Customers come in, but do you know how? Why? How to get more like them? Do you want more like them? And what’s great design got to do with it?
Growing your business is either seat-of-your pants, or it's designed. There’s no in-between.
The Maximum Customer Experience blog aims to help you become the Visionary and leader that a thriving firm needs at the top.
To learn more about VisionPoints, The Experience Designers, visit visionpoints.net today.
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To Go Where Your VisionPoints, a few inspiration points for you and your business.
Never try to teach a pig
to sing. It wastes your time
and annoys the pig.
—Unknown
Grow and be well,
Kelly Erickson
Motivation=Wanting to do something.
Sounds simple, right?
It’s not.
Mine does. I haven’t got all the mysteries of parenthood figured out, but that one goes well at my house. At age nine, my daughter likes to take out the trash. In our apartment complex, this involves a walk with me, to cross a busy parking lot, go to the trash corral, and throw our trash into the dumpster. Why does she want to do it with no prompting?
Time with Mama. A little walk-and-talk with nothing pressing to distract us. (Recognition)
It’s a contribution to the house that isn’t too taxing and makes a big difference. (Achievement)
I never force the task on her; she bosses me around and tells me when it’s time to do the job. (Responsibility)
The longer we do this job together, the more she is able to contribute: directing when to cross the street, getting tall enough to use the dumpster almost all by herself, etc. (Personal growth)
There’s a bonus at the end: people often put toys and furniture in the big corral, especially near holidays and moving time (beginning/end of month), so she may get to bring something fun back with us. (External push)
Because otherwise, the house gets icky
Or the spouse gets cranky
Or there’s no room for more
Or it’s just a habitual part of your day
Or you’ll get a big thank-you at the end
What’s the difference? I am lucky to have a kid who has developed mainly internal motivators for taking out the trash. Recognition, achievement, responsibility, personal growth. Yes, the potential for a bonus is an external “motivator,” and some of our finds have been pretty great, but these are infrequent enough that they are not a major influence.
Most adults are pushed by external factors to take out the trash: the prospect of a reward for completion or a punishment for avoidance of the task. The carrot and the stick. The satisfaction of a job well done got lost somewhere along the way. You don’t want the trash taken out, you want the carrot to be given or the threat of the stick to go away.
I’m going to let you in on a secret. When I was a teen in college, I used to clean houses for people. I liked doing it. I did more than necessary to earn my ten bucks an hour. Sure, the carrot of my four hours’ pay was there. That wasn't too much, even then. Owners were rarely there while I was working, so I can’t say that their praise was significant. It was just plain nice to transform a house once a week. I got referred on and on, because the results of liking my work really showed.
That’s not the secret. The secret lies in those owners. Some people like a clean house. Some people like having their house cleaned.
When I came back, week after week, the same people’s houses needed barely anything. This meant I could do really in-depth stuff, making their house shine more and more every week. These folks had the internal motivation of loving a clean house; I just freed them to maintain it. And every week, the same people’s houses were utterly trashed as if I’d never been there at all. I’d spend so long just picking up junk, that I could barely get to the floors and the dusting, before the four hours were up. I pushed a clean house on them, but their own motivation was so completely gone that they had even outsourced the minimal stuff like picking up their socks off the living room floor.
Liking having a clean house resulted in having a clean house for some owners. Having an external factor come in and clean their house could not result in a clean house for others. Internal motivation gets things done; external pushing gets things done half-assed. Crude, but true.
Yes, I’m going to let you in on another secret. I wrote earlier that I am lucky to have a kid who has developed mainly internal motivators. I’m not that lucky. I’ve been leading her there all along, and she has the internal motivators I intended to instill. I also wrote that I haven’t got all the mysteries of parenthood figured out, and to prove that—though I think I’ve followed the same path with homework, it’s pretty much on the carrot-and-stick level. The results aren’t 100%, but following the path toward internal motivation is critical.
Motivation=Wanting to do something.
As you manage your staff, you probably try two tactics to motivate those precious human resources. You praise, “communicate” (or my least favorite, “treat them like family”), offer pay raises, bonuses, privileges, or other incentives; or you scold, frown, write and enforce reviews, take away plum assignments, threaten termination. You prefer the first tactics, but resort to the second as necessary. Every year, you up the ante on the rewards to further motivate employees who got the extras last year. So, why aren’t your employees motivated?*
You’ve taken their internal motivations away. Simple.
In each case, who wants the change? You, the manager. You are pushing changes; the employee is just trying to catch the reward or avoid the punishment. The employee no longer wants what you want.
To lead, you must stop pushing changes NOW. Leaders create the opportunity for internal motivation to take hold.
Almost every owner or manager I talk to who is dissatisfied with the company’s growth will eventually point to their staff. “I love this work,” they say. “I’d do it without pay. Every year I offer more for good performance, but they don’t love the work and don't want the company to succeed like I do. What’s going on?”
What drives us to give our best efforts?
So what can I say to this owner?
Dear Ms. Owner:
When you tell me how much you love this company, you do not talk about the work (unless it’s to tell me that 19-hour days do not pain you), or the pay (owners are often paid less than their top staff), or the great hours, benefits, or privileges. You tell me about devotion, about the day you first went “in the black,” the first time the local press gave you a glowing review, or how getting to know your customers has made you a better person.
Are your employees sharing in that success? They crave what you crave. The glow of an unbiased opinion; the satisfaction of doing a job better than anyone knew it could be done; the chance to influence and create company growth themselves; personal attachment to outcomes; feeling like their excellent work makes a difference, and that each day they become even more excellent!
