Today I read an article by a “Influencer”  on linkedIn ,  commenting about how sad it is when workers spill out of offices at 5pm and how you are better off staying longer because you love your job. You can read the article here: https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140528151904-658789-why-leaving-work-on-time-may-be-bad-for-you?trk=nmp_rec_act_article_detail

Whilst I respect  Dharmesh Shah, his views and his opinions – I think in this instance he got it wrong.

It is about a work/life balance and whilst some of us are able to work from home, in a coffee shop at weekends or late evenings, most people has to work in the office and during usual work-hours.

The office is a good place to be because you have good opportunity to meet your colleagues to discuss things, create new ideas, and get help. But also you are usually system wise (and let’s face it in an office environment being able to use whatever systems the company uses is key) hooked up directly and you do not have to worry about a wonky VPN. It also takes away the distractions of working from home, shopping, laundry, cooking, TV whatever it is.

So you go to the office because let’s face it, it is the most productive and convenient place to work, but if you have kids and daycare closes at 6 or even 5:30  you have to throw yourself into the rush hour so pick up the kids and go home and have some quality time with the family. Sure you can leave at 3 and work at home from 9-11 after the kids are asleep, but if you are let’s say in procurement you need to be able to get hold of suppliers and engage in communication otherwise you will slow down an order is you have to wait until the next day for an answer. Not to mention you might have a spouse who works in a shop, and have no opportunity to leave early so anytime together will have to be after 11pm.

I love my job!! But my job means I work from the office – I cannot be a present leader if I am not around the office to feel how things are going, and how the team is doing. I work office hours, we have a call center which is open  8-5 so we need to be here during these hours, and much of my work I do with the help from other people and since they are also in the office we are much more efficient when we meet up discuss and take decisions. Of course loving your job is great – but it is just a job (there are others out there) I love my family even more and spending time with them is incredible important for me, so I leave every night join the rush hour so I can have dinner and a nice evening with my nuclear family. And yes there are days I work at night or even the odd Sunday – but then again sometimes I take a long lunch break or leave early – that is all swings and roundabouts.

My point here – just because you leave work when most people do – it does not necessarily mean you don’t love your job – it might just mean you have a work/life balance.   

Far from equality

I am all for gender equality, I certainly believe that women can do as good a job as men (with a few exceptions where brute strength is needed).  I also believe that we are not the same – but nor are we that different. In fact I believe that regardless of gender we are all somewhat different. One of the best managers I have ever had was a woman, by far the worst manager I have had was a woman, I have had great male managers and terrible ones. The same for people in my team I have managed great and less great people of both gender in my time – and to be frank I don’t think their greatness or lack thereof has anything to do with gender.

It annoys me when I read that women need to “lean in”. Why do we have to do that? And do many men not need to do the same?

 I know very few female senior managers (and a lot of male), so I follow some “women in business” twitter accounts and have joined some groups of female leaders on linkedIn. And this is where I get disappointed, a group for professional women on Linked In the discussions are sexist (but we make it that way). There are discussions on RBF (Resting Bitch Face) as it is worse for women to have a resting face that looks serious than for men? (Really!!), what to wear? (Men and women alike – wear something appropriate and comfortable), what does women entrepreneur need to know? (I guess pretty much the same as male entrepreneurs).

I am sad that although women have fought so long for equality, we still so far from both job and pay equality. But sometimes we are our own worst enemy. 

Lufthansa Got My Number

Twice during the last 3 weeks have I gotten a SMS from Lufthansa. Both times it was bad news, both times was I happy to receive it!

First SMS was after teen son and I traveled from Krakow to Brussels on the last plane and barely made our connection. Think something like this: Plane lands (on time) plane taxi a good 15 min (think we might actually have “driven” to another airport). Everybody disembark and wedge into waiting busses (we were lucky and chose the one that left first) Bus drives 7-8 min to terminal, everybody spills out and then we belt it across Frankfurt airport – seriously I think it is a good 1.5 km you have to run, snaking in and out between suitcases and the travelers who have more reasonable transfer times, down lifts and up lifts… and when we reached the gate they had already taken away the Brussels sign – but saw us and we made it as the absolutely last ones. Arriving in Brussels, Lufthansa have sent a SMS notifying us that unfortunately our luggage had not been as agile as us – and thus missed the Brussels flight (which judged by the reaction of ground staff in Brussels must happen a lot).  Anyway we knew straight away the luggage was not there – so instead of having to wait at the carousel until all luggage had arrived – we could continue to ground staff immediately, get everything sorted for delivery next morning. And more importantly be home before the dinner,  AlphaMale loving made, burnt.

