The 8020Info Water Cooler

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The 8020Info Water Cooler
Issue #90 - Vol. 6 No. 10
17 July, 2006

1. Six Things Your Customers Will Not Tell You

Customers will let you know about serious mistakes but they may not alert you to less obvious problems involving your communications style, temperament or behaviour. On its web site, the National Federation of Independent Business in the United States highlights six hidden complaints customers often have:

You patronize me: You talk down to the client when providing information. The lesson: Ask your customer whether he or she wants more or less detail.

You don't always keep up with trends: You are slow to adopt new practices, from e-mail to new services that others provide. Lesson: Each year, identify two or three top business or technological trends in your field, and develop a plan to stay current.

I'd buy more if you ask me: Your clients have other needs, but you don't probe. Lesson: Work harder to find out what your client needs that you can provide.

I don't like your manners: You are always doing two things at once when talking to clients, or interrupt them, or don't use appropriate titles. Lesson: Mind you manners.

You're inconsistent: Most of the time you do exactly what you promised, but 10 per cent of the time you don't. Lesson: Aim for 100 per cent consistency. If you realize you are going to fall short, let the customer know immediately.

You don't respect my time: You keep clients waiting to meet with you, and you respond very slowly to calls or e-mails. Lesson: Save your customer's time before you save your own.

2. Make Time To Think     Top

During dinner with one of Asia's top CEOs, leadership coach Robin Sharma asked him about the key to his success. "I make time to think," was the answer. Every morning, the CEO spends at least 45 minutes with his eyes closed, deep in reflection.

"He's not meditating. He's not praying. He's thinking," Sharma writes in The Greatness Guide. Sometimes he's analyzing business challenges, sometimes thinking about new markets, and sometimes reflecting on life. Often, he's simply dreaming of new ways to grow, professionally and personally. Occasionally he'll take even more time -- six to eight hours -- to sit silently and think.

"Too many people spend the best hours of their days solely engaged in doing, on the execution aspect of thinking," notes Sharma. "Making the time to think is a superb strategy for success at leadership and in life."

Sharma points out that clarity precedes success. Your actions will be more crisp, deliberate and intentional if they follow reflection. You will make better decisions.

No time for it? Get up earlier says Sharma, who rises at 5 a.m. and begins his day with an hour of reading and reflection.

3. Improving Employee Reviews    Top

Employees often dread annual reviews, and managers often treat them as a painful chore. In Knowledge@WPCarey, management professor Angelo Kinicki reports on a study that found the key to successful reviews is trust. Employees must trust the manager and the company's appraisal system if the effort is to be successful.

Trusting the manager extends beyond day-to-day respect to the credibility the manager has giving feedback. Kinicki notes that if a new manager overseeing a writer's work has not written anything himself, he has low credibility when trying to provide feedback. But if the manager has penned two books, his credibility and trust rises, allowing the feedback to be better accepted.

The study also found employees are unlikely to accept feedback derived from an invalid or inaccurate feedback system. So organizations must spend the time and resources to improve the accuracy of their evaluations. An excellent step, Kinicki says, is to make feedback a year-round, everyday activity, rather than a once-a-year ritual.

4. Updating Your Business Plan    Top

When should you update your business plan? The answer, according to Entrepreneur magazine's business plan coach Tim Berry, is all the time. "You should be updating your business plan every month, every week, and every day; whenever things change you update your business plan."

That may seem like chaos, but he argues it's the opposite: The constantly updated business plan makes order out of chaos.

So take time once a year for a deliberate review of your plan. Talk to customers and potential customers, and refine your segmentation of the market. Every month, study the difference between the budget and actual results, and consider the implications. More generally, keep in mind that your business plan, like all business plans, is wrong, since it is a plan about the future that you can't possibly get perfect, and make adjustments as they become necessary.

5. Zingers    Top

Copywriter Nick Usborne advises you to avoid tired, familiar, and vague phrases in your promotional copy. Watch for language that fails to distinguish you from others or that makes you sound insincere, such as: "We are committed to providing you with solutions, services and support to help you succeed."
(Source: MarketingProfs.com)

Companies these days are increasingly trying scenario planning, but entrepreneurs, being optimists, often fail to develop a back-up course of action to cope with scenarios that come true. "Build a reserve into your plan," says consultant Tony Wanless. "Expect to be blindsided."
(Source: BC Business)

Even when a proposed new product championed and investigated by a staff member is turned down, everyone at W.L. Gore & Associates celebrates with beer and champagne -- to recognize the hard work and importance of innovation.
(Source: Appreciative Intelligence)

If you're sending e-mail messages to customers or prospects, remember that many are reading only in the previewing pane so you have to put the core value of the message in the first few sentences of the e-mail.
(Source: Larry Chase's Web Digest For Marketers)

Negotiations over technology involve uncertainty, so research by MIT's Lawrence Susskind suggests you should not waste time arguing who has the better crystal ball but instead agree the future is uncertain and devise contingency agreements that reduce risk by taking into account different possibilities.
(Source: Negotiation)

6. Q & A with 8020Info    Top

Question: What should I expect of the designer developing my new logo?

8020Info CEO Rob Wood responds:

I feel some sympathy for any designer who has to come in and present a new logo that is expected, on its visual aesthetics alone, to turn the world on its side. So often we demand "a little piece of art" (to borrow Gunnar Swanson's great phrase) that packs a complex, too-clever punch at first unveiling.

A mark or logo itself begins with very little meaning. It acquires colour and personality through the context in which it is presented. Over time it accumulates associations with opinions, values and memories. But it begins as a simple identifier.

You might enjoy a piece by Michael Beirut and related discussion found on http://www.designobserver.com/archives/013873.html. Paul Rand is quoted, saying that a good logo provides the "pleasure of recognition and the promise of meaning." He also notes that it is only by association with an organization, product or service that a logo takes on any real meaning.

I would agree that simplicity, although difficult to achieve, is a worthy quality for a new logo. Its effectiveness may also depend on distinctiveness, visibility, memorability, and how effectively it can be used in application over time.

But remember that the famous Nike "swoosh" was just a chubby checkmark when it was presented by designer Carolyn Davidson as part of a $35 design project. Nike founder Phil Knight admitted "I don't love it. But I think it'll grow on me." That was a smart approach. I'd look for a simple design that doesn't take much thought but is easy to remember -- and has great potential for meaning.

7. News From Our Water Cooler    Top

The slower pace of summer offers managers a chance to start looking at their future plans, and many are focused on ways to improve customer care and service -- understanding client expectations, and how to deliver service that meets those expectations. It's an issue with many dimensions: reliability, responsiveness, access to service, communications, fairness of policy, client care and courtesy, empathy, and recovery from errors.

Tools and technology or one person on point isn't enough: research shows that getting close to customers is a journey the whole organization has to make. Whatever your issue -- whether it's dealing with customer churn, encouraging word-of-mouth buzz, hiring for attitude or managing the emotional cues that you send clients, we would be glad to help. Just give us a call (613) 542-8020 or email us at contactus@8020info.com to review your objectives and how to get there.

8. Closing Thought    Top

"The way I see it, if you want the rainbow you gotta put up with the rain."
-- Dolly Parton