don’t ask if you don’t care

“Did we use a travel agent?” My daughter was filling out a customer survey card during breakfast at the hotel.

Amongst all the “how would you rate…?” questions was a question asking how we reserved the room. A good thing to ask really. If I owned the hotel, I’d certainly want to know how my customers were finding and booking rooms because it would let me know where to direct my marketing efforts.

Except…

In a classic example of truly bad survey design, there were only two possible answers: travel agent or toll-free reservation number. This would have been a poor question 15 years ago because I can think of at least three other possible answers: 1) I didn’t make reservations. We just chose the hotel as we were passing through; 2) I called the local hotel number (not the nationwide toll free number); and 3) Other: [fill in the blank].

Today there’s this thing called the “Internet” which the hotel apparently hasn’t heard of. That opens up more reservation options, although I could probably narrow it to two: 1) the hotel’s website; and 2) a travel website such as hotels.com, Travelocity.com, etc.

So just what are they doing with the information they gather? I try to picture the marketing meeting where someone says with a straight face that 83% (or whatever) of their guests use travel agents and the rest use the 800 number. Someone, someone, someone at that meeting would have to ask about online reservations. And the survey would be updated to gather better information.

Because it was a bad survey before it was a woefully outdated survey, I can only conclude that they truly don’t care about my answer. If no one is giving that question’s results even causal scrutiny, it’s pretty safe to assume that the rest of it is being ignored as well.

Survey design is hard – practically a science onto itself – and really easy to do badly. Customer surveys are a great way to get useful information to improve your service, refine your product line, or do a better job with internal customers. I don’t admit to knowing anything about survey design for the same reason I don’t admit to knowing anything about hanging sheetrock. But if I did know anything, I’d give this advice: If you care, then care. If you don’t care, that’s fine, but don’t pretend you do.

A good rule of thumb for surveys (and basic human interaction): Don’t ask the question if you don’t want to know the answer.

lessons from used tires

It’s pretty easy to confuse flash for substance. To think that we’ll do better once our surroundings, our products, our marketing are better. Once we have the nicer office, we’ll keep it better organized. Once we have a better brochure, we’ll be better salespeople. Once the new software is set up, we’ll provide better service to our customers. Once we redo the lobby, we’ll get more business.

And it’s a lie. We tell it to ourselves because flash is easier than substance.

Appearances do matter, but delivery matters more. Looks can give credibility to a first impression, but results keep people coming back. All else being equal, flash will attract more attention, but things are rarely equal.

I was reminded of this lesson over the weekend. My truck needed new tires so I headed over to my favorite tire shop on Saturday morning. It’s a business that most would say are doing everything wrong. They:

Only sell used tires. Used tires are not sexy.

Only carry popular sizes. Need something special ordered? They don’t do that.

Don’t advertise (as far as I know). If they do it’s in the local trader classifieds.

Don’t have any product displays. No pretty pictures of families traveling in their car, tough four wheel drives adventuring through the back country, or sports cars gripping the road at high speed. The only display they have is a shop with tires stacked to the roof. If you’re buying from them you want tires, not a lifestyle validation.

Don’t have individual bays for each car. They have a shaded concrete slab that’s about three cars wide. It looks like a race car pit crew decided to work in a driveway.

Don’t have a reception area. There is no lobby. The office is where you go to pay and it’s off to the side. There isn’t even a dedicated person to greet you.

Are off the beaten path where you would never pass by in your daily activities. You’d never even find them accidentally. They are in a rough and forgotten part of town. Not dangerous, just poor and long neglected.

Look well worn. The shop is old galvanized metal and looks like it belongs on a weathered farm. The office is the size of a small garden shed and is clearly an afterthought. The business name was painted on the outside once, but has long since faded and been obscured.

Don’t pamper the customer. You could wait in the office but probably don’t want to. Most just sit outside near the cars on plastic chairs.

The appearance doesn’t inspire confidence. There is no flash. Judging by looks you’d assume they can barely afford to be in business. And you’d be wrong simply because of what they get right. They:

Are friendly. They talk to and joke with their customers. They enjoy their work and their customers and it shows. Many repair shops are terrible with customers and these guys really stand out.

Are fast, fast, fast. Saturday morning and I was in and out in less than an hour. Done and on with my day.

