Category: Business

Business articles by Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

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Business

The Total Cost of Ownership

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

I have a love/hate relationship with technology. I love to have the latest, fastest, and most powerful tools and toys, but I hate the time it takes for implementation, requiring that I preempt more important activities to install, fine-tune, and master my new technology. Therefore, I tend to stick with what I have.

Author Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

However, it became time where I had to buy a new office computer. Given my reluctance to spend time migrating from one computer to the next, I had successfully found reasons to put this off for over a year. But my aging computer was clearly being taxed, so I finally made the switch.

My new computer is much faster, and Windows 7 is a great operating system, with an easy learning curve from Vista. This computer is my first with a DVD burner and my first without a floppy disk drive. Also absent are the modem and parallel port—an oversight on my part, given that my old faithful printer requires a parallel connection.

The cost of the computer breaks down to about 50 percent for hardware and 50 percent for software (Windows and Office)—and 50 percent for unforeseen expenses. Yes, there were costs overruns.

I’ve had to upgrade several of my other programs to work with Windows 7. Aside from my parallel printer, my other printer lacks a Windows 7 driver. Although I have temporary workaround solutions for both, a new printer is in my future as well. That will push the cost overruns even higher.

My other frustration is with Office 2010, specifically Word. Had I been using Office 2007, the switch would have been easy, but my migration is from Office 2003. For my prior computer upgrade, I purposely retained Office 2003.

The user interface on Office 2007 was quite different (a learning curve issue) and cumbersome to use (an efficiency issue). I had hoped that the 2010 version would return to an Office 2003 type of interface, but that was not the case.

With Office 2003 showing its age, I made the leap to 2010. Despite my frustrations that common routine tasks now require more mouse clicks, I am discovering new features, pleasing improvements, and some nice shortcuts, so it will eventually be okay. Even so, two months into it, I am still not as efficient as I’d like to be when I write.

My new computer has cost me both time and money. The cost overruns were my fault: I overlooked the need for a parallel port and all my driver problems stem from the fact that I bought the 64-bit version of Windows (32-bit drivers were available for all my programs).

The time issue, however, was unavoidable. Fortunately, I scheduled my purchase during a slower period of the year. This afforded me extra time to spend converting to the new system and learning new software versions.

Upgrading a single PC pales in comparison to replacing technology in throughout an office or workplace, but I don’t want to discourage anyone from doing that; the benefits are just too great.

What I do want to communicate is to be extra careful in spec’ing the system and allow additional time to learn it and become proficient. The results will be well worth it.

Read more in Peter Lyle DeHaan’s Sticky Series books, including Sticky Customer Service, Sticky Sales and Marketing, and Sticky Leadership and Management featuring his compelling story-driven insights and tips.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an entrepreneur and businessman who has managed, owned, and started multiple businesses over his career. Common themes at every turn have included customer service, sales and marketing, and leadership and management.

He shares his lifetime of business experience and personal insights through his books to encourage, inspire, and occasionally entertain.

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Business

Book Review: The Napkin, the Melon & the Monkey

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

Promoted as “a customer service fable,” The Napkin, the Melon & the Monkey is ambitiously subtitled: How to Be Happy and Successful at Work and in Life by Simply Changing Your Mind. Let me confirm that I believe it lives up to its grandiose intention.

Author Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

The inside back cover notes that author “Barbara Burke is an internationally known consultant, speaker, and author who specializes in the ‘people side’ of customer service management.” The Napkin, the Melon & the Monkey is all about customer service, in this case, specifically customer service in a call center. However, its lessons can be readily applied to all customer service situations, as well as to life in general.

Reminiscent of the classic The One Minute Manager, this fable follows the vocational pursuits of Olivia, a harried customer service representative—that is, a call center agent—working for the local utility.

Starting her position with much excitement and expectation, it isn’t long before the crush of complaint calls and barbs from angry customers brings her to her breaking point.

It is then when wise Isabel, an insightful veteran of the team, comes to Olivia’s rescue. With one simple piece of advice, Isabel changes Olivia’s job outlook and career trajectory.