Second SMS was this afternoon that my connecting flight from Munich to Brussels was cancelled – of course this is not a great SMS – but because I already knew 6 hours before (and 1 hour before I had to leave the office) I could call the service center and  re-book onto the late flight. When I arrived in Munich I overheard a fellow passenger try to do the same – but by then the late flight was full. So I felt pretty smug having done that already.

This by the way only works because these are all the SMS’s Lufthansa are sending me (except for a “gate change” once in a while – but still very happy to receive). If they tried to flog me services, special offers  and other stuff I would make sure my number  came off their list (even if it meant changing my number).

Only provide customers with the information they need, they will appreciate it even if it is bad news.

Just Ask The Question!!!

Not long after we moved into our house a new bakery opened around the corner. I LOVE bread so the prospect of the bakery so close by was for me the equivalent of Christmas for a 5 year old.

Imagine my surprise when such a lovely shop – filled with such goodies is owned and serviced by a really unfriendly woman. She always looks like I am disturbing her when I want to buy bread never “hello” or “goodbye”. So I rather walk a bit longer to another bakery where they are friendly – and I only go to the one around the corner when the other is closed. I have never told her why I am not her biggest customer, but neither has she asked me.

That is the problem – if you do not ask your customers whether they are happy – how can you really know? When I ask that question I often hear “The customer keeps coming back” or “they never complain” but that is fraud I am sure the bakery around the corner will say “she keep coming back” and I do – but only 20% of the time. And they could say “she never complaint” and they are right I don’t. But I never tell people about the bakery either it is my “back –up solution”.  On the other hand if the service in the little bakery (which by the way is beautifully decorated) was top notch – I would bore everyone I know about this little gem.

If your customer is truly happy with your product and the service they receive they are your best advertisement. But before you know – you have to ask!!!

Yahoo stops teleworking are they right?

Last night, I had dinner with some of the smartest people I know and one of the subjects that came up was the fact that Marissa Mayer has decided to ban on teleworking at Yahoo. And we were of all kind of opinions ranging from “I you want to get paid – come to work” to “it is just a matter of setting smart goals”.

I have to say I agree with Marissa Mayer, if you want to reinvent Yahoo you will need everybody moving in the same direction to ensure the message is understood but also for making those important relationship across the organization, that is so important to strengthen the company, but also to unlock those cross functional ideas – that only happens when we are physical together.

Whilst Tele working is great for tasks that do not require much interaction, people need to be together not only to come up with new ideas – but to build a strong corporate brand internally.    

I seems that for some yahoo employees the quality of work have deteriorated when working from home, maybe because of lack of goals or lack of supervision.

The key message here is that Yahoo does not say that there will never be teleworking again – “but right now, this is what is right for Yahoo” – I believe it is the right decision, and it takes some guts to do it.

I prefer Austrian Airlines - yet Lufthansa get my business

The last 8 months I have travelled for work at least every second week – in my eyes that it quite a lot. I travel between two sites (Brussels and Krakow) and there is no direct flight. I can choose to go via 4 different airports. To get over to Krakow the earliest in the morning and back the latest – thus optimizing my days there I usual go via Vienna.

I love Austrian Airlines, they give excellent service. If we are a bit delayed usually the captain will say “We have checked your connecting flights, and you should be able to make them”  - I think 85 % of us coming from Krakow on the late flight have a connecting flight and we all want to get home.

But Austrian codeshare with Polish LOT who are always late  at take off– and they never say anything at the gate – the crew is not helpful – and the whole experience is unpleasant (and even though I have a two hour layover in Vienna - I have missed the connecting flight, and more often than not I have to run to catch the next plane). So on the same route I have either a great experience, that makes me happy, or one that makes me want to give up airtravel altogether.

