As I stood at the gas pump the other night, shivering as I had forgotten my coat for the cold night time temperatures, I had a moment of insanity. My intent was to put $15 worth of gas in my car. As I neared the $15 dollar mark, I pulsed the handle a few times to hit $15 exactly. When the pump read $15.01, I decided to try for $16. When the pump read $16.01, I aimed for $17.

By the time I reached $18.01, I was frustrated, slammed the nozzle back where it rests, grabbed my receipt and got in the car.

Yes, insanity. Doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results.

As I got back in the car, I stopped to ask myself why hitting an even amount was so important to me. Why did I try to make it even every time I pump gas. It’s the way I’ve always done it. But why?

Because that’s how it used to be.

Follow me?

Growing up, my parents paid cash for gas. Always. Hitting the exact dollar amount was what they did so as to not have to worry about change. When I got my license and car, there were no debit cards and often times, I was scrounging together a few bucks to put gas in my car. In cash. Hitting the exact amount was important. It might be that there was no extra change to go over.

So now that I have a debit card and hitting the exact dollar amount isn’t as important, why do I continually attempt to make it even?

Because it’s ingrained in my behavior.

The same is true for how you run your business.  I’m not saying that just because you’ve always done it one way, you should scratch everything and start over, but what is there is another way to do something?  Just because your predecessor at work did something one way doesn’t mean that it can’t be changed.

If something works, don’t break it.  But is there something that’s working fine that could potentially be better?  Is there an area of your business that’s surviving but could be thriving?  How many things are you just doing because that’s the way it’s always been?

Take some time to think about things you’re doing because they are ingrained, the added stress they might be causing, and then plan a change.

Change isn’t a bad thing. To quote Winston Churchill, “there’s nothing wrong with change, if it’s in the right direction.”

What direction are you heading?

Are you moving forward or are you stuck spinning your wheels?

I have a customer at work — a small business of five employees and while we don’t do much business with him, they have placed two orders with me since January.

The first order was placed Januray 21st, the second mid-February. The latter order came in within the week and was installed. About that time, I found out that the first order had slipped to back order status and would be delayed (for the second time) to March 5th.

Keep in mind that the customer needs the product to deploy a new accounting software that will change the way that they do business. The server had been ordered and installed; the software was sitting there unused because they are waiting on the last piece of the puzzle.

On March 4th, I emailed the customer to let him know that the following day, I would be tracking down that order. I sent word on the 5th to find out where it was and received no response.

On Monday, May 8th, I still hadn’t heard back on the status, but I heard from my customer. By the end of the day, I got word that the product was delayed again until June 6th. A cancellation was eminent.

I emailed my boss, sent the SOS if you will, that we needed to get creative to make this right for the customer. Together, we ran it up the flagpole to the owner of the company and pulled in all the resources that we could and when I called the customer back, I had to relay the bad news about the delay, but I presented him with a solution.

Was it what he wanted? No.

Would it work just as good if not better than the original product?

Yes.

Had he cancelled after the solution was offered, I would’ve understood. But I can’t, in good conscious, tell someone that it can’t be done. There’s always a solution.

I don’t post this to toot my own horn.

I post this because I think it’s important to always put the customer’s needs first. There might be times that you can’t do exactly what they want. Things happen.

But you can always get creative, making you look like the rock star in the end.

How do you feel about customer service? Do you think that it has to be a dying art? How can we revive it?

*not my quote… I saw it online… credit, anonymous

So, you have a Facebook account and you’ve probably seen updates & Event invites announcing “Meet-ups or Tweet-ups” where online friends get together and meet offline. The problem? Most of this happens during the day…while you & I are at work… Not anymore.

Introducing #rkeUnwind

#rkeUnwind is a group of people that come together to meet and talk about what’s relevant & important to them (in more than 140 characters) at a local eatery. There are no formal agendas. There is no dress code. You can have 5 Twitter accounts or simply want to know why you should have even 1 account and, most importantly, what you should probably do with it.

The best part? We’ll be “unwinding” after the work day is done.

There’s power in #’s. (Read that as “numbers” or a hash tag because the statement is true of both.) And, together, we’ll figure this web thing out… Don’t understand why the hash tag is important? Come out and find out!

