The Chief Storyteller

What Makes You Different?

So, you’re at a networking event and you’ve just answered the question, “What do you do?” Now what?  What if there are two others in the room who do what you do?

What makes you different?  (translated as, “Why should I hire you?”) When I was a graduate student, I was taught the best way to differentiate a product or a service was to create something that would be perceived as unique.

Let’s take copy writing as an example profession, what could possibly make me unique? Think along a variety of dimensions. Quality of my product – engaging, error-free, and easy-to-read articles, bulletins, and speeches. Customer service – responsive to the needs of my editor, punctual in meeting deadlines, and a willingness to offer a choice of several submissions. Experience – require minimal supervision, coaching, and editing – in short, no learning curve.

Taken together, these dimensions help to differentiate me among the other writers in the room. The others may have more experience and may also offer quality products...my customer service is superior.

You may notice I didn’t include price as one of these dimensions. That’s because differentiation often results in a lower sensitivity to price.  By effectively differentiating your product or service on one or several dimensions of perceived value to your prospect, you have created something that is unique.

Evidence That Little Touches Do Mean So Much

A very interesting article in the New York Times Health section begins:

Psychologists have long studied the grunts and winks of nonverbal communication, the vocal tones and facial expressions that carry emotion. A warm tone of voice, a hostile stare — both have the same meaning in Terre Haute or Timbuktu, and are among dozens of signals that form a universal human vocabulary.

A couple of key points:

- The evidence that such messages can lead to clear, almost immediate changes in how people think and behave is accumulating fast.

- Good [sports] teams tended to be touchier than bad ones.

- Couples who touch more are reporting more satisfaction in the relationship

Just a word of caution: be careful when applying this advice in your workplace...for obvious human resource issues.

Milk and Cookies…Driving Stronger Relationships and Customer Satisfaction

I went to the grocery store the other day for a gallon of milk.  I was with my son and we were on our way home from a basketball game.  As is the norm in my house on weekends, we were in a hurry.

When we walked into the store, we found the milk prominently displayed in a refrigerator case at the front of the store.  As I went to grab a gallon of milk, my son pointed out the chocolate chip cookies located alongside the milk.  “Milk and cookies,” he said, “they go together.”  He was right, so I grabbed a package of cookies to go with the milk and we were on our way.  It was more than what I came for, but the smile on my son’s face was priceless.

This is an example of cross-selling or offering related items likely to enhance the customer experience.   Cross-selling offers retailers a number of benefits, including exposure for higher margin items and potentially higher customer satisfaction through the suggestion of complementary items of perceived value.

When your associates are interfacing with their stakeholders, what story are they telling?  Does their message enhance the stakeholder’s experience?  Are they offering X, or are they offering X, Y, and Z?  Cross-selling can be an effective relationship-building technique for customer service representatives in schools, associations, governments, and businesses of all sizes.

Once a customer’s reason for calling is addressed, offering suggestions on other complementary services that might resonate with the caller can lead to deeper customer relationships, higher satisfaction rates, and higher revenues.

Fortune’s 100 Best Companies: What Words Describe You?

Fortune magazine recently issued its list of “The 100 Best Companies to Work For.” The list includes perennial favorites like SAS, Edwards Jones, Wegman’s Food Markets, Google, Dreamworks Animation, REI, Booz Allen Hamilton, Stew Leonard’s, and Marriott International – all great places to work, for sure.

With room for just 100, there is no doubt there are other great companies out there who may have come close to qualifying, as well.  Is your company one of them?  What makes a company a great place to work?  Why is it important for companies to strive for this distinction?

To help with the first question, I sat down and compiled a list of key words that Fortune  used to describe the companies included in their list.  Words like:  trust, appreciation, collaboration, openness, opportunities, associates, culture, wellness, fun, fitness, family-friendly, retention, no-layoff, profit-sharing, sacrifice, celebration, mentors, volunteers,  diversity, leadership, and pride.

The next time you’re in a Wegman’s food market or a Marriott hotel, for example, take a moment to see how many of these characteristics you can find among the people who work there.   Next, apply these same words to your company.  How many of these characteristics did you find where you work?

We are One Week Away from Chaos and "Can"nibalism

Here's a quick observation. We are just one week away from total chaos...really.

The snow here in Washington, DC is terrible--over four feet. Neighbors came together and strangers came together...a beautiful thing.

And strangers caused fights, drove rudely and unsafely, and used bad words...an ugly thing. The traffic is still bad, parking is a nightmare, public transportation just starting to come back, and food is in short supply.

Yes, food is in short supply in the sense that we have stocks in our homes that are for all practical purposes, sufficient to last a week. Why else would people rush to the grocery store, barrel over others to get the last loaf of bread, and wait in line as much as two hours for mostly perishable items (e.g., milk, juice, eggs, fruit, vegetables, and meat).

The negative and aggressive body language was visible a football field away. Not to mention the actual aggressive, bordering on hostile, verbalized words.

Here I was with 10 items and I walked with my cart to the express line. A man with a son about five glared at me, pointed to the back and said, the line starts back there (probably 20 people long). There was no mistaking his aggressive posture.

