake hands with their customers - when's the last time a waiter shook your hand?
• Support them to be worth far more than they get paid - it's why I left a 30% tip

Do your customers love your people that much? If not, you need to start managing (coaching) them differently.

--
Kevin Burns - Management Attitude/Culture Strategist
http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Finding Your Excellence In A Wasteland of Mediocrity

Subscribe to Kevin's Managing with Attitude Blog by Email

Management Excellence In The Moment

Tom Peters, management guru, said last week in a Blog post the following:

EXCELLENCE is not an "aspiration."
EXCELLENCE is not a "journey."
EXCELLENCE is the next five minutes.

In the same way a sports coach instructs the players to win their individual shifts (so that the games might win themselves), excellence is not something achieved. It is purely the practical application of oneself in this very moment.

• To make the customer standing in front of you the most important person in your life at that moment is excellence.
• To make your spouse the most important person in your life at this moment is excellence.
• To make a child the most important person in your life for a moment will bring moments of excellence for a lifetime.
• And to make the employee you are engaging right at this very second, the most important employee on your staff for this moment will show benefits of increased engagement and productivity.

Managers, it's about being focused in the present, to be excellent at this moment, that will make you the most important person for many moments from those you inspire.

--
Kevin Burns - Management Attitude/Culture Strategist
http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Finding Your Excellence In A Wasteland of Mediocrity

Subscribe to Kevin's Managing with Attitude Blog by Email

Oxymorons And Half-Truths In Management

Seemingly, managers are supposed to manage to manage all the supposedly manageable things that they manage to manage each day - if they can manage it?

Some of the titles of "areas of management" really make me laugh - some because they are simply oxymorons and others because, well, because they just can't be managed, no matter how fancy the title.

• Quality Management - if you are able to offer quality, then why would you offer anything less? Quality is not something you manage. Quality is an on/off switch. Either you offer quality or you offer crap.
• Change Management - you can manage change about as successfully as you can manage the weather. Change happens whether you are trying to control it or not. Change is embraced. It is not managed.
• Acceptance Management - the king of oxymorons. You will only attempt to manage that which you do not fully accept. And if you do not accept it, how can you manage it?
• Thought Management - I really had to think about this one but realized, in mid-thought, that I wasn't managing the thought. The thought was managing me. Good luck with that one.
• Behavioral Management - isn't that what the straight-jacket is for? If someone's behavior needs managing, why are they still working for you?
• Crisis Management - If it's managed, it's not a crisis. If it's a crisis, the steps leading up to it were not managed.
• Disaster Management - you can figure this one out on your own. Think janitorial.
• Stress Management - just like Crisis Management, if it's managed, there's no stress. Therefore, if there's no stress, there's nothing to manage.
• Relationship Management - no one person is in charge of a relationship - business OR personal. It takes two to have a successful relationship. Go ahead and tell your spouse you're in charge of managing the relationship. I dare you.
• Time Management - my personal favorite. It's not the time you manage. It's what YOU do with the time. It's called self-discipline. Time flies whether you're managing or not. Sorry TM trainers.

Bottom-line: it's people you manage, not things. If your people-skills suck, you will suck as a manager. People are a precious commodity to be coached and inspired. Nothing happens in any organization without people. Nothing is purchased without people. There are no sales without people. There are no customers to service without people. And without people, you don't have a job - because you don't need managers if there are no people.

Get good at the basics of people-skills and building quality relationships. Leave the fancy titles for those who need to look important. There is much more reward in helping people become better people.
--
Kevin Burns - Management Attitude/Culture Strategist
http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Finding Your Excellence In A Wasteland of Mediocrity

Why Leadership Seems Sexier Than Management

There are a whole lot more people talking about leadership than there are people talking about management these days. In fact, on Twitter, my informal survey shows the numbers of Leadership Gurus to Management Gurus to be about 25-to-1, but I think that's a conservative number.

How many "leaders" are in your organization versus the number of managers? 1-to-25? Completely opposite huh?

Anyone can fashion themselves a "Leadership Guru." Here's why: there's no certification needed to become a "leadership instructor." And leadership is not about achieving quantifiable measurement. No, the leadership talk is all about character traits, magnetism and vision - all stuff that is not quantifiable in the short-term. Whereas, if a manager misses one item on the checklist today, there can be dire consequences immediately.

Management is much tougher than leadership. Managers don't have the luxury of being liked or followed or being a visionary. No, management is what is necessary when the leaders are off contemplating their navels. Someone has to run the place to make sure the doors stay open and people remain employed.