Your staff want to go home and say to friends and family: “This job rocks. When I am there, I rock. I can hardly wait to see what happens tomorrow.” That, Ms. Owner, is when staff become brand Propheteers.
It isn’t money that is driving talented people out of the workforce and into self-employment in droves. It’s impotence. Nothing is more demoralizing than the feeling that you do not matter, that your forseeable future looks exactly like your present, and that you are spinning your wheels.
Ms. Owner, to lead you will have to give up some control. A leader is not a manager of each employee’s moments. A leader is a guide to the company’s Vision, chief cheerleader and creator of excitement. A manager dictates employee actions; a leader shapes and trusts employee desires.
A manager offers rewards for expected outcomes; a leader acknowledges extraordinary, unexpected results
A manager schedules performance reviews; a leader asks for personal accountability
A manager piles on the work with no obvious Purpose; a leader maintains focus on well defined outcomes, leaving methods to the employee
A manager treats staff “like family,” with empathy, in a hands-on way, and sometimes gets familial disrespect in return; a leader treats staff like critical stakeholders and responsible adults in their own right, knows how to relax, but never lets work becomes a codependency
A manager automates and simplifies; a leader removes layers of approvals and other barriers to success
Ms. Owner, my best wishes for your continued growth.
We owners love our companies. We are always looking for the magic potion that will make employees fall in love, too. Poor employee performance is a major pain point in Experience Design. Whether you are an owner or an employee yourself, you have probably seen him: the guy who does only what he’s told, collects the paycheck, and runs out the door at 5. Mr. Minimum. Always ready with a complaint at your expense; ready to bolt at the first offer that looks a bit better than yours. No loyalty, no matter how much you “treat him like family.”
If you are managing your employees, the bad news is you created Mr. Minimum. The good news is, with patience you can lead. Though human factors are never perfectly engineered, you can leave the carrot and stick behind.
Motivation=Wanting to do something.
You can say of your staff: “I’ve been leading them there all along, and they have the internal motivators I intended to instill. They know what we’re about, they are empowered to do their best for our success, and they love this company like I do. They want to be here. They want to tell our customers what’s great about us. Some of them would do it if they weren’t being paid. They are our biggest fans.”
You can’t “push change” if you want major, long-term results. You can lead growth, through this essential shift toward internal motivation.
If you really care about your staff as family, then start creating jobs that are fulfilling, exciting, and filled with challenges, just like their Mamas wish for them. Stop enabling them to howl about chores, and start driving them toward fun, enrichment, and adventure when they take out the trash.
It takes time, but look at it this way: It’s easier than getting your kid to love spelling homework.
What parts of your work would you do for free? How could a focus on internal motivators change the quality of work your company does?
Grow and be well,
Kelly Erickson
*Thanks to Frederick Herzberg, author of “One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees?” (1968, 1987) for the Harvard Business Review [subscription required], who taught me that a Kick in the Ass is nothing like the internal desire to excel.
Naming is a topic that deserves a lot of attention. We’re really going to get into it here in the not-too-distant future.
I’m not going to give it what it deserves today.
In fact, you may notice that I’m kinda stringing it out right now.
You know what this company sells, right? At first the truck was almost a quarter-mile in front of me, and I knew what they sell.
My kid knew what they sell.
We got closer, and the brains no longer saw the truck, having determined that its meaning was understood. We moved on to discuss the cherry blossoms lining the streets, the new signage on a favorite store, and what kind of clamp we’d buy when we got to the hardware store.
We’re working on a miniature fireplace, and the itty bitty mouldings for the mantel required a specialty clamp to hold their mitres while the wood glue dried.
It’s the final fireplace for the house. Covered in itty bitty stone. The mantel’s being stained a beautiful chestnut. Really gorgeous. I wondered aloud whether we’d have enough time to get the wiring done to light it up tonight.
There was a lot of traffic when we went out. Right at rush hour. Not the time to realize you have to go anywhere, not if you live in a megalopolis.
I don't think “megalopolis” gets enough use in the blogosphere. “Blogosphere,” on the other hand, gets far too much use.
The faster you need to get back to a project, the slower the forty cars and trucks in front of you, right?
We must have hit every single red light in Delaware. This, traffic engineers will tell you, was to pace us. Boy, was I paced. Ugh.
We talked about whether we should have a nice chili-rice bake for dinner, and settled on leftovers instead. I sang a bit of “Gold Dust Woman,” which was playing when we left home, and got stuck in my head. I think there was some complaining, which I ignored. “Did she make you cry/ Make you break down/ Shatter your illusions of love?”
I just finished creating a new playlist for car and home, inspired by Jonathan Fields’ state-altering playlist at Awake at the Wheel. Mine's quite a bit different. I’ve noticed it's not all G-rated, and I wonder if my kid will be forever damaged by Mama howling along to “Running With the Devil” and “You May Be Right.” They may not alter her state in exactly the same way as they alter mine. Hmm.
Finally, we pulled into the parking lot, right behind the same truck.
Which is when I finally read the rest, as I was spacing out.
I think I’ve spaced this out enough that you had to scroll, which was my intention.
TIP: Do not give your business a name that is misleading. What a waste of the single most important ad you’ll ever write!
Have you seen one that misled you like this? How does yours tell me what you sell, or interest me in knowing more about your company?
Grow and be well,
Kelly Erickson
Kelly,
I just recently found your blog via Big Bright Bulb. Your success and exceptional blog content are an inspiration for me.
[Dear Kristen. I am stealing the foregoing sentence for unabashed flattery in every email I ever write from this moment forward. Regards, Kelly.]
