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208: Building Relationships in the Digital Age · Customer Service Revolution | Customer Experience & Employee Experience for Business Leaders

• 0:02
  Hello, revolutionaries.
• 0:03
  Welcome back to another episode of the Customer Service Revolution podcast with John DiJulius.
• 0:09
  How you doing, John?
• 0:10
  Fantastic.
• 0:11
  How are you, Denise?
• 0:13
  I'm fabulous.
• 0:13
  Thank you.
• 0:14
  Thank you.
• 0:14
  Nice sunny day here in Cleveland today.
• 0:17
  I'm not traveling this week and it's a perfect week to be in Cleveland
• 0:23
  Yay, yay.
• 0:26
  So got any best practices for us this week?
• 0:30
  Yeah.
• 0:32
  Something that came up, it always comes up, we're doing a big project with Sandals Resort, and this applies to every single business, but we were there and uh checked in the night
• 0:51
  before the workshop and went to the beach and saw a beautiful sunset.
• 0:59
  And you're thinking about it.
• 1:01
  But what it made me think of is Sandals doesn't own the sunset, right?
• 1:09
  The resort, the beach, the blue water.
• 1:15
  And you can get that, I'm assuming, at hundreds of Caribbean destinations.
• 1:26
  So there's this expression I love, I think it should be a theme for companies, whether for the year or for the quarter called URX.
• 1:36
  And it stands for you are the experience.
• 1:39
  And in every business, B2B, B2C, the last 15, 20 years, it's been about the digital revolution.
• 1:49
  we talk about, we have an app for that and you get off our website.
• 1:56
  and you can check in online or you can check in self-service kiosks.
• 2:01
  You can check out at a self-service kiosk.
• 2:04
  And if you are a brick and mortar, look at this beautiful facility we built and the cappuccino machine and the chandelier and all those things are important.
• 2:18
  But I believe as leaders, we've sent an unconscious message to our staff that's not about them anymore.
• 2:26
  And so you go back to the sandals, which really brought it back is, their competitive advantage is not the beautiful sunset, the beach and the water.
• 2:40
  And different restaurant choices you get on property and the nine pools you get on property.
• 2:48
  ah Because you're going to get that at any comparable resorts.
• 2:55
  But it's about them and, ah know, technology and equipment and all that stuff.
• 3:10
  build a rapport, show empathy, make a brilliant comeback if you drop the ball.
• 3:15
  But the employees can.
• 3:18
  And that's what I just think we've been missing.
• 3:22
  Even me as uh a entrepreneur in my businesses, I feel like we get away from that and talk about our technological advances.
• 3:34
  if you make uh Uber and Lyft apps black and white,
• 3:39
  You can't tell the difference between them.
• 3:41
  So the technological advances are the easiest to replicate.
• 3:46
  If you're a competitor and you come out with I can replicate that, but I can't replicate your people, your culture, your experience as easy, if at all.
• 3:56
  So I just love that expression is URX ah You are the experience.
• 4:03
  as leaders, we have to go back to putting the emphasis
• 4:07
  and back on our employees and make them feel part of it.
• 4:11
  What's the best way to do that?
• 4:13
  Remind them, remind uh them.
• 4:17
  With AI, with technology, the human interaction is less and more fragile.
• 4:24
  And we really have to capitalize and crush it when we do interact with someone and be engaged and be present and the whole list.
• 4:36
  What we're gonna talk about today.
• 4:38
  And what are we talking about today, John?
• 4:41
  Relationship building.
• 4:44
  Yay, that's a hot topic for sure.
• 4:48
  Why do you think it's so important?
• 4:49
  um Well, kind of what I said earlier, uh it's not common.
• 5:00
  It's not.
• 5:01
  um It's something that ah we don't have, right?
• 5:09
  Our people skills have rapidly declined in every generation ah and businesses have to own this.
• 5:19
  uh unlike they ever have before in new employee and ongoing employee training.
• 5:28
  And what does that look like?
• 5:30
  um Well, so a lot of people think this is about the younger generation.
• 5:39
  And again, every generation, know, my generation, your generation, which is different.
• 5:48
  is, it is.
• 5:54
  We're six, a year apart and you are, you're not a boomer.
• 6:00
  I am.
• 6:02
  I'm the youngest of the boomers, which I know that's something to brag about.
• 6:08
  No, but like, us older folks, whatever you want to call it, our people skills have declined, but you do have 30 and under that are relationship disadvantaged and no fault to
• 6:20
  their own.
• 6:22
  And besides him,
• 6:24
  proving our every generation's people skills.
• 6:30
  You can't skip this new workforce because the next one will be further behind in people skills, in those soft critical skills.
