Do you ever watch that show “How it’s made” on the Science Channel?  It shows how the most obscure things are made — such as the frosted glass on the inside of a light bulb.  For those of us who see everything as a puzzle, it is a fascinating show.  Recently, I had a “How it’s made” moment where I scratched my head in disbelief and wonder.

I was searching for a replacement belt for our Craftsman lawn mower.  After a quick search using Google I was directed to the SearsPartsDirect.com site.  Since our mower is more than 15 years old (I can’t believe that’s only 1995), I expected that I would type in my model number (from a sun-faded and ripped sticker) and the system would giggle, point, and laugh at me.  But, I had nothing to lose so I searched for my mower using their search box.

Lo’ and behold!!!  My old lawn tractor was found!  Not only that — here comes the real WOW factor — all of the schematics were available for the electrical system, the deck, the drive train, the steering, and a few others.  Each schematic (6 in total) were scanned in from the engineering documentation for my personal on-line review.  From these schematics I am able to order even the smallest nut and bolt that has been replaced by alternative part numbers over the years!  Ta-da!  I’m so inspired and now loyal to Sears!  How did they do that?  If I worked on that system I’d be so proud of it.  I’d probably have a hard time not talking about it to strangers (like a Tupperware consultant talks about bacon keepers and bread boxes).  Heck, I’m having a hard time not talking about it and I didn’t even create it; I’m just a customer.

Do you have products, systems, or processes in your life that inspire loyalty?  The ones where you are inspired to share and talk with others about?  Or even better, do you offer services or products that others can’t help but be loyal and inspired by?  I can name a few in my life (such as homemade laundry soap), but the next time you are inspired take a minute and ask yourself if how you can pay it forward.  It feels good, and others need a little scoop of inspired loyalty too!

Fifth Third River Bank Run Photo by spriolo

Have you ever felt that crisp energy in the air right before the starting gun sounds off?  Last weekend I enjoyed watching my wife and son take part in the 5/3rd River Bank Run in Grand Rapids, MI.  I was involved as support staff for my family (cheering, driving, taking pictures, carrying a coat and more rain gear).  I noticed a fantastic energy in the air as we got closer to the starting gun and wished I could bottle it up and carry it with me.

First off, there were 22,000 people in the races (5K, 10K, and 25K).  That’s a whole stack of people by any standard and everyone at the races were involved in some way or another.  Those of us that ushered our loved ones to the start line and moved to the finish line for some “high five” fun at the end were probably just as nervous for the runners as the runners were excited for the race.  There were staff people who had drinks and banana’s ready at the finish, official pace setters in the race, security people, the guys standing at each turn pointing the way to the finish line, and a myriad of other participants that most of us don’t even know about.  All participants, runners and supporters alike, had one thing in mind.  The race.

As I watched an official pace setter warm up I began to feel the fantastic energy I mentioned before.  The official pace setter had a fresh sparkle in his eye and was excited that his 7 minute/mile training was in top shape.  It was fun watching him high five his 8 minute/mile official pace setter buddy as if the hard part was over and the party was about to begin.  I could imagine that there were many “dude, I am so stoked” type comments while they made sure their official pace setter badges were clearly visible.  All these extras added to the excitement of the race, but it paled in comparison to the starting gun.

As the loud-speaker (about 1/2 mile up the starting chute) started to announce that the 5K race would begin in a few minutes a “get ready, set, go” feeling arrived.  There where about 5100 runners in the 5K and all of them started taking careful notice to their equipment, their surroundings, and the task at hand.  At once, the race official on the loud-speaker stopped warning about the beginning of the race and fired the starting gun.  A hush fell over the 20,000 person crowd.  It had started, all eyes on the ball now.  Ship it, deliver it, swing for the fences, getting ready was long gone.  Go.

That hush, that single-minded focus of so many people is intense.  During that day I got a chance to be part of it two more times during the start of the 10K and the 25K races. Each time it was as special as the first.  Imagine if you could bottle that intensity up so when you are to the podium to present; you could make a toast with it so your audience has an intense single-minded focus on what you needed to share.  Or, when your customer arrived at your door you could crack open a bottle of it and share it with them.  How many times have you engaged in a customer experience opportunity while distracted by everything in the world?  I’m sorry to say that in the age where our phones and our instant communications distract us, I’m certain that we miss the mark on providing a single-minded focus to anything really important.  I for one will try to expect these moments and try to tap into a fresh bottle of “hushed single-minded focus” from now on.  Will you join me?

