Be Different or be dead

November 29, 2021

Why successful organizations are really good at doing boring things

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Successful organizations are amazing at doing boring things.

Much is written about organizational performance, and what it takes to consistently beat expectations and stand out from the crowd of hungry competitors; I’ve certainly been among those pundits who have offered proven and practical tactics based on my experience leading teams in various market environments.

A sample of these tactics in no particular order include:
— adopt a serving leadership culture.
— focus on execution rather than the efficacy of the plan.
— cast off traditional planning tools and build your strategic game plan by asking three simple questions.
— pay attention to the few critical ‘must do’ things that matter in moving your plan forward. Multitasking is deadly.
— target your efforts at the select group of customers (who have the potential to generate the revenue you need to meet your growth goals, and avoid spraying your solutions to the mass markets.
— get your strategy ‘just about right’ and don’t spend the time to try and get it perfect because you’ll never achieve it (a perfect anything is a myth).

— the key to successful implementation is the number of tries you make. The more tries, the more successful you’ll be.
— develop a ‘recovery strategy’ as part of your customer service vision. What you do when mistakes are made is critical to building customer loyalty.
— recruit people who ‘love’ humans and who enjoy serving and taking care of others. It’s the secret to building long lasting customer and employee relationships.
— kill the playbook in your organization that customers don’t want to abide by. It may serve your internal thirst for control but will only drive your customers who don’t want the hassle away.
— if you’re not different you’re dead (or soon will be). Sustainable performance can only be achieved if your organization creates relevant and compelling value for people in a way that no one else does. You need an ONLY statement to get you there.

All of the above approaches work. I’ve used them in startup businesses (internet), in growth businesses (data communications) and mature businesses (home and long distance telecommunications).
They represent my personal generic toolset to create long term value for an organization; one that I try to get others to use as well.

But there is another tool or tactic that I’ve used that does not automatically command the front page of the book on success.
I think it’s because most people looking for ‘how to’ ideas seem to be interested in learning about and trying complicated and theoretically-laden approaches promulgated by academicians and consultants who have never run a $1 BILLION a year business— I have —rather than simple approaches that may not be sexy but they work.

I’m a very simple person. And I have discovered that other people like simplicity.

Simple concepts are easily understood. Simple instructions are easily carried out. Simple rules are followed. Simple procedures produce few errors.

Simple— ‘boring’ —things create epic success.

Here are 5 boring things that incredibly successful organizations do.

1. They keep their promises

Their word is their bond whether it’s an employee committing to a customer or a colleague.
It’s boring. They do what they say they’ll do. Every time. All the time.
Nothing comes between a promise and delivery. Nothing.

It’s a cultural thing— a value —which drives the recruitment process: they look for people who have a demonstrated past of keeping promises to others.
“When’s the last time you broke a promise?” and “Why?” are top questions that are asked of every potential candidate.

2. They admit their mistakes and fix them fast

Regardless of where the fault lies, they take responsibility for things that go awry. They don’t admit fault when it’s not theirs to admit but they take responsibility to remediate whatever bad stuff has happened to one of their customers.
And it starts with saying sorry: “I’m really sorry this has happened but I’m going to take care of it for you (I promise).”

And it ends with the mishap being remedied FAST and with a little surprise added to delight the victim and bond them to the organization forever.
Mediocre organizations avoid embracing opportunities that mistakes present to them; amazing (boring) ones run toward them.

3. They talk to their customers

They are old school in the sense that they love talking to their customers; it’s in their DNA. Live conversations using the telephone!
And they align every part of their operations to this value. Every customer contact and service delivery function is architected to facilitate real time customer engagement.

Call centers are ‘care centers’, managed on how well they create memorable moments for people as opposed to how well they can maximize call throughput while minimizing cost.
It’s boring to be sure, but it carries a message that says we want to talk to you; to listen to you; to understand what you need and to serve you. Technology may be efficient but it can’t do that.

4. They invite their customers in to ‘shape’ how they operate

It’s not a very complicated concept to want to architect the inside of an organization to reflect the outside. It’s simple: vector the way you operate on the way customers want to be served.
It means designing systems and processes around how the customer wants to be engaged as opposed to forcing them to participate in a way they abhor.

And it also means defining the rule system of the organization around the whole concept of enablement: making it easy for people to do business with you as opposed to controlling their behaviour.
Boring organizations start out with a clean sheet of paper with no preconceived notions of how they should deliver their solutions to the market. Customer input determines what the operations topology looks like.

5. They are polite and respectful

Mindfulness of others is a key value that shapes how people behave both with customers and employees. Basic human skills like empathy, politeness and being respectful are ingrained into every employee. These skills are recruited, reinforced by leadership, recognized and rewarded to ensure they are present and accounted for in every person engagement that occurs every moment of every day.

And these skills are stressed among employees with the conviction that if they aren’t practised internally, they won’t be practised with customers, strategic partners, suppliers, investors and the media.

’Being nice’ is powerful in a world where it’s too easy to not be. It’s noticeable. It’s different. It’s your advantage if you want to be boring.

