Joyful Jubilant Learning

The Celebrity Experience: A book for anyone in the service industry

I love customer service. I firmly believe that customer service is the new marketing, and that companies that provide great customer service will far surpass those who don't in the coming years. It won't be products that separate the good companies from the great companies; it will be the service those great companies provide that will elevate them to greatness.

I'm constantly on the lookout for examples of great (and not so great) customer service stories. When I happened upon Donna Cutting's The Celebrity Experience: Insider Secrets to Delivering Red Carpet Customer Service, I knew I had struck GOLD! This book is packed with stories about GREAT customer service from the hotel, food and beverage, airline, and so many other industries that if you have a job, this book will have something you can relate to.

The Celebrity Experience: Insider Secrets to Delivering Red Carpet Customer Service is one of my favorite customer service books of all time. Donna Cutting (a.k.a. Gal Morale) does a masterful job of sharing stories about how YOU can do a better job of providing customer service. As a customer service manager in an IT department, this book was very relevant for me, and offered many tips I'll share with my team.

Some of the things Donna shared include:

• Make red-carpet first impressions on new customers
• Give them what they want and earn customers for life
• Generate buzz and positive word-of-mouth by delivering what you promise
• Improve your customer service performance by putting employees first
• Develop the creativity and flexibility to deliver on every customer request
• Succeed by putting your customers' interests ahead of your own

Nothing in this book was rocket science. But everything in this book are things YOU can do if you work in the service industry to provide great customer service for those you serve. The stories are relevant and easy to relate to. The insights Donna provides are priceless! With each section offering ACTION tips you can immediately implement, you can use this book as a guidebook for providing great customer service for your organization.

You don't have to be in the service industry for this book to be relevant to you. Many of the stories shared are things you can relate to if you've ever gotten great customer service. My favorite is the "consider it done" phone at the Gaylord Opryland that Donna discusses in great depth. Donna recounts stories of picking up the phone to "consider it done" and the person on the other end going to great lengths to ensure everything is taken care of to your satisfaction.

Fun stories...actionable tips...and common sense tips make this a book I greatly enjoyed and that I look forward to working with MY team to put these simple but not easy tips into action.

Pick up a copy of The Celebrity Experience: Insider Secrets to Delivering Red Carpet Customer Service today, and learn from the masters of customer service on how customer service can be done RIGHT!

[Phil Gerbyshak is a customer service manager, author, brand guru and speaker who can be found writing lifehacks articles at Make It Great! and productivity and management articles at Slacker Manager, providing insights into customer service, management, self-empowerment and improving your brand. He is a founding member of Joyful Jubilant Learning network, and his appetite for learning about GREAT customer service can never be satisfied.]

Don't Ask Stupid Questions!

This month's theme at Joyful Jubilant Learning is "What Do We Learn By Reading Books?" a great question if ever there was one. But what about those stupid questions, those ones that just drive you nuts? Do you like THOSE questions?

That's what I was half-expecting when I was asked to review Don't Ask Stupid Questions by Tim Brownson. I guess I missed the sub-title of "There are no stupid questions" so I was in for a bit of a shock when I got the book. I'm glad I didn't judge the book by it's title, as this was an excellent book with so much to take away from it. Inside are nothing but GREAT questions, amazing questions, that helped me dig deep into my soul to find answers to the tough questions in life.

Chapter 1 started me off with all I needed to get pulled in deeper. It of course offers The Two Most Powerful Questions in the World, which are so simple, I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of them before.

Simple...but not easy!

Those 2 questions are:

1. What can I learn from this situation?
   
2. What else does this mean?

Tough stuff, for some tough times. I'm going through a bit of adversity right now, but the adversity reminded me that I need to focus on the learning for the situation, not the pain. Dual meanings means I can think more clearly and I can understand more.

Tim closed chapter 1 with 2 more questions that can really help YOUR learning:   

1. What kind of questions do you ask yourself?
   
2. Are they serving you well?

While I could do this throughout the book, I think you get the idea that this is a book packed full of learning for you and for me.

Every time I read a book, I learn more about me. I learn better questions to ask myself, which cause me to learn better answers about myself.

Don't ask stupid questions!

There are NO stupid questions.

I close with this, as Tim does with chapter 1:   

1. What kind of questions do you ask yourself?
   
2. Are they serving you well?

Don't be afraid to ask yourself the tough questions, for finding the tough answers makes life worth living!

