There’s a place at the base of the mountain where I live that has the best, old-fashioned milkshakes and malts you have ever tasted. It’s like being transported back into the ’50’s. Being a sucker for good ice cream, I usually try and stop and get one of these heavenly delights every time I pass through.
Two weeks ago I stopped in for a caramel, marshmallow malt. The lady behind the counter was in her forties and obviously not happy to be there. As I approached the counter, she sneered at me almost daring me to place my order. I knew exactly what I wanted.
“I’ll have a caramel, marshmallow malt with double malt,” I told her.
“They already come with double malt,” she replied, as if that were the end of the conversation.
“Really?” I said. “Well, what I was hoping for is double what you usually put in.”
“Why do you need so much malt?” she asked.
“I don’t NEED that much malt, I just want that much malt,” I told her with a smile.
“Well,” she said, obviously disgusted at my unbridled self-indulgence, “I’m going to have to charge you extra.”
“I’m pretty sure I can afford it,” I replied curtly, getting somewhat miffed myself.
At any rate, she made the malt, I went on my way enjoying the ice cream, but not as much as if I would have had a better experience at the counter. I made a mental note that it was time to find a new place to buy ice cream.
Yesterday, I passed through the small town at the base of the mountain once again. My lust for ice cream overpowered my anger at having been treated badly the last time I was there and I stopped again. Behind the counter was a little girl in her twenties about four months pregnant.
With a big smile she said (somewhat playfully,) “I’ll bet you’re here for ice cream.”
“How’d you know?” I asked, playing along.
“Well,” she said, “it’s 80 degrees outside, and if I was coming into a place like this, the first thing I’d be after is ice cream.”
I ordered the malt (like I always do) and voila! No hassle. No questions. No accusations. No mention that I’d be paying more (yes, she did charge me more.) Just a smile and getting to it. As she added the extra malt, she said, “Oooh, this one’s going to be gooooood.” After she poured my malt into the glass and handed it to me, I saw her dip her finger into the mixing container and take a taste. She smiled approvingly.
Above are two scenarios including minimum wage employees in a small town. This little drug store is on a dying main street that sees more than half the stores closed. These employees are probably lucky to be working indoors in an air conditioned building instead of out working on the ranch somewhere.
At the end of the day, one employee made me feel like I’d never want to return again. The other made me feel like I would never again drive through town without stopping. The owner of the drug store never witnessed either scenario. I assume he blissfully thinks all is well in Zion. In a place where every customer is critical to the success of the business, he can’t afford to lose even one visitor.
The only way to grow your business is to provide a great product at a fair price and back it up with great customer service. Because after all, it’s not just a milkshake that’s at stake here.
That’s one of those quotes kind of like, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.” It works great as long as everyone buys in completely and conducts themselves accordingly. It’s helpful to separate friendship from business on several levels, but especially so when your business will be competing head to head with that of a friend. The key to success in such an arrangement is to be open and honest and talk about how things are going to go. You can even set a few ground rules if you want (although fewer is probably better than more. The more “rules” you have the greater the likelihood one of you will break one or more of them and cause a rift.)
The best thing you can do is say, “We’re going to compete head to head. I will deal with you, your company, and my / your / our clients in an open and honest way. “ It’s important that both you and your friend understand that someone is going to win and someone is going to lose. But that certainly doesn’t mean you have to cease being friends.
I remember my son playing on the high school baseball team. He competed against all the teams in the valley. Then, after high school ball was over, the American Legion Baseball season started up. Of course the American Legion team drew players from all over the valley. So one minute they were “mortal enemies,” and the next they were best friends (and teammates.) I noticed that even though they were competitors during the high school season, they were still cordial to each other. It wasn’t uncommon to hear, “nice hit, Bob,” or something like that. Make no mistake, each team was playing to win. And each was giving their all, no matter who was at bat or on base. But the fact that they were competing didn’t get in the way of being friends. You could be happy when your friend did well and vice versa without affecting your desire to come out winner at the end.
It’s like that in business. Competing doesn’t have to mean we’re not friends (unless you decide it does.) As for me, I know we’re both going to do our best. We’re not going to cheat, or do anything underhanded, but we’re going to compete to the full extent of our talents and abilities. At the end of the day, someone’s going to win and someone’s going to lose. But if we don’t sacrifice our honesty and integrity to “win at all costs,” when it’s all over, we’re going to go out for dinner together, congratulate each other, and move on to the next thing. Because after all, friends are friends and business is business.
As the economy turns ever downward, business owners are scrutinizing each expenditure. While I’m a big proponent of managing expenses, I have to ask the obvious question: why haven’t they been watching their expenses all along? Sure, a slow down in the economy makes things tighter, but isn’t a dollar a dollar no matter what the status of the economy is? Scrutinizing expenses should be part of who you are, not something you do.
