Down the Drain

I recently wrote a post about the less glamorous side of  first impressions.  One of the examples I gave involved restrooms.  It’s an area that can often get overlooked when thinking through first impressions and your guest experience.  However, it can quickly create a negative experience.

It’s interesting to go into a really nice environment and find a horribly maintained restroom.  Equally interesting, is to go into a place that’s dirty and not well-maintained, but has an immaculate restroom.  I’ve been in nice restaurants that have surprisingly dirty bathrooms and restrooms in run down gas stations that looked like they belonged in a four star hotel.  In both cases the quality of my experience was impacted.

Here are a few areas to think through when evaluating the restrooms:

• Smell – hopefully it smells good or at least not bad.  Air fresheners are cheap
• Paper Products – TP & Paper Towels – make sure before an event that these items are well stocked
• Trash Cans – these need to be in a place that are accessible, because if they aren’t trash will end up all over the floor. Please place at least one beside the door for the germaphobes
• The Floor – clean it well before and after an event
• It might be a good idea to assign someone to make rounds and do some spot cleaning (wipe up any water on the counter, pick up trash on the floor, etc.) at regular intervals

For additional reading – here’s an article about first impressions, rest rooms, and the college admissions experience from TargetX.  Here’s a look at the winners of a contest they held.

Simple?

I’ve always been a big fan of simplicity.  I like products, services, and technology that make my life simpler.  I especially love systems that simply processes for all involved.

I read a post on Kem Meyer’s blog a few months ago about simplicity that made a lot of sense.  Here are my favorite excerpts:

There’s always something you can simplify. In fact, I had one meeting today about simplifying our web site and have one scheduled for tomorrow about simplifying our volunteer sign-up process. In both cases, our current solution makes sense to us internally, but is stalling out externally. Instead of defending why we do it the way we do, we’re going to figure out what needs to change. That means we have some work to do.

Simple is smart and it’s hard work. Complicated is ignorant and it’s lazy. Just sayin’.

I love the line, “it makes sense to us internally, but is stalling out externally.”  It shows their willingness to simply the process not only for insiders, but also for outsiders – in their case, guests.  Often times it’s simpler for those on the inside to keep things the way they are, but if outsiders get lost on your website, in your store, can’t follow your concept, or are just plain confused by your system – maybe the best thing (for you and for them) is to make things simple for those on the outside.  The long-term growth and success of your organization, at some level, depends on outsiders.

The last line in the quote about is often one of the reasons that simplicity gets overlooked.  It’s hard work!  You have to plan, execute, evaluate, plan, execute, evaluate, plan, etc.  It might take you months or even years to make a process or a system simple for those on the outside.

Less Glamorous Side of First Impressions

My dad’s managed restaurants for my entire life, so needless to say I’ve spent a lot of time in and around them.  One thing that I never understood when I was younger was why he would always pick up trash around the parking lot on his way in or out.  A couple of days ago I was thinking about this again and it reminded me that thing little things matter, and

Less glamorous can = Big Impact

He knew that even if the service was excellence and the food tasted great, if guests constantly had to walk past trash on their way in it would negatively affect their experience.  If you walked into a nice office or a theater, but the bathroom had paper towels all over the floor, a dirty counter, and writing on the stalls, it would change your impression of the environment.

It’s easy to get people excited about the glamorous side of first impressions – greeting guests, providing them with much-needed information, being the host/hostess or waiter/waitress at a restaurant.  It’s not very often you find people competing to pick cigarette butts out of the mulch or scrape gum off the floor.  When it comes to first impressions, the less glamorous roles – picking up trash, washing dishes, cleaning the bathrooms, landscaping – are as important as the high-profile ones.

I’ve given a few examples, but also know that a lot more exist.  What are some examples you’ve seen of this positively or negatively?

Complete the Experience

A few months ago I was dining at One Midtown Kitchen with some friends and experience something that I think translates into a great customer service principle.

The experience that evening was definitely good – the food was well prepared and presented, the service was excellent, and the atmosphere was carefully planned.  We had finished our meal and were talking as we walked toward the door.  Just before we walked out the door the host engaged us, asked us about our experience, and wished us a good evening.  Then, once we were outside, the valet engaged us and also asked out about our experience.

