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Hello Everyone
In the following article you read about
setting standards and the importance of keeping
them. Much to our chagrin we discovered that there
was a technology glitch in one of the paragraphs in
the article. As we, too, have standards that we believe
are important; please accept our apologies and the
correction below.
I have often written about my participation in
the annual Hood to Coast Relay race. One thousand
teams, each with 12 members who run 3 different
times, complete the 197 mile course. Approximately
five or six years, ago one of our runners apologized to
me for being five minutes late getting to his exchange.
I kind of laughed and told him not to worry about it. I
couldn't imagine why this individual would apologize
for being late; he's the fastest man on our team! David
Dickey has the capability to run a five and a half
minute pace, though in HTC he would probably allow
himself to run a six and a half minute pace. He of
anybody didn't need to apologize for being late.
Approximately six months later, it hit me - David
had apologized because he had set a standard for
himself (and ultimately for the team) and he failed to
meet it. I asked David about this later and he
confirmed my thoughts. "It is a commitment," he said.
He committed to be there at a certain time and it didn't
happen.
Steve
The La-Z-Boy Saga
For many years my wife and I have
been talking about wanting to buy new living room
furniture. In our infrequent shopping expeditions we
seemed to end up at La-Z-Boy stores. We would sit on
different kinds of recliners or couches and just marvel
at how comfortable they were - and then "marvel" at
the price. We visited other furniture stores, but nothing
beat the comfort of that La-Z-Boy furniture.
This past October we were finally
able to make the move from shopping to purchasing -
seven items in total. We felt joyful and thankful for this
opportunity. We were told that all of our items should
be to our home within eight to ten weeks, just in time
for the holidays we assumed. One of the things that
impressed us about La-Z-Boy was not only the quality
of the furniture, but also how the staff treated us. There
was a sales person and a designer, who was
assigned to come to our home to help us determine
whether or not the furniture we wanted would be a
match. All systems appeared to be a go.
About six weeks into the process
(around Thanksgiving) we were notified that some of
the items were delayed. Apparently there was a
problem getting the right fabric one of the pieces we
ordered. No problem, we reply, just keep us posted.
One week before Christmas we were notified that they
would make a partial delivery. We were thrilled with
the new items and anxiously anticipated getting the
remainder of the order.
By mid-January we hadn't heard a
thing from the store so Becky put in a call. The sales
person we had worked with in October had left, the
designer had moved to another store and there was a
different manager at the store where we place our
order. We learned that no one seemed to know what
happened to the rest of our delivery. So we were told
to wait another six to eight days for our remaining
items to come. Six or eight days came and went and
still no delivery so I put in a call to the regional
manager.
It's now early February, we've lost
some of the excitement of new furniture and I'm
having almost daily conversations with either the
regional manager, the store manager or the
designer. To a person, they each said "this never
happens; we usually have such good customer
service." There didn't appear to be any contingency
plan. I was trying to imagine my nephew, a corporate
jet pilot, telling his venture capital clients, "We have
good customer service and don't crash very often."
As we began to investigate what was
happening we found out that they have little to no
verbal relationship with the manufacturers; it's all
done by computer and there seem to be some
important details left out.
By now my business head is really on
so I come to some assumptions and conclusions.
They have breakdowns both internally and externally.
Internally the problems are lack of ability to track
customer transactions, no system in place to keep the
customer informed of any staff or personnel changes,
apparent lack of anyone taking responsibility for
breakdowns when they occur, living on past laurels of
good service. Externally there is zero to minimal
relationship with suppliers. Though it is true we live
and work in the age of technology, it is still imperative
to have some face to face or verbal contact with
outside venders so that when breakdowns occur,
there can be a different kind of communications
process. Even if the breakdown is with outside
venders, the corporate branch of the organization
must assume total responsibility for these
occurrences. To his credit, the regional manger
admitted that they don't pay attention to some of these
internal issues as well as they could.
The final outcome of this saga was
that five months later we got everything but one item. It
was going to take another "six weeks" for the fabric to
come in so we canceled.
.
Reflections
Sometimes I have people tell me
how well we did in a speech, consulting job or training
event. The compliment feels good, but by the next day I
must move on and not live on past laurels. I think this
is what happened in the La-Z-Boy experience. The
quality of the product was and is good; even the
encounters we had with La-Z-Boy personnel were
pleasant. Being pleasant, however does not
necessarily translate into quality service.
That is what I appreciate about David
Dickey. He didn't meet the standards of excellence he
was used to. Just a run, you say, but how you conduct
yourself in your outside life may be a reflection of how
you handle yourself on the job. There is no doubt in
my mind that he doesn't expect the same thing about
himself while at work.
Virtues like integrity, character,
commitment, dedication are so necessary today as
we continue to deal with bail outs and stimulus
packages. Clearly in that domain the art of watching
out for what's best for customers has gone by the way
side.
This is a notice to all of us to work
even harder at staying the course and truly being
difference maker for those we serve.
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Steve Hanamura
With over 30 years of experience, Steve Hanamura is
a nationally known speaker, consultant and trainer. He
is widely sought after in the areas of leadership
development, building effective teams, leading
diversity initiatives and managing generational
differences. With a national client list spanning
Fortune 500 companies to regional not-for-profit
institutions, Steve is highly regarded for his unique
perspectives and distinct training techniques.
As president of Hanamura Consulting, Inc. he is
committed to making a difference in the lives of
individuals and organizations. His goal is to assist
organizations to work together to build constructive
relationships by understanding how we must draw
from the past and work in the present so we can plan
and build for the future.
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