In an ideal world I want to keep doing the very early and very late flights, fly with Austrian Airlines and avoid LOT – unfortunately that is not possible so I am starting to travel via Munich with Lufthansa.

So Austrian Airlines are losing my business, because I want to avoid LOT – of course the real winner is Lufthansa who  do not need to do anything to gain the businessIt just goes to show that if you have a partner – you need to make sure their standards are not dragging you down.

Showing Initiative to providing better service

We (Alpha-Male and I) are some of the last of the species to have a “land-line” at home, we use Belgacom the local previously state-owned telephony provider; in an earlier blog post I have written about the disappointing Customer Service we have gotten in the past  (http://blondiesvision.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/setting-expectations-i-live-in-belgium.html). However recently we got fantastic service and I want to share that as well.

We needed to move a mobile phone from one account to another, so as we were shopping anyway we dropped into the local Belgacom store. Here we were served by Fred (not his real name but I do not want him to be in trouble) who seemed genuinely pleased to help us, but when some bureaucratic issue came up he really went above and beyond.
It turned out that to move this account we needed a copy of a piece of paper left at home, so Fred – who does not have a work email (Surprised that is even possible!) gave us his private Gmail address for us to scan the paper at home and forward to him, this way he could get all the papers and complete the transaction for us, without the need for us to come back. Of course this would have been much easier if this particular transaction was available on-line, but since it is not, we were very pleased that Fred showed initiative to be able provide great service.  And we were both delighted that we got this done with so easily.

However I think Belgacom has really missed a vital interaction format with their customers, if you cannot go to clerk in their store and then keep an online communication with the same clerk in order to finalize the transaction.

When have you seen all of London?

Defining your Customer Service Goal

Customer service has been done badly because it has been defined badly. It is important to decide what service you want to provide. Too often companies definition of what kind of service do we want to deliver are too fuzzy “we want to deliver world class/best in class service to our customers” is all good. But if you do not follow that up with clear definitions and goals – how do you measure if you are delivering great service? And what is best in class?

That is the equivalent to say “I want to see all of London”, when have you seen all of London?

When you have seen St. Paul’s, Buckingham Palace, Piccadilly Circus, the statue of Lord Nelson and a red double-decker bus ?Or do you want to see all the museums as well? Or Oxford Street and Covent Garden, Or Bond Street or every single greasy spoon, green grocer, doctors waiting room?  

The goals needs to be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely), when you have your goal defined you can start making a plan for how to reach them. What do you need to reach the goal? Genuine world class service does not come cheap – it will cost you money (but will also gain you money) and to a certain degree lack of control you need to give your frontline people some autonomy (this by the way should never ever be seen as a bad thing) – but if you are not prepared to give that – then world class service is not what you want to offer.

If you want to be available 9-5 (then make sure there are somebody to pick up phone/email/faxes 9-5) if you say 24/7 then make sure there are somebody 24/7 – unless you deal in some very critical products, customers are perfectly happy with a 9-5 approach as long as that means really 9-5. If you have chat functionality – make sure there are a knowledgeable person available for chat.

It is when you under deliver customers get disappointed. If you do what you say then nobody get really disappointed – granted some customers can hope for more, but they do not expect it.

When you have your goals defined and a way to reach them then you can try to extend yourself and the goals. But you have to start with a defined goal – otherwise it is just talk.

Should you have to pay for internet access? Ever…

My first inclination here is “No way”, when I travel whether it is on business or privately, I hate to have to pay extra for Wi-Fi. Most hotels have free Wi-Fi in the lobby and you can work there very easily, and quite often nobody expect you to buy anything although I will happily buy a drink for the privilege. But if you are a guest in the hotel clearly Wi-Fi is like having a TV or hairdryer in the room and should not be charged.  Yes I will choose a hotel on the basis of free Wi-Fi not only in the lobby but also in the room, (it is not a deal-breaker – but certainly a big influence).

In most cafes, pubs and resto you get free Wi-Fi. I find it perfectly OK that you might have to buy your drinks, and ask for the code – or you get it for free if you can sit through a minute of commercials.  On public transportation in Copenhagen amongst other cities you have free WI-FI.  And although I initially was “Wow – cool” I am now merely shrugging and thinking “Of Course…”.  So it is a complete mystery to me why you would not have free Wi-Fi in airports? (Except of course I realize it is a captured audience and because of that "easy money" - but it is not good service!)When do you think it is OK to pay for Wi-Fi – if ever?

