Fowl Not Found

If you are going to fail, might as well make it fun. I was looking for some online help on Hootsuite today.  I couldn’t

find it so I typed hootsuite.com/help into the browser. I got this amusing 404 page. I almost exited out of it but the milk carton caught my eye. Why is Owly on the milk carton? I stopped, read the milk carton and smiled.

I still haven’t found help, but I am amused by the creative graphical representation of a missing owl.

How do you break bad news to your customers?  Do you have a technique for turning failure into a win?

Moldy experiences in a $300+ a night hotel room

This summer my daughters and I had the opportunity to stay at a popular resort in San Antonio. We love staying at this resort!  Upon opening the door to our room, we instantly noticed the smell.  Mold. We looked at each other with our noses crinkled….”ewe”.  The room was clean and beautifully appointed. Nothing was out-of-place except for the damp musty smell. We ended up opening the sliding glass door to the room in middle of a Texas summer day, to air it out.   We noticed it every time we returned to the room.

Mold seems to be a common problem in hotels. It should never be a problem in a high-end resort or hotel.  Not everyone can smell mold or is sensitive to it. It is unpleasant for those of us who sense it. I struggled the whole weekend with calling management up to the room to take a whiff. I didn’t want to take the time away from my kids during our precious two days. It was a problem. It made our experience less than what it should be. The room should smell clean. It should be inviting and smell new or fresh.

I have not named the hotel, because in fairness to them, I did not file a complaint. Next time I will.

I have often wondered how an establishment can measure smell? There are all kinds of products that freshen the air but, except for a smoke alarm, none that send an alert when things go wrong from an odor standpoint.

There are 3 solutions that I can think of to work with this customer experience issue.

1. Prevent the problem in the first place with superior room maintenance and water damage remediation.
2. Provide a pleasant but subtle air freshening system in each room. Think spa.
3. Identify a staff member in your hotel who has a sensitive nose.  Ask them to check rooms.  If a room is identified as smelling musty, put it on the maintenance list, freshen it up immediately, and most of all, don’t book it.

Has this ever happened to you? What is the price point at which you demand that the room smell pleasant? What solutions does your hotel use to deal with musty rooms?

Live and Deliver Wow

I have been a Zappos customer since they started back in 1999. I was Wowed with my first and subsequent transactions with them.  The other day I came across their core values.  This explains everything.
The 10 Zappos Core Values:

1. Deliver Wow through Service
2. Be Passionate and Determined
3. Embrace and Drive Change
4. Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
5. Do More with Less
6. Pursue Growth and Learning
7. Create Fun and a Little Weirdness
8. Build Open and Honest Relationships with Communication
9. Be Adventurous, Creative and Open-Minded
10. Be Humble

Lets’ talk about living Wow and delivering Wow.  Personally, when I am Wowed, everything changes for me. It happens at a cellular level. What Wows me? Music is usually guaranteed to Wow me. This morning it was Rattle and Hum by U2 in my car. Last week I revisited a long-time favorite Lose Yourself by Eminem. The beat in this song, (and coincidentally the opening verse about seizing and capturing a moment) are like popping a Wow pill for me.  Another source of Wow is learning something new. When I am Wowed, I am inspired. When I am inspired this is what happens:

• I am happier
• I feel more like sharing and spreading the joy
• I smile more
• I am more helpful to others (see energized)
• I feel more energized
• I feel more social

How do you think the people around me are affected? You got it, it is infectious. When I feel good it increases my ability to make others feel good. I am more patient and compassionate.  Things flow. Now, imagine how this concept translates in the workplace.  Wowed employees are more likely to Wow their customers and coworkers. No wonder Zappos puts this first in their core values. You should too! Put it in your personal values. If you manage, teach or coach people, put it in your core values with them.  If you own a company, make a New #1 in your list of core values.  Do it!

You will need to get in touch with what Wows you first. Check in with yourself next time you feel energized, inspired, or unreasonably happy. Repeat the activity again to see if you get the same results. If you don’t know what Wows you, try something new. You might find it in a completely new activity. Studies show that novelty and challenge stimulate happiness. Test it out.

Once you start living Wow. Once you start leading with Wow. Once you company makes Wow important….. delivering Wow will happen. There will be nothing you can do to stop it, limit it, or hold it back.

