archive for May, 2010

Pearls And Pom-Poms

Posted on: May 31st, 2010 by Nate Bagley

Arby's Employee Pearl Weaver
Pearl Weaver is the epitome of incredible customer service.

Pearl has been with Arby’s for 19 years, and currently works at the Arby’s on 32nd Street in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. A few years ago, the employees at Unit 1172 were challenged not only to make their jobs fun, but to make sure Arby’s customers were having fun. Pearl took this challenge to heart, and has become the frontrunner of customer service for an entire town.

At 89 years old, Pearl Weaver consistently greets Arby’s patrons with a bright smile and a wave of her pom-poms as she takes orders and busses tables. John Wallace, General Manager of the 32nd Street Arby’s, says that Pearl’s energy and work ethic is contagious. “She’s a good natured, let’s get it done person.”

Pearl’s name consistently shows up in conjunction with positive feedback in the 32nd Street Arby’s customer satisfaction surveys. People love her. They talk about her. If she takes a week off, people start to ask about her.

To demonstrate the incredible influence Pearl has had on the community, John related the story of a local college senior. This young man says he’s only known one level of customer service his whole life… it’s Pearl’s. He credits Pearl for the customer service expertise that he will be taking into the work force upon his upcoming graduation.

Imagine if your customers noticed when their favorite employees missed a few days!

Imagine if your employees affected entire generations of youth in your local community!

In a world where many people look for ways to do the bare minimum, Pearl finds personal satisfaction in brightening the day of every customer and employee who crosses her path. Her attitude is the perfect example of what customer service is all about.

To witness the magic in person, next time you’re in Camp Hill, PA, drop by Arby’s on 32 South 32nd Street for the customer experience of a lifetime!
As soon as you enter the restaurant, you’ll be greeted with pom-poms and a yell by one of Arby’s finest!

Pearl Weaver is the epitome of incredible customer service.

Pearl has been with Arby’s for 19 years, and currently works at the Arby’s on 32nd Street in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. A few years ago, the employees at Unit 1172 were challenged not only to make their jobs fun, but to make sure Arby’s customers were having fun. Pearl took this challenge to heart, and has become the frontrunner of customer service for an entire town.

At 89 years old, Pearl Weaver consistently greets Arby’s patrons with a bright smile and a wave of her pom-poms as she takes orders and busses tables. John Wallace, General Manager of the 32nd Street Arby’s, says that Pearl’s energy and work ethic is contagious. “She’s a good natured, let’s get it done person.”

Pearl’s name consistently shows up in conjunction with positive feedback in the 32nd Street Arby’s customer satisfaction surveys. People love her. They talk about her. If she takes a week off, people start to ask about her.

To demonstrate the incredible influence Pearl has had on the community, John related the story of a local college senior. This young man says he’s only known one level of customer service his whole life… it’s Pearl’s. He credits Pearl for the customer service expertise that he will be taking into the work force upon his upcoming graduation.

Imagine if your customers noticed when their favorite employees missed a few days!

Imagine if your employees affected entire generations of youth in your local community!

In a world where many people look for ways to do the bare minimum, Pearl finds personal satisfaction in brightening the day of every customer and employee who crosses her path. Her attitude is the perfect example of what customer service is all about.

To witness the magic in person, next time you’re in Camp Hill, PA, drop by Arby’s on 32 South 32nd Street for the customer experience of a lifetime!

As soon as you enter the restaurant, you’ll be greeted with pom-poms and a yell by one of Arby’s finest!

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Posted in Customer Service, Success Stories | No Comments »

Tapping Your Potential

Posted on: May 27th, 2010 by John Crofts - VP, Analytics

These days, time, more so than anything else, is the one thing that none of us can seem to get a handle on.  It’s as elusive as the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  Not even the most successful men and women in this world ever conquered time.  They did, however, learn to make the most of what they had.  I love the story of the boilermaker and the engine problem that no one else could figure out.

A boilermaker…was hired to fix a huge steamship boiler system that was not working well.  After listening to the engineer’s description of the problems and asking a few questions, he went to the boiler room.  He looked at the maze of twisting pipes, listened to the thump of the boiler and the hiss of escaping steam for a few minutes, and felt some pipes with his hands.  Then he hummed softly to himself, reached into his overalls and took out a small hammer, and tapped a bright red valve one time.  Immediately, the entire system began working perfectly, and the boilermaker went home.  When the steamship owner received a bill for one thousand dollars, he complained that the boilermaker had only been in the engine room for fifteen minutes and requested an itemized bill.  So the boilermaker sent him a bill that reads as follows:

For tapping the valve:
$0.50
For knowing where to tap:
$999.50
Total:
$1,000.00

Taken from “Chicken Soup for the College Soul”,
by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, & Kimberly Kirberger

We too can become as the wise boilermaker.  We can wring the most out of life and time.  The secret lies in acquiring the proper tools and learning where to tap, being targeted with our efforts.

