Service: Efficiency v. Personality

By I.J. Hudson

I am a frequenter of Starbucks, and am fascinated by the baristas’ knowledge of all the combinations their customers pack into orders, the shorthand they use to mark the cups and all that goes with the Starbucks experience.

First of all, let me be the first to admit that I could never do their job well.  I order regular coffee, “no room” (for cream).    I’m just not a double-soy-latte-3 squirts, whatever kind of guy.  I could never cope with one person ordering three different drinks and then changing his/her mind(s).

I recently watched a Barista work alone at a Starbucks.  She was extremely efficient, from ringing up the sale, to filling the order, to snapping the cover on and adding the cardboard sleeve to keep me from burning my hand.

There was a bit of a line, but she kept at it: concentration, speed and efficiency.  The line moved quickly.  She served us quickly and well - even those folks whose order, if written, required a semi-colon and three commas. But she didn’t seem to be having any fun as she worked.

Perhaps it was holiday stress, or she wasn’t in a good mood, but the fact she wasn’t having fun was a negative for me.  Given a choice between quicker service and slightly slower service with a smile or the time to exchange pleasantries, many people would choose quicker service. I wouldn’t.

I like to get to know a little bit about the people I work with, people at checkout, people in lines, people everywhere.  I’m prone to ask the heritage of a last name I see on a name tag.  Blame it on all those years I was a reporter, or just call me nosy.

That’s why I was disappointed when I didn’t get a chance to really interact with the barista other than give her my order.  Ideally, it should have been efficiency plus personality.   One of the first things mentioned in the official barista job description is "to welcome and connect with each customer."  That's good for cultivating long term relationships important to keep people coming  back.

No, I’m not throwing away my Starbucks gift cards, and I’m not giving up on this barista.It could have just been a bad morning.

Next time, I’ll order my “grande, regular coffee” and hope there's room/time - for at least a smile.

The Snow Storm Chooses a Different Course

By I.J. Hudson

The words began to fly long before the snow.

The snow was in Georgia.  The computer models certainly suggested it could be heading here.  It really wasn’t a question of if – it was a question of how much and how it would be dispersed in the Washington Metro area.

Christmas morning  some television stations that wouldn’t spend the money to have a meteorologist in the studio, put up a text “crawl” over programming warning of the potential for a storm and to stay with them to get the latest on the snow.   I guess we would get the latest from a “crawl” until a weather person could come in.

The computer models they used the morning after Christmas (today) told a tale of two areas:  winter storm advisory and winter storm warning.  The advisory areas could look for 3-6 inches of snow; the warning areas, 4-8 inches of snow.  The customary stories of the morning were the same stories repeated over 30 years.  The snow is coming.  How are jurisdictions getting ready?  Exactly how many trucks are there?  (What difference does it make if there are 906 or 910?)  Travel suggestions?  Leave early.  How many tons of salt?  How long before the plows start their work.  How long until they reach the neighborhoods?  How much did you spend on snow removal last year? How much is in the budget this year?

 The plows were gathering plenty early – just in case, ready to fan out to designated routes.  Can’t be late for the snow!

 

We were treated to live news conferences, live telephone interviews, live shots from places it wasn’t snowing ---- yet (but it would).  Was it because officials were sure the snow was coming, or because the media folks were calling to “feed the beast?”   

 Winter storms are a “shared experience,” and we need the sharing.  But I think these days there is double-sharing going on.  Yep, people will watch the usual suspects measure snow, talk to kids sledding, report on power outages, how neighbors are helping neighbors, how people are trapped at airports or train stations. But the people are also spending more time sharing their own stories, their own photos with family and friends through email, Facebook, Twitter and countless other social media sites. And they're reporting first-hand from locations where there is snow, where travelers are trapped - thousands of stories.

  

Funny thing!  The weather system decided to push out farther to the East – leaving the advisory area feeling left out and the warning area looking at only a few inches.   I wonder if the folks to the East were really ready or were depending on the models to get it right.   

 Forecasting the weather around here is tough.  The topography and competition make it really tough. Some weather folks have suggested putting out a forecast more than a day in advance can be as treacherous as rear-wheel drive going up an icy hill.  But, sometimes --- that's exactly what they have to do.  Some days the weather cooperates; other days - not so much.

Don’t get me wrong.  The media is still a big deal with its personalities, radar and models.  It’s just that more and more, the media is us.

Are you a 'Gruntled' Employee?

By I.J. Hudson

I apologize in advance.  