Things you can do stimulate Wow in the workplace:

• Find out what Wows you and Live it.
• Ask your employees what Wows them
• Encourage them to live their Wow
• Ask your peers what Wows them
• Encourage your peers to live their Wow
• Do something every single day that makes your employees laugh or smile.

Things you can do to deliver Wow through Service:

• Smile when you are talking to customers, even if you don’t feel like it
• Before picking up the phone or meeting with a customer, ask yourself, how can I delight this customer?
• Wrap up customer interactions with, “Is there anything else I can do for you today?”
• Make a game out of finding one personal piece of information that connects you to your customer
• Make a followup call during the week to make sure a customer’s product is working the way they expect or if their issue was resolved to their satisfaction

What makes you Wow? How do you live Wow in your own life?  What techniques do you use with your teams to encourage Wow in themselves so that they can deliver Wow to their customers? Share! I want to learn something new today!

Google Wave and the User Experience

Yesterday the Official Google Blog announced the end of Google Wave. I am not surprised. As an early and enthusiastic adopter of all things Google, I didn’t know quite what to do with it.  There seemed to be a lot going on in the user interface, but I found myself just staring at it and wondering where to start or what I was missing.  I made three visits to the wave after my first login. Nothing changed.

If your tool isn’t easy to use right away, users may not mess with it after several minutes of exploring it. Make it simple and make it easy. Add features later as users get used to it.  Or lead the users down a workflow that is memorable, highlighting features along the way, while giving them reasons to do so. Give users a way to toggle the “guidance” off after they are on their feet.

Looking forward to Google’s next application. May it be easy to adopt and use.

A limited experience at The Limited

Last weekend my teenaged daughters and I went somewhere we rarely go…..shopping.  I am not a big fan of the mall but it was pouring rain and I needed to get some warmer clothes for a trip.   We decided on the Barton Creek Mall. One of my planned stops was  The Limited.  Since I rarely go to the mall I had a hard time finding it. Usually these types of stores are more towards the middle of the mall. I finally found the store tucked in an odd place towards the end in a low traffic area.  I walked in and was immediately puzzled. The store didn’t look anything like The Limited stores I am familiar with. It had the essence of something temporary like a seasonal store. It looked terrible. They had temporary makeshift changing rooms in the back. There was no sense of style or glam. It was organized in the oddest way….which made no sense. While shopping I was distracted by this. I tried to think of the reasons for such a degraded experience from what I have come to know and expect from The Limited.  I concluded that they must be remodeling the other store and they had just moved to this location the previous night until the other location was completed.   When I was checking out I asked the man at the register what was up. He said they had moved.  I asked him what happened to the other store. He said the space was too big. I asked him how long they had been at this location and he replied, “months”.  Now I was incredulous. My final inquiry to him was what is the plan for this store. He shrugged his shoulders.  If I had had my flip video camera I would have video taped this experience.  The Limited has spent years working on their brand. Even though I don’t shop very much that brand is what I expected.  I was baffled…..and disappointed.  I was with two budding shoppers. Imagine their perception?

If this is a temporary space The Limited should do the following:

• Let the customers know with a sign
• Make an attempt to spruce up the temporary location to match the experience their customers expect
• Make every effort to lay out the merchandise in a way that matches their other stores
• Educate the sales personnel on what the plan is for the store and what the time line is

If this is not a temporary space then The Limited should have wasted no time on “blooming where it is planted”.

Have you ever been to a store or place of business that was a complete departure from what you remembered or expected?  Do share by posting a comment.

Happiness in a Box

Recently I purchased a pair of sandals from Zappos.com. If you haven’t shopped for shoes at Zappos.com yet, you are missing a wonderful customer experience. Zappos.com is the gold standard for customer service.  Two things I want to mention that I like about the Zappos experience.

1. Sometimes if you order regular shipping, Zappos will randomly decide to ship the shoes overnight. It is a surprise. This is an example of under promising and over delivering. It is also an act of exceeding the customer expectations.
2. There is a sense of whimsy coming from Zappos. I unpacked my box on the kitchen table.  I was all distracted by my new shoes and didn’t immediately notice what was written on the box my shoes came in.   Later I was glancing towards the box and noticed the phrase “Happiness in a Box” written on the box the shoes were shipped in.  Heck yeah. Any time there are new shoes in a box there is happiness!  They didn’t have to write this on their boxes but they did. I was happy when I opened the box. However, seeing the words made me smile again and gave me joy in a deeper way.