Are busy. It is always a beehive of activity. The place would look abandoned EXCEPT for all the people and cars always there.

Greet you quickly. Despite all the noise and chaos of power tools, cars, people, etc. I have never waited more than 30 seconds before someone noticed me and came over to help me.

Know who they are and what they do. They don’t pretend to be anything else or waste the customer’s time trying to do something they can’t.

Thrive on repeat business and word of mouth. I’ve bought at least four sets of tires from them and every time I’m there it seems that most of the other customers are just as enthusiastic and have been coming to them for years.

Are empowered. There is no visible chain of command, no noticeable differentiation between employees. Everyone is helpful and everyone helps.

Have freakishly low prices. Seriously. They clearly aren’t spending money on their location, buildings, or marketing and the customer benefits. They’ve used what most would consider a major disadvantage (location and appearance) and turned it into a huge competitive advantage.

Are not a “me too” business. They have the segment to themselves. While others fight and scramble for their piece of the pie, these guys found a niche where they get the whole pie for themselves.

Want you to come back. Too many businesses stop caring the second they have your money. Not these guys. The manager/owner stopped working on a car as I left to shake my hand and tell me to come by if I needed anything, had trouble with the tires, or wanted them rotated.

What can we learn? Reputation matters. Attitude matters. A focus on long-term service matters. Speed matters. Results matter. What you deliver matters. Caring about the customer matters.

What other lessons can we take from this? How else does this apply to HR, leadership, sales, Realtors, health care, and everyone else?

destined for greatness?

The tattoo sweeping along the convenience store clerk’s neckline above her shirt collar caught my eye. In a pretty cursive script it stated, “Destined for Greatness”.

The store was in a barren part of the Southwest in the kind of town where people leave from but no one moves to. It would be easy to snigger and make cynical jokes about her destiny not kicking in yet. It would be simple to sell her short based on her surroundings. That was my initial reaction. But the more I thought about it the more I realized that I don’t know her story. I don’t know if she was a part-time clerk, a manager, or the owner. I don’t know if the business was struggling or if she had built it up from nothing. I don’t know if her role was a landing point or a stepping stone. I don’t know her backstory, situation, or dreams. I don’t know how she defines “greatness”.

All I do know is that it is so easy to sell our selves short. To pretend settling for mediocrity is being humble and modest. It is so easy to look down from the stars, stare at our shoes, and choose life goals that are “realistic”. To set the bar so low we have to be careful not to trip over it. To give up before we’ve even gotten started. And to taunt and derail anyone who thinks there’s more and wants to seek their own path.

And it’s so rare to find someone willing to take a stand for who they are and who they want to be. To announce it to the universe, regardless of what the universe thinks.

Is she destined for greatness? Absolutely. Why shouldn’t she be? We all are – if we choose it.

idiot previous manager

In my life I’ve owned many, many cars and motorcycles. Most were used and some were practically used up. If you’ve ever bought a “pre-owned” vehicle (particularly a cheap one) you know you may be buying someone else’s problems. The previous owner may have ignored maintenance or made modifications and repairs that didn’t make much sense, were stupid/silly, or just unexplainable. Sometimes, the previous owner was – I’m being generous here – an idiot.

Some car-types call these people DPOs, which stands for Dips**t Previous Owner. As in, “I’m spending this beautiful Saturday afternoon replacing the seatbelts that the DPO removed.” Or, “How did the DPO manage to crack the frame on this motorcycle in three places?” Or, “How did the DPO get so many cigarette burns in the upholstery without setting themselves on fire?” [true stories]

Deep down I know two things: 1) the behaviors that created these results made sense to the person at the time; and 2) when buying used vehicles you always need to factor in the time, money, and effort that may be required to find and fix any possible weirdness caused by a DPO.

Which has me wondering if we need to carry this concept over into the business world. How often do leaders come in excited to manage their new team only to discover that they need to clean up the mess, carnage, or general dysfunction left behind by the previous manager? How often are leaders blindsided by issues the previous manager created and then left behind to be mopped up by someone else? How often are leaders stuck with the legacy of the person they are replacing?

