Raving Fans...

I've just completed the Satmetrix Net Promoter® Conference and Certification this past week. It was an incredible conference with many great speakers including Charles Schwab President & CEO Walt Bettinger, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh and Intuit President & CEO Brad Smith to name a few. Blogger and author Joseph Jaffe also entertained us as well and caused us to reconsider how businesses market to their intended audiences.

After the conference, the certification part of Net Promoter® begin...three days of intensive training, case studies and lessons.

All this because my best friend asked me "Does your company use NPS?"

How does a simple question like that turn my career into an incredible new journey?

I've always been passionate for the customer and have always known that the experience the customer has with your business and what they tell their friend & colleagues will often make or break you company. I believe the success I had years ago in my short-term financial services business as well as my decade plus electronics business was mainly due to the service---and customer experience---that I provided my clients. I also believe that the success I've personally had in FairPoint Communications has been because we had (for the teams I've lead) a true focus on delivering world-class service in every customer interaction.

Have all those interactions been world-class? No. Unfortunately that's not possible. But when you focus everything you do around that philosophy, then you're bound to have a lot more success than failure.

In the Net Promoter® Score (NPS) program, customers who are most happy with you and refer your business to their friends & colleagues are called "Promoters". At FairPoint Communicatios, we've always referred to them as "Raving Fans!" (from the Ken Blanchard book).

It seems like every business would understand that happy (loyal) customers are the foundation for a successful long-term and profitable company...but for some reason all businesses don't make that their ultimate focus.

Until next time, remember “Your Success Is My Business."™

http://joeypeacock.com/

Do Businesses Really Care About Creating Customer Loyalty?

I visited a couple of local businesses the other day, and based on my experiences, I'm wondering if businesses are truly concerned about creating customer loyalty.

Let me share my experiences...

I went to a local fast food restaurant. Now, you may think that fast food restaurants aren't really concerned with customer service, much less customer loyalty because all customer's are interested in is food, fast (and let me add that most chain stores are locally owned and operated). But I disagree, just ask Chick-fil-A, they really care. And I really care too. What difference should it matter whether I'm sitting down in a fine restaurant or stopping by a chain? I still desire a friendly face from someone who wants to provide great service.

At this chain, the employees (all of them) acted as if someone were holding them hostage to work there. There was never a "thank you" or "your welcome" or "how may I help you". I got a "Can I take your order?" and, then as I've found common to this particular store, "...we don't have..." this and that, and a "that isn't ready and will take 20 minutes to cook" like I was putting them out!

I was the second guy in line, but more people came in after me and all got the same cold, put-off treatment. Let me also add here that all this happened right at supper time when they should have expected a crowd to come in and was prepared with appropriate food to deliver.

After about a 20 minute wait, and then not getting exactly what I ordered, I then got home to find food that was, let me say, questionable...you wouldn't find me recommending this place to my friends and colleagues. I also wouldn't say they created a loyal customer out of me either. And other than the fact that I will not state the name of the location here, you could truly call me a detractor to their business.

For the other business, I saw one of their sales people who in the middle of our casual conversation added, half-joking half-serious, "...let me sell you some (product name)." I thought, who trained them in their sales skills and how do they feel this is an appropriate approach to moving their products?? I gave the "I'm not really interested now" reply and that was it. I actually believe the person wanted to sell me their product, but the approach and follow-up were completely unprofessional.

I just can't understand how in our current economy that business owners are not focusing on training their teams to deliver world-class service with every customer interaction!!

Whether you provide your team books to read on the subject, provide on-line training, leader motivation in weekly team discussions, or by bringing someone in to lead a team meeting, growing profits is directly related to how well your employees provide a great experience with your business. But isn't this really Business 101?

Until next time, remember “Your Success Is My Business."™

http://joeypeacock.com/

The Lessons I Learned While At A Funeral

My Uncle passed away over the Christmas holidays; he was my dad’s oldest sister’s husband and a favorite of mine. He was 78 years old and had been married to my aunt for 59 years and 11 months. He loved to fish and loved to eat mullet (me too!). He was a great guy. I don’t know of anyone who ever heard him say a cuss word. My uncle never had wealth, never traveled the world, never had a big house or fancy cars. But he was loved by all that knew him.

He was a handyman by trade and there’s no appliance he couldn’t fix. People called him all the time, even after years of retirement, to come repair something that was broken. No matter where he went people knew him and talked with him. They always referred others to him if they knew someone with an appliance problem---regardless of business or personal.

I thought about the lessons of life while I was at the funeral and, with your permission, wanted to share my thoughts with you here. Though the list isn’t that long, I think each is extremely powerful and, if each are focused on as becoming a main part of our life, the three are more than enough to keep a person occupied:

• How People Perceive You
  Do I have a high likeability factor? When people see me, do they dread a conversation with me or am I inviting & pleasant? Do all my stories revolve around me or them? All these factors are important if you’re a salesperson (and everyone is a salesperson!) as well. Are you pleasant in appearance and attitude when you’re with your customers? Are they glad to see you because you bring them value?
• Serving Others Is The Most Important Thing
  When my uncle passed away, he didn’t take anything with him----no money, no grand exit, nothing. So if we come into this world with nothing, and we take nothing with us…then what’s my purpose? Spend your time serving others…either by your hands or your gifts (charity). And however it is that I serve others? I need to do it to the absolute best (world-class) that I can. In business, you need to have this same philosophy: provide your customers with world-class service & solutions and they’ll tell everyone they know about you. Or, as I like to say, “…give them face and serve them to death”.
• What Will Your Legacy Be?
  Though as much as we try to avoid the subject, it happens to all of us eventually. We’re promised no duration of time. So what will my legacy be when I leave? Haven’t you ever been to a store you enjoy doing business with and find that your favorite salesperson has left (retired, moved, etc.), but now you have a great new person supporting you who you hit it off with? Build your business around the legacy of world-class service provided by building long-term relationships.

For all my personal e-mails that I share with family, friends, etc., I always end it with a quote that I wanted to share with you today that I thought related to this message:

"It's easy to make a buck. It's a lot tougher to make a difference."
~Tom Brokaw

Until next time, remember “Your Success Is My Business."™

http://www.joeypeacock.com/

Grow Yourself and Your Business

How do your grow your business? Especially now in these tough economic times? How do you create CUSTOMER LOYALTY that keeps your customers coming back to your business and not the competitions? You have to first make sure you’re growing yourself and those on your team.

One of the very first steps you need to do is establish within the culture of your business that everyone employed at your company has the role of a salesperson.

Though sales people have been given a bad rap over the years (some rightfully so, but these are the “bad apples” in some barrels), that’s no reason that you should avoid this reality.

Of course your front-line sales people know that everyone is in sales; but whether you’re in the accounting department, HR, the service team, call center, are an executive, etc., everyone is in fact “selling” your company---for good or bad.

Every time someone answers your phone they’re selling the customer with their friendliness, their attitude and their willingness to provide the solution the caller is asking for. Every time your service team provides an installation or service repair, their professionalism, their expertise and their attitude in working with the customer is selling that person on whether this will be the first, or last, time they do business with you. Every time your collections department resolves a dispute with your customers, they are selling your business in how easy this process was or wasn’t. And you can be assured that your customers will tell their family, friends and colleagues the positive, or negative, results that they experienced in all of this.

If you’re serious about providing world-class customer service and over delivering on value, start with yourself & your team and make sure everyone is creating customer loyalty and watch your business grow!

Until next time, remember “Your Success Is My Business."™

http://www.joeypeacock.com/

The Lessons I Learned While...

The Lessons I Learned While Hunting

Can you believe that while only 3% of the U.S. population hunts, the sport is a multi-billion dollar business? WOW! That’s truly incredible! And I’m one of those “3%” folks that enjoy being in the outdoors hunting.

Not long ago, I was talking with a good friend of mine, Paul Smith, and as we often talk about leadership & life, we talked about the fact that there is a lesson in everything we do…regardless of what that is. So during my recent vacation, in which I spent a good deal of time sitting in a tree stand, I thought about all the lessons I learned from something I really enjoy doing---hunting:

• Preparation
  When you hunt, the majority of your success is going to be based around the pre-season preparation. This includes scouting your hunting areas, creating your food plots, setting up your stands and game cameras, practicing target shooting and many other things needed for success. Your business is no different as you need to scout out your territory that you plan to sell in, putting out your marketing items, attending networking meetings including Chamber of Commerce and other such events, understanding and being knowledgeable about your products/solutions, etc. Part of your overall success is going to be directly related to how prepared you are. So just like you have to do your homework for a successful hunt, do your homework for a successful career.
  
• Patience
  Hunting, like sales and many other business aspects, requires a great deal of patience. Nothing great comes easily or quickly. It may take multiple trips to the woods before you bag that trophy; and it will most likely take multiple meetings with your customer/prospect before you have the contract signed on the dotted line.
  
• The Right Tools
  One key to success in hunting is having the right tool for the hunt. You wouldn’t take a bow and go Duck hunting, and you wouldn’t take a .22 rifle and go Elk hunting. You wouldn’t sit in a tree stand to take squirrel (though you could) and you wouldn’t sit in a double bull blind to take quail. And the same holds true for your business. Having the right tools, the right solutions at the right price delivered through world-class service is the key to success.
  
• Practice
  Long before archery season begins, you should be consistently out target shooting. Before Whitetail season begins, you should be out sighting in your rifle scope. The more practice you get the more experience and confidence you acquire which will help in your success. In your business, having hands-on experience with the product(s) you offer is key to your ability to successfully provide them to your customers. Working in the test labs with the Technicians prior to installation, being on hand during installation, attending training sessions are all part of the practice required to gain the knowledge & skills you’ll need to succeed.
  
• Focus
  When you’re hunting, you must have great focus. Spotting a Whitetail easing through the woods is often difficult. I’ve even seen times when a deer walked right behind someone and they never even knew it. And not only must you have focus, but sometimes you need aids (like binoculars) in order to see further than you normally can. Business too needs great focus. You need to have the ability to clearly see what’s around you, but also what’s “down the road” as well. All the while making the necessary adjustments in order to achieve success.
  
• Listening
  Sometimes you spot the big trophy not because you saw it first, but because you were intensely listening and you heard it coming. When you’re hunting, you spend the large majority of your time listening. To be successful in your business or career, you must also spend a great deal of time listening. Listening to what your customer is telling you in order to provide them the exact solution they’re seeking to solve their problem. Hear what your customer is telling you and provide them with the answers they need only after you fully understand.
  
• Mental Toughness
  When you’re hunting, you may find yourself sitting in a tree stand high above the ground for hours on end (and then days on end), and never even see any game. The mental toughness it takes to hang in there when your back, your bottom, your legs are aching and screaming for relief is rough. The wind might be blowing, it might even be raining…but you hang in there. It might be brutally cold, but you tough it out regardless because you know that trophy might be only moments away from showing up. Business is the same way---you’ll experience employee problems, legal issues, billing delays, returns, vendor related problems, lack of teamwork, etc., etc. Being mentally tough through these times, yet still providing world-class service to your customers through all of it will make you smarter, tougher and better suited for success in the long run.
  
• Storms
  Of course we will all have storms in our lives. How many rain-storms have I sat through while hunting looking for that trophy? Business is no different. We must prepare for the roller coaster ride that is life and business. And old Arab proverb states that “all sunshine makes a desert”. Often, if we reflect, we’ll find that we learned the most, grew the most, and eventually prospered the most by going through these storms.

Until next time, remember “Your Success Is My Business."™

http://www.joeypeacock.com/

How Are You Different?

In the highest volume sold book ever, you’ll find a very important statement that goes something like this: ‘…if you’re asked to go one mile, then go two…’

WOW! Now that’s very powerful and very thought provoking.

So let’s take a moment and put this in perspective for us as businesses who are trying to create customer loyalty.