Management is hard work - not in the future but today. Maybe that's why there are so many "Leadership Gurus," because it's easier, less precise and fewer consequences if you get it wrong. But mess up the management thing and heads will roll and dollars will be lost. And it's also the manager's job to make sure employees are engaged and productive.

So before you go off and embrace the sexiness of "leadership," you'd better make sure you have the management thing down to a fine science. People's livelihoods are depending on it. Give me a solid manager over a wanna-be leader any day, and I'll show you an organization responding immediately to market changes and customer demands.
--
Social Networks

There have been a few changes in the social networking circles recently. Thought I would update you on where I am. I want you to join me wherever it's comfortable for you.

Here's where you can find me:

Facebook - The Kevin Burns Attitude Fan Page
Twitter - The Kevin Burns @attitudeburns Page
YouTube - The Kevin Burns Attitude Channel
LinkedIn - The Kevin Burns Attitude LinkedIn Page
WordPress - The Managing w/ Attitude Blog on WordPress
RSS Feed - Subscribe to Kevin Burns Blog in a Reader
--
Kevin Burns - Management Attitude/Culture Strategist
Web Site http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™

Best Or Worst

When you went to school, who was your best teacher? Was it the teacher who gave you the easy "A" or the teacher who challenged you to improve your grades, to think for yourself and to be creative in your search for answers?

Who was your best boss? Was it the one who didn't want your input and made you feel insignificant or was it the boss that asked your opinion regurlarly, who brought out your strengths and who helped you find meaning in your work?

So why is it that a customer who speaks up, who doesn't accept excuses for lousy service and who expects more from you, why do consider them be a "worst" customer? A "worst" customer is one who lays down and accepts your lousy performance, who feels apathy toward your mediocre organization but keeps on buying no matter how poorly you perform.

A "good" customer is the one who makes you work for it, who makes you step up your performance to the next level and who voices their concerns to you and your bosses. These "good" customers are the reason you are forced, yes I said forced, to improve. It's either you get better or they buy somewhere else.

Don't complain about these customers. These are the folks who separate the great organizations from the ordinary. And honestly, aren't you tired of ordinary, boring businesses offering ordinary, boring products served by ordinary, boring people who have no connection to their work?

Maybe it's time you became one of these "good" customers and see how good it feels to make a difference in an organization - whether they like it or not.

--
Kevin Burns - Excellence Attitude/Culture Strategist
Speaking Web Site http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Finding Your Excellence In A Wasteland of Mediocrity

Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
Follow Kevin on Twitter @attitudeburns
The Official Kevin Burns YouTube Channel

$240B Lost Productivity by Waiting

If you arrived for your noon meeting on time and the sales rep you were supposed to meet didn't show until 1:45 pm with no apology, no reason, no information and seemingly no remorse, would you still buy? Would you respect them ever again?

So how come this has become an acceptable practice at a doctor's office? Why do you lay down and take it and not say anything? Your time is just as valuable as the doctor's time. The doctor runs a practice which is a business. If enough people complain about unacceptable wait times, the doctor, in good conscience, will stop triple-booking appointments and start informing you when they're running two hours behind so you don't have to sit there un-respected for two hours.

Waiting in doctor's offices accounts for $240 billion a year in lost productivity (Source: Alan B. Krueger, Economics Professor, Princeton University) from waiting 847 million hours in waiting rooms unnecessarily.

Airlines have found a way to inform you when your flight is going to be late (phone calls, email and text updates) and delayed flights impact hundreds of passengers at a time. I got a call yesterday that the Simon and Garfunkel show I have tickets for Sunday has been rescheduled. There were 20,000 tickets sold and 20,000 people were notified by phone. So how come doctor's offices can't tell 6 people the doctor is running an hour late? It wouldn't take 5 minutes to inform an hours worth of patients by text message, phone call or email that the doctor is running an hour late. All it would take is a small dose of respect for the patient.

If you are scheduled to visit a doctor today, make him or her accountable to your scheduled time (15-20 minutes late is acceptable). Say something. Complain. You have a right. It may be that the doctor is not even aware of how the office staff is scheduling and stacking patients. Make the doctor aware. Tell the doctor that you don't feel respected. And if you've been hit financially because of the wait, send the doctor an invoice for your lost time.

Filter-Free Friday™ is the day you speak up, get the respect you deserve and help others become better at what they do. Sitting in a waiting room for hours needlessly is not acceptable so don't pretend that it is. Speak up and say something.
--
Kevin Burns - Excellence Attitude/Culture Strategist
Speaking Web Site http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Finding Your Excellence In A Wasteland of Mediocrity

Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
Follow Kevin on Twitter @attitudeburns
The Official Kevin Burns YouTube Channel

Finding Happiness At Work

"When I find the perfect job, then I'll be happy."