[Phil Gerbyshak writes many days at Make It Great! with Phil Gerbyshak, and can be found 3 days a week asking questions about management and productivity at Slacker Manager. He asks himself tough questions every day, and though he doesn't always find the answers, just asking the questions is a great start to a great life!]

Packing my bags for a simpler 2008

One of the things I am is a bit of a personal development pack rat. I have notebooks upon notebooks with notes in them, hundreds of books I'll probably never get around to reading, DVDs and audiobooks and other stuff that sounded good when I bought them, not to mention tons of printed articles, 8000 clips in my Bloglines account, tons of bags from conferences, about 10,000 pens, pencils and other office "essentials" and more other stuff in my office than I care to think about.

See if any of these tips might help you get more organized, and start fresh with some new bags. Like the old saying goes, you can't put new wine into old skins, and I'm finding you can't put old clutter into a new year. :)

I'm going to unpack all my bags full of junk for a simpler 2008, and start fresh with new bags, and I encourage you to do the same.

The Season of Giving (and Receiving)

(hint: it's not about

I can't believe it - December is already  here! For those who don't know, my birthday is December 2nd, and one of the things that's always been difficult for me is to receive gifts from people. Yes, you might think that being born in December I could "double up" on the holidays, but actually, it's actually been very hard for me to receive what others want to give to me.

Lately I've been looking deep inside myself to see why I'm bad at receiving. Is it because I don't see myself as worthy of receiving a valuable gift? Is it because as a child I broke more than my share of good things? Is it because I'm afraid I'll never repay the gift someone has given me?

I realized I've got receiving ALL WRONG: receiving is NOT about me. It's all about the giver. The giver is GIVING ME a gift, and, out of respect and love for the other person, I should accept and appreciate that gift.

Don't believe me? Think about how YOU feel when you give someone an unexpected gift. No, not those folks that tell you exactly what type of tube socks they want for Christmas. Those folks who you have to pay attention to buy for, and that are appreciate for the gifts you give them. Doesn't that feel GREAT to give someone that gift, especially if you know you can't ever repay them?

See, it's about the giver, NOT the receiver. And now that I realize that, I am much more open to receiving gifts; gifts of help, gifts of thanks, gifts of love, and yes, even gifts for my birthday. My wonderful wife got me a nice cologne set and a wonderful music CD, and all I could say this year, instead of "Take it back, we can't afford it." or "I don't need that. Thanks anyway." was a very simple "Thank you."

To all of you reading this, where ever you are, I say thank you.

Thank you for sharing your learning with me.

Thank you for sharing your feedback with me.

Thank you for sharing YOU with me. It means the world to me!

[Phil Gerbyshak writes management and productivity articles, as well as personal development articles, in a variety of locations. He is an expert in building community, and is working hard to be as good at receiving as he is at giving.]

Special Birthday Greetings

In case you were not aware, today is a special day. Phil Gerbyshak and I share this day as our birthday. How cool is it that two folks, meeting and connecting through the wonderful world of the web, share the same birthday!

He is off making it great as usual. Add to his day with a birthday greeting!

I am off to get in a good run (during which I'll do some leaping),

then cover some family activities (during which I hope to do some laughing),

and then I should be back online later today to provide some updates (during which I'll do some learning).

Make it a great day!

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Steve Sherlock writes his 2 cent views on life from Franklin, MA. He explores the "good experience", "life long learning" and life in general, after handling the "before you blog" list his wonderful wife Dolores  provides him. Together they are enjoying the empty nest while their daughters are away at college. He has also resumed running and he podcasts tips and coaching advice at Passionate Runner.

Learn to Build Your Personal Brand

“Most of all, I don’t want to be defined by anything not of my choosing.”
~ Phil Gerbyshak

I consider myself a newbie as far as being an entrepreneur. For the first three decades of my working life, I was Mz. Corporate America, and for most of those thirty years I didn’t think like Phil did, mostly because I didn’t really think about it at all.

For most of those thirty years there was also no such thing as the internet, and building my own brand meant the hard road of building my own business, something I wasn’t ready to take on. During my time in retail in particular, my customers and suppliers regularly asked me, “Rosa, you’re good at this; why don’t you open your own shops?” and my reply would be, “I have a great employer who I like working for, and who willingly takes all the financial risks for what I do; this is perfect for me just as it is.”

