After listening to my friend for over a year now, I’m inclined to tell him good luck and get a prescription for a good antidepressant. His problems lay in three main areas:

• Existing culture: this place has been a stagnant pond for many, many years and processes have developed to maintain it just that way. The current beliefs, principles and values sound better than what is actually produced. In fact, they sound really good, but there is no evidence that anyone tries to implement them. It’s a culture of mediocrity perpetuated by the next problem,
• Existing people: the current employees see no reason to change anything. They like it there! They’re rewarded for minimal performance and results, so why would they want to change that? When my friend tries to introduce higher standards, there’s plenty of push-back or just apathy. Who’s not doing the job here? Problem 3,
• The new president: He’s introduced a new set of values and a mission statement with great fanfare and passion, but they’re so involved it takes a half-hour just to read the bizarre chart they’re posted on. You can’t expect people to get behind something that needs a translator! And he won’t get rid of the people in key positions who are obvious obstacles. One man has been in such a job for fifteen years and has done nothing but act as a caretaker. He’s openly resistant to change and yet there he stays.

These are common problems in any organization trying to make changes. They’re challenging but not impossible to overcome. But it requires senior leadership to lead the way, and in my friend’s case that’s not happening. The new president needs to replace a number of people but won’t and they’re holding everything back. My friend has a lot of responsibility but no significant authority and so his frustration will continue. There are few reasons to think anything will improve soon.

Leaders have to make tough decisions when changes are being made. Clear vision and values are required, yes, but so are signs that you mean it! What is lacking here and often elsewhere is accountability and the guts to replace key people with those that will back the new initiatives 100%. Try and win the hearts and minds, sure, but after a year with no progress it’s time to get some new people, the right people, on the bus.

I ordered a sandwich and gave the cashier a gift card I had for payment. The machine wouldn’t read the card after several tries, and the manager told me to call the number on the back to figure it out. Einstein mistake 1: she should have offered to help with that call. So I pay cash for my sandwich, go home and call the number from the card. Now I enter the Einstein Twilight Zone.

There was the usual electronic menu and I dutifully pressed the numbers to get the help I needed for gift card issues. But after entering the 19-digit card number, the recorded voice never said anything about the cards, only about their website which was having problems. Einstein mistake 2: inaccurate phone help. The voice told me to call a different number for more help. Einstein mistake 3: the voice gave the new number only once, forcing you to repeat the process if you missed the number. I’m getting annoyed by now, but it’s just a warmup.

I called this new number, and of course there is no actual human to speak with. No, it’s another disembodied voice that tells me if I need help with my gift card, go their website. That’s right, the first gift card number which had no help sends me to a second number which has no help, and remember what the first voice told me about the website having problems? I’m now told to go to that website for help! Einstein mistake 4: the right hand has no idea of the left.

As you can imagine by now, the website has nowhere to click for gift cards. Einstein mistake 4: wrong information. Nothing, nowhere at all. So I decided to take the only course open to me at this point and express my frustration on the Contact page. I wrote all that I’ve described here, hit send, and of course nothing happens. I’ve tried sending my message for 24 hours now, but the website is indeed broken as they said. Einstein mistake 5: a broken website. In this day and age there is no excuse for a website operating so poorly.

So now what do I do? Start calling those phone numbers again and get caught in the deadly circle once more?

This example of customer no-service is egregious beyond belief. This is sheer incompetence. Einstein’s likes to position itself as the hip place to eat with definite cool factor, but behind the facade is mismanagement at its worst.

I often tell my clients to shop their own system, and too often they’re surprised and disappointed at what they find. From store manager to general management, Einstein’s bagels is a sad example of what happens when customer service is an afterthought. Why would I ever go back?

And here’s my story. My family has owned several pairs of Skullcandy earphones, and in less than six months, three of them broke. Keep in mind that their products are not cheap! I expected better. In one case I returned the earphones to the company in person (they’re local here in Utah), and was offered a replacement for no charge. So far, so good, that’s what they should do. I paid a little extra to upgrade and left. A few months later, the new phones broke. The new, more expensive ones. Their website makes a big deal about their customer service, and this time I wrote them a message on the website explaining my dissatisfaction with the quality of their product. You can brag about customer service but I don’t want to have to keep using it!

I heard nothing back. Not a word. It seems they encourage you to send them a customer service message, but don’t expect a reply! Not my definition of service. So I decided to write a letter to Skullcandy’s president. An actual letter, on my business letterhead, explaining my concerns with poor quality earphones and no communication from their customer service people. Generally this brings a swift response. Company presidents usually know the value of keeping customers and projecting a good corporate image. Not so with Skullcandy. It’s been over a week and I’ve heard not a word in response. Again.