The previous leader may have been great or they might not have. There are many, many terrible managers in the world. Even those with the best of intentions don’t always do a good job. I like to give people the benefit of the doubt and assume that they are doing the best they can with what they have, but it’s worth acknowledging that the previous manager may have made mistakes. Might have done some things that don’t make sense to anyone else. Perhaps they were – I’m being generous here – an idiot.

Maybe we call them DPMs or IPMs (Idiot Previous Manager). As in, “Thanks to the IPM’s tyranny, no one on my team is willing to make a decision or even voice an opinion.” Or, “Because the IPM refused to hold anyone accountable, I’m stuck dealing with several people who should have been fired years ago.” Or, “The IPM ran this place like a fiefdom and it’s going to take months to rebuild relationships with other departments.”

Just like buying a used car that may have had an idiot owner in its past, it’s useful to recognize that the previous manager may have been an IPM and plan time, money, and effort to correct problems and issues they left behind.

Thoughts?

is price is less important than we think?

“When value exists, price doesn’t matter. Price is what we talk about in the absence of value.” ~ John A. Jenson

 

“I think it’s breaker #26. Right hand side, a couple up from the bottom.” My wife had called to tell me the air conditioning had stopped working and the temperature was pushing 90 degrees Fahrenheit inside the house and climbing. This happens periodically and is always just a breaker that’s tripped (it’s probably not a good sign that I know my breaker box by memory). Reset the breaker and cool air starts flowing from the vents again.

This time was different. No amount of fussing with the electrical system could get the air conditioning to kick on. It was a long, very uncomfortable night…

That was Wednesday. Thursday afternoon, the repair folks came out and said the a/c unit was done for and needed to be replaced. Did we want them to plan to come on Friday and get it done?

*          *          *

In business we often talk about value – creating value, providing value, value, value, value – but it’s an abstract boardroom concept that gets all tangled up with words like satisfaction, quality, and price. We’re told we should never get emotionally attached when we buy houses or cars as individuals so we’re able to walk away if we can’t get the right price.

And in all of that is the challenge. Despite all of humanity’s evidence to the contrary, economists, accountants, and financial types often have the mistaken impression that us humans are rational. That we are always seeking the lowest price and greatest benefit from our money. That we are concerned about price. That we don’t make emotional decisions. That price = value.

But that seems incorrect. Here’s a better (oversimplified) formula:

Solution = Value.

The smaller the problem, the easier the solution, the less emotional attachment, the less value there is and the more price matters. The bigger the problem, the more difficult or imperative the solution, the more emotional attachment, the more value there is and the less price matters.

*          *          *

Thursday afternoon at 4:50pm, needing to make a decision if we want them to fix the a/c on Friday. Sure we could do the rational thing, the thing that economists think we do, and get several quotes, study which air conditioning units are best, consider impact on resale value, etc. That would delay things well into the next week. We live in an area that (to me) feels like it is on the face of the sun for four months a year.

The quick discussion my wife and I had as we faced another sweltering night was: Can they make it work tomorrow? (yes) Can we afford it? (we will, regardless). Done.

John Jenson is right: when value (a solution to a significant problem) exists, price doesn’t matter. The bigger the problems you can solve and the better you can solve them, the less people worry about price.

Let’s spin this to HR/training, sales, or any business function: when people are worried about price it means: a) we aren’t providing enough value; or b) the customer doesn’t fully understand the value we provide.

Thoughts?

the traps of fossils and fads

I suspect we’ve all known people who cling to youth long after youth is gone. Those middle agers who wear clothes currently in fashion with college students, hang out in clubs, are inordinately proud of how up to date they are, get their nose pierced with their teenage daughter to show how cool they are, etc. It’s silly and sparks mid-life crisis jokes, but overall tends to be harmless.

I suspect the opposite is actually more dangerous. Those who get stuck in time and fossilize prematurely. They cling to the world that existed when they were coming of age. Anything new after that date is feared, ridiculed, shunned. Every year the world becomes more black/white, right/wrong, good/bad. It’s like their brains crystalize and they are unable or unwilling to adapt past a certain point.

This carries over into the organizational level. There are leaders who jump on every latest trend and fad of the moment only to quickly discard it for the next-and-better trend and fad of the moment. They adopt an approach before it’s proven and then toss it aside before it has a chance to work. And… there are the leaders who believe that whatever worked when they first became a manager still works today and they aren’t about to get suckered into using any of this newfangled stuff.

