What an Experience

Do you believe your customers and clients leave your business or saying “what an experience” as in a great experience? Do you go out of your way to create an experience that is enjoyable and fun and beneficial?

How can you make an experience for your clients that leave them wanting more? The answer is simple; create an experience for your staff. Make work the best place in the world to be for 8 hours every day. Some of you may have heard of the Seattle Fish market which is famous for yelling fish orders and throwing fish across the shop to be wrapped, they even get their customers behind the counter for some fun. They do such a good job of entertaining their customers that they are world famous for it.

Gordon Ramsey has a table in his kitchens where people can enjoy the food and be entertained by the activity going on in the kitchen. In one London restaurant this table for 6 is booked up months ahead and turns over £500,000 a year. People love it because it is an experience.

There is a bookshop here in Cambridge that on Saturdays has a young pianist playing on a real piano (as opposed to a plug in and play). The music is easy listening and perfect for browsing through the books deciding which one you will buy.

Experiences are what people remember – get your staff to create and experience for themselves that can carry over to a customer experience or a client experience. We spend a lot of time at work so it should an enjoyable experience that customers and clients can feed off.

Check out my new caricature on my new website at www.marksutherland.co.nz

all those missed opportunities - wake up!

I spoke with a business owner in Wellington recently about how his business was going - he said it was a bit slow - slower than he expected, " I put a full page advert in the local paper to try and pick things up but didn't get any replies - It was a good advert though" Doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out the advert was probably crap. More importantly it didn't take long for me to figure out that the business owner was crap. He had his head firmly jammed in the sand - he would have been better off hiring a telemarketer with the money he spent on the advert or sitting down with his own staff and phoning his client database. His response to my question did offer me an opportunity though, so we will see what I can do with him over the next few months.

I spoke with another business owner in Dunedin who was, to put it bluntly, pissed off that so many people are phoning her to find out what there break cost would be to leave the bank and get their mortgag from some where else. I enquired as to how many people were doing this - "15 a day" she said, "why are you pissed off" I said. She replied "because it is stopping me from doing my own work". "What is your work?" I asked. "Mortgage broking, I am a mortgage broker". Shoot me now I thought to myself. 15 calls a day and she is bitching - it doesn't take a professor of mathematics to figure out the potential business just walking in the door. When I pointed this out she put her head in her hands and couldn't believe how stupid she had been.

This does highlight a point though -many people do not see what is right in front of their face. In a recessionary climate it's worthwhile looking at what is right in front of your face.

Try this as an exercise - Get people to SWITCH ON TO OPPORTUNITY. Have the people in your business find one opportunity throughout their day to either save money, create greater efficiency, get new business, develop a better ROI proposition on a project or any thing else they can come up with. Create a bloody big poster with SWITCH ON TO OPPORTUNITY on it - put it on their screensavers, tattoo it to your forehead so when ever they see you they can say to themselves "crazy bugger why did they tatoo it on their head and then they will immediately think of an opportunity - brilliant. OK so maybe a tatoo is a little extreme but you get the picture.

Why do we make innovation an event when it could be and should be an every day activity. Success is an every day activity and finding opportunity is part of your success process so make it an every day activity as well.

Be careful how you go about setting goals

I googled the words Goal Setting and this is what came up - Results 1 - 10 of about 26,500,000 for goal setting. (0.19 seconds).

The whole goal setting thing has been done to death - there is no doubt that goal setting and creating strategies for those goals can make a difference to your life, your business and your bottom line. So I dont have an issue with goal setting, but I do have an issue with they way people are going about it especially in business.

Many like to set BHAGS - Big hairy Audacious Goals as proposed by Jim Collins in his book Built to Last. Go for the big stuff and take what you get along the way. No doubt this will ding some bells for individuals and teams who are highly motivated and ready for the workload.

We are constantly being told by motivators and speakers and mega stars more noted for their speaking skills than there actual achievements, that small goals should not be on our radar because that is not what we should be aiming for. Go for the big stuff - go and drive that Porsche and get a feel for it and then one day you will get out of that mazda 323 and drive away your Porsche. The Scret which has become a major million dollar earner for its creator is guilty of telling people "you just have to set your goal and then the cheques will arrive in the letter box and you will be rich. Interesting how The Secret doesn't get into the ACTION aspect of making this happen.