Being boring is a competitive advantage because everyone else seems to want to do cool and esoteric things the ‘experts’ say they should.

Success is a function of staying close to the ground and that’s a simple boring approach that breeds tremendous performance.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

‘Audacious’ is my latest…

• Posted 11.29.21 at 02:06 am by Roy Osing
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November 27, 2021

5 surprising reasons product packaging can be a competitive advantage for your business

5 surprising reasons product packaging can be a competitive advantage for your business.

There’s more to product packaging than meets the eye. It plays a huge role in influencing customer decisions more than you might imagine. Packaging communicates lots of things. For example, ingredients, company values, what all the product can do, how to use it, etc.

Many marketing experts go so far as to say that packaging is just as important as the actual product itself. It’s integral to overall marketing and brand communication.

In this post, we look at ways in which smart and flexible product packaging can give you a competitive edge over others.

#1. Packaging encourages informed buying decisions

Whether browsing through the market isles or a website catalog, it’s likely that a first-time consumer would have little to no information about what your product has to offer. Especially in the case of offline shopping, customers have no time to do research.

They will count on the packaging to know what the product is all about. Based on the information supplied on the package, they will arrive at a buying decision.

Always make sure that your packaging includes the following information:

● List of ingredients
● Usage instructions
● Nutrition information
● Product benefits
● Product description
● Company name, logo, and contact information
● Any disclaimers and/or warnings

Make sure that the font and colors are concise, scannable, and quick to understand. All the necessary information should be easily accessible to encourage buying decisions. Things like how the product will help and why it’s the best should all be very clear.

#2. Packaging with colour can sway consumer purchase habits

If you understand colour theory and the psychology of colors, you’ll know that the human brain reacts differently to different colors. That’s why picking the right color for product packaging parlays nicely into using human psychology to secure a competitive advantage.

For example, white colors generally translate to simplicity, panache, sophistication, purity, and safety. At the same time, using too many colors generally signifies a lack of sophistication. Brighter colors like pink and red are mostly used in kids’ products.

Other shades like blue can convey different meanings. A lighter blue is associated with playfulness while darker tones like navy blue carry professional meaning. Blue and Green are the most used colors in packaging worldwide. However, it doesn’t make them automatically right for your brand.

So, study the nature of your product, target demographics, and accordingly pick the right color scheme.

#3. Packaging differentiates your brand from others

For any type of product, there are thousands of contenders vying for customer attention on a typical market aisle. With such tough competition, it’s generally the packaging that grabs customer attention. To make sure a customer reaches for your product, your packaging and color scheme must be unique. It must stand out from your competitors.

For instance, Cannon Blast, one of the recent products by Captain Morgan, comes in a rather quirky packaging. The battle is shaped like a cannonball. Not only is the design relevant to the product, but it’s also unique and eye-catching.

#4. Packaging indicates product quality

The quality of the packaging is a direct indicator of product quality. This is particularly true for food-related products. Therefore, unique packaging is not only a way to differentiate yourself, it’s also a way to communicate value.

You’re telling customers how much thought and consideration you’ve put. It shows you to take your products seriously. In a nutshell, quality packaging doesn’t just protect the product, it protects the brand as well.

#5. Packaging is an opportunity for promotion

Packaging is just another avenue for you to express yourself and promote your company. By using typography, color schemes, taglines, logo, and mascot; you can strengthen your branding game.

A brand name has stronger recall value and uniformity. It’s important that what you promote/advertise and the design are one and the same. Also, while uniformity and consistency are important, adjusting the color schemes is a great way to keep up with changing trends.

Experimenting with packaging and advertising is a great way to see if sales go up or down. It can also be a great opportunity for offering product promotions like BOGO—buy one get one free—offers.

Product packaging is one of the most underrated and powerful marketing tools for brands. It can do a lot more than you asked for. So, be sure to invest a lot of time in your brand packaging.

— Alice MacKenzie is a content writer and publisher at SigmaQ which provides packaging and displays to create memorable experiences with your brand. She writes on different categories based on packaging by providing a variety of tips and solutions for their business. Her mission is to create sustainable solutions for lasting business that empower the packaging industry.

• Posted 11.27.21 at 06:43 am by Roy Osing
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November 22, 2021

Why the frontline leader should be more important than the CEO

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Why the frontline leader should be more important than the CEO.

Results are delivered by your frontline.

Customer loyalty is controlled by your frontline.

Dazzling customer moments are orchestrated by your frontline.

First impressions are delivered by your frontline.

The imperfections in your business processes are masked by your frontline.

Lasting relationships depend on your frontline.

Frontline job satisfaction depends on the frontline leader not the CEO, not the Operations executive and not the EVP of Human Resources.

Therefore the frontline leader in any organization is of the utmost strategic importance and deserves a disproportionate priority by upper management.

Furthermore, these leader positions should demand a careful and rigorous recruitment process that ensures the most skilled and competent people are awarded custodianship of the frontline.

Does your organization:

▪️have insanely tough credentials for frontline leader positions?

▪️engage frontline employees themselves in team targeted interviews for this position?

▪️actively engage frontline people in selecting people to whom they will report in this position?