The first band –Twice Since Yesterday– played early and the dinner crowd was in great spirits.  They are a great two guitar performance that entertained the masses.  We drank, we sang, we even learned a few Irish pub songs that involved clapping at certain times and encouraged you to take another sip (oatmeal stout for me thank you).  I highly recommend hunting these two down (out of Ada, MI) and enjoying their show.

The second act was a funk metal band that was very tight.  They jammed songs like “Cult of Personality” by Living Colour.  Although they were awesome and very funky, in fact we cheered when the electric bass player played more notes in his solo than I thought humanly possible — his fingers were a blur, the metal funk band was not as mainstream as the previous act.  As a result, the volume and the funk were far too much energy for the patrons and they began to disperse.  Most likely, they walked down a few doors to the next joint and watched the Sheryl Crow cover band.  I did a quick estimate and the crowd had shrunk to a third of the size in only four banging funk metal songs.  A solid 150 person crowd was now whittled down to 50 regulars that would stay and support the entertainment regardless of how loud and metal they were.

Here’s is where the kicker (the phenomenon I previous mentioned) comes in.  The third band — a well dressed band of boys that enjoyed the styling of Adam Lambert were excited to see 150 people when they set up their equipment at the beginning of the night, BUT when they finally took the stage their audience was not only very small, it also didn’t care about what they played (or had to say).  The audience was getting over the funk metal band and they were ready for a few moments of less energy activity.

I felt bad for the third band.  How they must have practiced all week and bragged to their moms that they were taking the stage at 11 PM sharp as the “last act”; the closer.  They had applied their extra black hair die and made sure their best skinny jeans were just grungy enough.  But, no one cared.  The energy (and the crowd) was sucked out of the room by the previous act.

Have you ever had that happen to you?  It’s your turn to deliver, your turn to bat, and the bloke before you just sucked all the energy out of the room?  What do you even call that problem?  How do you recover?  I guess a lesson to be learned from this is that sometimes your customer can get the energy sucked out of them by the previous caller.  It also applies when you are the customer, did the sales consultant just finish with a customer who beat him up and would only agree to a win/lose arrangement?  On a more personal level: I wonder if my performance review will follow a high energy super star that makes my boss happy, or someone losing their job.  It could make a world of difference since sometimes we only have one appointment with the people who matter.

The Big and the Small

For a large company such as the phone company or the electric company, spending money on training the call center employees to be happy, training them to say that they are sorry (like AT&T does), and providing a friendly and informative customer experience has benefits: a happy customer. An example of this is when you call your internet service provider (cable company?) and complain about an Internet outage.  How many buttons do you need to press to hear them say there isn’t anything wrong in your area?  How often do you call about an Internet outage and they recommend going to their website for convenient information related to your concern?  How transparent is the technology and how informative are the tools when you, as a customer, contact them?  If they have invested in your customer experience you get to talk to someone immediately that is happy to help you, is interested in finding the issue quickly, and also gives you a follow up number.  If the company really cares about you then you get a survey from them where you can give them some quality feedback.  If a company has not invested in your customer experience you rarely have a chance to talk to a human and when you do they do not have the tools to assess the problem quickly.

For a small company or an employee the benefits are similar, but  not many of us have call centers to field our customer’s concerns.  So, the costs are centered around spending emotional energy and physical time on change request calls, absorbing disruptive emergencies, and accepting work that is outside the scope of the project.  All of which can be very expensive emotionally.  We can all relate to having a customer or a boss hand us an assignment with a short deadline and ask us to make his work a priority.  Faced with conflicting deadlines, working for free, and also trying to get home to have dinner with our loved ones is a common issue with providing a good customer experience on a personal level. Regardless of your company or team size, providing a good customer experience is expensive (high cost).  Fortunately, the benefit or the Return on Investment (ROI) is a happy customer (or boss) that is willing to spend more money on your services and products.