Products that break in a few months and a total lack of responsiveness from customer service and the company president. That’s Skullcandy. They’re still selling boatloads of their products, but this will catch up with them eventually. I ordinarily take pride in local businesses and try to buy from them whenever possible. But I won’t be supporting Skullcandy again if they think that little of their customers.

If you’re a consumer, don’t let businesses off the hook when they let you down. You are the marketplace and your voice should be heard. If you’re in customer service or run a business, one of the biggest dangers is when things go well. Don’t relax, don’t take customers for granted. Quality and service bring us in, lack of them drive us away.

Whether it’s teamwork or interpersonal skills, there are qualities we all want in our co-workers that are components of EQ. For example, how many of us have worked with someone who is obviously smart with high cognitive abilities yet can’t handle his (or her) emotions in the office, is uncooperative and seems oblivious to the feelings of others? I sure have! And that’s the definition of someone with a low EQ. There’s ample research that shows EQ is a much better predictor of star performance than IQ or any measure of intellectual prowess. And it also seems clear that EQ is not fixed at any particular age as is IQ, but that we can all develop it and make long-term improvement.

Let’s say you’re hiring. What exactly do you want from a candidate? The skills and experience to do the job? Yes, absolutely, but you also want that person to fit in, to have the social and emotional maturity to monitor and control their feelings while being able to monitor the feelings of others and make adjustments. They need to fit into the culture and the higher the EQ the greater the odds they will.

Culture and EQ are linked together, and have enormous effects on performance. The more you read about it the more sense it makes. Every one of us can do better and by doing so we’ll help each other and consequently the organization, too.

The company is ProFlowers, and you’ve probably heard their radio commercials. I’ve used them several times and the flowers were always fresh, on-time and the recipients very happy. It’s important to make the giver look good and they do their part. This time there was a glitch, and at Mother’s Day.

I ordered roses for my mother who lives out of state, some 1800 miles away. A traditional gift and one that’s always appreciated (she says so). I do my ordering online, and all went well, except that in a few days I received an email from ProFlowers saying that they would miss the delivery date by one day. Now I wasn’t too concerned because I ordered a Thursday delivery and Mother’s Day was Sunday, so a Friday delivery wasn’t bad at all.

But ProFlowers apologized, because their policy is guaranteed delivery on the date you choose. And to demonstrate their good-will, they refunded my delivery charge. Now that’s a big deal because flower delivery charges are about half- to one-third the cost of the flowers themselves! But that wasn’t all. ProFlowers also emailed me a $10 credit towards my next purchase which I’m pretty sure I’ll use. The email was signed by the CEO, not “the customer service team” or something impersonal like that.

Apology, refund, purchase credit, CEO signature. Textbook perfect customer service when they could have simply blamed the Mother’s Day rush. But they didn’t. Flower delivery is otherwise just a commodity where the arrangements and the prices are all about the same. How does ProFlowers stand out and build customer loyalty? Take care of the customer with full accountability. This should be the norm, not a cause for excitement! But in today’s environment, what an easy way for companies to distinguish themselves from their competition.

A group meeting followed  a few weeks later to nail down what people thought the operating values should be. Senior management attended and took questions as I facilitated the gathering. I admired the leadership for putting themselves on the front line, because the discussion took a turn that I suspected it might, with strong emotional content. It was all about organizational identity, or branding.

Staff members were quite frank about their opinions and there was some pointed disagreement. In my discussion with senior management I noted that this identity crisis is a fundamental question that hadn’t been decided yet. They had a general mission statement, but no vision or values had been decided upon (the latter being a central part of my project there).  While you craft the values statement, you’d better revisit the mission and then decide who you really are, what you do and why.

This is a question for all companies to consider, especially now as we slowly move out of the recession. Who are we? What, exactly, is our business? Why do we exist? What function do we have? What really do we provide? What is our identity? And by the way, do this individually for your your own job as you do a self-evaluation.

We talk so much about branding, both organizational and personal, but I like identity better. It’s a more personal concept, even though the basic elements are the same. The difference is in how we frame the process. As a company or as an individual, we’re building relationships in order to build business and advance our cause. We do business with people, not entities. Let’s build an identity that stands for something and that others will be attracted to.

About a month ago, my credit card APR was raised for no apparent reason other then they could and would. And did. Just on the heels of that, they send me a letter and several emails that begin this way: “Because you’re a loyal AT&T Universal Card member,….” And it goes on to encourage me to transfer other credit card balances to my new, higher, APR.

So I’m a loyal customer, but they raise my APR arbitrarily, and then have the gall to ask me to transfer balances to them so they can make even more from me? And, oh, charge me 3% of the balance total as a fee. Because I’m such a loyal customer, I guess. You just can’t make this stuff up, it really happens. I didn’t think I looked that stupid!