This, however, is not the only interaction between mentor and mentee, but the first of many such exchanges. Along the way, Olivia records twenty-two “aha!” moments, which have broad applications for call center work, customer service efforts, and life itself.

In case you’re wondering how a napkin, a melon, and a monkey fit into this, let me assure you that they do, serving as apt metaphors for three key points and reoccurring themes in the book.

But don’t take my word for it – read The Napkin, the Melon & the Monkey yourself… and then share it with your coworkers. It just might make all the difference.

Read more in Peter Lyle DeHaan’s Sticky Series books, including Sticky Customer Service, Sticky Sales and Marketing, and Sticky Leadership and Management featuring his compelling story-driven insights and tips.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an entrepreneur and businessman who has managed, owned, and started multiple businesses over his career. Common themes at every turn have included customer service, sales and marketing, and leadership and management.

He shares his lifetime of business experience and personal insights through his books to encourage, inspire, and occasionally entertain.

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Business

The Magazine Industry Is Alive and Well

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

Many of us love magazines, just as much as (if not more than) we love books.  But economic woes combined with new media’s impact on these industries, the future of magazines has seemed dire at times.  However, I recently found some positive facts about magazines in the 2010/11 MPA Magazine Handbook:

Author Peter Lyle DeHaan

Magazine audiences are growing – and young adults read heavily:

The number of magazine readers has grown more than 4 percent over the past five years. Ninety-three percent of adults overall and 96 percent of adults under age thirty-five read magazines.

Magazine audiences are expanding across platforms:

The number of magazine websites and mobile apps is increasing; e-readers are projected to grow rapidly – and consumers want to see magazine content on them.

Magazines contribute most throughout the purchase funnel:

Magazines are the most consistent performer in the purchase funnel, with particular strength in the key stages of brand favorability and purchase intent.

Magazines build buzz:

Magazine readers are more likely than users of other media to influence friends and family on products across a variety of categories. Magazines complement the web in reaching social networkers, whom marketers increasingly favor to generate word-of-mouth.

Magazines spur web traffic and search:

Magazines lead other media in influencing consumers to start a search for merchandise online, ranking at or near the top by gender as well as across all age groups. Also, magazine ads boost web traffic, and magazine readers are more likely than non-readers to buy online.

Magazine audiences accumulate faster than you think:

More than three-quarters of readers read their copy within the first three days. The average monthly magazine accumulates approximately 60% of its audience within a month’s time, and the average weekly magazine accumulates nearly 80% of its audience in two weeks.

Read more in Peter Lyle DeHaan’s Sticky Series books, including Sticky Customer Service, Sticky Sales and Marketing, and Sticky Leadership and Management featuring his compelling story-driven insights and tips.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an entrepreneur and businessman who has managed, owned, and started multiple businesses over his career. Common themes at every turn have included customer service, sales and marketing, and leadership and management.

He shares his lifetime of business experience and personal insights through his books to encourage, inspire, and occasionally entertain.

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Business

Avoiding the Trap of ROI-Driven Media Buys

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

There is a troubling trend in advertising; it is making ad buys based strictly on ROI (return on investment) calculations.

This tendency began in earnest with online advertising, which provides readily available performance data, such as impressions, clicks, and leads. Soon, advertisers were justifying ad buys solely using cost-per-click or cost-per-lead calculations – and forgetting the big picture of effective marketing.

For many forms of advertising, performance metrics are not available, so ROI calculations are non-existent or mere guesses. Lacking firm ROI numbers, some shortsighted advertisers are bypassing viable opportunities, such as print, thinking that they are making a wise and informed decision in doing so.

Most advertising builds brand awareness, but does little to generate immediate sales. So even if a unique phone number, email address, or landing page is included to measure response, it won’t matter.

Ads that lack a clear call to action will have no action to measure. Branding ads pave the way to future sales, future goodwill, and future top-of-mind awareness. But that is hard to measure and takes a long time to realize.

