Simpler Gets The Customer
Georgia Patrick posted today that ” Smaller Gets The Customer“. She could very well have written that post with my favorite word - simpler.
One of the reason’s is that smaller and simpler feel like family. Like home. Friendly.
We need fewer buzz-words and more plain ole words. Like we’ll get it done. Trust us.
That post, as well as all the blogs that are part of the Duct Tape Marketing Blog Channel, are more than worthy of your time to subscribe and read. John Jantsch has done a great job in assembling his team of bloggers.
Drop by and read the post and tell ‘em Mike sent you.
What Part Don’t You Understand
We just got back from having dinner at our local Cracker Barrel.
Here’s how it started.
Hostess: ” How many ? ”
Me: ” 5 ”
Hostess: ” Smoking or Non ? ”
Me: ” Non ”
Pause while she looks at her papers.
Hostess: ” We have a table for 5 in Smoking ”
Me: ” No thanks, we’d prefer not to inhale smoke, eat our dinner and pay you for that pleasure ”
Hostess: ” How about this table ? ” She points to a table about 5 feet away with 4 chairs.
Me: ” No thanks, there’s still 5 of us. We didn’t lose anyone during this conversation, although you’re getting close to losing me. ”
She looks flustered, so I offer to give her a few minutes to look around the store, which is about 30% unoccupied on Labor day, during the dinner hour. $3.08 gas will do that for you.
Hostess: ” Last name ? ”
Me: ” Sigers. S-i-g-e-r-s. ”
Hostess: ” It’ll be a few minutes ”
Me: ” That’s fine. ”
Notice there weren’t a welcome to Cracker Barrel in there. No thanks for coming. No how are you doing today.
15 or so minutes later, when they’ve been able to scoot two tables together to accomodate our large party of 5, we’re seated. A waitress comes and takes our drink order. My wife gets coffee AND tea. I just get tea. Sweet. Daughters get 2 Coke’s and 1 tea. Unsweet.
No offer of lemon for our tea. No offer of creamer for my wife’s coffee.
She brings the drinks and sets them all at the far end of the table, away from me. We have to pass ‘em all ourselves.
She takes our orders and away she goes. She comes back in a few minutes and offers to bring out some biscuits and jelly for us to start with. This is the last act of kindness.
My okra isn’t ready and daughter #2 is missing some fries. She promises to bring ‘em out in a second.
We eat our entire meal and then she returns to see if we need any drink refills, which we do. Needed ‘em 15 minutes ago, when I still had food on my plate. Still looking for that okra and for those missing fries. She finds them, of all places, in the kitchen. Hah ! How’d they get in there ?
We ask for boxes to put the food in that we didn’t get a chance to enjoy DURING the meal. Maybe tonight, after they get nice and cold, we can enjoy them.
She brings the check to me, first time we’ve met tonight. Figures that now I’m worth coming down to meet. Hi ! I’m Mike and I’ll be the one tipping you tonite.
I go to the register and the young lady asks if everything was okay. I tell her no. She asks what the problem was, so I reveal all the juicy details. She offers to take some off the bill, so I ask her if that would make all the boogie men go away. She say’s no, it won’t. I tell her, then, in that case, just leave it alone. She persists and I tell her to please leave the check the way it is. She says that the server we had was kind of new. I ask if that makes it okay for her to do a poor job. She say’s no. Good girl. You’re right.
I pay the check and tip just over 15%. Dang ! It’s hard to be mean.
At least one person in there knew a little about customer service.
Is it too much to ask to have a pleasant meal and get good service at the same time ? I hope not. If it is, I’m going to start keeping my $50 bills at home.
Peace.
Seth Godin’s Simple Rules For Spreading Your Message
Seth Godin is giving away a free, simple website marketing course. It’s all about simplicity, so I love it.
His post, which you can get to by clicking HERE, claims that free ebooks spread FORTY times faster than paid one’s.
You can get a copy of his simple, yet effective course, in .pdf form, by clicking HERE, and visiting his blog.
It’s only 41 pages, but it’s pure, simple gold. I highly suggest you go now and download this info before Seth changes his mind.
And if you haven’t done so, subscribe to his feed and get ready to learn…for free.
Mark Cuban On The Katrina Aftermath
I just read Mark Cuban’s thoughts on some of the processes in use by some of the relief organizations.
He make’s some good points in his post, which you can read by clicking HERE.
