Are you on track to reach the goals you set?
Do you have someone to hold you accountable?
Jill Hutchison, Evolve Dynamic
Perth Executive Coach | Strategic Conversations and Confidence for Leaders
This morning I opened a letter – “FINAL DEMAND” – it said at the top.
My heart started beating faster – what? I pay my bills on time, I make sure that our credit record is kept clean. As I read down the letter I started getting irritated then angry.
This letter was from an Australian telecommunications company (no prizes for guessing which one if you live in Australia! Every country probably has one that everyone loves to complain about!).
I terminated my contract with them in January, was incorrectly billed for early termination fees – after several phonecalls they had agreed a credit note would be passed.
Fortunately I kept note of each call (many lasting well over an hour). And this is not something can be delegated as this company refuses to speak to anyone apart from the account owner!
This morning I have spoken to Diane in Phillipines for 19 minutes, and then onto Andrew, also in the Phillipines in another department. When I got transferred to Andrew, I spend 5 minutes getting my details verified AGAIN, so we start from scratch.
By this time I’ve decided to chill-out and focus on getting a solution – these people are doing the best they can, they simply have large bulky departments that are in need of co-ordinating. I find out that it’s raining near Andrew’s home this morning.!
I refer Andrew to the notes made by Nelly in Manila on February 15th (yes, this is the same Australian company) It’s now 31 minutes into the call and I’m very thankful that I have an hour before my next appointment, and that I’m able to write this article while I’m on hold waiting for Andrew’s supervisor!
Why am I telling you about this? I’m sure you don’t particularly care for the details of my experience with this company – but you have probably experienced something similar several times in your life, right?
Two things:
– How do you choose to respond when this sort of thing happens?
– How do you treat your customers and how do you want them to feel about your company?
There are going to be times when we have to deal with issues that are irritating – or “make us angry”. I put that in inverted commas because nothing actually makes us angry – we get angry from certain stimuli, but it’s actually our choice! When we feel that other things make us angry – or make us happy – then we are not taking responsibility for our own actions. You have total control over how you react to other people and to events or challenges.
It’s now 42 minutes into the call and I’m rather enjoying myself – the call centre music is playing away and I’m warming to my theme for today’s Chooseday message! After all today is Chooseday – and we can choose what we want for our life.
How do you treat your customers when they call your business? Have you defined your personal and company values? Would your clients know your values if you asked them? Emotion is a powerful thing – and if clients have a positive experience with you, they will refer you to others and give you repeat business.
So after 49 minutes on the phone (happy and grateful that I have a speakerphone so that I could use my hands for typing during this time!) – Andrew’s spoken to his supervisor and promised that I should receive a call confirming a full credit note within 48 hours.
I live in hope – until I hear that you can simply go to the industry ombudsman to get action. Why didn’t I do this before I spent nearly an hour on the phone?
We can choose to revel in the fight – and enjoy the justification that others have also experienced such shocking customer service – or we can choose to use our time for more constructive things. We can choose to get irritated and angry – and allow it to ruin our day – or we can choose to get it resolved as soon as is possible, and move on to other things. What would happen if you chose to get really irritated, and talked about it to everyone you dealt with today? What sort of results do you think you would get? Are you likely to feel empowered and up to any challenge?
So I’m going to shut-up about it now – and go and enjoy the rest of my Chooseday!
P.S. Yes, sometimes irritation and anger are emotions that serve you – they might spur you to take action! Be mindful that they don’t hang around too long, however!
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Jill Hutchison
Jill Hutchison is the “Tap Your Next Power” Mentor taking successful, driven professionals into their next stage of growth and advancement, the one they have been struggling to see and tap, the one that will throw open the doors to their next opportunity.
Jill connects you to your most powerful self, shifting attitudes, beliefs and actions to spark achievement rapidly by going straight to the issue. She draws out your creativity to craft a goal larger than perhaps imagined.
Now your eyes are open, and the path is clear and straight-forward. Now you tap the full power in you to achieve what’s next for you.
Wayne Dyer: “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at begin to change.
If you blow a balloon up to it’s full capacity, leave it like that for a day or two, and then let the air out, it never returns to its original shape. It might get back down to a similar size, but it doesn’t have the same smooth surface that it did when it was newly purchased.
We are very similar to balloons (and yes, there are also people filled with hot air!!) – but if you are stretched to your full ability, you will never return to your original form.
You may have moved countries or states as we have. Moving from South Africa to Australia has made us dig deeper inside ourselves than we had ever dug before. We had watched others move countries and thought we knew what they were going through, but now after having been through it, I realised we had no clue!
Setting a major goal that disrupts your entire life, to relocate somewhere else, stretches you – your character, your mind, your emotions, your physical body – every aspect of your life changes. Setting and achieving a major financial goal, fitness goal or career goal can also stretch and challenge you.
