As my sister was storing her luggage while checking out at a hotel in Singapore, the clerk asked her if she would like to book a Hospitality Room upon her return later in the day. The suite featured a shower and lounge area where people could comfortably change clothes and prepare to leave. In a city with high humidity and long flights to other parts of the world, the room was a welcome treat to freshen up before flying — and best of all, there was no additional charge.
This is a wonderful example of true hospitality — anticipating needs, providing them without being asked, not charging for the extra service. Think about how your organization can do the same.
Today, words like “landslide” and “mandate” will be used with regularity. It’s true that the Electoral College was heavily in favor of the winning candidate but if you look more closely, that person won with less than 50% of the popular vote (meaning less than half of those who voted, voted for him). The overall popular vote was just 1.6% difference. (If that surprises you, it shows how the candidate and media have intentionally influenced you.) Less than 2% of the voters is not a landslide or a mandate.
What it is, is a reminder that statistics can tell any story that you want. As we enter this redux, hone your critical thinking skills and look beyond the headlines to ascertain the full story. What’s flying on the banner is just one tiny piece of it.
Upon boarding a Lufthansa flight, my sister was greeted with a cold bottle of water and a tablet to make tea. This thoughtful gesture allowed passengers to choose a beverage and provided them with one before the actual beverage service could occur. The bottles were placed just before passengers boarded, ensuring they remained cool while freeing the flight attendants to serve as greeters.
Think ahead to consider whether there is something that you could have waiting that would make your client’s experience more comfortable. Lufthansa mastered both the service and the delivery process. Can you use them as a model?
I recently purchased some valentine’s that were advertised on the package as being “less than $1 per card.” While technically true, I don’t think that $9.99 for 10 is anything to boast about!
I believe the icon on the packaging is the same from when 10 cards were $7.99 (then $8.99 and now $9.99). It’s easy to focus on changing just one piece of the puzzle — the price — without taking that extra minute to look at the product as a whole. I’ve seen it where the day and month have been changed, but someone forgot to update the year; the new logo was placed over the old tagline, or the piece was printed on old brand colors, etc.
You’re wise to put in place a process to review your outgoing assets with a common-sense eye. It’s more than being graphically pleasing — what it says should be worth saying.
On an episode of The Resident, the hospital CEO made a deal to switch providers for medical implants. It was lucrative for the hospital but doctors were upset that their preferred devices were suddenly no longer available to them.
I felt the same way last night when I opened up the software program to type this dot — and the entire formatting had changed without warning. Apparently, someone thought it a good idea to have black backgrounds on the template and almost invisible gray type as the new default. “We’ve adopted a WordPress’ new format” they crowed. This can’t be what others want.
If you’re making a change to something that people are familiar with and use regularly, the implementation will go much smoother if the user is involved in the decision, or at the least, notified before the change occurs. Few people like surprises, especially when they impact productivity.
How my editing screen now appears. If you can read what I wrote, you have better eyesight than I do. Help!!
My sister just returned from a three-week cruise where she traveled without a companion. Fortunately for her, Norwegian took steps to ensure that she was not alone. Every night, the crew hosted a “solo travelers meet-up” with an activity (trivia, bingo, etc.), conveniently timed from 5-5:30 pm. This gathered the group and made it easy for some of them to go to dinner together and then follow dinner by sitting together at the entertainment. All this togetherness carried over to create initial friendships, where “solos” connected via social media, shared tips and research about port stops, went on excursions together, and even had their formal photo-on-the-steps taken as a group. “It made the trip,” she said, which is good not only for her but for Norwegian in attracting the growing solo traveler market.
Many organizations take care to onboard new individuals when they first start their employment but I wonder if they couldn’t go further and take a lesson from Norwegian and take steps to bring the “newbies” together. New employees are like solo travelers — they have yet to make connections in the organization and must navigate most things on their own. Beyond pairing the new employee with a buddy, could larger organizations hold the equivalent of “solo traveler meet-ups” once a week or once a month, conveniently timed before the lunch hour or before an all-hands-on-deck meeting, encouraging those who are new to bond with others in their situation, even if they are from different departments?
When I was on campus, we informally held a similar “New Kids” lunch once a month where new employees shared things they had learned beyond what was covered in orientation — policies, norms, and perks. It helped immensely in connecting us to the organization and each other.
Think about what you can do for your “solos.” It’s in everyone’s interest to make for smooth sailing.
