David van Toor - Blog

Good Guys do Win...

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 08:17:34 -0700

Having worked in the business software industry for over 20 years, I’ve seen many different ways of running businesses. From a pubic company who would execute lay-offs while continuing to pay country club memberships for its executives, to an employer who eliminated all non revenue generating expenses (like subsidized sodas) before reducing head-count to bring expenses in line with revenue. From Wall street firms that took government bail-out funds to pay bonuses, to Jet Blue airlines’ executives took a pay cut last year when they forecast reduced revenues.

I spent a little time with Captain Mike Barger, SVP of Fleet Operations at Jet Blue earlier this year, and gained some great insight into their culture of service built on a foundation of ethical conduct. Its obvious in the posters around the office, and obvious when I fly on the airline.

So it was with some enjoyment that I read this morning that Jet Blue is forecasting continuing profits over the next two quarters. Yep, that’s right. An airline, in today’s economy, is profitable. And it happens to be one that formed its business on the basis of providing extraordinary customer experiences. It doesn’t mean they get it right every time (think Valentine’s day, 2007), but their foundation of ethical conduct allows them to recover from any mis-steps.

Sometimes its hard to prove an ROI on providing a great experience, especially in tough times. Cutting services to save costs will provide a higher short term ROI than continuing to focus on the customer experience. Jet Blues’ strong results is continued proof that focusing on the customer experience IS the driver to profitability. And its continued proof that Good Guys do win.

David

Dogs and coffee

Mon, 6 Jul 2009 21:33:58 -0700

Being a native of New Zealand, I recall an ancient Maori proverb that, roughly translated, says "Don't teach your dog to make coffee. It will take much work, the coffee will be terrible, and the dog will get annoyed". It astounds me how often we attempt to do the equivalent of this when we approach our customers....

As an example, I have recently interacted with the call centers for two companies.

I was calling Company A, a bank, to close an unused account, and after entering a lot of information via their CTI system, I was cut off 3 times when the agent went to transfer me to a supervisor. On the last call, I could hear the agent and his supervisor discussing how they lost my call (though I could still hear them), and the supervisor remark “I’m sure he’ll call back”. I was extremely irritated buy the time the matter was resolved, mainly at having to repeat the actions and conversation each time.

Contrast this with company B, a cable company. When I called them to update a service, the rep immediately gives me his direct line. If I’m cut off, or need to call back to follow up on the matter, I go directly to the rep. I may get his voicemail, but he returns my call within 10 minutes.

I tend to feel good when I finish a call with Company B, because they ask me to conduct business with them in a way I find “normal” and “familiar”. Talking to a person, who will stay engaged until my issue is resolved, is a lot like interactions I’ll have with colleagues or friends. It supports my natural behavior, and I will gravitate to companies who support my natural way of behaving, whenever I perceive I have a choice.

So, how many of your customer facing policies drive customers to behave in ways that comply with your systems, rather than ways they find natural? Do your staff remark " we need to train our customers"? If so, think of the Maori dog proverb.
More on how this concept can drive product switching in a later blog.

David

P.S. Of course the dog proverb is not or Maori origin. Obviously – that would just be silly. It’s Aboriginal….

Falling cookies, rising loyalty

Wed, 1 Jul 2009 22:32:11 -0700

OK, so I (and many others) are probably guilty of over using Starbucks as an example of good service. However there's an argument that they probably feature there for a reason. Here's my latest: I have a bit of a penchant for oatmeal raisin cookies, and I've gotta tell ya, Starbucks have found a great source (yep, I've reconciled myself to the sad fact that they don't bake them just for me in the back, so they're warm when I arrive...)

Last week, I went to the local Starbucks in Irvine (Alton and Technology) around mid afternoon and ordered a latte and one of these amazing cookies. The server went on to serving the next customer, and I went to a corner of the store to munch the cookie and wait for my drink. Sadly, the cookie was so moist & delicious, that it had the structural integrity of a puddle. Consequently, it broke as I took it out of the bag, and about 2/3rds of it fell to the floor. "Oh Dear" I thought (or words to that effect). While somewhat upsetting, I've learned that compared to being in Iraq dropping a cookie should not rank in the top 10 reasons for stress, and I picked it up and quietly deposited it in the trash.