Identify what tools you need and use them.  If you don’t have them, get them now!  Measurement systems such as Mindshare provide you invaluable insights into your organization, bringing transparency into the very heart of your business and guiding you to your problem areas.  They point out the broken valve and show you where to tap.

Now tap!  The best managers focus their efforts on those areas where it will make the biggest difference, given the amount of effort.  They gather the low-hanging fruit first, before they ever venture into the unreachable heights.  For example, it takes much less effort to coach a low-performer to a moderate level of performance than it does to coach a moderate performer to an exceptional level of performance.  Beware the Law of Diminishing returns.

Think of that towel you dropped in the lake on vacation last weekend, soaked all the way through.  How much effort did it take to wring the water out of it?  You may have gone about it one of two ways:  1) You may have squeezed out every last drop, or  2) You may have twisted out most of the water and let the air dry the rest.  These two outcomes require VERY different amounts of time and effort.  The former may have taken five minutes of intense work and left your hands burning.  The latter likely required a quick 10 second twist, and done.  Either way, your initial 10 seconds removed 90% of the water…good enough, and onto other things.

Your organization and your day-to-day managerial duties consist of an abundance of soaked towels, under varying degrees of saturation.  Your objective:  To wring out as much productivity, efficiency, and ultimately profit as you can.  Don’t waste your time on towels that are merely damp.  There are too many others lying around that are soaked to the core.  Identify those employees, stores, specific areas of performance, etc. that are performing lowest and roll up your sleeves.  Tenaciously focus on these low performers and you are guaranteed to yield results.  But keep in mind, this isn’t easy.  The lowest performers are rarely the most enjoyable to work with.  Why else would so many businesses underperform?

Tap your potential:  Get the right tools.  Learn where to tap.  Focus.  Squeeze the most out of life.

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Success Is In The Details

Posted on: May 27th, 2010 by Chad Hortin - VP of Account Management

Image courtesy of Stu Seeger (http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuseeger/)

On the first day of practice, Coach John Wooden took off his sneakers and socks and told his players to do the same. Then he went through a careful demonstration, showing them how to eliminate wrinkles, creases, and folds in their socks.  The players usually wore two pair of socks, and he would show them how to precisely smooth them out one pair at a time: tuck them in from the toe on down, while squeezing out the wrinkles and folds.  He wanted those socks to be smoothed out all the way up the calves.  There were some funny looks among the players, but Coach Wooden was not willing to take any chances on details he deemed important to performance.  So, he taught them how to do it right.

That attention to detail extended to every part of preparing the team.  Practices were formatted minute-to-minute ahead of time, with specific objectives in mind and specific drills scheduled in sequence.  In his notebook he wrote, “Attentiveness to Detail – Leave nothing to chance.  The difference in the championship team and merely good team is often the perfection of minor details.”

For most of Mindshare’s clients, one of their primary objectives is to provide customers or guests with such a positive, memorable experience that they will want to return and will talk about the business in a favorable light to others.  For the majority of our clients, it is the  employees that are on the front line, interacting directly with customers day after day who  can have the greatest impact on providing that positive and memorable experience.  At a recent conference, one of Mindshare’s clients continually referred to a critical theme for them, “Remember, our front line is our bottom line.”  As the conference progressed I was impressed by how often and by how many different people this concept was reinforced.

How can we best prepare our teams to provide that positive, memorable experience on a consistent basis?  While the exact nature of each of our businesses differs, I would suggest that there are two keys that are critical to making this happen.

First, take the time to identify the exact nature of the “relevant details” for your organization.  What are the key things that need to be done right every time and what details that need to be executed consistently to make that happen?  What things get in the way of perfect delivery every time?  How can you eliminate those things that get in the way of perfect execution?  These details will be different for every organization and they may change from time to time.  An effective leader will have the ability to correctly identify the details that really matter and can create an incremental advantage for their organization.

Second, relentlessly pursue consistency and improvement in delivering on those details. This will require an ongoing effort to monitor the guest experience, listen to what guests tell you about their experience, learn from what your guests have to say and then apply what is learned to make improvements.   This will require a commitment of time and effort to do a better job on those details that will be noticed by your guests and separate you from the competition.

Coach John Wooden is considered by many to be the greatest coach of all time.  He was very successful in building championship teams.  His teams set many records, winning  10 national championships in 12 years  (including seven in a row); 88 consecutive victories; 38 straight tournament playoff wins; four perfect seasons; with only one losing year – his first – in 41 years of coaching.  One of his keys to building championships teams was “Success is in the details.”  You too can build a championship team by identifying those details that are critical to successfully delivering a positive, memorable experience to your guests and consistently pursuing improvement in the execution of those details.

