What or How?

What is more important to an organization, What you do, or How you do it?

That's the question Bec Kennedy of Australia asked Richard Branson in Entrepreneur magazine.

Is the organization's purpose and mission more important, or are the methods and efficiency of how the organization works more important?

After reading the question, I was curious as to what Mr. Branson's answer would be. What would you say?

Mr. Branson answered that while efficiency and profitability are certainly important to every company, but acting responsibly is more important for long term success. Do you agree? It's hard to argue with the logic.

Acting responsibly helps to motivate and engage your employees. This is especially true for many non-profit organizations. Motivated and engaged employees strive to work more efficiently and effectively to continue with and build upon the success of the organization. Motivated and engaged employees translates into higher levels of customer service. Motivated and engaged employees search for ways to develop, build, and deliver higher quality products and services.

This all translates to more loyal customers, more customers, and lower operating costs. That leads to higher profits. Mr. Branson calls this the virtuous cycle. Does this work in your organization? Can it?

Would You Like Customer Service With That?

Safeway has a new self-checkout line. Now you get to choose between poor service and no service.

Half the time the regular checkout is almost like a self checkout. Your existence barely registers a blip on their radar as they chat to their friends, check the break schedule, or get distracted by ... Oh! A squirrel! Sometimes while standing in line I move my hands back and forth like I'm scanning my items. No sense just standing there looking at a blank wall. No one notices. Except the people in line behind me. I tell them I'm playing air piano.

Customer Service is an integral part of Business Operations. Business Operations being the part of your organization directly responsible for the delivery of your products and services to your customers. Poor Customer Service means poor Business Operations. Poor Business Operations means lower profits, loss of customers, and in this economy can mean downfall of the business.

Clearwire - Clear - Whatever

Clearwire is now called Clear, and they have (supposedly) upgraded their system. I, however, am just a little bit less satisfied.

OK, they were very good at sending me my new, improved, upgraded, still looks the same, modem. But I think they're having some trouble with their new system.

I've used Clearwire for about a year and have had zero problems. No outages, no downtime, no problems. But now with the new system my coverage seems to be a bit spotty. Some downtime and a signal that's less strong. I'm hoping it's just a brief breaking in period. We'll see.

But the point is there shouldn't be any disruptions. They should have tested, and tested, and tested some more before rolling out a new, "improved" system. It should be seamless for the customer.

And supposedly my download speed should be double from the previous system, but darned if I can tell. Everything seems to work the same as it did before. I'm not much of an internet user, so maybe what I do doesn't show any difference. I don't know. I guess I should try to watch a streaming movie or something.

So, Clearwire, or Clear, are you going to continue to make me happy?

Safeway, My Safeway

Safeway rant # 768...

I must preface this by saying that although I continue to rant about Safeway, My Safeway, I continue to shop there. Why is that? Habit. Difficult to change even with my complaints (businesses like that). I know where the Safeway's are and how to get to them (with Honolulu traffic, that's important).

So, my latest Safeway adventure...

I was near the store just before lunchtime and hadn't brought my lunch that day. So I popped into the deli to grab a quick sandwich to take back to the office. Or I should say I planned to stop in for a quick sandwich. Quick and Safeway never go together. I always tell myself "never go to Safeway if you're in a hurry." The deli was empty, so no waiting. I could get my sandwich and be out of there quick as a wisp (is that a real saying?). As I stood there waiting, and waiting, I decided on the meatball sub, as all you have to do is put meatballs and cheese on the bread, quick as can be.

Well, I continued waiting while one deli worker talked on the phone. And talked. And talked. Then walked out from behind the deli counter and went and talked to the second deli worker who was stocking one of the food cases. He did say "I'll be right with you" as he walked by. After a short discussion worker number 1 went back to the phone. Another "I'll be right with you", just for effect I assume. The phone conversation then proceeded to continue.

By this time I was past ready to leave, but I thought I can't lose this place in line (even though there wasn't, technically, a line, there being just me). Plus I figured that since I got two "I'll be right with you" 's it couldn't be much longer. I was wrong.

Finally, after a good ten minutes (I'm very patient, plus stubborn and by this time curious) I was waited on. And within milli-seconds of worker number 1 taking my order, worker number 2 asked me if I'd been helped. Why, yes I have, thank you for asking after watching me stand there for 10 minutes, thank you very much.