Easy does it!

Yes you need to be easy. Just as good service should be easy to provide, easy is also good service:
Easy to do business with.  It is pretty straight forward if I make it very easy for my customers to do business with me I make it difficult for them to go elsewhere!
If you are happy with what you get – the whole package, you keep coming back – exactly the same reasons we all have favorite restaurants we keep going back to: we know what we are going to get and we are happy!

But what does easy mean? It means that a customer can reach you easily, ordering is straightforward, and delivery is smooth, that there are no surprises in the invoice and if something does go wrong I know you will fix it.  

How can you make it easy for your customers to reach you?

• Be where the customer is Facebook, Twitter, Myspace… although they are not equally suited for customer care it is a place to start and the conversation can move to a better suited platform.
•  Simple things like a on a webpage – make it easy to find contact information – it is astonishing how many homepages it is too difficult to find any contact information – and no a generic email address is not enough!

It is easy to order and pay?

•  How many hoops does a potential customer have to jump through to order? What if there are questions is it easy to get help? When I do business on-line I love the live -chats were you get help from a customer care representative.
•  How easy is it to pay? In Belgium for ex many time if I want to pay with credit card I need a small “digi-pass” to pay online – I hate that as I do not always have it with me – so if possible I opt for “paypall” – and if not possible there is a big chance that I won’t buy anything.

Delivery smooth and on-time

•  As with anything else make a promise and keep it! If you say 3 days delivery – keep the 3 days delivery!

Nobody, not even your customers expects you to be perfect. But when things go wrong they expect you to fix it.

•  Make it easy for the customer to reach you (see above).
•  Always always always react quickly if something goes wrong if a customer contact    you – get all the facts and quickly find out how to make it right again! And tell the customer!

By giving good service you make it easy for your customers to stay with you!

Small World - do we need local languages?

As the world gets smaller, is it OK for big multinationals to serve their customers in one or two languages?

In Europe even in pan-European shared service centers customers are served in multiple languages. But as we get more and more used to self-service via the web or mobile applications which more often than not only comes in a couple of “big” languages, are we now at the point where we want to serve  ex the Nordics and Benelux countries in English or German only.

The argument to support this is

Most people in these countries speak English anyway , they use the internet more than in south Europe for ex and are used to dealing in English so it should not be a way off. Most documentation is in English anyway and as a company it saves money not to have to find the small language speakers – that saving can be passed on to the customer.

But of course there is a different argument

Even if you understand English and can use a webpage (and have easy access to Google translate) it is so much more intimidating to have to string together sentences or understand the spoken word which might be with dialect or some “slang”. That saving is never going to be passed on to the customer anyway.

I believe that if you are in the B2B you can probably get away with it (although I doubt it is good service), but certainly in a B2C environment it is still comparable to shooting yourself in the foot – you will lose business.

My New Year’s resolutions

Of course I am going to be fitter, lose a few pounds – eat a bit more healthy, drink a little less and spend more quality time with my loved ones. But 2012 is the year I will declare war on bad service and do whatever I can to promote good customer service.

·         I will not go back but find an alternative, if the shops I usually use do not provide good service. (Living in Belgium that might actually be a real issue to find an alternative). This also goes for restaurants, bars and cafes – and will seriously limit the selection of nightspots we have

·         I will complain to the store instead of just accept it as an annoyance (name and shame)

·         I will also make sure I compliment good service. (like praising good behavior in a child)

As consumers we need to put an end to the acceptance of bad service, and demand proper service wherever we go.

These are my New Year’s resolutions; what are yours?

Don't let simple housekeeping let you down.

It is a shame when you have a great product, great facilities and your people do a fantastic job and just because you miss some really simple housekeeping you let your customers down. That happened to me today…… I started up being really impressed then quite annoyed.