When I turned around and faced the counter again, I noticed my server, without interrupting her conversation with the next customer had placed a fresh cookie in a bag, and passed it to me quietly saying "I noticed you dropped yours, take this, we have plenty".

Unnecessary? - yes. Unexpected? - yes. Consistent with the Starbucks’ brand? - absolutely.

What do we do, in our roles as leaders and influencers in our businesses to let staff know what our brand is, and that acting in a way that is consistent with it will do more to build revenue than any clever advertising campaign? Even if (or maybe especially if) its not mentioned in the employee handbook.

David

The Rocket Science of Customer Service in Commercial Airlines

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 08:05:21 -0700

Early this morning, I was reminded that its not how you conduct normal business that really defines your customer experience, its how you handle the exceptions.

I had wrapped up some video interviews in New York with CRM analyst Paul Greenberg (www.twitter.com/pgreenbe), and Bob Bloom (author of Inside Advantage, and former US CEO of Publicis) in support of Sage’s Secrets of Business Growth symposium in Boston on April 21, and left Newark airport for my 4:30 flight to Phoenix. Due to low cloud, the incoming flight was delayed, and we took of 2 hours late, no biggie. Arrival to Phoenix now estimated at 9:30pm.

On descent into Phoenix, the pilot explains that we’re holding due to 67mph cross winds at Phoenix airport. After 40 minutes holding, the winds had not changed and we diverted into Tucson for fuel, apparently the last of what seemed like 100 other planes. We landed in Tucson at 10:00pm.

What follows next is an example of how Airlines in general and US Airways in particular just don’t get it. While 67mph winds in Phoenix are uncommon, airport closures due to other causes (namely monsoonal rain) are not. Based on the events that followed, you’d think this was the first time it had happened.

There was complete confusion on the ground, as many aricraft battled for limited gate space and fuel truck service.

We waited in this confusion for 2 hours, until finally the pilots had exceeded their duty time, and the flight was cancelled. It was another 30 minutes before we actually arrived at a gate and could leave the aircraft. A somewhat stressed looking gate agent advised that we could pick up a white card with a phone number to call from the agents in the terminal, and that they would try to get us hotel accommodation, but she did not hold out much hope since they had just booked out the local hotels with passengers from another plane.

But, that’s not the worst part. I called the Platinum Frequent Flyer reservation hotline, and after convincing the agent that I was actually not in Phoenix but in Tucson, she advised me that there were no seats out of Tucson the next day.

Based on this news, I got one of the last rental cars from National and drove to Phoenix at a cost of $265 plus gas, and drove to my Phoenix home, arriving about 3:00am

When we left the plane, there was only one agent handing out the "white" cards. No other US air staff were present, so I'm not sure how hotel rooms were arranged or communicated to other passengers.

To add to this mess, the passenger in the seat next to me relayed the story of his girlfriend who was waiting for him Phoenix, and was advised that, just as we'd been advised the flight was canceled, that the flight had taken off and would be landing in there soon. She had to advise the agent (and other people waiting) that the flight was canceled. He then began asking questions of her to relay to my co-passenger to find out more details.

=======

My subsequent emails to US Airways requesting a refund of the rental car were met with the usual corporate service-speak, essentially reassuring me of their commitment to do everything they could, up to and including nothing! Even though a night in a hotel would have cost them over $150, they were “unable” to reimburse me for all or part of my consequential expenses.

The theme here is one of reactive inaction. Do the minimum possible to get out of the situation.

• Where was the emergency staffing plan to ensure appropriate ground staff at Tucson?
• Where was the real time communications to your reservations desk alerting them to the flood of calls coming from flight 681 passengers (and others)?
• Better still, where is the system that proactively re-books passengers on alternative travel to their destination.?

These activities would not cost a great deal more than the time spent handling complaints of hundreds of passengers.

This is of course, good news for other airlines. It is a clear indication that opportunity still exists in the airline industry to differentiate based on commitment to the customer experience.