The experience was already good – the actions of the host and the valet made it great, they worked to

Complete the Experience

As I’ve been thinking about this principle for a few months I’ve seen it pop up in other places.  AAA makes good use of this to check on the service their members received.  After you call them for service, they’ll call you within the next 24 hours to see if everything was okay, your service was prompt and if you need anything else.  Some business and churches have “exit greeters” who greet you on the way out to try to complete your experience.

What if performing arts centers, theaters, and arenas started doing this?  “Thanks for spending the evening (and your money) with us we hope you have a safe trip home.”  What about your mechanic?  “Thanks for trusting me with you car (i.e. something you probably don’t know a lot about) do you have any questions about the service I did today?”

Where have you experienced or seen an organization “complete the experience.”  How did they do it?  Were they excellent in something small, or did they go over the top?


Guesses

I read a great quote last year, “let’s just call plans what they are…guesses” (from Jason at the 37 signals blog). In the spirit of beginning a new year and the inevitable resolutions, plans, goals that ensue, I’ve listed links to some of the more helpful posts I’ve come across in the last few weeks about “guesses” and the new year.

• Jeff Henderson (Buckhead Church Blog) – The Secret to Starting 2010 Strong
• Don Miller – Living a Good Story, An Alternative to New Years Resolutions
• Michael Hyatt – Seven Questions to Ask About Last Year & How to Make New Year’s Resolutions Stick
• Mark Beeson – The Notion of Giving Advice
• Brad Lomenick – Questions to Ask for Reviewing 2009 & Get Your Mojo Back

If you don’t already have a list of “guesses,” then it’s not too late to start.  If you plans become a reality, they probably don’t care if you started on January 1st or January 15th.

2010 Reading List

Last week I posted an update to my 2009 reading list.  Here’s my initial reading list for 2010.  I call it an initial list, because it’s a list of books that I plan on reading, but as you can tell from my 2009 list there will probably be some additions and subtractions to the list throughout the year:

• Outliers – Malcolm Gladwell
• What the Dog Saw – Malcom Gladwell
• Uprising – Erwin McManus
• Good to Great – Jim Collins
• How the Mighty Fall – Jim Collins
• Superfreakonomics – Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner
• Fired Up or Burned Out – Michael Lee Stallard
• The Meaning of the Pentateuch – John H. Sailhamer
• 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership – John Maxwell
• Mavericks at Work – William Taylor & Polly Lebarre
• The E-Myth Revisited – Michael Gerber
• The Reason for God – Tim Keller
• Prodigal God – Tim Keller
• Counterfeit Gods – Tim Keller
• The Six Fundamental Laws of Success – Stuart Levine
• The Back of the Napkin – Dan Roam
• Courageous Leadership – Bill Hybels
• Axiom – Bill Hybels
• Mentor Like Jesus – Regi Campbell
• Unleashing the Power of Rubber Bands – Nancy Ortberg
• Walking with God – John Eldredge
• Think Orange – Reggie Joiner
• The Starbucks Experience – Joseph Michelli
• The Experience Economy – Joseph Pine & James Gilmore
• The Principle of the Path – Andy Stanley
• 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Stephen Covey
• What Jesus Demands from the World – John Piper
• Derailed – Tim Irwin

That’s what I have so far.  As I said above, I’m sure there will be some changes as the year progresses.  Any other suggestions?

Reading Update

At the beginning of the year I posted my 2009 reading list.  I thought I’d give an update on how I’m doing (as much for myself as for anyone else).  It looks like right now that I’ll read 22 books by the end of the year, which is shy of my goal (at least 24 books) – so next year I need to get in a better rhythm or pick up the pace a little.

