March 12, 2014 · 8:49 am

The “DOH” Factor

I did something really dumb yesterday and I thought it might be instructive. After all, as I tell my clients, the reason you hire someone with as much experience as I have is because I’ve already made most of the stupid mistakes. Why not learn from my stupidity?

A friend was excited to learn that very high-speed internet was coming to her town.

Homer Simpson

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

She sent me a link to the local article about it.  I scanned the first paragraph and saw “Google Fiber” and assumed that’s what she was talking about.  I had read that Google was bringing its gigabit internet service to her town a couple of weeks ago.  Being the good-natured sort, I replied that yes, I was aware of it when it was news a couple of weeks ago.  Snark quotient off the chart, I know.  She calmly said, “No, not Google.  Read it – it’s a local company.  They’ll be here before Google.”  My apology was immediate and sincere.

We all do that, I think.  We’re so trained to multitask that our brains get good at parsing little pieces of information, evaluating them, and deciding whether and how to act upon them in an incredibly rapid fashion.  Maybe it’s become too fast.  As my faux-pas demonstrates, taking the time to get all of the available information might delay an opinion but it will probably make the quality of that opinion – and the decisions we make based upon our opinions – much higher.

Homer Simpson is one of my favorite characters but I’m not so sure he’s a great example for any of us as a businessperson.  “DOH” is a word he says on a regular basis, not that anyone would accuse him of moving in an overly rapid manner.  Taking our time – just a bit more time – to gather information more carefully and completely can help eliminate the “doh” factor.  I’m going to try to do just that – you?

Enhanced by Zemanta

Leave a comment

Filed under Helpful Hints, Reality checks

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

March 11, 2014 · 8:36 am

On Whose Scarecrow Are You Raining?

TunesDay, and this week it’s one of my favorite artists, John Mellencamp. Starting his career as John Cougar, a name he hated, he’s a member of the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame (2008) who has written some of the most American rock songs ever. Today we’re going to take a business point from one of my favorites – “Rain On The Scarecrow”. First – a listen:

As a founder of FarmAid, this has to be one of his most personally important songs.  It’s the dark cousin of his song “Pink Houses“.  Where does the land for all those houses come?  From the destruction of the family farm.  But the point I want to make today is buried in the middle of the song:

Called my old friend Schepman up to auction off the land
He said John it’s just my job and I hope you understand
Hey calling it your job ol’ hoss sure don’t make it right
But if you want me to I’ll say a prayer for your soul tonight

There are so many things I see these days where I wonder about what human beings are making the business decisions involved and, more importantly, how they live with themselves for having done so.  “It’s just business” is a lousy excuse.  That’s the “blood on the scarecrow.”  I know we don’t do politics here, but have a think about how the “profits over people” mentality has made this country and our world a little less human.

It’s impossible to serve our customers when we’re totally focused on the bottom like.  No, Schepman, I don’t understand.  Customers – and the people who work to serve them – aren’t numbers on a balance sheet.  Cutting staff or reducing their pay to improve profits hurts you because there are fewer (happy) staff to support customer issues.  It may be investors who make the decisions but it’s customers who pay the bills in a well-run operation.  Springsteen wrote in the similar-sounding “Cover Me” that

This whole world is out there just trying to score
I’ve seen enough I don’t want to see any more

Maybe it’s not our economy or our businesses that are in trouble but our priorities?

This is the title song from an album about the fading of the American dream in the face of corporate greed.  That trend has only become worse in the almost 30 years since the album was released (1985).  I may be too much of an optimist but I believe that can be changed.  As with everything, it’s people and not faceless legal entities called corporations that are doing this.  People can undo this too.  What say you?

Enhanced by Zemanta

1 Comment

Filed under Music, Reality checks

Tagged as , , , , ,

March 10, 2014 · 9:08 am

Calling Customers Stupid Is…

I love it when some company makes my life a little easier and provides the fodder for a post here on the screed. This time it was a car dealer here in town that provided that for us today.

You callin' me stupid?

You callin’ me stupid?

If you’ll look over at the graphic you’ll see what was in my email yesterday.  This was just the graphic part of the email – there was quite a bit of copy that dug the hole a little deeper.  It read:

Drop by our dealership any time during our regular service hours, even without an appointment, and we’ll adjust your vehicle’s clock for you — free of charge. While you’re here, make sure your vehicle weathered the winter and is ready for warm-weather excursions, with an optional multi-point inspection (please call for availability). Don’t waste any more time; visit our dealership and let us help you prepare for the days ahead. We look forward to serving you!

In other words, you’re too dumb to know how to change the clock on the car we sold you.  Let’s put aside the fact that the real purpose of bringing you in is that “multi-point inspection” which may or may not be free.  If you’re going to reach out to your customer base, shouldn’t the  basis of that offer be something of real value to the customer?  Maybe the email should have been instructions on how to change the clock over to daylight savings with an offer to do it for the customer if they’ll bring the car in?  That is providing value – this is an obvious ploy to get people to the service department.  Giving the instructions lets the customer solve the problem (to the extent there really is a problem) in a matter of a few minutes.  This way means the customer needs to take the time to go to the dealer and wait for a service person – a longer process.  The first solution helps the customer; the second is designed to help you.

If we’re going to be helpful to our customers, we should do so in a way that’s customer focused.  My immediate response here is that they think I’m stupid and calling customers stupid is…well…dumb!  Of course, these guys are pretty dumb themselves.  I sold the car they want me to bring in (back to them so they’re very aware) years ago.  They’ve obviously not updated their customer mailing list into “past” and “current” owners in quite some time (I sold the car seven years ago).  Who’s calling whom stupid now?

Enhanced by Zemanta

Leave a comment

Filed under Helpful Hints, Huh?

Tagged as , , ,