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Getting by with Just the Minimum

This may be a great tag line for a car insurance company but it falls far short when talking about customer service. If your company is doing “Just the Minimum” for what they need to get by then it’s time to shake things up. If you don’t change then you could be closing your doors forever buying the minimum from that car insurance company because that’s all you can afford on your new minimum wage job.

The idea for this post hit me this morning after receiving an email from a car dealership at 6:36 am. You see last night I sent this same dealership an email explaining my disappointment in the way they were handling my inquiry on a used vehicle they have for sale.

A little history may be in order here. I’ve been working up to purchase this type of car for over two years now. Doing lots of research and comparisons of different model years and the like. I came across this dealership and car via a cars.com search (no-affiliation) this past weekend. The dealership is 500+ miles away which leaves out a quick stop by for a visual inspection and a test drive.

The cars.com ad was lacking in some very important information for making a purchase decision (that’s another post for another time).  Anyway I used the dealerships “email us for more info form” requesting some additional pictures and a carfax request midday on Monday which included my phone number and email address. An automated response email was sent back suggesting I call or email them for additional info about the car. Thought to self “Isn’t that what I just did?”

Heads up here businesses that use autoresponders – make sure your reply message is appropriate to the request otherwise you will have accomplished nothing. Autoresponse emails have a place and time. Don’t just get by with the minimum. Set your responders to work when the office is closed and there is no-one around to answer your emails. Better yet if you’re a small business that doesn’t receive that many emails to begin with nix the autoresponders and handle them personally. I’d rather wait an hour for a response that actually meant something then be told to do what I’ve already done.

Getting back to my correspondence with the dealer – so I did what they asked and on Tuesday I replied with another request for more info and this time received a personal reply promising a follow up that evening with the information requested.

Tuesday night goes by, Wednesday day goes by, Wednesday night goes by and still nothing. This prompted my last email late Wednesday night basically saying that “… if you’re not interested in making a 25+ thousand dollar sale I’d find another business that would be happy to have me as a customer”. Now that’s boiled down but you get my gist I’m sure. To let you know I’m not a very pushy person, ask anyone and they will tell you I’m pretty laid back and tend to give a lot of leeway when dealing with people.

Here is a business that has a motivated buyer that’s willing to part with close to $25,000 and is asking for some assistance due to the distance between us. Nothing more or less than I expect my contact at the dealership would request if he were in my shoes. The dealership doing just the minimum here is not working to build much trust in their ability or desire to help their customers.

This mornings email was somewhat apologetic stating that the person given the task to gather and forward my requested informatoin dropped the ball and wasn’t in the office yesterday to follow up with. My thoughts here were “so you’re telling me you can only talk to this person while they’re in the office”. I have my doubts about that one. My next thoughts were “I’m not worth the time – they’ll just wait for someone else to come along and buy the car, that’s easier and they don’t have to do more than the minimum to get by“.

The email also said this: “I will check today and either we will send you what you need or not.” That is a direct quote.

I’m curious to see what today brings.

What’s the take away here?

- Do the minimum and hope to get by. This will not work in today’s social economy.

- Do the extra over and above to build trust, respect and a relationship with your customers that will stand up and champion your business, service and products.

What do you do to get what you get?

QUOTE: “If we keep doing what we’re doing, we’re going to keep getting what we’re getting.” – Stephen R. Covey

Ohhhh Soooo True. This reflects us in every aspect of our lives from how we treat people, how we drive, what we think, what we watch and then mimic, what we listen to and then say out loud… Think about it.

How are you going to change what you’re doing to change what you’re getting?

4 Reasons To Leave Your Mobile Device At Home On Purpose!

Or accomplish the same thing by turning it off for 24 hours – and leaving it off.

A friend just posted a comment on her facebook wall: “Like a fish outta water today. Left me cell phone home…. uggggg”.

Here was my reply: “So what type of work are you getting to do that you normally wouldn’t get to do if you had your phone? Mixing it up either intentionally or by accident let’s you find creative ways to handle projects differently. This is a good thing.”

Here’s my challenge: Next Monday I want you to leave your cellphone, iPad, blackberry or whatever you use to connect with mobilely (is there such a word? ) at home.

Why? For the very reason that it may happen for real one day and you need to have a backup plan.

1) Do you have all your contact names and numbers someplace other than your mobile device?

2) How would you notify your contacts that you are sans a mobile device?

3) Do your contacts have an alternate way of reaching you and the same goes for you reaching them if they are mobileless (another new word?)?

4) Would it be such a bad thing to permanently schedule (that means letting your network of contacts know this) one day a week off the grid? What type of work would you get done that you normally wouldn’t?

I’m sure there are a ton more reasons to do this but for putting together this post I’m just lighting the fire I’ll let you all add the wood to keep it burning.

I hope I’ve got you thinking about this one as you can take this example to an extreme and try to figure out what you would do if all cell / internet services were down.

Your ideas are always welcome – please comment below.

On a side note Happy Upcoming Father’s Day to all you Dad’s out there.

C-SPAN – Hat’s Off for the Video Tour of Incident Command Post in Houma, Louisiana

C-SPAN answered my post of Tuesday with this Video Tour of the Incident Command Post in Houma, Louisiana. I saw a re-run of this on Sunday night. Check C-SPAN listings to see if it will be re-aired again.

This is exactly what I was looking for. Here we have a detailed walk through of the command post with interviews with the people that are on the front-line trying to handle the BP Oil catastrophe.

As of today there are only 10 facebook recommends – please spread the word so more people can watch this.

BP Oil Catastrophe – “Why aren’t these people in jail?” – Not What You Think!