So just what should we do when it comes to goal setting - here is my offering.
1. Is the goal relevant - does it meet the need of your business and your people or is it just pie
in the sky bollocks massaging an over inflated ego.
2. Does the goal have a hidden gremlin - if the goal is to ambitious will it force short cuts to
take place which could compromie stability, security or health. For example there are
those who believe JFK's goal in the sixties to safely land a man on the moon by the end of the
decade actually pushed NASA to hard and caused some of the problems and deaths. NASA
has a "Zero Tolerance to Failure" attiude because failure means people die. Yet this was
probably compromised by the goal set by JFK.
3. The goal should be action oriented - Once the goal is set it should make people think
immediately about what actions they can put in place in the next 24hours to start the
momentum.
4. The goal should have an owner who believes in it to drive it.
5. The goal should create energy - If a goal is draining energy it is not worth it. Lose it
change or create a new goal that generates energy.

Just google Goal setting again and in the time it took to write this blog the numbers are now Results 1 - 10 of about 27,400,000 for goal setting. (0.22 seconds).

Do we really know all the facts.

I was listening to National radio on Tuesday morning where Cathryn Ryan was interviewing Brian Clegg, British science writer and author of 'Eco-Logic: The Truth and Lies of Green Economics. Brian Clegg contends that (in my words) we are suckers for the green brand without really knowing the statistics or even taking time to understand the statistic. We don't really take the the time to understand what Green actually means and how it works. For example, people who buy a Toyota Prius (a supposedly environmentally friendly car) need to keep it for at least 5 years before they can actually make a difference to the environment. It takes this long before they have paid back the environmental cost of making the car at the factory.

He also said that when an airline pays to have a tree planted to offset the carbon emissions of a long haul flight it takes about 100 years for that tree to pay pack the difference - that means it takes 100 years for that tree to soak up the 2 tons of carbon created by the plane and then produce oxygen.

He pointed out that recycling is basically uneconomic, so the waste will need to go into landfill which is anti green. "Bring back the old 4c milk bottle and the milk man."

Did you know that using your air conditioner in the car has less emission impact than if you drive your car with the windows open to keep cool. The drag on the car with the windows being open means you use more fuel than if the air conditioner is on.

Just how green or pseudo green is your business - do we really take it seriously - do we really care or do we care because it is expected and we get caught up in the maze of information and a wave of green patriotism. Do we need to care?

I dont know what we should be doing, but whatever it is needs to be with a full understanding of the consequences. Have a listen to the interview at http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/ntn/ntn-20090310-1130-Green_Economics-048.mp3

a chain of events.

I recently checked out an article regarding ancient Greek laughter -I have no idea why - perhaps I was just intrigued by the joke that was on offer. I was more intrigued that some body two or three thousand years ago wrote a joke book in Greece and had it published. Who would have thought eh? A Greek comedian called Laupheis Histeriopolous was the first comedian of note to be recognised as the founder of comedy or laughter as a form of formal entertainment in ancient Greece.

The story goes that he used to observe what was going on in his local commuity and then mimic things and turn them in something funny. While the ancient Greeks were incredibly civilised they lacked laughter and humour. Histeriopolous became the ancient version of Robin Williams or Chris Rock and took great delight in taking the absolute mickey out of Greek society.

From what I have read I believe he accumulated quite a lot of wealth and was actually sponsored by a Greek nobleman called Givitonomy. Givitonomy literally gave away money to people in need and then learned that he could give money to people and get back in return quite a lot of recognition, which meant he could make more money to give away. So the early version of sponsorship was created and by the look of it was very fruitful.

Histeriopolous used to promote Givitonomies business. His business was teaching farmers and herdsman how to better manage their herds -and eventually branched out into all forms of agriculture. He would get paid mostly in goods, of which he would keep what he needed and sell the rest to other people. Because the farmers looked after their farms better they grew more and harvetsed more and so Givitonomy became quite famous and gathered more clients. This is where it all gets quite interesting; because his business grew, he had to employ and teach others to do the same job as him and it is recorded that one of Givitnomies employees was a man called Consultium who went on to establish a his own teaching school and so the word consultant was born into business language.