The meatball sandwich making was mostly uneventful, except I only got cheese on half the meatballs. It started out on all of them, but during the transfer of the meatballs and cheese from the microwave onto the bread, the cheese got pushed onto only half the meatballs. Well, at least it was all there somewhere.

So, I eventually got my sandwich and headed back to the office.

I should have gotten salami...


And the lesson is... A customer standing in front of you is your top priority. And, customer service can be improved. Or is one more customer just not that important in this economy?

Not!

When is customer service NOT customer service?

I was at my favorite Starbucks last night and I got the distinct feeling that I was in their way. I appreciate a clean store, that's part of good customer service. But I don't like to feel unwanted or in the way while the crew starts cleaning before the store closes so they can run out as soon as they push the customers out the door at precisely closing time.

It's not the economy, because they've been doing this for years, trying to save money by not paying anyone after store closing hours. It's just plain poor customer service. I'm sure I'm not the only one who notices. You're sitting and enjoying your coffee, and maybe some conversation, when the crew starts to close the store while you're still in it - and it's not closing time yet. Surely they could wait until they close to start the cleaning, or at least just do the little things that the customers don't notice. But to get out the broom, move the tables and chairs, and sweep within a millimeter of your feet while you're trying to relax is just too much.

Good Service

Since I tend to rant about bad service I've received, I should also acknowledge the good service I receive. And also, since I frequently rant about my local Safeway, I will now praise my local Foodland supermarket. Two birds with one stone, so to speak.

Instead of waiting until Thanksgiving to make my usual turkey dinner, I thought I'd have Thanksgiving in July. I quickly learned that that is not so easy to do. For one, Safeway does not have any turkeys in July, nor do Costco or Don Quixote (a.k.a. Diae or Holiday Mart, depending on how long you've lived here). Second, it's now August, but that's another story. I did find turkeys at Foodland, but the off season price was quite shocking. I'm used to the "subsidized" holiday price, or the loss-leader price that stores use to bring in the holiday food shoppers, and wasn't prepared to pay $30 for a turkey. So... on to the chickens. Much better. I ended up buying a non-name-brand chicken for half the price of the name-brand. A large roaster, ready for stuffing.

I made my stuffing and pulled the bird out of the refridgerator. It was when I pulled the giblets out of the bird that I realized something was wrong. Bad chicken, bad chicken. Rule #1 - don't eat a foul smelling fowl. So my chicken and I returned to Foodland.

I have to say I was very impressed with the Customer Service at Foodland. Not only was I able to replace the chicken (and got 21 cents back, whoo hoo), but the customer service person made the experience pleasant. She apologized for the bad chicken and because I had to return it, and very quickly and pleasantly processed the return transaction. This level of service is not usual in other stores, so I was very happy.

And the stuffed chicken dinner turned out great.

How Do They Do That?

I am not an early adopter. I still have an old cell phone that pretty much only makes and takes calls. No pictures, no internet, just a phone. I want an iPhone, but haven't gotten around to getting one yet.

I only recently signed up for Netflix. And I am impressed. How do they get those DVD's to me so fast? I'll put my return envelope in the mailbox at the post office at 2:00 or 3:00 pm and get an email notice from Netflix that they've received my envelope sometime later that night. Then only a few hours later I'll receive another email confirmation telling they've shipped my next movie. Amazing.

What can your organization learn from this? How can you increase your efficiency and customer service? I await your answers.

Who Would You Choose?

I’m reading an article in the paper and I’m thinking, “which company would you choose to do business with?” This is a perfect example of two (very different) views on customer service. By that I mean that one company displays an understanding of customer service and provides it, and the other does not.

The swine flu is causing concern around the world and many businesses are taking precautions, for their operations, their employees, and their customers. In The Tale of Two Airlines, those precautions look quite different.

Hawaiian Airlines and Alaska Airlines announced their new policies for blankets and pillows on flights between Hawaii and the mainland U.S. Hawaiian Airlines will change their pillows and blankets every day, at least while the flu is still an issue. Previously, they changed the blankets and pillows every three days. Alaska Airlines, by contrast, will no longer provide blankets and pillows.

So Hawaiian Airlines increases their level of services (amazing for any airline these days), while Alaska drops their service down another notch (which is also amazing for any airline since customer service and airline can hardly be used in the same sentence anymore.) I know which company I’ll choose to do business with.

Which company are you? Are you the one that customers choose to do business with? Or are you the other guy?

