E1 Living™ — October 2009

Where we are, and where we will be in life is a straight result of our decisions. It’s not chance, luck, or timing – it’s what we decided to do, or not do, that put us in the place we are today. Want that place to get better? To change? Here are ten actions you can take – right now – to move closer to the E1™ life waiting for you.

1. Let the good thoughts roll. For this moment, stop thinking about all of the “weaknesses” you’re supposed to be working on. All gain begins with accepting yourself: you are who you are. Make the most of you. Make a record of ten things you love about yourself. Each time you have an unconstructive, fix-that-weakness contemplation; substitute it with an affirmative thought from your list.
2. Get crystal clear. What, precisely, are you going to complete this morning? Today? This week? Now, stop planning for an instant. Until we master what we will do – accurately – in the present, we have no business planning for the future. How, specifically, do today’s and this week’s accomplishments fit into your monthly goals? You can achieve clarity on your life goals by first deciding what you will get done in the next several hours.
3. Stack your deck. List your three highest proficiencies and assess whether you are putting them to work for you. If you’re fantastic at sales, are you selling rather than managing? If you’re terrific with numbers, are you analyzing rather than shuffling files? If you’re the innovative one at your company, are you creatively destroying your business or competing for limited market share?
4. Be a control freak. Are there areas in life that you have let slide? Family? Health? Occupation? Wealth creation? Once you identify which aspect needs work, write out a single task for taking back control. Send your kids a text message that pizza is being delivered at 530 PM – be there! Enjoy fresh fruit instead of ice cream for dessert. Write an article for your industry’s leading magazine. Send half of this year’s raise straight to your 401(k).
5. Be extraordinary. Think of your best five clients. Do you know what they yearn for and could do with? Have you asked them? Can you help them pull it off? Write down the ways your business can help your clients prevail; update your clients of how you can help them; and, go get it done. Your extraordinary actions will go beyond your competitor’s run-of-the-mill dealings.
6. Do more by doing less. There is a huge difference between being busy and being productive. Have you ever worked one of those twelve-hour workdays and wondered, “What have I really done today?” Many distractions and few actions of discipline are typically to blame. What do you need to start doing? Send calls to voice mail for part of a day. Dare yourself to check email three times each day – over morning coffee, after lunch, and as you plan tomorrow. Hold meetings for decision-making only; leave the updates to Facebook and Twitter for the end of the day; and, spend less time on FarmVille and more time on what moves you onward.
7. Succeed on your terms, not others. Have you ever thought about success in life based on your description of success? What others want from us and what we want from ourselves are, characteristically, contrasting. This leads to dissatisfaction and tension. So, define success yourself and be gutsy enough to go get it. Skip “Guys Night Out,” record the game on your DVR, and roast S’mores out back with your family. Save money, borrow wisely, and focus on creating added cash flow rather than the most you can borrow. Eat right, exercise more, and look years younger. In short, look at how the majority classify success and run as far away from that description as you can. You’ll find that it’s tough to do what no one else will, but effortless to benefit from what no one else can.
8. Do some good in your community. A few years ago, my wife’s MOMS Club held a food drive to support our local Settlement House. I helped to deliver the food and necessaries to Settlement House. Unloading the goods, I looked at man with a daughter the same age as mine. The only genuine, fundamental difference between him and me? He needed a hand in life and I was helping to lend him and his family that hand. I found my cause for good in my neck-of-the-woods and committed considerable resources to aid, rather than a bunch of $10 checks to help an assortment of causes. Where can you and your business blessings make a giant difference in your community?
9. Be a model for your kids. Our kids observe – and model – us more directly than we believe. I learned this when Jayne, my wife, informed me that Molly, our daughter, has just finished lecturing “the damned cat.” Point taken, lesson learned. If we want our kids to be attracted to learning, they should see us reading books. If we want our kids to show consideration for others, we should advise them to get their ding-dong ditching finished before 830 PM. If we want our kids to appreciate that romance still exists in our marriage, we should hire sitters and enjoy a needed night out.
10. Spend time with your real friends. In excellent times, real friends rejoice with you. In hard-hitting times, real friends chip in where they’re needed. Odds are, you have three authentic friends – the ones who see you pleased, gloomy, enjoyable, angry, certain, and concerned. They still love you and what you add to their life. Call those three friends today; get together with them this month.

Do You Measure Up To Your Customers’ Expectations?

One of my more well-liked E1™ speaking programs is titled, “Beyond the Suggestion Box – How Your Customers Will Redesign Your Products, Services, Processes, and Business Model.” Fundamentally, the keynote speech is a dialogue about the course of engaging openly with your most loyal and fervent customers. It’s a very convincing, marketing catalyst that helps to enumerate the hard-to-pin-down links between satisfaction, loyalty, market share and profits. With personal and professional examples and familiarity from the likes of Starbucks, Hallmark, Harley-Davidson, LEGO, Umpqua Holdings, and more – it’s relatively apparent that the best companies (E1™ companies) listen to their customers officially and repeatedly.

Indeed, today, the CEO of a Nebraska-based bank client of mine advised me that a panel of the bank’s most loyal customers will be present at an offsite strategic planning session next month where I will speak and facilitate their meeting. Now that’s co-creating value with customers.

Just as significant as listening to your customers for what they desire in future products and services is listening to your customers for what they want you to measure in everyday transactions with your company. Your customers want to be involved in creating metrics that hold you accountable to them. Support is growing demonstrating how customers will not put up with the hurried and tiresome service that is all too common.

Earlier this year, we asked what measurements of service customers would like to observe companies quantify. From our findings, we designed an E1™ program to address – in hands-on detail – how to measure, manage, and implement each finding. Surprisingly, the metrics of efficiency – on-hold time, transaction time, calls dropped, etc – did not emerge. While the measurements of competence are – without doubt – important gauges, customers cared most about front line knowledge and first-hand resolutions. Moreover, the list of ten findings was more about slowing down than hurrying through a transaction, resulting in the type of service or experience that customers find objectionable.

So what matters need measurement, according to customers?

1. Have well-informed employees – 65%.
2. Attend to my needs on first contact – 64%.
3. Treat me like a valued customer – 62%.
4. Express desire to meet my needs – 54%.
5. Promptly retrieve my information – 49%.
6. Provide good value for my money – 49%.
7. Have well-mannered employees – 45%.
8. Be a company/brand I can depend on – 43%.
9. Deal with me practically – 38%.
10. Provide me with pertinent/custom-made service – 31%.
    

To achieve the most excellent appreciation of what customers truly experience, customer service managers should draw on an assortment of information resources: customer satisfaction surveys; net promoter scores; customer segment analyses; behavioral data; recorded customer-to-staff member conversations; and informal communications with customers. From this information, consistently gathered and evaluated, managers can embark on a plan to better recognize and lead the most important facets of the customer experience – those received directly from the customer.

In dissecting, designing, measuring, and improving your customer’s experience with your product or service, your company can transform its image and brand, making you more essential – more indispensable – to your customer’s life.  With clearly-defined and well-implemented front line leadership behaviors, the “how” of “wow” is delineated, allowing you to understand and demonstrate your distinctiveness in a jam-packed marketplace.  In a world where first-rate customer service is the expected norm, it’s time to abandon being just competitive and concentrate on becoming a required, central part of life.  Won’t your competitors wish they were you?