The irony is that he was very uncomfortable with how he treated me. I noticed that he was shifting his body from leg to leg and looking at his son with apologetic eyes. I smiled and went to my "appropriate" place. Whereas, if he smiled at me, and used kindness, both of us would have felt better and the same ends would have been achieved.

So my advice is before a storm actually arrives, stock up on cans and non perishable items. Ensure that you have the necessities to survive and actually eat the cans and boxes of food you have in your pantries.

The Best Strategy for Reaching the Light at the End of the Tunnel

As the historic weekend snowstorm in the Washington, DC area finally came to a close late Saturday afternoon, forecasters gave word that yet another potentially severe snowstorm was on its way. It occurred to me that forecasting the end of our winter weather was a lot like trying to forecast the end of the economic recession. For sure, there is light at the end of the tunnel. The challenge is to find and implement the best strategy for reaching it.

In his Loyalty-Based Management Theory, business strategist and author Frederick Reichheld noted that the key to business growth and profitability is the realization that human assets are the most important ones of an organization. Winning strategies require ways of attracting and developing the best people and earning their loyalty. Loyal customers, employees, and investors will lead businesses to the light at the end of the tunnel, with outstanding results in growth and profitability.

Similarly, with over two feet of snow on the ground and more on the way, our ability to recover quickly from the next snowstorm requires each of us to attract and develop a loyal army of people, all focused around the singular goal of helping one another to minimize the impact of the storm on our lives – people who drive the plows, stock the shelves at the local grocery store, clear our driveways and sidewalks, respond to fire and medical emergencies, keep our power on, report the news, forecast the weather, etc. Each of us is at once a customer, employee, and investor in this collective effort and our loyalty to each other will drive outstanding results.

 
　

Additional Resources:

- Overview of Frederick Reichheld’s book, The Loyalty Effect, Harvard Business School Press, 1996.

- CEO Forum Group interview with Frederick Reichheld on the ultimate measure of customer loyalty, "Would you recommend us to others?"

Ready for the World to End Tomorrow? Depends Upon Your Opinion

Let's start with this question...If you were a television weather reporter, what would you do? Here is the scenario...

If you live in the Washington, DC area, then the expectation is that the world is about to end tomorrow, maybe Saturday.

To me it is a fun fest because the public is bashing the television affiliates for their refusal, yes refusal, to comment on the specifics of the weather storm.

In a nutshell, the National Weather Service has been sharing that its computer models are predicting a snow storm with accumulations of 12 to 20 inches (maybe more) starting Friday. The television affiliates are pushing back saying something to the effect, "yes we know snow is coming...we'll let you know more 24 hours in advance. Until then, no further information is provided."

Why do they do this? Because the public will scream and yell at them if the information is wrong as the public has done time and time again.

Who is right? National Weather Service, Television Stations, or the Public?

They all are. NWS's job is to predict and provide advance warning based on computer models. News stations are supposed to report accurate information and not speculate. The public wants accurate information.

Human behavior is the cause of all of this outcry, grief, and frustration. As such, each organization and the public MUST remember the source of the information, the intent behind it, and appreciate that accurate information is the goal of everyone.

If you were a television weather reporter, what would you do?

Staying Connected Through the Handwritten Note

In this age of texting, email, tweets, and other forms of electronic and social media, when was the last time you received a handwritten note in the mail thanking you for a gift you may have given or a service you may have provided?

When someone takes the time to send a handwritten note, they are telling you they care about you, they appreciate what you have done for them, and that you matter.  In short, the message they are sending is that you are special and the connection you share is personal.

Stay connected. Send a handwritten note to someone you care about.  You just might make their day.

Character is What You Do When You Think Nobody is Looking

The other day as my teen aged son and I were finishing our holiday shopping, we just happened to be looking when some of our fellow shoppers thought we weren’t.  Cutting in line to be the first to check out, making rude gestures to other drivers as they navigated crowded streets and parking lots, and failing to yield their seats to elderly passengers on the Metro – none of these qualify as images any of us would use to describe ourselves at a family gathering.

As many of us in the business world rush to close out another year, what will our co-workers say about our character?  What behaviors have we exhibited when we thought nobody was looking?  How have we treated others who we thought were subordinate to us?

Character is the fabric that is woven throughout our story. It’s the book behind the cover.  It’s what gives our business stories credibility. Most importantly, it’s what compels other people to want to do business with us.

"Are Fair Trials Imperiled When Jurors Text and Tweet?"

An interesting article recently appeared on Yahoo titled, "Are Fair Trials Imperiled When Jurors Text and Tweet?"

Two paragraphs are important:

Despite admonitions from judges, many jurors can't seem to keep their hands off their electronic devices, posting updates on their Facebook pages and - far more worrisome - mining the Internet during breaks in a trial.

the next challenge facing the jury system will be the deliberate planting of misinformation online. Recently she wrote about an anonymous blogger who reported from the courtroom during a trial with the goal, she believes, of influencing the jury pool.

And the last paragraph sums the article up:

The temptation to hop online is so great, and the habit so ingrained, that, as Keene notes, a burglar in Pennsylvania ended up getting caught because he stopped to look at his Facebook page on the victim's computer, leaving an online trail for the police to follow.