TIPS NewsletterTIPS Newsletter
Date: Mon, 10 April, 2000 01:02:27 -0800
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Common Sense Managing TIPS Newsletter
April 10, 2000
Bill Werst, Editor
Common Sense Managing TIPS Vision: To establish Growth Associates as your primary source of practical proven information on how to build and maintain a solid organization capable of supporting outstanding customer service, customer satisfaction, and continuous quality improvement.
Part of our vision implementation is to use the Common Sense Managing book, TIPS newsletter, and www. growthassociates.org web site information to build rapport and trust with you so that you consider GA first when you need training and consulting services.
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Table of contents:
What You Stroke Is What You Get -- Common Sense Managing Tip of the Week
E-Tail Gets Derailed — What can we learn from this?
Common Sense Managing Discussion Group
Reader Survey on Rewards Results Are Posted
Order Your Book NOW!
Additional Resource — Alvah Parker
Rate it PLEASE
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What You Stroke Is What You Get
Developing: The initial training new hires receive is critical to their performance and success. Retailers have traditionally put floor people through three days of training. Two and one-half of those days are spent teaching them how to use the cash register. One-quarter day is spent on benefits and the remaining time on customer relations and communications. Small wonder that we find these people standing behind cash registers rather than assisting customers. They are doing what over 83 percent of their training taught them to do - cash registering.
People want to succeed - or at the least avoid pain. Especially during their first days on the job when they are forming an impression of how to behave, and what’s important to their success [or survival]. They are seeking congruency between what the plaque on the wall says and how the organization actually operates.
Successful Common Sense Managers share one-on-one time with all new hires during their first three days on the job. Whether you’re responsible for 25 or 1000 people, imagine the impression it makes on new people when they get to meet you on the first day and hear the vision directly from the BOSS. Meeting you says to them that THEY ARE IMPORTANT to the organization better than any ten training classes would.
What is the first, and most meaningful, impression your new hires get?
What’s the first thing your "teach" them?
How to run a register, diagnose a software problem, trouble-shoot a piece of equipment, locate their locker?
OR
Who your customers are, why the customers are important, how the new hires job affects our customers [directly or indirectly], why the new hire is important to the organization’s success?
Who do your new hire meet on their first days?
A HR administrator and a trainer to begin their development?
OR
The CEO, departments heads, and key people in all major departments?
Is the way you treat new hires congruent with your organization’s Vision?
NOTE: These two questions are referring to ALL new hires, not just executive hires.
This tip of the week is from the Customer Service section of Common Sense Managing: Simple Ideas That Produce Results. The book is immediately available at http://www.growthassociates.org or amazon.com.
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E-Tail Gets Derailed
"CD-Now Inc., once the odds-on favorite to dominate future sales of music to consumers, has warned it may not survive."
"Value America Inc. cut its work force in half and slashed its number of product offerings."
"BeautyScene.com was forced to sell its name and assets to new investors yesterday."
On Wednesday, Wall Street Journal reporters, William M. Bulkeley and Jim Carlton, identified these companies and stated that "many other e-tailers appear doomed." "There’s a huge shakeout going on," says John Warnock, chairman of Adobe Systems. "There will only be a handful of survivors." Two primary reasons for the e-tailer’s crisis: Pricing and Service
Pricing: Bulkeley and Carlton state, "…the very efficiency at the heart of the Web’s retail promise is turning out to be a principal cause of death. The Web has turned out to be too efficient: They have found that they have had to keep prices low, often via special promotions that never seem to end, to please customers who, with just the click of a mouse, can find competing e-tailers."
Two quotes come to mind. The first is "On volume!" referring to the punch line from an old joke about losing money on every sale but making a profit on volume.
The second quote is: "You live by the sword, you die by the sword." Using price as your primary competitive strategy makes your business extremely vulnerable to competitors using the same strategy. An associate,
Al Hahn conducts research and has published multiple articles on service pricing strategy. Many of the principles his research has uncovered on service pricing relate to any business’s strategy. Worth reviewing at http://www.hahnconsulting.com.
Service: When reduced pricing didn’t establish e-tailers as a category leader, many attempted to add service. Unfortunately, this required them to make the kinds of capital investment they originally expected to avoid. The additional costs of service are dripping more red ink on their balance sheets.
Which e-tailers will survive which will fail? I don’t have a crystal ball. However, I do have enough common sense to draw the following conclusions.
Lessons to be learned:
Using low price as your primary competitive strategy is a very dangerous and vulnerable strategy. Customers are willing to pay more if they perceive added value.
Infrastructure counts. The initial business plan may be fine for attracting investors. However, it needs to be converted into a practical organizational plan that will provide meaningful daily structure and guidance.
Customer service only works consistently when it rests on a solid organizational base.
Customer service is most effectively introduced, planned, and budgeted at the time of the organization’s birth, not as an afterthought.