• 6:41
  And so, you know, it's on companies to make it a critical part of their training.
• 6:50
  You brought up relationship disadvantaged.
• 6:54
  How would you define that?
• 6:56
  Well, they, you and I, they're the first generation to grow up strictly on iPhones.
• 7:08
  They didn't transition, you know, at 12 to iPhones, iPads, social media.
• 7:16
  That's the only thing they've known.
• 7:19
  And so we've talked about this before.
• 7:21
  You know, they went to school.
• 7:24
  ah
• 7:27
  during the pandemic, they didn't get the inherent people skills besides the things that the social media and iPhones and iPads stripped them of.
• 7:37
  uh But a lot of them are coming out of college, graduating and working from home, which is just a horrible setback for their critical uh people uh development years, that they're
• 7:52
  not working with people, they're not going out to happy hour.
• 7:55
  uh
• 7:56
  know, happy hour, you know, just was reading online literally today that happy hour is toxic.
• 8:05
  They view happy hour as toxic and, you know, almost canceling it.
• 8:09
  I didn't read enough to see why, but it's just, you know, happy hour, was so, you know, so much fun for us just to go hang and see people in a different light.
• 8:21
  And, you know, instead of just, you know, working with each other or for,
• 8:26
  each other.
• 8:26
  um relationship disadvantage, they just don't have the inherent people skills that we were forced to.
• 8:35
  But through my experiences and in all three of my businesses, uh we have approximately a hundred employees that are 30 and under, and they are rock stars once they're trained.
• 8:54
  Like it wouldn't make sense to me.
• 8:55
  I think they're better than the previous generations who weren't relationship disadvantaged.
• 9:02
  Do you think any of that has to do with them being not just great training, but working with people in person that they have face-to-face jobs?
• 9:12
  Yeah, yeah, definitely, definitely.
• 9:15
  That helps.
• 9:16
  And that makes it scarcer because a lot don't want face-to-face jobs.
• 9:22
  And that's what you have to find out, which is another topic is those people skills that can't be trained.
• 9:37
  Do you enjoy like others?
• 9:41
  There's a lot of people that don't and there's nothing wrong with that.
• 9:45
  you know, we can't give them 10,000 hours on that and get them to like others.
• 9:52
  Right.
• 9:53
  I think there are some people too that think they don't want a job around people.
• 10:00
  But in reality, you work remote, when you work by yourself all day, you're missing something.
• 10:09
  You are, you are.
• 10:10
  mean, there's advantages, right?
• 10:12
  I always say, yeah, yeah, collaboration, uh vulnerability, um all those things.
• 10:21
  uh I loved the advantage of work from home when it first came because I felt like you got a 25th hour in the day because of the commute time.
• 10:35
  But God, I miss the collaboration.
• 10:37
  I miss the Keurig conversation.
• 10:39
  I miss peeking in your office, bouncing an idea, and all of a sudden that takes us down a rabbit hole.
• 10:48
  But all these great ideas come out of it and it may have nothing to do with the first question or it may have, you know, asking someone when you're waiting for them to, you
• 11:00
  know, get their coffee at the Keurig thing, how is their weekend?
• 11:03
  And you find out something.
• 11:06
  bad or good happen that you won't find out in the, out of sight, out of mind.
• 11:12
  There's just so many things of that.
• 11:15
  Loneliness, mean, loneliness is part of the relationship disadvantage.
• 11:19
  It's going through the roof.
• 11:23
  And do you think it's just young people being affected?
• 11:26
  No, no, every generation has reported all time loneliness.
• 11:32
  And you could see on the opposite side, the older generations, they're not out typically going to bars and all that.
• 11:44
  they're empty nesters, uh literally maybe empty nesters if they're single again.
• 11:50
  um
• 11:53
  That happens.
• 11:55
  But every generation is reported and it all goes back to um social media.
• 12:00
  I it does.
• 12:02
  I love social media, it certainly, uh someone said it today, I heard on some podcasts, um it's not the attention economy, it's the addictive economy.
• 12:13
  And Scott Galloway said on his podcast that no one under 16 should be allowed to have a cell phone.
• 12:24
  And I do agree with that.
• 12:25
  I'm sorry, a smartphone.
• 12:29
  because you're giving someone, I forget how he said it, access to porn, a casino, and he listed eight other.
• 12:43
  things that you can get off your cell phone and that are negative.
• 12:48
  ah So yeah, I agree, but that's.
• 12:53
  think it's difficult to understand what reality is when you're buried in a cell phone, a smartphone, uh social media apps.
• 13:02
  Yeah, and I said this previous uh podcast with you that the majority of 18 to 24 year old, at least male, have never asked a girl out in person.
• 13:13
  And I asked my son, uh Bo, who's 22, if that was true for him.
