Breaking the law + not calling back = bad service

My wife, Sally, and I are in the market for a new sliding glass door for our patio. We received a referral from a trusted source, so it seemed like finding a reputable company would be easy. It wasn't. And we're still in the market - do you know anyone good?

No call back #1
I made my initial call to request a quote and was told by someone in the office that the owner/salesperson was with a customer and would call me back. Unfortunately, that call never came. I would have written the company off, but the referral came from a trusted source. I wondered if the office person failed to give the owner the message. OK, I decided, I'll give them another shot.

The owner, Russ, was available the second time I called and we had a good chat. We set up a time for him to come out to the house, take a look at things, and provide an estimate. He arrived for the appointment on time, took some measurements, shared some options, and then left with a promise to submit a proposal within a couple of days.

Breakin' the law
The proposal arrived promptly a day or so later. It was simple, straightforward, and illegal. In California, a contractor can ask for a maximum of 10% up front. Russ wanted 50%. This was a giant red flag.

No call back #2
Sally called this time to speak with Russ and discuss the contract. Perhaps we are jaded from a horrific remodeling experience a couple years ago, but we still believed that good referrals were hard to come by and it was worth being patient. Russ was out of the office that day, but the person promised to have Russ return our call when he was back to the office.

Of course, Russ never called. (You knew that, didn't you?) After waiting a few days, I emailed a response to Russ's proposal and said, "No deal." I even outlined the reasons why. No response from Russ.

Word travels
I wanted to be sure my referral source knew about Russ, so I gave him a call and told him the story. He was surprised and said that sounded very unusual. He also asked if I was OK with him sharing this feedback with Russ. "Sure," I said, "it won't be anything I haven't already shared with him via email."

The plotten thickens with lame excuses
The next day I got a voice message from Russ. He said he had heard that I was unhappy, but said he hadn't gotten any messages from us or he would have called. He also defended his contract, saying he had done business this way for many years.

Needless to say, I didn't bother calling Russ back. After all, there was little to talk about and if he wasn't in he probably wouldn't get the message.

Lessons for business owners (but mainly Russ)

Here are a few lessons I take from this situation.

• Get really good at spotting weak links in the chain. This office person could be really hurting his business if Russ consistently misses out on callers who want to do business with him.
• Don't write illegal contracts. One, because it's ILLEGAL. Two, because it shows you don't understand your business. Three, because it demonstrates a lack of respect for your customers.
• Don't defend your illegal behavior on voice mail. Really, Russ? You've left a recording that I can take to the Contractor's State Licensing Board?

How NOT to handle a difficult customer

Jet Blue flight attendant Steven Slater gave us all a great demonstration of how to NOT handle a difficult customer on Monday when he fled the plane by sliding down an emergency escape chute.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Slater got into an argument with a passenger while the passenger attempted to remove a bag from the overhead compartment while the arriving plane was still taxiing. This confrontation escalated to the point where Slater decided vent his frustration over the plane's PA system and cuss out the passenger. He then activated the plane's emergency chute, grabbed two beers, and fled the plane. Slater was later arrested at his home in Queens, New York for criminal mischief and reckless endangerment.

I wasn't on the plane, but let's assume for a moment that this passenger was completely in the wrong. Slater's horrible attempt at addressing the situation resulted in Slater being arrested, him receiving national media attention for being an idiot, and will likely cost him his job. Yeah, you sure showed him!

Squishy goals lead to disappointing results

One of the areas where I help my clients is  constructing, writing, and delivering performance evaluations. One of the most consistent challenges I encounter is the widespread use of squishy, undefined, and ambiguous goals.

Examples are "improve customer service", "continue to develop", or "drive strategic results". It's hard for employees to know what to do when they start the year with squishy goals. This leads to infrequent coaching on progress, since it's hard to really know if someone is "continuing to develop" without any specifics. This causes confusion at the end of the year when the boss sits down with the employee, lamely attempts to dissect past performance, and establishes a new set of squishy goals for the coming year.

Strong goals that drive performance follow the SMART model. (Download our primer here.)

S = Specific
M = Measurable
A = Attainable
R = Relevant (to your strategy, mission, or vision)
T = Time-bound or timely

Clearly, "improve customer service" isn't SMART. However, "improve our score on the annual customer satisfaction survey from 85% to 95% by December 31" is SMART. Not only does it fit the model, it's much easier to understand, it's easier to measure progress, and it's easier to tell if we've achieved it at the end of the year.

