It’s cute… But it’s wrong. You are used to hearing that there is no letter, I in the word team. Fine. Have it your way. But look a bit closer and you will see there is an "I" in team and it’s a big one! In the real world when a team member is confronted with an opportunity to wow a customer who are they thinking about and what are they likely to think? Well they aren’t thinking about the boss or the customer or the other members of the team. Nope. They are thinking about themselves. And … [Read more...]
Brief, Infrequent Encounters
‘The attention span of a gnat.’ That’s the way Millennials are often described. It’s a fair description…but only if you apply it to all of us… Boomers included. Why? Because short attention spans are not the result of a weird genetic mutation found only by autopsy of Millennials. Short attention spans are mostly the result of allowing technology to dominate nearly every aspect of our lives. Boomers are often portrayed as being slow to adopt new technology and new ideas while Millennials … [Read more...]
A Lazy Man’s Load
When I was a kid my mom seemed to have a saying for nearly every occasion. Maybe that's because we were from Kentucky. I like to say that Kentucky is the only state in the Union where socks and underwear are totally optional. (Don't worry. I have my socks!) If mom caught me trying to carry an oversize load of dirty laundry or groceries or lawn clippings in an obvious attempt to avoid a second trip, she would call out, "Lazy man's load! Lazy man's load!" Inevitably I would prove her right by … [Read more...]
Hospitality from the Heart
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ab8dziDZnNo Guess what I found? It’s an old fashioned box camera. I also bought a new camera and the specs on it are absolutely killer. Which of the two cameras do you think take the best picture? Which of the two cameras take the best photograph? All right that was unfair. Me asking you this way is really is a trick question because a picture and a photograph are two entirely different things. A picture is a record of what actually happened. But a … [Read more...]
What Do You Celebrate?
https://youtu.be/m-aoucfhEKE The behavior you get is the behavior you reward. Or put the other way around, the behavior you reward is the behavior you get. Here are a few examples; if you reward someone for being late to a meeting they aren’t going to be on time. Think about it, if you are last to arrive at the meeting you don’t have to wait on someone else to get the meeting started. Show up last and the instant you walk through the door the meeting starts. You are the center of … [Read more...]
Sweet Anticipation
The best customer service is given freely by people who care enough to anticipate on behalf of their customers If you don't want to read it, listen to the podcast above or watch it on YouTube here! I wanted to write about anticipating customer needs. That’s a pretty simple topic at least on the surface. But as I thought about it I came to realize that anticipation is not such a simple matter. We anticipate customer needs. But at the same time the customer or patient or … [Read more...]
‘Coon Heaven
Some stories you have to look for. Others can be found simply by paying attention. But once in a while you can find a story like I found while sitting across a broad, round table with a cotton tablecloth that fell like a white cotton waterfall. I fished a micro-recorder from my jeans, set it on the lazy Susan, and gave it a good shove to overcome first inertia and then friction, to position it where it needed to be. My estimate was proven to be right on target as the lazy Susan traveled … [Read more...]
A Little Potty Humor
The venue was Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. It really is a palace. All sections of the main ballroom were set up just for me. Well, maybe not just for me. According to the giant posters around the room, I was first up followed by First Lady Barbara Bush. I don’t mind telling you, I was a bit full of myself. I was thinking, “Look at me. Small town boy goes to the big city and does good.” I decided to walk down the hall and arrange my hair. I don’t comb it anymore. I just arrange it! A … [Read more...]
Holter
You could smell the seafood from a block away. Or perhaps it was only my imagination. Whatever was the case Buns and I had our sights firmly set on Scoma’s at the south end of Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. “Do you know what you want?” I asked my best friend on the planet. “It’s going to involve lobster but I want to see all the choices before I decide. What about you?” “Mine is going to be about Caesar salad and Sourdough bread with a crunchy crust, a chewy inside, about a … [Read more...]
Tribal Knowledge
I had suspected since the beginning of our relationship that the FAA (Federal Flight Administration) had no sense of humor. When my annual medical exam revealed that I had Parkinson’s, I realized these guys weren’t going to fool around. It had taken nearly ten years to log 3700 flight hours mostly on instrument flight plans. But it didn’t take the Feds long at all to decide that a pilot (whose nickname should have been Captain Shaky) needed to turn in his license to fly. They salted my wounded … [Read more...]