• 13:19
  he said 100%.
• 13:20
  And I've asked his friends, I think one of his three friends said I had asked a girl out in person one time.
• 13:31
  But that just, those are people skills.
• 13:33
  That translates to sales, that translates to making friends because I realized I was obnoxious in that, you know, the first take.
• 13:45
  And don't do that when you don't know someone, you know, or whatever it may be, but, know, they don't have those um opportunities to build.
• 13:57
  Yeah, it makes it tough to work on your emotional intelligence when you're buried behind something like that.
• 14:05
  So, you know what, wonder how many even over the age of 25, 35, 45, now that there is, there are so many dating apps online, what percentage now still don't or don't anymore ask
• 14:25
  someone out in person.
• 14:27
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 14:29
  And again, I heard this on a podcast.
• 14:32
  I don't know if this is age related.
• 14:34
  It may not be.
• 14:36
  90 % of the women on dating apps swipe right.
• 14:40
  I think that's the positive.
• 14:43
  Swipe right on only 10 % of the guys.
• 14:47
  So there's a couple of things there, right?
• 14:49
  There's 90 % of guys that are lonely, depressed, discouraged, lower self-esteem and...
• 14:56
  You got 10 % there, get 90 % of the way.
• 14:58
  That doesn't make for a good guy.
• 15:02
  what percentage of those are real profiles.
• 15:05
  Right.
• 15:05
  I don't know.
• 15:06
  mean, I know.
• 15:07
  But just all these things.
• 15:08
  I because you're just looking at your requirements, right?
• 15:11
  Your checklist, six, two, this, that, whatever.
• 15:16
  So.
• 15:20
  Oh, you did a TED talk a while back about meet as strangers leave as friends.
• 15:28
  Can you talk about that a little bit?
• 15:30
  Yeah, that kind of was the uh inspiration for the uh book, The Relationship Economy, um building stronger human connections at a digital age.
• 15:43
  so, so meet a stranger's leave as friends is really the whole thing that we're talking about here that I believe, and I've never had anybody disagree with me on this, um there's
• 15:56
  no greater skill.
• 15:59
  that any of us can work on on a daily basis that will have a bigger impact in our personal and professional lives than the ability to make a meaningful connection with others.
• 16:13
  Others being strangers, friends, acquaintances, coworkers, clients, neighbors, you name it.
• 16:23
  The challenge with that is it's not taught anywhere.
• 16:25
  It's not taught at home.
• 16:30
  I gave my kids iPads to occupy them so we could do whatever we had to do, right?
• 16:37
  And um it's not taught at home.
• 16:41
  I've never heard, or maybe there is, I love it, I've never heard of a class that teaches it, definitely not a degree.
• 16:50
  So the only place it can be taught is in businesses.
• 16:58
  because you're not going to hire people with the necessary service aptitude skills that you need if they're going to be in any, you could say customer facing positions, but if
• 17:10
  they come in contact with other human beings, if they come in contact with coworkers, if they come into contact with vendors and they don't have pleasant people skills and they're
• 17:22
  annoying and abrupt.
• 17:24
  uh
• 17:27
  and don't know how to ask for something and don't know how to make a relationship.
• 17:32
  So that's really what, you know, the whole TEDx talk was about.
• 17:39
  Okay, which is a great point.
• 17:41
  So you don't learn it at school, you don't learn it at home, you're learning it from your employer.
• 17:46
  How does an employer best teach that?
• 17:50
  Yeah, so uh making a mandatory part of new employee orientation and ongoing, um so, you know, first thing we got to teach ourselves, our employees, our kids, is everyone we come
• 18:12
  in contact with as an invisible sign above their head that says, make me feel important.
• 18:16
  Right.
• 18:16
  You do, I do.
• 18:18
  The UPS driver does.
• 18:20
  Everyone does.
• 18:21
  And so, you know, what does that look like?
• 18:23
  And um Stephen Covey, one of his famous quotes is, people don't listen with the intent of understanding, they listen with the intent of replying.
• 18:38
  Right.
• 18:38
  And that's so true.
• 18:39
  And I'm guilty of it and certainly have been.
• 18:44
  so scientists study the human brain and they found that it took the human brain a minimum
• 18:50
  of 0.6 seconds to formulate a response to something said to it.
• 18:58
  And then they studied hundreds of thousands of conversations and found the average gap between people talking was 0.2 seconds.
• 19:05
  So we're responding in one third the time our brain will allow us.
• 19:12
  That's impossible.
• 19:14
  And the only way we could be doing it is if we're having a conversation.
• 19:19
  I have my, what I'm going to say next ready.