Marketers who seek instant gratification may opt to rely on ROI to make decisions. However, those who want to be around for a long time, need to invest in branding efforts today in order to enjoy the rewards of increased sales tomorrow.

The long term success for the marketer, their company, and their brand cannot survive solely on ROI-driven media buys.

Read more in Peter Lyle DeHaan’s Sticky Series books, including Sticky Customer Service, Sticky Sales and Marketing, and Sticky Leadership and Management featuring his compelling story-driven insights and tips.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an entrepreneur and businessman who has managed, owned, and started multiple businesses over his career. Common themes at every turn have included customer service, sales and marketing, and leadership and management.

He shares his lifetime of business experience and personal insights through his books to encourage, inspire, and occasionally entertain.

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Business

A Wise but Shortsighted Decision

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

It recently became time to replace our 24-year old furnace.  As the installer wrapped up his work, he began teaching about the critical aspects of carbon monoxide detection. 

I had placed our lone detector where the furnace and water heater were located; detecting the poisonous gas at its source, I had reasoned, was the ideal solution.  Apparently, not so; there should be one in each bedroom.

A few weeks later, I had purchased and installed two new units of the brand he recommended.  Content that we were now safe (at least from carbon monoxide poisoning), I sat down to read that manual of my new devices.

Aside from helpful information about detection, harmful levels, and appropriate responses to an alarm, I was dismayed to learn that I should replace the unit after seven years.  Yeah, like that’s going to happen.

I read on and became further agitated.  After seven years, the unit will emit a warning beep every 30 seconds, alerting me to replace it.

On the part of the manufacturer, that is a smart move.  Not only will they have an opportunity to sell me replacement products in a few years, but they also limit their liability by effectively removing aging units from use.

It is also shortsighted.  When a unit starts beeping, few people will immediately jump in their car and buy a replacement.  No, they will unplug it to stop the annoying beeping.

Even more confounding is the realization that my units, being installed at the same time, will start beeping at the same time, and will be unplugged at the same time.

Read more in Peter Lyle DeHaan’s Sticky Series books, including Sticky Customer Service, Sticky Sales and Marketing, and Sticky Leadership and Management featuring his compelling story-driven insights and tips.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an entrepreneur and businessman who has managed, owned, and started multiple businesses over his career. Common themes at every turn have included customer service, sales and marketing, and leadership and management.

He shares his lifetime of business experience and personal insights through his books to encourage, inspire, and occasionally entertain.

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Business

Does Anyone Really Like Speech Recognition?

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

I’m a huge fan of technology—and the allure of speech recognition (also called IVR or interactive voice response) carries with it great appeal. Yet when it comes to real-life implementations, I find it decidedly lacking and frustration-filled.

Author Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

In the past I’ve been reticent to state my disinclination—knowing that I’m part of the problem: my words often lack clarity. Clearly, I don’t make a speech recognition engine’s job easy.

Some errors are easily explainable given my imprecise speaking tendencies, such as asking for Candy Lane and ending up with Cam DeLain. However, other occurrences are nonsensical, making for a great comedy skit, albeit poor customer service. For example:

“Good morning, Acme Call Center; your call is important to us. Please say the department or name of the person you are calling.”

“Sally Pavasaris” I dutifully respond.

“Did you say “Ned Flanders?”

“NO,” I exclaim! Nothing happens. “Sal-ee-Pa-va-sar-is,” I decidedly project using my best possible diction.

“I’m sorry, I don’t understand. Please say the department or name of the person you are calling.”

“Agent!” I implore. “Operator!” I beg. I begin pressing zero with repeated vigor. When I’m finally connected to a person, my demeanor is less than stellar. I know why, but the agent is clueless, likely muttering about rude customers after she transfers my call.

To further complicate matters, what if I don’t know the person’s full name? What if I can’t pronounce their last name? Speech recognition is ill equipped for such situations.

Another common issue that I have is a quandary on how to proceed when the software and I talk at the same time. A common dilemma is:

“Please say your account number…”

“Seven,” I begin.

