Tag Archives: life lessons

December 17, 2012 · 1:48 pm

Learning From Hospice

I’ve written many times here on the screed about customer-focused business behavior. I want to tell you about several professionals who exemplify what I think is the ultimate in customer focus.  These are the people who provide hospice and palliative care.  While it may sound a little cold to look at what they do as a business (and it’s a lot more than that, I know), there are a few really important things we can learn from them.

First, we often focus on the lifetime value of a customer and we prioritize the kind of service we deliver predicated on that.  After all, the new customer who walks in to take advantage of a GroupOn offer is very different from the loyal customer who comes in once a week.  How do you prioritize your customers when the entire reason you’re there is that you’re going to lose them in the near future?  The answer is to do it as they do – deliver an incredibly high standard of service to everyone, looking at them as if they’ll be customers for life.

We all have customers who are demanding.  Imagine a customer who can’t do much of anything for themselves.  While we might talk about our jobs as 24/7 situations, very few of us actually live with our customers.  These folks do, and they are on duty 24 hours a day for several days at a time.   That might make anyone a little cranky, but part of the job is maintaining a positive attitude in the face of a lot of negativity (terminal illnesses tend to breed bad vibes…).  Something to consider, perhaps, the next time we have a 30 minute meeting with an unhappy client or a customer rep who needs to engage an angry consumer on the telephone for an hour?

I can list a bunch of other comparisons here but the entire point is to change your perspective a bit as mine was changed over the last few months.  A family member was fortunate (strange word to use when anyone needs this) to have had some excellent care from professionals providing hospice and palliative services.  The way they went about their jobs, even when their customer was grumpy and difficult – was inspiring.  It opened my eyes and hopefully I can pass that along.

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December 11, 2012 · 10:16 am

The Fog

It was foggy all day yesterday and that resonated with me.

Fog

(Photo credit: rchughtai)

Maybe because it was the start of another week and like an old car I’m getting harder to start and was a little foggy, or maybe because all I keep hearing about is the uncertainty of financial markets, the economy, and lots of other things that are near and dear but not very clear.  Either way, a December day that was warm and foggy was unusual enough to give me cause to reflect.  Of course, it prompted some business thinking I’d like to share.  Let me digress, however, for a minute.

I like playing golf in the fog (no I did not play yesterday).  I know – “you like playing golf period.”  True enough.  But playing in the fog has a unique set of challenges, the most obvious being that tracking the ball once it leaves your club face is impossible.  Because of that, I find I have an increased awareness of all the things that tell me what shape the shot took – where on the face did I strike the ball, was it solid contact, was the face open or shut, my swing path – and where I might go find it.  I can see it go off in a general direction but without an awareness of if I hit it to bend right or left or how far it might have gone, finding the ball is almost impossible.  I pay more attention to what I’m doing in the here and now.

Back to business.  Like golf on a foggy day, the business landscape can be obscured.  Ask anyone in digital for a five-year outlook and you’ll get a lot of shrugged shoulders.  Maybe five months is clear, like the first 50 yards of the golf shot.  After that?  Who knows.  Then again, as with golf, the uncertainty makes us focus very clearly on every little aspect of what’s going on now, since there are a hundred things that can affect where the ball – and the business – ends up.  Rather than complaining about an obscured future, our job is to examine what we’re doing now that will bring about the possibilities that future holds.

While I liked the foggy day, I much prefer the sun.  We can’t, however, control the weather.  Business is another matter.

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December 10, 2012 · 11:36 am

Got FOMO? Get A Life.

I was catching up with a business associate the other day.

Image representing Facebook as depicted in Cru...

Image via CrunchBase

He recently split up with his significant other, which took me by surprise and made me sad.  The reason was a case of terminal FOMO.  She couldn’t be “there” even when she was.  If you don’t know that term, it’s been used of late to describe Fear Of Missing Out .  I think the term began with people missing parties or other great events but is now commonly used with respect to the never-ending stream of electronic communications that flood our daily lives.  Emails, Facebook updates, texts, tweets, Instagram photos – you know the drill.  Many of us can’t turn away from the stream.  As this article noted:

(FOMO) is a very real feeling that’s starting to permeate through our social relationships. The question is — will we ever settle for what we have, rather than cling to the fear that we may be missing out on something better? Social media like Facebook and Twitter are making this increasingly more difficult.

I’d expand that notion to business emails as well.  I’ve written before about how we all have some form of digitally induced ADD.  We’re so concerned about missing out on something in our screen-based worlds that we ignore the important stuff right in front of us.  Conversations (the oral kind) with friends and family.  Enjoying a beautiful sunset or a musical performance without worrying about if the shot you’re taking to post is in focus or composed nicely.  I wonder about the effect of social networking and texting on the development of emotional and social intelligence. A whole generation has grown up thinking it’s normal to not be particularly present during a face to face conversation.  I can’t get used to people checking their phones in a meeting, much less at dinner.

I’m old school enough to remember the world pre-email, much less pre-social media.  There seemed to me enough time to think about things carefully as well as to enjoy the conversations (in person or via the telephone) and the quiet in between.  Obviously I appreciate the things all these technologies bring to us – efficiency, real marketing engagement, immediacy among them – but like ice cream and wine, too much isn’t so good for you.

If there’s a business point today, it’s to encourage those with whom you work to be a little less connected digitally and a lot more connected IRL – in real life.  Try it yourself.  As this recent piece asks – is it time to wean yourself off the smartphone?  Maybe for a little while each day?  What do you think?

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