I've been looking for someone who'll let me pick their brain along the bumpy road, as I launch my freelance/entrepreneurial journey and try to make my blog more visible.... [I’m] looking for a mentor of sorts.... who might be suitable and willing to put up with me. :)
Thank you.
Sincerely Yours,
Kristen
http://www.unobstructedcreativity.com
Dear Kristen,
I'm so glad you're feeling inspired. Thanks for writing!
Brain picking is probably easiest done by reading backwards and forward, as I generally throw whatever's in the brain out onto the blog, with respect to Experience Design. A blog IS about Customer Experience, with your customers being your readers, so you'll find lots to pore over at MCE.
Not knowing exactly what you are seeking, my best mentorish ideas for a starting blogger:
I don't get into the writing/ blogging process, usually, at Maximum Customer Experience, but if you take a look back at my 100th birthday post last Friday, you'll find a lovely P.S. filled with several who do (and where I am constantly commenting with anything that does belong on their blogs and doesn't belong on mine), especially Copyblogger (Brian), Problogger (Darren), Men With Pens (Harry and James), IttyBiz (Naomi), and Big Bright Bulb (Crystal).
Big tip: Many fine bloggers are in the comments section adding to the discussion. Always read the comments!
Brian and Darren handle the how-to-be-visible stuff, as well as Caroline Middlebrook at her blog, and Chris Brogan at his. All great resources. Again, they've probably answered all your questions, and the great thing about a blog is you can search through and find whatever you want to know that day, then come back again later without making an appointment, so to speak, to find the next answer!
Leaving comments on a relevant post (mine or others) will almost always get the blogger's comment back to you pretty quickly (not usually Darren or Brian, though), so you can have half a dozen "mentors" at your disposal, customized to your needs. In addition, if the question catches other commenters' eyes, you may get a lot more advice than just the blogger's.
Subscribe, so you stay with the flow of a blog, if you like it. If you aren't subscribed at Maximum Customer Experience, of course I recommend it highly!
Occasionally do a little social bookmarking (Stumble, Technorati favorites, etc.), because bloggers often notice when someone helps them drive relevant traffic to their site. When you give to other bloggers, they feel good about giving back.
Read a lot, soak it all up, comment when you can add to the conversation, and ask questions. Best practices.
Write about what your readers need to hear. Think about what words they might search for, if they needed what you know, then make sure you use those terms now and then. Write like you are talking to just one person, and take the time to fully imagine who that person is in your head. Pretend it's a cocktail party. Be fascinating when possible, witty if useful; never be a boor, and never say all that can be said. Your blog is a conversation.
Oh, yeah. The one thing you may not hear anywhere but right here: This takes a lot of time to work. You will not have 50,000 readers next week. Or next month. Or in all probability, next year.
I am not saying all this to put you off an email here or there, but because you will absolutely get more out of a more public approach to learning about blogging. Guaranteed. (In addition, if your comments are well-written and interesting, this is one of the very best ways to increase traffic to your blog! People want to know who the woman who has that neat opinion is, they click on your name, and voilà! traffic to your blog!)
Hope this helps!
Regards,
Kelly Erickson
All right, fellow bloggers, your turn to mentor: What’s your advice to Kristen?
If you liked this post, please take a moment to talk it up! I'd love to get lots of mentorish comments from blog authors far more deserving of Kristen's high praise than I.
Thanks, Kristen. You made my day.
Today at IttyBiz (an inspiration and a guilty pleasure in my blog-reading schedule) author Naomi Dunford issued a small business challenge to her readers based on a recent email and the anxiety it aroused in her:
“So what do you actually do for a living?”
After some initial irritation, she homed in on the perfect Maximum Customer Experience pain point:
If they don’t know what I do for a living, it’s not exactly their fault, is it?
You know how you began with a Vision, then you get so involved in day-to-day stuff, you lose track of the Vision? And the business suffers. Sales aren’t what you want them to be. Your Vision extends to your staff and how they treat customers; to the look and vibe of your physical space; to your website, blog (!), and printed materials. Or it doesn’t!
As in Naomi’s case, maybe you don’t even realize you aren’t communicating as powerfully as you could be until you get called on it.
Naturally, Naomi found a way to make this all about her readers’ Visions for their IttyBizzes. She’s generous like that.
How many of your readers don’t know about your small business?
I got to thinking… how many of your readers don’t know about your IttyBiz? How many knew one time 8 months ago when they read your About page but have promptly forgotten? How many of them have room on their credit cards? How many of them know people who could use your products or services? How many of them would fall over their own feet to recommend you but don’t have a damn clue what you really do?
Scary stuff, y’all.
The people want to know.
Naomi’s challenge: Bloggers, interview thyselves. In light of my 2008 Interview Series, it seemed about right that I put myself on the hotseat Naomi designed. Her questions and my answers follow.
Don’t write to tell me this is all a shock and you had no idea. Write to tell Naomi that hers is all a shock, and you had no idea what she does. She started it. :)
I help your company go where your VisionPoints.
How? I’m an Experience Designer, owner of VisionPoints, The Experience Designers. We help you radically improve your Customer Experience to grow your business. My team and I dig into your goals, focus your Vision, and follow it all the way through to the execution of your finished design.
Strategy, interiors, graphics, and human (interactive) Experience that powers growth. One company, one complete Solution for small- to mid-sized businesses.
I feel so strongly about the power of integrated Experience Design that I sometimes say I’m obsessed with it. How do you position your firm for growth when you’re an overworked, multitasking small business owner? You’re constantly propping up one element at the expense of others. You may have the greatest product or service in the world, but if your customers experience that scattered feeling you have, they’ll never catch on to you and spread the word!