“…followed by the pound sign,” the voice continues.

At this point I have a critical decision to make, the ramifications of which could have frustrating consequences. Do I assume that “seven” was recognized, allowing me to confidently proceed in giving my account number? Or should I play it safe and repeat the first digit?

If I guess wrongly even more time will be wasted attempting fruitless communication with a machine. Either way, I’ll inevitably hear: “I’m sorry; that number is invalid; please try again.”

Sometimes I try to suppress my impatient tendencies (why am I patient with people and impatient with machines?) and wait to make sure the voice is done talking. Sometimes I pause too long, at which point I’m rewarded with the unappreciated prompt, “Please respond now.”

To avoid causing the voice further frustration, I quickly comply. This usually results in the situation I was attempting to avoid in the first place—the machine and I simultaneously speaking. At this point things usually spiral further out of control.

The software still doesn’t know my account number, I still don’t know when to speak and when to listen, and I’m sensing that the likelihood of talking with a real person—versus talking to a machine trying to act like a person—is even more unlikely then when I started the call.

It is true that a careful speech recognition implementation can serve to speed up call processing and improve caller satisfaction. Sadly, that goal is not often realized.

Instead, grandiose efforts are attempted, with little to show for it—aside from frustrated customers and unnecessarily maligned telephone agents and customer service personnel. Is that the intended result of technology?

Customer Service Success Tip: Interact with your company’s automation as a customer or prospect would. Even better, hire an outsider to be a secret shopper. Prioritize frustrations and failures. Then fix them.

Read more in Peter Lyle DeHaan’s Sticky Series books, including Sticky Customer Service, Sticky Sales and Marketing, and Sticky Leadership and Management featuring his compelling story-driven insights and tips.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an entrepreneur and businessman who has managed, owned, and started multiple businesses over his career. Common themes at every turn have included customer service, sales and marketing, and leadership and management.

He shares his lifetime of business experience and personal insights through his books to encourage, inspire, and occasionally entertain.

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Business

The Waste of Excessive Packaging

Wasteful packaging

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

I upgraded some software and paid an extra ten bucks for the installation CD. This makes restoration much easier when it becomes necessary. But for instant gratification, I downloaded the software so that I could begin using it immediately, while waiting for the disk to arrive. (It took 29 days, but that is a different story—or perhaps two.)

When the software arrived, I was dismayed at the packaging: what a waste of resources, what excess. The cost to produce the package surely exceeded the cost to produce the CD. Just send me the CD in a functional case. I don’t need a case within a box within another box within a sleeve (which was placed in another box for shipping).

Excessive packaging parts

Although the packaging was impressive and professional in appearance, it was also unnecessary and served no useful function. True, all software that is sold retail is similarly packaged, but this is a throwback to when a manual came with the software, thereby requiring a box. Over time, as the manual slimmed down and then became non-existent, but the box size remained unchanged while the packaging became more substantial.

The software can easily be packaged like movie DVDs or better yet, like music CDs. Doing so would cut production costs, reduce waste, save retail shelf space, and make shipping easier and cheaper.

Of course, it would also give me one less thing to rant about.

Read more in Peter Lyle DeHaan’s Sticky Series books, including Sticky Customer Service, Sticky Sales and Marketing, and Sticky Leadership and Management featuring his compelling story-driven insights and tips.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an entrepreneur and businessman who has managed, owned, and started multiple businesses over his career. Common themes at every turn have included customer service, sales and marketing, and leadership and management.

He shares his lifetime of business experience and personal insights through his books to encourage, inspire, and occasionally entertain.

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Business

Your Call Center on Autopilot

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

I remember calling Visa with a query about my statement. The knowledgeable rep professionally answered my question. After an effective and otherwise satisfying call, he concluded by saying, “Thank you for calling American Express.”

Author Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

I was taken aback, but opted to say nothing. Either he was oblivious to what he uttered or mortified that he had stated the wrong company. In either case, his mouth was on autopilot and his mind was disengaged. Seeking to avoid causing him embarrassment, I politely responded, “You’re welcome,” and ended the call.