ROI Breakdown

A closer look at ROI shows that the investment is divided into two kinds of costs: a hard cost ($) of implementing better systems, training, and more efficient customer touch points, and secondly an emotional cost of being happy, available, and making the customers emergency our emergency.  By the way, the guy who wrote “poor planing on your part doesn’t constitute an emergency on my part” was let go a decade ago (or at least has been moved to the back closet where he can argue over who has his red stapler).  The paradox is that with all ROI being equal a larger company must spend large amounts of money creating efficient and transparent customer touch points (call centers, sales, product support), but only a little emotional cost in improving the customer experience.  On the other hand, a small company will spend very little hard costs on creating transparent touch points (because there is no call center, or a very small sales staff, or product support is the actual engineer), but a very large emotional cost in working with customers directly and making the customers emergency your own.

Again, with all ROI the same, the economy of a good customer experience looks like this:

Just Do It

After this exploration the lesson is: big or small you have to pay to provide a good customer experience with either sweat and tears or with hard earned cash (or a little of both).  Fortunately, the benefit is a happy customer that will tell their friends about you and will ask you for more work or products.  When I consider the cost of a good customer experience and our current economy I can only pass on to you what my mom used to tell me when I was a kid (just last year): “buck up cowboy, and just do it”.

My example from last week about measuring customer experience still applies, but as an employee, or a boss, or a barista you have go beyond the personal expectations of your customer to give them a good customer experience.  The benefits of a good customer experience vary, as a barista you want your customer to come back and spend more money (and leave a tip) then share the experience with their friends and bring them too (more tips).  As an employee you want your boss to spend her money on you and invite you back for more work, and conversely as a boss you want your employees to stay with you and keep up the good work.  So this begs you to notice that everyone is involved and should be trying to exceed expectations.

The customer experience scale looks like this:

A quick observation (and any real life experience) would show that receiving what you expected leaves you the same level of happiness as drinking lukewarm water; a forgettable experience.  On the other hand, receiving more than what you expected makes you want to tell your friends and come back for more.

The lesson is that while working with your customers, partners, or bosses, keep in mind that simply delivering what is expected is awesome, but since the scale is slightly tilted; you might be offering a forgettable experience to someone who decides what your bonus will be next quarter.

In short, the Leatherman PST is worth ten times its cost.  But here is the kicker:  the Leatherman company retired the PST!  *gasp!* When I saw that my 25 year warranty still has 15 years left on it I wasn’t too worried, but I instantly wondered if all the little brothers and sisters of this tool will come close to the durability and functionality that I have found in my trusted friend: the original Leatherman PST.

Here are the specs of the now retired PST http://cli.gs/vgv6vs (still awesome too).

There are two essential elements to this question, your expectations and what you actually experienced.  If you have a tendency to think of things mathematically (who am I kidding, I’m a geek) you could create a formula that has your expectations in the denominator and your experience in the numerator.

So in simple terms, if you expected a 4 star experience and you got a 2 star experience you could say that your customer experience was 2/4 or 1/2 (or crappy if you wanted to say it bluntly).  As a company, or an employee, or a partner we can provide a better customer experience in two ways.  One is to meet the personal expectations of our customer, or boss, or partner.  Since most of us are humans and periodically have bad days, meeting personal expectations of everyone can be a moving target (difficult).

Another more dependable option to providing a better customer experience is by managing your customer’s personal expectations.  It can be as simple as “Be careful, this coffee is really hot”.  Suddenly the customer has expectations as to what will happen on the first sip.  The customer would then apply caution when drinking the hot beverage and by not burning her tongue you’ve improved her customer experience by magnitudes.

Sound simple?  Well, apply this idea to more than hot coffee and burnt tongues and you’ll find (like I have) that customer experience opportunities are in every interaction we have with each other. Even this blog entry…  Did you get what you expected?

This season, the hype engine is running at very high RPMs around the movie Avatar (as if Oscar voting wasn’t enough).  I had a chance to enjoy it last week and found it to live up to the hype.  A truly awesome flick!  The characters were really well developed, the alien planet Pandora was spectacular, and the story came together nicely.  I’d say this movie is on the same scale as any of the Lord of the Ring movies for me.  Simply breath taking.

