There are two life experiences that almost always result in me writing blog posts: interacting with airlines, and visits to the emergency room.

A recent visit to a local ER was no different. Here are some customer service observations from my recent experience:

1. Do something surprising. There was a new addition to the ER experience at this local hospital. Valet parking. And it was free for ER guests! This is probably sad, but this surprised me. In a good way. Always look to add something to the customer experience that leaves people pleasantly surprised!

2. Think about context. Every ER has one, the mean old lady who only cares about collecting your insurance documentation. I suppose as a business that likes to get paid, I understand their need to do this. But this old hag woman was as rude and as unpleasant as you could imagine. Recognize what your customer is going through, and adjust the context with which you behave.

3. Meet long-held expectations. This was a hospital. I have certain expectations of hospitals. Such as, clean rest rooms. There were not as clean as I would expect. I’ve certainly seen dirtier rest rooms, but these surprised me. Meet long-standing expectations of your customers. When you don’t, that leaves an impression.

4. Keep your customers posted. I think it was Tom Peters who wrote that we can deal with a two-hour flight delay, if the airline keeps us frequently informed as to what is going on. No different with an ER. I mean, getting information…ANY information…out of them was maddeningly frustrating. Just keep your customers in the loop. They can deal…

5. A smile works wonders. The ER nurse assigned to our room was most pleasant. She told a lot of jokes, and smiled and pretended to laugh at mine. Her smile left an impression. A smile and friendly attitude works, even during unpleasant experiences like ER visits…

6. Staff up. Of course, when we really needed the nurse, she was nowhere to be found. She had too many other patients and rooms to cover. Always have enough resources to deal with your customer’s needs.

7. Use the damn technology! The critical issue in question on this particular ER visit was alarmingly low blood pressure. The machine was set to check blood pressure every 15 minutes. When a reading came back under normal, an alarm was set. And of course, no one EVER responded to the REALLY LOUD alarm. If you have means to track and respond to data, DO IT! There was a reason you installed it in the first place, no?

8. Listen to your customers. We had to fully explain the reason for the ER visit no less than FIVE times. I don’t know, maybe there is a medical reason OR some legal reason that requires ER patients to do this, but this got very aggravating. Listen to your customers, because when you don’t, they get angry.

9. Be accessible. When help was needed, there was none to be found. Instead, help was attained when I stood outside the door and waited until I could spot someone in a position to help. This was most naturally followed by “I will find your nurse.” Which meant help came on average 37 minutes later. If you have a “Help Desk” to serve your customer’s needs, it is helpful to actually have people there to provide service!

10. Answer questions | Be informative. Sadly, I’ve visited one too many emergency rooms in my lifetime. But the ER Doc assigned yesterday was the best ever. Helpful, informative, patient, clear, pleasant, understandable… This Doc took extra time to relay what he had learned and understood, and answered questions clearly. Most ER Docs are quickly moving to the next patient. This guy was different. When your customer’s have questions, answer them carefully, clearly, and patiently.

What other ER experiences can you share?

[subscribe to my RSS feed]
[cartoon by @gapingvoid]

I run a business. Thus, I have customers. And as a human being, I am a customer myself. Here are the things we (I) need to keep in mind when it comes to understanding CUSTOMERS:

1. Some customers are people who are in desperate need. They have problems. They are stressed. And as such, they aren’t always thinking clearly or rationally. If your business serves customers in need, treat them like human beings. Recognize they have a lot on their mind. Treating them with respect does two things: One, they will remember you and how you treated them right. They will tell others about you. Two, treating them respectfully will get them to be better, more responsive customers. As in, paying bills on time, or getting paperwork in on time, etc…

2. They are not experts. Don’t make any assumptions that they know what you think they should know. A big part of what you do is education. Help them learn, it makes for a deeper relationship.

3. They are busy people. They have crazy lives. Mortgages to pay. Children to care for. Work to do. Groceries to buy. Baseball practice to get kids too. Customers have the same burdens you do – so remember that.

4. Just because they say I “understand” and I will get right on it, they probably won’t. You need to be patient and teach them what they need to know. Guide them. Help them. Encourage them. It takes time. In the end, they will be better customers, and you will be serving them better.

5. A customer who makes A LOT of noise about a bad experience is generally got problems on their own. The world recognizes that too, and won’t always hold you accountable. Just be patient, deal with the problem, sincerely try to fix it, be responsive, and move on. One loud customer (who is probably having a bad day) won’t ruin your business…

6. Customers expect you to keep your promises and deadlines. Customers don’t always meet your deadlines. But not because they are bad people, it is because they have life going on. Be patient and help them along as best you can.

