So what happened to ‘Thank You’?

Just because we can connect with people in the blink of an eye doesn’t mean we should forget the basics.

I got an approach from someone who was interested in hiring my services. I replied to him. I never heard back (okay, so maybe he changed my mind, maybe I was too expensive, but I'll never know).

A reader emailed me agonising over a decision and asking for career advice. I gave her what I felt was valuable advice. And never heard back (even an email, saying my advice was crap would be better than nothing).

A business owner said he was seeking new people to work with and invited emails to him. I contacted him but never heard back.

I gave some career advice to a student over a coffee. And never got a follow-up 'thanks for your time'.

Sounds familiar?

Sure, we get busy. We change our minds. We don’t need that project, that advice, that supplier. Or we get swamped with feedback when we ask for it. But what happened to those two words -‘thank you’ ?

In this connected world the risk is that people fire off so many tweets, DMs and emails that they become undervalued and meaningless. Not just for individuals but also for brands and businesses. We forget the basics. And there really are no excuses. In our BlackBerry/ iPhone/ iPad ever-connected world, surely there’s 3 seconds for that ‘thank you’, even it’s a ‘thanks but no thanks’?

A Short Story

Last year I approached someone about a project idea. We had a good telephone conversation; we suggested some action points and agreed how we’d move forward.

I fulfilled the actions and waited. I heard nothing, but I was patient as I knew this person was busy (but of course - aren’t we all). So I ‘phoned the person, left a message with an assistant, I emailed them (several times over several weeks).

But I still heard nothing. No ‘sorry, I’m really busy now – I can’t respond’; no ‘look I made a mistake I don’t want to work with you anymore’. Zero response.

What is that all about?!

Friends and clients who work for themselves or are freelance tell me this is a familiar tale. They often have meetings or conversations with people about doing business, they invest time and effort in follow up but then hear nothing back.

I have no great theories to offer here, no guarantees for avoiding such relationships, no magic wands.

But quite simply – I offer you this: “I just don’t get it”

Playing it Straight

Like it or not, you'll experience lots of bullshit in business.

People playing games. People promising you a piece of business when they’ve no intention of paying you. Clients asking you to pitch for business when they already decided who they were going to give the project to. Suppliers telling you what you want to hear, not what they can deliver.

So I was reminded yesterday how refreshing it is to deal with people who cut through all that crap.

A client – who I’d only worked with once before - called me. He wanted a ball park quote on a job for a meeting. I said I’d put a few scenarios on an email to him. ‘Don’t worry wasting your time’ he said, ‘let’s just deal with it now to save you the hassle’. So we talked through some options and I gave him some prices. He didn’t bullshit me, he said if the project would happen it would be next year. But he also said he wasn’t the kind of guy who ‘phoned a supplier to get quotes and then went with someone else. ‘If the project’s happening, it’s yours’.

I’d only worked with him once but he likes working with people he knows and he trusts me to deliver. His attitude is more old-school than new-school, but it’s really refreshing to have a dialogue like this and it reminded me we should all tell it like it is and avoid that business bullshit.

DO IT! Take the leap...

Success in realising your professional – and personal – goals is about having the confidence, balls and tenacity to DO SOMETHING about your dreams, goals and aspirations.

So you have to be good at taking the leap, to action your ideas.

To re-invent your business, win that new client, change your organisation, take up that new hobby, organise that date, book that trip to Paris. Whatever.

Ideas alone are not good enough. You need action.

It’s like that bloke I know who runs a shop. Every time I go in there he’s talking about giving the shop a makeover and a lick of paint. He’s always talking about it, what colour to paint the walls, when to do it, but it doesn’t get done. Ditto my friend who keeps on talking about putting on a charity night at the local pub; my supplier who talks about changing the company’s name and launching a new website; my friend who talks about quitting her job to follow her dream.

So stop talking about and start doing it.

Are You Getting Up At 2am For Your Customers?!

I wrote on this blog recently about the importance of ‘going the extra mile’ in customer service. And then a week ago I experienced service from a small business owner that really ‘wowed’, an example of someone who drove (literally) quite a few extra miles in the pursuit of service.