In contemplating this, I wondered if he recently changed jobs, moving from American Express to Visa. More likely was that he worked for a credit card outsource call center, which handled calls for both Visa and American Express.

(An alternate explanation is that he was merely bored, seeing how people responded to his miscommunication—stranger things have happened.)

Call center work involves a great deal of repetition, which often occurs in quick succession. It is no wonder that agents easily switch on their autopilot and mindlessly cruise through their day.

Even the best of agents can occasionally succumb to this phenomenon, with uncaring reps subsisting in that mode. As such, we can expect a certain percentage of call center communication to subconsciously uttered. Is it any wonder that mistakes occur?

Matters are made worse when a metrics-motivated manager pushes agents to answer quicker, conclude calls faster, and process more transactions per hour. The result can be agents who are mentally on the next call before the current one is finished.

I’ve seen another amusing autopilot occurrence happen at the conclusion of a call. It’s when agents inquire, “Is there anything else I can help you with today?” Often this is an appropriate query, ensuring that all the caller’s reasons for contact have been fully addressed. Sometimes, however, it is nonsensical or even infuriating.

One such unwarranted situation is when terminating a service. I call to cancel my account. I tell the agent that I am not happy with their product, that it didn’t meet my expectations, and that nothing can be done to mitigate the situation.

I am trying to be polite, but I know that I am terse. After an apology and some subsequent typing, the agent announces that my account has been cancelled—then cheerfully asks, “Is there anything else I can help you with today?”

What else might there be? I don’t think I’ll open an account—I just closed one. I certainly won’t place an order; I’m not happy with the service and I am no longer a customer. There are no pending issues. So what might else might they help me with? Nothing—so why ask?

Another scenario occurs when calling with a question. After vainly trying to help, the rep apologizes for their failure, and then asks, “Is there anything else I can help you with today?” I want to scream, “You couldn’t help me with my first question, so how could there be anything else?”

The only thing that is accomplished by asking that question in the wrong situation is to waste my time and theirs. At this point some call center managers may be countering, “Our agents aren’t on autopilot; it’s our policy to say that on every call.”

To which I ask, “Why?”

Customer Service Success Tip: Employee autopilot can occur in any repetitive job, ranging from customer service to manufacturing to clerical. Seek ways to move staff from autopilot to intentional work. They’re apt to like their jobs more. And the positive outcomes of their work will soar.

Read more in Peter Lyle DeHaan’s Sticky Series books, including Sticky Customer Service, Sticky Sales and Marketing, and Sticky Leadership and Management featuring his compelling story-driven insights and tips.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an entrepreneur and businessman who has managed, owned, and started multiple businesses over his career. Common themes at every turn have included customer service, sales and marketing, and leadership and management.

He shares his lifetime of business experience and personal insights through his books to encourage, inspire, and occasionally entertain.

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Business

Channel Inconsistency

Frustration Abounds When Details Differ Between the Store, Online, and Call Center

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

Every two years my family and I upgrade our cell phones. This isn’t because we want the newest model. It’s because we seek the lowest cost. Since each provider offers better deals to new customers than existing ones, we’re forced to switch carriers.

Every time we make our biennial switch, a nightmare unfolds. Here’s one of our tales of frustration.

Author Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

In Person

This time, our daughter took the lead in our every-other-year phone migration. She replaced her phone first. She did her research online and then visited their store to complete the purchase.

The phone she selected had an instant rebate and a mail-in rebate, which resulted in a cost of zero. Everything went as expected, and she bought her new phone.

We thought nothing of the fact that the website promotion matched the in-store price. Assuming this would continue to be true, however, was a mistake.

With her approval of the product, a few weeks later we moved forward to replace three more phones. With confidence we returned to the store, only to learn the price for that phone had increased and there was no longer a mail-in rebate.

We left discouraged and without our new phones.

