Jesse, Rae Anne, and Chuck - A Customer Service Story

There’s a story of a Boy Scout arriving fifteen minutes late for a Troop meeting because he helped an old lady cross the street. When his Patrol Leader pointed out that crossing the street shouldn’t have taken a quarter of an hour, the Scout explained it took so long because the lady didn’t want to go.

Do you do that?

Do you decide for the customer what service should consist of? Do you deliver it regardless of whether she perceives any value in your actions? Are you frequently surprised to learn that service is not a quality your company is known for?

Perhaps you're crossing the street with old ladies who don't wish to cross.

Better customer service starts with “What can I do to help?” Truly savvy customers understand this and take the initiative, asking “Will you help me?”

It was October of 1985. Jesse, Ray Anne, and I had not that long before been co-workers at an Orlando radio station. Now, oddly enough, we were all working for separate advertising agencies in Orlando. Each of our respective employers was a small fish in the Central Florida advertising pond, and each of us wore several hats in the completion of our duties.

As colleagues often do, the three of us met for lunch at a small Vietnamese restaurant. (“Try the spring rolls, they’re incredible”).

While I tried my best to look skilled at eating rice with chopsticks, Jesse and Ray Anne started comparing notes on the rates various media sources charged their respective clients. Then they started bragging about their own negotiation skills.

“How much are you paying for K-92? That’s outrageous! I never pay them a dime over $57.”

After listening for a while, I finally said “You two seem to think beating up a media rep for a couple of dollars per spot is going to help your clients. How much did you accomplish? You saved the client, what? $170 over the course of the month? Pfffttttt.”

Ray Anne looked at me and said “Chuck, you know how competitive the advertising business is. How else can we demonstrate that we're working on the client's behalf?”

I said. “I go into meetings with the media reps and say ‘Here’s what I’m trying to accomplish for my client. I’m not here to try to grind down the cost per point. I’m asking what you might be able to do to help my client reach his goals.’”

“Does that work for you?” asked Jesse.

“You’d be amazed at how often the sales department calls in the programming or editorial or production or promotion department and creates an extra splash for my client. I pay that $170 each month that you manage not to, and my client easily gets thousands of dollars in additional exposure.”

Additional exposure. Do you suppose that's a street your client would like some help in crossing?

I doubt seriously that our 1985 lunchtime conversation changed the way media is purchased in Orlando. But what I find amazing is that these sorts of discussions between buyers and sellers don't happen naturally in the course of doing business.

You’ve heard it said that more than half the time customers don’t make their purchasing decisions on price at all. (There's hard data to prove that, by the way). But even when price isn't the primary consideration, value always is.

Does your customer see any value in your customer service? Does she actually want to cross the street?

If you normally react to competition by cutting rate, perhaps you have an opportunity for both you and the customer to leave the negotiation thrilled at the outcome if instead you ask “How can I help?”

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More Words About Pictures

Last week, in The Worth of a Dali, I concluded:

“In a thousand words we can state the Pythagorean Theorem, The Lord´s Prayer, Archimedes Principle, The Ten Commandments, the Gettysburg address, Alfred Lord Tennison's Crossing The Bar, the Boy Scout Oath, the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution, and still have 174 words left over.

“No, a picture is not worth a thousand words. It’s not even close.

“If your objective is persuasion, hire a copywriter.”

That posting prompted two responses, the first from Ken Dawson.

“I was reading the daily paper some weeks ago when I saw a picture of a beautiful beach: white sand stretching as far as the eye could see, green trees on the edges of the sand dunes, tusks of long sea grass scattered throughout. It was simply a beautiful crystal clear sea under a clear light blue sky.

“In this picture sat a man on a log, high in the sand dunes. He was just sitting and looking at this deserted beautiful New Zealand beach.

“Did it bring back memories? Yes, memories of the five years my wife and I spent at such a beach with our children.
“So, Chuck, sometimes yes. Sometimes a picture can be worth a 1,000 words.”

Regards,
Ken Dawson

I have no doubt that the picture Ken described has great emotional value, and stirs powerful memories for him. I do doubt that I’d have the same reaction to looking at the same photo.

And yet, when Ken verbalized the scene, didn’t it become as real to you and me as it already was to Ken? In 121 words he managed to describe not only the composition of the photo, but also his emotional reaction to it, as well as the reason it affected him.

That’s powerful communication.

The other comment came from Angela Klein.

“Although you can use words to paint a vivid mental picture of things which have really happened as well as anything you can create in your mind, I’m finding it hard to imagine a picture being used to depict an accurate accounting of any event – real or imaginary.”

Angela Klein
Pets Best Insurance

I agree with Angela, but please don’t think I’m suggesting that illustration has no value. I’ve already stated “Visuals can be powerful in conveying very coarse, very raw emotion, but pictures can only reinforce the message already conveyed by the words.”

Since our objective in advertising our respective businesses is effective and persuasive communication, we should use every technique which will improve that communication.

Add photos, paintings, line drawings, cartoons or caricatures, charts, or any other visual which can make the story you’re telling that much more real in the minds of your readers.

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The Worth of a Dali

Today’s post will be interactive. Let’s open with a photo of a Salvador Dali painting.



In the space below, using 1,000 words or less, please write the message this image conveys, in as much detail as possible.

You have a few minutes. I’ll wait.

Your answer here:

Time's up. Pencils down.

Show of hands. Who among you wrote “This painting summarizes the life work of Dr. Maxwell Maltz?”

No one? But that’s what the painting’s owner says it means. How can that be that none of us “got it?” Isn’t a picture worth a thousand words? Confucius told us that.

Or did he?