Here’s my reading list for 2009:

• The Back of the Napkin – Dan Roam
• Courageous Leadership – Bill Hybels
• Axiom – Bill Hybels
• Be Our Guest – The Disney Institute
• Walking with God – John Eldredge
• Sex:God – Rob Bell
• First Impressions – Mark Waltz
• The Deity Formerly Known as God – Jarret Stevens
• Mavericks at Work – William Taylor & Polly Lebarre
• The Truth About You – Marcus Buckingham
• Why Work Sucks & How to Fix It – Cari Ressler & Jody Thompson
• 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, updated edition – John C Maxwell
• Communicating for a Change – Andy Stanley & Lane Jones
• Tribes – Seth Godin
• What Got You Here Won’t Get You There – Marshall Goldsmith
• Uprising – Erwin McManus
• Unleashing the Power of Rubber Bands – Nancy Ortberg
• I am not but I know I AM - Louie Giglio
• Blink – Malcolm Gladwell
• Creating Community – Andy Stanley & Bill Willits
• Fired Up or Burned Out – Michael Lee Stallard
• The Encore Effect – Mark Sanborn
• The Purple Cow – Seth Godin
• Killing Cockroaches – Tony Morgan
• Letters from a Nut – Ted L. Nancy
• The Go Giver – Bob Burg & John David Mann
• Leadership & Self Deception – The Arbinger Institute
• Chasing Daylight – Eugene O’Kelly
• Cirque Du Soleil: The Spark – John U. Bacon & Lyn Heward
• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team – Patrick Lencioni
• Primal – Mark Batterson
• A Million Miles in a Thousand Years – Donald Miller

If you’re interested, here’s a list of books that I read in 2008.  In a few days I’ll post my initial book list for 2010.

Review – Primal

Primal is the third book that I’ve read by Mark Batterson, and just like In a Pit With A Lion on a Snowy Day and Wild Goose Chase, his latest book does not disappoint.  This book has a different voice than his previous two works, although there are still plenty of challenges.  Primal is about “rediscovering the lost soul of Christianity.”  It’s about stripping away all the things that have gotten in the way over the years and going back to the things of first importance.  Batterson not only challenges the reader with new concepts, but he also challenges the reader to take action.

Batterson says that as Christians we’re often “not that great at the Great Commandment.” He “re-imagines the four primal elements detailed by Jesus in the Great Commandment:”

The heart of Christianity is primal compassion
The soul of Christianity is primal wonder
The mind of Christianity is primal curiosity
The strength of Christianity is primal energy – p. 7

Here are just a few quotes/ideas that caught my attention:

• If you are in Christ and Christ is in you cannot be okay with suffering or injustice or starvation.  Why?  Because His heart is in you.  And His heart beats for the suffering, the victim, the poor, and the needy.  p. 20
• Meditating on it [Scripture] turns one-dimensional knowledge into two-dimensional understanding.  Living it out turns two-dimensional understanding into three-dimensional obedience.  p. 72
• The church ought to be the most curious place on the planet.  We ought to be a safe place where people can ask dangerous questions, but all too often we’re guilty of answering questions that no on else even asking.  We ought to be challenging the status quo, but all too often we’re guilty of defending it.  p. 97
• Energy may be the least appreciated dimension of love because it’s the least sentimental.  But it’s the most practical.  And how we invest our energy revels our true priorities.  p. 134

I think this is a great book and one I’ll come back to in coming months.  If you haven’t already finalized your reading list for next year, it’s worth adding Primal.  You can go here to find out more about purchasing a copy

This book was provided for review by WaterBrook Multnomah

Define the Deliverables

Matt Perman over at What’s Best Next (a blog that I’ve been following for a couple of months) has a great post on making sure you Define the Deliverables on a project.  Don’t just come up with the ideas, make sure you take time to figure out exactly what’s expected.  Matt says:

Defining the deliverables directs your attention to outcomes rather than activities.  Activities are not necessarily productive.  Many of the activities we do are not necessary…if you think first of deliverables, your mind is directed right away to outcomes instead. This will immediately filter out a whole bunch of activities and cause you to identify and focus in on only the activities that are actually essential to the project.

Check out the rest of the post here.  While you’re over there, you might want to look at some of his other great posts on priorities and productivity.

The Truth About You

The Truth About You is the latest strengths based leadership book from Marcus Buckingham.  It was an easier read, but it had a lot of great practical application.  The book comes with a DVD, which has a short movie about strengths, and a “Re-memo” pad for capturing both strengths and weaknesses.  This interactive experience involves more nuts-and-bolts practical application, which distinguishes it from many leadership books on the shelves today.  Lots of books dump a mount of information on you, but don’t encourage you to do anything with it.