And the final story here? I’ve been contemplating an airline switch based on other policies of US Airways that I found disturbing, and these events have pushed me to make that decision. On paper I’ll show as a loyal customer, in reality, I’ll be a loyal customer for another airline.

Interview with Paul Cappelli

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 15:42:37 -0700

Obama’s Stimulus Package, Top Gun, and deciding to act

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 14:03:02 -0800

Last night I watched President Obama conduct his press conference answering questions on the proposed stimulus package.

A key theme of his message was that the plan was not perfect, but that “failure to act could turn a crisis into a catastrophe” The message struck a chord with me, as I’d spent the earlier pat of the evening with Mike Barger, SVP of Fleet Operations for Jet Blue.

Before founding Jet Blue, Mike was the Chief Instructor at the Navy’s Top Gun flight school, and we’d spend some time discussing the school’s approach to teaching pilots the “art” of decision making.

When pilots arrive at the school, they are already accomplished technical pilots, although they have had no combat experience. The first thing they learn is that, when they approaching an enemy aircraft at 1 mile every 3 seconds, deciding not to act will pretty much guarantee their demise. Nothing like the reality of imminent death to focus one’s attention. The next thing that is learnt is that making a decision - any decision - radically improves their chances of survival. After that, they focus on the quality of those decisions.

The point I found most interesting here was that the quality of decisions would improve over the course of the training, but the amount of information available to them remained constant. In each exercise of increasing complexity, the the pilots access to (and need for) information never changed. In fact, the quality of the decisions improved as the pilots became good at identifying what information was relevant to the problem to be solved NOW, and ignoring all other information.

This contrasts sharply with the decision making that can occur in business, where a desire for more information achieves nothing more than lengthy delays. More surveys, more research, meanwhile time goes on. Its not the lack of information that usually prevents a decision, but the fear of the consequences of a bad decision. Its ironic that the certainty of failure is often easier to accept than the unpredictability of success.

The Top Gun approach suggests that the quality of a decision is ensured by clear definition of the immediate problem, and careful consideration of available, relevant information. The better we get at ignoring information not relevant to the current problem, the higher our likelihood of achieving successful outcomes.

So, as Congress considers the stimulus package, I hope that the need for an evaluation of the validity of the proposal against available relevant information outweighs a desire to critique unimportant minutia

What’s with Social CRM?

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 07:19:53 -0800

So, Social CRM is the new buzz in the Customer Relationship Management World, and quite frankly I don’t get it. Its not that I don’t think its cool to connect people to all the tools they use to connect with people, and to be able to access the information behind these connections for monetary gain (which, loosely is the actual definition of Social CRM). No, its that I think that giving this a label is a bit like calling “being kind to your significant other” “Relationship Appreciation”, and marketing that as something new and cool.

Fact is, “Social CRM” describes nothing more than what CRM vendors should have been providing for ever (if technology had been available). Of course we want to communicate with vendors like they’re actual people (and have them treat us like people too!). Of course we want to know who our customer’s know. Of course we want to have conversations with people we deal with, both personally and commercially. To put a new label on natural human behavior and call it cool is vacuous.

To help explain this, lets take a look at the evolution of the division of social and business communication. In the ancient bazaars, there was true vendor / customer communication. Real, immediate, honest, and loud. Then technology got in the way and let us (as vendors) believe that spamming our customers with information we thought would make them buy more of our stuff was the same as communicating. Not surprisingly, we as consumers got tired of this, and, believing that this was the best that companies could do, formed the belief that we needed to styles of communication. One for our social lives, and one for our business lives.

However, last time I checked with any neurologist, there is not a portion of our brains dedicated to business communication. We actually don’t know how to communicate differently than our “natural” approach. So we filter, modify, and otherwise adjust of natural communication style (which is how we talk to friends over good wine) when we talk to companies. This adjustment usually causes contention, as is evidenced by the number of customer hang-ups during calls to call centers.

Its really no surprise then that as we figure out that some companies have used technology to have the types of conversations with us as customers that we expect, that we gravitate to those companies.

If Social CRM is a label that helps vendors understand that people are people, and should be treated as such, then I guess its a useful label. Just don’t tout it as something new. Its just something we should have been doing for years.