There is no mention of the value of an illustration in the Analects of Confucius, nor in the Five Classics.

Hummm. Maybe it wasn’t Confucius.

Xing Lu? Sun Tsu maybe? Or perhaps it was just some anonymous Chinese author steeped in antiquity.

Uh, no.

In the December 8, 1921 issue of Printer’s Ink, Fred R. Barnard coined the phrase “One look is worth a thousand words,” to promote the use of images in streetcar ads.

Five years later, also in Printer’s Ink, Barnard wrote “One picture is worth ten thousand words.” Barnard is quoted in The Home Book of Proverbs, Maxims, and Familiar Phrases as admitting he made up the saying, and called it “a Chinese proverb, so that people would take it seriously.”

It didn’t take long for our popular culture to credit Confucius as the author.

But discrediting the source doesn’t invalidate the idea.

Let’s consider the “one picture” concept at work. The painting depicted a few paragraphs ago was created by Salvador Dali for his close friend, the late Dr. Maxwell Maltz, creator of Psycho Cybernetics.

According to Maltz:

“When the great artist Salvador Dali wanted to express his feelings about Pyscho Cybernetics, and thank me for my influence on his life, he painted a magnificent picture: a figure of a man coming out of the dark shadows into the bright sunlight, sharing this space with a sailboat being guided toward its destination. He summarized my books and lectures into a single powerful painting. I was again awestruck at the way a single picture can do the work of thousands of words.” (Emphasis mine).

And yet, none of us wrote anything close to “This painting summarizes the life work of Dr. Maxwell Maltz.”

A picture is not worth a thousand words.

Perhaps you’d be kind enough to show me a picture that clearly and unequivocally says something as simple as “no.” Every two-year-old knows how to convey "no." He says it.

Back to the Maltz quote. It came from Zero Resistance Selling, a book posthumously accredited to Dr. Maltz and five co-writers. He also supposedly said:

“Pictures, horrible pictures, sold the American public on demanding the Viet Nam war be ended. Pictures, terrible pictures, of poorly fed, emaciated, mistreated children inspire us to donate millions of dollars to organizations that feed, clothe, medicate and educate the deprived children of the world. Pictures of exotic, beautiful, romantic beaches and oceans make Hawaii the dream vacation of thousands of people, who then scrimp and save and budget and plan for years for the trip of a lifetime. The picture of Michael Dukakis, clumsily perched on a tank, did much to nip his Presidential campaign in the bud. Pictures of beautiful people sell millions of dollars of perfumes, cosmetics, and clothing. Evidence abounds demonstrating the power of pictures.” *

Take one of those shots of Vietnamese orphans, show it to any group of people, and see whether even a single individual says “This photograph is a powerful argument on why the U.S. should get out of Viet Nam.”

Visuals can be powerful in conveying very coarse, very raw emotion, but pictures can only reinforce the message already conveyed by the words.

Show me a picture that can accurately convey the ideas of Robert Frost, John Lennon, or Thomas Jefferson.

"I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."

- Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken

"Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one"

- John Lennon, Imagine

"We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."

- Thomas Jefferson, the American Declaration of Independence

In a thousand words we can state the Pythagorean Theorem, The Lord’s Prayer, Archimedes Principle, The Ten Commandments, the Gettysburg address, Alfred Lord Tennison's Crossing The Bar, the Boy Scout Oath, the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution, and still have 174 words left over.

No, a picture is not worth a thousand words. It’s not even close.

If your objective is persuasion, hire a copywriter.

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* I don’t believe Dr. Maltz ever said this. Michael Dukakis run for the Presidency, for instance, references an event which happened thirteen years after the Doctor’s death. For that matter, I’m not convinced the quote about the Dali painting originated with Dr. Maltz, either.

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The Fifteen Minute Effective Business Letter

Have you ever spent way too long writing a business letter, only to be vaguely dissatisfied with the result?

Have you said “I’m just not good at this?”

Then you’re going to love Chuck’s three-step Fifteen Minute Business Letter technique.


Step One (5-6 minutes):

Get it on paper (or, better yet, in your word processor). Don’t worry about form, just let the story flow until you’ve said everything you wanted to include.

Getting started is the hardest part. Just plunge in and start writing. Frankly, how you start won’t matter, because, in the next step you're going to. . .


Step Two (1 minute):

Throw away your opening paragraph. It’s likely crap.

If you write like most of us, the first paragraph was rambling and never went anywhere.

But, if you write like most of us, your final paragraph probably summarizes everything you've already said. A good letter opens with a summary of what's to follow.

So take your last paragraph and move it to the top, to replace the one you just tossed.


Step Three (7-8 minutes):

Edit.

Blow out all of the stodgy, passive, and academically formal phrases and replace them with the things you’d say face-to-face.

Don’t say, for instance, "We trust this arrangement will meet with your approval, but should it prove unsatisfactory please do not hesitate to contact us." Get rid of the royal "we" and say instead "I think you’ll like this solution. Call me if I’m wrong."

Likewise, passive verbs are the kiss of death to effective communication. Passive verbs are impersonal, longwinded, and ambiguous.

Worse yet, they’re dull.

Your readers might forgive the occasional grammatical lapse. They won’t forgive being bored.

Replace "a report was entered into the minutes of the meeting by the committee chair" with "the committee chair reported."

And cut your sentence length wherever possible. Two short sentences are easier to understand than one longer one.


Summary:

You’ll note that more than half of the time I’ve allocated for this exercise is in the editing stage. As you get more practice editing yourself, you’ll start changing the way you write. That will, in turn, speed up future editing.

Can this truly be done in fifteen minutes?

Dunno why not.

That’s how long it took to write these instructions.

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