Did you have a “WOW” experience?

If so tell us all about it so that we can all go shopping there.

If your experience was less than that tell us about that too, but leave the names out to protect the guilty.

For several months I got manicures and pedicures at the same place. I was content with the service. It was close by, and inexpensive. The last time I called for an appointment, I should have taken a clue from the owner’s hesitant reply, “Uh, oh well, I guess we can handle it, come on down”.
What I wound up with was an apparent inexperienced person that kept asking the technician next to her (in a foreign language) for advice as to what to do next.
I tolerated this incompetence until she drew blood on my toe. The owner of the salon, who assigned this person to me, may never know why I will never be back.
Customers can be very unforgiving for any sort of poor service or inconsiderate treatment.
Is my decision to go elsewhere too harsh? Should I give them another chance?

How’s your English? Are you making the right impressions when you speak?
I was excited to see this article appear in today’s Honolulu Star Bulletin about Doug Carlson’s great new book; http://starbulletin.com/2007/05/20/business/story02.html
I was honored to have Doug work with me on E-Mail Etiquette Made Easy. HE AND I had a great time writing that one.
Cut and paste the above link into your browser and order your copy today.

It was mid-December when I contacted Budget Rent-a-Car saying that I needed a car on Maui on Christmas Day. “No way”, or something like that was the response. I had to understand, since Christmas Day begins the busiest week of the year in Hawaii.
I week later I was on a plane to Maui and got into a discussion with the guy next to me. He turned out to be a VP of National / Alamo Car Rental. I explained my Christmas Day dilemma and he said, “If I can get you a car, can we have your business?” I said, “You can for that trip, for sure. Where we go from there we will have to see; I have been loyal to Budget for more than 25 years.”
He gave me his card saying, “E-mail me your flight information and I will see what I can do”. I did, and when I arrived on Maui on Christmas Day, there was a driver waiting for me with a brand new car.
Well that was a year and a half ago, and I have not been back to Budget since.
It pays to be willing to go the extra mile to get business.

We are pleased to announce that our new 9-Step reminder cards have arrived.
They are business card size, and designed to carry in your pocket for a quick review anytime you need one.
Call and ask me for a sample, or just go ahead and order a bunch from any of us. You can even click on “comment” to this post, tell me how many you want and I will get them to you without posting your comment.
They are quite colorful, designed to last, and we are recovering our cost at only $1 each.
What a Deal!
Click on the the photo to see a close-up. Click your back button to return to the blog.
Ron

Have you ever wondered how they train fleas to do tricks on a small stage? A flea can jump 350 times its body length. It’s like a human jumping the length of a football field. In spite of that, “flea trainers” get them to stay in one place with no restrictions.
Here’s how they do it. The fleas are put into a jar with a lid on it. Their natural instinct is to jump out of the jar. When they jump and hit their heads on the lid of the jar, it hurts, and they begin jumping with less and less intensity until they are jumping up and down in the jar, but not high enough to hit the top.
Once they reach this stage of conditioning, they are removed from the jar and will continue to jump, but no higher than the height of the jar they were “trained in” for the rest of their lives.
Have you ever hit your head on the lid of the jar? If so, did you keep jumping? If so, how high? Human beings often times limit themselves because of past painful failures and cease to jump high enough to succeed from then on.
You are not a flea.

JUMP OUT OF THE JAR

The harder I work the luckier I get.
The best way to find luck is to be out there looking for it.
Success is only luck; ask any failure.

If success were a matter of luck, all of the successful people would be living in Las Vegas, where luck matters. Success is attracted by thinking the right thoughts and taking the right action. Failure is doing just the opposite.

The neat thing about this is that intelligence and education are not the major factors.

“It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.”
-Albert Einstein

After a relaxing Kaneohe Bay day aboard Doug Smoyer’s yacht, he leaned over to me and said, “We need to do this more often”.
That was quite a lesson for me. After spending 17+ years of exchanging business ideas and suggestions with Doug, this may have been some of his best advice yet.
Being an admitted workaholic for almost a half a century, I have seldom taken enough time to stop and smell the roses (or salt air).
This day on Kaneohe Bay with Masae, good friends, fine wine and some tasty snacks was indeed memorable.
Don Ho’s words, “Keep your toes in the sand” were ringing in my ear.

Whenever I have the opportunity to sit and talk with Doug Smoyer; president of Retail Strategies, the thoughts and ideas that come up should be documented.
Too many times we meet, get excited about something, and then go off to our busy businesses leaving gold on the table.
Today, Masae and I are headed out to Kaneohe Bay with Doug and his wife, Joan (Owner of Noa Noa), on one of his yachts, and I am sure that we will return having had a good four hours of fun and fruitful discussions.
I am going to propose to Doug that on future get-togethers that I capture the essence of our discussions and post it right here for all to see today as well as in the future.
Stay tuned for photos from today as well as the outcome of this “proposal”.

Those are the adjectives that best describe my breakfast this morning. Arriving very early for a Success Rally at Kahala Mall (classy place) this morning, I decided to grab a breakfast and check my e-mail. I could only find one restaurant open at this hour (7:30 AM). I prefer not to say the name of this place, but I will say that their name starts with a letter extremely deep in the alphabet.
Upon arriving I saw a full house, with only one waitress running around, and looking quite “harried” She shouted at me (without looking at me) from across the room saying, “I’ll be right with you”. She was busy taking orders. I thought that it would have been nice for her to at least point me to a table so I could begin checking my e-mail while waiting for service. After about five minutes the manager came by and said, “She will be right with you”. I commented, “Yeah, that’s what she said”. He got my message and showed me to a table.
After about five minutes the waitress came by and poured me a cup of coffee. She was so rushed that she missed the cup with some of it causing me to quickly pick up my lap top. She rushed off to get some napkins saying, “The other girl is supposed to be here”. Looking around at the crowd I was thinking that maybe four or five more would be better.
After wiping up the coffee mess she attempted to walk off, but I stopped her and told her that I was ready to order. She didn’t like that, but pulled out her order pad and starred at me. I ordered the veggie omelet with whole wheat toast, and off she went. I had to ask her to bring some cream for my coffee.
When the food eventually came it was barely warm; not even hot enough to melt the cheese. I waited a while (too long) for her to come back to the table and decided to eat it anyway. About half way through, the manager dropped by to see if my now empty coffee needed warming. He asked how everything was and as I pulled a long black hair out of my omelet I said, “I’m not sure what’s worse, the cold food or the hair in it”. The shocking part was that he didn’t look too surprised as he said, “I will have them re-do that for you”. Knowing that it would come from the same kitchen, I said, “No, that’s okay, I have had enough”. I meant that in more ways than one.
He attempted to make everything alright by saying that there would be no charge for my breakfast.
I wonder just how much this experience actually cost this business.