Online

Once home, we revisited their website. Online pricing had changed too, but it differed from the store’s price. The cyberspace deal offered an instant rebate, resulting in a net cost of 99 cents.

Though a tad more than free, we accepted the charge. I placed the order, but a pop-up told me I couldn’t upgrade online. It referred me to a toll-free number.

Call Center Sales

I called. Incredibly, their net price after rebate was $50, not 99 cents. When I mentioned the online offer, the agent matched it.

A few days later, I phoned them again to order a fifth and final unit. To my dismay, I hadn’t noted the 800-number given online in the pop-up window.

Instead of repeating a futile pretense of ordering online just to get it, I dialed the number listed on my paperwork.

Call Center Customer Service

This time I encountered yet another pricing situation. The net cost, after promotions and rebate, would be $40 to buy the same phone. I told the agent about the deal I received two days prior.

This confused her, musing about the different options she could tap to give me a better deal. She could reduce my cost to $29.95, even $20—with manager approval—but not 99 cents.

I mentioned the website deal and asked her to match it. She told me she couldn’t do that.

“But the person I talked to on Monday matched it,” I said.

Again, this confused her. After more questioning, she understood the situation. She was in customer service while the prior employee was in sales. Sales could match website offers; customer service could not.

She surprised me by revealing she had a sales quota of two phones per day. Although she remained professional, her enthusiasm waned. She gave me the number for sales, lessening her chances of meeting her daily quota.

I called the number and bought the phone for 99 cents.

One Product and Four Prices

To recap, the store promoted one price, the website listed another, customer service offered a third, and sales quoted a fourth. Customer service had some pricing latitude, but sales had more.

Is this any way to run a business?

Subjecting frontline staff to inconsistent pricing and frustrating policies is no way to treat employees. Nor is it the right way to treat customers.

Everyone suffers with channel inconsistency between the physical store, the website, and the call center. This disconnect affects staff, prospects, and customers.

The result is buyers venting to staff. Frontline employees—store clerks and call center agents—must endure this understandable, but avoidable, customer angst.

What we must offer is channel consistency instead of channel inconsistency.

Marketing Management Success Tip

Channel inconsistency is no longer as bad as it once was. But it still exists. Hire a secret shopper. Have them interact with your company through each channel to uncover inconsistencies in pricing and policies. Then eliminate the differences.

Your customers and your frontline staff will appreciate it.

Read more in Peter Lyle DeHaan’s Sticky Series books, including Sticky Customer Service, Sticky Sales and Marketing, and Sticky Leadership and Management featuring his compelling story-driven insights and tips.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an entrepreneur and businessman who has managed, owned, and started multiple businesses over his career. Common themes at every turn have included customer service, sales and marketing, and leadership and management.

He shares his lifetime of business experience and personal insights through his books to encourage, inspire, and occasionally entertain.

Categories
Business

For Advertising to Work, It Must Be Repetitive

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD

Many people who are not trained in the art of marketing, have the false assumption that they can run one ad and make the phone ring. This is rarely the case. Regarding the need for ongoing advertising, author Debbie Elicksen says it best:

“A one-shot ad rarely works. Many businesses make the mistake of putting all their eggs in one advertising basket, blowing their whole budget on one glitzy ad in a well-known publication. Unfortunately, such ads often don’t generate a single call. For advertising to work, it must be repetitive. A seed is planted with the first ad. The second ad starts working on the subconscious. The third ad might be the one that gets noticed by those who are in the market for your product.” [from “Self-Publishing,” by Debbie Elicksen, p 127; emphasis added]

Read more in Peter Lyle DeHaan’s Sticky Series books, including Sticky Customer Service, Sticky Sales and Marketing, and Sticky Leadership and Management featuring his compelling story-driven insights and tips.

Peter Lyle DeHaan is an entrepreneur and businessman who has managed, owned, and started multiple businesses over his career. Common themes at every turn have included customer service, sales and marketing, and leadership and management.

He shares his lifetime of business experience and personal insights through his books to encourage, inspire, and occasionally entertain.