I’d like to say that I’m glad that the organizations are there and I think they are doing a helluva job. Were I in the middle of this horrific event, I’m sure I’d be glad to have ANY help. Whether that help is as good as it could have been really would not matter to me. I’d take any help, good, bad or indifferent, over NO help.
There has got to be better ways for us to get help to those in need. Those that are there are doing all they can, but the processes that they are stuck with seem to be less than best. We can do better next time. I’m sure we have a lot of fat in the management of most of those organizations and for us to do a better job next time, we need to trim it. We need people in place that have been there and done that. We need to have more checks of the processes and spend less time on making sure we have pretty marketing campaigns, promo materials and commercials.
Simply, we need do’ers and not tellers.
Our society is starting to be overran by academics and there are far too few of those that can actually show you how to get it done.
I first noticed this during high school. I had a teacher for my first Mass Communications class that had never bought a newspaper, much less worked for one. Far too few of our educators have never been outside of a classroom, except for waiting tables during college. During my 6 years of service in the US Army, I saw way too many officers that had zero experience in the field and way too much classroom time. And in the 18 years since I got out, I have seen way too much of it in the business world.
We need for those that are in leadership positions to place more value on real world, gettin’ it done experience and less emphasis on pretty resume’s.
Especially in a situation that will be ( somebody’s ) life or death.
Simple solutions to problems are going to stand up to the heat better than pretty resume’s, college classes or last names.
May God bless those that are in need during this horrible event’s cleanup and may He bless those that are doing all they can to help those in need.
20 Things You Need To Know
LifeHack.org has posted a list from MSN.
It’s simply a MUST READ and it’s easier to read at their site.
Go check it out and learn 20 simple rules for an easier life.
Click HERE to go to the article.
It’s Simple - Don’t Answer The Phone
Just got back from my local Subway restaurant. ( The new Buffalo Chicken sub ROCKS ! ) Just behind me was a lady who answered her cell phone just as the young lady behind the counter asked for her order. She took several minutes to tell the caller what her doctor’s name was, and even spelled it. Then she proceeded to tell the called all about the diagnosis. Yada yada yada.
I could have been one of the unfortunate souls behind her who had the good fortune to listen to all of the details of her visit AND who had to wait longer than they should have to get their lunch.
Here’s a NEWS FLASH for those of you who don’t know it - EVERY freakin’ call doesn’t have to be answered RIGHT NOW ! There’s a feature called voice mail for when you can’t get to the call or for when you SHOULD NOT answer the call.
Or you simply answer and tell the caller that you’re not in a place where you can talk and you’ll get back to them as soon as it’s convenient and good manners allow.
C’mon people, what the heck did you do with all those meaningless conversations before cellphones ?
You saved them until you had time for them. Try doing that now.
Freakonomics Blog Asks Some Dumb Questions
Over on the Freakonomics blog, Steven Levitt has asked some dumb questions, but that’s his right.
They can be simply answered, so I’ll try and do so. Simple is right up my alley. I excel at simple. Sometimes that’s good, often it’s bad. It’s all I got.
His #1 question - ” How much of the damage/human toll is because of the hurricane per se versus the levees breaking? If we had perfect foresight, would 1,000 well-placed national guardsmen and some heavy machinery have been enough to save the levees? ”
My simple answers are ( for the first part ), does it really matter now ? The levee’s didn’t blow the windows out of the hotels, nor did they blow down phone and power lines. They have allowed massive flooding and they have contributed to the extremely high toll for clean-up, but as of right now, it really doesn’t matter. What matter’s is making sure it doesn’t happen again and getting these peoples lives back in order.
The second part of the question is asked in an honest, matter of fact way, so I’ll anawer it that way. No. Hell no. It should not have been necessary for them to even try to do that and they would have no shot at stopping the levee’s from breaking. Mostly, this type of damage comes from the backside and inside, so external forces are, for the most part, futile.
His question #2 - ” If terrorists had thought of this first, could they have achieved the same effect as the hurricane, except more devastating because the attack would have come with no warning? ”
Wow. I find it hard to believe that a person would even write this down. Why would you even plant this scenario in their minds ? Nevertheless, I’ll answer with a resounding NO ! They would not have had the power of the winds, all the extra water that was being driven at over 100 mph. This one isn’t even close. Would it have been catastrophic, sure it would, but not even close to the hurricanes devastation.