But the story started already two weeks ago. Alpha-male, son and I were on our way to visit family in the UK and we were – as per usual delayed so in a rush to catch a ferry. On the way we got a chip on the windscreen (a nasty big one) so as we drove on I called Carglass for help – the lady in the call center were fantastic listing us options en-route in Belgium where we could stop by to get it fixed – but as we were late for the ferry she organized that Carglass UK would come and fix it the next morning at our destination.  As promised the next morning a gentleman came and fixed the windscreen in the most pleasant and polite way you can imagine, as he finished off he told me to, when back in Belgium, to go to the local Carglass branch and let them check the fix is OK.

This I did today – to ensure I would not waste my time queuing I first call the call center and explained, again the agent was fantastic told me just to come and it would be done very quickly. To find my nearest Carglass Branch I looked at their webpage typed in my address and was directed to a branch only 5 km away. When I arrived at the address the branch had closed down (and from the look of it for quite a while). So for the second time today I had to call the call center to ask for the address of the nearest Branch which was 14 km in the other direction.  Arriving there I am again being helped in the most professional manner and I am very impressed with the facilities they offer the customers should there be any waiting time.  

But regardless, I still ended up being annoyed for having to waste time driving to a closed branch, call the call center and then have to drive opposite direction. And this would be such an easy thing to keep up to date and that let the overall experience down.

Re-inventing you, back to work or just needing an “over haul”?

13 years ago I found out I was pregnant, whilst this was not planned we were nevertheless delighted with the news.

At the same time (well actually 1 month earlier) Alpha-male had accepted a job relocation from Amsterdam to London and I had quit my job to follow him. Whilst I had no intentions of being a “trailing spouse” being pregnant did not really leave me much choice - let’s face not many companies are willing to hire a pregnant woman.

After our son was born I had planned to take 9 months maternity leave and then start looking for a job, but for many reasons (mostly because I enjoyed it and we could afford it) the nine months became 3 years.

After the three years, we moved to Belgium, which meant comming back to European mainland and more importantly I would start working again! By the time we had set up home and it was time for me to find a job I had been away from the job marked for more than 4 years and I was scared.

I was scared that I had “dimmed down” in the last 4 years – that I would not remember how to work, that I would not understand anything – but most of all I was scared that I would be stuck in a job with no possibility of advancement.

Of course I realized that I would  have to step down the ladder compared to when I left, I would have to work hard and prove not only to my employer but also to myself  that I still had what it takes (and to be frank I think I was the hardest judge). So I got a job (as a cover for a girl on maternity leave) and to my surprise I still knew how to work and I loved it (I still do). I worked hard and I proved my worth in the company. Now I am responsible for a customer care organization of 70 people covering 13 countries in 10 different languages.

But in the process I had to reinvent myself somewhat.

Looks: I was a home-mum long before the term “yummy mummy” were coined, although I liked to look good and dress well, more money was spend on son who grew out of everything and Alpha-male who needed to dress well for work. So when I started to work again I needed a new wardrobe – initially I got some wrong, but now my work-wardrobe gives me comfort and the style I like and want to portrait, but most important it is very easy for me to get dressed in the morning, because everything matches and are thought through.  

Office life: One thing I really had to work on was the big picture, I used to think that if I did a good job – showed what I am capable off and that I have ambition to move up would be enough. But this time around I tried to understand the workings of a big corporation, in the beginning I forced myself to read all announcements from everywhere in the business – now it is such an integral part of my work life, because without understanding the big picture I would never be able to create a vision for my team. Of course I have had the great pleasure of working with people who readily shared their knowledge and taught me new things – things that helped me on the way.

So for every woman who are scared of leaving work to be with their child on the grounds that it might ruin their long term career I will always say that you can for sure do it, but I also believe the timing is vital: I was in my late twenties early thirties when I was out – I am not sure it would be a good idea now when I have hit forty. But on the other hand when I am hiring and see a CV with a “gap” from somebody who has been a home mum or dad I am not holding it against them (something I might have done if I had not done it myself). But whether the reason for re-inventing yourself is because you are reentering the job marked or you just think you need an “over haul” invest the energy, time and maybe a small amount of money. You will be a much happier person!

Job well done: task and essence

When it comes to customer experience it is all down to attitude. Job tasks (place an order – clean a shelf) vs. job essence (understand and accommodate customer’s needs)

Most companies introduce and teach newcomers the tasks of the job, the procedures and work-instructions, but the essence of the job is left to be understood “between the lines”, Customer Service suffers when this is the case and in the long run so will your sales.