It just keeps getting better because Consultium thought a better way to do business was to get others to do it and he would have a share in their business - basically the equivalent of a modern day franchise. While the word franchise was not used in ancient Greece - Consultiums first franchise holder was a man called Levaria and Consultium told franchise holders that they to could teach and earn money Levaria's way - or by what we now refer to as Leverage.

So a chain of events 2-3000 years ago was the set up for a modern business language, a chain of events set in motion by a man called Laupheis Histeriopolous who got some financial help from a Greek entrpreneur.

I just started writing my first ebook called "Stick to the Basics - because everything else is just bullshit" This Ancient Greek story will be in the book.

Connection

Its January 23rd and work is in full swing - My theme for this year is CONNECTION - with recession and slowing economies it is important to stay connected to people and your business.

Connect with your customers regularly

Connect with your staff every day

Connect with your suppliers

Connect with your bankers if they will let you in the door. We know banks are not very good at connecting unless they need to collect a payment - how often do your bankers call you out of the blue to see how things are going - you would think that with a $50million dollar advertising budget a bank could spend some on the basics of just making a call - no - instead we get animated piggy banks, a very tired and now lacking imagination Ira Goldstein, a Black horse showing up everywhere (nice looking horse), Scotsman who couldn't be understood by the banker but we could understand him in the advert EH??? WHY NOT JUST CONNECT WITH THE CUSTOMER FROM TIME TO TIME.

Connect with your knowledge center and stay updated

Connect with your board of directors and make sure the plan is functional and the path through the recession is on track

Connect with your managers and listen to them and their ideas and make sure they connect with their teams and listen to them

Connect with the market - understand and find the opportunities that exist - even in a recession

Connect with you wife, husband partner and enjoy them, date them, hold hands, make love, share a moment or just be together - they are always there.

Connect with your children and enjoy them, play a few games, let them know you love them, tell them you are proud of them and always kiss them goodnight and before you go to work and give them a hug when you come home so they know you are glad to see them.

Connect with yourself - take some time out on your own just to think and read, and write in your journal or to have a nice glass of wine and just relax.

Connect Connect Connect and then Connect some more.

I am wanting to connect with the young up-and-coming stars in your business with my new program 'The Olympic Gold Medal Program for the Rising Stars in your Business.' Check it out at www.executivecoaching.co.nz

If you need a motivation speech to kick the year off , have a strategy you need facilitated, want to do some planning for the future, or you need some coaching to get you on track or raise the bar or to bring an edge then connect with me - (07) 8277180.

Have a connecting good year.

It's what you do that counts

I recently attended a clients one day conference for their business owners and presenting at the end of the day was Neil Richardson whom some of you may have heard of. Neil made a statement that resonated with the group - "in the good times you do well because it is the good times, but in the bad times you do well because of what you do". What is you do? I say again what is it you actually do. If there was ever a great time to consider this, it is now in the so called recessionary period. What is your focus and is it the right thing to focus on

Some of you may have read Good to Great by Jim Collins. In it he talks about the hedgehog concept which is based on a fable about the hedgehog and the fox. The fox is a canny character who is all over the place looking for his next meal. Trying to get himself in hen houses, down rabbit holes, into birds nests and wherever he can find some food - all the while trying not to become prey himself. The hedgehog however hangs around the hedge feeding up large on the plentiful supply of bugs and grubs and whenever something tries to do him harm he just rolls up in a ball and waits it out, then goes back to looking for grubs.

In essence the hedgehog has focus. Jim Collins offers the following three questions to help you get your focus;
1. What are you deeply passionate about - e.g. am I deeply passionate about coaching? - no! But I am passionate about the results of coaching and about the differences that I can make.

2. What can you potentially be the best in the world at. I believe I am a good coach but I know I can potentially be the best in the world at coaching individuals and small teams for 12 months or more. I know this because this is where I get my best results and it is these people that refer business to me regularly.

3. What is your economic driver - mine is simple 'cash flow per customer' which means repeat business or a cheque every month.

The challenge I offer you is to ask these same three questions of yourself and your business or company. By doing this it will create focus for you. If you need help call me and I can assist you. If you really want to understand more about the Hedgehog then I can recommend the book Good to Great by Jim Collins.

Have a great Christmas and a good rest because you know you will need to be focused next year.