I love words.  I love how we use and abuse them,  how we assemble them into phrases and clichés to the point that we can’t change their order without ‘sounding’ a bit funny. 

I heard a friend use the phrase, "pony and dog show" the other day.  It just wasn't the same.  

And then there's the drilled into us phrase. Example:  please fill-in the blank.  They ____ escaped with their lives.  I’m betting very few put WIDELY in the blank.  It’s almost always narrowly.   “Widely” suggests it wasn’t all that exciting.

Another required phrase:  denizens of the ____.   I’m thinking DEEP is what most of us put there.  It’s tough not to use the comfortable, what we’ve heard from everyone else.

Hey, it’s Christmas Eve, so I want to keep this short.  I had a brief discussion with a colleague about “disgruntled.”  You know, “the suspect is a disgruntled employee.”  How about a gruntled employee?  Yep, it’s a word.  And while you never hear it (you’ve probably never even read it),  it’s good to know there are folks who enjoy work.

Tonight I’m a pretty gruntled employee, even though I’m on call and hoping that a special denizen of the North Pole widely escapes any traffic that's in the skies and drops in with some cool toys.

Being Real Rings a Bell, and Makes a Sale

Since I’ve been reading Jeremy Epstein’s Never Stop Marketing Blog and a few others, I see “marketing” everywhere – the good, the bad and the ugly.  I’ve become obsessed with how people approach it, practice it and trip over it in real life. 

For example, I needed to get my wedding band resized.  After 5,000 years of marriage, the ring is too small.  I had previously stopped by a recommended shop.  The owner was abrasive, not interested and quoted a price that guaranteed I would leave.  Congratulations.  You lost a customer and a potential fan.  No, make that, “you gained an influencer who will not only NOT sing your praises, but suggest people stay away.”

I used Google to find other jewelry shops near me that would do repairs.  I found one that offered online coupons, and had a lot of detail on what they did and didn’t do - my kind of people.  So we stopped by.  Two words:  personal attention and being remarkable.    

The price was quoted up front:  re-size and polishing, about 40 percent less than store number one.  But the jeweler didn’t just size my finger and adjust the ring to that size.  He enlarged the ring in gradations to see what would be the optimum fit for me.  He wanted the ring to fit me, not be a certain size. 

It took four rounds of tinkering, but I got what I wanted, and so did he:  a customer who will come back and also tell others.  

While we were waiting for my band to be re-sized, a very friendly sales lady was letting my wife have fun with some of the rings in the case.  My wife liked them.  The sales lady never pressed my wife to buy anything, just to sample and enjoy.  She knew her stock, and answered questions without hesitation.   If she didn’t buy today.   No matter.  The investment in starting a relationship would pay off. And even if it didn’t, the sales person seemed to be having a good time helping us have a good time in her store.

My wife is stubborn at times (a lot of the time), and didn’t want to buy anything at the store, even though I was looking for an anniversary and Christmas gift and she had expressed a LOT of interest in one particular ring.  So we left ----for three minutes - until we agreed these were good people to do business with, and we felt very comfortable that we would be treated well.

Yeah, we ordered something.  

In the fifteen minutes we spent in that store, we got to know a little about these people.  There were stories shared on both sides, a bit of fun and laughter.

Make that your goal online.  Take that “in-person” experience to heart, and try to be remarkable in the same way online in your social media efforts.  

Often we forget that there are people behind the websites, behind the blogs and tweets.  And, unfortunately, so do they.  Be human and look for real. Offer things that are remarkable.  It's not about quantity.

Desktop Replacement ! Why?

By I.J. Hudson

I’ll ask a simple question.  When’s the last time someone bragged about the new desktop computer they bought?  I’m thinking it was a while ago.

Here’s the simple truth that I’m sure someone else has already put forward.  Desktops are for production at the office: the new, the exciting, the forward-looking stuff is mobile - phones, tablets, etc.

I had a conversation with one of my bosses.  His windows desktops at home are four or five years old.  Should he buy an apple?  Or replace (cheaply) the newest windows version of what he has?

I suggested the iPad may be a bridge between the two worlds - between something larger than a phone and smaller than a laptop.  And the iPad is mobile, a new interface for many and a start toward the promise of really intuitive computing.  Surely, someone has said that before.  And for many, the phone may do what they need to do.  We don't really buy computers any more - we buy what they can do for us.