7. Big ticket purchases are scary. Customers don’t always move at the pace we want on expensive deals. I catch myself all the time frustrated that a prospect isn’t making a faster buying decision. Especially when I realize I am the same way. Make them feel good about the purchase, if it is the right move for both of you, the deal will happen.

8. Although customers often try to communicate that they have knowledge and understanding of what you are bringing to the table, remember this: they need – want – expect your counsel and instruction. Give it.

9. Do not be afraid to speak your mind when your customer is going down the wrong path. Handle that communication respectfully, obviously, but at least make the attempt to communicate that you think there is a better way. You owe them that. If they don’t like it, they probably are not a good fit for you and your business…

10. It is ALL about trust. The customer is trusting you to help them, provide good service, reliable products, problem solving when necessary, being there when needed. You trust your customer to pay you on time, do the things you need, provide the information you need to make the best decisions, and execute on things you ask them to do and they agree to do. Without trust, the customer relationship will not work, both personally or monetarily.

What do you think? What else am I missing here?

[cartoon by @gapingvoid]

Foursquare's Bender Badge

Oops.

I meant to slip in quietly, and just pick up a few things. But I hit the wrong button, and again, publicly checked-in at my Publix late Friday night…

And to make it more obvious that I have no life, I was publicly rewarded the “Bender” badge from Foursquare, meaning I’ve checked-in to the same location FOUR days in a row.

As you know, I am blogging every time I check-in to my local Publix on Foursquare, and do NOT hear from the store. Last night was my 32nd check-in. But this “Bender” badge gave me a new idea…

Todd’s Free Publix Tip: When a customer as nuts as me checks-in FOUR days in a row, they should get recognized. But not by some conventional means. If you are on a “bender,” as this badge playfully suggests, you should receive something playful, such as one of those temporary Publix tattoos. After all, don’t we usually end up with tattoos after a three-day weekend bender? Oh, and wouldn’t that be something fun and memorable for Publix customers to talk about?

The Store: Publix Supermarket
[Store # 00033]
3605 Sandy Plains Road
Suite 200
Marietta GA 30066
770.578.6000
[Todd will continue to blog after each Publix check-in, until he hears from the store. In the meantime, he will continue to offer free ideas on how Publix can use a service like Foursquare...Join the watch!]

So, I am going to play a little game…

I wrote the other day about my 30th Foursquare check-in at my local Publix supermarket. Comments I’ve received ranged from “I can’t believe a man has actually checked-in to a grocery store 30 times” to “you sure go to the store a lot.”

So, anyway… I am the Foursquare Mayor there. Which means, well, I can do and say anything I want [not really].

But I will be honest. I cannot believe there is a public, transparent online record that someone has been to a store 31 times – and this person has never been contacted. Even to say a simple “Thanks!”

So here is what I am going to do. I will write a short post for every Publix check-in of mine, until I finally get acknowledged. This isn’t meant to be mean-spirited. Rather, it is meant to educate and teach people about the possibilities with geolocation apps like Foursquare. As a demonstration of my goodwill, I will offer a free tip about how an enterprise like Publix can use Foursquare. I welcome input from the community about other ideas they may have.

This might be fun. We should learn a lot. And, well, I may be writing a lot of blog posts on this project…

Todd’s Publix Tip of the Day: One thing a store like Publix can do, is drive traffic to purchase a certain type of inventory. Let’s say you want to help people eat more healthy. For instance, you could offer people who check-in to Publix for the FIRST time on Foursquare, a free piece of fruit….

The Store: Publix Supermarket
[Store # 00033]
3605 Sandy Plains Road
Suite 200
Marietta GA 30066
770.578.6000

What prompted this post? I am the Mayor of my local Publix on Foursquare. Last night was my 30th check-in. 30th. Yes, 30 of them. But have I heard from them? No. In fact, it is so silent, you can hear the crickets chirping.

If you had a customer walk in the doors of your joint 30 times, wouldn’t you want to at least acknowledge them? [Answer: you better.] Hell, at this point, I’d love a message from the Publix manager saying, well, how about “thanks for your business – we appreciate you!”

I am spending time exploring Foursquare. I see value in it for my clients. And that’s largely why I spend time on the app, so that I can learn how to execute a geolocation strategy on their behalf.