The moral to this story is, don’t let the economy dictate the way you do business. Run the tightest ship you can regardless of the economic conditions and you’ll be successful.
With all the talk lately about work needing to be fulfilling and rewarding, some people have misconstrued that to mean that work HAS to be fun. While many parts of work can be — and are — fun (especially when you’re engaged in a rewarding, fulfilling career,) it’s certainly not always fun. That’s why they call it work. Otherwise, it would be called fun. As I’ve said before, even when you start to get paid for something that used to be fun, you start to see the fun slip away.
Work is (at least it should be) satisfying, rewarding, fulfilling, and educational. . . for the most part. But there are also times when it can be frustrating, difficult, and downright horrible. That doesn’t mean you have a bad job. That just means it’s work. The bad helps you appreciate the good. If your job is rewarding most of the time, you’re in a good place. If some days are absolutely horrible, well, that’s why they call it work. The rule of thumb here is what percentage of your time at work are rewarding and fulfilling, and what percentage is negative? If you swing to the positive side, don’t be too quick to go off in search of the holy grail.
Some people will argue with the declaration made in the title of this post. But in my experience, if employees don’t respect and trust you, they’re certainly not going to follow you. Some managers, especially young ones, think that if you’re “popular” or funny, or caring, or everyone’s buddy, that is enough to get everyone around you to follow. While this is true part of the time, when the going gets tough (which is when you need them to have enough trust to follow you) they’ll go a different direction. Managers who strive to be loved instead of respected often have this problem.
Here’s an example. I was recently told about a company where the manager is everyone’s friend. They laugh together, play together, and generally have a good time together. Unfortunately, lately her employees are starting to (publicly) second guess her decisions and it’s causing serious discord in the business.
This manager decided one of the younger (in terms of experience in the company) supervisors would get a special honor. Another supervisor — with more time, more experience, (and a horrible attitude), was passed over for the honor. As you can imagine, he began to think, ‘Why me? I’ve been here for xx years and I’m the most qualified, why was I passed over?” Now this thought process is human nature. No problem. Where it gets out of hand is the point that that supervisor begins to solicit support from the other supervisors. It became especially bad when the whole business began choosing sides.
What do you do if you’re the manager?
First, we need to agree that this isn’t a problem of morale, etc. It’s a problem of respect. It says, “Not only do I not like your choice, I’m going to challenge your authority to make such a decision in front of the whole company.’ The manager who is trying to be loved takes a very soft line in resolving this issue, because if you do something harsh, everyone might not love you.
The right thing to do is cut that person loose. Do it now. Don’t wait. Don’t hesitate. Do it now and do it decisively. Then make sure the rest of the supervisors know exactly what you did, and exactly why you did it. After all, what this supervisor was saying to anyone who will listen was, “I don’t respect this manager and you don’t have to either.” This is the beginning of the end of your management career if you let this grow. At the point where the person crosses the line and challenges your authority, you have no choice but to terminate his employment. Anything less will create a huge, unresolvable mess in the business.
It’s good to be loved, for sure. It’s better to be respected and trusted. People who respect you will say, “I don’t like that decision, but I trust you to do what’s right for the company.” That’s the attitude they ought to have. Like most things, you can help or hurt yourself. I’m not suggesting you have to be a tyrant or a jerk. On the contrary. People don’t give their best efforts for a tyrant or a jerk. You have to be kind, and treat people with dignity and respect. But you have to be the boss. There can only be one leader of each pack. that has to be you. You’ll only get that if they respect you.
When I have a bad experience I usually share it. By the same token, when I have a good experience I also want to share. A little over a week ago I decided to build an island for the kitchen (I build furniture as therapy in my spare time.) I wanted big turned legs for the island and didn’t want to have to hassle with gluing up the boards and turning them myself, so I ordered them online from Osborne Wood Products in Georgia.
What a great experience!
The legs weren’t cheap — nothing worth having usually is. I paid nearly $100 per leg. But what I got was the best service I’ve had anywhere in a long time. I placed the order online at about 1:00 p.m. They still got them out the same day. They sent me the tracking number and I followed the legs from Georgia to my home clear across the country. The day they arrived, I got a call from Osborne customer service asking if I was happy, if the legs met my expectations, if they’d arrived in good condition, if I was unhappy in any way, if there was anything else they could do to serve me, blah, blah, blah.
That whole transaction took very little of their time. Someone boxed up the order the day it came instead of setting it in the in-box for a few days. That took a few minutes. Someone made a five minute phone call the day it was to be delivered. And here I am — a customer for life. Why would I go anywhere else when I know that if I need something like that Osborne will take that kind of care of me? I wouldn’t. I just wish everyone did business that way.
Osborne is a company that epitomizes customer service and the benefits that come from it. It cost them less than five dollars to make a customer for life. That seems like an outstanding investment.
To paraphrase the old cliche, if you provide great service, nothing else matters. If you don’t provide great service, nothing else matters. ‘nough said.