• 19:23
  And I'm just waiting for you to come up for air so I can jump in, hijack the conversation and get it back on my favorite topic, which is me.
• 19:35
  Right.
• 19:36
  So, you know, there's a huge difference between listening and waiting for your turn to talk.
• 19:43
  And I think too often we're, we're guilty of just waiting for our turn to talk.
• 19:51
  So it sounds like texting might be a better option for you.
• 19:57
  Yeah, well, I found my best option is being on stage with the only one with the microphone and it's not a dialogue for 90 minutes.
• 20:12
  Oh, so making connections is important and I think we're all aware of that.
• 20:17
  uh How do you know if you're truly making a connection with someone?
• 20:22
  So I love asking audiences this, know, how many people in here are you feel that you're really good at making a connection with someone you haven't seen in a while or have never
• 20:34
  met?
• 20:35
  And obviously.
• 20:38
  80 % of people raise their hand and to a certain degree, they're they may be right, but I call bullshit and you know, I say just because I sat next to someone
• 20:52
  on a break um and we chatted up for 20 minutes.
• 20:59
  um It doesn't mean I made a connection because high probability I was talking about myself for 20 minutes.
• 21:08
  We're all genetically coded to be preoccupied with what's going on in our life.
• 21:13
  And that's a hard urge when you, whoever you are,
• 21:18
  you know, at, at, at, break, at breakfast, wherever, you know, at work.
• 21:22
  And you say, Hey, how are you?
• 21:23
  And I tell you, my God, my flight was delayed last night.
• 21:27
  And I got in so late and I had to get up and, and then the AV check was a disaster and Bo, Bo got in trouble again at school.
• 21:37
  And, know, I don't know what I'm going do with Bo.
• 21:39
  And, you know, did you hear that, you know, so-and-so might be leaving the company and that's, and so, so.
• 21:48
  um the best thing in that, we've probably one of the top things we've ever come up with at the DiJulius Group that is universally used by every client of ours and people that aren't
• 22:02
  clients that have read the books or listened to the podcast is, if you want to prove to yourself that you built an instant report with someone in a three minute conversation or a
• 22:16
  30 minute conversation,
• 22:18
  You have to focus on learning two more things of the other person's FORD, F-O-R-D.
• 22:24
  And if you learn two or more things of the other person's FORD in that conversation, you not only built a rapport, you own the relationship because each and every one of us, our
• 22:36
  own FORD is what we geek out about.
• 22:39
  It's what we get excited about.
• 22:40
  We start talking fast, you know, and all those.
• 22:43
  So, um you want to ask me the obvious question?
• 22:48
  How are they incorporating it?
• 22:51
  I'm sorry.
• 22:52
  What is FORD?
• 22:54
  I didn't say what FORD is yet.
• 22:55
  I thought you said what it is.
• 22:58
  I swear I thought you said family occupation recreation dreams.
• 23:02
  Wow, you're just so used to hearing me, you heard that.
• 23:06
  Yeah, family, F for FORD, family.
• 23:09
  um Are they married?
• 23:11
  Do they have kids?
• 23:12
  How old are their kids?
• 23:13
  What activities are their kids into?
• 23:15
  Sports, grades, blah, blah.
• 23:17
  Oh, occupation, right?
• 23:19
  What do they do?
• 23:19
  Who do they do it for?
• 23:20
  um How long they've been doing it?
• 23:23
  What's their title?
• 23:24
  What's their company's name?
• 23:25
  R recreation, right?
• 23:27
  What are their...
• 23:28
  What do they like to do with their free time weekends, vacations?
• 23:31
  know, they're in the pickleball fad.
• 23:33
  They, you know, are cyclists.
• 23:36
  They do yoga and then D is dreams.
• 23:40
  uh, you know, what's on their bucket list?
• 23:43
  What's their encore career performance?
• 23:47
  and, um, and, and, and it doesn't have to be like a stalker checklist.
• 23:52
  You know, it depends on the situation, especially in business.
• 23:57
  If I'm coming in to buy a cup of coffee, I don't think someone should, know, hey, are you married?
• 24:01
  Do have kids?
• 24:02
  uh But there's so many times that, A, in business or just really, the client over shares, you're dressed up.
• 24:12
  You have a big day Yeah, I have a uh board meeting I'm going to or a big sales call or my daughter's graduating today.
• 24:22
  um
• 24:24
  And customers overshare, oh Whether it's that or they're trying to schedule an appointment and you're like, all right, how about Thursday?
• 24:33
  And they're like, no, Thursday, my daughter is graduating or her soccer team made it, the districts.
• 24:40
  And you capture that and then you can use that or pass it along to someone else that will be using it.
• 24:46
  uh yeah, mean, FORD is the greatest tool ever.
