"...keeping you great" Ten Minutes with the Growth Guy
HEADLINES:
Extreme customer service examples -- FORTUNE Small Business is on the hunt for a company under $200 million that seriously messed up with a customer and then went way above and beyond to fix the problem, converting a furious customer into a deeply loyal one. They want a very vivid and interesting example -- email Justin Martin at [email protected]
The Ultimate Question -- this is one of the hot new business books written by Fred Reichheld, also author of the hugely popular book "The Loyalty Effect." In essence, he provides formulas for calculating your Net Promoter Score. Customer loyalty is more important than customer satisfaction, and customer advocacy (are your customers actively telling others) is more important than customer loyalty. You need to both actively encourage and measure how much customer advocacy you're getting.
Chairman of P&G gets more energy -- A.G. Lafley, also CEO, notes in FORTUNE "I've learned how to manage my energy...in a program called the Corporate Athlete (based on the book "The Power of Full Engagement" that I've been encouraging all of you to read!) that we put on for P&G managers. I did the two-day program, where I also learned to change the way I eat. I used to eat virtually nothing for breakfast. Now I have a V-8 juice, half a bagel, and a cup of yogurt. And I eat five or six times a day. It's about managing your glycemic level. You don't want to boom and bust." Here's a link to the short, powerful article (note -- you must disable your pop-up blocker)
Single biggest contribution I make...Lafley also notes in the piece "On Sunday nights, [HR chief] Dick Antoine and I get together at his house or my house or on the phone and go through some part of our leadership development program. We started doing this shortly after I became CEO, because I know that the single biggest contribution I will make to this company is helping the next generation of leaders become the best that they can be." It's why we've launched two Summits this year -- an opportunity for you to provide your executive team with the best leadership development worthy of the FORTUNE 50. See you in Atlanta and Las Vegas.
Walk (and talk) with children -- Nick Arrigan, Vega Consulting Solutions, a NJ-based IT Services firm, noted "after your workshop I plan on taking scheduled weekly walks with my kids individually and have requested a recurring lunch or breakfast time with the owner of my company. I'm looking forward to them all." I've been going on an early morning walk around our lake with my two sons for over a year now and it's been a wonderful way to get "talk time" and get energized for the day.
More talk time -- Brad Geddes, CEO of Magi Seal Corporation, a London, Canada-based provider of extended warranties in the furniture industry, sent me the following note "just wanted you to know that our management team recently adopted the Rockefeller Habits -- what a tremendous start to bringing our organization closer together! Our "Daily Huddles" have been a real eye-opener for our leadership team -- and the enthusiasm is still very high -- even after a number of weeks having adopted an improved way of doing business."
LESSON -- Daily: eat breakfast, go for a walk, huddle with your team. And make your customers want to tell others!