Seth Godin Wins “Know-well” Advice Prize
I just read a post by Seth Godin that said everything I’ve tried to say in almost every post in my Customer Service Simplified Category.
Here’s the only 2 “Rules” you need for every employee that deals with customers.
Per Seth :
1. Take Responsibility
2. Pay attention to detail
Now, that wasn’t so tough…or was it ?
Every single day I’m appalled at the lack of responsibility that employee’s take for the service you receive in their place of business.
An office I worked in once had this same infection. It was almost fatal.
I started preachin’ and yellin’, on occassion, as soon as I started work there about their seeming desire to always look for someone to blame, rather than looking for a way to make the customers experience a good one and work out the details of how to keep it from happening again later, as in when the customer was gone.
I knew I’d gotten to them one day when one of the employees asked me to take a call on line one and I had no idea why the person on the line needed to speak with me, much less any idea as to why he called our office to begin with.
I put the caller on hold for a second and asked rather loudly, ” Why in the heck did anyone give me this call ? ”
A voice from out the nether regions of the office said, ” Don’t look for anyone to blame, just get ‘er done. ”
Slapped by my own hand and I loved it.
Simplenomics Is Easier To Find And Subscribe To
Just in case you haven’t noticed, there are now buttons in the left hand sidebar that let you subscribe to Simplenomics using Bloglines, your Google homepage, your Yahoo homepage, your RSS reader of choice, Newsgator and a button for your MSN page is only a matter of hours away.
Do me and you a favor and subscribe.
You’ll thank me later and I thank you now.
Peace.
I’m Trying ecto As My New Blog Entry Tool
I just downloaded a copy of ecto and am trying it out after reading a post on ProBlogger.
I’ll be learning how to use it over the next week and hopefully I’ll be proficient by the New Year.
Bear with me and thanks for reading.
King Kong Was A Disappointment
I’ve waited about a week after I saw King Kong before I wrote this. Trying to be subjective, instead of emotional. A new thing for me, if I do say so myself.
I was 13 when Jessica Lange and Jeff Bridges burned up the screen and Kong Kicked King size butt.
I’m 42 now and I just didn’t get as much out of Kong as I did then.
There was way too much computer generated, unbelievable footage. Not that Kong is believable, but there were far too many instances of just absolutely stupid computer generated lunacy.
I mean, really, what the hell do dinosaurs have to do with Kong ? 
Was Peter Jackson just jealous that he didn’t get to do Jurassic Park ? Dinosaurs running thru a gorge, with people between their legs like a Laurel & Hardy meet Dracula movie. C’mon Pete.
Kong fighting 35, or was it 3 T-Rex’s ?
A scrawny, not incredibly pretty girl outrunning a T-Rex ? C’mon Pete.
I don’t read local newspapers, thanks to USA Today, so I haven’t the foggiest what it’s doing locally, but nationwide it ain’t all that and a box of crackers.
I quote USA Today, Monday December 19th :
” Highly touted film takes in less than predicted. “
No kidding ?! You know why ? Because people who saw it told their friends that P. Jack ruined Kong and took over 3 hours to do it ! That’s why.
3 freakin’ hours I had to sit and wish Jeff Bridges would appear instead of Lawrence of Nose-rabia, or whoever the hell it was that played the lead Kong chaser. 
And Black Jack should find some other way to earn enough to keep him in cheeseburgers…acting ain’t gonna do it.
P. Jack took a helluva animal and romanticized the alpha-maleness out of him. 
Too many sappy scenes where he’s getting all googley eyed at the scrawny girl. 
And can she stare longingly up at a monkey or what ? She must be the greatest monkey starer of all time.
Kong, THE Kong, from ‘76 is gonna be my Christmas gift to myself, on DVD. I’ve gotta show the real Kong to the family I heaped the Kong-love on after hearing that P. Jack was gonna re-do the big hairy boy. I couldn’t wait for them to see him….Kong ! King of all he sees ! Bad Boy of the Jungle ! Able to scale tall natives in a single bound. Building climbing son-of-a-gun. Not that phoney car chasin’ sissy boy who stares at scrawny girls.
According to USA Today:
” The footprint of Kong looks smaller “
According to Mike, it’s because Peter Jackson doesn’t remember the real Kong from “33 and ‘76. All he has is a romanticized version that got all Lorded up and played Rings around his mind and came out thru his rose colored glasses.
PS - Those little thumbnails are from KingKongMovie.com…fair use, you know.
