It looks like it might finally be true.  I have started on the long awaited book project.  After just about every keynote address, I’m asked, “Do you have a book”?  I always have to answer no and go into an explanation of why.  I can concoct a wide variety of reasons, but it always came down to being too unfocused to complete such a lengthy project.  I have published lots of articles, but the daunting task of a book has always been intimidating.

Well, I recently met with a publisher and a brilliant editor who basically gave me a simple and achievable game plan that actually made the project doable.

No working title yet, but I hope to have a draft to her by July 1.

We also just finished our first major update and revision to our program on the creative process, now called Creativity – Of Opposable Thumbs and Magic.  It is a fantastic journey in how to tap into creativity as a true and necessary business tool.


April is full of travel for me with trips to Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, Atlanta, New York, and Houston.  WOW!

I read with great interest the latest issue of Time Magazine as they covered what they consider the 10 big trends impacting business.  It was interesting reading, though one of their trends flew right in the face of everything I have seen while working with clients for the past few years on their service initiatives and strategies.

They believe through self service technology, people will disappear from the customer service equation.  On-line banking, self serve check out lines at the grocery store, buy your movie tickets at the kiosk, get your boarding pass from a machine, all supposedly designed to increase the efficiency of the purchase, create a buying experience devoid of human contact.

The University of Michigan recently published its 2007 American Consumer Satisfaction Index (ACSI).  It shows what buyers think of the service levels of companies in a wide range of businesses.  Strangely, those that rated the highest all stressed the critical nature of their contact points, the opportunities to touch another person. 

Wachovia spends hours and hours training everyone that has a contact point with a customer to make the experience memorable.  Nordstrom is synonymous with service and they do it through a very specific empowerment model.  LL Bean does it through training their call center people to recognize every call is an opportunity to create a relationship.  The Four Seasons Hotel Group (hate to call them a “chain”) has someone standing in the lobby whose job is to simply greet guests.

These are people-centric strategies and though the world may find a video screen more convenient, they spend their money on service leaders –  leaders that emphasize the human aspect of their job.

 Tom Gruca, a business professor from the University of Iowa believes there is a direct relationship between customer satisfaction and cash flow.  Big companies raise their ACSI by one point and it can equal $55 million the following year.

The losers in the battle of taking care of the customer, Best Buy, Chrysler, Wal-Mart and United Airlines will find recovery very difficult.

What does it mean to you?  It’s a simple message; focus a serious amount of attention and resources on how you take care of your customers.  You don’t need the luxury of a Ritz Carlton to provide high level service.  What you do need is a committed focus.

• Define the skill sets associated with great service.  It’s a simple exercise.  Have your service team make a list of those companies that they think are great.  Then focus down to how they treat their customers.  Make the list specific and you will discover what your TEAM thinks is important.
• Define your touch points.  How many opportunities do you have to come into direct contact with your customers?  Not just in person, but on the phone (just ask LL Bean how important the phone is).  Each touch point is a service opportunity.
• What skills do your service people need to have and how free are they to execute service requirements?  Companies that don’t empower do so out of fear.  If their teams were well trained they would be capable of solving service issues on the spot.  They would OWN the problem.

Cutting back on service training is short sighted and will leave you without the loyalty you need to make the step forward when the good times return. Oh yeah, they’ll be back. It’s incumbent upon you to be ready! It is repeatedly said that “customer service” is everything, yet despite the bombardment of the sentiment, businesses continue to downplay its importance in the very nature of their business. It staggers the mind that when times get tough, the first thing that gets cut is training. Well, times are tough! Home values are continuing their nose dive, the corporate giants of yesterday are selling for pennies on the dollar and gas prices are making that mountain bike look pretty good. Customers are spending less and looking to stop the pain, and their buying decisions will shape your future.

• SOCIAL NETWORKS:  It’s no secret that social networks contain awesome levels of power as defined by a new connected model.  MySpace’s membership has grown exponentially from 20 million in 2005 to 225 million today.  A not so bad growth rate of 513%.  Yet despite their social impact they have not found a way to turn their big numbers into money.   The problem is discovering the right model that will capitalize on their audiences.  Perhaps finding a way to structure ads that can become a social experience is the key.  This is a gigantic fertile ground for structuring the next idea that will capture the group dynamics of the internet.
• OPEN SOURCE IDEAS:  An oddly wonderful trend is the thought that ideas are no longer isolated domains walled in by a company’s desire for secrecy.  More and more organizations are sending their problems out to the open world for solutions.  NetFlix will pay $1 million to help them develop a better system for rating their movie catalog.  There is a $10 million prize waiting for the first car designed to get 100 miles per gallon to win races.  There is a $400,000 prize to someone who can design an astronaut glove that can easily manipulate objects in space.  Walt Disney one time said; “ideas can come from anywhere.”  It appears we are finally catching up to that anywhere place.
• PEOPLE vs. FORMULA:  Most search engines survive and excel through the use of algorithms, but there are now search engines using human power to filter the wealth of info on the internet.  It seems people have critical thinking skills that escape machines, but are natural to our human condition.  Try http://www.brijit.com/ or  http://www.squidoo.com/ they may change the way you search!