I love the research, strategy, and the applied art that is Experience Design. I’ve got a creepy knack for it, too.
You’ve had help from a graphic designer. You’ve considered an interior designer, or maybe you’ve already worked with one. The butcher, the baker, the candlestick-maker... everybody comes at your project with their angle, and your message is getting confused. Enough!
If you’ve done it all yourself, you know it's time-consuming, frustrating, not saving you a lot of money—worst yet, it’s not making you money.
If you’re still wondering why smaller businesses need Maximum Customer Experience, click here.
What kind of changes make new clients call us?
Do your customers, suppliers, and employees feel connected to your success? Do they believe in you and share in your Vision, or is your company just one of many to them? You can increase loyalty, satisfy repeat customers, and drive enthusiastic referrals—through integrated Experience Design.
[Provocative IttyPhrasing courtesy of Naomi, lest you forget. My spellcheck thinks a good correction for IttyPhrasing is “vituperating.”*]
I’m passionate about creating Maximum Customer Experience for smaller businesses. I believe in measuring, proving, and growing real numbers with good design. You want more than pretty—you want growth. That’s why you call VisionPoints.
I’m on a mission to connect bottom-line business results with focused interiors, graphics, and that all-important interactive Experience. With this blog I get to talk Experience Design with a much wider audience than my workday could ever allow otherwise. I learn and grow here, too!
The power of Maximum Customer Experience is that not only the huge firms can deliver it to their customers. Your IttyBiz can, and you need to, to succeed.
You know I’ve got to say it: The big plan is to design the Experience Design Solution for your IttyBiz. Ready to grow? Contact VisionPoints today.
Naomi asked me to call you out, too. Write your own “What’s Your Small Business” article and post it to your blog. Link back to her challenge, and she’ll be compiling a list of everybody’s posts to make us all own up to our Vision!
Hey, does her Vision have something to do with lots of linkbacks and new readers?
Grow and be well,
Kelly Erickson
*This has nothing at all to do with the fact that my daughter told me today that the 8th of the Seven Dwarfs is named “Facetious.” No, I am not making this up.
To Go Where Your VisionPoints, a few inspiration points for you and your business.
It is possible that the telephone has been responsible for more business inefficiency than any other agency except laudanum.... In the old days when you wanted to get in touch with a man you wrote a note, sprinkled it with sand, and gave it to a man on horseback. It probably was delivered within half an hour, depending on how big a lunch the horse had had. But in these busy days of rush-rush-rush, it is sometimes a week before you can catch your man on the telephone.”
—Robert Benchley, U.S. writer, humorist
Grow and be well,
Kelly Erickson
I don’t mind losing to competition (okay, I do!). What I can’t stand is losing to our biggest competitor: Doing Nothing. Why? Because I want you to succeed, and when we at VisionPoints spend time exploring approaches and planning how best to position your business for growth, we are saddened by prospective clients who choose inaction. I feel this way about clients who never made it to calling us, too, but when you’ve acknowledged the Pain Points in your own Customer Experience, recognized the need for Experience Design and found the Solution that’s right for you, why give up?
After a recent disappointment with a fascinating new client firm, I can only wonder—are some owners seeking an out? Do they get cold feet when it’s time to sign the contract we craft together because it’s not success they want (which we certainly aim our clients toward), but failure they’re looking for approval on?
Profound lack of corporate self-esteem?
Your life is an occasion. Rise to it.”
—Mr. Edward Magorium
Stop doing nothing. Sorry, there is hope for your business.
What are you waiting for?
Grow and be well,
Kelly Erickson
Honesty is hardly ever heard
And mostly what I need from you”
—Billy Joel (Honesty, 1978)
The banner above my personal email reads, “totally free checking.” A lovely Flash-dance tells me that yes, it’s totally, completely, honestly, *blah blah blah* free. A lot of blah blah. The animation ends with “Mouse over to explore... the details.”
My Customer Experience went from “hmm” to “I wish I were better at banner blindness” in less than ten seconds.
Why are there details if you were being totally, completely honest with me?
Grow and be well,
Kelly Erickson
If you’re bored, get out. Take an afternoon off; read a new perspective; ask a colleague for an honest opinion; take a trip. Your boredom is infectious, so stand on your head, if you have to, until you find the cure. Get back the thrill of pleasing others—that’s what you do for a living. Now envision the future, and plan to take your business there.
If your staff is bored, lead. Don’t set out new directions and expect everyone to fall in line. It won’t happen. Instead, ask questions; listen to the answers; craft direction and improvements together; find ways to draw out the inner leader in each employee. You can’t drag your company kicking and screaming into exciting new growth opportunities. Everybody has to pick up their own little corner, and want to move forward with you. This is what has so many people baffled about Starbucks’ 2008 initiatives. Do their staff, their internal stakeholders, even care?
If your customers are bored, move fast. You don’t have time for someday, when new companies crop up every day waiting to understand and delight your customer in ways you don’t currently care about. Start caring. As a local business owner said to me recently, boring your customers is an insult. An insult to their time, used to visit you; an insult to their loyalty; an insult to their intelligence.
How do you kick boredom when it grabs you?
Grow and be well,
Kelly Erickson
Don’t tell me the thrill is gone at 9 pm!
Why should you light your office or shop beautifully after hours?
If this sounds familiar, that’s because it’s three-fourths of the most widely-used acronym in Marketing: AIDA.
Attract Attention, Provoke Interest, Stimulate Desire, Lead or “call” to Action.