• 24:53
  Now can I ask you?
• 24:54
  No.
• 24:57
  That's not next.
• 25:02
  The best example of FORD that I've ever seen is a little 20 second clip by actor Charlie Day.
• 25:17
  You know Charlie Day?
• 25:19
  What was he in?
• 25:20
  He was in Horrible Bosses.
• 25:23
  I know I've seen him in other things, but this is his commencement speech, a 20 second clip.
• 25:32
  But this is what FORD does for you.
• 25:58
  Are you playing it?
• 26:00
  Yeah.
• 26:02
  You can't hear it?
• 26:03
  Huh.
• 26:04
  All right.
• 26:05
  I'll send you the link, and you'll have to do it.
• 26:12
  Um, do you know it?
• 26:15
  So let me share it, maybe that'll work.
• 26:18
  Is it the one where he didn't get great grades but...
• 26:21
  It had nothing to do with grades.
• 26:24
  but he knew the name of the lunch person and no.
• 26:28
  no, no, you're thinking of Charles Schwab.
• 26:32
  um No?
• 26:36
  Okay.
• 26:36
  Charles Schwab one.
• 26:37
  thought that was the, his was the lunch one, I thought.
• 26:39
  going to try to replay it.
• 26:43
  Okay.
• 26:55
  No sound, no audio.
• 26:59
  It might be the headphones.
• 27:03
  I'm not sure.
• 27:06
  Although it happened with me too.
• 27:07
  I gotta look into this.
• 27:08
  Okay.
• 27:09
  All right.
• 27:10
  Should I unplug the headphones and try it again or no?
• 27:12
  Don't waste time.
• 27:13
  let's try it and then we know.
• 27:23
  I also can't see you, so when I do this, so, oh, maybe I can if I do it this way.
• 27:35
  When I left this school, was presented with two options.
• 27:38
  I could move to New York City and begin my acting career, a city where I knew next to no one, or I could take the entry-level position that had been offered to me by Fidelity
• 27:48
  Investments.
• 27:49
  Now I know what you're thinking.
• 27:51
  Why would a major financial services corporation offer this numbskull a job?
• 27:56
  The answer is simple.
• 27:58
  Because I tricked them.
• 28:01
  Merrimack's business program was offering interviews with a company.
• 28:05
  The students would be given a score on their interview and I'd never been on an audition.
• 28:08
  It seemed like it would be a similar experience and I liked the role of aspiring banker or whatever they do.
• 28:18
  game plan deflect from me get this guy to talk about himself I wasn't gonna lie I was just basically gonna interview him if I recall correctly we talked at length about the
• 28:28
  intricacies of water skiing an activity I know nothing about now had the man asked me what eight times seven was there would have been an unbearable pause in the room
• 28:41
  But he didn't, and the interview went so well that he offered me a job.
• 28:48
  Had you heard that before?
• 28:49
  Yes.
• 28:50
  Yeah.
• 28:52
  Let me get back to this.
• 29:01
  All right.
• 29:02
  Yeah.
• 29:03
  So I love that.
• 29:03
  I mean, that's how it takes is focus on the other person and, you know, they're going to like you.
• 29:08
  So something that that's funny or, you know, when my theory is when we're dealing with clients, you want to keep the focus on you.
• 29:18
  Now, you obviously have to share something about yourself or there, you you know, but but I think too often.
• 29:28
  That's 90 percent of where we focus.
• 29:31
  and not the 10%, right?
• 29:33
  um But I also think it's a great self-absorbed meter that when you're out, and this has happened when we've gone out with couples and I didn't know the husband, or I've been on a
• 29:52
  plane and I chat up the guy next to me, and I'll FORD them to death and find out everything, and they love talking.
• 29:59
  But after...
• 30:00
  you know, 45 minutes, if you came in and asked them to tell you one thing about me, they couldn't tell you one thing, right?
• 30:10
  And that just tells me that, you know, that's probably not someone I want to build a personal relationship with.
• 30:23
  I think part of that is being curious too.
• 30:26
  It's all curiosity.
• 30:30
  you know, you ask some, Tom Peters might have said this, if you ask a question and don't ask two to three follow-up questions, odds are you weren't listening or you didn't really
• 30:43
  care about the answer.
• 30:46
  Right?
• 30:46
  It's kind of like, hey, Denise, how was your weekend?
• 30:48
  And I have no idea what you said.
• 30:50
  And I'm like, do you want to know what I did?
• 30:51
  You know?
• 30:52
  And, you know, it was just...
• 30:55
  an entry to tell you about my weekend, my exciting weekend that I'm sure yours doesn't compare to, right?
