May 9, 2014 · 8:46 am

Another Way

Like many people these days, I eschew carbs, or at least simple carbs.

Shrimp & grits, Commander's Palace restaurant,...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Those are the ones generally found in white foods – pasta, potatoes, and rice, for example. I also avoid corn since it packs a carbohydrate punch. Which brings us to our Foodie Friday Fun this week.

One of my favorite dishes is shrimp and grits. For the non-Southerners among you, grits are ground hominy which is corn treated with alkali. They may be the official food of Georgia but they’re definitely not on my diet.  The dish was one of the things I truly missed when I changed my diet.  The combination of the cheese-infused grits and spiced shrimp, bacon, peppers and shallots is high on my list of great dishes.  But since there was no way to make the dish without a forbidden food, all I could savor were the memories.

A dear friend, knowing of my gastronomic dismay, sent along a recipe called “low-carb shrimp and grits.”  Mentally, I dismissed it immediately, think it an oxymoron.  However, there were no grits in the dish.  Instead, equal amounts of boiling water and almond flour are mixed together with a pinch of salt, simmered until thick, and enriched with cheese.  The end result were far better than I had anticipated, almost indistinguishable from the corn-based version.  Which leads to our business thought today.

Too often we forget that there is usually another way.  When our solution to a problem doesn’t work, we neglect to get outside of our own narrow thinking to formulate others.  We make decisions in a vacuum, failing to gather and organize the information that relates to the questions at hand.  I knew there were many types of nut flours (did you know, for example, macadamia nut flour makes great vegan icing in lieu of buttercream?) but didn’t even consider them as a possible course of action.

We need to get data, to organize information, and to be creative, brainstorming every weird solution to surface another way to solve the problem if the way we see in the moment just won’t work.  The results just might be as delicious as what you wanted in the first place.

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May 8, 2014 · 8:34 am

Why I Block Data Gathering

I can’t decide if what I’m about to write is me being a total hypocrite or the blinding flash of light that comes with insight.

Digital Ghostery

(Photo credit: ToadLickr)

I’ll let you folks be the judge.  Confession:  I block data gathering as I surf.  I use not one but TWO very good, very effective browser extensions to do so:  Disconnect and Ghostery.  Why two?  I’m not sure – maybe I’m just a belt and suspenders kind of guy.  I white list Google Analytics since I use them every day for myself and for my clients and not to do so just doesn’t feel right.  Damn near everything else is blocked.  Do I do this because I am afraid the government or some large internet company is going to find out I like golf and wine and rock music?  Not a bit.  Let me give you my thinking.

I have a very curious mind.  I want to know stuff.  Moreover, I like to find stuff.  The problem with where the internet has evolved is that much of the data being gathered is by marketers of all sorts as well as for content personalization.  For example – are you signed into your browser?  Is Google allowed to track your search history?  If so, the results I see when I look something up won’t match the results you get when you do the same search.  Why?  Because Google uses your search history and what you clicked on in those searches to guide the results they present to you in the interest of making those search engine result pages more useful.  I understand how many people might find this useful. I don’t.

You are probably aware thousands of companies are gathering information about your activity on the web.  They sell this data, usually without your permission.  Then again, so do credit card companies, car dealers, and others.  That’s not my issue.  It’s the damn algorithms.  How is one to discover new stuff if everything one sees is the result of an algorithm having decided what to serve me based on my viewing and purchasing habits?  I want to hear opinions which conflict with my own and find products that are unlike those I’ve bought before.  When I search, I want to be surprised with what I find, not reminded of the roads I’ve traveled before.

No business points today other than this:  while we may serve our customers’ interests by feeding them a diet of things they’ve proven to like, it’s in their interests as well as ours to get them to try new things.  Part of what I feel is less optimal in this world is that many of us don’t listen to the things we don’t like because it challenges our world view or our sense of security.  Listening isn’t liking but a closed mind isn’t smart.  I block data to keep mine open – to prevent anyone -or any algorithm – from deciding how I see the world.  You?

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May 7, 2014 · 8:42 am

Service Done Right

I go on an annual golf trip – no shock given that golf is a frequent topic here on the screed. This year’s takes place in a few weeks and part of our group’s tradition (it’s our twentieth trip!) is that each guy brings “free stuff” for every other guy. Of course, it’s never free to the giver, but that’s part of the charm, I guess.

Over the years I’ve made a variety of commemorative T-shirts for the group as my gift and I’ll be doing that again this year (sorry if I ruined the surprise for any of my group that visits here). I designed them and sent the file off with my order to Design-A-Shirt, the company I’ve used several times before. What happened next is customer service at its finest.

First, when they began working on the order, they sent out proof sheets to show me how they had cleaned up what I sent them and to get an approval to proceed.  This is the first step in very smart customer service.  After all, why take the chance on an unhappy customer (bad) or on having to redo an order (worse, and a killer of margins)?  This was NOT a form email.  It came from a person and I responded to a personal mailbox as I approved what they were doing.

To this point, I’d call this above average, smart customer communication.  Here is where it gets extraordinary.  I got this note yesterday:

Hello Keith,

I wanted to follow up on the order you placed with us to provide you with a production photo of your design printed on fabric. Please see the attached photo for reference. We are concerned about the text… as it’s a bit hard to read. To fix that we would either have to move the “ball” up to make the font larger, or use a different, thinner font that would be more legible. Please advise!

Wow.  They printed the approved design on T-shirt fabric and had a human give it the once over.  That same human took the time to write me a personal note and to ask for guidance.  I should remind you that this is for 13 shirts and the total cost was around $150, far from a big order.  Even so, they made me feel as if I was ordering 13 dozen.  Giving equal attention to every customer is part of doing it right.  Not surprisingly, late last night I got an email that the order had shipped and will be here at the end of the week – several days ahead of when it was promised.

Think I’ll be back?  You bet.  More importantly, by using them as an example of perfect customer communication and service – that which goes above and beyond the customer’s expectations – I’m hoping you’ll both learn from them and given them consideration if you need to make a shirt or two.  I know I talk often in this space about how excellent customer service costs less than you think and retaining a customer is always easier than finding a new one.  Hopefully this real word example resonates.  Does it?

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