Policies, Doing the Right Thing, and Cell Phones

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 10:02:30 -0800

The Customer Experience is a BIG deal. It drives long term financial performance like nothing else, but its often a secondary focus in organizations because its harder to measure than “number of calls per hour” and often costs more than providing a poor experience, or at least that’s the perception. It a perception that’s essentially a myth, and the ways organization’s measure and pay their staff do much to much to further this myth.

I firmly believe that having an organization focused ont eh Customer Experience is as easy as allowing staff to “do the right thing”. The problem is that accepted metrics (dials per hour, average call time, etc) don’t support this.

I was reminded of this issue on Sunday, when I attempted to negotiate with T-Mobile on my 16 year old son’s behalf. Brae was on his second sidekick, and it was exhibiting the same problems that his first one was when we returned it some 6 months earlier under the extended warranty program we purchased at the time of being the phone. Being an entrepreneurial guy, he wanted to exchange the faulty sidekick with one of the new G1’s. He’d tried the T-Mobile store who directed him to the customer service help desk, Both could only operate within their polices and offered the standard exchange with a new 2 year contract, taking the price of the G1 to $179 plus the contract. Also noteworthy is that he was 10 days from the end of his contract.

As some further background, I’ve recently switched to an iPhone, and the only reason my kids don’t have the new toy is because of our contract with T-Mobile. iPhone for $199, G3 for $179, hmmmm

So I called the T-mobile service line, hoping that my negotiating prowess would net a different result. Sadly not. The agent was polite and helpful but constrained by her company’s policies. The conversation ended with me saying “So I’m disappointed that T-Mobile cannot be flexible given the circumstances, and its likely I’ll switch the family to AT&T and move to iPhones.” The agent replied “OK”.

So, For the sake of $179, T-Mobile will lose an 8 year customer, because they did not allow their staff to “do the right thing”. Nor did they provide an easy way for me to escalate the issue. The solace here is that I’m sure I’ll show up as a statistic in a monthly churn report.

In my time managing the ACT! business, I spoke with many customers whom our policies at the time could not treat with the individuality they wanted. I was and am proud of Sage’s accessibility to our customers and willingness to go outside policy (or modify policy) to achieve a great customer experience. The folks I and my team spoke to over the past year know us as an accessible company that will “do the right thing”.

So to leaders in all and other large companies. Wake up & smell the coffee. You lose customers when you don’t provide your staff a way to keep them.

The Fallacy of the Customer Satisfaction Survey

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 05:53:34 -0800

I’m regarded at work as a bit of an “anti-survey” guy. While it’s true that I believe that surveys are often used as a justified excuse for doing absolutely nothing to solve a problem, I’m not against them per se. What I do have a huge problem with is the Customer Satisfaction Survey.

Forget about the obvious problems inherent in surveys, like the fact that most of your customers won’t respond, and of those who do, most are dissatisfied (think of the times you take the time to do a survey - you’re either probably very happy or ranging from moderately to very unhappy with the particular product or service). Therefore, its rare that a survey actually gives you a representative view of your customer's state of mind. Also, let’s forget about the fact that your company probably does not have the resources to follow up with the negative responses anyway, making those respondents even more dissatisfied.

No, the reason I have a huge problem with these surveys is that they represent a huge waste of company resources under the guise of actually doing something and mask the actual problem.

Follow this example with me. You forget your wedding anniversary. You get home that evening, and you have the distinct feeling something is wrong. Things are not following the usual routine. Your spouse has all the warmth of Christmas in Chicago. You go for the usual kiss on the cheek, and you’re aware of a sharp pain in your shin where you’ve been kicked. Yep, you sense somethings’ wrong.

What do you do?

You may ask “Is something wrong my love?”, or “Did you have a bad day at the office?”. Or, if you’re the gutsier type, you may say something like “I sense this is a bad time for you, I’ll go and make us a special dinner”. What ever you do, you’ll do SOMETHING to FIX it. What you almost certainly won’t do is DO A SURVEY!!!.

Why won’t you do a survey? - Because you KNOW your significant other is dissatisfied.