Sexy? Sure. You’re helping customers fall in love with what you offer.
You can’t exactly issue a call to Action when you’re closed, but you can be memorable at a time when almost no one else is. As I drive home in the dark after putting in extra hours at work, along a road brightened only by an occasional restaurant or convenience store, you have my attention all to yourself. A perfect opportunity to think about Experience Design: One more touchpoint, one more invitation to choose your Solution.
It’s a minimal cost if done properly. Just highlight your signage, your inviting entrance, and a display window or two. Use efficient, dramatic spotlights, rather than a garish service-station-look.
Do it because no one else is doing it, and I will remember you when I pass by in the morning. It’s a little smile at the end of a long day, at a time when the mind wanders and the quiet allows messages to speak more clearly.
It’s a call to take Action with your company the next chance I get.
Ever fallen for a beautiful shop driving home from dinner or work? How did that sight make you feel?
Grow and be well,
Kelly Erickson
Image by Vidiot
It all started with a baker’s dozen, 13 articles on Experience Design. Nearly six months later, the Maximum Customer Experience Blog blows out the 100th candle, and slowly but surely gathers a loyal band of readers, from business owners, to entrepreneurs, to writers, designers, and friends, and the category we all fall into: Customers, discussing Experience together.
I took my time with it, and I hope that’s worked for you. Thanks, dear reader, for taking a few minutes from your busy day to read, comment, and share the MCE Blog. Without you, it’s just a journal.
A round-up at a blog birthday is about as traditional as thanking your Mom and Dad at the Oscars, and I love a good tradition. Without further ado:
1. Tip of the Week: Be Transparent, or, (One More Reason) Why I Heart Jeff Bezos
2. What's Hot Now: 39 Inspirations With Sticking Power
3. 7 Secrets of McDonald's Customer Experience
4. Leonardo DiCaprio Sent Me a Letter Today
5. Repeat After Me: I Do Not Need a Logo
6. Why TypePad Doesn't Want Your Comments
7. Experience Design 101 (This is the one that started it all, folks, so if you feel like starting from the beginning, enjoy.)
1. McDonald’s 90 second guarantee (*sigh* Not what one hopes to be known for)
2. Customer pain points
3. Kelly Erickson (People find me that way? They must be trying pretty hard)
4. Restaurant
5. McDonald’s secrets (I’m sensing a theme here)
6. Target Experience Design
7. Internal stakeholders
1. “i like to look at things upside down” (You, too?)
2. .typepad martinis (I’m sure this had to be a disappointment)
3. babes (Thank you)
4. cheese customer experience blog (Cheesy, sometimes...)
5. Manage Customer Experience Kelly (Yup)
6. Kelly Erickson Dallas (Nope)
7. Kelly Erickson sugar (Wrong again)
1. When Is Experience: New York All You’d Expect From Paris?
2. Plain-English: “Pain Points” in Experience Design
3. Inspiration Points: Unapproachably Great
5. Tip of the Week: What Would a Kid Say?
6. Key Concepts in Experience Design
7. The Web Is a Great Big Yellow Pages and Five Other Tech Truths Your Customers Won’t Tell You
1. Vision
2. Direction
4. Emphasis on the Details
5. Friends & Family
6. Propheteers
7. Innovation
& Integrated Experience Design!
Keep coming back, folks. As Lou Reed sings, it’s the Beginning of a Great Adventure. Glad you’re here.
And thanks, Mom and Dad.
Grow and be well,
Kelly Erickson
The Biggest P.S. in Blogging History:
(and a link to the one article you must not miss from each)
Amy, Write From Home
Brett, 6 Weeks
Brian, Copyblogger (without whom you might not be reading this)
Caroline, Caroline Middlebrook
Charlie, Trust Matters
Crystal, Big Bright Bulb
Darren, ProBlogger
David, Change Order
Harry, Men With Pens
Jacob, Just Creative Design
James, Men With Pens
Mark, Unconventional Thinking Blog
Mike, Simplenomics
Naomi, IttyBiz
Paul, Idea Sandbox
Scott, HELLO, My Name Is BLOG
Seth, Seth Godin’s Blog
Tim, Planning Startups Stories
For inspiring me, for challenging me, for your breathtaking insights, and most of all, for your humor. Thank you guys.
Looking for just the right thing for MCE’s birthday? Comment today, comment often, and subscribe to the Maximum Customer Experience Blog. The gift of your comments is precious to me.
One of my goals for the blog this year is to have a more direct connection with what smaller business owners and managers are facing right now in creating Maximum Customer Experience. I recommend a lot of strategic research for clients, including one-on-one interviews with stakeholders, customers, and prospective customers. So on my own advice, I’ve been hitting the road for the 2008 Interview Series. To take part there’s one criterion: you must be a Delaware or Pennsylvania small business owner.
I live and work north of Wilmington, Delaware. Though clients are not always local, this is where I am both a practitioner, and like you, a consumer, of Experience Design. I have my eyes and ears open everywhere I go. If I spot changes within a business, see new signage, or if a whole new business pops up, I’m taking notes and checking into it on the Internet, as a designer and as a curious local. I read the local business paper, the newspapers, I keep an eye on local blogs. Staying sharp on local companies is part of my job.
The first article in the Interview Series is a piece on encouraging word-of-mouth in the real world. Most of the interview subjects I chose because I am a customer and a fan of the company; some, simply because I have followed their story and want to know more about their progress.
In early April, I started (driving and) walking. For every business on my carefully chosen list, I walked in and introduced myself: [Ask for owner by name, then] “Hi, I’m Kelly Erickson. I write a local blog called Maximum Customer Experience, and I’d really like to interview you.”
