The BALD TRUTH Homeless, Horseless and Hopeless

Ignorance is the state of being uninformed (lack of knowledge) It does not mean one is stupid, just that they may not or don’t have all the facts.

Ignorance

The most painful experience I have ever had was caused by ignorance.  Before you all jump on the “band wagon” and start saying how mean I am to say someone is ignorant, let’s just take a second to define “Ignorance”.

According to the always correct internet site Wikipedia…  < Ignorance is the state of being uninformed (lack of knowledge) It does not mean one is stupid, just that they may not or don’t have all the facts. >

OK,  back to my story…

I have always had an approach in my life that I can and will take care of myself.  I accept responsibility for my own well-being.  In fact back in the 80’s while working in my first career in the restaurant business I experienced some major losses and financial struggles.  So bad that I had my car repossessed, lost my apartment and my job and was crashing on a friend’s floor.

It was my ignorance that had gotten me there.  I was uninformed or didn’t know the real consequences of not keeping up with my bills.  I got to partying all the time, and neglected my responsibilities.  This created a problem for me.  Or problems… I was homeless, horseless and hopeless.

Ignorance isn’t just not having the facts; it is also taking actions on the wrong facts. Making decisions based on your own lack of information and being wrong.  Because of this many make value judgments based on a lack of knowledge and assumptions, this can lead to anger, disappointment and even to hate.

Now hate is a strong word too.  Hate can consume you and control you to the point of stealing all your time and energy away from you.  It can and will suck the life out of you and with energy focused on the wrong things ultimately make you totally unproductive.  This is what happened to me. I fell into a cycle of unproductivity and self-doubt that only a swift kick in the seat or smack upside the head was going to cure.  Well that combo kick/smack came in the form of a man I will be forever grateful. 

He probably doesn't know this, nor have I ever told him but Dave Gilbert gave me hope in 1984.  That’s right , hope. He believed in me and showed me.  He saw something in me that had been pushed down so deep that I was spiraling out of control.  He gave me a chance, hope for the future. He asked me to come work for him in the biggest, baddest nightclub in Houston, TX. He got me working, riding and living again.  See I had fallen into an unhealthy place physically and emotionally but he pulled me back up. For that I am grateful and forever in his debt. 

Lastly,  When you act and react without full info (ignorance) be prepared for the consequences. However, have hope that around the corner is that one person who has his or her hand out to help you out that will get you out of the hole you are in.  Hope is the answer to ignorance.  Folks have hope and give hope. Be a hope maker!

Until next time. That is the BALD TRUTH! Now Roll Up Your Sleeves and Get To Work

Coach Rick Kolster is an expert on organizational development. He helps companies and organizations build great leaders, strong salespeople and loyal customers. He is the author of two books; Selling for Geniuses and Roll up Your Sleeves & Get to Work.  He can be reached at 817-748-7425 or info@CoachRickKolster.com  www.CoachRickKolster.com  www.RollUpYourSleevesBook.com  

THE BALD TRUTH - Customer Loyalty vs Customer Service

Customer service, customer satisfaction or customer loyalty… What drives your organization?

The answer is simple.  The one which are you focused on!

We hear companies talk about customer satisfaction surveys or providing great customer service. Are you providing a level of customer service that will give you customer satisfaction?  If you are, I’ll say you are getting it all wrong, go back rethink it and do it all over again.

Customer service is the bottom of the barrel thinking. Anyone can serve a customers, most of the time it is bare minimum, if that.  Customer satisfaction is just one step above. I mean come on, who wants to be just satisfied? Is your goal to meet the minimum acceptable requirements to satisfy your customer? Is it your intention to leave a customer feeling that your product or service provides the customer with the basics they were looking for?  My guess is a big fat  NO!   If you said yes, then two things come to mind. 

First, recheck your values and pride.  Do you have pride in your work? If so why would you accept the bare minimum from your efforts.  It’s like being happy getting a C- on a paper.  It was passing, I didn’t fail so that must be ok. What do you value? Is building a strong healthy business worth going the extra mile?