Ex I needed a white shirt (you know the classic one to use under a suit), went to a GAP shop could only find t-shirts so I asked the lady stacking the T-shirts “where do I find a white shirt?” with a great smile she pointed to the back of the shop and said “you see to the right of the jeans on the back wall there are all the shirts we have”. Had she done her task of stacking the t- shirts and helping customers who asked? Absolutely I knew exactly where to go. But had she performed the essence of the job she would have walked me over there questioned what kind of shirt I was after  and helped me finding the right style and size.

To ensure employees also understand the essence of their job it is key they are told about it, if I tell you your tasks are to stack shelves and help customers finding their way in the store, but not what I really mean by “helping the customers find their way” I am not clear on what their job is really about. In the above example when I arrived at the back wall I saw loads of shirts but no white ones, and could frankly not be bothered to ask again so I left the shop without purchasing anything.

 

I do not think this is neither complicated nor a new visionary way of thinking, but why is it then, that so many of us are measured and appraised on the tasks we perform instead of whether we perform the essence of the job? Granted it is easy to appraise on tasks – they are easy measured, and you can quickly tic boxes – but to appraise on performing the essence of the job, takes much more time and energy as a leader you have to really observe and explain, suggest and observe some more.

But I promise you it is worth the investment of time and energy, you will have happier employees (they know what is expected of them task and essence) and you will have happier customers (their needs are being more than met) and your bottom line will enjoy it too.

Customer Reviews the next step in customer service and communication.

If you have been following this blog or “Blondies private” you know I do lot of my shopping on-line. And I love it. There are brands that are difficult to get in Belgium; I am not limited by opening hours or running the risk that my choice of color or size is not available in the shop.

If you know the product you are shopping for it is fairly easy to do online, but what if you do not know the product. Example: I need a dress and I would look at Net –a porter or Boden or even M&S. If I like what I see in the photo and if the price I right J I will look at the reviews. These reviews are my “best friend” as long as I can trust them.  My bar for whether I can trust the reviews or not, are bad reviews – if I can find reviews on the site that are bad or at least less good then I think I can trust the reviews.

These reviews does drive my buying behavior, if something I like gets bad reviews I am much less likely to purchase and on the other hand if the reviews are good the possibility of me buying is significantly greater. Going back to my need for a dress, I found a dress online from a brand I know and it looked like it fitted the bill perfectly, however the reviews were so bad that I decided against buying it.

As a company of course you take a risk, opening up for reviews like that, but not doing it creates an even greater risk , some potential buyers might not buy because they are not sure of the fit, quality etc., or even worse they  essential do not trust you. Zappo increased their sales by “cleaning” the reviews (http://t.co/UUQ5T4Rv) and I am absolutely all for that as long as the cleaning you do consist of correcting spelling, grammar or similar mistakes, the gist of the review needs to remain.

And the communication gets better, what we see more and more is the company replying to customer’s reviews. Obviously they do not need to reply to each individual review and it is mostly necessary when the reviews are less good.

Going back to my dress, the reviews were bad – almost across the board and what Boden did was to answer these reviews with an acknowledgement; stating that the company is sorry that the dress is not up to their usual standard and for the winter collection they will redesign the problem areas. Do I buy the dress, no of course I do not buy the dress just because Boden acknowledge that it is bad, but it makes me feel better about the company and I would not hesitate to buy from them again (provided of course the reviews are goodJ) because I do not fear their quality has gone completely to the dogs.

This is a classic example of taking customer service to the next level keeping the communication open and the great benefit of influencing the conversations about your brand.

Stereotyping customers can cost sales.

In March 2009 I needed a new company car. Armed with a generous budget I set out to order a car. I have no knowledge of cars whatsoever (if the oil needs changing I ask for help in the gas station and a flat… well that is why you have roadside help is it not?). I drive long distances a couple of time a month so I want a powerful car that drives smoothly and I like having small compartment for cards, coins and yes lipstick, but basically this it the extend of my needs in a car. Close to the office we have a Audi dealership and as we (alpha-male and I) have driven Audi before I thought I would spend my lunch break checking out the kind of car they could offer.

