Posts Tagged ‘Experience’

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Exceed Normal Expectations

Monday, August 30th, 2010

Dave Weber - CEO/President

This is part 10 of a 12 part series that I call the 12 X’s of Leadership.

We have all heard the old phrase, “Never promise more than you can deliver and always deliver more than you promise”.  It is one of the first business quotes many of us learned when we got out first jobs. And there is a lot of truth to it.

It has to do with managing the expectations of others and then exceeding those expectations to leave them with a great experience and great feeling of working with you.

What is interesting to note is that exceeding normal expectations many times does not have to be a herculean effort on your part with gut wrenching upheaval in your life. It sometimes means just doing a little bit better.

For example, do you know what the difference is between a baseball player that hits .200 for his career, makes just enough money to cover food, and never leaves Single A division and a player with a career .300 batting average, making seven figures annually, and in the Hall of Fame? Just one hit in every ten tries!

When I encourage people to exceed normal expectations, I mean to simply focus on making little improvements all along the way…not necessarily huge life changing shifts.

It’s like a horse race. I went to the Kentucky Derby two years ago. Now, I am not sure how much prize money is actually awarded, but let’s just say the first place horse won a million dollars and the second place horse got a half million.

In order to get twice the reward did the first place horse have to run twice as fast? Did it have to run twice as far? Did it have to train twice as long? NO.

How much better did the first place horse have to be than the second place horse? Just a nose.

Is there room in your life today to be just a nose better than yesterday?

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Words to Use to Better Serve Your Customer – Part 2

Friday, April 16th, 2010

Here are a couple of additional “helpful” ways to use your words more effectively when talking with your customers.

  1. Say, “Can you help me understand …?” rather than “Why?”. Saying the word “why” might carry a suspicious tone. I’m sure we’ve all had someone ask you “why?”, and in your own mind you’re going through a quick mental drill of wondering to yourself, “why are they asking me why?”, or “what ulterior motive do they have for asking me why?”. Don’t be in a situation where your customers are going through that mental exercise with you.
  2. Say, “I understand” rather than “Yep”,“I see”, or “Uh-huh”. Saying “I understand” implies that you fully comprehend what the customer is saying, and that you and your customer are advancing the conversation. If you really don’t understand, then refer to #4 above.
  3. Say, “Here is what I can do now” rather than “Should have”. “Should have” might imply that it’s too late to fix it. Even if something “should have” been done, had we known the “should have” at the time, it wouldn’t be a “should have” now. Deal with the current situation. It’s better to say, “Here is what can be done now …” and move forward.

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Words to Use to Better Serve Your Customer

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

Over the past ten-plus years, I’ve conducted numerous presentations to my clients on the topic of “Customer Service”. There are clearly dozens of helpful ways we can all serve our customers better. One of them is in the choice of words we use when trying to address an issue or solve a problem. Over the next few blogs, I’ll share some way to be more “helpful” with the words we use with our customers, that can help build relationships with our customers, rather than barriers.

  1. Say, “Yes” rather than “No”. Our customers come to us to solve their problem(s). Don’t send them away mad or frustrated. Take the time and energy to come up with ways to help them.
  2. Say, “Can” rather than “Can’t”. Sometimes saying “can’t” is even worse than saying “no”. Could your customer perceive that you “could” help them … but are choosing not to?
  3. Say, “Here is how I can help …” Even if it isn’t the complete solution to the problem, it certainly is heading in the right direction. Effort does count, especially when building relationships with customers.

More good word choices in my next blog.

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Free Your Cares and be Carefree

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

Dave Weber - CEO/President

The older I get (the half century mark is approaching very fast and that older looking man in the mirror won’t leave me alone), the more I realize just how much “stuff” I tend to hold on to that really negatively impacts my quality of life. In fact, I am starting to feel more and more like Rocky in his last movie.  Did you see it? I think it was called “Rocky 18”. Not really. It was “Rocky Balboa”.

In it, an aging Balboa is drawn back into the ring, as he puts it, “To get the ‘junk’ out of his gut.”  You see Rocky had been holding on to some stuff in his life– cares and concerns that were dragging him down. And these cares were preventing him from moving forward and truly enjoying life.

I find the same thing happens to me if I am not careful.  Here are 5 strategies I have learned to help me live with fewer cares and be more carefree:

  1. Free your mind from worry. When we worry, we borrow cares and concerns from tomorrow and we drag them into today.  Once we get them here, they just ruin our present.
  2. Free your heart from hatred. This one is very similar to the first strategy only in the opposite direction. When we harbor anger, resentment, and bitterness toward someone for something that happened in our past, it is like handcuffing ourselves to them and pulling them around with us all the time so they can continue to ruin our present.
  3. Free you life from complexity. Simplify. Look for things that can be pruned out of your life. Are you so busy doing all those “good things” that you are killing yourself? Cut some out.
  4. Free yourself from greed. Many people tend to get caught up in two twin syndromes: the “get as much as I can” syndrome and the “hold on to it as long as I can” syndrome. When I fall prey to these two, I find myself going through life clutching tightly to all “my stuff “and worrying about it. Giving is a wonderful antidote to battle greed. It helps us take our eyes off ourselves and focus on helping others.
  5. Free yourself from expecting perfection. To put it more simply, expect less. No one is perfect. People are going to mess up—including you. My bride is going to disappoint me…so are my kids…so are my colleagues at work…so is the gate agent at the airport and the kid washing my car. When we expect perfection, we can only be disappointed (or neutral at best). But when we don’t expect it and we get it…it’s GREAT!

Implement these strategies and set yourself up to live a life full of pleasant surprises…it is way more fun.

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HALT! Don’t Make that Bad Decision

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

Dave Weber - CEO/President

This past summer I was conducting a leadership retreat in North Georgia when one of the participants shared a principle that I found both very insightful, and personally, very applicable.

She said that there are times in everyone’s life when we are much more susceptible to making poor choices.  If, however, we learn to recognize the warning signs, we can avoid following through on a bad decision.

The key, she said, is to remember the acronym HALT.  If you are experiencing one of the four symptoms represented by the word HALT, then you need to do exactly what the acronym suggests…STOP! Don’t make a decision until you have dealt with the symptom.

The four “red flags” that are major contributors to bad decisions are when we’re feeling:

  • Hungry
  • Angry
  • Lonely
  • Tired

When one or more of these conditions exist, you are more likely to make a decision that you will later regret.

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