Second is this: Do you want to be happy?  Would you accept the minimum from a product or service or would you like to see someone really take a interest in you and your needs.  We live in a WIIFM society, What's In It For Me,  so why does customer service seem to be the norm. “I did what I had to and that’s it.” attitude is so prevalent these days. “Sorry, I can see you are struggling or under a deadline or need some attention but I’m just too busy to give a rip.”

Just this morning I had both a good and bad customer experience in two different locations. Here’s what happened.  I was making a presentation to a big customer this morning. I needed to get four small presentations hole punched and bound. I went to the place I have been going for the past 7-8 years to get copies, and presentations made and bound.  (I’ll refrain from using the name for legal purposes but the store sound like an office tool we use to staple together papers.) About eight years I have used this store, I have seen managers come and go and spent thousands of dollars in supplies and printing over the years.

I walked up to the counter in print area and waited 4 minutes to be recognized or acknowledged. (mind you it was 8:22am and there were three people in the store total) Once I was acknowledged by the counter guy, his attitude was that I was bothering him.  He approached me standing at the counter, and I’m sure he could see my stress.  He asked how can I help you and I let him know that I was asking a huge favor and then asked him if he could bind these four pacakages for a big presentation I was on the way to.  I had gotten there as early as I could (8:20am) and really would appreciate him helping me out.

His answer shocked me.  I can’t help you for another hour. My answer must have hit a note. “Oh boy, I really just need these four packs of paper (10 pages each) hole punched and bound. I’m headed to my presentation now.” I know I looked stressed and a bit concerned.  His answer was even more incredulous. He again said “sorry can’t (won't) help you. I can get to you in about an hour but that’s it.  But you can go down the road to another printing place and try them (FedEx/Kinkos) sorry.” Funny thing is, I passed 3 managers on my way out the door and one even said goodbye, have a good day.  Are you kidding me?  How was I supposed to have a good day when I now had to drive down the road to get done what I should have been able to get done here?  Could the manager run the hole punch machine? Did the counter guy even try to see how he could help? NOPE! 

To continue and show you how it is supposed to be done, I head down the road about a mile and a half to the FedEx/Kinkos office. I was greeted immediately by the first employee I saw and he asked how can I help you.  I explained my dilemma and his answer was “Ok, let me set this over here and I’ll help you out.”

He proceeded to take my four small packages of paper (10 pages each) over to the hole punch, put them into the automated machine, punched them, put on a cover and back sheet threaded the binder through and was back in 4 minutes flat (I know I timed it).  This was the same amount of time it took to be acknowledged at the other big box store. He rang me up with a grand total of $19.96 plus tax. Done and out the door faster than it had taken me to drive from the aforementioned store (that sounds like an office desk tool) to the FedEx/Kinko’s store.

I walked out with a new satisfied outlook and impression of FedEx and a completely different outlook on that big box store that sounds like an office tool.

Taking that extra time to think through how can I serve or help the customer is the difference between customer service, (“I can help you in an hour”) to building customer loyalty, (“let me set this over here for a couple minutes.”)

Big box store Customer service = FAIL

FedEx/Kinkos customer service = New loyal customer

What is you are focused on in your business? What the attitude in your organization? Most will say we want to build a strong loyal customer as is the case with the big box store.  Most will pay the customer lip service.  At the big box store, how hard would it have been to have a manager come over and help if they were backed up?  Where was the manager checking on how things were going?  Why did the employee feel he couldn't call over a manager? What is the culture YOU have in your organization?

Does your team trust you and really strive for strong loyal customers or are they giving lip service to your value of customer service? Either way, it a reflection of your attitude on building loyal customers that are raving fans. Do you want raving fans or just customers that are satisfied with your work?  Your choice.

Coach Rick Kolster is an expert on organizational development. He helps companies and organizations build great leaders, strong salespeople and loyal customers. He is the author of two books; Selling for Geniuses and Roll up Your Sleeves & Get to Work.  He can be reached at 817-748-7425 or info@CoachRickKolster.com   www.CoachRickKolster.com  www.RollUpYourSleevesBook.com