What happens: I arrive, hover around a bit looking at the cars whilst waiting for somebody who can help me, although I am the only customer in the showroom they all seem very busy doing paper work, and as I approach the desk one guy get up very reluctantly from his desk and decides that he have time to serve me.  But the service is non excitant, clearly he has come to the conclusion that no way am I going to make a decision without a man present, and thus he tries to fib me of with showing me just one car. Bearing in mind this was in early 2009 and the economic crisis were full on you would think that they would be more eager to sell me a top-end car.  My thinking here is obviously that if I get no service whatsoever when I am standing there with money in hand ready to spend – how are they going to serve me if I have a problem? Clearly I took my business elsewhere and now I am the very happy driver of a Volkswagen.

 The point missed by Audi in this case was they stereotyped me, by looking at me they decided that I was not the decision maker for this transaction. Completely wrong as the first time Alpha-Male saw the VW was when it was delivered. Treat every customer the way he/she deserves, do not jump to conclusions but take the time to give the service and make that sale.  If I get good service and a good product then I am a very loyal customer; my next car will almost certainly also be a VW.  Audi did not miss one but probably multiple sales.

Work environment

I love to hear about companies who really spoil their employees, who wouldn’t like working at Google or Apple campuses, where you do not have to leave work to go to the hairdresser have a nice crèche for you little ones and lunch room with proper food that is delicious and healthy, where you have not only an on-site gym but also games rooms.  Or a party means really dressing up – you might even bring your spouse instead of a lukewarm buffet with lazy beer and a DJ who frankly belong at a children party.

Unfortunately I do not have the budget to create a coffee/juice bar, an onsite gym – or even a shower, although I would love to offer it. If I should have a coffee bar, the bare minimum the team would have to give up is their lunch- voucher arrangement (for each day they work the receive a lunch voucher worth 6 Euros – they pay themselves just under 3 Euros (but that is before tax)) so it almost works out at an extra 70 -80 Euros a month in the hand. Even for a “free” lunch people do not want to give up the lunch vouchers so certainly not for coffee or juice.  When the choice is either introducing small luxuries and cutting peoples salaries, or keep the salaries and introduce small gestures the latter wins for me.

I think we have a great workplace, people are nice, we have the tools we need, the offices are not spectacular by any measurement but we have loads of light, nice furniture, neat meeting rooms and as we do not have a cafeteria we do have arrangements with a couple of local sandwich shops who delivers if we order before 10. There is ample of space to eat your lunch and whilst you have to pay for sweets we do offer free fruit for everybody.  We changed coffee machines a couple of years ago after a survey showed that most of the people did not like the coffee. When it came to choosing the new coffee supplier we ask the employees to taste and choose and the one with most votes won. The same goes for chairs – this year we needed to change the chairs in the office we had 4 different chairs on trial and asked a panel to choose which one we should buy. So although we do not have a very fancy office environment it is nice, and we do try to involve many people in the bigger decisions.

Experience makes a brand

Let’s face it in most industries the differentiator is not the quality of the product anymore. Most quality is “good enough”.

Take Nespresso, we (mostly the Alpha-male I live with) drink a lot of Nespresso coffee – much more than when we made percolated coffee.  And yes it is easy – you just make the one cup you need and it is very quick. But if you, like Alpha-male, drinks 5 cups in the space of 20 min you could probably get away with percolated coffee.

The point is that it is not better coffee, and there are other less expensive brands of (one –cup-at –a –time) coffees. In our house we like it because it “feels” good.

If I go to the Nespresso shop it feels good – the shop is luxurious  a life-style shop, the décor, the way you have a “membership”, the packing of the beautiful colored capsules in very nice looking boxes and the paper bags of small boutique quality. I know it is wrong on many levels:

• The, very tiny, eco-warrior in me hates that packaging wise there is a box for every 10 capsules when everybody buys 100 -300 capsules.
• The fact that even though they have tried to “sex” it up the recycling is pants.
• The fact the shop is on 4 levels of prime real-estate location – and through my capsules I am paying for that.

Despite my observant self knows all of this it still feels nice…..

