Wednesday Words
To Go Where Your VisionPoints, a few inspiration points for you and your business.
Our mission statement about treating people with respect and dignity is not just words, but a creed we live by every day. You can’t expect your employees to exceed the expectations of your customers if you don’t exceed the employees’ expectations of management.
—Howard Schultz
Truth is, it’s almost pathetically easy to exceed customers’ expectations these days. When we’re the customers, we have our hopes set pretty darned low.
No wonder, when so many companies are busy eroding the trust their staff has in them, looking for ways to treat them in the way that does the least harm (to the company) instead of the way that does the most good (for the employees).
The natural human reaction is for staff to look for ways to do the least harm (to their jobs).
Instead of doing the best job (for the customer).
So some customers reset the bar even lower; some vow Never Again; the cycle continues.
When you’ve got budgets and deadlines and fires to put out, it takes guts to stop that vicious cycle. To guard your company’s long-term health. To realize there’s only one way out:
Change that oddly adversarial relationship between you, and the people who are your living, breathing company. Start giving your staff 100%. One day, they might give you 100% (and feel great about it).
And like Mr. Schultz says, when they can trust in you to treat them right, they might even give your customers 100%—or my favorite mathematical impossibility, 110%.
(Now that would exceed my expectations.)
It might not be mathematically possible, but it’s possible to make it feel like your customers are getting 110%, so they never say Never Again about your Customer Experience.
Treat your staff like the most precious resource your company has.
If that’s so obvious, why isn’t everyone doing it?
Grow and be well,
Kelly Erickson
If you enjoyed this post, please Subscribe (it's free!) 
Comment 
Share 
Trackback 
28 October 2009, 7:59 am
It is mathematically possible, in certain circumstances, to give your customers 110%. For example, if you promised to give your customer 10 CDs for a certain price and you slipped in an extra, that would be 110%. Or if you promised a 40-foot inflatable gorilla in their parking lot within 10 hours, and you had it there in nine, that would be 110% (or thereabouts).
In short, I think that if you consistently promise low and deliver high — no matter what the initial promise is — your customers will view it as getting 110%.
It’s exceeding those expectations that puts you over the 100% mark. And really, it’s not that difficult to do if you’re doing your job right (statistically true +/- 3%, 19 times out of 20).
~Graham
~Graham
28 October 2009, 8:01 am
(Oops – looks like I gave 200% of my signature there. Or 90% of my proofreading. Depends how you look at it I guess…)
~g
28 October 2009, 8:21 am
Graham,
Ah, there you go. I’ve sparked a math debate.
I was thinking “110% of one’s energy or effort,” which every motivational speaker (yawn) seems to want us to give even though mathemetically it isn’t possible, but of course, you’re right, there are plenty of other ways to get to 110%. I wasn’t specific enough.
So if I promise a 40′ gorilla and deliver a 44′ gorilla, that’s 110%, too, right?
Unless 44′ doesn’t fit in your foyer for your Halloween display and 40′ did, in which case, to you, it’s 0.
I love the 200% sig. Never enough Graham around here.
Regards,
Kelly
28 October 2009, 8:37 am
Graham
No need to go on any further.
You already had me, with the 40-foot inflatable gorilla.
Friar´s latest blog… Twelve Halloween Costumes for the Workplace
29 October 2009, 9:11 am
@Kelly – You know me, I’m always trying to find the loophole to any “challenge”. I should have been a lawyer, I guess!
@Friar – Come on, you should have asked for the 4-foot banana as well! Would that be 10% more? Or is that comparing apples to oranges? (Or more precisely, gorillas to bananas?)
~Graham
29 October 2009, 9:11 am
why you guys always talking about gorillas? i don’t get it.
bubba b
29 October 2009, 9:29 am
I suppose my company could start by exceeding my salary expectations
you know, give me 110 percent for a while!
@bubbabrother,
Well, see, the gorilla thing is kind of like the Chewbacca Defense, in a way…
(one of those slight of hand things, to distract you while we take your wallet)
Brett Legree´s latest blog… 6 weeks 2 days.
29 October 2009, 9:37 am
@bubbabrother
as any marketing/sales expert will tell you, there’s nothign that maximizes customer experience and generates new business, than having a 20-foot (or 40-foot) inflatable gorilla outside your store.
works for those used-car lots, at least.
Friar´s latest blog… Twelve Halloween Costumes for the Workplace
29 October 2009, 9:39 am
Friar,
Graham does have a way with words, doesn’t he?
Brett,
I like that idea. I think clients should feel free to do the same.
Bubba B,
In a word, to be goofy, in the loving way that friends are. Once a gorilla-sized snowball gets started, it just keeps on rolling downhill… not that you and I would know anything about snowballs, down this far.
Until later,
Kelly
29 October 2009, 9:40 am
Friar again,
LOL. I hope this works…
29 October 2009, 10:16 am
my cousin went to jail for popping one of those things. he thought it would be a loud bang but all it did was fall over. stood there watching until the cops showed up. that boy ain’t right either.
bubba b
29 October 2009, 10:31 am
@bubbabrother
wow. that ranks right up there, with cool-hand luke sawing the tops off the parking meters.