Today, that is a sentence I would never say. I have no regrets about my corporate time, it was pretty great, but knowing what I know now, I’m not going back. Reading back on it, I could say that sentence again, but the ‘employer’ I’d be talking about would be me myself, and I.
[See From Corporate Life to Self-Employment at Talking Story.]

As I got older, and better at what I did, financial risk became a minimal concern for me. Not because I had a lot to cushion any deficits, but because I had learned how to make money and spend it wisely to curb those deficits; cash flow is important, but it became just another “tool of the trade.” I had developed that entrepreneurial mindset needed to succeed on my own because my financial literacy had grown with me.

A bigger concern reared its head and became more and more intrusive every day, and that was this: I paid a high price for the comfort of staying with my employer –––as great as that employer was. The price was the loss of substantial intellectual property; while I was on their dime they considered my brain something they owned, especially because I’d become an executive. Once you get that corner office, there is no such thing as personal time off the clock; that bigger paycheck you get means your ‘boss’ is now also your owner. Whatever you might create doesn’t belong to you, even at midnight sitting at your own kitchen table.

The day came that I no longer felt comfortable with “having it good” as Mz. veteran executive. I wanted my creative discomfort to pay off for me and my family personally.

When I walked away from the corporate world in 2003, I had a terrific reputation, but I did not yet have a personal brand. Big difference. Your personal brand is about your own message, your own mission, and your own vision, and your reputation. Entrepreneurship is about keeping control of all those things in your own good hands.

“My message is consistently spread because I took the time to build my brand. If you don’t take the time to build your brand, you run the risk that someone else will. And I don’t want someone else to say who I am, I want to be part of that story!”
~ Phil Gerbyshak

When you have crafted a personal brand, you have crafted a significant driver in your reputation; for remember, a reputation is something you are awarded by others. Think of brand as cause (will it be yours, or your employer’s?) and reputation as effect.

The good news is that today, you can do what I couldn’t do in my yesterday: You still need to steer clear of the executive suite to pull it off, however you can reap the benefits of working in the corporate world and create your personal brand at the same time.

Phil Gerbyshak is one of the best examples I know of, and we can all learn from him. The quotes I’ve shared here come from an interview he’s given to Ron “Buzzoodle” McDaniel of Buzz Marketing Personal Brand as lead up to a presentation Phil is doing in Las Vegas in January. I encourage you to read through Phil’s interview with Ron, for you too can begin to build your personal brand today.

~ Rosa Say, JJL Contributor, and author of Managing with Aloha Coaching. A related posting made back in June on Talking Story, is the Not-so-Secret Weapon of the Self-Employed.

~ Read more about Phil in his index here at Joyful Jubilant Learning, and at his blog, Make It Great!

~ As JJL Contributor Greg Balanko-Dickson would say, “Live Large!” Grab more inspiration for building your personal brand from these JJL categories:

• BHAGs and Bigger Dreams
• Connecting and Relationships
• JJL Forum 2007: Make A Difference

Law of Magnetism: Who You Are is Who You Attract

Law of Magnetism: Who You Are is Who You Attract is this week's lesson from Dr. John C. Maxwell's great book 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. While there was a lot to think about in this chapter, my biggest takeaway this week from our 21 Week Leadership Challenge can be summed up in 1 sentence: "The better the leader you are, the better leaders you will attract."

I remember when I got my first job as a manager. My hiring wasn't all that good. In fact I'd even say it was pretty darn bad. Looking back, I see that was because I wasn't all that good of a leader. I didn't possess qualities folks wanted to follow.

Fast forward to when I was in the Navy. I can still hear my company commander screaming at me while I was doing another set of 100 push-ups at 5 AM: "You are a direct reflection of me. When you screw up, that makes me look bad." And it wasn't until recently I believed that.

Now, after I've taken a LONG time to study leadership, to practice leadership, to live leadership, I find that the folks I surround myself with are amazing folks, folks with a ton of potential, a ton of leadership ability, and a ton of heart, and they are willing to keep learning and keep growing. I attribute that to my own willingness to grow, to learn, and to lead.

Unfortunately I am also not the world's most organized person. I am all over the place sometimes in my thinking and in my doing. And I've attracted some people to my life that are equally disorganized. Yikes!

In order for me to get through the leadership dip, I need to improve myself, and then I can improve other people, and attract a different type of people into my world. Granted, I have many qualities, and so do you, so what might be attracting people may have some of our qualities, and not all. We may be attracting positive people because we are positive people, but of course, people are far more complex than just this 1 dimension.