We were on holiday at The Ammos Hotel in Crete, a small privately-owned hotel. On the first night there our 3 year old woke up in pain. It was 2am in a foreign country; we had no hire car, no knowledge of where the nearest hospital was. We dialled the ‘emergency number’ that had been provided, which turned out to be the mobile ‘phone of the owner, Nikos. When he discovered he couldn’t get a doctor to us, he drove from his house to collect my wife and son and took them to a hospital. There, he acted as translator; they saw a paediatrician who diagnosed an ear infection and issued a prescription. Nikos then drove my wife to a pharmacy to get the medicine - which he insisted on paying for. He then returned them to the hotel where I was waiting with our other child. In the morning I went to shake his hand to thank him so much for all he had done and to apologise for his interrupted sleep. He just replied ‘It was nothing’.

That demonstration of ‘wow’ service really got me thinking; and whether you are a hotel owner, a freelance copywriter, an airline or a huge retailer, it’s a great lesson of the power of great service. So ask yourself, are you doing the equivalent of getting up at 2am for your customer?

Make Your Company Accessible (& Make Sure You Check Your Info@ Emails)

Whether you are a one-person company or a huge corporation and you’re in the service business, make sure your customers can – easily - get in touch. Put a contact number or email address on every page of your website. Make your organisation – and the executives within it – accessible.

If you don’t feel confident about publishing the email addresses of your executives, then ensure you do have an info@ address (or a contactus@ or talktous@ or hello@). Some way of getting in touch.

But that is only half the story. Having a generic enquiry email address is only effective if it is someone’s responsibility to action. Make sure someone is checking – and dealing with – your info@ address.

It might be an enquiry about a piece of new business or a customer complaint. Either way, it matters.

I had a disappointing customer experience in a restaurant/cafe. A company who failed in their brand promise. I thought they had a good brand and they would be grateful for me talking the time and trouble to feedback. I wanted to email the CEO but could not find his email address in the public domain so I wrote to him c/o the info@ email address that I found on the company website.

That was 13 days ago.
And I have heard nothing back. No acknowledgement. Nothing.

And that lack of response has dented their brand equity*. It might only be feedback over a £2 cup of coffee but that oversight has the potential to damage their reputation. So stay on top of customer feedback, whatever business you are in.

*but I’m giving them a second chance and have filled in an enquiry form on their website: let's see if they are listening.....

Knowing When It’s Time To Say Sorry

How often do you say the ‘S’ word? To your partner at home or to your boss or to your team, or to your customer? Sorry can go a long way. If - that's a big IF - it's heartfelt it can mean a lot and go a long way to address a long queue or slow service. If it doesn't feel genuine, it's worth zero.

London's ‘Evening Standard’ newspaper has been accused of being out of touch with this great city for some time. It's one reason I had not picked it up for years, it had become negative and cynical. So when the title recently got bought by Alexander Lebedev I was pleased to hear the new owner and editor designate acknowledge this fact and declare that under new ownership it would change its style. Today it is re-launching, after a brave ad campaign from McCann Erickson.

Ads saying ‘Sorry For Being Negative’, ‘for losing touch’, ‘for being complacent’ have appeared in tube and train stations around town. Is it just a creative ad campaign or is it a genuine re-engineering of a brand? That is the $6m question but the honesty of a brand that says sorry on a huge billboard at a train station feels pretty serious to me.

Like any marketing campaign or brand promise, the challenge is whether they will live up to that claim and only time will tell in the pages of the newspaper. I’ll tell you that when I pick a copy up this evening...

If You're Seeking Good Ideas, Get Outside!

In this month’s British Airways ‘Business Life’ magazine, Chris Barez-Brown from the ?What If! The Innovation Company talked about where he gets his best ideas.

To deal with the challenges of his juggling of work, family, new ventures and admin he seeks ‘the refuge of a flight to get some thinking space, some quiet, some me time’. Chris had the idea for a book whilst walking in Switzerland. He says, ‘what would usually have taken months of hard work became clear in a few hours because the expansive landscape and energetic movement of the trip resulted in expansive and energetic thinking. The same happens to me and many others on a long journey. The varied stimulus and space to ponder is the perfect antidote to today’s business demands’.

This is a theme I have talked about in both of my own books; indeed ‘Leap’ was inspired by trips to California and Spain; ‘Juggle’ was written in Amsterdam and Nice. Flights and train journeys have always – consistently – fuelled my own creativity, whether it is pondering a business challenge over that G&T on take-off or scribbling ideas in my Moleskine. It’s as Kevin Roberts Worldwide CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi said to me when I interviewed him in Paris, ‘inspiration out is a result of inspiration in’, so if you want to come up with inspiring ideas, get inspired yourself!