“what we have hee-ah, is a fayl-yoor tuh com-yoon-icate”.
Friar´s latest blog… Twelve Halloween Costumes for the Workplace
29 October 2009, 5:09 pm
@bubbabrother,
Your cousin’s mistake was probably that he only stabbed it.
I “did” a 20-foot tall Koala Springs bear circa 1991 (I was at college, I was drunk, ’nuff said) and it went down like Stallone in Rocky 2.
The secret was a slashing attack (and a sharp knife).
One quick move, and there was a 3-foot gash in the bear’s belly. The force of the wind just about knocked me over, or so it seemed, and while the salesdroids were panicking, I blended into the crowd of drunks and disappeared…
Heh heh heh…
Brett Legree´s latest blog… 6 weeks 2 days.
29 October 2009, 5:29 pm
Eeew.
I know, it’s only a big balloon, but it still sounds funky when you write it like that. Eeew.
Around here we have 20′ inflatable cell phones, 20′ inflatable tires, and most charming of all, a 20′ inflatable hamburger on a shop’s roof. Inflatable lettuce and all.
Not that I’m encouraging vandalism, but I wouldn’t mind if that one suddenly lost a little air. It’s a good place but I can NOT eat beneath inflatable burgers. Nope.
29 October 2009, 7:04 pm
Kelly
Yeah, you gotta stay away from inflatable foods.
They’ll give you gas.
29 October 2009, 9:13 pm
Interesting thought, Kelly. In a sense employees are really just powerful customers. They buy you as a company, and then everyone else buys from them. Yikes, if you are not treating those powerful players right, it’s not going to look pretty in the end.
I just hired 15 people to do piece work uploading products on my website. They came from my newsletter list. I found myself putting a lot of attention them, answering their questions patiently, and giving them words of encouragement. I guess it was old habit for treating customers. Now I’m looking at it in a whole new light.
By the way, I got a sale from one of those employee/customers today.
Todd Smith´s latest blog… Allison Trentelman – Nature Prints that Breathe
29 October 2009, 9:53 pm
Todd/ On-Topic Voice of Reason,
Very cool! If they “buy” into you, those are the easiest sales. And another sneaky thing, those internal customers will tell every relative/ friend/ person they bump into at the store to buy from you, too, once they feel “part of the team.” Because they feel they’re sharing in your success.
Didn’t work so well with Brett and Friar—they used to tell their relatives to buy their uranium back when they believed in The Factory more, but for some reason the boss was never happy about that…
Until later,
Kelly
30 October 2009, 10:13 am
I like the take on 110% service. Today I’ve posted the other side of the coin to explore how Old and New Media seems to be revving up the whining among customers. Wonder what others think (or is it just me?). Is every customer complaint as newsworthy as The New York Times article I comment on makes it out to be? Is our infatuation with social media indoctrinating us as collective whiners abour customer service? What every happened to do-it- yourself complaint resolution?
30 October 2009, 10:14 am
The Buzz Bin is my post (pushed the button a little early) – http://bit.ly/3h1giF
2 November 2009, 10:41 am
brett,
saw my cousin at church yesterday and told him ablout your kawala. he said his gorrilla was being fed by a big air pump so it kinda just sagged. and you are right, he didn’t slash, he poked it with his knife.
i passed on your advice, he’ll do it right next time.
kelly, tell me where you live and i’ll have my cousin come take care of your inflatable hamburger for you.
bubba b
2 November 2009, 8:08 pm
@bubbabrother,
Probably not a good idea to try it even if you do it the right way
I was much younger and a lot more foolish then…
Anyway, I believe this one also had a pump but the hole was just too big for it to keep up!
Brett Legree´s latest blog… 6 weeks 2 days.
2 November 2009, 8:49 pm
Michael,
Hello, welcome to Maximum Customer Experience!
I liked your post. But to answer your question in a word: No.
We who even know what social media means are in a very tiny minority. If some portion of those folks are becoming whiners (and I’d argue that in fact for many, there’s a strong pull in the opposite direction, toward becoming do-it-yourselfers who are quite certain we can get the attention of Jeff Bezos all on our own), that’s still not a collective movement. It’s a very small movement, but those who interact in this world wear some funny coke-bottle glasses that magnify the effect and make it look as though everybody’s doin’ it.
I’m glad you enjoyed this article. Thanks for your comment!
Bubba B,
It’s right across the street from the….
I guess your cousin will just have to find his own inflatable hamburgers.
Brett,
Aw, don’t worry. You might have joined me at the big four-aught but you’re still plenty foolish in my book.
Until later,
Kelly
2 November 2009, 9:13 pm
@Kelly,
Well, The Steve did say, “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”
So I’m just following The Steve
Brett Legree´s latest blog… 6 weeks 2 days.