Why Don’t They Respond ?
Over on my golf blog, Travelling Golfer, I regularly link to, review and just generally throw out some great PR for golf courses, golf communities and their websites.
I also send them a complimentary email and let them know I’ve reviewed, linked to and/or promoted their product.
Not once that I can remember has a golf course, community or website ever written back or even hit Reply and said thanks.
Not once.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I don’t do it for the glory, I do it for the money ! So their not responding doesn’t hurt my feelings, but it does baffle me somewhat.
Think about it. Somewhere in the blogosphere a guy is promoting my site, sending some of his thousands of pageviews my way and I do nothing in return.
Not too smart.
Here’s where common sense might come into play.
Find a guy who’s doing that for my golf course and I’d write back and say thanks for the link, thanks for the good PR and how much do you charge for ads ?
I’d catch the guy while he’s in a good mood about our product and hit ‘em up for a great rate.
But the golf course community, the golf course website world and those others that are being promoted are losing out on a great chance to make a friend.
Their sites are generally static and haven’t seen the Googlebot in a long, long time. Their sites don’t get listed at Technorati, they don’t rank well in the search engine and they don’t have search engine friendly perma-links. My blog has all the above and the bots from Yahoo, MSN, Google, AOL, Earthlink and Dogpile come by daily, just like they do for this blog.
They have nothing to offer the search engines, of any note and they aren’t getting filled with new content on an almost daily basis. My blog is.
If they had any common sense, they jump in now and get a great rate for an ad. When the Page Rank jumps from 5 to 6, like this blog, the rates are gonna go up. The page views have doubled for 4 of the last 5 months and when they hit the next plateau, the ad rates are gonna jump again.
Too bad they don’t have any marketers in the golf website game.
Blogging Lessons Plus A Life Lesson
Over at Successful Blog, Liz has given us an add-on lesson to a post of Darren’s over at Pro Blogger.
The 18 Lesson’s given to us by Darren aren’t in any specific order and aren’t really just about blogging. They happen to fit several of life’s avenues and can be a help to you in several instances.
For instance, ” Be Yourself. You’ll only be a bad facsimile of anyone else“.
This works well in personal relationships, sales and several other facets of life. Don’t try to be everything to everybody, whether you’re in business or a personal relationship. That only leads to failure when you can’t keep up the facade.
Here’s another, ” Get a Life. And make sure it’s your own. ”
This has to be one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever seen given to blogger. You have no shot at being Darren and you have no shot at being anyone else, for that matter. So just be yourself and if that doesn’t work, maybe you weren’t meant to blog. It ain’t the end of the world. Maybe you were meant to be an info-product creator. That won’t be a shame. Blogging ain’t the be-all and end-all of life. It’s just a blog. Simple as that.
One more, ” Relationships are Key. You can’t have a relationship if you don’t show up. ”
Well said, Darren, well said. Without a relationship between the blogger and the readers, it’s just a billboard. Can a blogger give you good advice, without allowing comments ? Absolutely. Can you be sure it’s the best advice ? Absolutely not. Without allowing for someone else out there, someone who might be in a better position to help a reader, the blogger is not giving the full benefit to his reader that he might give thru another reader who comments.
There are people out there who know more about sales and marketing than me. It would be foolish of me to tell you about a way to track your advertising dollars and not allow comments just because I don’t want a commenter to tell you a better way. Hell, I’d love to learn a better way myself, so not allowing comments is not the best way to run a blog, in my less than world-class opinion.
The lesson at the end of Liz’s post is another great addition to someone else’s post. Just as I hope this is a continuation to her post. Maybe someone else can add even more and do an add-on to my add-on. That might even qualify as a collaboration, or some other big word like that.
Here’s the bonus lesson, ” Remember You’re Not the Only One. Help out the new guy. ”
Just this week, I met with a fellow blogger. He lives a little over 2 hours from me and I drove over and bought his lunch on Tuesday. Gave him some advice about a couple of his projects and am going to enjoy watching him grow. Maybe he’ll let me tag along.
Tonight I’m doing a call with a new friend who’s advertising on one of my other blogs. Gave him some idea’s during a round of emails and he wants to discuss them further. Maybe he’ll go places and let me tag along.
After the call I have a 118 page ebook to edit and return to another internet marketing friend. Maybe when he’s as big as Joe Vitale, he’ll let me tag along.
Do you see the trend here ? Help people out and allow them to take you places you wouldn’t ordinarily go alone.