This offer went directly to my shredder. I’ve already cut back on the number of  purchases I make with the Citi/AT&T card as a mark of my displeasure, something I did with Chase several months ago. At this rate I’ll be making very few purchases with any card I carry, which is actually a good thing. In fact, I recommend it to everyone. If we all did that, we’d be at less of a disadvantage to the credit card issuers and I suspect their behavior would change. Well, hope springs eternal, right?

In the latest edition of Utah Business Magazine, there is a full page ad for a local computer seller called PC Laptops. Their owner has made a small fortune selling laptops with “lifetime service warranties” that push the price of their machines to double the average name brand. In the middle of the page it says: “And while your here we’ll scan for viruses….”

Your instead of you’re. It jumps off the page and hits you in the face! Three issues here: the computer store copy writer can’t spell, the owner who presumably OK’d the ad can’t spell, and the copy editors at the magazine can’t spell. Three strikes and the ad still isn’t out.

One of the most common pieces of business advice given these days is to learn effective and proper communication skills. Misspelling is neither. It diminishes our respect for those who commit such egregious errors. Some have told me that in these days of texting and instant messaging that spelling is irrelevant and who cares, anyway? I think they’re wrong. My kids used to call me the spelling and grammar nazi at home, but are grateful for it now as their skills distinguish them from the also-rans.

Effective and accurate communication skills, including spelling, will differentiate anyone these day, it seems. What an easy way to distinguish yourself from the rest of the pack!

And yes, I’ve checked my spelling here. Without spellcheck.

I had a conversation with a call-center rep the day my credit card payment was due, and I was wondering why a payment I thought I had mailed in was missing. We couldn’t resolve that, so I decided to make a payment online until I could figure out what happened. One problem: my payment would be one hour late because of time zone differences. I asked if due to what were discussing, plus the fact I was a long-time customer with an excellent payment history, would they waive the expected late fee this one time. I was assured that was no problem, we closed the call and I went on with my day.

Imagine my surprise when I received a letter one week later from a person in customer service telling me, and I quote, “We regret we are unable to waive a late fee if charged to your account.” And it went on to admonish me to clean up my act and pay on time! “Any late fees are valid,” the letter intoned.

Well, multiple thoughts crossed my mind at this point. First of all, that first statement is simply untrue. Of course they can waive a fee! It’s their company and their policy! Who or what is preventing them? It’s frankly a lie, and a laughable one at that. Secondly, nowhere in this letter was any word of appreciation for being a long-time customer with an excellent payment history. A cold, unfriendly slap-down.

Is it any wonder people are mad at credit card companies and Congress passes new laws regulating their industry? I called again and asked for a manager and explained my concern and my utter amazement at its content and tone. Why, I asked, does your company (and all the others) work so hard to attract new customers and then do so little to make them happy? They seem intent on driving us away with the attitude so evident in the letter I received. What other industry does this? Well, the airlines do, come to think of it, but that’s another story. I asked further if they realize that now I cannot trust the word of their customer service reps if their word is so easily broken by management. Talk about lack of empowerment!

But here’s the shocker. The manager I spoke with was empathetic, listened to my story without criticizing, and assured me the late fee would indeed be removed. She even agreed that the letter I received was as cold and unfriendly as I described and that my input would be communicated up the line. Now I don’t know if it will be, but that was the right thing to say. She thanked me for my business and we ended the conversation on a very pleasant note. I could not have been more surprised. This was one of the only times I have ever had such an exchange with any credit card customer service manager over the many years I have used my various cards.

The point is that this experience should not have been unusual, but should be the norm. When an industry has a bullseye on its back and a long-standing reputation for arrogance, what does it take for them to change? Unfortunately they have no incentive to improve their service. We have allowed ourselves to be under their thumbs through our profligate spending habits and until that changes, until we the public change, customer satisfaction from the credit card industry will continue to be the rare exception.

I was intrigued to read of a new treatment for burn patients that has shown dramatic results in reducing the pain of their treatments. Victims need grafts, debriding and other procedures that cause excruciating pain that drugs can never fully alleviate. Now they can use a virtual reality game called SnowWorld in which the patient dons a VR helmet and with the help of a mouse can navigate through a snowy world of icy canyons and mountains. They can throw snowballs at the various creatures they encounter, from mammoths to penguins, and become so immersed in their new virtual world that the pain of their wounds and their treatments are minimized to an astounding degree. Physically they feel better overall, and the worse they felt initially, the better they got.

I became excited at all the ideas I began to have as I read this. Most of all, it’s that if you can change the environment, the culture, you can improve individual attitudes. Attitude influences a person’s belief at work, which in turn influences their behavior. And of course, it’s behavior that determines results. The VR helmets changed patients’ perspective and consequently they felt better in spite of their wounds and they began to heal. In the workplace, employees may feel virtually wounded and hurting due to a variety of reasons. The entire work environment may be wounded! We can alleviate those issues by changing not the virtual, but the actual reality of the workplace. Improve the culture, improve the performance.