• 31:02
  So ah yeah, I mean, that's what FORD is, is teaching people in a professional setting how to be curious, how to not go to that subconscious of, you wouldn't believe what's going on
• 31:19
  in my world and keep it about them.
• 31:21
  And now you've got the jewels on them.
• 31:23
  Now I know.
• 31:25
  what your hot buttons are.
• 31:27
  And my boys, they always knew that if I saw them talking to an adult, they knew that they were going to be quizzed on.
• 31:36
  We've FORD'd the Uber driver.
• 31:38
  We try to find out who can find out the most personal information of an Uber driver.
• 31:44
  It's a game we play.
• 31:48
  Do you recommend companies playing that game?
• 31:52
  Yeah.
• 31:53
  I mean, so that's what we teach and that's, you know, every company we've ever worked with.
• 31:58
  I have never come across a company.
• 32:04
  Let me change that.
• 32:07
  In brick and mortar retail, FORD is harder if you don't have an appointment in a database, right?
• 32:14
  If you're coming in just to buy a smoothie um or a shirt, a clothing store or whatever that business model is, and they don't have an appointment, you're not in a database,
• 32:28
  yeah, they can't cheat.
• 32:31
  They can still pay attention and see that you're...
• 32:33
  You're wearing your name badge from your job, right?
• 32:38
  That's FORD.
• 32:39
  Or that you have a shirt that says Hilton Head Oh, have you been to Hilton Head Yeah, just got back.
• 32:45
  Right?
• 32:45
  Those are obvious FORD but the brick and mortar have it harder than B2B over the phone support, because we can all cheat.
• 32:55
  And if you're an existing client, I could pull up where oh you're headquartered in Chicago.
• 33:03
  and your last purchase was...
• 33:07
  So for the companies that have CRM systems, you could answer this as well because you've been helping people do this over 25 years.
• 33:20
  I've never come across it where a company can't add forward to their CRM system.
• 33:24
  So at the DiJulius Group, we've had three or four different CRM systems in 25 years.
• 33:31
  from HubSpot or Salesforce to HubSpot to whatever else.
• 33:35
  And we've all been able to add a FORD field that we can run a report, we can pull up before I get on the call.
• 33:41
  The salon, we've had two different salon databases, we have FORD fields.
• 33:47
  um I've never run into a client KeyBank to any of them that have CRM systems that have not been able to add a FORD field.
• 34:00
  um And now you can, know, now if you want, it's a good best practice our clients have done when they're, you know, launching FORD to get everyone in a habit is they can run a report
• 34:11
  and say, Denise, you had 15 meetings this week, this month, you know, from your calendar.
• 34:19
  And, you know, you only updated FORD on five of them.
• 34:24
  You know, that's once it's added to, you know, your fields, you can run reports like that.
• 34:29
  But more importantly, Lindsay could be talking to someone ah who's my admin.
• 34:35
  now when I have my first call, or Claudia, when she's selling it, and now we have our onboarding call with the CEO and the company, I can see that anything that she's caught
• 34:46
  besides whatever else we find out.
• 34:52
  Any other ways you see people incorporating FORD?
• 34:54
  Yeah, mean, there's uh I think KeyBank and a lot of our clients have FORD pads, desk pads.
• 35:04
  And you might think that's a little redundant if they have it in their CRM system, but I have found out the hard way.
• 35:09
  You don't want to be typing live and trying to update because I'm usually five to seven seconds behind.
• 35:16
  So I might be like, you know, all right, Denise just got back from Scotland.
• 35:20
  So I'm typing that in, but I got to keep the conversation.
• 35:22
  All right, Denise, got any?
• 35:24
  plans for this upcoming weekend as I'm typing that she just got back from Scotland.
• 35:28
  And you're like, yeah, my aunt died and I have to go back to Florida.
• 35:34
  I'm still typing, she just got back from Scotland.
• 35:36
  I'm like, oh, sounds great.
• 35:38
  Have fun with that.
• 35:38
  um having FORD pads is more of a primer to remind me to focus to here, to, oh she just said.
• 35:48
  And Zoom is great because you could see a lot of things in people's...
• 35:54
  home offices or business offices of uh degrees and vacations and pets and whatever else that may be.
• 36:08
  Are you going to bring up about gift in every conversation?
• 36:11
  oh
• 36:15
  I didn't know if that, I'm sorry.
• 36:16
  I didn't know if you were gonna say something about their being.
• 36:21
  It is a question, but I.
• 36:22
  to avoid not stepping on your next question.
• 36:24
  you.
• 36:29
  You often talk about there being a gift in every conversation.
• 36:34
  Can you elaborate?
• 36:35
  Yeah, if you're looking for it, if you're paying attention.
• 36:38
  um And these gifts, so to speak, take 30 seconds.