For every customer who is not satisfied (or is satisfied) with your services, there is an employee in your company that knows. Hec, they may have even caused that feeling. If we’d spend the time and energy we spend in surveys at working with our staff at the points of interaction with our customers, or if we’d provide a way to listen to our staff when they try and tell us the negative impact of our policies, we’d be able to handle the root cause of a problem WHEN IT HAPPENS. If we have the right culture and staff, we’d fix the problem before it created any dissatisfaction for use to survey later.

In some of my recent speeches, I’ve told the story of Franks’ Subaru in California. I’m convinced I had the only bad Outback Subaru ever made. While not technically a lemon, it was certainly a small citrus fruit. It was in the service department a lot. The staff knew me well, and they knew I was VERY dissatisfied with them, their company, and the car. Yet, in my 3 years dealing with them, they never fixed their poor office systems that meant appointments were lost, or poor communications that meant committed delivery times were not met. What they did do is a survey to me, 6 months after I’d sold the car. I took a long time to politely describe my poor experience with them. They survey rep was genuinely distraught at my experience, and promised that Frank himself would call me. That was 4 years ago. I guess Frank is very busy.

The point is, the survey achieved nothing, because Frank cared as much about my satisfaction then as he did during the three years I dealt with his staff. If he’d genuinely cared about “the customer experience” he’d have empowered his staff to handle the problem appropriately at the time it occurred.

On one of my last visits to the service department, one of the staff did actually ask if there was something he could do. I replied that he could help me out of my lease into a new Subaru. He replied “Oh, we can’t do that”. My reply was “Actually you can, you just choose not do”. I bought a Mercedes.

One final note. I told this story in an event in New York, thinking that it was far enough from Irvine, California not to publicly embarrass Frank (I’ve obviously gotten past that issue now...). Later I got an email from an attendee at the event, commenting that he too knew of Franks’ Subaru. I looked at the signature line of his email, and noted that he was from the Irvine Chamber of Commerce. Bad service, like bad news, travels fast, and far.

Dave

Value based pricing, and the US Health care system

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 20:12:35 -0800

So, those of you who’ve been following this blog know that I’ve recently had foot surgery, following the somewhat embarrassing episode of having a kitchen knife fall on my foot (neatly blade down), and severing the tendon to my big toe.

Today was the 2 week check up day. This is when a junior staff member at the surgeon’s office removes the bandage and I go “Oh My God!!!. The shock I felt at seeing how a 1 inch cut needing 3 stitches could turn into a 4 inch cut needing 18 stitches took a little while to subside. However, that’s not the point of the story.

No the point (actually, plural, since I have two), came when it became apparent I needed to walk with a boot for another 3-5 weeks, and the surgeon was not impressed with the industrial style one I was given after surgery, so he sent me off to get a more user friendly model (pictured).

This is when the points start to become more clear.

In a previous blog, I discussed how the the least important component in determining the price of an item is how much it costs to make. That point was about to be reinforced very strongly

The lady at the front desk at the prosthetic place was in a great mood, as her son had just called from Dallas, en route to Phoenix airport from a tour in Iraq. It was in this great mood that she advised that my insurance company would probably not cover a second boot, but she was more than happy to check. She checked, and yep, she was right.

So, I asked.... with not a small amount of trepidation... how much would this new, super duper, user friendly boot be???

“$650” she replied. “But (and here’s the point), we sell them for $125 cash.... Yep, the price premium this small prosthetic manufacturer placed on dealing with insurance companies was a whopping 520%!!! Given the amount of time I’ve spent on the phone with my insurance carriers arguing why I think that paying my claims in accordance with their policy is actually OK, 520% does not seem unreasonable.

Even though the thing came with air bags, and is amazingly more comfortable than the thing they gave me at the hospital, I estimate the actual cost to manufacture at around $50.00. Needless to say, I paid the $125 cash. The benefit of avoiding dealing with my insurance carrier was worth every cent...