My last learning from this reminds me to think about the old axiom: We see people as we are, not as they are. That's a practical law of magnetism to be very careful about, that we don't put so much of ourself on others that they become mere reflections of our leadership.

Next week we'll get into one of my favorite chapters, the Law of Connection: Leaders Touch a Heart Before They Ask for a Hand.

[Phil Gerbyshak is the author of 10 Ways to Make It Great! and can be found writing about management and personal development most days.]

Photo credit to Grumbler

Happy 1st Birthday JJLN!

It's time for love, it's time for cheer
We've been learning from each other for exactly a year
We've learned to laugh, we've learned to cry
We've learned from each other, folks like you and I.

Joyful Jubilant Learning is exactly 1,
It sure has been a lot of fun
With a love affair for books, and a podcast on Lime,
It's been great for me, I hope you've had a good time.

Here's to our team, from all around the world,
Many voices, yet all can equally be heard.
And also to you, the commenters and the readers,
Here's to 100 more years, for learners and leaders.

Written by Phil Gerbyshak, no poet and don't I know it :) and now you do too!

Flickr photo credit to Little Bitty Tam

The Law of Intuition: What do you think you know?

This week's journey through the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership takes us to a law most leaders know they have, the Law of Intuition. OK, so it's more of a feeling than a knowing, if you will, but it's a primary reason leaders make the decisions they do. Dr. Maxwell says "Because of their intuition, leaders evaluate everything with a leadership bias. Some people are born with great leadership intuition. Others have to work hard to develop and hone it. But either way it evolves, the result is a combination of natural ability and learned skills." (emphasis mine)

I emphasized learned skills because that's what we're all about here at JJLN; learning new skills to better grow as leaders. This week I'd like you to focus on the new skills you're learning and how you are learning them. Then think about how learning these new skills are helping your intuition.

Example: If you're not normally a people person, and you're learning interpersonal communication skills, how does this new learning help you better "feel" why the person is responding the way they are to your coaching/leading/managing?

If you're already good at something and already have leadership intuition, that doesn't mean you can't sharpen the point and make it great! Take some time to understand where your greatest intuition comes from, and think about whether or not this comes from a spot of your greatest knowledge, or if it's there just because you "know it." Chances are it's a strong combination of the two.

Next week we'll talk about the Law of Magnetism: Who You Are is Who You Attract.

[Phil Gerbyshak is a public speaker who shares his unique twist on leadership, management, lifelong learning, and relationship building
with various organizations around the United States. He's proof that
you can teach an old dog new tricks, and that if you keep learning, you can improve your life.]

The Law of Solid Ground: Trust is the Key to Leaving a Legacy

This week's journey moves us along to the topic of trust; are you trustworthy as a leader? The Law of Solid Ground shares the story of Mike Keenan, coach of many NHL hockey teams. Keenan was a very good coach; he won a Stanley Cup which is the pinnacle of hockey greatness. According to sportswriter E.M. Swift, "Everywhere he [Keenan] has been, he has alienated players and management." The folks that played for, and that he coached for, didn't trust him. It's interesting to note that his talent keeps getting him a job, but his trustworthiness keeps him from staying with one team very long.

Early in my career, I was a bit of a lone ranger. Thankfully I didn't lead people, but I know I honked off a few folks with my abrasive "me-first" or rather "my team first" style. I always worried about how my numbers were, how much I was getting paid, and when I was getting promoted.

I was in sales, and when I think about it, not one of the folks I worked closely with has talked to me since I left, and that was almost 10 years ago. Looking closely at it, I lost the trust of these individuals. I realize now that once you lose trust, you usually don't get an opportunity to win it back.

Discussion questions:

• Have you broken someone's trust in your career?
• How were you able to break out of this cycle?
• If you're a manager, have you had people that work for you who've quit on the job, and just stopped performing?
• Have you bounced from job to job, and been unsure why? Examine yourself closely, because if I can break the cycle, so can you!
  

Next week we'll discuss the Law of Respect: People Naturally Follow Leaders Stronger Than Themselves.

[Phil Gerbyshak is a public speaker who shares his unique twist on leadership, management, lifelong learning, and relationship building with various organizations around the United States. He's proof that you can teach an old dog new tricks, and that if you realize your shortcomings and you're willing to change, you can improve your station in life.]