Below I’ve listed his main ideas:

• Performance is always the point:  Don’t expect your organization to know you like you do
  • In most cases the only interest they have in your strengths is whether or not they enhance your performance for the organization.
• Your strengths aren’t what you’re good at, and your weaknesses aren’t what you’re bad at.
  • Buckingham wants to correct the common misconception that if you’re good at something is must be a strength.
  • His definition of a strength is any activity that makes you fell strong – i.e when you’re done you feel fulfilled, focused, in the zone, and time seems to pass quickly.
• When it comes to your job, the “What” always trumps the “Why” and the “Who”: So always ask, “What will I be paid to do?”
  • Once you know the “What,” then compare it to your actual strengths before making the decision.
• You’ll never find a perfect job:  So every week, for the rest of your life, develop a strong week plan.
  • Strong week plan – pick out two things you are going to do to put your strengths into play each week and attempt to implement them.
• You’ll never turn your weaknesses into strengths:  So fess up to your weaknesses, and neutralize them.
  • Once you’re clear what they are, you’ll have to deal with them.

If you’ve read Buckingham’s books before you’ll probably find the material to be a summary of his strengths teaching and similar to GO! Put Your Strengths To Work.  This book is an ideal introduction to strengths based leadership for those who have never read any of his books before, and also ideal for high school and college students.  I wish someone had exposed me to these concepts much earlier in life.  You can preview the book here, or purchase your own copy here.

Killing Cockroaches

I just finished reading a copy of Tony Morgan‘s new book Killing Cockroaches.  It’s not about killing actual cockroaches, although there are instructions on how to do that in the book.  He says that “killing cockroaches is a euphemism for responding to the urgent stuff in our lives that keeps us from doing the important stuff in our lives.”

As I was reading the book, the format reminded me of something Guy Kawasaki said about his latest book Reality Check in a recent edition of the Catalyst Podcast.  He said his own recent book was more like a desk reference and that at any given time much of the content would not be relevant to your current situation; however, the stuff that isn’t relevant today might be relevant six months for now.  I’m sure I’ll flag my copy, mark it up with lots of notes and keep it handy for future reference.  Below I’ve listed some (by no means all) of the interesting things I came across:

• Tony’s own formula for killing cockroaches (the metaphorical ones)
• 48 Simple Strategies for Better Blogging
• Deal Breakers for Leaders (including:  “Leaders won’t be fulfilled by performing tasks, & Leader’s won’t commit to ambiguity”)
• Interesting stories about a mustang convertible, giant inflatable blue monkeys, & gunky build up.
• 10 Easy Ways to Know You’re Not a Leader (including:  You’re waiting on a bigger staff and more money to accomplish your vision, & No one is following you)
• Great tips on crafting your message to be heard
• Insights from other leaders about how they avoid killing cockroaches (including: Craig Groeschel, Mark Batterson, Penelope Trunk, & Seth Godin)

There are a lot more helpful insights, interesting stories, and top 10 lists in the book.  I highly recommend picking up a copy.  If you want to know more about the book, you can check out some additional information here, or buy it here.  For more from Tony, check out his blog.

Margin

Brad Lomenick had a great post a few weeks ago on margin that I keep coming back to lately.  

Margin in our lives overall creates options. Options to pursue dreams, think, pray, relax, meditate, process, grow and ultimately live life more fully.

On the flip-side, lack of margin makes us tense, creates stress and pushes for quick decisions. Lack of margin leads to stale and forced relationships, and drives us towards the most available options, but many times not the best.

That’s where I”m at right now.  Not the options part, but the tense, stress, stale relationships, etc. part.  Read the entire post here.

Fred on Systems

Below is the final post in a short series of quotes from The Fred Factor that applied to areas of interest for me.  Here are some links in case you want to know more about the book and/or the author.  Today’s post examines the topic of Systems:

• Simplify

• Make it easier for people to get what they need from you.  Eliminate red tape and mind-numbing bureaucracy
  • Don’t create steps in your systems that don’t accomplish your end goal.
  • If there’s still a lot of bureaucracy, then maybe you need to re-examine the end goal.

• …Think about the systems you are a part of.  You know how things work.  Where are the shortcuts?
• What does an insider – that would be you – know that would benefit an outsider?
  • Try to remember your first interactions with your organization or other organizations and reflect on the sticking points that you encountered.
  • You can practice this both internally and externally.  Try to not only think about the external customer experience, but also the internal customer experience (i.e. employees, key leaders, or volunteers).  How easy was it to get connected?  Is the new hire orientation helpful or just a bunch of information like every other place you’ve worked?)

