The Waiting Room Vibe

Ever visited a company and spent time in the waiting room or in a chair in the lobby?

Of course you have.

One can tell a lot about a company by sitting and observing. I once arrived 15 minutes early for a meeting and spent time in the building's reception area. I had one of the first appointments of the day. The receptionist was on duty early and had duties which caused her to disappear from time to time.

As the employees filed in through the front doors to begin their work day, instead of the usual "eyes-front, do not engage" attitude that many of us display during our daily commute to our desks, I was unexpectedly asked by three different people, if I was being looked after.

Several others walked by, smiled and said "Good Morning."

Before my appointment began, I had the impression that this company was probably a good place to work or do business with. The attention I received seemed genuine and heartfelt.

Every acted like customer service was part of their job description.

Because it was.

This simple story serves as a reminder that your company is evaluated by customers, vendors and yes, even strangers by the interaction of each of your employees, whether they work in the Customer Service department or not.

Think for a second about the number of ways each of your employees interact with the outside world. Receptionists, Assistants, Delivery people, Service people, Sales people, Customer service. Every day, everyone is contributing to the public's perception of your brand.

If you were to undertake a customer contact audit and build a matrix of each of the positions in your company along one axis, and the situational opportunities to interact with the outside world on the other axis, the grid would be stunningly complex.

And yet some companies seem to pull it off. They understand that lifelong customers are made and retained by the last person the customer interacted with. A single great interaction with anyone, could cement that customer relationship.

The moral of the story?

Make customer service everyone's job and occasionally monitor that Waiting Room Vibe.

What Are YOUR CEO's Favorite Phrases?

I recently watched a YouTube video of Steve Jobs' favorite phrases. Here it is:




The stories about working for Steve Jobs are legendary, but you can't deny his passion for innovation and his desire to hit product home runs.

One gets the feeling that unless you're prepared to WOW, (sorry Microsoft) don't bother talking to him. Here's a link to Wired Magazine's Best Steve Job's quotes, ever.

What are YOUR CEO's favorite phrases? Do they set a tone? an expectation? Do they speak to YOU, your customers, your company's products and services?

Or do they only speak to analysts and shareholders?

Fleeting Business Models

I was interested to read a recent post at O'Reilly Radar about a new auto insurance concept called Milemeter.

Milemeter is an insurance company that allows you to purchase car insurance by the mile (actually increments of one thousand miles), with the premiums dependent upon requested coverages and geography (where you typically drive your car). Milemeter's premiums do NOT include gender as part of their underwriting criteria.

It's an interesting concept and a potential game changer. As an alum of Allstate Insurance (I worked there for a decade), I'm sure the concept is causing more than a few ripples within the industry.

I don't know whether their model will include all vehicle types (motorcycles for instance), but this model could tread upon some very profitable segments of the industry.

Progressive Insurance has made a very profitable existence in the motorcycle segment - a somewhat counter-intuitive strategy, considering how dangerous motorcycle accidents are to their drivers. But they found out that many of their customers were middle aged white guys, whose motorcycles spent more time idle, in their garages, than being ridden. Identifying and selling to this customer segment was genius.

But if Milemeter covers motorcycles, all that could change.

If you're in the auto insurance business, your world could potentially be flipped upside down.

Your homework assignment: Identify a game changing technology or approach in your current industry and figure out how to get there before someone else does. Unless you aggressively try to obsolete your current business model, someone else may do it for you.

Want to position your business for longevity?

Work everyday with the understanding that your current business model is temporary.

The Economics of "Free"

Thanks to Guy Kawasaki's blog, here's a thought provoking video of Chris Anderson (Editor in Chief, Wired magazine and author of "The Long Tail") speaking at Nokia World 2007 about the "economics of free".

Well worth the 45 minutes or so.

A Great Web Resource

I've just discovered slideshare.net, a site which allows uploads of PowerPoint presentations on virtually any topic.

Whether you need inspiration on a topic, some examples of terrific (or poor) presentation styles, this is the place to visit.

