What if you could improve your productivity by 30% without sacrificing happiness? We’ve been told that if you have a good work ethic and work really hard, you can be successful and then you will be happy. New discoveries in psychology say this formula is backwards. If you reverse the order of the formula, you …
Hot Stove Rule and Employee Discipline
“NO…NO…HOT!” I said, as my toddler reached for the stove. “HOT!” Fair and effective employee discipline has the same characteristics as a “Red Hot Stove:” forewarning, immediate, consistent and impartial. According to leadership expert Douglas McGregor, all four should be applied to employee discipline. Forewarning: The closer you get to the red coils, the hotter …
Complaints are GIFTS!
When someone gives you a beautifully wrapped package, you say “thank you.” Likewise, thank customers who complain; their complaint is truly a “gift.” What gift has the complaining customer given you? It’s easier to see complaints as gifts by considering what could have happened: • The customer doesn’t complain but takes their business to your …
80/20 Rule of the Vital Few
Imagine your overall effectiveness if you reduced your tasks to 20% of your normal work load. Choose the right 20%, your productivity and effectiveness could actually increase! Vilfredo Pareto, 1843-1923 It’s called the 80/20 Rule. In 1906, Italian economist and sociologist, composed mathematical formula describing Switzerland’s dis-proportioned income distribution. Pareto observed 20 of the population …
Court Your Customers
Roses are red. Violets are blue. If you don’t court customers . . . they’ll find someone new. Attracting, Delighting, and Retaining Customers Is Like Courtship Make a Good First Impression Like speed dating, there’s plenty of competition for the customers’ attention. You only have a short time to make a good first impression …
Bridging the Service Gap
How to bridge the “service gap” when customers and employees live on opposite sides. Service Circa 1968’s In my childhood memories, my mother pulls up to the gas station. A man dressed in a crisp uniform jogs to the driver’s window. “Fill ‘er up?” he asks politely. “Regular or Ethel?” That same uniformed service professional …