Can you spot the change?
Occasionally, I hear from a customer who has had trouble downloading one of my products.
I used to respond with a note like this:
Hi X,
I apologize for the trouble.
I have reactivated the download link. Please try it again and let me know if you’re able to download it successfully.
If not, I will try an alternative method ASAP.
Again, I apologize for the trouble and appreciate your patience.
Blair
While this usually solved the problem and left my customer happy, every so often it didn’t. Even if the new download link worked, I could tell the customer was put off for some reason.
Not good.
I wondered what I was doing wrong.
Eventually I changed one sentence in my response and have noticed a dramatic improvement in the way my customers respond when these problems occur.
My new response is something like this:
Hi X,
I apologize for the trouble.
I have reactivated the download link. Please let me know if the file downloads successfully for you.
If not, I will try an alternative method ASAP.
Again, I apologize for the trouble and appreciate your patience.
Blair
Again, I changed just one sentence. But the change is more than mere words; it’s a change in the overall message I’m communicating.
What is it about the second message that sits better with my customers? Any ideas?
Posted on Monday, November 17, 2008 at 08:15 AM
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Dave Lakhani on Small Business and the Recession
Just a quick note to point you to this must-read post by Dave Lakhani.
If there’s a more important message than this right now, I don’t know what it is.
PS. One of my favorite lines from the post:
If you want to practice positive thinking, acknowledge what is happening around you and look deeply into it to find advantage or opportunity that you can turn to your favor.
This is exactly in line with the project I’m currently working on. Maybe great minds do think alike. I hope. I hope.
Posted on Friday, November 14, 2008 at 12:10 PM
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Report this
If you listen to the news, it’s easy to get discouraged. Seems the only things they’re reporting lately are doom and gloom economic reports and predictions.
I’m not an economist, so I have no idea how accurate any of these reports are. But I do know something about them; I know they’re leaving out a very important fact.
When I speak with friends, colleagues and clients, I’m beginning to hear something new; I’m beginning to hear a resolve I haven’t heard in years. A resolve not only to survive, but to thrive. Their focus is intensifying. Their personal productivity increasing. And the results of these efforts have yet to be measured or predicted by anyone.
Perhaps we’ve all become complacent in recent years, but this is changing. To see this, we must ignore the media and listen to those around us who refuse to lie down and die. They’re out there. We must not let anyone tell us different.
We must also listen to the voice inside each of us that tells us to do the same. Do not give up. Refuse to give in. That voice is within each of us. If it wasn’t, we wouldn’t have survived as long as we have. It is time to for us to give that voice center stage. It is time for us to listen to it, and not the media.
And people are beginning to listen. And people are beginning to talk. A ferocious resolve is beginning to spread.
When this resolve reaches a certain point, all bets are off. The economic predictions will have to change. And thereafter, the economic reports as well.
It will not happen overnight. And things will likely get worse before they get better. Till then, we must not fully buy the story the media is feeding us.
No matter who wins on November 4, no matter what bailout plans are or are not passed, and no matter what predictions the experts make, the answer to our problems is already here. The answer is within each of us. And the answer is beginning to spread among us.
I wonder when the media will report this.
Posted on Saturday, November 01, 2008 at 12:24 PM
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The Illusion
Successful people get what they want more often than the rest of us.
What could be more obvious than that?
After all, we could say that, in many respects, that’s the definition of success: the ability to get what we want.
If we don’t get what we want, we’ve failed. If we do get what we want, we’ve succeeded. And the people who get what they want most often are the most successful.
End of story.
So we take this idea and use it to compare ourselves to “successful people.” And it’s no secret what happens. We come away feeling frustrated and discouraged.
Just look at them out there “getting what they want” at almost every turn while we sit here struggling to make it and mounting up failure after failure.
And we ask ourselves, “What am I doing wrong that is causing me to fail?”
Who hasn’t found themselves asking this question at one time or another?
While there are many ways to answer this question, none are likely to be very helpful.
Why?
Because the question is based on a false premise. It’s based on a fantasy. An illusion.
The truth is, successful people don’t get what they want more often than the rest of us. In fact, they often get what they want less often. Yes, less often. Why? Because they’re willing to try many more things, which means failing at more things.
Study the lives of Walt Disney, Steve Jobs, Gene Simmons, and countless other successful people and the pattern becomes clear.
Of course, this is very hard to see when we listen to their stories. Their stories, whether told by themselves or by others, make things seem so tight, clean and linear. They set their mind to something and, by god, they do it.
It sounds romantic. It sounds inspiring. But it doesn’t sound anything like our lives.
But the problem isn’t our lives. The problem is we’re comparing our lives to stories.
Life can be random, frustrating, confusing and unsatisfying. A story can’t be any of these things or else it wouldn’t be a story.
Sound obvious? Of course. The problem is, when we’re stuck comparing ourselves to “successful people” and wondering what we’re doing wrong, it is anything but obvious.
Successful people aren’t that much different than the rest of us. Their lives are filled with the same types of frustrations and failures as ours are. And yet, somehow they still come out on top.
How? Here’s my take:
First, successful people know the difference between stories and real life so they don’t waste precious time comparing their messy lives to perfect stories. They recognize the illusion as an illusion.
Second, they realize that there’s profit to be had from every failure. Every failure leaves them with more wisdom and more experience that can then be used as an asset on which to build their next success. From this perspective, every failure leaves them richer.
Again, this may sound obvious, but too often it’s not.
Remember the situation we started with: the “obvious” notion that successful people get what they want more often than the rest of us.
And then remember the question it led us to ask: “What am I doing wrong that is causing me to fail?”
There is only one reason we end up here; we end up here because we’ve gotten caught up in an illusion.
The better question to ask is, “How can I profit from my failures?”
When we can answer that, we stop being failures. And that’s when others start telling stories about us.
Posted on Saturday, October 25, 2008 at 10:48 AM
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Spread it around
Last week I sat next to an elderly woman in my doctor’s waiting room and soon we started to chat. Within minutes, she was sharing deeply personal stories that made my eyes tear up. When I left, she took my hand and thanked me for speaking with her.
I will not forget her smile.
A few days later, I called a friend to ask for some advice. Not long into the conversation, he made a proposal that nearly took my legs out from under me.
I will not forget his generosity.
Yesterday, my kids surprised me with a couple of Jack O’Lanterns. I’d been complaining that it didn’t feel like Halloween. Now, it does.
I will not forget their thoughtfulness.
As I sit here pondering the hostility of today’s public dialog about politics and the economy, I’m struck by these three events.
While it’s easy to feel powerless in the midst of today’s problems, we shouldn’t overlook the power each of us has to dramatically impact the lives of those around us.
Whether we find the proof in a doctor’s office, on a telephone call, or glowing on our doorstep when we come home from work, there’s power in kindness.
And we don’t have to wait for government approval before we spread it around.
Posted on Wednesday, October 15, 2008 at 02:38 PM
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