If I am honest, I do not really enjoy spending my Saturdays waiting in my life-style shop – with the frequency we need the coffee, so I mostly order on-line. The webpage is easy to use – the delivery is quick and on the very few occasions I have had to contact Nespresso they have been super helpful (both verbal in their call center, but also in email). That makes me happy!

It is the entire experience that makes a brand: The shop – the website – the call center- the packaging – the delivery. At any of these points of contact you can meet my expectations, delight or disappoint me, at any point! And if your service faults I will go to an alternative (other differentiator – but the quality is still “good enough”).

All companies should keep this in mind; make sure that not only at the point of contact, but everybody in the company should know the value of the offering. Think of the cleaner at NASA who when asked did NOT answer “I am a cleaner” instead saw his job as “part of a team, that will send a man to the moon”.

For social media make a plan for what you want to achieve with the use of social media. If you have a FB page or Twitter account give some serious thoughts to what you want the customers to experience – have a plan with measurable goals and have “toll-gate” reviews to measure your progress but also to ensure you are going down the right path.

It is vital you have the right people who write on behalf of the brand (and the policies to back them up), you do not want to make a “Kenneth Cole” and alienate your “fans”. Ensure you monitor the “noise” about your brand and evaluate the impact. Every brand will be talked about – You need and want to be able to influence the talk about yours!

We are hiring!

 It might come as a surprise to some people, but as a hiring manager when I have read your application and decided to invite you to an interview, I actually want you to be successful. First of all because I want to fill the need in my team, but I also want to go back to do what I do best and not have to spend time interviewing people (and I guess  I also want to be happy to have picked the right candidates in the pile of applications on my desk).  Which means that already before you have said a word I am hoping you are a keeper.  So it is certainly a surprise to me that so many candidates are completely missing the point of “presenting” yourself at an interview. Here are some of my favorite dislikes and these are not even mentioning the answers some candidates’ give (I guess there is an entire blog post in that):

·         Dress code. Gone are apparently the days where you sported your “Sunday best” for an interview. Granted you should dress for the job you want – but I still believe at an interview you dress up at least a little. I see people for the second or third interview (they are told I am the “big fish”-  in a small pond I give you that... but still), so I do not understand why they show up in dirty jeans with an out of shape t-shirt and hoodie, if this is the “Sunday best” what will they wear on a normal day? This is not another Gen Y ‘isme - I am interviewing people in their 40’es as well.  Of course there can be good reasons (albeit not many). Once a candidate came in wearing jeans and shirt, the first thing he said was: “ I apologies for my dressing today, but as I am doing this interview in my lunch-break it would look really suspicious at my current job if I come in dressing up more” I completely  “forgave” him because

o   he acknowledged that a more formal dressing would be appropriate.

o   he explained and apologized.

·         Handshake: Be firm- don’t crush my hand but the limp/wet shake frankly gives me the creeps.

·         Be interested: One candidate showed no interest whatsoever in the job or the company – only when he realized our compensation package is better than the one he is used to did he show a glimmer of interest. If you are not interested in the job itself why should I hire you? Read our jobdescription, note our key- word, use them to show how you will be a perfect fit for our needs.

·         Agency forwarded. A fair amount of the candidates we have are presented by agencies. If I hire these candidates it cost me more (a fee to the agency) but it does give me the opportunity to give somebody I am not sure of a chance to prove herself. And I understand that if you are in employment and not looking around you would probably not have seen our opening unless the agency called you. However if you are current unemployed and actively looking I do not understand why you did not apply directly to our Monster or Stepstone adds. It does not show me a real interest in getting a job.

·         Do not be late. We have interviewed more than 20 candidates the last two weeks – a staggering four of those have been late.

o   One came 40 min late with no explanation

o   Two could not find their way  and came 20 and 30 min late

o   One took the bus a stop too much and did not want to walk back – because it had started to rain.  

My point is, if you want a job make sure you are on time – better even  be early and prepared to wait (for me it means that if I have the opportunity I will start the interview earlier and then move on to my “real” job – but it also shows me you are well prepared and eager). Also how difficult can it be to check a map if you go to an interview – even if you are on the bus look out the window check street names and numbers. For the guy who got lost and did not want to walk in the rain …. Really need I say more?