▪️have an incredibly detailed recruitment process for frontline leader roles?

▪️recognize this leader as a top notch role that requires support from the rest of the organization?

▪️fill these positions with accomplished servers as opposed to technical experts?

▪️honour a chosen frontline leader with wide-spread internal communication?

▪️include a frontline leader assignment in the career path plan for high potential employees?

▪️have ongoing recognition events to honour the best of these leaders?

Successful organizations recognize the frontline leader as their ‘guardians of strategy execution’ and give them the critical attention they deserve.

Do you?

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

‘Audacious’ is my latest…

• Posted 11.22.21 at 01:00 am by Roy Osing
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November 15, 2021

Is it possible that COVID is actually improving customer service?

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Is it possible that COVID is actually improving customer service?

I’ve seen it, actually seen it. And it’s quite incredible to witness.

Customer service seems to be changing and COVID could be a significant driver for what I hope is a permanent metamorphosis.

Desperation is an amazing motivator, and COVID exposed it as most businesses fight for their survival.

COVID has definitely forced businesses to act out of desperation to save themselves.

Lockdowns, capacity restrictions and vaccine requirements have all reduced the volume of business available.

And as organizations looked for ways to morph their business into something sustainable, one thing became remarkably clear: returning customers and customer referrals were desperately critical to their survival.

It’s amazing to me that this sudden realization hit business owners between the eyes, because it’s always been the case—it’s not a new concept. It shows, however, that in ‘normal’ times businesses are tempted to take their customers for granted and assume their loyalty can be counted on to deliver healthy financial returns.

When the wind blows even a turkey can fly.

COVID changed all that. The natural ‘winds’ of a relatively stable customer base and healthy economy had all but died, and businesses were collapsing with revenues in free fall.

That’s when many of them woke up and realized in an act of desperation that serving their customers in a more positive way was the way to stay alive.

For me, it’s incredibly perverse to characterize providing caring customer service as a ‘desperate act’, but for many businesses I think it actually was.

Up to the pandemic, businesses in general could be relatively successful by providing less than desirable—shabby—service and then COVID shocked them into realizing that better service was needed to survive the maelstrom they faced.

Brilliant customer service isn’t about a single act—the silver bullet—but is rather a number of small compelling acts practised consistently everyday.

Since the onset of COVID, I’ve noticed many businesses make these small moves and nudge their service levels just a wee bit higher:

#1. Tone of service

People seem to be more friendly. Everyone seems to have a common sense of purpose so it’s more natural for customer service employees to be kind and have empathy for the customer in front of them.
The conversation is more caring with a friendly tone that is rare when people share little or nothing in common.

#2. Flexibility

There is more of a willingness on the part of businesses to be more open to accommodate someone’s request for something special that doesn’t fit within the rules and policies of the business.

A special pick up arrangement, booth location at a restaurant or timing for a dinner reservation are now handled with more of the customer’s wants in mind rather than conforming to the organization’s standard procedures.

#3. The apology

I’ve noticed that ”I’m sorry” is used a lot in conversation when customers don’t get what they’ve been promised.

Rather than almost a dismissive attitude on the part of the business when they’ve screwed one of their customers over, COVID seems to have introduced a much softer business approach with their willingness to accept some responsibility when things go wrong and to engage with the customer in finding a mutually satisfactory resolution.

#4. Speed

The pandemic business is driven to increase product or service turnover, moving whatever inventory they have to the hands of the buyer as quickly as possible. It’s how sales can be maintained.

The result is that customers are able to get what they want perhaps a bit quicker—notwithstanding the supply chain issues faced by businesses today to get the inventory they need—than previously experienced.

#5. Quality

There is a strong need for a business to ‘do it right the first time’ when it comes to delivering a product or service to their customer.
Any mistake made by the business in meeting the customer’s expectations results in rework and added costs (which they can Ill afford) that go with fixing the mistake, so there’s a strong motivation to avoid repetitive work to get it right.

Customers obviously benefit under these conditions; they get what they want, when they want it.

#6. Technology

To reduce personal contact as much as possible, many businesses have gone to using texting as the communication tool to engage with their customers.

During a recent stay—maintaining social distancing or course—at Marriott’s Lagoons in Kauai, we were asked to text whatever in room service we need and a bag was hanging on our door knob in 15 minutes. Awesome!
They called it their Assistance at your fingertips service. It was friendly (with the tasteful and fun use of emoji’s), responsive and safe. I think it’s a brilliant blueprint for others to follow for the hospitality in-room services application.

Finally…

I’m not saying that businesses are now delivering great customer service because of COVID. Businesses have a long way to go in my view to raise their service game beyond, in some cases, mediocrity and achieve a level of brilliance that is acknowledged as such by the people they serve.

What I AM saying, however, is that COVID just may have sensitized businesses to take care of their customers a little better, and maybe—just maybe—it will be looked back upon as a point of inflection that foreshadowed real change in the way customer service is delivered.

Or maybe it’s just wishful thinking on my part.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

‘Audacious’ is my latest…

• Posted 11.15.21 at 03:47 am by Roy Osing
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