Knowing
Your Business Part 2
Mark was flying recently and had
an experience which reminded him of our recent newsletter about knowing
your business.
When the flight attendant brought
him some coffee, she insisted on putting a napkin underneath the
coffee. She put it down, he moved it and she smiled and said, that's
not the right way. He asked her what she meant and she said "See the
printed wording on the napkin?" (it was an ad for American Airlines),
"when we place the napkin, it's supposed to be in a way that allows you
to read the writing on it".
There are two lessons here: one
good and one not so good. The not-so-good lesson is: If you're a
professional and you're doing something with customers, don't complain
about the silliness of a rule to a customer. That's what the flight
attendant did, saying it was silly to make them arrange the napkin with the writing in a certain direction.
It's not appropriate to complain to customers about how your company
runs its business. It's disloyal.
The good lesson is that the
company had the rule and trained their associates on what to do. It
makes no sense to spend money and then waste advertising. In today's
world, the cost must have been analyzed and the benefit deemed as being
valuable. Imagine if that flight attendant had got her way. They'd have
spent money and not got any value. This airline knows its business
well enough to guide employees to maximize the value they get from
costs.
Another interesting bit of "know
your business" trivia. Airlines make money selling advertising in their
inflight magazines. The airlines know how much the magazines weigh and
how much it costs to transport them. If they didn't make more in
advertising than the cost of transportation, they'd stop having
magazines. That is knowing your business.
Facebook
On our Facebook page last week,
we posed the question: If you
had a coach for a day, what would you want
help with? Many of you responded
and we enjoyed reading your answers.
We'll take your answers into account when thinking about future
conferences and podcasts.
We're going to start posting a
question every Tuesday, so if you have a Facebook profile and you want
to join in, visit the Manager Tools page at: http://www.facebook.com/ManagerTools.
We look
forward to seeing you
there.
Please
Forward This Newsletter
Those
of you who have
premium
content know that use of that content is only for that particular
member. This newsletter is not premium content, and we'd love for you
to forward it to anyone who would find it interesting and useful. You
just need to click the link at the bottom of the page.
If
someone forwarded it
to you,
and you'd like your own copy in future, become a Manager Tools member here.
It's free!
|