Join us for our inaugural gathering Thursday, March 18, 2010 from 5-7pm at 202 Market. Come meet old friends, make new friends, and have a great time…

Oh…and btw… yes… there will be prizes!

In true social media fashion, don’t forget to tweet your heart out about it… and follow us on twitter @rkeunwind…

We’ll see you there!

PS: Want more info? Ask any of these ppl…it was their idea.

Josh Heather Marty

Webster defines “social” in this manner:

Main Entry: ¹so·cial

1 : involving allies or confederates <the SocialWar between the Athenians and their allies>
2 a : marked by or passed in pleasant companionship with one’s friends or associates<leads a very full social life> b : sociable c : of, relating to, or designed for sociability <a social club>
3 : of or relating to human society, the interaction of the individual and the group, or the welfare of human beings as members of society <social institutions>
4 a : tending to form cooperative and interdependent relationships with others of one’s kind : gregarious b : living and breeding in more or less organized communities <social insects> c of a plant : tending to grow in groups or masses so as to form a pure stand
5 a : of, relating to, or based on rank or status in a particular society <a member of our social set> b : of, relating to, or characteristic of the upper classes c :formal
6 : being such in social situations <a social drinker>

In every single definition of the word, more than one person is involved.  So when it comes to your social networking, is there more than one person involved?

Yes, you may have more than one person in your network, but are you interacting with them?

Are you engaging them in conversation?

Are you reaching out to them to get to know them?

Moreover, do you even know who the majority of your followers are or do you follow every one you can with the hopes that they will follow you back?  And do you follow every one who follows you?

I ask these questions of you, because you should be asking them of yourself.  Social networking should not be a billboard for you to simply talk about yourself, your product, or your business.

Can you do these things? Absolutely!  I’m not saying that you shouldn’t.  But it’s not the only thing that you should be talking about.

I get slightly hot under the collar when I see someone who has 52,000 followers, yet only follows 121 people.

It annoys me to look at their stream and see links to their business and products, but no interaction with other people.

The reality of it is, engaging people, whether it be on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or any other social media outlet is about getting involved.

I know that social media takes time to manage.  Even with just 300+ followers, I have to find ways to make it all work.  But, my goal is to respond to everyone who reaches out to me.  I attempt to learn more about each of my new followers.  I also retweet and share comments from others to help them spread the word.

If you’re not interacting with your followers, please consider doing so.  You’ll find that your true network will grow, true relationships will form, and your business will flourish much faster.

Pulled from the Archives…

Saturday was a beautiful, abnormally warm March day in Southwest Virginia. The kids and I decided that we would plant some fruit, vegetables, and flowers. We decided on porch plants because I do not have a green thumb and we wanted to start with something small and idiot proof. I have yet to keep a plant alive, even the ones that people swore I couldn’t kill.

It’s not that I don’t like plants; I do. I think they are beautiful. I love to eat fresh fruit and vegetables. But for whatever reason, this whole watering thing baffles me, and I completely forget to water them.

We repotted Matthew’s third grade project, his over sized cabbage that will grow to be more than 40 pounds. We also planted strawberries, tomatoes, grape tomatoes, and sunflowers. But here is where I struggle. When I woke up this morning, there sat 7 pots that just had dirt in them – no buds, no blooms, and no sign of life.

As a society, we have come to expect things instantaneously. We have microwaves to cook meals faster, online banking to expedite money transfers, and email to eliminate the time it takes for a letter to make it through the Postal Service. As a whole, we want things now.

Our businesses are no different. We send out a direct mail piece and we want something from it immediately. We submit an article and expect the traffic soon thereafter. We submit our press release and expect some kind of coverage within a day or so. We hang out our open sign and become disappointed when we don’t have some sort of bite right away.

Here is what we fail to realize, and I’m just as guilty as the next guy. With our businesses, we must plant our seeds, nurture them, and provide them what they need to flourish before we will see the results – the fruits of our labor.

The next time you feel discouraged because you have put so much time and energy into your business and have nothing to show for it, stop and smell the roses. Then realize that they weren’t planted yesterday.