His question #3 - ” If so, are there other potential situations like this out there where a terrorist with a few explosive devices could cause such ruin? ”
Another Wow ! You don’t have to be a terrorist to cause ruin. Idiots do it every day with trains, planes and automobiles. This one is too simple even for me. We simply cannot live in an enviromment that is free from possible ruin. Can’t happen. Won’t happen. A better question would be to ask how can we rid society of those that would target scenario’s like this ?
His question #4 - ” Would the initial rescue response have been different if the victims weren’t poor and black? ”
That’s an ugly question to ask, but it’s honest and it’s his right, so I’ll give my opinion. No, the people who are responding did not and will not even think about the race creed or color of those that need help. They’re helping because it’s their job or because they feel compelled to. There’s no other reasons a human would face this mess. Mr. Levitt feels compelled to ask stupid questions, although it seems he does so from the right angle and others feel compelled to help those in need. Probably takes about the same amount of effort to do either. One is far more profitable than the other.
We have done posts about the relief efforts on several of the blogs in our network. We have put up banners that link potential donors to the proper organizations. We have donated.
I challenge Freakonomics to do the same or more.
You guys are highly educated, which could actually hurt your chances of doing the simple, right thing. You get a lot of traffic to your blog, so you could give a lot of info out to those that could donate time, money or physical effort. You are very articulate, versus my simple ways, so surely you can do more than you’ve done so far.
Clueless Marketers Strike Again
I just read a post on BlogLogic.net, from Paul Short. He details an email recently received and the simple cluelessness behind it.
Why is it that those out there who believe themselves to be in the know are the last to know that they are truly…..stupid.
How can anyone who even remotely thinks they are marketers continue to violate one of the most elementary rules of marketing ? I personally hang up on idiotic phone menu’s at least twice per week. Lost sale.
I walk out of stores that have employees that know less about their products than I do. Lost sale.
I have to argue with food service employee’s on a weekly basis because they don’t have any idea about the daily specials posted on a board in the front of the restaurant. They have no clue about the vegetable of the day. They haven’t the foggiest about the cost of a combo or whether or not I can substitute a salad for the fries.
Those that call themselves marketers are unaware just how quickly we will delete their stupid emails and unsubscribe from their ezine when they don’t provide informational content with their endless offers.
I’m not going to jump thru many hoops to give you my money. Find a way to make your process relational. I hate having to call a company and give them my info three times. Last one’s who did this to me were my phone service providers. I laughed in the ear of the third one who asked me the same question as the first two. In fact, I refused to give it to her. I told her to call one of the first two and find out who I was and what I wanted and get back to me.
At one of our 16 locations the other day, I overheard a customer service rep ask a customer to give her a few minutes to figure out the answer to the question that the caller was asking and call her back. I quickly asked her to transfer the caller to me, answered the question and then gave the rep a quick and easy primer on how not to lose a sale in the future.
Let’s all try a little harder to make it easier for customers to give us their money.
Life’s tough…market smart.
ARMY.com Helps Katrina Victims Find Work
Leave it to the men and women who operate the website of the finest fighting force of men and women in the world to help in a simple, yet ultimately, extremely positive way.
This just in:
Hurricane Katrina left much of the Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi gulf coast obliterated. It will be months, even years before many of the displaced can return to their homes and jobs. Many organizations
are collecting food, water, medical supplies, and other necessities to meet the immediate and critical needs of those left in Katrina’s wake. Army.com, along with the rest of our grief stricken nation supports this effort. In addition, Army.com wants to offer long term help those displaced by Hurricane Katrina’s wrath by offering employers and workers a FREE site to post and search for short-term, temporary,and permanent employment.
Corporate America and its employees have displayed overwhelming compassion by opening their hearts and pocket books to help those affected by this disaster. Army.com
now asks Corporate America to take the next step and help those displaced by Katrina’s wrath find employment. “Give me a fish and I eat for a day. Teach me to fish and I eat for a lifetime.”
Army.com urges companies to look inside their company, evaluate their needs, and help long term by offering temporary or permanent employment to these Americans.
Job openings, either short-term, temporary, permanent, contract or part time can be posted FREE OF CHARGE to http://www.army.com/katrina.
No fees will be charged to employers, employment services, or job applicants. Let’s pitch in and help the victims of Katrina re-establish their lives.
Let’s simply do all we can to reach out like never before to help our neighbors get back on their feet. We simply cannot stop giving, thinking or helping, tomorrow, next week or next month. These people are going to hurt for years. Let’s you and I do our part and 10% more, for that entire time.