• 36:44
  So, all right, Denise, client Denise, all right, we'll have a call next Wednesday, same time, like we do every week.
• 36:55
  And you might say, no, no, next week I'm on vacation.
• 36:58
  Next week I'm going to an education thing.
• 37:03
  If it's vacation, where are you going?
• 37:05
  You're going to Charleston.
• 37:07
  You ever been there?
• 37:08
  No, I've never been there before.
• 37:09
  Oh, are you staying?
• 37:12
  And those little things come up, or my father's having surgery.
• 37:19
  I these are all unfortunate things that come up, or my daughter's graduating.
• 37:24
  And you just record those.
• 37:25
  And so the FORD gift can be just a simple link to the best...
• 37:31
  biking trails in Charleston because I know that's your recreation or the top restaurants in Charleston, or I follow up that week and just say, Denise, I hope the surgery went well
• 37:44
  for your father.
• 37:45
  uh Oftentimes people forget that this was, how did he know or whatever.
• 37:52
  So it's just paying attention to those things.
• 37:55
  Or it could be a great article that,
• 38:00
  I read, I wrote whatever of something that you're having difficulties with at work.
• 38:07
  And it's like, oh, you know Denise you mentioned that, and here's a great Harvard Business Review article that I think you'll enjoy.
• 38:14
  And it takes 30 seconds.
• 38:17
  So that's a gift in every conversation.
• 38:20
  Yeah, it doesn't cost anything.
• 38:23
  You have, and you've shown this before, I think, but I think it's worth sharing again.
• 38:30
  A little sign on the side of your screen.
• 38:35
  What does it say?
• 38:38
  WAIT, W-A-I-T, it's actually my word of 2025.
• 38:44
  it just, it stands for, obviously WAIT, but it stands for why am I talking?
• 38:51
  And I don't know if I'm the minority or everyone suffers from this, but I get so excited when I'm talking to someone about what I do for a living and they're telling me about
• 39:05
  their customer service.
• 39:07
  challenges that I constantly interrupt because, we just did that for and it worked out great.
• 39:14
  And I'm so excited to share and it's horrible.
• 39:18
  I'm interrupting.
• 39:21
  so now I try to write down, oh, tell her about what we did with Schneider Electric when she's done.
• 39:31
  And, bring up this.
• 39:32
  m And then when it's finally, when you've gotten everything off your chest,
• 39:36
  and transferred the burden from you to me on the challenges, the unique challenges your company industry possess, then I cherry pick it.
• 39:46
  And so often three of those things weren't that important.
• 39:50
  There'd be no time to discuss it, but I really found out what was majorly important.
• 39:55
  And this is how embarrassed I am by this.
• 40:01
  So I was at client's uh location.
• 40:05
  a couple weeks ago, and we were going out to dinner after the workshop.
• 40:12
  And so we were all waiting, I think, in the hostess area of this restaurant, and the executives were there.
• 40:20
  And someone came up to one of the executives and told them, and he needed to either ask or inform another executive there.
• 40:33
  And so I kind of got that.
• 40:34
  was close enough, someone come up, whispered, goes, I'll tell them or I'll ask them.
• 40:40
  And then the person he needed to ask was involved in a conversation with another executive.
• 40:46
  oh And he just waited.
• 40:50
  And my mind was like, what's wrong with him?
• 40:53
  Like, why is he waiting?
• 40:54
  Why did he just say, excuse me?
• 40:58
  just want to let you know that or Denise needs to know.
• 41:02
  And like, I'm sitting there the whole time and the whole time might've been three minutes.
• 41:06
  And it was driving me crazy that he wasn't interrupting this person to, you know, and that's, you know, that's why I need that wait sign.
• 41:18
  Cause obviously it wasn't something that he needed to interrupt and it could have waited the three minutes, but that was just so against my
• 41:28
  You know, whatever.
• 41:30
  Yeah.
• 41:32
  That's hard.
• 41:33
  I read.
• 41:34
  I don't know, is it hard for you?
• 41:36
  You don't seem, you're really good at.
• 41:39
  Yeah.
• 41:42
  It doesn't mean I've not, I try to calm what's in my head, I guess, because I will have, mine is ideas usually just like ting ting ting ting ting ting and I'm like, okay.
• 41:53
  it goes back to Stephen Covey's thing that you're no longer listening to understand, you're listening to uh reply with the ideas in your head and they might have told you
• 42:05
  something vital.
• 42:07
  Yeah.
• 42:08
  And it really does help me if I write it down.
• 42:11
  Yes.
• 42:13
  It's easier.
• 42:15
  It's easier for me to stop having it come out my mouth and it is stop moving in my head if that makes sense.
• 42:22
  So, um, but.