Maybe you've bought into it. So what is the number one factor that keeps employees from achieveing happiness at work? Their immediate supervisor.

How many times has it been said, reported, repeated, regurgitated, reissued and rebuked: people don't leave a company - they leave their immediate supervisor. Well, it's absolutely true.

Look, if you want to improve customer service levels, improve your first-line managers (the immediate supervisor to the employee whose performance you are trying to improve). If you want to reduce attrition levels by both customers and employees, improve your first-line manager. If you want to increase initiative, creativity and communication, improve your first-line manager.

If the first-line manager is an idiot, your people will hate working there. They will, in turn, offer lousy service because they could care less about the job. That department will also have higher employee turnover than other departments of your organization - which sucks more budget money for recruiting and training.

Don't you DARE put someone into a supervisory position that has lousy people skills or contempt for the people they work with. And don't you DARE stick a front-line manager into a position before he has been properly trained. Sticking any old body into a supervisory position WILL lose you your staff and your clients.

The first-line supervisor is like the linchpin of a rail-car coupler - the one that locks in your employees, customers and culture of your organization. Even in a fabulous corporate culture, the one jerk-supervisor will still turn over staff and customers.

Get it right. This is far too important to miss. Wherever that first-line supervisor is in the organization, everything right below him either works or it falls apart.
--
Kevin Burns - Excellence Attitude/Culture Strategist
Speaking Web Site http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Finding Your Excellence In A Wasteland of Mediocrity

Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
Follow Kevin on Twitter @attitudeburns
The Official Kevin Burns YouTube Channel

Yellow Ties, Blue Cactus and Snarls

It's Filter-Free Friday™ again - a day when you turn off the natural inhibitors that prevent you from speaking the truth and start telling people how you really feel. The intent is not to hurt, but to help. Whether it's a business, organization or an individual, today is the day you get to say what is on your mind in an effort to help people make a better effort.

I had supper last night at the Blue Cactus in Ottawa after being referred by friends.

I went to www.bluecactusbarandgrill.com and was able to make my reservation on-line. I picked my exact time and number in our party and received a confirmation email within a few minutes. Then, a half-hour prior to my reservation, I was sent an email reminder of my reservation. Brilliant customer relationship management. (This is simple software that any doctor's office, dentist's office, hair salon or any place that offers appointments could use. It is simple and allows your clients to touch you when they're free - and you don't force them to sit on hold while telling them that their call is very important to you.)

The restaurant decor was outstanding. Neil, our server, was friendly and knew his work. The food, however, was kind of ordinary. Neil brought me a feedback card to get my thoughts - mostly compliments except for the kitchen staff who must not taste their food before it leaves the kitchen - or chef has a very dull palate. Regardless, I gave my opinion, my name, address and phone number. I have nothing to fear. I didn't condemn, nor did I become abusive or hurtful. I simply offered an opinion - an honest opinion - in an effort to help them serve their patrons better.

So, that guy that wears the same soup-stained yellow tie to work every day - he gets a polite suggestion from you that drycleaning might be in order. The clerk that snarls through serving you gets asked if you have done something to offend or irritate them. And today, you say something to the person who always seems to be cheery and helpful - something you have failed to do but never have.

It's Filter-Free Friday™. Speak the truth. Stop being ordinary. Find your Greatness.

--
Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist
Speaking Web Site http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Creating An Oasis of Greatness In A Wasteland of Mediocrity
Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
Follow Kevin on Twitter @attitudeburns
The Official Kevin Burns YouTube Channel

What Has Google Done To Your Business?

If you want to just hang out and do things the way you have always done them, you're dead. Google has changed the way we do business, the way we deliver, the way we sell and the way we hire our people.

Think about the number of times you've showed up in a store and didn't need a salesperson, just a cashier. By the time most of your customers get to you they already know more about you than you think they might. If you think that not having a web site gives you an advantage in that regard, then you're not getting it. A business without a web site is a business that can't be trusted. If you haven't got a web presence with testimonials and satisfied customers then you can't be trusted - and people won't buy from you because you have no on-line reputation.

Even the new people coming to our workplaces have a different idea about what they need to know and what they don't. Most new young workers won't remember facts and figures because they can access the facts and figures on Google when they need that information. If they don't need it always, they won't remember it.

If you think you're running the same business or organization that you were five years ago, hiring the same kinds of people and delivering the same customer expectations - you are out of touch with your own customer base.

Sure, you can run a business this way but it will always be a middle of the pack performer - mediocre.