I think we all need to question what we really need.  Often work provides a laptop and BlackBerry.  Do we need our own laptop? Or is there that occasional opportunity to “play,” “experiment,” “go wild” or maybe the operative phrase is, “catch up.”

What do you think?   

Personally, I really don’t care about brand.  I care about utility and “what’s next.”

I want to buy what’s going to be useful, and hope I am smart enough to spot it – whether it’s for personal use or to make a business case for my company.

Foggy Thinking

 By I.J. Hudson

No thinking person suggests a driver’s license means you know how to drive.  IMHO, it’s just an ID card.  How many people’s lives did you save today by letting a poor driver get away with something really stupid.  The proof is in a lane near you, and perhaps that proof is heading your way - in the fog.  

….And suddenly you see it, a gray car emerging from the fog.  No lights, and no response when you flash your lights as a warning.  They’re thinking you’re warning them there’s a cop ahead, or there's something wrong with your lights.  They couldn’t possibly be doing anything wrong.  

From their perspective, they aren’t doing anything wrong.  It doesn’t make any difference that probably every driver’s education book and instructor preaches about the use of low beam lights in fog and about turning on your lights when you use windshield wipers (state law in many jurisdictions).  It doesn’t matter that other people are trying to save them or to save someone who might pull out in front of an “invisible” car. 

But after the accident, I suspect they’d be the first to swear they DID have their lights on.  It had to be someone else's fault.  The notion that “no one can tell me what to do” is replaced by – how can I get out of this?

Question:  Do we need to have “black boxes” on cars?  It is moving too close to big brother, or would it be useful data to prosecute the idiots who refuse to do the minimum to protect themselves and others?  And systems that turn on lights when light levels dip below designated levels could also be useful. 

Too bad we don’t have systems that turn on minds when they dip below common sense.

The Encyclopedia v. TODAY

Many people bought encyclopedias (yes, the door-to- door salesman) because they wanted to invest in their children’s future.  Knowledge is power, etc.  And one of the selling points was that they would update the information in the encyclopedia ---- yearly.  That’s right, a supplement that would catch you up on the changes --- in a book.

Our current encyclopedia is Wikipedia and the search engines.  Things move so fast today that almost anything in print is out of date?  Some question the accuracy of Wikipedia – after all, we contribute and what do we really know? Even my spellcheck questions whether Wikipedia is a word.  I personally question the timeliness of some conferences.  By the time the agenda is announced, an important topic on the landscape has changed; hopefully, the folks speaking and attending know this. What is spoken of in the present - is really in the past in Internet moments.

We place so much stock in newness, in updates on the latest.  We accept updates because, as a culture, we’ve become accustomed to incremental news.  We’ve basically succumbed to the concept that it’s okay to give us rumor/speculation followed by a layer of facts, followed by a second layer of facts and removal of one layer of speculation – you get the picture.  Often, we don’t know beyond what “they” are saying now – until much later.  We do know the latest;  we don’t know if it’s right, or even headed in the correct direction. 

What happened to vetted time tested content?  Oh, it’s still there, you just have to recognize it.  Some of the long time marketers offer it.  It’s not necessarily new content, but it’s dressed up in new ways.  Hey, if that’s what it takes, it’s okay with me.  Lately, it’s HOW we get our information that seems to count, not what the information is!  That seems a bit backward. How is much less important that what.

Examples of useful content include lessons that span more than one tweet; more than one status update, more than one social media convention.  It’s often a lesson shared after decades of proving its worth.  It’s not, “10 things you should know… or 3 things that make…  It’s good solid explanations of why things work/why they don’t, what to try, how to benefit from failure, how to focus, how to manage, and real case studies that cover a full range from the big dogs to us little guys.

I’m not a guru – just someone who believes there is a lot of noise out there that is, well -noise.  Filter out that stuff, and go for the content --- real content, not slick stuff still waiting to cure under the light of real commerce.

The old encyclopedia people convinced us to spend good money for time-limited content.  Important history wasn't changing that fast. It was good for its time.  

Today, if someone offered to sell you information that was actually out of date by the time you bought it, would - you - pay - anything?   

But now you can get all the information you want for FREE.  Is it worth it?  Some of it is –

        But you have to pan for it, like the 49ers – sift for the nuggets and let the rest fall away.

Hearing is Believing

By I.J. Hudson

I started an exchange with a great young marketeer/social media guru that I’ve known for several years, Jeremy Epstein.  He’s the guy in front of NSM, Never Stop Marketing.  He’s one of the few people I follow every day, because he has interesting stuff to say and he says it very well.