This tickled some folks pink, and made others skeptical. Why me? Easy to answer, since I really meant it. I explained exactly why them. For most that was enough, and they too moved to the tickled pink stage.
Great so far. I’ve done quite a bit of interviewing, and I know most people are happy to be asked their opinions about their work. (How do I do as an interviewer? I’m enthusiastic, friendly, and a nervous wreck. It’s a thrill.) With nothing “in it for me” except a genuine interest in how they do business, most owners accepted the invitation.
Only one said, “Now’s a great time.” We sat right down and began. Good thing I prepped before each visit!
About two-thirds set a date and a time, and I returned to do the interview.
The other third set a date to get back to me with a time that worked for them, or agreed to email me their responses. I don’t care for the email option because you can’t take a conversation in a new direction as you talk, but I have great respect for the time these owners are taking for me, so of course I said yes.
Having chosen my time of day wisely, only a few owners were not there when I stopped in. For these I left a card with a member of their staff, printed with the Interview Series information, and a handwritten note on it explaining my interest in interviewing them.
All of the people I made an appointment with, were there and ready to go on the day I came back. I told everyone I would take up less than thirty minutes of their time (and had material for only a twenty-minute interview to make sure I respected that), yet each interviewee thought of more and more associations, and every one kept me for longer than the time I’d promised!
Lesson 1: Get brave and get out there. Face-to-face works!
None of the folks who said they would get back to be with a time or an email interview, did so. After the date we’d agreed to had passed, I sent a polite email asking if they were still interested in participating. Still, none of these owners got back to me.
Lesson 2: “Get back to you on that” is probably NO, in code.
Of the owners I was not able to personally meet and express my interest to, not one contacted me. Again, I sent a polite, personal email as follow-up (and in case they’d never been given the information), and still received no responses.
Lesson 3: See Lesson 1! If you need a YES, you need to be face-to-face with the decision maker.
All of the owners who chose the “get back to me” or email-interview option (and then didn’t) were men.
Lesson 4: I don’t know lesson 4. This is the part that has me baffled. If you’re wondering, the introductory conversations I had with these owners were just as warm, they were just as pleasantly surprised, and seemed just as eager to be part of the interviews.
I know, you don’t want to do interviews, you want to interest prospects in your store, your product, or your service. You want to make your company better known. Networking in this personal way will make your company better known. Do your homework, find an engaging way to introduce yourself, and make your first visit to a prospective customer a time for you to find out more about them. Ask for permission to stop back again, and repeat the process. Be knowledgeable, be interested, and be creative. Do not try to sell while introducing yourself; try to learn.
Remembering that this was a small sampling of local business owners and very unscientific—IS there a lesson 4? Do you think there is a reason why male owners (a) mainly chose the “get back to me” option, and then (b) to a man, didn’t? Is it gender or coincidence?
Grow and be well,
Kelly Erickson
Brand Propheteers: 10 Ways to Get the People You Already Know to Rave About Your Firm, first in the 2008 Interview Series, is coming up at the end of April.
Don't miss the series! Subscribe to the Maximum Customer Experience Blog for free, and get email or RSS updates using the subscription area at top left.
To Go Where Your VisionPoints, a few inspiration points for you and your business.
In some situations I was difficult,
in odd moments impossible,
in rare moments loathsome,
but at my best, unapproachably great.
—Oscar Levant [1958*]
Believe in yourself. Be just a bit arrogant. You’ll need it to get to the top of your game. And may you have moments in your career when you can say, Yeah, that’s me. Unapproachably great.
Grow and be well,
Kelly Erickson
*For this, one of my all-time favorite quotes, context is everything. To read all about it, click here.
What if that’s all you have to say?
What if you’re just done?
Move on.
It’s all right.
Sorry, folks, but sometimes there are just too many rah-rah posts in the ether. You may feel pressured by the unending noise, to keep with a business or a strategy that’s not working.
I love sharing tips for success, oh boy do I. Today, a tip for letting go. We will return to rah-rah next time.
Grow and be well,
Kelly Erickson
“It’s not me,” you’re saying right now. “I’ve got a couple of managers who ‘go there’ once in a while, but all in the name of motivating people. As the owner, I’m firm, but sweetness and light.”
Those managers are affecting your staff deeply, and that carries over to your Customer Experience.
I can’t say it any better than an article I happened across this week at the Harvard Business Review. Click now, because Rudeness and Its Noxious Effects is well worth the three-minute read.
If your managers choose rudeness as a motivational technique, it will harm your profits, down the line. Don't allow it.
Ever watched a manager "dress down" an employee right in front of you? Were you able to keep shopping?
Grow and be well,
Kelly Erickson
Yes, dear reader, I am going to name names here. Just not yours, I promise.
How many of you use FileMaker Pro? I love the product dearly and have been a loyal user since v.2. They’re up to version I-don’t-know-what by now. I am reasonably proficient with it and able to dig deeply into it when necessary, but like many other products in my life (Dreamweaver and TypePad come to mind), I want it to do the hard work most of the time, because I am an Experience Designer, not a programmer. It’s a convenience product that saves me a lot of time. Usually.
I have a tech problem with FMP.
I am no dummy, but after hassling with the program’s unfortunately-named “help,” then traipsing through their online “support,” then taking a step not everyone will and searching around for HOURS through Yahoo! looking for someone else who knows the answer to my problem, I’ve got spit in one hand and a wish in the other. I wish I had given up hours ago and emailed support. So with a bit of difficulty, but not much (you know how on some sites they absolutely bury the “Contact Us” info? Not really that bad here), I find their Support Feedback form.
