Greetings!
Technology allows me to create this in Florida where it is 70, sunny, and I can see the waves lapping on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico. As I relax and prepare for the upcoming year, I hope you are enjoying the holidays and that the time outside of work is re-energizing you. It's a new year! |
| Intentionality |
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I heard a story on the radio before Christmas about an anonymous donor who walked into a K-Mart and paid off the outstanding balances of all their layaway customers. His $20,000 gift was, apparently, not unheard of as these Layaway Santas were repeating the act to a lesser degree in many stores around the country. It's something we would probably refer to as a random act of kindness.
What strikes me about such acts is that if they were part of a larger strategy they could, in fact, be more effective. Random acts, while intended to help others, seem to also be as much about about a moment of pleasure and fame for the donor. I think it's the same in business.
In business you can create random acts of kindness but I would prefer to see it as a policy where the random acts are exceptions to an already exceptional policy. Jimmy Stewart's character in It's A Wonderful Life maintained that sort of policy. It's simply called doing the right thing. In action, though, it's doing the right thing all the time. It's the vision and mission of your business in action. It's intentional.
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| Focus on Sales |
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Loyalty cards from the big merchants are an effective way of getting purchasing data and getting customers to make more purchases from those stores. But, they are effective only if they truly benefit the customer.
The card I have from Lowe's merely tracks my purchases. That's good for them but it only helps me if I need to know what I bought there last year. I don't need to know that. Panera, on the other hand, will give me a free food item or drink after I've visited a few times. I never know what or when it will be. It's a random act of kindness and it's kind of fun. I'm a loyal customer of Panera. I visit Lowe's because it's closer to my house than Home Depot. |
| Networking Tips |
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Traveling during the holidays can expose you to a lot of new people. It's easy to read the stress levels in many of them, like the woman on the full plane who complained loudly to the flight attendants that she's flown for 10 years on United and her carry-on always fit in the overhead - until today. Remember, you are what you appear. Would you want to spend three hours sitting next to you on a plane? |