And if you don’t have a business trip or a journey on the horizon, try creating a mini inspiration jaunt. Whether a day out or just a trip to a different neighbourhood coffee shop in the morning, that change in environment has the potential to make a big difference to your productivity. And for those of us who spend lots of time working from home, it’s even more critical. Which is why the best way to start your working day is to go outside first, whether to walk the dog or for a first espresso of the day. You might find, like me, that first hour or even half an hour away will really fuel your day with stimulus and creativity.

So if you’re getting stale, go outside, go someplace new. After all, you are never going to have that eureka moment sitting at your desk or in your office.

The Most Effective Solutions Are Often The Simplest

Scott Belsky’s session at SXSW didn’t just get me fired up about how to ‘make great ideas happen’ he also got me thinking about how I manage projects and how I use to-do lists.

For any Juggler, lists are a must. I have a series of to-do lists - authored in old and new media - that I use to manage my business. I have played around with different systems and ideas for capturing that project overview of all my different project to-do’s. I love having a one pager that does that for me.

And then a slide in Scott’s presentation caught my eye. He was talking about the importance of tracking progress and actions on projects in a workspace where co-workers could get an idea of what was going on, and what the priorities were.

And then I realised what my overview needed to be. No amazing project management software, no iPhone app, no complex spreadsheet. Just a corkboard, a jotter pad, and a marker pen. A column for each client/ project with key actions/tasks. Now, when I’m back at base I have that overview of what needs doing across all my projects.

A reminder that – of course – the most effective solutions are often the simplest.

* image has been blurred to protect client confidentiality

Advice To A London Cabbie: If you hate your job that much, do something about it!

I got in a taxi last week and we got talking. The cabbie had been off ill for a year and was back behind the wheel for the first time that night. I had to update him on road closures and how a junction layout had changed; so much so, I joked he should be sitting in the back and me in the front. He was not happy to be back behind the wheel. In fact he told me that he'd hated being a cabbie for ... wait for it... fifteen years! He really wanted to be a builder, doing loft conversions.

I had to laugh because over the years I have spoken to loads of people who wanted to take the Leap to work for themselves or make a career change. Most had an instinct to take the leap or do something different, while others had just a 10% hunch but knew they needed to take action. But here was a bloke who knew 100% he wanted to do something different; and what's more he hadn't just tolerated something he hated for 15 weeks or 15 months, but 15 years. Gulp! As I handed over my fare, he said he wasn't sure what he should do, should he set up a basic website and start trading, fulfilling his dream? To me, it was unbelievable. If you hate something that much AND if you have a clear yearning for something else, just do it. Go for it!

So I gave him a tip. I told him to live his dream and go for it.

(And then I realised he should have paid me, not the other way around....)

Your Value Is Not Always That Black & White

Don't assume that your client is always on the same wavelength as you. Whether you are an advisor, consultant or freelancer providing your services to a client, you'll need to be proactive in communicating your value; make sure they realise - and value - the contribution you are making. And the same applies if you are an executive working for an organisation.

Because sometimes value cannot always be measured tangibly. If your role is about sales and generating new business, then sure - it can be easily quantified. What difference have you made to the bottom line, what business did you win? But for some, value might be less black and white. We may have devised a marketing strategy with a longer-term return; we may have proposed a fresh market positioning, a new brand direction, mentored a staff member or team, or given advice on how the business can be developed. And that kind of value cannot be instantly measured. So you need to take the initiative to regularly sit down with your client (or boss) and pose the question 'did you got value from me this month?'. Don't assume they know exactrly what you've done, how you've done it, and how they'll benefit. You need to be proactive in outlining the deliverables you provided, the ideas you had, the positive difference you made. S p e l l i t o u t.

You may have had an idea or provided some advice that gave a small 'nudge' for them to adopt a new strategy or change their organisational culture. However small that nudge, the benefits of that change may be huge. And without you, they would never have embarked on that new direction or made those changes. Don't forget that.

When you're busy juggling, it can be easily overlooked. So don't assume your client knows your value, stay on top of the relationship, check they are happy and remind them about everything you've done for them.

Make Sure Your Prospective Clients 'Get It'

Do your prospective clients 'get it'? Do you communicate your business offering clearly and distinctly?