For those still unsure about the personal value of this technology? Here is Todd’s preliminary list:

1. You can see what others have said about a place you are about to check-in to. Is the restaurant good? Is the service good? What should you buy? What should you avoid? What staffer should you ask for?

2. And obviously, more and more places are offering discounts and specials for their foursquared fans…

3. If you are lost in the middle of nowhere, or a visitor to a new town, you can initiate the check-in process on your smart phone, and see what’s nearby (then use #1 above and see what the locals are saying about it).

4. For me, the most important use of Foursquare is that it serves as an easy conversation starter. For instance, I also checked-in last night at the non-profit where I serve on the Board of Directors. Now, if someone wants to do business with me, they would go a long way towards establishing trust with me if they inquired and asked about my non-profit.

5. And lastly? I will admit, I like knowing what the people in my network are doing. It helps me keep a pulse on what’s happening in my community. And I like knowing what my friends are doing, and what they are interested in.

I say this is my preliminary list. Because I am sure I will uncover others.

But let’s get back to my local Publix. It boggles my mind that they wouldn’t acknowledge someone who has checked-in 30 times. And, honestly, I am not looking for some special or discount [hint: wine specials please!]

What I do think is important is some outreach –> “Thanks for your business! How can we serve you better? What are other ways to make this store more valuable to you? How can we win people over who are currently shopping at the Kroger across the street?”

That said, I do think rewarding loyal customers is important. Stripped down, Foursquare is a game. You compete for points, for badges, and for the title of Mayor. This spirit of competition could and should be fun. And memorable. And something to talk about…

And also, an important driver of business.

But you may ask, “well, since you have been there 30 times recently, do they really need to work to keep you coming back? You have already proven to be a good customer.” If I have to really answer that question…

“But there are only a million people on Foursquare…” Yes, and it is growing much faster than Twitter was at this stage of their development…so like Twitter, this geolocation concept is going to change the game.

“But not everyone has a smartphone…” Yeah, and nobody thought cars would sell, or motion pictures, or planes (who would want to fly across the country?), or televisions (and who on earth would ever have more than one television), or websites would be for everyone, or that email would be used as THE communication tool, and thank God I have all those long-playing records, cassettes, and compact discs in a box in my basement…

The point is, technology like geolocation is changing the game. Slowly perhaps, but surely. It is time to get in the game and figure out how to use it…

…or those crickets will be chirping permanently at your place of business.

What do you think? Agree? Disagree?

[cartoon by @gapingvoid]

I was thrilled to receive my two advance copies of Tony Hsieh’s Delivering Happiness today! As you may know, Tony is the CEO of Zappos.com! They are the model for how you can build a business around superior customer service.

I cannot wait to read the book, so be on the lookout for the post with my book review over the next several weeks.

It should come as no surprise, but Tony and crew delivered two copies of the book. Not one, but two. With these instructions: “Ideally, we’d like you to use the extra book we are giving you as a giveaway to readers of your blog.”

OK, done!

HOW TO GET YOUR COPY: So, here is what we are going to do. In the comments below, in 140 characters or less, how do YOU define what an “intrepid marketer” is?

[If you need and idea of what I am talking about, here are 99 ways to be an intrepid marketer]

I will give this contest a week, after which I will reward the person with the best definition their own advanced copy of the book.

Please note: this contest is totally subjective, and I can most certainly be influenced by the amount of RTs and Facebook shares you are responsible for…

You can pre-order a copy of the book here:

And you can get more details about the book RIGHT HERE!

You don’t need another damn blog post about…

…focusing on the little things.

…being remarkable.

…making your customers say “wow!”

Oh sure, I got inspired to write this post because of a “little thing that was a big deal” kinda thing at my local Starbucks. And true enough, it was the kind of little thing that shouldn’t be a big thing, but because OUTSTANDING customer service is so rare, it became a big thing…and a blog post.

Thinking on this topic, I realized just how complacent most employees in joints like a coffee shop can get. Just people, doing their job, watching the clock. They aren’t responsible for the marketing, you see, so they don’t really care.

That’s not to say they aren’t nice people, who I am sure, more often than not, put in a good, hard day’s work. But they are complacent. They are prematurely satisfied. Just because.

And this is what leads to mediocrity. This is what separates most small businesses from the truly great, remarkable, “talked about by everyone” kind of enterprises…

So, I put together a short list of 5 things every business should do, every day, to fight off and kill complacency dead, dead, dead:

1. Ask at least one customer, each day, what you can do to make the customer experience better.

2. Thank a customer in a public way, each day. Do this on Twitter, your Facebook fan page, your blog…just do it somewhere public.

3. Over the course of any given day, you perform a multitude of administrative tasks. As you are doing them, examine them closely, and determine if there are ways to do them better, do them more efficiently, and do them faster, to save time…time that now can be focused on improving the customer experience.

4. Walk around your place of business. Is it presentable and clean? It is one thing to be unorganized to the point of charming. It is quite another to be dirty. New places are clean and shiny. Remarkable places STAY clean and shiny. Complacent places get dirty and run down…

5. Empower employees to do surprising things for customers. This, of course, makes the customer’s day. This also, of course, makes the employee’s day…

5.5. Don’t know any innovative ways to empower your employees? Let them come up with ideas. And reward them for being creative. And if they do something on the spot to wow a customer and haven’t necessarily cleared it with you beforehand? Don’t punish them. You will kill their spirit.

Just a few ideas. To be executed daily. What do you think? What did I miss?

[image by @gapingvoid]

I am in Nashville TN for the Country Music Half-marathon (finished this morning). Yesterday, my crew and I were out doing a little shopping when we stumbled upon this old bookstore just off the Vanderbilt University campus:

The Bookman Nashville from Todd Schnick on Vimeo.

Hard to tell from the video, but this shop smelled like old books. There were too many books for the shelves, in fact, each shelf had two rows stacked one in front of the other. It was very hard to find anything. The little nooks were small and cramped and I had to duck my head to get into most of them.

And. I. Loved. It.

This is the kind of place that people remember. This is the kind of place that you talk about. This is the kind of the place that I will share with others (this blog post notwithstanding). And this is the kind of business I want to be. To be off the beaten path…

Here are 9 things to learn from the Bookman:

1. Be the kind of place that when you see it from the road, people want to drop everything and check it out.
2. Be the kind of place that you love to just walk around and soak up the environment.
3. Be the kind of place that doesn’t care what people think about the decor. Create your own environment that is you.
4. When you find what you are looking for (in my case, Tom Peter’s In Search of Excellence) you will remember the story about how you got it for a long time.
5. Don’t be what everyone expects. That makes it memorable.
6. You don’t have to be online to thrive. There is a market for who you are, even if you are a bricks-n-mortar joint that sells niche.
7. Be inconvenient. Sometimes making a 6′3″ duck to get into a nook makes finding what he wants even more special.
8. Be the kind of place that when customer’s drive by, they point you out to the people they are with, and fondly recall the story of their visit.
9. Be off the beaten path. When people decide to find you, there begins their own story…

…which adds to yours.

Now, go out there and apply these lessons to you and your business. Just know people will probably come in and video your shop too…

Are you off the beaten path?

cartoon by @gapingvoid

OK, so on the road to Birmingham tomorrow. Another day of filming for a client project there.

But whilst engaging in some pre-trip planning with my traveling colleagues, we got to discussing some additional tactics that are in the works long-term for this client/project.

One of those is setting up and helping this client execute their very own radio show…

As you know, my business partner Stone Payton and I co-host the High Velocity Radio Show. It has been an amazingly successful show that has helped connect us to a lot of talented people, and given us a lot of wonderful content and stories to share with our audience.

Now hosting a radio show isn’t for everyone. But I’d be hard pressed to find a business, large or small, that couldn’t benefit from hosting something like this.

But in doing some preparatory work in laying out the future steps for this client, my partners-in-crime and I brainstormed on how best to leverage a radio show. Here are a few things we came up with:

1. Podcasts. SEO pop. Enough said. I don’t have to tell you about the strength of the content generated by producing relevant podcasts, blogging about it, and achieving some powerful SEO oomph from it. Nothing new here – you already knew this…

2. Gravitas. Our client had NO IDEA what a radio show would look like for him and his company. But was aroused by the idea. Why? Because in his space? It was uncommon. And that made the idea rock.

3. Plus it makes you look cool. I mean look at Stone and I for goodness sakes…

4. Cross-Pollination. It is amazing how RIDICULOUSLY EASY it is to take content generated on the radio show and use it as an endless stream of specific content for your blog…

5. Content generator. Duh. Get some people on the radio talking about things that matter in the organization? And poof, you get some great sharable content!

6. Spotlight Veteran Rock Stars. Got some All-Star Veteran talent in the organization? Feature them. Let them teach. Demonstrate. Motivate the others who need to see leadership…

7. Make New Rock Stars. Got young up and coming talent? Feature them on your radio show. Make them push the envelope. Make them push their limits. Make them realize what they really can do.

8. Training | Education. If you need to teach a sector of your world something, whether they be internal members of your organization and/or your prospects and customers, setting up a radio show is BRILLIANT. They can learn from their peers, the members they respects and admire. I am thinking call-in radio show here…

9. Inspire buy-in on new ideas. Do you have a constituency within your organization that needs to buy-in to a new program? Well, they don’t want to read white papers. They don’t want to be force-fed lectures. Or be told to read boring brochures. But if you can get them engaged in a radio show dialog with their peers, engage them in a medium where they can revel – and shine – in that interaction? Well, you tell me…

10. Passion. Tell me a better way for your customers to see your passion about what you do, what you sell, and what you care about most…

11. Come on. I am waiting…

12. Simple. Now the cool thing about radio shows and podcasts? The tools are easy to set up and execute. A workable strategy to make it work for you and your organization? Well, that requires a little thinking, execution and some work. But, in this day and age, don’t let technology be your excuse.

What did we miss? Any other ideas that make sense?

I was reading Leo Babauta’s e-book about focus recently, and he was talking about the importance of rituals. He says it is easy to get distracted in this modern age, but when you engage in rituals, you are more likely to be focused and in the moment. He writes:

A ritual is a set of actions you repeat habitually — you might have a pre-bed ritual or a religious ritual or a just-started-up-my-computer ritual. One of the powerful things about rituals is that we often give them a special importance: they can be almost spiritual (and sometimes actually spiritual, depending on the ritual). And when they become special, we are more mindful of them — we don’t just rush through them mindlessly.

And I thought, I bet intrepid marketers have marketing rituals. So let’s examine this idea…

If intrepid marketers (CLICK HERE to learn what an intrepid marketer is) engage in rituals, based on Leo’s writing above, we should assume they are focused. On this point, I don’t think there is any argument. The question then becomes, what are they focused on? And thus, what part of their marketing process is cemented into daily ritual…

Are you focused on the customer? It is my opinion that each business needs to be more customer-focused, and thus, we need to devote more time – each day – to thinking about every customer interaction. We often overlook even the little ways our customers interface with our business.

What to do? Setting a ritual where you review these interactions – on a regular basis – is vital to success of your business. How about creating a series of questions you ask yourself – maybe at the end of each day – that help keep you focused and review how each customer interacted with your business, and how you can improve those. Include everything, from products, to voice mail, to your invoicing process.

Are you creatively focused? If being creative is an important part of your work, and it is for most of us, then ritual is probably a very critical element in your creative process. What does it take to get you in the creative mood? Do you need to remove all distractions, such as email? Twitter? Phones? Do you need to use a specific creative space, such as your studio, coffee shop, or the conference room?

What to do? Figure out what you need and then execute on the ritual so you can deliver your best creative work. And don’t let ANYTHING disrupt the ritual process.

Are you focused on process? Or results? These are two very different things, process and results. How you might ritualize to focus on these two would be different in my opinion.

What to do? First of all, do you have your process committed to paper? Can you measure the results of each step in the process? A regular examination of this process, and ritualizing to determine what is working and what can be improved might be a good thing to always be getting better at what you do.

As for results, well, isn’t this what we are after? Most people are more worried about the process than the results, and that’s why they have NO cash flow. It might be helpful to set a weekly ritual where you focus on thinking through all you are doing to be sure they are leading to actual positive results for your business…

Are you focused on conversation with your marketplace? Is interacting on the social web important to you and your business? Well, then you need a ritual. And I am not talking about getting on Twitter and just doing whatever for several hours.

What to do? What is your goal on the social web? If it is to identify and make relationships with new prospects, then create a ritual where you listen for keywords that are of interest to you, and begin a conversation. Then share information with that new contact. This three-step ritual might work for you. Here is what I do to help bring some sense of ritual to one element of my social web activity.

See, I am thinking most small business people don’t have marketing rituals. We are all too busy trying to manage the mundane and time consuming tasks of running our shop day-to-day. But, if Leo is right and rituals are a set of actions you repeat habitually, then we all need to formulate some new rituals. Life is too hectic, and we probably don’t have the discipline to focus our minds – on a regular basis – on the important things related to our business.

What do you think? What are your rituals? What works for you?

[Subscribe via RSS]
[Subscribe via Email]
[photo from untitled blue on Flickr]