If you think about it, the “first mile” is, well, the transaction. That’s where we work with our customer (whether internal or external) and provide them with a proposal, a price (or commitment) and then if they accept, the solution. Now, pretty much anyone can go the first mile with a customer. This is relative easy and, for the most part, a pain free experience.

But then, there’s the part that separates the winners from the losers; the world-class from the average & ordinary; from customer satisfaction to customer loyalty and this part of the “second mile” is where the relationship is created.

As Jeffrey Gitomer says, “All things being equal, people want to do business with their friends. All things being not quite so equal, people STILL want to do business with their friends.”

If you want to “be friends” with your customers, if you want to build relationships with your customers that create your own personal ‘brand insistence’ where they don’t want to do business with anyone but you---even if they have to wait!---then for 2009, focus all your business on going the second mile with everyone you work with. Regardless of whether it’s a team mate, a vendor partner or with a customer…go that extra mile if you want to take your career to the next plateau.

Ever wonder why the best are the best? It’s because they are the rare breed that go the 2nd mile.

Until next time, remember “Your Success Is My Business."™

http://www.joeypeacock.com/

Shouldn't He Have Known?

Part of the title to my blog includes "pondering", and that's what I've been doing this afternoon...pondering over something that happened today:

I was called for Federal Jury Duty today, my first time. Suit, tie, dress shoes...trying to remind myself that what I was doing was part of the great thing about being an American (only equal to our freedom and ability to vote) and not thinking about all the work I was possibly getting behind on---you know the routine.

While our group was waiting for our initial instructions, we were given about a 45 minute break...rest room, stretching, mingling, etc. before the next step in the process begun. The gentlemen next to me and myself whipped out our books (I had "Becoming A Person of Influence" by John Maxwell, his seemed to be non-fiction as well).

The gentlemen toward the end left for a rest room break, and when he returned he noticed the two of us reading. This is when he said it:

"You guys must have done this before...I wish I had brought a book with me."

I sat there for a moment considering letting him take my book as I could always get it back and read later. But then this thought came to me, "Why didn't he bring one?"

Now, I'm the first to admit I'm not the smartest guy in the world---far from it in fact. And, unlike his statement, this was the first time I'd done this. But somehow I thought to bring something to help me grow personally if there were any spots when nothing was happening...like then.

When I travel, I don't sit at the airport terminal hour on end day-dreaming, I bring something to work on or something to read to stretch my mind & help me grow. When I ride down the road, I always try to have something to listen to that inspires me and motivates me. Something as simple as the included CD in every Success Magazine, or one of my Jeffrey Gitomer CD's, or some downloaded podcast.

So thinking about all of this caused me to ponder some more.

As I travel around and talk with people, the majority of folks I speak with are always interested in making (mostly expecting) more money, getting promotions, owning a home, having nice vacations, etc. But what personal growth items do they implement in their schedules to help accomplish these things? I can't imagine they think just by hanging around and putting forth the same (or no) effort will cause all their dreams to come true...they don't do they??

I pondered on saying something to the gentlemen who made the "wish I would have" statement, but didn't. It's unfortunate that for many, at the end of their careers that they'll probably look back and have many "wish I would have" wisedom for someone else.

This is a lesson for myself that I'm glad I pondered over.

Until next time, remember “Your Success Is My Business."™

http://www.joeypeacock.com/

Brand "You!"

What's the most important thing about you? Give up? It's YOU!

If you've been following my blog (see below and archieves), you'll see that it's a major theme of this site as well as my website.

Today, I found another blog that restated this in a fresh perspective that I thought you would enjoy. You can find it here.

[We use the "SMART" method at FairPoint Communications to track annual progress, so I was familiar with that when I read it.]

Until next time, remember “Your Success Is My Business."™

http://www.joeypeacock.com/

New item on this site...

Are you like me and follow other blogs? I've found that I can store all my blogs in one, easy location to track them all by using Google Reader. This application is really cool!

Please note that I've added "Joey's Shared Items" to the right and below my Profile. These are other blogs that I thought may interest you.