I always advise my clients to have a clear brand statement, a mission statement or a positioner that sets out their stall in a simple and compelling way. In their website, creds and sales tools - so the marketplace 'gets it'. Not a shopping list of services, not a 'me too' proposition, something distinctive.

Your website is your shop window and you have to communicate - in a flash - what you are all about. It's a bit like this A-board outside one of my favourite coffee shops, NudeEspresso. It might just be a pavement A-board but it communicates their brand essence to passers by in the same way a website needs to.

'freshly made food, fantastic coffee + free wifi in a warm cosy space'

It's funny because brands and agencies spend tens of thousands of pounds and months in brainstorms trying to articulate brand statements. Whoever wrote Nude Espresso's probably didn't think what they were going to chalk up for too long but they have done it an ever so simple - yet genius - way. It does the sell perfectly. And even better, they deliver on the sell.

Don't over-engineer it, just tell the story. Whether you are a big business or a freelancer, ask yourself: what does your A-Board say?

SXSW Interactive = My Outsourced R&D Dept

Coming to South By South West Interactive has been a real eye opener.

People I've met here asked did I just come to do the book signing or was it to co-present the Core Conversation with Melissa? The answer is that I came for something bigger.

Being a micro-business - and an author - I don't invest in traditional training or personal development so SXSW offers me a one-stop for topping up my intellectual capital. I've spent all my annual training budget in one go for Five Packed Days of stimulation and ideas.

Meeting new people and attending some really insightful and thought provoking sessions has really inspired me. And it's inspired me not just in the subject matter of the sessions itself but also in sharpening my mind to consider other projects and ideas in my portfolio. As a result, I'm scribbling like mad.

And 'scribbling like mad' puts me in a minority. This is the first festival/conference I have come to where the majority of delegates - literally 75% - are on their laptops, blackberries, iPhones during sessions. When I did the Core Conversation, many of our audience sat with a laptop open making notes or sharing thoughts on Twitter and Facebook. That took some getting used to, but it's what everyone does. Some people are creating mindmaps on their laptops with notes while a minority use moleskine notepad and pen. I actually went to a (great) session this morning called 'Presenting Straight To The Brain' where the whole notion of this ever-present constant backchannel of communication and interaction was discussed by the panel. And the consensus seemed to be there are no rules, so long as delegates are getting value, and taking something behaviour-changing away from the session, it doesn't matter what currency of note-taking or habit of device operation they are engaged with.

So I may be a dinosaur in using my notepad for notes but I am getting tons of value - SXSW is my outsourced R&D Department. What I am soaking up here will benefit my business, my clients, my ideas, my books, everything. Which is all good but I feel like I need a holiday when I get back...

If you're Struggling, Try Segmenting Your Juggling

Here's my latest excerpt from my new book 'Juggle!'

When you’re juggling, your work life can get confusing. Case in point: this afternoon while I am trying to write this, I am also dealing with two other projects; that’s three agendas at the same time. And it can be frustrating because I want to clear the decks and get stuck into one thing, not three things.

Although it’s a fact of life that Jugglers have to be adept at dealing with multiple agendas simultaneously, try segmentation to make sure you stay focused on one thing at a time. Segment the working day for different bits. Because when I said juggling was about doing more than one thing at the same time, I didn’t necessarily mean doing them all at 15:41 on a Monday, I meant in the same role, in the same day or week.

One approach to segmentation is to think how your job or role divides in simple disciplines. Is it Sales and Admin? Or Leadership and Project Management? Design and client liaison? Put simply, my job is ‘Thinking’ and ‘Doing’; that is applicable to every project – it’s ideas and delivery. Whilst they overlap constantly, to maximise productivity and performance, I try and approach them differently.

The ‘Doing’ bit is probably 70%. Meetings, emails, sorting stuff out, talking, managing projects, implementing. For that I need a desk, a telephone, a laptop, a meeting room, my project files.

The ‘Thinking’ bit might only take 30%, sometimes even only 3% but THAT is where the value is. For that bit my tools are my brain, a pen and a pad, an airline ticket, a beer. Asking questions, coming up with answers. Strategising, formulating ideas for my business, ideas for my clients’ businesses, ways to add value to projects, ideas for my next book. Some of this I try and do in a café, on a train, or in a plane. But you can’t always contrive the climate for ideas generation; some results will just happen. During playtime, in the shower, walking to the tube station.