I was critical of some of his videos.  Not because they lacked content, but because of the audio quality of that content.  I suggested his use of a flipcam was okay, but it would be oh-so-much-better if he captured quality audio from the people who were singing his praises.  After all, WOM (word of mouth) means words coming out of peoples’ mouths.  Shouldn’t the audio be as important as the video of their lips moving?  After all, you can understand audio all by itself; having video only involves lip reading, which is not a skill many people possess.

I approached the audio issue from the perspective of a grandfather who felt it was important to capture the words of the little ones as they progressed from total gibberish - to “yeah, that sounds like something” - to real words. 

I also addressed it from the perspective of a TV guy who used natural sound and peoples’ own words to tell stories.  Pictures were great, but natural sound was always the icing on the cake.  Sometimes the video of an event is so compelling, the sound is secondary.  But when the video is of people talking about you – the sound is primary.

Jeremy had legitimate concerns.  The flipcam is simple.  Just take it out and shoot.  It’s not intimidating, no waiting to mike someone up.  Plugging in audio stuff could be a turnoff.  Besides, there’s no input for an external mike.  I agreed that the audio quality is (gulp) “almost tolerable,” but suggested good audio would enhance the testimonials of important clients and be well worth the effort.

Jeremy’s quandry is being addressed slowly, not adequately, by the camcorder/flipcam industry.  You don’t have to accept lousy or even average audio – unless you want to.  A call to an A/V guy I trust pointed to up a growing aftermarket of external audio devices for camcorders, including the flipcam.  They’re mostly Bluetooth devices.  Some are more expensive than the flipcams.  At the moment, they appear to involve a small modular receiver that plugs into the base of the flipcam and a small lapel mike. 

IMHO, that’s a good start.  But why not have Bluetooth audio built-in to the flipcam or camcorder itself.  Then stick the lapel mike onto the subject and go.  Good audio; less intimidation.  We did it with laptops for wireless networking, why not with camcorders?

I don’t for a moment suggest this is a solution for professionals.  There’s always the high end for those folks.  But for basic video and audio – this is a problem waiting for a sensible solution.  Maybe it’s out there and I haven’t found it.  I do know that so-so audio can be a negative.  Why not choose a solution that makes you look good and the people who trust you sound good?  No brainer?

Wait!  There’s another argument against me.  Audio and video standards in the digital age have slipped a little.  Okay, a lot.  I get it that something that appears too professional loses some credibility.  You certainly don’t want someone accusing you of being too professional.  Real is super important.  However, I think what I’m proposing is a reasonable compromise.  Audiophiles won’t be bothering you for details about the equipment you’re using.  But the people you’re holding up as “happy clients” won’t think you’re making them sound bad either.  Everyone looks – and sounds good.

A Dry Sense of Loyalty

By I.J. Hudson

You could call it a “Love Story” of sorts.  These are my Kenmore twins – a washer/dryer combination we bought when we moved into the new house more than 20 years ago. 

Enough nostalgia.  In the more than 20 years of service, we had the band around the dryer drum replaced.  That’s it - no other service.  In the last six months, we noticed the dryer wasn't drying as quickly, and in the last few weeks, we started getting a “burny” smell from the washer. 

Probably the motor.

 

So we went shopping – online consumer reports to start.  But the page was really out of date, according to the brick and mortar store (Sears, because it had all the brands recommended) we visited.  “Oh, that one’s no longer available; that one has been discontinued.”

I pressed, “By you or by the manufacturer?”  The manufacturer, said the Sears salesperson.  Hmmm, could Consumerreports.org be behind the market?  It certainly seemed that way.  

And when we asked more questions, we found out that the number of manufacturers (like in many industries) had shrunk:  about the same number of brand names, but only a couple of companies actually make the washers and dryers. 

That’s part one of the story.  The other part is the difference 20 years of technology makes in washers and dryers.  It’s almost like the first time I bought a car with a remote.  What’s this???  After a while, you almost forget that the key will open the door if the battery dies in the remote.  Duh!  

The old washer and dryer had twisty knobs and mechanical settings.   The new ones’ - a cpu that automatically figures out the settings (we could make changes), requires less water, less detergent, less power and more money :}}    

Perhaps we should have upgraded a long time ago – but our guys were working just fine.  

If there are any lessons here, they may be that loyalty is to be rewarded, and long service praised.  I say thanks to the Kenmore of the 1980’s.  You served us well.  We’ll see about the longevity of the new stuff.