The Power of DELIGHTFUL

Norma Seymour was the Senior Vice President of Service Delivery for Cayman National, in the Cayman Islands. I loved how descriptive her title was … Service Delivery. Ms. Seymour took her job and title very seriously and did everything she could to help everyone in her organization deliver … as she put it … “DELIGHTFUL” customer service.

Excuse Book

Before I go any further, I should note, there are several books of excuses. There is Garfield's Book of Excellent Excuses, Excuses for Dummies, The Little Book of Big Excuses, The Book of Big Excuses, Complete Excuses Handbook, and my favorite title ... 1,001 Excuses for How to Get Out Of and Away With Anything.

Domino Pushers Destroy Companies

You can line up DOMINOS in a beautiful pattern and spend hours doing it … but all you have to do to knock them all down is PUSH over the first one (the lead domino) and the rest will follow. The same is true about a business. You can spend years and years building up a great business with a super reputation and one employee can cause a customer to never do business with you again. One employee can PUSH a customer the wrong way and run them off … in other words … they knocked down one DOMINO. But could that one upset customer cause other customers to follow them?

Necessary Evils

A “Necessary Evil” is an evil that must be allowed for a greater good to result; you may not like something, but you understand it’s necessary. Some examples of a “Necessary Evil” would be - Insurance, Root Canals, Speed Bumps, Colonoscopy, Taxes, Government, Changing Diapers, Exercise, and Work.

The Carpet People

The other day I had the opportunity to hear a manager give a 15-minute presentation about things their company was doing to improve productivity, morale and communication. The manager got my attention instantly when he said his employees were always complaining about the “CARPET PEOPLE.”

Bottom of the Basket

It’s just a simple purchase … a basket of peaches at the local farmers’ market. The peaches on the top, and even in the middle are all beautiful …but the farmer’s character is revealed with the fruit they placed on the bottom of the basket. The fruit on the bottom should be just as good as the fruit on top, but a farmer of weak character will put the bruised (damaged) fruit on the bottom.