Segment your schedule, your to-do list, your working week to maximise your productivity. If your energy levels are not at their best Monday mornings, don’t attempt your big strategising then; save that for a Starbucks later in the week and get that sales report done instead. Work out where the ‘value’ is in what you do, and ensure you make the necessary investment in your time and your approach to get results.

Who's Asking Your Clients How Their Weekend Was?

I was talking to a friend of mine – David - last week; we were discussing the importance of client care and managing relationships. And he made this observation, often neglected or overlooked:

'My Tools Of The Trade'

Another productive afternoon's brainstorming...

If you're struggling with the answer, turn it upside down

Sometimes, the solution to a problem or a challenge is easier than you think.

To the people at First Great Western trains who helpfully put power sockets at tables throughout the train. If you installed the power socket UPSIDE DOWN then I could have recharged my laptop. Alas, I couldn't so I went to the bar, had a G&T, put on the ipod and wrote some notes for a presentation instead...

Bust Your Stress!

I’m going to start blogging some excerpts from my book. I thought this one was apt for a busy Monday; how to bust your stress….

Do you ever have one of those days when you wake up and think ‘how on earth am I going to get everything done?’ When you feel stressed, you know you have too much going on and lack the clarity to survive the chaos?

In my experience, there are two types of stress: good and bad. Stress when your life is rocking and rolling, you are juggling projects and play, busy and buzzy but life feels good. It’s mad, but you feel on top of it. At the end of a busy day you feel stimulated by everything.

Then there’s the other stress. That feeling in the pit of your stomach when you know you are under too much pressure. When that pressure feels unsustainable. And then – for the sake of your health and well being – you know you have to do something. You need to heed the warning signs, temporarily allow yourself to drop a few of the balls, to focus on the real priorities.

Remind yourself that some of the stuff that gets chucked your way can just wait; don’t drown in a sea of chaos. Sometimes you need to be tunnel-visioned to forget the 34 things on the to-do list and just worry about the 3 or 4 that have to get done before you go home tonight. Focus your energies there and you’ll have a more productive working day.

I looked at my schedule a few days ahead of a holiday. And I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to do everything in time. I asked myself 'are all these meetings critical now?’ Those that weren't, I cancelled. I’d created a false sense of chaos by putting too many meetings in at a time when I needed meeting-free days.

It’s easy to get in a panic. Don’t get in a cycle where you’re stressed about being stressed! I know this guy who’s always running around stressed; I feel stressed just watching him. When you break down his worries, they’re hardly tangible. So whatever you do, don't create your own stress, by getting in a flap.

Here’s a Stress-Busting checklist to deal with those panic moments:

1. Introduce a buffer to prevent you from getting too-stressed out. Remove – or lessen – the pressure on your week, cancel that social engagement, dump your weekend plans to just chill and you can manage your stress levels.
2. Break the projects down to its basics. Consider what’s important, what’s not important and formulate a plan to get through the next 24 hours or whatever. And that will give you clarity and help you juggle.
3. Put things in perspective. Ask yourself, 'if this doesn't happen now, what's the worst thing that can happen?'
4. If you are suffering to-do list anxiety, set your alarm for 5am one day or spend a Saturday morning ploughing through actions and ticking them off with no interruptions. Its remarkable how much you can get done and also you can then approach Monday morning with clarity and a sense of being on top of stuff.

And if you are still struggling with everything and it’s all getting too much, then:

> STOP

> PAUSE (that’s the important bit)

> REVIEW the to-do list

> SHOUT ‘Enough’ and raise the drawbridge!

I hate queues but...

I hate to wait in line, but I'll always be happy to wait for the best coffee in London.

Monmouth Coffee Shop, Borough Market, Saturday 21st February

How Mike Southon juggles beermats, a band and a column in the FT

Today’s Juggle Tapes interview is with Mike Southon. Mike is a business speaker and a leading authority on entrepreneurship and sales. He is an experienced entrepreneur with a weekly column in the weekend Financial Times. He’s founder of the Beermat Entrepreneur business network and has co-authored several bestselling books, including ‘The Beermat Entrepreneur’. He also plays in a band Mike Fabgere.

Mike talks about the philosophies at the heart of his success:

- How being a successful juggler is about being part of a team;
- How we manages his different identities;
- His belief about reinventing what you do every seven years .

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE