Sitting on a red sofa

in the kitchen of @thinktank_ HQ

resting after a night of diluted sleep

watching spots of rain cling to glass

wind moving treetops -

I remember many half-drunk cups of cold tea
how often I’ve lost keys
found friends
moved slowly thru rushes

past butterflies that licked the underside of my imaginative powers -

May it ever be so

May Think-Tank HQ simply be for you & me…

We’ve all been inspired by others.  We wouldn’t be the people we are without influence of others. It’s human make assumptions – especially to assume a hero will always be there…

Today I got this email from Aodan Enright:

“I learned today that Oren Harari, author of ‘Break From The Pack’ has died.

Amazingly, he actually passed away in April of this year but I only found out today when I checked in on his website. My thought had been “I haven’t seen a blog post from Oren for a while”. Such is how we miss people in this internet age, eh?

I wanted to share a story with you. Since we completed the first ‘Break From The Pack’ programme almost two years ago, I created a task for my action list entitled ‘Share learnings from BFTP with Oren Harari’. I thought it would be nice thing to do to collect some of the insights & applications that had been generated by the group and to feed them back to him. I know if I had written a book like that, I’d appreciate hearing how people were using the ideas to develop their own businesses and careers. And as each group graduated, more and more material accumulated.

And here’s the thing. I never sent it to him.

I know. I can hear some of you making wisecracks already about doing my own course on Procrastination. But, I never did it. Of course, we’ve had some great interactions with the likes of Jeff Jarvis and Mitch Joel but not Oren Harari. And the opportunity is now gone.

So, don’t wait until the ‘right’ time. Don’t put off ‘breaking from the pack’ until next year or when the bond spreads are different or whatever the reason du jour may be. Get going and do it now. As we’re often reminded, we only have one shot at living our lives so let’s make the most of it!

Aodan Enright Smarter Egg – Facilitated Learning & Executive Coaching  aodan@smarteregg.com
Connect with me on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/aodanenright
Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SmarterEgg ”
______________________________________________________________

I’m staring at my copy of “Break from the Pack - how to compete in a copycat economy” by Oren Harari.  Staring at the memory.  The author influenced me, and gave me a business edge.  From the book I took this message -

Make your business different
Make it so different that it can never be copied
Make it absolutely unique

- so that no one can get the same service from anyone else…

I see my margin notes on page 19…

Key questions:

“How can you differentiate yourself from the mob around you? How can you attract and retain customers while charging a reasonable price in this frenzied environment? How can you make your booth and your goods so extraordinary and appealing that you won’t have to continually lower your price to differentiate yourself? And if you do something daring, what will you  do when the vendors at the stalls all around you try to copy what you do? How do you avoid getting drowned in the noise and anonymity of an environment where your neighbor appears to be selling and yelling the same things you are?” (Oren Herari p.19)

On page 35 of Chapter 1 (“Welcome to Commodity Hell”) I jotted these phrased in the margins

- all about “Snowflake”
- unique

On page 36 I wrote

- Create something of unique value.

In a wonderful chapter about Madonna & Willie Nelson, Oren Harari offered this analysis: if you were to “emulate” Madonna’s business tactics you would…

• You’d be constantly changing… you’d be restless with sameness…
• You’d monitor trends… to ‘get there first’.
• You’d reinvent yourself even when your current products & services are popular…
• You’d be constantly experimenting…
• You’d always invite and challenge your customers to change with you…
• You’d be deliberately provocative… (I underlined this)
• You’d always be connected to  reality
• Whatever you’d do, you and your organisation would do with passion and 100% commitment (underlined)
• Your tone would always be optimistic, upbeat and fun-loving…

I took Oren Harari’s analysis and advice very seriously…  I hope it shows.

May he rest in peace… may he look on with pride at his legacy.

Disaster

I went to a 4-star hotel yesterday for a business meeting.  I was hoping to do a deal – turn a prospect into a new client. We were checking  each other out – to see if there was a good fit between our businesses.

We met in a hotel I didn’t know well – but I expected to get 4-star customer service. This is what happened – the lessons I’ve taken from the experience.

The story from customer’s view:
We wanted to sit outside & drink coffee.  That part of the hotel  turned out to be “not open yet” – we were ushered inside. That was a bad start because the weather was good.

I asked for croissants – they had none.  I asked for toast – I was told that wasn’t possible because the person serving couldn’t go get toast from the kitchen. I didn’t want scones. So I settled for coffee only.