This isn’t a young vs old, Generation Up and Coming vs Generation Soon to Retire issue. People can be cynical beyond their years or in a desperate short attention span search for new and trending at any age. So can teams, departments, and organizations.  HR is guilty of both, but I suspect that these extremes exist in all fields.

I started off wondering which extreme is worse, but realized that it doesn’t matter. Neither extreme is very useful, helpful, or fun to be around. The bigger question is how do we benefit from the new, evolving, and experimental without needlessly abandoning the approaches that do work (or work well enough for now)? How do we dodge the equally dangerous traps of the latest fads and that’s-how-we’ve-always-done-it?

it’s not my fault

“IT’S NOT MY FAULT! I’M NOT TAKING THE HIT ON THIS ONE!”

Few things are more awkward than being in the presence of people who are arguing. Except maybe when they are arguing about you.

“THEY CAME IN AND SAT DOWN WHEN SHE WAS ON BREAK. SHE DIDN’T NOTICE THEM.”

We were at a “travel center” (which is a vague marketing euphemism for truck stop) in the middle of somewhere New Mexico. It had been a long day of driving and we were trying to decide whether to push on despite an ugly storm brewing to the east or find a hotel and not arrive home the next day until several hours later than planned. Right now we needed food.

The gentleman tending the buffet told us we should get our meals, have a seat, and our waitress would get our drink order. Easy enough, except she didn’t. One waitress was tending the booths on either side of us and was able to completely block out our presence from her consciousness. Another focused on customers on the other side of the room.

Eventually, we stopped the waitress working near us and mentioned that no one had come by to take our drink order. She went off and hassled the other waitress. Waitress #2 came by, seemed apologetic, and we told her we were ready to go but would like to get some water in to-go cups. She disappeared and we could hear her talking to a third person who I’m assuming was the manager.

Cue the yelling. Start the blaming. They were behind a thin wall that blocked the kitchen from view but did nothing to dampen the sound. The argument was focused on blame, finger pointing, who was going to be in trouble, and who had dropped the ball by not getting us drinks.

And we still didn’t have any water. They were too busy fighting over who should have been helping the customer to actually bother to help the customer.

Mistakes happen, things get overlooked, processes fail, the customer / end user does something unexpected or unanticipated, etc. etc. What happens next tells me a lot about the company, the employees, and your leadership abilities. In the event things don’t go right, do your employees: 1) solve the immediate problem; 2) solve the immediate problem and then fix the underlying issue so it doesn’t happen again; or 3) make sure they don’t get blamed for it?

vacation, holiday, time away

You might have noticed I haven’t been around lately. I disappeared from twitter, haven’t commented on other blogs, and haven’t posted any of my own. I’ve been on vacation and it was nice.

I’m getting better and better about taking vacations and getting away. In the past I was a consultant or contractor and very rarely took more than a few days off at a time. If I wasn’t working, I wasn’t making money. Now that I’m with a company that actually encourages getting some time away, I find myself enjoying my vacations more and more each year.

My vacations are pretty low key – return to the high desert, spend time with friends and family, mountain bike, eat too much, etc. Others would find that a bore and instead seek out cities, cruises, casinos, and nightlife. Others still might prefer to completely get away and go camping, hiking, fishing or hunting. Or take a camera, journal, and passport and travel the world. Or…

Actually, it doesn’t really matter what you do as long as it works for you. Just as rest and recovery is an integral component of a serious athlete’s training program, I suspect that active and conscious rest and recovery is a necessary part of a successful career. Time away NOT THINKING ABOUT WORK allows us to come back refreshed and attack the issues, problems, and challenges with a new zeal and fresh perspective. It allows us to step back and approach it from a different angle. To step away from the grind, reconnect, and refocus on the parts that make our jobs worthwhile.

What recharges your batteries?

easy or great?

It’s been said that you become like the five people you spend the most time with. Is that good news?

Did the last person you hire make you think, “Man, I’m going to have to raise my game! I love being around people who inspire my best!” OR did you think, “I’m glad that slot’s filled. Next.”

The people you’re filling the company with – the people you’re surrounding yourself with – are pulling you up or dragging you down. There is no neutral, there is no holding steady – they are forcing you to be better or letting you slack. Do you go for easy and comfortable or do you go for greatness?