Technology is ever changing. Customer service is not. Too many businesses are attempting to use technology to replace quality customer service, rather than facilitate it. [For a clear definition of customer service see http://www.growthassociates.org, Articles, CUSTOMER SERVICE 101 -- If You Don’t Know The Steps, You Can’t Do The Dance]
Don’t rely too much on your own press clippings. Eventually you are going to have to produce something of value for your company and its shareholders if you plan to stay in business.
Applying this information to your organization:
Are you over relying on price, rather than value, to differentiate yourself in the market place?
Do you have a solid organizational base [infrastructure] established for your organization? [See Common Sense Managing chapters on Vision, Planning, Controlling, and Accountability. Don’t have a book? Order one at http://www.growthassociates.org]
Are you using technology to effectively enhance your customer service practices?
How does what you do add value to your products and services?
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Common Sense Managing Discussion Group
The discussion group is up and running. There are already nine posting. The address to submit, subscribe, or check it out, is http://www.eGroups.com/group/commonsensemanaging/fullinfo.html.
So far I have succeeded in recruiting two General Managers, a Customer Service/Sales Manager, and a Director of HR to monitor your postings and respond when they feel they have something to offer. Each newsletter I am including a bio on one of the volunteer advisors to give you an idea of the depth of their background.
This weeks ‘star’ is JOHN RICE
John has twenty-two years experience in managing ski areas. John has held management positions at Squaw Valley USA, Sierra Summit, Snow Summit, Bear Mountain, and currently serves as General Manager of Sierra at Tahoe Ski Resort. He also serves as a corporate advisor and trainer for Booth Creek Ski Holdings, Inc., which operates 12 resorts across the country, and has consulted with resorts in Canada, Austria, France, and Japan.
A graduate of Chico State University, John sits on the Board of Directors of the California Ski Industries Association (CSIA) and the HR committee of the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA). John is currently writing Lifework, a book about blending passionate leadership with life balance.
Tips on using the Discussion Group
Click on http://www.eGroups.com/group/commonsensemanaging/fullinfo.html
On the left side of the page you will find a Main Page heading. Immediately under it is the word Subscribe.
Click on Subscribe.
You will get a registration window asking your to enter your email name/address, user name, and password.
You will also be given options on how you wish to be notified regarding postings.
I chose the "Send e-mail to" option.
BE SURE TO CLICK JOIN AT THE BOTTOM OF REGISTRATION PAGE.
That’s it. Then you will get an e-mail confirming your membership. Once you are a member you can begin posting [questions, answers].
To POST simply go down the left menu until you see the word POST.
Click on it and enter your message.
After you enter your message the site will give you and opportunity to edit you posting.
Check you entry closely for text wrap [so it looks nice]
I compose my posts on my computer, then copy and paste them. I have learned to check the text wrap the hard way.
A major reason I am encouraging you to join and post is to give this newsletter direction. The initial TIPS readers were primarily Customer Service Managers. Several hundred people have signed up since then. Consequently it is more and more difficult for me to select content that is appropriate for you, the reader.
As I write this we have fifteen members. I hope we can grow this week to over one hundred. Please join.
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Reader Survey on Rewards Results
Thanks for the submissions on successful and unsuccessful rewards. I have posted the responses at http://www.eGroups.com/group/commonsensemanaging/fullinfo.html. This gives you another reason to go there and takes a page off this newsletter. Please post examples of your most successful and unsuccessful rewards.
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Order you book NOW!
What’s the TIPS newsletter worth to you? $0 - $50 - $100 - $100’s?
If your answer is $0, then unsubscribe today by simply sending an email with the word UNSUBSCRIBE as the subject.
If the newsletter is of value to you then please support it by ordering your copy of Common Sense Managing, Simple Actions That Produce Results. It’s only $29.95 plus $3.50 shipping and handling. If you like and value these newsletters, you will like and value the book.
Order a copy for you or someone else by clicking on the following link: http://www.growthassociates.org/CSM/order.htm
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Additional Resource — Alvah Parker
Interested in learning how to move your business, career, or life to the next level? Alvah Parker of Parker Associates coaches individuals who want to take the actions necessary to build a fulfilling personal and
business life. Visit her web site www.asparker.com to learn more about Parker Associates, Alvah Parker, and coaching.
Her newsletter, The Road to Success, focuses on ways to achieve success by enhancing your personal, business, and career growth. Topics will include ideas to achieve personal growth and development, strategies to make your business more profitable, and ways to enhance your career and move forward. To subscribe send a blank email to asparker@asparker.com with the word "subscribe" as the subject
Visit her web site www.asparker.com to learn more about Parker Associates, Alvah Parker, and coaching.
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Rate it PLEASE
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It only takes seconds to do. Click on the above link, then scroll down to Common Sense Managing Tips. At the end of the short paragraph is a RATE IT link. Thank you.
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Have a great week - you've already started it with a little extra common sense.
Bill Werst
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