When you have achieved that goal and things calm down a bit, you may wonder why you’re not feeling as happy as you had before – or feel a bit uncertain about what you really want. This is because you’ve been stretched to step up to your goal – and now you’re like a deflated balloon, trying to return to it’s original shape.
What should one do when you’re at this point? I think it’s time to review your life and set some new goals. A bigger goal than you’ve set before – one that really excites you. As Bob Proctor said: “If your goal isn’t scary and exciting, then it’s not a big enough goal for you!” Some people do this on their own, others decide to work with a good life coach or LifeSuccess Consultant to get clear on what they really want.
There are a number of things to think about here. One is to remember that you’ve been stretched, have grown and developed new skills. You have become a bit more resilient and have stretched your mind with new information and expertise.
You are not the same person you were before you started this journey – so you’re not necessarily going to feel the same satisfaction with the things that did it for you before. This is quite normal!
Accept that you’ve changed, and decide what you really want from life. Do you need to set a bigger goal that is going to allow you to grow more and to stretch more? Or would you like to get more balance into your life – by cutting out the things that have become a distraction rather than adding to your enjoyment of life.
Having children stretches you, challenges you (or is it just my kids that do that?!) – and you grow as a result. As they get bigger you adapt to a changing or evolving family. Life is dynamic, we evolve as time goes on.
What do you really want? What new goal would you like to set that is going to grow you into more of who you want to be. If you’ve heard of BE, DO, HAVE, you know that you need to be the person you want to be, before you do the actions that are going to get you what you want to have.
If you think you’ll only be happy when you have more money, a better spouse or a better job – you probably won’t! Decide to be happy now, appreciate your partner (or lack thereof), find the good in the job you’re doing – and you will attract into your life more of what you want. You can still aspire to greater heights, but make sure you’re happy now.
You can be content with you life and not satisfied. The dissatisfaction is what keeps us growing, and setting new goals. Without new goals we get stagnant, complacent and stay in our comfort zone – life gets boring!
My mother would be horrified to hear me talking about life being boring! She always said that people who get bored have got nothing in their heads! We got into serious trouble if we ever mentioned that word in our house! (and shuddered if we had a friend dare to use it – they either got “the look”, a curled lip, or a lecture!)
So if you’re feeling like someone’s let the air out of you (and you normally enjoy life), then you’re not being stretched enough – you’re not thinking enough – you’re not creating enough excitement in your life. It’s no-one else’s responsibility to create excitement in your life – only you can do that!
It’s important to be happy wherever you are, but you don’t have to be satisfied. Happiness and satisfaction are different!
Luckily today is Choose-day and you can choose whether you want to be setting a new goal that will stretch you, excite you, make you a more interesting person to spend time with, or if you want to try and fit back into who you were years ago. I don’t want to look like a shrivelled balloon, do you?
Have a wonderful Choose-day,
Kind regards
Jill
Jill Hutchison
Helping you get absolutely clear on what you really want from life – so you can create the life you desire.
Evolve your life dynamically! Create the life you truly desire.
Evolve Dynamic Pty Ltd
Perth, Australia
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“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
As a student, several years ago, I heard a talk –
“We have taken over this company, it’s nearly bankrupt but we see the potential.
Staff – tell us what you think we can do (that won’t cost any money) to get more customers.”
The answers were surprising, although in retrospect, perhaps obvious.
One of the ideas that came through that brainstorming session was to always spell peoples names correctly.
Was that going to cost anything? No.
Was it possible that it might keep existing and prospective customers happy if all documentation has their correctly spelt name on it? Absolutely.
“More important is the RESPECT displayed by such attention to detail and the way in which this permeates the whole system” said Tom Ansley, who took over Elliott International in South Africa, over 30 years ago.
They moved Elliott from bankruptcy to number one in the world in eight years.
This talk made a big impact on me. (Sometimes you don’t know whose lives you’re impacting! I contacted Tom last week – and he was touched that his talk in 1990 had made such an impression on me!)
Tom Ansley talks about the early days:
“As for the short term results of those early and elementary steps, they were not huge but there was a quick and remarkable change in the ATTITUDE of our people.
They knew I was deeply interested in their well being and their development in the company and they were enthusiastic about applying such simple and elementary principles as spelling peoples names correctly, answering the telephone within 3 rings, using the “please” and “thank you’s” when dealing with one another etc.
All of this made a huge difference to the morale of the company and led, in the long term, to Elliott receiving a most prestigious industry award from London.”
“I’ve told many audiences in South Africa and all over the world, it is those simple principles, applied with enthusiasm and commitment by everyone, especially by me, which contributed largely to the massive development of ELLIOTT in those difficult but exciting times.