Which of course gets to my second point. As someone who has lived in countries where basic medical care is the responsibility of government, I’ve always struggled with fact that in the most (well, until recently) affluent country on the planet, people die of easily treatable ailments, because they can’t afford either the care, or the insurance to fund the care, they need

I might be able to accept this if privatizing the health system led to efficiencies that one tends to see in the free market. But a quick comparison of my effective tax rate (calculated by adding up what I pay in federal tax, state tax, and health insurance) against what I paid in the industrial backwash of New Zealand shows that is simply not true. That fact is even more astounding when you consider that New Zealand only has 4 Million people upon which to spread the cost of health care (and no, they don’t tax the sheep).

The reason for this is, of course, the huge amount of cost that gets added into the system by pricing methods like the one I encountered today. The next time you wonder why your health insurance premiums go up, and the coverage goes down, ask your carrier how much they pay for a short cam boot. If its more than $150.00, give them my name, I’ll sell them one for $149.

Dave

Pursuit of the American Dream without regard for its Consequences

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 05:45:43 -0800

How can a successful political figure, with clear passion and dedication to his family, and a deep wish to care for them, with means and opportunity to have a fantastic life, turn his family's world into a living nightmare. Governor Rod Blagojevich's arrest yesterday is example of how striving for the results of The American Dream without consideration for the value system that is inherent in the constitution that protects that dream can only lead to disaster.

Blagojevich's response to the personal problems he faced were governed by the same dreams that have created the great leaders of this country. The difference is that his responses were devoid of any ethical foundation, resulting in a belief that success at any cost was justified. Never forget that doing the right thing is the only thing that works.

Changing Roles, and leaving ACT!

Mon, 8 Dec 2008 19:08:37 -0800

My primary career is as General Manager for North American operations for the CRM devision at Sage. This division included the ACT!, Sage CRM, and SalesLogix products. Late last week came the public announcements that, in order to provide more focus to our products, I will continue to lead SalesLogix and SageCRM, while a very bright and talented colleague, Sam Hunter, will take over ACT!.

As with any change when there is unfinished work, I move on from ACT! with mixed feelings. I’m proud of the focus we placed on improving the customer experience for our hundreds of thousands of customers, starting with giving a personal face to the business with the ACT! community, to making it far more worth while to be an ACT! customer, with the services provided within the ACT! Platinum Care subscription services. Support service levels and hold times have increased and decreased (it matters which way round!), and I feel great about the talent, passion, and sheer professionalism of the staff I’ve worked with.

So, I look forward focusing on our mid-market solutions, and I thank every ACT! customer who reached out to me over the past year, and I hope we’ve made a difference to your experience as a customer.

Dave

Surf, $2 Burritos, and the irrelevance of cost

Sun, 7 Dec 2008 09:54:52 -0800

My 16 year old son, Brae, has recently begun surfing, and invited me to watch him this morning. As any dad of a teenager knows, you don’t miss this type of opportunity.

So, at 5:30 this morning we hike on down the 5 freeway in his dune buggy towards San Onfre (or “‘Nofre” if you’re in the know).

After surfing, Brae suggested stopping off at this “really cool burrito place - really cheap Dad!”. And he was not wrong. We ordered 2 breakfast burritos and a coffee for me. Total cost, $6:13. Yep $2 for the burritos, and $2 for the coffee.

Which gets us to the point of the story. The burritos were great, but that wasn’t it. What got me, and reminded me of the most important lesson I learnt from my marketing lectures in college was that the coffee was the same price as the burrito. How can a burrito, which needs eggs fried, rice cooked, and other ingredients prepared, cost the same as coffee that’s poured from a large urn?

The answer of course is the lesson I learned back in college. The least important component to consider when setting the price of an item is the cost. Cost merely lets you know whether or not you can sell the product profitably. Price is simply the maximum price enough people will buy the product for, to give you the profit you want or need.

That’s the reason, a coffee at this awesome burrito jaunt is priced the same as one of the nicest burritos I’ve had for some time, and why a $1 beer on US Air will cost you $7.00.

Now, the $2 burritos are probably underpriced, but I’m not going to talk about that...

Dave

Surgeries and expectations

Thu, 4 Dec 2008 02:42:37 -0800

So, today was surgery day. The objective (according to the surgeon) was to simply re-attach the tendon that I’d cut in half on Thanksgiving (see previous blog).