Don’t let the title fool you because I don’t think this is the issue that needs to be discussed right now. Here’s a copy of my comments on the Ex-EPA Officials: Why Isn’t BP Under Criminal Investigation? Friday 28 May 2010 by: Jason Leopold, t r u t h o u t | Report blog post.

“Why is everyone so bent on spending time and money on pointing the finger – this will not help to solve the problem of oil gushing into the Gulf.

Our (and I mean everyone around the world) immediate focus needs to be on shutting this thing down.

A global task force of the best engineers can surely figure out how to do just that.

Deal with who pays for what when and how afterward – don’t let the patient die on the operating table while you figure out whose gonna pay the bills.”

All I hear about is “Whose gonna pay?”, “Why hasn’t she/he been fired?”, “They should all be put in jail!” – everytime there’s a major BREAKING STORY.

If 1/8th of the resources and brain power being wasted on this kind of thinking were channeled into finding a solution to the BP oil catastrophe (it’s not a spill) it would be shut down by now and a true cleanup initiative would be underway. It’s with everything these days when something goes wrong the 1st reaction is to assign blame and responsibility. Traditional media does nothing to help in that regard either because it’s more sensational to stir the pot around blame and responsibility then it is to actually report on the people that are doing something to fix and solve the problem.

I’d love to see CNN do a special on a strategy meeting where the top engineers in the world are gathered around a white board brainstorming non-stop to find a solution – that would be REALITY TV.

Another great resource for conquering your fear(s)

Seth Godin once again has pointed me in the direction of a great resource.
 
fear.less a free digital publication launched on May 3rd.

“fear.less is a free online magazine that empowers people through unique stories of overcoming fear.”

Read this new publication either online or download it via PDF to digest later and then share it with friends when you’re done. I’ve been receiving a number of publications in this format via email for sometime now and this new endeavor by Clay & Ishita is yet another example of a compelling read free for our consumption and packed with real world examples of people struggling with and conquering their fears.

Time Spent Elsewhere

The Pocono Tweetup tribe has been keeping me very busy.

I love them for that because it means they have been pushing me past my comfort zone.

An unfortunate consequence is I have less time to spend here.

A fortunate consequence means I have to rethink where else I’m spending time and rethink the value of those activities.

Are you being challenged by your friends both offline and online to break out of your comfort zone?

If not take Seth Godin’s lead “Maybe you need new friends”.

What activities are you spending time on?

Rethink the value of that time which is spent elsewhere!

Social Is As Social Does

My new motto came as an inspiration while watching (for the millionth time) “Forrest Gump” – here it is:

Social is as Social does!.

Take a second… Let it sink in… Social Media is NOT ME standing up acting like a talking head.

Social Media is ABOUT YOU!

Take WIIFM (What’s In It For Me!) and spin it 180 degrees to be WCIDFY (What Can I Do For You?).

…for now I’m asking WhatCanIDoForYou?

Tweet your questions using the hashtag #WCIDFY – I’ll be watching.

Change – Not Because You Have To But Because You Want To

Making that decision to break up the normal routine isn’t always easy but then again change never is. At our tweetup this morning Jason mentioned something along those lines – let’s see it ah had to do with finding new opportunities as change forces us to look at our world differently.

I’m certainly not the first one to have talked about this but it bares repeating every now again. We get caught up in what’s comfortable in our life, at work, with our friends and the types of activities we do. It’s only when we are forced in a new direction because of outside influences do we dare to explore new territory. I say let that force come from within yourself so you can experience life on a new level, share new meaning with new friends, find something you’re passionate about and make it part of your work week and offer to help more people that are struggling with one thing or another.

Wow this certainly took a turn I wasn’t expecting… as I am by far the most comfortable of people and when it comes to change I usually try to fight it off with a big stick.

I have to chalk up my departure from the comfort zone to sharing time with people that inspire me, support me and push me to take bigger steps. They would be my new friends at Pocono Tweetup – thanks… – Bruce

Google Your 800 Number to Find Opportunities

Everyone in business has an 800, 888, 877 or some kind of toll-free number right? Most everyone has a web address as well or they should (that’s a topic for another day) right?

So what does having an 800 number have to do with finding opportunities using Google?

Do this one thing before continuing to read this post: enter your 800 (toll-free) number into the search box on Google and click on the Search button.

I did this for the company I work for and had 40,100 search results returned. The 1st 2 results on page 1 were pages from our web site with a total of 4 results on the 1st page. I must be doing something right SEO wise.

Now comes the fun part – by visually scanning the first couple of pages of results I found no less than (5) five sites that had our phone number listed but not our web address. Let’s let that sink in for a few seconds.

1… 2… 3… 4… 5…

Can you see where I’m going with this? If you answered yes then you’re already ahead of the game.

Here we have an opportunity to link build without cold calling / emailing etc… These sites already have us listed for one reason or another. It’s now up to me to decide what landing page on our site will best fit their content and make a call. It’s obvious that not all sites will be a good fit as some are just robot collections of other peoples content but you can do a quick visual of the Google results listing to help you in that regard.

There are two other things to look out for here as well:

1) Have you changed your 800 number? If so then that old number is out there and someone else is getting your calls. Search your old 800 number and contact as many of the sites to change it and while you’re there get them to update or add your web address.

2) Have you changed site domains or removed old content from your current domain? Then there are old links is out there pointing to nowhere.

There are two ways to handle this:

1) Call the site that has the old link and give them an updated one.

2) Do a 301 redirect (google results) from the deleted content to a replacement page or from the old domain to the new domain.

So what have we learned here? Don’t neglect old established content, some of this may be ranking very high organically and costing you lost customers.