Oh, good, no need to write an email and hope it gets to the right person! Support Feedback people will get right to the heart of matters. It asks me the usual contact stuff, email, etc., then I type in my problem.
I know the problem pretty well, by now, having discovered everything that is not the answer in my many searches, so I take my time and carefully fill out the form with a well-reasoned and to-the-point query, guaranteed to get a simple answer without a lot of back and forth (“Did you try X? Did you try Y? Is your computer even on?” You know the hey-moron questions). I need an answer and I need it ASAP, so doing this carefully takes twenty minutes out of my already-way-behind day.
If you know where this is going right now, you win the prize. Or you work for FileMaker, in which case... Call me.
I hit submit, and the polite auto-response page appears on my screen.
I cannot quote exactly because what I did next was to growl and shut down my computer. I should have written it down. It went something like this:
FileMaker does not respond to online queries. If you need help, you’ll have to call us.
As Dave Barry would say, I am not making this up.
Not only have I wasted my time filling out the form, but of course once you hit submit your careful wording is gone to the ether, so if you thought you might refer to it in a call, you’re out of luck.
Note: this is not “We don’t know the answer,” or “The answer is No.” This is “We aren’t even going to think about your concern in any way, yet wasn’t it funny to mislead you and waste your time. Screw you.”
Now comes the kicker.
I am much more dedicated to fixing this problem than some might be, although these are the moments that make me want to switch to another software entirely. So I reopen the laptop, go back into the website, and find their telephone help info. This part you can probably guess.
They want an obscene amount of money to talk to me. Fifty bucks. As I recall, this is about a quarter of what my last FMP upgrade cost me. I own your product. I want it to function, so that I don’t throw it across the room, tell all my friends that you stink, and go buy another relational database program or give up and use MySQL for everything. And you would like me to pay fifty bucks to make the program you sold me work like it should.
I could offer some sage wisdom about Experience Design here but I think you’ve got it, all on your own. This, dear reader, is not Maximum Customer Experience. Think about links in your own chain where this may be happening, because unless your following is fanatical, you will lose them forever at this point. Just three quick tips:
How do you love Support Feedback? Let us count the ways! Share a story of your own NOT Maximum Customer Experience moment.
Grow and be well,
Kelly Erickson
To Go Where Your VisionPoints, a few inspiration points for you and your business.
How much did you make last year?
Mail it in.
—Simplified tax form suggested by Stanton Delaplane, U.S. humorist
A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.
—Unknown
May all your last-minute numbers crunch in your favor.
Grow and be well,
Kelly Erickson
Because one or two is boring and repetitive, and more than three may be asking for trouble unless you’re a seasoned pro. Too much “noise” for your brain to process!
Yesterday, we talked about letting go of micro-management for an afternoon. Whether you work solo from home or manage a staff of fifty, sometimes the best way to see your business’ needs clearly is to step away, considering your direction in silence, without the distraction of daily tasks.
When you’re fresh from this mini-sabbatical, it’s time to turn up the noise level, but only in the right places.
1. Always Be Checking. This won't be a full-blown Experience Audit daily—just keep your eyes wide open for the little details that make a big difference to customers. First impressions last.
2. Prioritize from customer point of view. Listen to your customer, and be responsive to their interests and their concerns.
3. Measure results over time. This is the only way you will know if you’ve Pinpointed the right goals and whether you’re on track to achieve them.
Take a little time with this. Many of your daily tasks already fit in one of these three “notes,” but you may not have been viewing them in this way. When you look at your to-do list in terms of Experience Design, you can approach these tasks more deliberately—and more important in an overcrowded day, you can let go of the tasks that are just pointless noise.
With the noise level adjusted, look at the big picture. For instance:
How does viewing your website affect expectations for your store? [Checking, prioritizing.]
How does a constant parade of discount ads in the local paper affect the sort of customers who call you? [Checking, measuring.]
Do surly staff take care of those little details in your interiors as if they want your business to grow? [Checking, prioritizing.]
Don’t see these as separate interior design, graphic design, customer service, and marketing issues. This Experience Design chord can help you to look at your business as a whole. In a customer’s Perception, the elements of Experience will cross boundaries.
That’s the background noise for your day. After a short while, you’ll be good at playing that chord, but watch out! As any musician will tell you, when you’re overconfident, you can hit a few sour notes. So stay focused.
At some point you may be working on a complete Experience re-Design, in which case there are certainly more than three notes in the chord. Jazz! With professional help, there’s a team to keep things swingin’. On an everyday basis: you’ve got just three notes to look after. Checking the details, prioritizing for the customer’s needs, measuring results. When it gets too noisy, it’s time for another silent afternoon.
Which note do you need to hit harder?
Grow and be well,
Kelly Erickson
1. Step away from the project you’re working on, for Perspective and to spot problems. Ever notice how when you’ve just written an email, a paper, or a proposal, you can’t spot the typos, but a couple of hours or days later (usually too late, after it’s been sent somewhere) you see every flaw? Take some quiet time away from your relentless pursuit of Maximum Customer Experience and the answers (or the flaws) may just jump out at you.
2. The best ideas always come to me when I’m forced into silence (when I’m going to sleep, waiting for a doctor, stuck in traffic...). Silence lets the mind wander (that’s how the idea for this post came).
3. Silence in group situations allows you to open up to listening. Try keeping quiet when a response is expected—this often leads to hearing more than the other person intended to reveal. It also marks you as a caring listener, which will help you build a relationship and may help you “close the deal.”
