I have a pool at my house in PAjust beyond the Poconos. Now that the summer is winding down  the temp is in the 80’s during the day and the 60’s at night. That means the pool water is cooling down. Ohh! Pretty chilly when I’m getting in to swim my laps. I like to be warm so cool water shocks my system. So I ease in slowly, going down the steps to get used to the water 7 inches at a time. Now I’m at the last step and walk onto the floor of the pool and the chilly water is about waist deep. I’m getting used to it. I can feel the coldness on the lower part of my body. Do I really want to subject the upper part of my body to the same shocking coldness? All of the following rushes through my mind in 10 seconds.

YES, once I start moving I’ll warm up. NO, it’s just too cold. YES, I’ll feel really good about myself after I get this exercise. NO, why do this when I don’t have to? YES, it helps me be more fit and trim and I want to lose the weight. NO, not worth it. YES, take a risk, do something uncomfortable, it will be fine once the initial shock is over.

Finally, I do what I’ve trained myself to do. Count to 20 and at that point just dive right in and keep swimming. At some point we all have to put aside the unnecessary self talk and just take the plunge. Hiring a new employee, forming a business relationship, borrowing money, ending something that’s not working out, etc. We weigh the pros and cons, decide what we’re committed to and then take action. The procrastination and sitting on the fence could take forever. The analysis paralysis could tie us up in knots and we’d never move forward. It pays to give yourself a deadline (like counting to 20, or by Friday at noon) and decide that action will take place at that time and not a moment after. You’ll make the best decision to act based on the information you have and you’ll move forward. The worst decision is to not make a decision at all and never generate action.

Do you put things off because you don’t want to make a decision? Or because it’s uncomfortable to take action?

Where are you looking for perfection instead of progress? Would it pay to give yourself a deadline and take action at that point no matter what?

I feel so much better after a good swim, happy with myself, exhilarated with the exercise, and the water no longer feels cold. There’s a new normal. Swim again tomorrow?

Natural Born Coaches is a daily podcast created by Marc Mawhinney.  On each podcast he interviews successful coaches to get inside their heads and discover how they builtare improving, and growing their coaching businesses. During these interviews he digs down to get to the ideas that you can immediately implement to improve as a coach – things like how to get more clients and referrals, how to be paid what you’re truly worth and how to avoid the stress and burnout that hit people in this industry. Listen in when he invited Jeri to share with Coach Nation her experience of working with so many small and medium-sized businesses. [playlist tracklist="false" ids="7014"]

Our holiday wishes are all about peacelove, joy and hope.  Are we saying the same old things over and over without really meaning them? Or are we taking action consistent with our holiday sayings?  Gandhi says ‘Be the change you want to see in the world.’ What if we were the peace, love, joy and hope that we want to see? What would that look like? Here’s one way. In this African tribe, when someone does something harmful, they take the person to the center of the village where the whole tribe comes and surrounds them. For two days, they will say to the man all the good things that he has done. The tribe believes that each human being comes into the world as good - each one of us only desiring safety, love, peace and happiness. But sometimes, in the pursuit of these things, people make mistakes. The community sees those mistakes as a cry for help. They unite then to lift him, to reconnect him with his true nature, to remind him who he really is, until he fully remembers the truth of which he had been temporarily disconnected: “I am good.” Shikoba Nabajyotisaikia!NABAJYOTISAIKIA, is a compliment used in South Africa and means: “I respect you, I cherish you. You matter to me.” In response, people say SHIKOBA, which is: “So, I exist for you.” (By Evolver Social Movement) In your leadership how can you look at your staff, your clients, your bosses and managers as intrinsically good people? When they make a mistake or do something that occurs to you as wrong, do you get judgmental, self-righteous and punitive? Or can you say, “That person got separated from his true nature? Let me hold him up, empower him to believe in himself. Let me show him peace, love, joy and hope so that he can feel peace, love, joy and hope inside himself and embody that instead. We can’t always control the circumstances around us, but we can control our own reaction to those circumstances. We can choose to react by letting someone else’s negativity trigger our own retaliation. Or we can choose to react compassionately by looking at the person on the inside who has been diminished by all the happenings that have impacted them. By helping them see and experience their own goodness, you are truly bringing peace, love, joy and hope into this world, one person at a time. Happy Holidays!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

What are you thankful for? Or a better question: Are you thankful? Thankfulness is a state of being. It’s a mentality that you choose no matter what’s going on around you. When you are appreciativeyou’re coming from a sense of abundance - abundance of resources, abundance of friendship and love, abundance of what you can give. Are you thankful for the wealth of yourself, the wealth of smiles and laughter, the wealth of your thoughts, the wealth of your experience and wisdom? How about the wealth of opportunities where you can make a difference for someone else? A kind word? An acknowledging smile? The generosity of your listening? A compliment that changes someone’s day? Who gets more in the long run from your bigheartedness? You or the receiver?  If you think it’s the receiver, try ‘giving’ yourself to more people more often. You may change your mind.