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The Platinum Rule

Posted on: May 25th, 2010 by Nate Bagley

Pot of Gold by tao_zhynYour business is not about you. It’s about your customers!

As your business grows, so does your customer base. With that growth comes diversity. If you are not constantly listening to what your customers want, you may miss the mark.

It’s easy to become blinded by your own ambition.  You started a business to fulfill a specific need, or solve a particular problem.  You saw an opportunity, you took advantage of it, and people loved it. But now you have a community of people who have invested in you with their all mighty dollar. Not only are they a part of your success, they are the reason for it!

Your vision brought them together. You now have the option to continue doing what you want, or to involve your community and give them what they want.

There is a difference between the Golden Rule and the Platinum Rule (as coined by Dr. Tony Alessandra).

Golden Rule – “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

Platinum Rule -“Do unto others as they would have you do unto them.”

In the business world, your customers would much prefer to have their needs met than to feed your ego, or accommodate the vision of your business. Make sure you are continually asking your customers what they want or need. Then, be willing to give it to them!

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Posted in Customer Feedback | 1 Comment »

The Operational Feedback Cloud

Posted on: May 20th, 2010 by Kurt Williams - CTO

It’s 1896 and you’ve just bought your first car.  Well, the term “bought” is as loose as the spare parts rattling around in a box that will someday be your first car.  Henry Ford’s assembly line is still 16 years away so you’ll have to “do-it-yourself” if you want an automobile.  Oh, and the chassis and box of DIY auto parts cost you over $70,000 in 2009 dollars.  When you’re finished the car will get over 16 miles per gallon.  The good news is it costs just under $3 (2009 prices).  The bad news is it’s sold at the general store 15 miles away, a long way for a fill-up.

Flash forward to 2009 where automobiles magically appear, pre-assembled on showroom floors. You  pay as little as $10,000 for a new one. Fuel will have been drilled for at a remote oil rig in the middle of the ocean, refined in Texas, and shipped to a network of over 15 brands of gas station scattered every mile or so.  Amazingly, you will complain that a gallon of gas costs $2.80.

Automobile assembly, fuel production, and distribution have been made inexpensive through standardization and ready availability.  They’re performed “out there,” invisibly, by someone else.  You would never dream of doing it yourself.  You couldn’t perform those services as well or as cheaply as the network of producers and distributers can.  These services have been pushed away from you.

This trend has extended to enterprise computing.  Traditionally companies had to maintain their own stack of hardware and software, and a fleet of expensive IT professionals to wrangle it all.  Companies were forced to become experts in businesses other than their own.  Rather than worrying about being great hotels, restaurants, or retail chains, companies had to worry about being great e-commerce, data warehouse, and CRM companies.  Increasingly IT software and hardware solutions are being offered  through “the Cloud,” a popular metaphor for the Internet, as an on-demand service, allowing companies to get back to what they do best: serving customers.

A major type of Cloud Computing is Software as a Service (SaaS) which bundles a hosted hardware solution with a customized application delivered via the web.  SaaS vendors worry about the intricacies of managing hardware as well as providing elastic scalability.  Enterprises benefit from huge reductions in capital expenditures and their users benefit from being able to access their data from any browser connected to the Internet.  Mindshare is a SaaS provider of Enterprise Feedback Management (EFM).

EFM has emerged as a popular term describing how feedback can be captured and distributed throughout the enterprise.  But feedback doesn’t need to be “managed.”  It needs to be leveraged. It needs to be turned into actionable business intelligence.  EFM suffers from some of the same terminology flaws as CRM does: Customer Relationship Management – it’s rarely about the customer, almost never improves the relationship, and nobody really wants to be managed.  Consider a new term: The Operational Feedback Cloud.

Feedback exists “out there”, in the cloud.  It exists in automated Web surveys and captured voice comments.  It exists in blogs and social networks.  In email transcripts and text messages.  Feedback permeates the cloud, in both structured and unstructured forms.  It only makes sense that an ideal feedback provider exist in, and harness the power of, the Operational Feedback Cloud.

Mindshare is one of the earliest SaaS EFM vendors and the market leader in actionable operational feedback.  We’re extending our leadership role by developing new technologies to allow you to tap into the Operational Feedback Cloud:

  • Improved Web services-based data integration
  • Text and voice analytics for leveraging unstructured data
  • Social Network integration for plugging directly into the Cloud
  • An interactive actionable feedback dashboard
  • Advanced automated data analytics that transform data into intelligence

Mindshare’s Software as a Service lets companies tap into the Operational Feedback Cloud, pushing away feedback capture and distribution so they can focus on the “what and why” while we worry about the “how.”

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Posted in Customer Feedback, Employee Feedback | No Comments »