(Time to read this Blog is about 3 minutes)

Before we get to the main topic, here are a few things to get you thinking or smiling:

1. My Biz Quote of the week:
   “Stop complaining that there’s no such thing as customer loyalty anymore. Customers are loyal to what’s best for them…or what they assume is best for them.  So, what are you doing to be the clear and compelling ‘wise choice’ for your target customers?”  
   …Donald Cooper.
    
2. Quick Biz Tip:
   Promoting people without proper (or any) training is one of the major problems in many businesses today. 
     
   Never offer a new job or a promotion without providing an ‘Outcomes-based’ Job Description and answers to these 3 statements:
   a)  On what specific outcomes their performance will be measured.
   b)  Specifically, how those outcomes will be measured.
   c)  Specifically, what training & coaching they will receive to be successful in delivering those outcomes in their new job.
    
   Bonus Tip:  Never accept a new job or promotion without an ‘Outcomes-based’ Job Description and clear answers to these 3 questions:
   a)  On what specific outcomes will my performance be measured?
   b)  Specifically, how will those outcomes be measured?
   c)   Specifically, what training, coaching or mentoring will I receive to be successful in delivering those outcomes in this new job?
    
   If you can’t get clear and specific answers to these three questions, don’t accept the promotion.  It’s a trap!  
    
3. Food insecurity in Canada. Canada is a net exporter of food, but 8.7 million Canadians, including 2.1 million children live in food insecure households.  That’s 22% of our population.
    
4. Fun Fact (unless you live in Oklahoma). The US State of Oklahoma is ranked either 49th, or close to the bottom, in national education rankings.  Another education-related ‘fun fact’ about Oklahoma is that from 1923 to 1968 it was against State law for schools to teach the theory of evolution.

Now, to this week’s important topic:

Do you deliver what your customers expect?  

We’ve just returned from a wonderful ‘Adventure Week’ in Mexico with our 13-year-old grandson Gus. It included SCUBA Diving, swimming through magnificent limestone caves, cliff jumping and ziplining at night through a ring of fire…plus lots other very cool adventures!

As our base of operations, we booked and paid for a beach-front, 1^st floor, Premium Junior Suite at the lovely Barcelo Palace Resort, on the Mayan Riviera…and that’s what we expected to get.  But after waiting in line an hour to check in, we were assigned a pool-side room on the 3rd floor.  Not what we expected…or paid for.

After much arguing, and the front desk staff making many phone calls to an invisible decision-maker, we got a noisy pool-side Junior Suite, on the 1^st floor.  Check-in was promised for 3 pm …but we didn’t get our room unto 5 pm.  Not what we expected.

The check-in process was understaffed and terribly disorganized. Resort hotels know exactly how many customers they’re going to have arrive every day and exactly what room they expect… because their customers all booked and paid for their accommodation months before.  And yet, it was like we suddenly snuck up on them, unannounced.

And, there’s nothing about a Resort named the ‘Palace’, or paying extra for a ‘Premium Suite’ that leads one to expect standing in line for an hour to get the wrong room and then wait another 3 hours…and still not get the room you booked.

There’s a very real business point here for all of us.  What do your customers expect from you at every touch-point?  What promises do you make, or what expectations do your create in your branding and advertising…and do you meet or, preferably, exceed those expectations, every customer, every time?  Not delivering on expectations will kill your business.

So, here’s a great exercise for you.  Sit down with a group of the best minds and hearts from every part of your business and ask yourselves what your customers expect at every touch-point in your business and what they expect when they use or interact with the products or services you sell.  Think and feel like a customer.  Then, figure out what you’ll commit to do to meet or, preferably, exceed what they expect.  

For every decision you make, specifically, what will be done, by whom, by when, at what cost, with what outcomes, measured how and rewarded how?  You’ll be amazed at what you come up with.

That’s it for this week…

Live brilliantly and be kind to each other!       

Donald Cooper 

Donald Cooper speaks and coaches internationally on management, marketing, and profitability.  He can be reached by email at donald@donaldcooper.com in Toronto, Canada.