I recently facilitated a session in which the sponsor printed QR codes on the nametags. These codes mapped to resources and calendar dates related to our topic, but rather than delivering the information on paper, they shared it in this manner. Participants could then stick their used nametag on the back of a handout I supplied or instantly scan and download the resources they needed.
QR codes seem to be having a resurgence as more and more information is available in digital format only. I use QR codes on my handout cover page to link to an electronic version of the handout, the PowerPoint, and other resources related to the topic, but the nametag idea was new to me.
With almost everyone having a camera in their hand, you can provide depth without bulk or cost of printing, especially if you incorporate the code on something you are distributing anyway (like a nametag). Think about whether there is a way to tap into the trend and provide an easy way for people who want more information to easily access it.
One of my favorite analogies is the Ruby Slippers (dot #143) which I use as a visual cue to help people know that they are empowered to do much more than they often feel they can.
But lately, I’ve noticed that empowerment isn’t holding people back, rather it’s the ability to articulate a vision of what they want to achieve. Dorothy didn’t click her heels and say “I wanna get out of here,” or “There’s no place like the Midwest.” No, she knew clearly that she wanted to go home — she had a specific vision of her ultimate goal. (Note that Dorothy had to click her heels three times — achieving any goal takes repetition as well as clarity.)
Be like Dorothy and be specific about where you’re trying to go. Chances are you’ll ultimately be able to get there if you can describe where “there” is.
My friend goes to the gym 5-6 days a week and has the same routine: work out and then end with 25 minutes in the sauna. He shared the following experience (and dot!) with me that I now share with you.
“When I finished my elliptical session this morning, I headed for the sauna like normal and found the sign on the door that the sauna was closed today. Ugh. The sauna is my favorite part of going to the gym – in fact, it’s the primary motivating factor for me on the days that I argue with myself about whether or not I should hit the snooze button or actually wake up and go to the gym. Meaning, I was very disappointed to find the sauna unavailable when I went to use it.
It reminded me of other dots and how it’s a bigger deal than it may have been had the expectations been communicated properly in advance. I was at the gym and in the sauna yesterday and there was no expectation that “tomorrow the sauna will not be available for cleaning”. I’ve had this routine at least a year and this is the first time I’ve ever noticed them close the sauna for an entire day for “deep cleaning and drying”. I don’t know if this is a new procedure for them, but, the more I processed the note, the more I went from disappointed that I couldn’t use the sauna to irritated that my expectations weren’t met.
The more I stewed over the sauna being unavailable, the more I realized that my disappointment was frustration and frustration could easily become anger — and then I started to envision the Venn diagram that points to why that’s happening.
Customers get disappointed when 1 of three things happen:
Expectations are not met
Communication is poor
Their ability to do anything about the situation and/or be renumerated is limited
Put those 3 things in the Venn circles. At the point where 2 of the 3 of those things meet, you go from disappointment to frustration.
If my expectations are not met and the communication is poor, now I’m frustrated. I couldn’t use the sauna, and they didn’t give me desired/expected notice – now I’m frustrated. ALL they had to do was post the SAME SIGN on the sauna door YESTERDAY and I would have been disappointed in unmet expectations this morning, but I wouldn’t have been frustrated because I would have gone to the gym knowing what was going to happen.
But, where the 3 things intersect at the center of the Venn Diagram, that’s where you get anger.
I didn’t get to use the sauna as expected – disappointment; AND, I didn’t get warned about it in advance – frustration; AND, there’s nothing I can do about it (they won’t give me a discount, they won’t guarantee not to do it this way again, they won’t update their app to give notice of future closures, etc. etc. etc.) – anger. The implications of the Venn diagram are greater when there’s something more at stake than 1 day in the sauna.”
As you know, I love Venn diagrams and will definitely add this model to my toolbox of service and communication techniques.
One of the best uses of technology I’ve seen lately was at Navy Pier in Chicago. There are multiple parking garages on the pier with dozens of doors into the main building. To help people who forget where they parked or entered, there are “vehicle locator” stations throughout. You type in your license plate and the machine tells you which door to exit and the location of your car. There are so many times and places where I would have welcomed this!
If you are installing the technology to do one function (scan license plates), think of how you can use it for other purposes or benefits (car locator). The same principle could be applied to yesterday’s dot (#4498) with size allocations or in inventory availability with guacamole (#4493).
Data is nothing but 1’s and 0’s until you make it actionable information.