It’s really pretty simple.
Ketel One Does It Again…Sort Of
Well, well, looky here. The magnificent minds at the agency that Ketel One pays have done it again.
This time, as opposed to last time, they paid for a full page ad in the Thursday, December 15th edition of USA Today. They keep buying ad space in the Money section, because that’s what they’re wasting every time they run an ad. Money.
They also have one of the dumbest, hardest to navigate websites I’ve ever ran across. Nothing there that will turn a web cruiser into a Ketel One user.
Here’s what the ad says :
” Dear Ketel One Drinker, It’s the thought that counts. Thank you for thinking of us. ”
I’m not opposed to thanking your customers, but how do we know they’re all gonna turn to page 3 of the Money section on Thursday ? Why not find a way to actually thank the users and not just some readers who happen to wander across an ad ?
Why not create a Rewards program whereby you sign-up actual users and reward them for their purchases during the previous year ? Why not use a form of advertising that’s trackable as to it’s effectiveness ?
Why throw away money indescriminately ? Got too much ? Well if you do, I know of some fine childrens hospitals that could use some of what you’re wasting. Email me and I’ll put you in touch with their reps.
Dear Ketel One, you’ve wasted more ad dollars. The fine folks at USA Today don’t mind and neither do I, really, but those dollars could be used to actually increase your share of the market.
They could also be spent doing some good in the community, if you’d rather waste them, keep doing what you’re doing. You’re doing a fine job at nothing.
Negotiation Tips You Can Actually Use
While reading thru my Pluck RSS feed reader’s pile of info it’s gathered up for me, I came across a post by Lori Richardson on Sales Coach.
The post linked me over to Jeanette Nyden’s PDF, titled Seven Habit’s Of Highly Effective Negotiators.
I’m involved in negotiations of one type or another every week, sometimes every day.
I learned or relearned a couple of things here that can help you and I become better negotiators.
1) Prepare ahead of time. This may seem a little basic, but you would not believe the number of times a vendor will come to a meeting they asked for and not have the slightest idea about what my company is trying to accomplish.
2) Do not let your ego get the best of you. This would be one of my weaker areas and I’m constantly trying to be more humble and less opinionated. It’s hard to humble when you’re as good as I am. Ooops !
3) Be willing to make the first offer. I don’t mind being the first to speak. I always set the tone when I do and put the other guys on the defensive. I know what I will and won’t agree to and will not deviate from those parameters, so what difference does it make if I go first or last.
For more, click over to Jeanette’s PDF and visit her site to get even more info on being more effective in your negotiations.
Doing Like Gary Halbert Told Me
I’ve been a subscriber/reader to Sir Gary Halbert’s newsletter for a long, long time.
I’ve never forwarded a copy to a real live human, nor have I sent it to any other species.
Today’s version suggested I send a note to someone and tell them how great his info is, how smart he is and how he can teach me things that no other humans even know about.
Oh, he said if I did, he’d send me something nice.
Well, I don’t email people with forwards and such, but I do have this blog, so I’m suggesting that if you don’t already read his ranting, raving lunatic spittle, you might enjoy it as much as I do and maybe the lousy, cursed, foul, crude SOB will actually send ol’ Mike a really nice gift. Like a Jaguar XJ8 or a Kia.
He says he knows more about making money than anyone living or dead.
He says he knows how to get people to do anything he wants.
He says a buncha stuff, but the only way you’ll ever know is to go subscribe to his Letter and read it til he makes you so mad that you unsubscribe.
BTW - that’ll be a mistake. Don’t unsubscribe. Read it, read it some more and then read it again.
You can go there now by clickingonallthesewords.
BE WARNED ! - He knows a lot of bad words and throws them around easily. In person and in print.
I had the good fortune to meet Gary at an internet marketing seminar in the Florida Keys in December of ‘02.
Thank you Bob Silber..I owe you one !
He said bad words, he offended people and then he actually started speaking to the attendees !
Enjoy !
Guest Blogger Redeaux
In case you missed the guest blogger stint I did on Thom Singer’s blog, Some Assembly Required, here’s a link to that post.
Thom’s post today is about a contest he’s having for those guest bloggers. When you get to Thom’s blog, you can vote for your favorite guest blogger and the winner gets a gift certificate from Quick Gifts.
I’m gonna go over and read all the one’s I missed and you should to. I’m also gonna vote for my favorite and you should too. I will not vote for myself. Mine ain’t my favorite.
Tell Thom I sent you !