Ten minutes later, I changed my mind.  I asked again for toast – this time I asked the member of staff to use the phone and tell the hotel manager there was a customer who wanted toast.  I also said, nicely, that I expected the toast to be delivered within five minutes.  I’d decided to put myself out, test the quality of customer service systems – but I was already thinking “the management here doesn’t empower the staff to deliver what the customer wants.”

The toast came in about three minutes.  It was put on the table.  A sideplate was delivered – unclean.  I decided to say nothing.  But I photographed it on my iPhone. We had a meeting to get on with – by this time, we were deep in discussion about how poorly the hotel was being led.

Later, I asked for another coffee.  The person I asked forget my order.  This was now a 4-star Fawlty Towers.  I repeated the order to a different person.  The coffee was fairly good.

My potential client & I began to look closely round the space.  There were loads of cigarette butts in view: the cleanliness was a disgrace.  We became completely distracted & discussed how long the hotel would stay in business. There had been a big investment in the physical appearance of the hotel recently.  But it looked as if the culture of the place was deeply flawed.

Unexpected benefits of poor customer service:
The customer service issues gave us an opportunity to deepen rapport – the unexpected benefit of lousy service was that we formed an alliance to do something to improve customer service in Ireland. We also agreed to do business.

I made notes of all the issues.  I thought of leaving the hotel, saying nothing, and writing about how bad it was – how poorly I’d been served.  I felt like going,  never returning.  But I had a bigger interest.  I went to the reception desk & met the duty manager.  I offered feedback which was taken ["all feedback is good" - was the cliché used].  It was a relief the manager listened to me.  He seemed to take it in.  He thanked me – and I went off about my business.

What wasn’t done to recover the damage
The manager didn’t seem to realise I would never return to the hotel.  He didn’t seem to realise my lifetime custom was at stake.  He did nothing to make it up to me.  I don’t  think it crossed his mind to refund me all the money we’d spent.  I bet he didn’t think of inviting me to stay free in the hotel overnight.

The manager would have had to do something extraordinary in order to prevent the hotel losing a customer for life.  I’ll never agree to meet anyone there again.  I’ll tell many people about my experience.  The marginal cost of offering me a free overnight stay in the hotel is about €14 – the cost of cleaning the room.  The loss of my custom for life is certainly many times that.

This is only an example of what goes on all the time.  The customer is not given the service that the brand promises.  If the customer brings this to the attention of the business – the business doesn’t know what’s at stake – or even how to invest in repairing the damage.

Overall take-away:
There is a serious need for business education.

PS  Here’s a lovely blogpost about positive customer service : it came to me via Twitter:  http://twitter.com/Ali_Davies

Do you have Twitter for your business?  This is dead relevant to you too.

Shut your account straightaway.  Close it down.  Take it out of public view.  Do the closing professionally: announce the move properly – but above all stop damaging your brand via Facebook or Twitter.

You may think me mad.  You certainly think this extreme advice.  I hope you’re interested enough to hang on a minute – just to see what’s driven me into this position.  After all, “everyone” is rushing headlong into social media – new “free” media.

There are so many businesses using Facebook badly in Ireland.
They set up an account, open up a presence – and then set about undermining the value of their brand.  They don’t use Facebook well.  They use it as if it was an advertising channel – a traditional, boring, advertising channel.  They use Facebook to announce their offers, urge consumers to buy from them, and generally interrupt the life of those stupid enough to follow them.

What they don’t do is engage.
So many businesses on Facebook and Twitter don’t engage with customers & potential prospects.  They don’t respond to questions, don’t supply information requested.  So many businesses remain silent while they’re being discussed on Twitter & Facebook.

Every time they fail to respond openly & willingly, they damage their brand – unless of course their brand promises to disappoint customers.

So if you shut your shop on Friday, and don’t open until Monday – think again.  Do your customers want you on Saturdays?  Do your customers have problems on the weekend?

And during the week, do you actively seek to find out who’s chatting about your products?  Do you try to imagine who’s out there with a problem for which you could be a solution?

Stay off the new media – unless you are seriously interested in serving customers.
The impression you give otherwise is dreadful.  If you’re the marketing director, and your Facebook account isn’t great, it reflects badly on your company & your career prospects.

We can track you these days.  We can build a good picture of your track record via your Facebook & Twitter presence.

Get serious about new media – or get underground.

PS : This blogpost was inspired by a Tweet this morning from a business owner who was frustrated at the lack of response they’d experienced from an Irish business.

When I wanted to change from one supplier to another, I had to do something risky.  I had to close one account – the one I had with Meteor.  That was straightforward.  Meteor were easy to deal with.  They placed no obstacle in my way – all their business processes seemed to work very well.

