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January 31, 2009

How do you function at maximum capacity?


No doubt you have walked into a restaurant or establishment and seen the maximum capacity sign. I often wonder what some of these places look like when they get that full. But as a business owner do you have a plan to handle that kind of traffic? Will your service drop off or will the people being served still get the same feeling as if they were the only people there.

Today I had the pleasure of seeing this comparison between two companies. It started when I left the house to run errands and noticed it 45 degrees out-- which is really warm for Iowa in January. So I did like everyone else in Iowa and went to the car wash. I figured I could breeze through with only a minimal wait considering they have 8 wash bays. I was wrong. They were choking in a big way. There were many cars in line- good if your the car wash owner- bad for the rest of us. The owner was running around trying to get quarters to everyone because the change machine was broke. As well was the credit card machine, which I found out after waiting for 10 minutes, getting a wash bay, and then seeing the blue screen of death.

Frustrated, I left. He lost my business. He was at maximum capacity and couldn't handle it.

Two stops later I arrived at Panchero's Mexican grill for lunch. They too were at maximum capacity. The line was easily twenty people deep, and the seating area was full. The difference was how they handled it. They were prepared. The line never stopped moving. And when I ordered the workers were pleasant- not the usual frustrated and short tempered-which can often happen to restaurant workers during busy times. In only a few minutes I had my burrito and I was given a frequent buyer card with a brief explanation by the cashier while he ran my credit card. I then sat down to a clean table that had just opened up. Yes-- a clean table.
I was in in awe! So I sat back, sipped my soda, and watched what was happening. They had a system, each worker did their time on the customer service line before being rotated out to wipe down tables, check the soda area, or refill the ingredients.

They were at maximum capacity and thrived on it!

Whats the Great idea here?
A good business gives customer service when its slow and expected. A great business gives customer service all the time, especially when its unexpected. So as a business owner when was the last time you took the company out and ran it hard? I mean really pushed the workers?
I recommend doing this as soon as possible, especially in this economy, when every decision by the customer is important.

Getting great customer service like I did today from Panchero's means that when I want to spend some of my hard earned cash I will go there first. I have seen them in action and they don't disappoint. This is important to me and I bet its important to your customers.

So go out there today and run your business hard, who knows you may find some weak spots that are areas for improvement.


January 29, 2009

Twitter's tipping point

I don't know for sure if we are officially at a tipping point. But Twitter is right there as evidence by the this post and the video.



Blogging is actually becoming too slow. Maybe one day a news story like this will run about the days we used to blog.



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January 26, 2009

Pandora is no longer purple


Thanks to my friend Nick and the article on WIRED we learned that Pandora radio will now have ads.
It would be fun to discuss whether or not have ads on the radio, but in this economy we know that money is tight. So facing an ever tightening budget our friends at Pandora have turned to something tried and true- ads.
This is where the Purple Cow that was Pandora suddenly loses all his color. Pandora was (is) a revolutionary way to listen to music. As part of the Music Genome Project a user can type in a song or an artist and Pandora will play music that has the same qualities as that song or artist. And they tell you why they are playing that song and how it is similar.
Truly unique, truly purple. I don't know of a single radio station that does that.

So it boggles my mind why Pandora, with its revolutionary delivery method, went with a traditional answer to its financial struggles! Sure they added the premium service, which now allows users to skip the ads. And for many people ad free radio is worth paying for. Look at how long Sirius and XM have survived. Pandora should have looked at their financial problems and approached them with the same vigor and uniqueness that they approached their music-- create something revolutionary. It would have been true to their brand and embraced by their users.

If I was Pandora I would have approached my problem with the same process that CVS Pharmacy did a few years ago. Back then the CEO's of CVS realized that a pharmacy and its profit margins were forever bound to the prices the drug manufacturers charged. Feeling like they were no longer in the drivers seat they began a massive switch in their inventory to a house brand. After all, many consumers purchase items along with a prescription. Now they are in control of their profit margins and their stock price reflects it.

Back to Pandora. They could have taken their knowledge of music and applied it even further. Perhaps creating a label for small artists needing help getting their name out there. They could loop in the artists music with their current radio and offer to sell the listener a digital copy. Kind of like how Amazon is getting into the publishing business.

My point is this. When the internet first came along we treated it like television. We placed ads on it and assumed consumers would keep buying. Then we found out that the internet was not television, that users interacted differently online they did with the boob tube. With a revolutionary idea like Pandora why go back a step to a model that takes your uniqueness away?

January 16, 2009

Rescue a Rescue


Recently I read a blog post from David Armano about the power of social media. In his post he wrote about a family that needed help and how social media came to the rescue.


In that same regard I am asking you to do the same.

In June of 2008 I adopted my dog TJ from the America's Basenji Rescue in Indianapolis. For those of you close to me you know that he means the world to me.

That rescue is in financial trouble. Over the last six months the owner has fallen on very tough times. Rebecca and Keith have always ran the rescue out of their own pockets. But recently his job has been cut back and more dogs are coming into the shelter than are being adopted. The rescue currently has 26 dogs and room enough for only 15. As you can imagine the vet bills and food bills are mounting (for those of you in the midwest you know how cold it has been and the heating bills are mounting as well).

I know that times are tough for all of us but it would mean a lot to me personally if you could reach out and help this shelter. A monetary donation is not necessarily needed. If you have old towels or blankets around the house that you don't use please send them. If you have the means to send money please do.
Rebecca is not the type of person to ask for a hand out, so it was personally heartbreaking to receive her email this morning asking for help.

If you are interested or know someone who is interested you can send a check to the following address:

Rebecca Sloan
2589 S. Roena St.
Indianapolis, IN 46241

Or you can donate through their website at
http://www.basenjirescue.us/

This is not a for profit company and all of the donations will be going directly to the care of dogs who are currently homeless.

January 1, 2009

2008 Zeitgeist

Google has posted their 2008 Zeitgeist and once again it provides an interesting picture on the year that was. So the question that I am pondering is this: should we be surprised that Google tracks this information?

My belief is that the majority of the masses like to believe they move around the internet anonymously, popping in and out of websites and no one is the wiser. Unfortunately what they think is reality is far from the truth.

Everything online is trackable.

That sentence will scare you, but its true. So as Sales and Marketers we shouldn't be surprised that Google tracks this or that you track similar information; your customers will be. They will shocked to receive an email suggesting the perfect purchase-- like Amazon. They may get unnerved to find out that you are monitoring them, but that is our job.
Don't be afraid of your data, but don't scare your customers with your knowledge. There is a fine line between knowing and telling. Google knows a lot and tells us less, which less us sleep at night.

For 2009 my suggestion is this. Track everything. Use your data and really target your customers. The days of going after every customer are over. Determine your market and go after them. Stop appeasing the outliners, instead keep to your core group.

And most of all take a page from Google, watch for trends.