Archive for September, 2008

Tuesday, September 30th, 2008

Idiom: Accomodation

I got a little lecture at the airport today when the agent scolded me for not using the self-check in to change my seat assignment. We’ll save the topic of “talking yourself out of a job” for another day. Today let’s talk about rules.

List the Top 5 complaints you get about your company’s rules and regulations. Not the complaints you hear about price and availability and the 4-6 week turnaround for special orders, but the complaints about rules modeled by the industry then established by your company.

Is it your 9 to 5 weekday delivery hours? Your refusal to sell a loveseat away from the sofa or dining chairs away from the table? Your customer service response time?

There is so much you cannot control in your business: manufacturer’s assortments, financial terms, backorders.

What can you control? What policy, procedure, rule or regulation could you wipe off the board to accommodate your customer? What would this say to her about your company? What does the existing rule say to her now?

Are any of your rules arbitrary to your customer, set in place only to make life easier for you? What does she think about that?

Posted in Communication, Family Business, Retail Idioms | 3 Comments

Thursday, September 25th, 2008

Can You Imagine?

An entire generation of Americans is growing up with no newspapers and very few catalogs. They might not even know what a phone book looks like.

Scary stuff for an old retail fart like me!

This group is more concerned about value than privacy. They’ve never believed they had privacy, anyway. How to pay for something is often more important than how much something sells for. Possibly, this is a holdover view shared with their over-extended parents.

They live lives online and offline. Spending 6-plus hours a day in the cyber world is not uncommon. SecondLife, MySpace, YouTube and avatars are common place.

Other generations remember new fangled inventions like TV, microwave ovens and ATM machines. This generation has never lived without internet. Their worldview is different.

You’ll only keep their attention for nanoseconds. They are capable of doing three things at once. They prioritize time and money differently than previous groups of consumers. They even think buying software is old fashioned. (Can you believe it?)

Do you want to be in business in twenty years? You’d better see the world through their eyes.

These “digital natives” have laptops, cell phones, IPods, Black-berry, DS, digital cameras, DVD burners. They are connected, and they are on the prowl for more.

They are working in nearly every retail setting already. If you want to keep up you ought to be hiring more of them at every turn.

I’m not suggesting picking them while alienating older consumer groups which have a lot more spending money. I am suggesting, however, that technology today allows us to talk to different consumers in their language. But you must know their language in order to speak it. The BS meters of this group are well tuned and waiting to pounce

Now don’t go running out half-cocked thinking you’re going to dominate this group. Don’t, however, wait with your head in the sand for them to choose you when they have the money, because by then it will be too late. They will already have chosen your competition.

Are you spending your advertising money and recruiting people the way you did five years ago? If the answer is yes to either of these questions, then please change. If not, don’t say you haven’t been warned.

Tags: family business, generational transfer, Generations, retail stores
Posted in Communication, Family Business, Generations | Leave Comment

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008

What A Shame.

“It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.” Thomas Jefferson

After listening to President Bush and then a dozen channels of political pundits and Wall Street hacks I went searching for some sage generational advice. It seems Thomas Jefferson was clearly foreseeing the problems of today!

Which generation do you think he might have been talking to? I have an opinion. Email me if you would like to know. The answer will be two short words.

Tags: family business, family communication, generational transfer
Posted in Communication, Generations, Personality Type | 2 Comments

Sunday, September 21st, 2008

Generational Training

Greed-is-good Yuppies and Bible-believing conservatives each handle training the same way.

This morning I was thinking about personality type as it relates to training. Of course, wondering always leads me to generational questions.

Remember we are living and working in an unprecedented four generational time. Never in earth’s history have four generations worked together – before right now!

Feedback from training might sound like this:

WWII Generation says, “I learned it the hard way, and you should, too.”
Baby Boomers say, “If you train people too much, they’ll leave.”
Generation X says, “The more they learn, the longer they’ll stay.”
Millennials say, “Always be learning, it’s a way of life.

Tags: family business, generational transfer, Generations, retail furniture
Posted in Communication, Family Business, Generations, Personality Type | 1 Comment

Monday, September 15th, 2008

Idiom: Horizon

“International Talk Like A Pirate Day” is celebrated every year on September 19.

So, ahoy! Let’s put the periscope up to your eye (not the one with the black patch).

What do you see, Matey? What’s on the horizon?

Do you see land ahead? Is there an area in your market that’s growing? Or shrinking? Are there new housing developments begging to be furnished? Is the population shifting around good school systems? Does your marketing target these new demographics?

Do you see another ship? What’s the competition up to? Have you visited their stores lately? Do you talk shop? Do you keep in touch with other business owners? How do they compare to you? What strategic partnerships can you form?

Do you see a damsel in distress? What are the pressing issues in your community? What causes you are passionate about? Can you meet a need?

Do you see a big empty ocean? Are you running dry on ideas? Are you adrift? Do you know the trends that are coming on the horizon? How will you implement them? Where will you go for fresh eyes on your store?

It’s the lucky Captain who looks out and sees exactly what was plotted on his treasure map. The course is charted, the landmarks measured, the obstacles avoided.

Is your ship coming in?

Posted in Communication, Family Business, Retail Idioms | Leave Comment

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

Idiom: Rules

Turn signal flashing, Mrs. Customer carefully pulls her Buick up to your store and asks to see matching tables for her living room.