It is this culture of whimsy and service that permeates everything the Zappos people do. They passed this sense of happiness on to me by sending me my shoes early in a box that reminded me that I had the good fortune to have a new pair of shoes.

Do you know of a company that is fun and whimsical? Does that company also provide an extraordinary level of service?

At The Door

I like it when I am greeted at the door at the bank. Wells Fargo seems to be the best about it. Today I was at Bank of America and had a nice experience there as well. On the way out, the teller called out to me to have a great week! I think I will!

Why Fullmeasure?

For months I had been struggling with the “perfect” name for a blog.  Nothing seemed to resonate with me.  I wanted the blog to be about the Customer Experience but I knew that other viewpoints would slip in; like my philosophy on Happiness and how that plays into experience. I knew I wouldn’t be able to resist slipping in my thoughts on other areas of life’s experiences and this created a bit of a roadblock for me in getting the blog off the ground.

The name finally came to me during the President Obama’s inaugural speech. The phrase that stuck…as if it were a secret message just for me, was “full measure of happiness”.  After the speech was over I remember walking back to my desk trying to remember other parts of the speech and only being able to recall that one phrase.

That night I was sitting in front of the empty form you use to start a WordPress blog, watching a replay of the speech. I heard the phrase again and knew immediately that was to be the name of the blog.  A full measure of happiness….experience, joy, travel, love, bliss, quality, usefulness, advice, growth…. all things positive. That is what I wanted to focus on. And so that is how the blog was named.

Here is an expanded version of the text from the President’s speech:

“The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.”   Barack Obama – January 20, 2009

New Business? Throw Open Your Doors on the Weekend

As a working girl and single mother my weeks are packed.  I hoard vacation time and treat my employer as if I owned the company. This means I am highly unlikely to take extended lunches or time off unless it is REALLY important.   For years there are simple little things I would like to take care of and do.  Here is an abbreviated list:

• Teeth bleaching
• Acupuncture
• Getting that crown put on my back tooth
• Laser hair removal
• Laser skin treatments

Now before you click out of here stay with me. Yes these are all vanity driven endeavors…except for that crown and acupuncture. However, I am a woman and a consumer and I would like to get these things done (spend some money) on the weekend. Yes, not during my employer’s office hours, during the weekend.

I have searched all over the Internet for these services with weekend offerings. If you are a dentist and you are opening a cosmetic dentistry practice, you would be BOLD to hold office hours on the weekends to get yourself established. If your business offers laser hair removal or med spa services and you are just getting started, open the doors on the weekend.

If you just can’t bear to work all or every weekend, then work two weekends a month or just Saturdays. Weekend hours will differentiate your business.

If you are going to do this you will need to get it out there. You will need to make sure your website and advertising say…. WE WORK WEEKENDS!  Tweet  your schedule to increase weekend bookings. Give you clients a referral fee if they tweet or facebook your weekend hours and it brings in customers.

You are missing an opportunity if you are not doing this. Professional women have spending money. Their image is important, especially if they are working with people. Cater to them. As you become more established and you provide a good customer experience they will more likely to follow you as you wean off the weekend schedule.

I would even consider a bit of a premium price for your weekend services. (Not for me of course…I gave you the idea. )

What services would you like to see on the weekends? Be sure and say what city you are in. If you offer a service with weekend hours that is not traditionally offered on the weekend be sure and comment.

I’m Outta Here

Dear Dr. A.:
I had to go. My appointment was at 12:30. I left my office at 12:15 to be on time for you. It is now 12:55 and I have sat out here by myself… watching your closed door, stay firmly closed.  I have to go. My boss, the guy who signs my paycheck, is going to wonder where I am if I wait until you decide to come out and see me.  Since this is not the first time I have had to wait more than 20 minutes past my appointment time, here are some options for how you can make sure we get to see each other:

1. Have you staff call me and tell me you are “sorry”. You “appreciate” my business and “want to keep your appointment time” but you are running late. They could give me the option to come later, or reschedule.
2. Have your office call and reschedule at a time that is convenient to me…really convenient, like at 5:30. (I wish you stayed later.)
3. Text me.
4. Email me.
5. Send a smoke signal.

Or, if all that fails, call me personally on your next break and apologize. For an enhanced customer experience you could give me my next appointment free or at a discount.

Cheers!

M