If you are always racing, always adding to your to-do list, always manically multitasking, take some time this week to let go. How about taking tomorrow afternoon off? No email, no Internet, no business calls, no customers. Take a walk to a Thoughtful Spot (like Winnie-the-Pooh), and just sit, alone, letting ideas and problems wash over you without pressure.
Yes, this means you, solopreneur with child at home. Who do you help out in a pinch? Ask that person to hang on to the little one for just three hours.
Yes, this means you, owner with six employees expecting you. What do they do when you’re sick? Tell them to do that.
Yes, this means you, start-up supervising construction on the new site. They get along on other sites, they can get along without you for an afternoon.
Yes, this means you, workaholic who loves every minute of it. You still can’t see the forest if you’re letting the tree branches whip you from morning till midnight, no matter how much fun the work is.
Maybe a great new idea for Customer Experience will come to you, you’ll reach into your pocket, grab a crumpled piece of paper and a pen, and jot the note that starts a new direction for your company.
Maybe you’ll have a huge personal reflection, that will make downtime better and allow your business to be more fulfilling, finally.
Maybe, you’ll snooze.
We’re all too connected, too busy absorbing, too convinced things will fall apart if we take time to sort through our thoughts. Too many of us are hiding “empty” with band-aids of “busy.”
If crazy is part of your equation, as in “I am working like...,” quality will be harder to come by.
It’s a chance to regain focus. The value of silence is in rediscovering where you are driving to with all this “busy,” and why.
What’s the BEST thing that could happen if you let your team take care of things for just one afternoon? How could recharging your batteries periodically help your business thrive?
Tomorrow: Why Noise Is Essential.
Grow and be well,
Kelly Erickson
What have I added to my busy schedule? I've been having a great time, wearing out the shoe leather, interviewing local Delaware/ Pennsylvania business owners for the first article in the Maximum Customer Experience Blog's 2008 Interview Series. (Sorry, national/ international readers. You will love the results, but getting in on this is strictly for those I can talk to in person.)
I hope this little pre-announcement whets your appetite to discover what small business owners like you are really thinking, right now—and if you're wondering, the word “recession” hasn't come up once!
Brand Propheteers:10 Ways to Get the People You Already Know to Rave About Your Firm
Part One - Golden Opportunities and "I'll Have What She's Having"
Part Three - Grand Concepts, Practical Advice, and the One Great WoM Story
Coming soon:
Hindsight Series
Your Secret Weapon
Twenty Companies That Rock the Customer Experience Right Here, Right Now
Small Businesses Talk Strategy for Big Growth
Check out these articles and more at the Maximum Customer Experience Blog.
Read, subscribe (it's free!), and be a part of the Maximum Customer Experience Blog in 2008.
Have a suggestion for the MCE Blog? Write to me: kellye@visionpoints.net. I'd love to hear from you!
Grow and be well,
Kelly Erickson
I’m putting on my brown heels, checking my appointments for the day, looking for some work I brought home, and grabbing some thank-yous to send later. No, I’m not, because I’m out of them. My daughter appears to be doing nothing, so I say, “Honey, could you write Mama a Post-It that says “thank-you notes” and stick it on my notebook so I remember to grab some later?”
“Thank You Knowt”
Unusual, I know. She’s gifted. It kinda grabbed me, and I started thinking about thank-you knowts.
Write them often. No, not emails. No. You can have them custom printed for very little, or just go buy some high-quality, traditional ones at the office store nearest to you. Then find an excuse to write a few every week. BY HAND. I used to work with a guy who giggled (literally) every time he sent them, because he had learned the more they went out of “style,” the more they actually became something people talked about, passed around, and something that drove word-of-mouth for him. I hear it all the time: “I haven’t gotten a thank-you note for years,” people tell me.
Thank you (for your time, effort, referral... whatever) NOTE: be timely! Don’t wait a week to do this!
A recap of what your favorite part of the (time, effort, etc.) was
The reason you will keep in touch
And another thing... something special to let them know you’re thinking of them
This may seem like basic info, but maybe you didn’t have a Mom like mine to drill this into you (repeatedly). If you did, have you written one since great-aunt Sally’s blue and yellow striped scarf in 1982?
Dear Joe,
Thanks for helping out at the charity auction last night. The way you showcased the furniture really drove bids and increased the take for XYZ tremendously!
I’ll send you pictures from the blah-blah conference next week. You’ll be missed! I hope you have a great time skiing at Okemo.
Regards,
Jane
This isn’t a trick to increase business, and it can’t be faked. You already do take a sincere interest in customers, prospects, and colleagues. This is remembering details long enough to write them down, to let someone feel the appreciation you already have for him (or her). The only “trick” is the delivery method: the good old postal service. It’s a standout method, and it works. If enough of us write them, people may think it’s a movement, and that’s what it is. It’s one more touchpoint, for you to create Maximum Customer Experience.
Ten minutes later, overcoat on, picking up notebook, the conversation followed the Post-It:
Me: Honey, how do you spell ‘note’?
She: N-O-T-E.
Me: Then why did you write, K-N-O-W-T?
She: Oh. *giggles* I don’t know...
I love that kid. She cracks me up. I’m gonna go write her a thank-you, and send it. She loves getting mail.
Grow and be well,
Kelly Erickson
*With apologies to Arlo Guthrie. :)
Allow me to give brief Driving Directions today: just turn right at Big Bright Bulb, “Ideas and Advice for the Smallest Businesses With the Smallest Budgets,” where I’m delighted to be discussing your Vision with a cool crowd. (Yes, yours! You’d better go