Giving Thanks: My Dad’s Story

My 95 year old dad is a WWII veteran and he’s very proud of the time he spent in Burma working on some of the first planes that were used in warfare. This September he was invited along with many other veterans from the Atlanta, GA area to visit the War memorials in Washington DC. This was an all-expense-paid trip for veterans of all wars to have the chance to see what their country has built to commemorate their service. The volunteer group organizes the day, assigns individual companions to the older vets, pays for everything from their fund raising, provides a photographer, and arranges for celebrity treatment once they arrive in Washington DC. The day starts at 4am when they board buses to go to the airport and ends at midnight when they return to Atlanta and their families pick them up. A very long intense day. My father has emphysema, some heart problems, plenty of arthritis, hearing problems and some Alzheimer’s. But he wanted to go to the WWII memorial in the worst way. He looked forward to it for months and hasn’t stopped talking about it since and he really wanted to improve his hearing to be able to talk with people, and we looked for solutions for this at sites like tinnitus911.com. He saw on the memorial the names of his fallen colleagues and cried for them one more time.  He delighted in all the people who said ‘thank you for your service’. I swear he wears his WWII veteran’s cap continuously so people can personally thank him for his defense of our country. He had a great time on the plane and buses talking with all the other vets. His companion told us he was the life of the party. I am so thankful that he served in the war and contributed his service, that he feels so much pride for his contribution, that people respect and appreciate him and he gets to experience that appreciation. I am thankful to the organization that put this trip together with such care and organization that it was an exhilarating unforgettable experience for a sometimes cantankerous forgetful 95-year old. Thank you, Honor Flight Network. http://www.honorflight.org/ If you have an aging veteran in your life or would like to contribute to making a difference to vets like my father, I invite you to visit their website.

A good question for many business leadersmanagers and employees. Pursuing an opportunity or a skill or a goal is being proactive, being tenacious like a dog with a bone. It’s strategizing and putting in what’s missing. It’s looking at it from every angle. It’s being unreasonable and persistent. It’s self generating and using initiative to seek the answer to a challenge. On the other hand being ‘open to it’ means that if it smacks you in the face, you’ll pay attention to it. It’s passive and not responsible for creating what you want. It’s better than being resistant. However, you don’t want people in your organization who are just pleasantly reactive and have no personal investment in proactively going after what they want. (for themselves or for your company) Do some ‘management-by-walking-around’ and ask your staff, managers and non-managers alike, “Are you pursuing that or are you merely open to it?” Do they know the difference? Do they know that you’re building a team of pursuers? Explained in more depth in chapter 3 of my book, The Customer Loyalty Playbook, 12 Game Strategies to Drive Improved Results in Your Business. Some business owners come to me and say, “How come I work so hard and have so little to show for it?” Is that you? Then contact me and let’s work out a new way to have you work less and gain more.

When I talk to business ownersI always ask “how is your customer service?” Generally they say, ‘Fine.’ Then they go on to talk about other problems with employees or revenue generation. Most companies today do not have to worry about leads as they hire b2b lead generation companies to gain potential clients, but one thing every company must worry about is thus, customers experience. Then I ask, ‘How do you know?” Usually they don’t know. They tell a few anecdotes. They talk about some repeat business which indicates the clients are satisfied, right? (or is this just the best current alternative till somebody better comes along?) Then I ask: How many clients stopped doing business with them? How many customers bought once and never came back? Did you ask anyone why they did come back or didn’t come back? Usually they haven’t looked into it and don’t have any way of measuring the most important part of their business. After all, the reason someone buys from you is 53% customer experience and 47% everything else (pricing, availability, reputation, referral, marketing, website, etc)  That stat comes from the Sales Executive Council that studied the purchase of 20,000 different products and services, if you're interested in selling products, you can also go to Amzscout can help find winning products to sell. In other words everything you do in your business from setting up your company to maintaining the books, hiring, training, developing your product or service, pricing strategies, and support plans all comes to one focal point in the interaction between your website and the customer, and that's why is essential to find web design agencies with cheap prices to create a great front page for your business. That’s the make or break point when the customer says all your preliminary work has been worthwhile or not. It seems to me that you’d want to measure effectiveness at that critical point. Here are some stats that might help you get your head out of the sand:

• According to statistics provided by Bain and Co. in the Harvard Management Update, 80% of companies surveyed said that they offer superior customer service, but only 8% of their customers agreed with them. Ouch! Is this delusion going on at your company?

• 96.7% of unhappy customers never let out even a squeak of dissatisfaction to the organization that has given them bad service. How do you know how many clients you’re losing to a negative experience if you don’t ask?

• According to Right Now Technologies, companies think 48% of lost customers leave because of price, when in fact only 25% do so.  It is hard to believe that our customers don’t love us.  We would rather believe that price is the culprit.  Are you losing customers, assuming that pricing is too high, lowering prices and unnecessarily reducing your bottom line?

The Impact

• According to research, unhappy customers will tell at least 15 other people, while satisfied ones will tell six at the most.
• It takes 12 positive service experiences to make up for one negative experience according to Ruby Newell-Legner  in “Understanding Customers”.

Enough unhappy clients and you’re out of business. Until then, you’re just working too hard and not having the profits to show for it. What can you do now to make sure you are generating happy clients with extraordinary experiences? There are many things that go into creating an extraordinary client experience, including:

• developing the infrastructure of engaged employees and good leadership.
• planning the customer journey and make it consistent across your organization.
• putting measurements in place so you can keep score on the progress you’re making.

If you want to pull your head out of the sand and focus on improving your company’s customer experience, look into these three things.

1. We would be pleased to talk with you. Give us a call or reply to this email.
2. You can (for f.r.e.e) read the first chapter of my book The Customer Loyalty Playbook, 12 Game Strategies to Drive Improved Results in Your Organization.
3. You can attend a 2-day workshop I’m teaching in Chicago on November 20-21, 2014 entitled Client Journey Management :Designing a Sustainable Business Infrastructure to Re-Engineer Consumer Loyalty.

I’d love to hear your comments and suggestions. (Check the website of Save Delete to learn about various customer reminder techniques and use them for the best of your business)