Ms. Customer peels into the lot, glove box bursting with parking tickets, and asks if you have a red leather chaise for her bedroom.

Mrs. Customer does not wear white shoes after Labor Day or diamonds before dinner. Her furniture lines the walls of her room like soldiers. Her pictures, one per wall, are hung higher than the top of the artificial ficus. She is law-abiding to the core.

Ms. Customer, on the other hand, wears seersucker on warm days in November. She mixes florals and animal prints with antiques and modern art. Rules to her are just “guidelines” and even those were made to be broken.

Should you push Mrs. Customer to rebel and mix up those end tables? Should you try to fetter Ms. Customer from a fashion faux pas?

As a company, how do you merchandise your store for both women?

As a salesperson, how do you adapt your personal style to her unique technique?

Reading this post, did you make any assumptions which about customer was which in the picture? Shame on you! Now, would you like to know if you were right?

Posted in Communication, Family Business, Generations, Retail Idioms | 1 Comment

Saturday, September 6th, 2008

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Roy H. Williams, The Wizard of Ads, wrote this week about what he calls The Extraordinary People Myth:

“It’s like you’ve asked him to defend his religion; the business owner who believes in growing his businesses through exceptional service delivered by extraordinary people gets testy when you ask him to name a business that has successfully employed this strategy. It’s like trying to convince a believer there is no God. I’ve encountered dozens of business owners who believed in their hearts they had extraordinary employees. None of them ever did.”

I’ve killed far too many brain cells this week thinking about this post, because I completely agree and have experienced what Roy is talking about with our own clients. I don’t want to feel this way. For many years I railed against the super negative quote from a former boss and partner who had reached the highest levels of the furniture industry, who said, “If you want loyalty, get a dog!” It’s painful how many times I’ve watched this quote come true.

Never, nada, zilch, not a single time have I talked with a store owner who acknowledges they have anything other than exceptional service delivered by extraordinary people. Anytime these owners have been pressed even a little it feels like I’ve just asked them to share their political party affiliation with the entire world.

Roy wrote, “It’s like trying to convince a believer there is no God.” I agree. I say, “It’s like getting a Palin hockey-mom to vote for Obama.”

It ain’t happening.

Van Gogh said, “Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.”

He was right then and still is today.

The Wizard points out that proper strategy, defined and followed procedures, processes, systems and methods position a company for exceptional action using mere mortal people. Don’t bet the ranch on the greatness of your help.

McDonald’s delivers consistent products and service around the globe using low paid help. Systems, not people, cause this to happen. (Side bar: I’m not arguing that McD’s has great food, so don’t waste your time trying to get me to fight with you on this one.)

Then there is this one: “If we give our customers exceptional service, they’ll tell all their friends.” Be serious, how many times have you heard it, or maybe even said it?

It can’t hurt. But again I wonder if it’s really worth betting the ranch?

Roy says, “Good service leads to loyalty but doesn’t breed word-of-mouth.” Yep. Does anyone really believe you or your competitors could stay in business by providing lousy service? I typed bad service stories furniture in Google and received 450,000 hits in .025 seconds. This is an astonishing 27.77 complaints for every single furniture retail company in The United States. If you really want to know what your customers think you should try our exclusive Ask Ms. Jones customer service survey. You’ll get answers to the questions that bother you so.

Don’t get me wrong. Good service is demanded everyday by every customer. If you are open for business, they rightfully can expect you to fulfill your basic promise, whatever it may be. For example, furniture retailers must be able to sell furniture, deliver, and repeat.

The last area Roy talked about, and I’m really tired of hearing is, “But our competitors are dishonest and incompetent and we’re not!”

I believe you. I really, really, really do.

One last time, don’t bet the ranch on this one either!

It doesn’t matter if you can convince your friends and your paid advisors that you are the best in your town. Seriously, all that matters is whether or not your customer base believes this assertion. If your competitor has been in business for several years, regardless of the number of stories your customers supposedly are telling you, there is a really good chance they are at least reaching the lowest common denominator.

So what then, you ask?

Henry Ward Beecher said, “Greatness lies not in being strong, but in the right use of strength.” Discover your untold story. Write highly pervasive copy or hire someone who can write it for you. Spend 100% of your advertising budget regardless of media telling your story exclusively.

Oh yea, then repeat.

Posted in Communication, Family Business, Products | 2 Comments

Monday, September 1st, 2008

It’s not your fault.

Sometimes leaders just have to pay the price.

The price of people’s failures: People just “leave the ranch,” they break laws, they backslide and backstab, they believe it’s your job to solve their problems, the list could go on. Leaders have to understand why they are leaders and others are not.

The price of complaining: As a leader you’ll have to face the failure of others to be content. The opposite of complaining is gratitude. Be grateful for the complaining employees. Without them it could be worse. Sometimes it might be an hour-by-hour thankfulness that gets you through.

The price of comparison: Recognize when others are reliving the glory days and move on quickly. People use selective memory. The good ole days were never as good as people claim them to be. Don’t fall into this trap yourself.

The price of playing God: What do you expect of me? My situation is terminally unique. Understand there is a big difference between being responsible FOR somebody and being responsible TO somebody. Don’t try to solve problems that aren’t yours.

The price of being placed on a pedestal: I’ve only heard of a single man who was willing the pay the price for all of the rest of us. Each of us is replaceable. Don’t fall into the trap of believing you’re indispensible.

Check out these leaders. Some might say they are crazy. What do you think?