Although Avatar is just as much a love story as it is a Sci-fi fantasy action movie, the romance stood out to me as the better part of the movie.  A very similar recipe was used in the Star Wars movies with Luke and Princess Leia or Hon Solo and Princess Leia.  In fact the combination was Princess Leia and just about everyone who knew of her (including me) fell in love with her.  Same concept here, it was hard not to be hot for teacher in Avatar - so to speak.  And, do not let take my teacher analogy lightly since the biggest lessons are mostly taught by the wise and beautiful woman in these relationships.  There is real power in this concept and movies such as Avatar fully capture this element.  Also, of course it helps when your female lead is great looking to boot!

Anyway, I saw this movie with hopes of seeing something new and found not only new technologies, sights, and sounds, but also characters growing together, making mistakes together, and learning together.  Life lessons come is interesting packages don’t they?

One final note on the movie.  Giovanni Ribisi plays an awesome part.  He is charged with being the impersonal corporate guy and really nails the role.  I found myself looking forward to his participation in the movie.  So impersonal, rude, and arrogant.  He played it so well you loved to hate him.

The Great Divorce, subtitled A Dream, is an account of the main character’s discovery (presumably C.S. Lewis himself) of where he is, and what are the social laws of the land he is in.  The story of the people he meets, their dispositions on the life they live, and how they fit into the dream world is where the lessons in faith arrive.  As the story unfolds the reader begins to understand that each place the main character visits represents heaven or hell.  And, the laws of each place that the main character investigates digs deeper into the differences of heaven and hell.  Hence the title The Great Divorce.

I was pleasantly surprised at the platform C.S. Lewis used to shared his view on heaven.  After teaching many lessons on heaven in Sunday school classes as well as discussing heaven with my adult friends and family, I see now that the only way to describe a biblical heaven and investigate the biblical laws of heaven is in a story where the audience is allowed to become each character or recognize each character in a real friend.  Now more than ever, I now know why so many authors read C.S. Lewis’ works and say “I wish I thought of that, it’s so simple and effective”.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in human nature and who is also interested in C.S. Lewis’ writing.  This book is a great place to start since it shows how Lewis is able to write dialogue.  Also, the very important climax to the book is in the end of chapter eleven, so if you begin and become distracted; do yourself a favor and power on through chapter eleven.  The teacher in the story has something to say about salvation there and I found it worth drawing your attention to it.

First, Barbara Kingsolver is a wonderful writer. She has a wonderful ability to tell stories that are packed with complex emotions as well as refreshing comic relief. I’ve really enjoyed her book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is a book that recounts the Kingsolver family’s (Barbara, her husband, and two daughters) desires to improve the world around them by eating locally, growing their own food (veggies and meat), and doing their part to reduce, reuse, and recycle. My wife Pam and sister took turns reading this book and their conversation inspired me to read it too. I have a personal interest because recently my family moved out to a rural community where we now have enough land to have a garden, some chickens, and a few cows (yum!). I will post progress reports of our little hobby farm when I have more to say.

In this book one thing stands out, Kingsolver loves the environment (any research about her would show you) and argues brilliantly that our separation – “our” as in you and me – from the earth and the processes we use to exist (food, water, shelter) are the basis of the many economic issues we face today. She argues that long ago when we knew exactly what was in our food as well as how to grow it, kill it, and store it we didn’t have such a high dependency on oil and other scarce natural resources. Although she’s passionate and probably has something important to say, I don’t have the same passion and parts of her book seem overly preachy.

The writing that keeps me turning the pages (past the preachy stuff) are the stories of how her family wrestles with living off their land. Whether it is a chicken business or fresh fruit in the middle of winter, Kingsolver’s stories are written beautifully. While she writes about the community they live in, the cultural differences, and the struggles of the farming economy you begin to look forward to hearing more about the people around her. She captures the interesting personalities on the pages of this book and it is easy to say that her writing coaxes you into loving her world.

When I read always I look for how to apply an author’s lessons to my life and family. I enjoy looking between the lines and searching for perspective. In Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, there are many things to learn. Most of the lessons are practical advice about how to reduce, reuse, and use less oil. But, something that is also found is a naturalist view of our world. She doesn’t explicitly argue that we come from a puddle of soup and that time plus matter plus chance is the reason for our existence, but her writing naturally excludes the obvious spiritual impact of God in our lives. I will continue to read her book and will probably recommend it to others with the above warning.

More about Barbara Kingsolver can be found at http://animalvegetablemiracle.com/