I recently re-upped for a service I had temporarily suspended. As a good paying customer, I expected a quick email to be sufficient. Nope! The response I received put the work back on me to sign up all over again. So guess what? I am not signed up yet! And I may not be signed up tomorrow either. Make it easy for your customers to buy from you. If you make it hard, they might not bother!
My website upgrade is perched high and dry on a rock. I contacted a new, highly recommended, incredibly successful developer, at least according to his website, to see if he could ease it off the rock without undue damage and send it once again into the swift current of progress. This developer made and broke three successive promises before I even received a proposal. Web developers are notorious for being late. Breaking your own deadlines so early in the game is a deadly mistake. The proposal contained nothing but standard, mostly irrelevant content except for two introductory paragraphs indicating that the content was mostly standard and a slight reduction from their standard flat fee. This proposal, which added
There is a house down the street that the owners are renovating. They apparently have the: Desire Capability They will likely: Save money But: They will be at it many times longer than had they hired someone with the time and expertise to get the job done If that is the way you want to live, I’m all for it. However, if that is the way you run your business, think again.
Strategic planning is an oxymoron. Throwing these two words around together constantly has done a lot of damage. When I help clients with “strategic planning,” I have to undo a lot of that harm. The distinction between strategy and planning is critical, especially if your goal is to create a compelling and successful future. When you develop a strategy, you need to be looking at:
The email was a mistake no matter how you look at it. Sender: Dayne-gerous – A clever way to avoid my spam filter? Subject: Just left you a message … – No one had. It looked like spam. Yet the company and address below the name looked legitimate. Furthermore, it arrived while I was on the phone with another person at the same company. So I forwarded the email to my contact. Dayne got back to me with this:
Just before the Bruins lost in game six of the Stanley Cup play-offs, I told my husband that I was worried because they had started playing not to lose. They were backing up and being cautious. I was cringing. That is not the way to win! It is not even the way to play it safe! A few weeks earlier, the Wall Street Journal wrote about US businesses becoming more risk averse. This does not bode well for our country. I’ve seen it myself when talking with clients from many industries and companies of varying size. People are finding it harder to make decisions and invest where it will make a difference. Granted, the world is increasingly complex. We face ever more and ever more complicated decisions. Those decisions include abundant opportunity, yet bad news dominates the press. Fear paralyzes. Many play not to lose. By doing so, they are missing opportunities and squandering the most precious and finite resource – time. Meanwhile, the Dow has more than doubled since 2009, housing prices and housing starts are both up, and unemployment is dropping. Profits remain high and cash is being stashed. Those who seek good news and see opportunity, where others see gloom, are constantly evaluating their options, taking prudent risks, and moving ahead. While they may not score with every shot, their willingness to act, learn, and adjust with confidence and determination will keep them in the game. So quit reading all the bad news. Develop a strong game plan and support it with the necessary investments. Keep your eye on the puck, admit your mistakes, learn, adjust, and persist. Play to win. The alternative will never make you a champion.
I haven’t made a grasshopper pie in years but this hot weather just begs for it. Let’s see. Marshmallows Heavy cream Butter Oreos – must be some protein in that chocolate! Creme de Menthe – green is always nutritious, right? Creme de Cacao – more chocolate? Milk – good enough for babies, good enough for me! Grasshopper pie is obviously a health food! Seriously now. The marshmallows are made of corn syrup and sugar. The package has a huge label reading FAT FREE! Is this: Brilliant advertising Someone’s idea of a joke Proof that Americans are gullible, stupid, or both Repulsive All of the above What do you think?
I never signed up for auto-rewal, at least not intentionally. Were I one of those people who barely glances at a credit card statement, I still wouldn’t realize I was on the auto-renewal plan. At some point, I might wonder why this magazine keeps landing in my mailbox. Or not. Life is pretty busy. My habit of checking my credit card statement rewards me with the opportunity to dig up a phone number, make the call, navigate menu options, and then sit on hold. Of course, I am so annoyed by this waste of time that I multi-task, fail to hear the menu option that is relevant, and have to listen again. When I finally manage to cancel the subscription, I am promised a refund in 6-8 weeks.
“I am sure we can do that. We are here to help.” “Let me look into that. Our only goal is to serve you.” Can you give me 5 more variations on that theme? I can, because I heard them all today. The young man was totally helpful. But he never looked me in the eye, nor smiled. Not once! Since he was so helpful, I can’t really complain. However, imagine how much more enjoyable my experience would have been if his face had been in synch with his message! I am not suggesting he laugh at my jokes. I would never blame anyone for letting those go! And he needn’t feel obligated to engage in conversation, even though my efforts to do so were meant to do nothing more than express my appreciation for his above-the-call-of-duty service. But a little smile? Is that too much to ask? And actually, now that I think about it, a simple smile or two would have accomplished far more than all his statements about how dedicated he was to serving me well! Smile when you talk to customers! Even when you are on the phone. I absolutely guarantee it will help both of you! Now check out your employees. Are they smiling?
It takes a lot to get smoke pouring from my ears but a senior executive at my father’s bank pulled it off last week by confusing compliance with stupidity, er, I mean, an inability to serve. My mission was simple: get money into my father’s account before the IRS withdraws money for taxes. As we all know, death and grief are no excuse for missing IRS deadlines. Had the bank’s mission been to ensure compliance with privacy policies and good service, this executive would have told me that while he was unable to tell me anything about my father’s account, he could easily have acknowledged that yes, my money had arrived at his bank on time. That would have taken about 30 seconds and wasted none of my little gray cells.