• 42:25
  The burden that we bear.
• 42:27
  I think another difficult thing for people and I know I have struggled with this myself too is.
• 42:34
  when someone tells you, I'm going here, I'm going there, you just want to share everything you know about that place.
• 42:42
  And sometimes if you're really careful, you don't one up someone.
• 42:47
  Yeah, yeah.
• 42:48
  And it's so easy to do it like with an employee.
• 42:50
  Hey, weren't you on vacation last week?
• 42:52
  Yeah, where'd you go?
• 42:53
  Oh man, my family went to Disney for the first time ever.
• 42:56
  Oh my God, don't you love I've been there 12 times?
• 42:58
  Thinking that you're finding something in common, but you've just stole their thunder and what the hell can she tell you about Disney that you don't already know?
• 43:07
  Right, right.
• 43:08
  think being careful of those things is important in conversation.
• 43:13
  Yeah.
• 43:13
  Well, another uh podcast.
• 43:15
  uh have a conversation nevers is and always.
• 43:21
  That would be really good.
• 43:22
  Yeah, yeah.
• 43:25
  Yeah.
• 43:25
  All right, how about finishing up our conversation today with one of your philosophies from living an extraordinary life.
• 43:39
  Yeah.
• 43:39
  So it's a term I hate.
• 43:42
  Might be controversial, but I hate the term I gave my best.
• 43:48
  When the goal is to accomplish greatness, to do something that no other business person, and I don't care if this is, know, personally, professionally, a team, uh sport, you know,
• 44:04
  whatever it is, if you want to, you know,
• 44:08
  Be the one, be in the 1%.
• 44:10
  I um just feel over the years that the term I gave my best is this crutch.
• 44:19
  And once I say it, you really can't say anything else.
• 44:22
  Like how can you argue with me?
• 44:24
  Well, Denise, I gave my best.
• 44:27
  And...
• 44:30
  If me and you were to race a 40-yard dash and you beat me, I'm sure you would.
• 44:37
  I pulled my groin in baseball and a hamstring, but you probably would beat me.
• 44:46
  you don't have full use of that shoulder probably though.
• 44:49
  right.
• 44:50
  But it's not because I'm old.
• 44:52
  and you beat me!
• 44:55
  I could easily say and not be lying, I gave my best in that race.
• 45:07
  Acing the test, closing the sale successfully, winning the race has little to do with what you did today and more to do what you've been doing the last six to 12 months.
• 45:21
  I had, maybe in this situation, this fictitious situation, I haven't been training as hard as you.
• 45:30
  Making it, I just not feeling, oh, gotta get home after practice.
• 45:34
  while you stay.
• 45:35
  And it really goes back to that.
• 45:36
  We've talked about this in a previous thing, the slight edge.
• 45:39
  What you do today or you don't do really has no impact on today.
• 45:45
  so, you know, just, it's just a, if you think of any amazing accomplish, any underdog that did something that no one in the world thought possible in a sport or a guy who started
• 46:05
  a computer company in his garage that a decade or two later became the most valuable company in the world and beat IBM.
• 46:18
  That wasn't them giving their best.
• 46:22
  To me, your best is what you were capable of.
• 46:26
  And that's not what I want.
• 46:28
  And that might mean you got to get rejected a thousand times and...
• 46:33
  you let's, let's, you know, go for another thousand, um, knock on doors and, uh, and, and call people you have no right calling, but you get them to take your call because you're
• 46:46
  persistent or whatever it is.
• 46:49
  So, oh, that's just kind of one of my many pet peeves is, I I, I, I wasn't asking for your best.
• 46:57
  I was asking for you to go beyond and achieve greatness.
• 47:05
  And on that note.
• 47:12
  We know what your expectations are.
• 47:14
  Yeah, I'm sure it's not fun working for me.
• 47:17
  It's, uh well, you know, um it reminds me a bit of who did we just play, Timothee Chalamet recently, his acceptance speech at the SAG awards, achieving greatness.
• 47:30
  Stripe Moon No it wasn't achieving greatness, it was.
• 47:34
  He is in pursuit of greatness.
• 47:37
  Yeah.
• 47:38
  Yeah, yeah.
• 47:41
  It's just one of my philosophies and pet peeves that I'm sure the majority of people may not agree with.
• 47:51
  But I also believe that they are more likely to have different results at the end of the day.
• 48:00
  And it applies to me more than anyone.
• 48:07
  Good.
• 48:11
  Well, thank you, John, for another great episode of the Customer Service Revolution podcast.
• 48:19
  And we'll see everyone next time.
• 48:21
  Thank you.
• 48:22
  Thanks, Denise.
• 48:23
  Thank you, revolutionaries.