I had to open another account with O2.  O2 were easy to deal with – all the setting up processes seemed to work very well. I was looking forward to becoming a customer of O2 – because they offered the iPhone. [The only reason I switched suppliers was the iPhone.]

The problem, the mess, the horrid situation came about in between the two suppliers.  I was forced to shut off my supply from Meteor before I could get supply from O2.  I was compelled to be without mobile phone connectivity for a while.

It didn’t matter how long I was left waiting for the new supply to kick in.  I wanted un-interupted supply.  I wanted all my contacts intact.  I wanted the move from one company to another to be seamless – and it wasn’t.

The customer was left carrying the can.  The customer was made to suffer uncertainty, anxiety and frustration.  The mobile communications sector screwed me.  It put itself first.

It would be so simple to arrange things so that there’s no switch until the customer is ready to pull the plug.  Wouldn’t it be much better if you could check you had all your contacts intact  - before you cut yourself off from the supplier you’re leaving?

Isn’t this a dreadful example of how not to do customer service?

"Dots Obsession" by Yayoi Kusama at Parc La Villette in Paris

“It used to be price… now it’s all about customer service.”  So said an Irish small business owner to me yesterday.  He was a web developer.  He’s now an entrepreneur – developing a new business venture to sit alongside his established company.  He’s based in Mallow, Co Cork, Ireland.

Customer service – I thought we cracked that in the 1980s.  Tom Peters &  Robert Waterman wrote “In Search of Excellence“, British Airways did “A Day in the Life” – the whole business world seemed to be on to customer care and total quality management.  Even Bill Cullen got into “Penny Apples“.

But what’s happened?  Have we consumers got an good enough deal? Are we in love with our suppliers?  Do you think a corner has been turned & service is now as good as we need it to be.

Of course not.  Customer service is still lousy.  It’s usually a disaster.  Awefully bad.  Most customer service is an insult to customers.  At best it’s OK, it’ll do.  But I’m obsessed with customer service & think most companies are stupid about it.

I could be diplomatic.  I could mince my words.  I could be careful &  play the long game.  But I’ve had enough. Customer service is so generally woeful, it’s time to shout STOP.

All the theories, systems, magic haven’t worked.  All the initiatives designed by consultants have failed to bring lasting change.  It’s as if

“A lesson has to be repeated until it’s learned.”

For example:
a restaurant in Cork city gave me dreadful service – so bad it took back my pizza & gave me another.  It didn’t charge me for the pizza.  It thought it was giving OK customer service by not charging me.  It wasted my time, spoiled my time out with family, I was itching to get home.  What a stupid thing to not charge me!  The situation was such that I’d decided I was never coming back: they needed to give everyone at the table a free meal + at least a voucher for another free meal – in order to get me to come back.  They needed to think big to repair the damage to their custom and reputation.  Instead they got petty – a bloody refund.  An insult.

This is typical of the small-minded thinking most business has about customer service.

If this was sex it would be a damp squib.

What do you think we should do about it?  Do you think I’m over the top?  Are you satisfied with the service you’re getting?

Certainly my business is surrounded by too many opportunities for business development.  There may be an economic depression, downturn.  But in the middle of the worst collapse ever, there are opportunities all over the place.

Here’s a true story that happened by accident yesterday.  I went to my local garden centre –  intended to buy a few small pots & plants. I was also looking for advice from Peter Dowdall on what to do with my garden.  That’s all I had on my mind.  In front of Dunsland Nursery was a small stall, a couple of people selling something. It caught my eye, I got curious.  The stall looked like a remnant from a Farmers’ Market. Before going in for garden stuff, I paused to check out the stall.

Two young people (Ger & Francesca) selling salt.  They were selling other goods but I have a special interest in salt. Recently I’ve been collecting different types of salt. (From Ummera, from Flor De Sal D’Es Trenc ….) I struck up a conversation about the salts they were selling; this led on to chat about the rest of their business, including the organic herbs they offer.

On Bachelor’s Quay, near North Main Street Cork City, they are based.  Happy Herbs, organic herbs & spices, Francesca showed me salts I never imagined.

Black lava salt… imagine salt connected with volcanos.  Salt from Himalayas: I found out the Himalayas were once under water.  Mindblown, I got their business card.  Found out they didn’t even have a website (“Mothersnaturesrecipes” under construction).  I asked if they had a blog?  Because in front of me was so much content, so much information that others would like to know about.

