Are You Doing a Good Job?Written by Dave Balch
I'll bet that you are really good at what you do. You are conscientious, creative, and hard working. You would never short-change your customers or give them less than 110 per cent. Right? RIGHT!But do your customers know that? Do they know that you are on schedule, that you gave them something extra, that you did exactly what they wanted? "Okay, Dave, what got you started on this one?" you're probably asking. We have some friends that hired a pet-sitter to take care of their two dogs and two cats while they were on vacation. When they returned, they found no evidence that their animals had been cared for as instructed. Medications looked as if they hadn't been touched. The supply of treats looked virtually same as it had when they left. True, animals were healthy and that's most important thing; to paraphrase Roseanne, "The animals were alive [when my friends got home], so pet sitters did their job!" >From a business point of view, though, pet sitters didn't do so well. The evidence suggests that they did a 'poor' job. Or was it just a case that there was no evidence that they did a 'good' job? Did they give medications or didn't they? It looked like they didn't when, in fact, they did, and provided an extra service by picking up more. Did they give treats as requested or didn't they? It looked like they didn't when, in fact, they did and provided an extra service by going to store to buy more.
| | Tame the Interruption BeastWritten by Dave Balch
Interruptions. Arghhh. One of biggest problems for us home-based business types is relentless stream of things that disrupt our train of thought. Unexpected phone calls, children that need attention, dog needs to go out, cat needs to come in, sink is leaking, car needs to go to shop... it never ends!It is extremely frustrating to be in middle of an important letter or proposal, deep in thought, only to have Aunt Bertha call to tell you about her bunions. What to do? Aunt Bertha's bunions are important! (To her.) Some interruptions can be eliminated, some can be controlled, and some, well........ sorry, FedEx just got here and needed a signature... where was I? Oh yes; and there are some interruptions you've just got to live with. Let's start with interruptions that can be eliminated: phone calls. Turning phone completely off is always an option; let answering machine get it. That's not always practical, though; we do want to talk to our customers, don't we? Well, I have two words for you: "Caller ID". This is a wonderful service provided by phone company for a small monthly fee that, when phone rings, displays information about caller on a little gizmo that you can get at Radio Shack for under $20. (And, there's no interruption for installation: they do it from their office!) Bingo! Now you know who's calling before you answer phone and you can make an intelligent decision whether or not to answer it. If it's Aunt Bertha, let machine get it and call her back later when it's convenient for you. You now have power over phone, and it is good. The interruption has been reduced to looking to see who it is.
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