INTEGRITY and CUSTOMER SERVICE

To me, these are two more pillars of success.  Five little vignettes follow.


I recently visited the office of one of our construction industry customers.  During our visit he commented "We don't give envelopes"  filled w ith cash.  "We do give some dinners and pizzas, but we do not want to build our business by giving envelopes, even though it is very common in this area."  He had previously told me that once a month his wife, a key member of their company, delivered pizza to one of the many Ready Mix plants in their large metropolitan area.  I later emailed him "That is the kind of integrity I like in the people I do business with."


In our very early days, we employed a woman who had previously worked for another small manufacturer in our area.  One day we received a double shipment of some parts from a supplier.  Brenda asked me what she should do.  I told her to call the supplier and ask them to invoice us for the second shipment, as it was something we would use over the course of the next few months, or if they preferred, we could return it.  She was pleased at myresponse and went on to tell me that she had been fired by her previous employer for calling a "double shipment vendor" instead of just keeping the parts and saying nothing.  Her boss told her "his loss should have been our gain."



I have always told our salespeople that "we always use the same discount sheet for everybody and everybody gets the same deal" so that we don't have to "remember who got what and we don't have to walk the other way when we see the person who did not get the special deal."



I know a dentist who brought his wife and two daughters into his office at 10:30 the Saturday night before Memorial Day to treat a previously unknown patient with an abscessed tooth.

Talk about customer service!!!

But over the next ten years that probably garnered him at least 20, perhaps even 30, new patients who were family members, friends, and co-workers of that one person.

It helped, of course, that he is a good dentist who believes in saving teeth through conservative treatment, while inflicting as little pain as possible during procedures.

P.S.  The patient was my wife, who was in a lot of pain and had been unsuccessful in finding anyone, including her own dentist, to help her.  Needless to say, we were immediately "converted."



One of the best compliments we ever got was from the Vice President at our (then) largest customer when he told me "You really ramrodded that one through.  We appreciate it!"

This was in response to our frantic one week re-design of some equipment we were building for them, after they discovered that their initial testing of the first design had been flawed.




We bust ours to keep you on schedule.



You will find this happy dog on some of our literature and websites.
The drawing was inspired by two of the many dogs that have been part of our family.
We hope it helps convey some of our customer service orientation.

Thanks Harold

The Harold S. Story

I have written of the tough times we went through in the early to mid-1980's.  At one point we had a negative corporate net worth, a negative personal net worth, and no place left to borrow.  We had borrowed all that we could against our house. The situation was bleak, but the prospects were actually fairly bright. (At least in my mind, that of an [almost] eternally optimistic entrepreneur.)


One morning, Harold (a part time employee who had retired from farming) came in and said  "I going to loan you $5000, I know you need it."  It certainly got us out of a hole and enabled us to stay afloat.


We were able to repay him within several months, with interest.

 My wife and I recently had the chance to do it for someone else
-----  which we did, unsolicited.

Thanks again Harold!!

This is Thanksgiving week.  This little memory of Harold and the help he gave us at a critical time is just one of the many thanks I owe people for their help, advice, sharing of knowledge, listening, and support during a 40 year run that began in December of 1972.  A few of the stories have appeared in these Notes From Rich and more will continue to appear.  But there are lots of other people, including many key (and dedicated) Richway staff members over the years, as well as vendors, customers, service providers, friends, relatives, and especially family members who deserve THANKS too.      ..... Rich

The Best Advice I Ever Got .... Thanks Mom

Many years ago my mother gave me an important key for success which has always stuck in my mind.  In fact, it may be the single most important factor in success.

To succeed, Mom said:  "You have to do what needs to done, when it needs to be done, regardless of whether you want to do it or not." 


Then she went on to illustrate it with a story about my grandmother.  My grandfather owned a hardware store in a town in Iowa.  When the Great Depression struck, starting in 1930, my grandfather sold many small hardware items to people in town on credit if they had little or no cash with which to pay.  Eventually, this began to catch up with him, because he ran short of cash to buy more inventory and even to the point of beginning to crimp cash with which to run their home.

It was a fairly small town, in which my grandfather, his brother, and father had interests in the hardware store, a feed mill, and the bank.  In other words, they were a relatively prominent family in town.  This is where my grandmother fits into the story.  (She, by the way, had a bachelors degree from the University of Iowa.)

Grandma determined that they had to start collecting some of the money from people who owed for hardware items, that my grandfather, out of generosity, had sold on credit.  Thus, every week Grandma spent one day out walking from door to door of those who owed money.  She asked for whatever they could spare, be it even so little as a nickle or a dime.  She did this every week, regardless of the weather, rain or shine, snow, cold; no matter what, it had to be done.


I would add  "recognizing, determining or knowing what needs to be done" because this is a logical first step.

 Now the whole lesson becomes:  

"Determine what needs to be done and then do what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, regardless of whether you want to do it or not."

 

To do this sometimes requires sacrifice or hard work or doing the hard job instead of the easy job.   It requires action now, not at some point in the future, when it may be more convenient.

Mom had a couple of other illustrations too, which I am choosing not to share here.



This is for success in anything, not just business. 

Dangers of being highly goal oriented

Recently I was in Cocoa Beach, where I was focused on getting a project (series of smaller projects) completed by a specific time.  One morning I got a call from a friend telling me he was in town for a short time, but had no car. He did not ask directly, but he wanted have me pick him up, just to get together for awhile.  He also wanted to come see my project.  This was a multi-day project, which had to be done by a specific time.