Greatness requires visionary thinking and an embracing of change. Whether you like it or not, your customers are changing their buying habits. Are you changing your selling and service habits to match them?
--
Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist
Speaking Web Site http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Creating An Oasis of Greatness In A Wasteland of Mediocrity
Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
Follow Kevin on Twitter @attitudeburns
The Official Kevin Burns YouTube Channel

What If You Don't Speak The Language?

The summer of 2005, I spent 5 weeks in small-town, rural Quebec in a French immersion course learning the language. With my high-school French as a base and a lifetime around my French-speaking relatives, I built my vocabulary quickly. Then there was Jean-Louis, whose house I shared. We would converse each night for at least an hour. In week one, I understood maybe 5% of what he was saying. At the end of week five, I was conversing with 95% accuracy.

But I will never forget that first week where 95% of conversation was over my head.

Starbucks is another place where newbies get all nervous at the counter because they don't speak the language. A "venti, skinny, double-shot, extra-hot, no foam, no whip, caramel macchiato" runs fear through the veins of newbies not wanting to be embarrassed when they order a "medium coffee."

P'shaw. There's no such thing as medium because a tall is a small, a grande means large but is the medium size and a venti is Italian for "twenty" and refers to the 20-ounce sized cup - a large. Then there's the coffee. C'est confusant.

How about sending a courier package? Do you speak "courier?" Did you know that "height X width X depth" divided by 194 will give you the dimensional weight - the billable weight of your package - not the actual weight? And that the formula for calculating brokerage, duty and taxes varies but not based on weight or contents?

Are you speaking your language or the language of the people you serve? Take the time to educate clients in how your industry works. Speak plain language. (IT guys are famous for not getting that one.)

Build your relationships based on clear communication and trust, then you can build on that to bring people up to speed. Organizations and people of greatness make it easy for customers to follow them and they don't embarrass their potential customers or make them afraid to do business with them by using jargon.

--
Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
Follow Kevin on Twitter @attitudeburns
The Official Kevin Burns YouTube Channel

Being Busy Is Not An Excuse

Have you ever used the excuse, "it's too busy" as a way of not paying attention to details, taking too long to get back to customers, missing project deadlines or being late for appointments?

Isn't the purpose of being in business ultimately to be busy?

If you can't handle juggling a few balls and still get your project in on time, can't get a meal out in a timely fashion, can't show your client or prospect some respect or show up on time because you're too busy, then I will guess that you won't have to worry about being too busy for long.

If your 100-seat restaurant gets bogged down after 60 chairs are filled, then take out 40 chairs and do a great job for 60 people instead of a lousy job for 100.

If you're leaving yourself ten minutes to get to your next appointment twenty minutes away, then start scheduling in 30 minutes of travel time - but show your customer/prospect that you think they are important enough to be there early.

If you can't seem to handle the details to get the project done on time, then delegate something or admit that you're over your head but don't let your project team grind to halt because you're "too busy.".

At a sporting goods store sale today, one clerk served one customer while 6 others waited for service. The clerk leaned against a stack of boxes while the customer took his time trying on several pairs of shoes - not acknowledging the others who waited. We didn't wait. We left, found a store where the clerk served us promptly, checked us for our walking style, brought out four pairs of shoes, allowed us try each, helped a couple of other customers at the same time and rang us through while we gladly paid a premium for premium service.

What's the point of having a sale to bring in more customers if you can't handle the numbers once they arrive?

Do one thing well. Be outstanding. Be the standard to which your competitors will measure themselves. Don't offer mediocre service (or none at all) and blame being too busy. You may end up solving your own problem of being too busy.
--
Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
Follow Kevin on Twitter @attitudeburns
The Official Kevin Burns YouTube Channel

"Ordinary" Is Never A Favorite

Do you have a favorite? A favorite restaurant, favorite food, favorite drink, favorite TV show or favorite sports team? How about a favorite make of car, vacation spot, airline, hotel or coffee shop? Do you have a favorite friend, co-worker or boss?

Everyone has a favorite something. Some parents even have a favorite child - even though the right answer is "I love all of you equally."

But now here's the interesting question: are you anyone else's favorite? Are you the coffee shop's favorite customer? Are you your doctor's favorite patient? Are you your waitress's favorite customer? How about at work? Are you your boss's favorite employee or your customers' favorite representative?

If you're not a favorite, you'll never achieve great success. It just can't be done. You can't rise to the top in people's minds by sitting in the middle of the pack. The middle of the pack is for the mediocre.

Are you OK sliding through life just being ordinary? No one picks "ordinary" as their favorite. You find life changes when you stop being ordinary and start finding your Greatness. Greatness is where you find your favorites.

--
Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist

Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture


Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
Follow Kevin on Twitter @attitudeburns
The Official Kevin Burns YouTube Channel