• If you want to be of greater service to others, use your knowledge and expertise to help them understand what appears to be a complex and overwhelming situation.
  • This is especially true for those who are new, interacting with your organization for the first time, and may not know the “rules” yet.

• Continually Create Value For Others
  • Are your systems designed to create value for those who interact with them?
  • Are people better off or worse off after they’ve interacted with your organization?

• Increase your implementation quotient – It isn’t enough just to have good ideas if you don’t do something with them.
  • You have to actually do the hard work of implementing all the systems you think up in your meetings.

My good friend Casey Ross has some great posts about systems on his blog.  Here are two about systems and environments.  Be sure to look around at some of his other great posts while you’re there.

Fred on Vision/Leadership

This is the second in a series of posts including thoughts/quotes/ideas from The Fred Factor, which are related to areas that I care a lot about.  You can read the first post here.  The quotes in today’s post are related to vision and leadership.

• Command-and-control short-circuits the spirit of the Fred Factor, which is about opportunity, not obligation.
  • Recruit to opportunities not needs – use opportunity language.  
  • Don’t say, “We really need volunteers, please volunteer!”  Cast vision and let them know that you have an opportunity for them to be a part of what’s going on in your organization.

• Here’s what you can do:  Invite people to join you.  Use your enthusiasm and commitment to gain their participation and involvement.
  • Call others to participate with you.  
  • Make the ask, and make it personal

• The most powerful tool you have for spreading the Fred Factor throughout your organization is your own behavior – the example of your life and the effect it has on others.
  • You’ve got to live out the vision and display the behavior that you’re calling others to adopt.  

• You teach what you know, but you reproduce who you are. – John Maxwell
  • You can’t fake this – you have to be bought in – otherwise it becomes a “do as I say and not as I do” endeavor – even then, according to the above principle – you’ll reproduce those in your organization that are like you.

• “No man can become rich without himself enriching others.” – Andrew Carnegie – p. 81
  • You have to help others and invest in their development.  
  • If you accomplish the vision at the expense of relationships and people, then you’re not really doing a good job.

• We get the behavior we reward.
  • What’s rewarded is repeated – what gets measured gets managed

• Uninspired people rarely do inspired work.
  • You must cast vision repeatedly to remind people why they’re doing what they’re doing.  
  • It’s vitally important to connect what they’re doing to the heart of the vision – they have to understand the crucial role that they play.  You’ve got to show them how what they do is an integral part of accomplishing the vision.

• Nobody can prevent you from being extraordinary.  (this is one of Mark Sanborn’s favorite quotes from the book).
  • Proof that the most important person to lead and cast vision for is yourself.

Fred on People/Customer Service

A couple of weeks ago I closed out my 2008 reading list by reading The Fred Factor, by Mark Sanborn.  As I was reading, there were some thoughts/quotes/ideas that stood out to me specifically related to some areas that I care a lot about.  I decided to do a short series of posts (i.e. 2-3) with some of these ideas.

For today, here are some thoughts that stood out related to dealing with people and customer service:

“Success is built one relationship at a time“

• This is true for any type/sphere of relationship (personal, customer, vendor, co-worker)

“Remember that the quality of a relationship is related directly to the amount of time invested in it.  Make sure you give some of your best time to your relationships.”

• Questions:  Are you giving your best time to your best relationships?
• In an organizational setting, are you giving your best time to your best people and those that have the potential to be your best people?

“Uninspired people rarely do inspired work.”

• If your font line employees, volunteers, advocates aren’t inspired your customers will know it, and sooner or later you’ll know it too.
• Where are there signs of “vision leaks” in your organization?

“Customers don’t have relationships with organizations; they form relationships with individuals.”

• People often try something for the first time, because someone else invited them or told them about their positive experience (restaurants, cars, vacation spots, new cell phone company, church, new dry cleaners, etc.)
• People often stay around, keep coming back, etc. longer than they normally would, because they feel a connection or have built a relationship with someone in your organization
• This can either be a help or a hindrance – it depends on the people you have in your organization

“Do the right thing, because it’s the right thing.”

• Even if it’s costly