I remember working with a company a few years ago that had old machines that were constantly breaking down. The machines needed to be rebuilt, but production was so busy, there was no time. They were six weeks out on delivery at that time. To their way of thinking, taking time to stop and fix the machines would put them even farther behind. When I told them we needed to stop production immediately, rebuild the machines and start fresh, they were incredulous. “How can you stop production,” they asked? “You’re the one who supposedly knows about business. Don’t you think it’s important to get these orders out so we don’t lose customers and so we can pay the bills?”
My reply was simple and straight forward. “Yes, of course I think it’s important to deliver products on time. But it’s critical to the future of the company to get those machines fixed. If we fix those machines we can cut our lead time from six weeks to three. That will double our cash turns. It will also make our customers more than twice as happy. Everyone’s going to have to go through three weeks of pain while we get those machines rebuilt, but after that it will be better for everyone.”
We notified our customers about the down time and rebuilt the machines. Everything improved almost immediately. We increased sales by almost 50% — not from any new customers, just from increased throughput in the factory. We decreased inventory costs. We improved our cash flow. We made everyone happy. All because we stopped putting what was important in front of what was critical.
When you prioritize in your business, be sure you’re putting critical things in front of important things. Be sure you know what the critical things really are. The best way is to ask yourself, “If we do this (or don’t do it) what will the long-term consequences be? What will the short-term consequences be? How does that compare in terms of effect (or potential effect) on the business with everything else that’s going on?” You can set your priorities from there.
Are you working on what’s important, or what’s critical?
I’ve been saying for years that ideas are a dime a dozen. It’s not great ideas that make great money, it’s great execution. My son sent me an excellent link to Signal Vs. Noise Blog entitled “I had that idea years ago!” The premise of the piece is that we all see “other people getting rich off an idea” we had long before they did. This well-written post explores the idea that just because you had an idea doesn’t necessarily mean you would have had the same success as the person currently working the idea. I highly recommend you read this article. It’s short, well-written and worth the time. The comments (some lucid, some not) are worth flipping through as well.
I was talking with my son last night about a business he’d worked in that was, “the best business” he’d ever seen. What made it the best? “People worked together. Nobody slacked. The boss didn’t act like the king. Everyone was friendly to each other. Everyone helped the customers and the company. There was no negativity — just a “can-do” attitude on everyone’s part. It was fun to go to work.”
We talked about how it is the leader who creates that environment. I asked him, “Tell me how, if you were to buy (or start) a company today, you would build that exact same business environment.” He began by telling me what he liked, why he liked it, etc. “No,” I said. I want a step-by-step plan of how you would re-create that environment.” We never really did get there.
I think the way to be ready to lead is to lead in your mind. What does the perfect business environment / culture look like to you? If you were in charge today, what would you do day-by-day and hour-by-hour to make your business look like that? Often, when you finally get your chance to lead, there’s no time to think about what you’d do. The time for thinking has passed and it’s time for making things happen. If I asked you today how you would make it happen, could you tell me?
I spoke with a college student I know well yesterday and came away with an unsettled feeling. When I asked what he would be studying, he informed me he was applying for medical school and hoped to be accepted next spring. As we talked further, it appeared he really wasn’t that interested in medicine (or dealing with sick and / or injured people for that matter.) “Then why are you going into medicine?” I asked. “Because doctors make a lot of money,” he told me, giving me that look that said, “You must be the stupidest person on the face of the earth.”
I cringe every time I hear that response — “because you can make a lot of money.” I’ve written before about having a passion for what you do. There’s no substitute for passion. I mean, really, do you want to go to a doctor who really doesn’t care for or about sick people — who’s only doing it for the money? Do you want to take your car to a mechanic who hates working on engines? Would you enroll your children in a class whose teacher was only in it for the money (granted if a teacher was in it for the money, you’d have questions their financial skills as well?)
No. You want to go to see a “professional,” and by professional, I mean professional in every sense of the word. I want someone who lives and breathes cars to work on my car. I want a teacher who can’t wait for tomorrow to begin teaching my children. I want a doctor who graduated at the top of her class, not because she’s the smartest, but because she has such a passion for fixing what ails the human body she finds every day an adventure.
If you want the best care, and the best service and the best results, go to someone who’s passionate about what they do. It won’t take long talking to them and you’ll know whether they have the fire or not. Don’t waste your time and money on someone who’s “in it for the money.”
To my young friend I would say this: You’re going to spend more time at work than you do with your wife and children. You wouldn’t marry for money (would you?) so don’t work for money. Marry for love and joy, fulfillment, excitement and companionship. Work for those same reasons. Find something that gets you up in the morning. The money will follow. The top performers in any profession make good money. You can only be at the top of your game if you have a passion for what you do. Don’t be so shallow as to base your career on, “it’s a great way to make money.