I'm considering writing a Squidoo lens on Change Management, drawing from my experiences with two global ERP implementations. Had slideshare.net been in existence ten years ago, I might have avoided a few scrapes along the way.

Here's an example of a slideshow on Change - one of the biggest challenges facing every business today.

SlideShare src="http://static.slideshare.net/swf/logo_embd.png"> View Upload your own

I urge you to check out the site for yourself for education or inspiration.

Tips for Project Managers

Here's an interesting presentation that all Project Managers should watch....



Do you have any tips to add?

Blogs 101 by Common Craft

Once again, the folks at Common Craft created an excellent video explaining "Blogs" in plain English. Their non-technical, easy to absorb style breaks down the typical communication barriers between "geeks" and "users".

In the end, we all benefit.

Check it out.

My New Favorite Phrase

Brandon Schauer, an experience design director at Adaptive Path, writes about "The Long Wow".

Forget about traditional customer loyalty programs and concentrate on developing a series of Wow moments, driven by deep customer insight and empathetic product or service design.

"The Long Wow" is my favorite new phrase.

Leading from Behind

McKinsey Quarterly just published a terrific interview with Diane L. Schueneman, head of Merrill Lynch's Global Infrastructure Services. (Requires a free, quick registration at McKinsey to read.)

In my opinion she describes helpful strategies for delivering exceptional results in delivery of new and ongoing IT services in support of Merrill's customer service objectives. Pay close attention to the employee empowerment and development she advocates.

I suspect she's mastered the knack of Leading from Behind.

A great read.

The Survey You'll Never See

It amazes me that companies don't understand that their HR departments are part of the company service experience. I don't know of any HR departments that survey "customers" (candidates) about their interview and hiring (or not) experience.

Imagine, a company who focused on hiring "excellence". What would they be like?

Well, I think it would focus on treating all candidates with dignity and respect. And that would translate into specific measurable tasks.

Imagine the positive impression that a post interview survey might make. Imagine getting an email with a link to an electronic survey that might ask questions similar to the following:

Thank you for your interest in ABC Company. We strive to continually improve our recruiting and hiring processes and to provide a dignified and respectful candidate experience. Your honest responses to the following survey will help us continually improve our hiring practices and to continue to promote and practice our guiding values.

1. Did your interview start on time?
2. Did we explain our recruiting process?
3. Did we commit to keeping you informed of the progress for the position hire?
4. Did the recruiter's description/understanding of the position you applied for, match with the job advertisement you applied to?
5. Did your interview offer you adequate opportunity to disclose your qualifications and interest in the position?
6. Did your interviewer seem interested and engaged in your personal qualifications?
7. Did your interviewer offer you the opportunity to ask further questions after the interview?
8. If you took advantage of the opportunity to ask further questions after your interview, were your questions answered to your satisfaction? Were they answered promptly?
9. If we found a more suitable candidate, for the position you applied for, were you informed in a timely and respectful way?
10. If we determined that another candidate was a better fit for the position you applied for, was your experience one that would still make you willing to apply for a future position with our company?

What a tremendous opportunity to demonstrate your commitment to corporate values and to provide your company with a competitive advantage in the hiring process.

It's one that most companies don't take advantage of.

Hiring is a Two Way Street.

I wonder how many companies understand that their recruiting processes are a two way street. While hiring companies are evaluating candidates, candidates are auditioning YOU.

As an example, many candidates I've spoken with have a pretty comprehensive intelligence gathering regimen, that includes some obvious tasks and some not so obvious ones.

1. Your Target Company website is usually a first stop to gather information about the company's industry, products, services, management, financials and values. It's a Cliff notes source of information about you. Poorly constructed websites or those with poor or boilerplate narratives say a lot about you. This one is a pretty obvious step - a great place to go for "the basics".

2. Google Alerts. Some candidates setup a Google alert (or some other Newsbot) on the company. They want to know whenever Company A's name is used on the web, whether in the mainstream news, or a mention in a blog. What other people say about your potential future employer can provide valuable insights. It's also a great way to stay absolutely current on company events, for a potential interview.