Doing Business in a Down Economy

Why are these ladies smiling? The economy is tough, people are curtailing their spending, and businesses are cutting costs to survive. Yet Kerry Hewitt, owner of The Crown Pub in Southampton (that's in England, southwest of London, according to my google map), is doing quite well, thank you. Other pubs are struggling, as are businesses all over the world, but The Crown Pub is thriving. How do they do it, and what can you learn from them?

Bars and pubs are businesses just like any other, and have to be run well to survive and thrive. So how do you survive and thrive in these tough economic times?

The real question is, should you run your business differently during tough times? One of the keys to The Crown Pubs success is retaining customers. Do you only want to be aggressive at retaining customers during the tough periods? Of course not! If you want your business to thrive and grow in the best of times, as well as the bad times, you have to keep your customers loyal to you. And you do that by providing your customers with the best products and services, at a reasonable price. Meet and exceed your customer's expectations.

Ensure your products are produced in the most efficient and cost effective manner possible. Make sure they meet specifications. The same for services you provide. The process for providing your services must be efficient and effective.

These are basics of business whether the times are tough or the economy is growing and people are spending freely. Too many businesses allow waste to creep in when they think they can afford to waste a little. It's hard to drive that waste back out, so it's better to not let it in in the first place.

Effective and efficient business operations, which includes superior customer service, will not only get you through the lean times, it will allow you to thrive while others are falling by the wayside.

So head on down to the nearest pub and contemplate your operations over a pint of finely crafted ale. Better yet, head on over to The Crown Pub and see how business should be run.

I'm still here

Just a quick note to let you know I'm still here. Just been very busy. Whether I'm actually accomplishing anything is another matter. I'm back to work on my next book. I set it aside for awhile while I was doing the webinar series, but I'm back on it. I'm tired of looking at it, so I need to finish. Moving into a new apartment and have some painting to do. I'm looking for a cheap, but good working condition, stacked washer/dryer for my lanai, so if you're in Honolulu and have one, please let me know. A love seat, large area rug, and floor lamp would help too.

Total Flanker has answered the Captaincy question with his usual wit. Check it out. And Wendy is raffling off some t-shirts, so put your name in the hat.

About three months to the Honolulu Marathon, and training is going pretty good. I need to do longer long runs (I'm doing 1 & 1/2 hours on Sundays, but need to bring that up a bit). My goal is twofold; finish in 4-1/2 hours and not be in severe pain.

I haven't heard anything about the Hawaii Harlequins Rugby Tournament that's scheduled for October. Is it still on?

Customer Service, probably the most overlooked, poorly executed part of Business Operations. I'll be ranting again soon.

Aloha for now.

On the road again...

I'm on the road again. I'm in Tucson, and I love it. If you've never been to Tucson, you should come, it's a great place. But just come to visit, I like it the way it is size wise. I got up and went for a run this morning, and just about froze my buns off. Yes, Tucson, Arizona in March, and coooold! And yes, I'm a bit out of shape, but I'm officially in marathon training. My wife dragged (drug?) me down to the Honolulu Marathon Clinic last week, which is what I needed. If - When - I run this year, it will be my fourth marathon. I missed the last couple of years, but I'm going to do it again this year. The Marathon Clinic has been going for 30 years now and is a great program. It's really designed for people who have never run a marathon, or even really run before. The clinic starts in March, because if you follow their program, you can finish a marathon with nine months of training. The basic premise is you have to run for one-hour, three days a week. Ouch!

Well, I know I can go out and run for an hour, so I don't really have an excuse to not get in shape. At this point, there's a fair amount of shuffling, as opposed to actual running, but it's a good start. I'm not a natural born runner, like some people, but I like it. I played rugby for about six years and thought I was in pretty good shape. Thought I did a lot of running. But I was wrong. I joined the army and we ran quite a bit in basic training, or so I thought. Then I went to airborne school and learned about running, among other things. I have to admit I don't know if I would have made it without help. My help came from a guy I met on the bus down to Fort Benning. The guy was amazing, like a lung with legs. When I started hurting and thought I was going to drop out of a run, he'd just grab hold of me and drag me along. I don't know how my legs kept moving. Of course, if he hadn't made me drink beer all night after training and wake up with a hangover I probably could have made it a little further until I needed that help.

