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.