Many valuable ideas originated from those meetings with our people when I encouraged them to make a difference by participating in the discussions in an open and honest way. We learned, for example, that it is the business appreciating the value of never failing to return telephone calls which will endure.
The way in which we talk to customers, always with that smile and enthusiasm in the voice, makes a huge difference. We want to leave everyone who calls us or who visits our offices with the indelible impression that doing business with Elliott is a special and “customer friendly” experience.
Old fashioned?? Sure thing – but it still works in the modern age of technology!!!!!”
We can get all the theory and teaching about building businesses and increasing profit, being happy or achieving your goals – but there are also some really basic common-sense principles that apply to every aspect of our lives.
Do you care enough about your customers or those around you?
Do you have an attitude of respect for yourself and others?
Do you want profits enough?
Enough to pay attention to this detail?
(have we spelt your name correctly today?!)
Enjoy the rest of your Chooseday, with special thoughts to those in Christchurch, New Zealand after the earthquake today.
Kind regards
Jill
Jill Hutchison
Business Mindset Coach Click here for testimonials
Attitude Adjustment Specialist
Evolve Dynamic Pty Ltd
Perth, Australia
0419194323
My daughters, age 8 and 10, came home from school last week – very excited because the leaders of the year 7 class had performed a song that they loved.
“Mum, remember the song that was played at Graeme and Janice’s wedding?” they asked me,
“Um,” I replied, trying desperately to scan through the possible 1000 songs (some of which I didn’t even recognise!) that we may have danced to only 6 weeks ago.
“You know, the one that goes Waka Waka, oh oh”
Could it be the All Blacks war cry – the Wakka Wakka? No didn’t think I’d heard any Kiwi songs at the wedding!
It’s not only recently that it dawned on me how ignorant I am about song titles (yes, I’m afraid even as a teenager, I could sing along to a song and still not know it’s title or who sang it!).
Lucky for modern technology – a quick search on You tube picked it up as the Soccer World Cup 2010 theme song. As soon as I heard it I could see my nephew’s new bride in all her white finery, full skirt and all, leaping around on the dancefloor just like Shakira!
So I thought I would share the words of the song with you – because even if you’ve heard the song, you may have, like me, not really listened to these inspirational words! Think of how these words apply to business, to sport – to life in general.
Here’s to getting back in the saddle as we head towards 2011. Tomorrow is a new day – and everyday is Chooseday!
Kind regards
Jill Hutchison
Here are the lyrics for Waka Waka:
You’re a good soldier
Choosing your battles
Pick yourself up and dust yourself off
And back in the saddle
You’re on the frontline
Everyone’s watching
You know it’s serious, we’re getting closer
This isn’t over
The pressure is on
You feel it
But you’ve got it all
Believe it
When you fall, get up, oh oh
And if you fall get up, eh eh
Tsamina mina zangalewa (translation: where do you come from?)
‘Cause this is Africa
Tsamina mina eh eh (tr: Come)
Waka Waka eh eh (tr: do it – as in perform a task)
Tsamina mina zangalewa
This time for Africa
Listen to your god
This is our motto
Your time to shine, don’t wait in line
Y vamos por todo (tr: and we go all out)
People are raising
Their expectations
Go on and feed them, this is your moment
No hesitation
Today’s your day
I feel it
You paved the way
Believe it
If you get down, get up, oh oh
And you get down, get up, eh eh
Tsamina mina zangalewa
This time for Africa
Tsamina mina eh eh
Waka Waka eh eh
Tsamina mina zangalewa
[ From: http://www.metrolyrics.com/waka-waka-lyrics-shakira.html ]
Anawa aa
Tsamina mina eh eh
Waka Waka eh eh
Tsamina mina zangalewa
This time for Africa
I went on a journey, biggie biggie mama
Went a to zed
But this wasn’t on my journey, biggie biggie mama
From east to west
But he waka waka ma eh eh (nevertheless, do it)
Waka Waka ma eh eh
Zonne zizwe mazi buye (can’t find a direct translation but it’s close to: everyone heard, obeyed and is coming)
‘Cause this is Africa
Tsamina mina, anawa a a
Tsamina mina
Tsamina mina, anawa a a
Tsamina mina, eh eh
Waka waka, eh eh
Tsamina mina zangalewa
Anawa a a
Tsamina mina, eh eh
Waka waka, eh eh
Tsamina mina zangalewa
This time for Africa
Django eh eh
Django eh eh
Tsamina mina zangalewa
Anawa a a
Django eh eh
Django eh eh
Tsamina mina zangalewa
Anawa a a
This time for Africa
This time for Africa
We’re all Africa
We’re all Africa
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