His call interrupted my time line and disrupted my short term planning.  I visited with him for 15 or 20 minutes and told him if he was still in town I would meet him for lunch.  I knew that I could rearrange short term project steps by then.

Looking back, I should have stopped and gone to pick him up. I could have it worked out.  I did have Charlie coming to help me, but could have rearranged what Charlie would do while I was gone.


A strong goal orientation is a necessary component of success, but can also be a detriment in life.  It is hard (for me anyway) to turn off and on.

I apologize, Al.

If you have friends, associates, or employees with a strong goal orientation, try not to blame them if they seem to sometimes snub you or seem irritated when interrupted.  It is the way they are wired.  They may be goal oriented and not appreciative of obstacles.   (Please note:   There are other reasons for not liking to be interrupted or bring curt with people which are not so noble as being goal oriented)

Alertists are always on the watch. (TM)

Many years ago it be came apparent to me that some people just seem to "see" everything.  Later I read of them referred to as "alertists."

In your organization you need alertists.  Generally the more you have, the better your organization.  I authored the following a number of years ago to help emphasize to our staff members the importance of paying attention.  As you may have noted, I have trademarked the title.

_____________________________


Alertists are always on the watch.  They almost cannot help themselves. They seem to see things around them whether they want to or not.  They are the ones who walk through a room and notice that a clock is 10 minutes fast.  Or they see the dime on the edge of the floor and stop to pick it up.  (Unless they are at the National Farm Machinery Show where those pranksters from Richway have super-glued another one to the floor, just so they can watch people try to pick it up.)  Alertists just seem to see things the rest of us often miss.

Seemingly without thinking about it, they find the spelling errors in a newspaper.  Walking along a trail, the alertist notices fresh deer tracks in the mud, or the poison ivy at the edge of the path.  At the movie, they notice immediately that an actress’s earrings change in the middle of a scene.  It is just like I said.  Alertists are always on the watch!

Sherlock Holmes, the famous fictional detective, once solved a crime because he noted “a curious thing.”  The dog did nothing during a night-time crime, which led Holmes to conclude that the dog must have known the criminal well.

On the job, alertists are the ones who just seem to sense when something is not right.  They notice that parts are a slightly different color.  Or the alertist realizes that a parts order has parts for two different markers and questions whether there may have been a part number error.  When producing parts, they recognize almost immediately when something in a process is different.  Always on the watch!  And then, they are the ones who ask the questions.

Most people are not true alertists.  But with training and practice, they can improve their skills.  With conscious thought and practice, you too can improve your skills. 

Problems look smaller the rearview mirror

I suspect many people are similar:  When initially confronting a problem they perceive it to be much larger than it may truly be.

If it is your own problem, the sooner you can put it in perspective and supply the amount of concern it truly deserves, the more effective you will be overall.

I have written a time or two mentioning the difficult times we faced in the mid 1980's.  At one point we were being pressured by our bank over a minor item.  I knew that in spite of their tone, it was not a serious issue and was something we could (should) take in stride.  It was better to remain as calm as possible and do more positive things.  Two of our key staff members were upset with me because I was not sufficiently "panic stricken" --- in their view.   A couple of weeks later, the crisis had resolved itself.  Note: during this time there were more than enough major problems with which we had to deal.

I hasten to add that there have been other times when a problem loomed large, only to later indeed look smaller after it had passed.

Later, everyone could look back and see that it was not nearly as large a problem as it had seemed to some at the time.  Time and time again, be it business, family, personal or "whatever" this is the case.  There are exceptions of course.

Problems are (almost) always smaller in the rear view mirror!!

But if a customer calls with a problem, you'd better treat it with just as much concern as he feels or you'll be considered insensitive, non-caring, or worse!

Sometimes you have to say "This is how it is"

Then your  job is still to get people to buy into it.  If you have a vision and feel strongly about it, democracy and group decision making are probably not the way to go.  Take your vision and run with it without wasting a lot of time in a process which dilutes your vision and renders something "less good."

Just tell your team that you have thought about it, developed and weighed alternatives to come up with the plan and here it is.  You have to be sure they understand that if you have overlooked something or made a serious error they can speak up .... and that you want them to speak out forcefully.  [See my post "Don't surround yourself with people who demand too little of you"]  You may (should) choose to leave details of varying degrees to be "fleshed out" before final implementation.

Sound too autocratic?  That's why you make the big bucks.  Look at a football coach; he is in charge of the game plan.  Some rely more heavily than others on their offensive and defensive coordinators to develop their plans, but you can bet the head coach puts together the basic plan.

Note: At other times group input to a decision, plan, procedure, or design is to be encouraged and has great value, but sometimes you have to say "this is it" without input.  At other times, if there is not a concensus, or the process is taking too long, it is again your job to say "THIS IS IT!"

A long and potentially boring example follows.  You may want to quit here. 

At least 15 years ago, it was apparent that we needed a new accounting software system.  We were still using a "DOS based" system (information for those who have a computer history going back before about 1990, when Windows 3 was released).  I believed strongly that we should adopt a Microsoft Access based system that could be migrated to a SQL based system.  Others believed we should buy a packaged system which, in my view, would have us caught in the clutches of the vendor we chose forever.  An Access based system would be more "open" and easily customizable.  I left no choice.  We went with Access, going "live" on July 1, 2000.  Now we have 12 years of data accumulated that anyone in the organization can probe to find answers to their questions.  And some do.  Though most in the organization choose not to create necessary queries and reports, the data is there and quite easily accessible.  Just this week I created a detailed 12 year sales history for a particular product line so we can implement a new marketing strategy for that product.  A couple others on the management team have done similar projects.