I’d met the surgeon on Monday, and immediately liked his down to earth style, and, most importantly, his bedside manner. He took time to explain the injury to me, and made the operation sound simple and straight forward. While I did not ask specifically, general questions about life after surgery left me with the clear impression that I’d be running marathons by Sunday (which was pretty cool, since I’ve never run a marathon in my life!).

So, as I said, today was surgery day. Based on the above-mentioned impression, you can imagine my surprise when I woke from sedation to find the industrial style “boot” on my leg.

More (specific) questions led to the realization that this boot would be worn all the time (emphasis on “all”) for two weeks, and then we could start therapy. Therapy!!! What about the marathon!!! Realistically, the marathon was not my concern. I’d promised my wife I’d complete the renovations to the laundry this weekend, and I take those commitments seriously.

Once the surprise (and a little bit of anger) had subsided later in the evening (possibly due to the increasing effects of the vicodin), I began to see a connection between my experience and the situation that I think we all find ourselves in from time to time, either as vendors or customers, when our expectations differ. I left Monday’s meeting with my surgeon clear that we had a shared understanding of the “implementation”. I’m pretty sure my surgeon did too. I’m sure you’ve experienced this too. Maybe a software implementation, or your car repair bill. How can two people who were both present in the conversation get it so wrong.

I believe the answer lies in What Is Familiar. From the surgeons’ point of view, this was a simple procedure. He actually described tendon operations as his favorite. And, “Yes”, from a relative point of view, I’d be up and around faster than if I’d have any other procedure he performed. He was working from the complex towards the simple. I, on the other hand took his confidence and expression of simplicity to mean there’d be little difference post-op to how I entered the OR. I was working from the simple to the complex.

In his world of experience, and with his level of expertise, my op and post-op experience would be at the simple end of the spectrum. However, in my world, it would be at the complex end.

So the moral for me here, is that when we deal with someone in a transaction, and we have very different levels of familiarity in the topic at hand, you have to be VERY specific in your questions, and ask LOTS of them.

Now, excuse me, I need to enjoy my vicodin...

Dave

Knives, tendons, and the importance of a smile

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 05:31:18 -0800

A little thing about me, I love good kitchen knives. Actually, that’s not quite true. I love GREAT knives. Big, so you don’t need lots of them. Highest grade steel so they can be sharpened to a point that you can cut Brie 1/16” thick, and can re-sharpen for years. Perfectly balanced so that they almost move through the air by themselves, actually guiding your hand. I love they way they feel in your hand, but most of all I love possessing something thats required so much force to make, yet is simplicity itself in its final form.

There is a downside to this love. Today I was cutting brie for a toasted sandwich (being a Kiwi, I’ve not yet got into the whole turkey thing). I’d laid the knife down by the chopping board, and in turning around I caught the edge of the board with my hand, sending the knife drifting downwards, perfectly level, blade straight, right onto the top of my left foot, neatly severing the tendon to my big toe. Anyone who’s cut their foot knows theirs a lot of veins down there, and consequently in a second, my kitchen floor looked like I’d killed a small deer, let alone a turkey.

Long story short, I stopped the bleeding and made my way to the ER, expecting to be there till midnight. And then I met the staff at the Scottsdale ER. From the admissions nurse who immediately put me in wheel chair when he saw me hobbling in the door, to the nurse who greeted me with “oh my, what does the turkey look like?”, they were calm, professional and most all funny. It was a public holiday in the ER, yet I’d not have known that I was not their first, and only patient that day. The funny thing is, that’s exactly what I hoped for.

So it is when we’re dealing with customers in our business. No matter what sort of crappy day they’re having, they hope that we’re going to make them feel better, at the very least by conducting their exchange with us efficiently, with a smile.

Its the reason we fritter away our retirement funds on $5 coffee at Starbucks after-all.

Dave

The value of space

Sun, 2 Nov 2008 20:16:47 -0800

In saving lives, and the $2 seal, I described the boat owner who’s 4th of July changed from a pleasant jaunt to Catalina Island from Newport beach, and to a day ending in being towed 20 miles back to Newport and facing a $15,000 repair bill, to repair damage that arose form the failure of an inexpensive prop shaft seal.