Google Alerts can provide links to individuals with investing advice on the company (i.e. the company may be purchased within the next year - or expect soft financial performance over the next 24 months. It can also provide you with links to fan websites (or dissatisfied customers, distributors or partners. They can also alert you to philanthropic and community initiatives.

3. Professional contacts network. Vendors are a great source of information about a company. If you have a solid professional network (consultants, service providers etc), they are usually willing to provide some additional insights into how easy the company is to deal with, strengths and weaknesses of their staff etc. Obviously the depth of the insights will depend upon confidentiality agreements and the strength of your relationship with your professional network (can you be trusted with the information?).

In one case, I was able to get insights into a department that I would be managing from a vendor who had just completed a big project for the company.

4. Personal contacts network (either your Rolodex or perhaps a networking service like LinkedIn or Plaxo Pulse. Candidates can use these to check out senior management at your target company or even anyone who happens to work at the company. You'd be surprised how much information your employees are willing to share with someone they've never met!

And depending upon your age and the kind of job you're seeking, social networking sites like Twitter, MySpace, Facebook might provide some additional insights.

5. Checking the industry competition (websites, financials) helps to provide some industry context to your target company. Is your prospective employer the lead dog or a bit player?

6. Personal experience with the target company HR recruiter. Are you treated with respect? Does the company answer questions or respond to follow-up communications promptly? If your first impression of the company is less than satisfactory, one wonders what the employee experience would be like. The Waiter Rule is always in effect.

So, if your company is having difficulty finding great candidates, it might be a good idea to perform a Corporate Self-Exam. Research your company in the same way your candidates do and fix what needs fixing.

Gary Hamel Speaks. You Should Listen.

Is your company less than the sum of it's parts? Gary Hamel says that it could very well be the way its being managed, in his new book "The Future of Management".

Here's a short video promoting the premise of the book, from the author himself.



Perhaps you should consider adding this to your Christmas list. Understanding how to get more out of your people and processes would be the ideal Christmas gift for any business person.

Seven Words that Change the Game

This past weekend, I saw a documentary on Warren Buffett, one of the world's richest men. Warren's "secret" to investing is simple...and extremely difficult. Simply locate undervalued companies, whose businesses you understand and buy them.

The documentary focused on Berkshire Hathaway's most recent acquisition, a company based in Israel, that makes cutting tools, used in a wide variety of manufacturing companies.

This is significant because it's the first time he has purchased a non-American company.

But this isn't what caught my attention.

Rather, it was an offhanded comment he made discussing where to search for the next great value. The reporter didn't catch it and never followed up with a question.

The comment was: "Your competitors know everything that you do."

As soon as those words were spoken, a lightbulb went on in my head. I have spent years in various businesses talking strategy, identifying core competencies, trying to identify and leverage competitive advantage.

These exercises were both energizing and comforting. We, after all, had a competitive advantage - core competencies that we could rely on to drive us "to the next level". We could take solice in the fact that we possessed the magic, secret sauce (whatever that was) that allowed us to continue to make money and keep the shareholders happy.

I wonder how the tenor of the sessions might have changed, had Warren Buffett been in the room and had made the statement.

Would we have had a heightened sense of urgency? Would we have become more action oriented? Would we have stressed results accountability more? Would we have generated "bigger ideas"?

"Your competitors know everything that you do". Seven words that change the game.

Try opening your next strategy session with Warren Buffett's statement and see if it changes the entire nature of the debate.

Making the Heath Brothers Proud

This video, from O'Reilly Radar demonstrates the impact of how a typical home's energy consumption impacts greenhouse gas emissions. It is a great example of "sticky" communications.

The Heath Brothers (Dan and Chip) would be proud.

Dan and Chip Heath wrote the bestseller Made to Stick, which is a guide to understanding the essential elements of how to effectively communicate an idea. The video demonstrates all six principles of "sticky" communications.

(Sorry, if you want to know what the principles are, you should really buy the book!)