The point I’d like to offer about business development is  …
This little business has rich content at its fingertips.  It’s in a position to share knowledge & experience with curious people.  If they wish,  they can develop their business in this way:

1 Continue trading, source new products for their local market

2 Sell the goods

3 Be very good at conversation with customers

4 Build reputation on-line by blogging about what they are doing, and the products they find

5 Use Facebook, Twitter, even MySpace & Flicr to attract interest and become a hub for people

6 Grow their business to unimagined proportions and in unexpected direction…

There are great books, like Gary Vaynerchuk’s “Crush It” , which focus on how to build a business like this.  [Read my comments here.] There are YouTube videos on how to develop your business.  There is no shortage of inspiration even coaching available.

Thinking about this afterwards, I realise I’ve been lucky.  I stumbled into a business opportunity.  I’m now taking this opportunity to build my business by writing about the salt merchants in Glanmire. I wandered over to that stall when I could have stuck to my plan.  I could have walked by, I could have missed the story.  I could have come away satisfied with plants.  I might have overlooked the chance to do something I love, talking to strangers about their interests.

Yesterday, there was an opportunity to “sell” my wares:
“I could write you a website, I could advise you on your marketing strategy, I could help with your business development, I could introduce you to other business.”
- But no, that would have been a form of spamming. That’s not my style.  I stuck to my passion, my curiosity for business – the people, products & punch.  I offered no service; I stayed focussed on their business.

Some one may read this piece and say to themselves ” this guy might be interested in my business, I might like his style, let’s make contact.”  That might be the start of another story, to everyone’s advantage.  Who knows?

“Call to action“:
While you look for plants in your local gardening centre (on your ‘day- off’), there may be an interesting business opportunity in front of you.  Go for it.

Today Seth got it so wrong
I’m provoked to publish against him. On Sunday 25 April the author of”Linchpin“ (great book) shared this idea on his blog:

- give away your copy of Linchpin to someone you care about -

If only “Linchpin” was Seth Godin’s book… In my house, by my bedside, there is a book called Linchpin, part written by Seth Godin. Seth did the first draft, the one that’s been published, which you can buy.  But the volume in my life is co-authored by Paul O’Mahony & Seth Godin. It ceased being by Mr Godin when I opened it, and attacked the book.

I’ve got markings all over it.
Highlighted loads of pages. Wrote arguments & resolutions on many pages – and I haven’t even read it all.  I treat “Linchpin” like I’ve treated “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance“.  I don’t want it to end.  I have so much business with Linchpin, that there’s no way I could give my copy away.

If anyone got their hands on my copy, they’d be distracted. They would not read Seth Godin. You  could say I no longer have Linchpin by Godin.  So maybe Seth wasn’t talking to me at all.  Maybe he was addressing those who have a copy on Linchpin they haven’t marked?

Maybe I’ve made a fuss about nothing?

People hire web designers because their business needs a website. Designers design.  Some design engines.  Others design engines & images. Even some design engines, images & write.

But most web designers are not professional copy writers.
They get the writing copy from their client, or get someone to write it for them.  I’m about to go meet Jim Barry, web designer, whom I met at BNI New Heights Chapter Cork.  I don’t know Jim’s work yet: this is a getting-to-know-each-other-meeting…

I write for websites.
I have great skills in this area. But how am I going to find the work?  How am I go to get referrals & recommendations?  Building good contacts with web designers make sense to me.  So, I’m looking to meet lots of web designers, because among the  many will be the few with whom I get on really well.

A few web designers who love my work is all I’m looking for.

I was sitting in Douglas Shopping Centre today, drinking coffee with a friend.

Along passed Philip Carter, whom I knew from BNI.  He joined us and told us all about his new business.  It’s a water business which is running in Galway.

The details grabbed my attention.  I was ever  so impressed.

“Tell me Philip, all this stuff you’re  telling us, is it written down?  Have you a written record of all this business development for future reference?”

Pause…  ”Or is it all in your head?”

It turned out Philip was carrying round all that business intelligence in his head.  I have a disastrous memory.  I write everything down.  I can’t trust my memory, so  I outsource it to my Moleskine Notebook.

“Have you a mobile phone with an audio recorder on it?  How about dumping the story on to your phone, in bits, so that it isn’t lost? You don’t have to write it up – you’d have it safe for someone like me to turn it into valuable writing for your business.”

The penny dropped.

Very few entrepreneurs are writers.  Their skill is inventing, pulling businesses into existence, and making them work.  Writing is a different skill.  But every business needs writers.  Writers need material to turn into valuable content.

So how about recording your work, your business history, on your mobile phone?  A skilled writer could then turn your voice recording into an impressive document for you to use on your website, blog, Facebook page.  Efficient eh?