Check out your employee goals and see how SMART they are. You can use our worksheet to help you.

Is it fair to take shots at a service when its free?

The American Customer Satisfaction Indexreleased its first-ever social media satisfaction scores last week, and Facebook has taken some heat for finishing with a 64% satisfaction rating. Traditional news outlets and social media sites such as Twitter were ablaze with commentary about Facebook's relative poor showing.  (Interestingly, Twitter was not rated in the index.) 

I understand the desire to rate companies when people are paying for their products and services, but what about companies like Facebook whose service is free?  Shouldn't we expect less than amazing service since it's free?  And, are we really customers since it's FREE? It strikes me as odd that Facebook faces so much criticism since, ahem, IT'S FREE!

OK, I guess there are a couple of sides to this.

On one hand, it's natural for us to expect a lot out of an organization as influential as Facebook. Certainly, they've taken notice of all this discussion and will work to improve their perceived level of service in the future as part of their growth strategy.

On the other hand, there should be a limit to what people expect from a free service. We're not forced to use Facebook. I even know several normal, well-adjusted people with active social lives who don't even have Facebook accounts! (Which reminds me, I don't know what they've been up to lately.)

Perhaps as a middle ground we should reserve the right to offer constructive criticism while tempering the amount of expectations we place on a free service. So, the next time you have a gripe about Facebook (or Gmail, Yahoo, or Twitter for that matter), just remember that you get what you pay for.

Our weird relationship with time

I did a little experiment this morning in my kitchen. I guessed how long it would take me to make a delicious breakfast of coffee and English muffins with melted cheese. My estimate was three minutes. The actual time was nine. Was this how my day was going to go?

This little tale may come as a suprise to people who know me well. Over the years, I've crafted the illusion that I am very organized and punctual. A friend of mine once said, "If you are ever five minutes late to a meeting I'm going to call the police because I know something happened." Ah, but there's one big secret to my apparent organization. I keep it real with time.

Use the Rule of 3 to Avoid Disappointment
The next time you give someone a time estimate multiply your gut instinct by three. For example, if your gut says "1 hour" then propose you get back to the person in 3 hours. If your gut says 5 minutes, propose 15. I call this the rule of three.

Why do this? Our desire to please coupled with a lack of time-awareness leads us to make unrealistic promises and sets us up for failure. If I promise I'll get back to you in an hour because I want to appear responsive, I'll look like a slacker when it actually takes me three.  On the other hand, it's likely you'll be OK with a promised response time of three hours.  And, you'll be please if I actually do respond in an hour.

Avoid the Procrastination Chain Reaction
We often find ourselves in a time crunch when we procrastinate. A time crunch increases our stress levels and may impact the quality and thoroughness of our work. High stress and low quality is a perfect recipe for poor productivity. It's a mean chain reaction.

In his book Predictably Irrational, Dan Ariely details an experiment where he compared the grades of three classes that had different types of deadlines to submit their papers. Here are the results:

1. Pre-set deadlines. The class that was told when each paper was due got the best grades.
2. Set your own deadlines. The class that was allowed to set their own deadlines at the start of the semester got the second best grades.
3. No deadlines. The class with no deadlines at all received the worst grades.

The experiment highlights our problems not only with procrastination, but our inability to fully understand it. It also suggests that the way to avoid the pracrastination chain reaction is to set deadlines for yourself that represent incremental progress toward a goal.

Arrive Early not Late
I don't often worry about trying to get to a meeting on time because I plan to arrive early. The result of being early is I'm more focused and ultimately more productive. For example, I'm going to a meeting this evening that's about 45 minutes away from my office. Here are two ways I can approach it.

Just in Time
I could plan to leave my office 45 minutes before the meeting to arrive just in time. The problem with this plan is I might get caught up in a project, caught on a phone call, or caught in traffic on the way there. All of those situations would cause me to arrive late (annoying others) and a little stressed out.

Plenty of time
What I'll do instead is leave two hours early and drive to a Starbucks down the street from my meeting. I'll bring work with me and get caught up on a few things. Changing my environment to Starbucks will positively impact my productivity because it will refresh my mental state. I'll also be able to arrive a few minutes early to the meeting which means I'll get to do a little networking and will be in a positive frame of mind once the meeting begins.

Needs some help?

Check out our Time Management workshop. Better yet, contribute to the discussion and let me know what you do to keep it real!