But, I digress. I'm on the road again. And what have I seen so far? Well, let's start with the flight over. I fly United. I fly United almost all the time, so I'm a Premier. That means I get to use the less crowded check in kiosk, get the extra legroom seats, and get to board with Seating Area 1 . Or so I thought. For some reason I've been demoted to Seating Area 4. Now that's not really a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but from a customer service point of view it's not good. I still fly enough to be a Premier level customer, but they've demoted me for some unknown reason without telling me. And airlines wonder why they can't make money.

Rented a car while I'm here. We mostly use Dollar. I like them. You can reserve a car online or by calling them, and you don't need to leave a credit card number to reserve. That just make it easier and less of a hassle. They're usually a little cheaper than the "major" rental companies, but they have the same cars. I've never had a problem with them, and when I returned my car in San Francisco last week their check-in person helped me out and saved me some money. I couldn't find a gas station before the airport (first time renting a car in SF), so just took the car in on empty as was prepared to pay. But the lady gave me directions to the nearest gas station and a ticket to get out of the parking garage, and that saved me a good chunk of change. That's the customer service that keeps me coming back.

My hotel got a lot of extra points for several things, but got a ding when I checked in. I had to call a couple of times to make changes, and they were wonderful on the phone, even at 3:00 a.m. Everyone's been more than pleasant since I got here. But when I arrived to check in, the person at the desk was talking to someone else (not sure if they work here or who they were), talking about another guest who didn't speak English, and left me to wait for a minute. Just kind of turned me off a bit. Customer service rule: always put on your best face.

I was heading down south to Green Valley this morning, but ran into a couple of problems. First, there was a parade downtown, which I ran into. If I had known, I could have taken another route, but I ran into the detours and ended up slightly lost. I know my way around here pretty well, but then ran into problem two; highway construction. The construction itself isn't a problem, but just a thought to the city of Tucson - have clear directions through the construction. On the way back into town, on the interstate, there were very clear directions and signs that no one could miss. Directions and signs like that on the major streets leading to the access to the highway would sure go a long way towards making people's lives easier. Even governments need customer service.

Well, past my bedtime again and I have to get up and run again tomorrow.

Why should customers be happy?

Back to Safeway this morning… Rule #1: Never go to Safeway if you’re in a hurry. Especially in the morning. They’ve got this one person working at the checkout in the morning. He’s usually the only checker. They operate under the if-a-line-forms-call-for-help method, which occasionally works if the checkers calls for help at the first sign of a long line. They’re not the only ones who do this, but it rarely works as the checker never calls until the line is 20 people long and everyone is getting all huffy. And don’t even talk about banks; they won’t add a teller no matter how many people are in line, out the door, standing in the rain. So this particular checker is close to the worst checker ever. Slow, nervous, never calls for help until it’s way too late or until another worker discovers a line and tells them to call (usually with an added lecture about calling for help when the line backs up). I guess once you get a job as a checker at Safeway you’re in for life, no matter how bad you might be. Unhappy customers? Who cares about the customers?

Rule #2: Don’t expect to get the coffee you want. They have a little self-serve coffee bar. The menu shows about six different varieties of coffee. You usually have one choice, maybe two. It’s never the choice you want.

Customer service, inventory management, they’re part of Operations. Training employees on proper procedures, and making sure that the process and procedures work to achieve organizational goals, are a big part of Operations. Managing inventory and providing excellent service are part of Operations. But who’s actually in charge of ensuring your operations are effective? Somebody has to take ownership. Somebody has to take responsibility. If you know a procedure is broken, fix it or make sure it gets fixed. If you know someone isn’t fulfilling their job responsibilities, help them improve or make sure someone with responsibility and authority helps them. If you don’t have the inventory to satisfy your customers, improve the inventory system.

Why should customers be happy? Because without happy customers you won’t have a successful business.

Welcome to Let's Talk Business!

Welcome to Let's Talk Business where the focus is on Business Operations. That covers a lot of territory. Everything from the basics of inventory management to strategic planning, from customer service to Six Sigma. Operations is the heart of your organization. It's what you do that makes you you.

We'll be discussing topics that are all over the map, and whatever happens to be on my mind. That often means ranting about customer service, but I keep hoping that if I rant about it enough people will take notice and improve their service. Service, or customer service, is fundamental to Operations. Operations are all those activities that are directly related to producing and delivering your products and services to your customers. That includes what is often referred to as customer service, and that is an area, a broad area, where far too many organizations are lacking.