As the engine turned the prop shaft through the failing seal, the vibrations allowed water to enter the boat through the seal. The owner noticed water entering the boat, but kept the engine running while he attempted to work out what was going on. He quickly ascertained that while all bilge pumps were working, he was taking on water faster than the pumps could discharge it. Things were not going to get better. While he was simultaneously looking in the engine room, raising the Coast Guard on his radio, and keeping his passengers calm, the engine finally drowned in salt water and stopped. At this point of course the prop shaft stopped vibrating against the failing seal, and the water intake slowed to a minimal level. Within minutes the engine room was dry.

So, here’s the thing. Basic knowledge of engines will lead a reasonably intelligent person to realize that if the engine room is flooding, the engine will ingest water and fail. Therefore the next step would be to shut down the engine, thus saving an expensive repair.

The skipper was more than reasonably intelligent, yet he did not make the decision to shut down the engine. Why? The decision process sounds simple.
• Water is entering the engine room
• Engine will drown... therefore
• Shut down engine...

But that’s not what happened. This is in fact a classic problem situation. A simple problem, made complex by other factors. “Noise”. Lets look at the “noise” in this case.
• He was 20 miles either shore
• He had his family of 5, plus 2 teenage friends of his daughters
• He had limited knowledge of the underlying mechanics of his boat
In any interpretation, this was a high stress situation. The skipper made many correct decisions. He radioed for help early. He had everyone don live jackets. When I arrived on the scene he quietly instructed his passengers to cross to my boat. But, he failed to make the one decision that would have saved $15,000 - why?

Saving lives, and a $2 seal

Fri, 4 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

This entry was originally posted on the online community for ACT! customers. At that time, it was focused on my experience. It has since taken on a new meaning, and I discuss this at the end.

I'm a keen boater, and own an ocean rescue boat, if for no other reason than I know its "bullet proof safe", and makes a great diving platform (my other love). Its unusual feature is its collar of inflatable tubes that provide buoyancy and stability

On Friday, my family and I were heading out to Catalina Island from Dana Point in California in thick fog. About 20 miles off shore the fog lifted, and I noticed a 40 foot cruiser to my right. Not being sure if I could pass in front of her, I turned to pass behind. That's when I noticed the passengers waiving, and the boat being low in the water. As I cut my engines to pull along side, I heard the radio chatter indicating the boat was indeed sinking.

We got the passengers (8 folk, mainly children) on my boat, while I moved to the disabled boat while my 16 year old drove mine. I was able to assist the owner determine the source of the water intrusion, and liaise with Cost Guard. Having his family and guests off his boat allowed him the freedom to focus on the problem. After the engine had died, the water intrusion had slowed and the pumps were able to get the boat dry and out of immediate danger.

Unfortunately, in an effort to stay close, my son collided with the disabled vessel's open engine door, ripping a 3 foot tear in the rear tube. Oh dear.....

Once Coast Guard arrived, and we transferred the passengers to their boat I was able to a makeshift repair to enable us to get home, involving stitching up the rip to keep it above water. In this process, I slipped with the knife I was using and put a deep gash in my finger.

Holes 3, van Toor 0.

Once we'd wrapped enough Duct Tape on both the boat tear and my hand, we returned home, and to the ER for stitches. By the end of the day, both I and my boat were successfully patched.

I later learnt the disabled boat got back under tow and is facing a $15,000 repair bill, caused by the failure of a $2 seal.

Lessons learnt:
• It may be a big ocean, but still small enough to matter
• You never know when you can make a difference
• The most unplanned family days tend to form the closest bonds. My sons now have an understanding of handling emergencies they can't get from video games.
• The feeling you get from making a difference to someone's day is one of the richest out there.

Nov 1, 2008

The point of this story that interests me now is the decision process of the skipper of the stricken boat. If he’d stopped the engine at first sing of trouble, he’d have been able to repair for the cost of a seal, and a 1 day haul out (about $500). However, because he kept the engine running, it eventually drowned in salt water, and needed to be completely dismantled. The thought process that did of did not occur here started to interest me, and so an obsession was born.

Tell me about problems you’ve solved early, preventing a major problem, or a problem you ignored that became much bigger than it had to be.