2 Bad Experiences and a Question

Quick hits as we get to the end of a busy and eventful year.

Gogo and Delta: Two terrible customer service experiences in one day

Terrible experience #1:  Gogo is a (potentially) great new service, if you haven't had the chance to try it.  Wifi in flight, allowing access to everything Internet: email, web, company portals.  But this week's experiences really have me wondering.  (Hmm, how do I do share this quickly?).

Try this:  Gogo sells its service.  People who need it, buy it.  Like me.  This month, in conjunction with Google to promote Chrome, Google's browser, Gogo is giving away the service free.  All month.  

Guess what.  That means customers who have paid for the service can't use it.  Limited bandwidth; shortened sessions.  Even worse - so overloaded, you can't even get on line.  Imagine how that makes a paying customer feel.  So, time that I expected to use productively got wasted.  Risked deadlines, delayed communications with important customers.  Great execution, guys (please, don't miss the sarcasm).

Terrible experience #2:  This one borders on unethical and perhaps even illegal.  Late last evening, I got on Delta.com to book a flight New Year's weekend.  I searched on the site and found a $169 r/t fare.  Great!  I enter in my daughter's information (I was already logged in), hit enter, put in payment information (it was quick, as my credit card is stored on the site), hit enter and - Presto! - No, not booked tickets.  A message from Delta that, in the three minutes since I searched and selected the flights, the fare had changed from $169 to $285 per ticket (what!?!?!).  Yep, over $100 increase while I was in the middle of booking and after Delta had shown me that the fare was available.  Of course, I discarded those tickets and started again.  Guess what?  THE SAME THING HAPPENED TWO MORE TIMES!  Found a fare (they kept inching higher and higher), went to book it, and - Whammo!  What a scam.  What terrible customer service!

No, I don't cut them any slack for "limited capacity."  Ticketmaster has figured it out.  Ticketmaster has a clock in the lower corner of the page.  Finish this page in x minutes or lose the seat.  It goes, different times on  each page as the transaction progresses, until the tickets are bought.  Don't tell me Delta couldn't do the same thing and protect the integrity of its searches, its ticket prices, and its reputation.  

No, I'm afraid we are seeing more and more of the companies who think they are too (pick one:) big/smart/innovative/exciting/important to fail.  I wonder what history will say about that.

The Observation...

...has nothing to do with bad customer service, but the recent deal to extend unemployment benefits.  I'm all for protecting and taking care of each other - really.  I'm pretty darn liberal that way.  But, can't we ask people to do something for the money?  So, there aren't jobs in private industry right now.  Aren't there things that people could do to help?  Can't there be programs established so the money doesn't just go for nothing?  Who knows, maybe some people would look a little harder for work if even unemployment benefits came with working hours requirements.  Isn't that what created the WPA?

On the Radio

It was a real pleasure to be one of the inaugural guests on Bernie Wolford's new radio show, Accelerator Avenue.  His first guest, Solange Warner is the founder of the World Chamber of Commerce.  And I, for some reason, was the second.  We had a great time and, it seems, put together a pretty good show!  Judge for yourself:  Accelerator Avenue radio.

How NOT to Execute A Strategy

Today is November 3, 2010, the day after a massive repudiation of the last two years.  But a repudiation of what?  The goals?  The plan?  Or the process?

Several of the commentators I've heard suggest the goals were wrong, and that's certainly possible.  Clearly, President Obama's vision was not for everyone.  In fact, I'd suggest that his goals were not aligned with those of everyone who voted against him in November, 2008 including almost everyone who calls him or herself a Republican. 

But what about those who voted for him in 2008?  What happened to the thousands and thousands of Independents who went to the polls in November, 2008 and voted for a new vision, a new approach, a new set of goals?  It's apparent that they didn't like what was happening.  They turned out in mass yesterday to vote another way.  Were they voting, however, for new goals or a new process?

Voting for new goals means they changed their mind.  It means that, once they understood the implications of the original goals, they were no longer in favor of them.  What were the implications?  It would cost too much, take too long, require too much sacrifice, require not enough sacrifice - you name it.  So, one thing that happened was that the electorate went from "Uninformed Optimism" to "Informed Pessimism."  And they "Checked Out"  (please note that the phrases in quotations are borrowed from the writings of Daryl Conner, author of (among other books) "Managing at the Speed of Change."  Daryl is one of my mentors and a true visionary in this field.).

The other option is that they hated the process.  Perhaps that was because the process they were promised was not the process that was followed.  In the months leading up to the election of November, 2008, then-candidate Obama promised bi-partisanship, reaching across the aisles, an attempt to work together.  However, it never happened.  Or, if it did, it wasn't visible to the people.  And so, a normal reaction occurred:  "You lied to us.  You said you would reach across the aisle and you didn't.  I'm mad at you.  I'm voting you out."

It's a bit unpredictable to say what would have happened if the President had made visible and constant efforts towards bipartisanship - there are so many dynamics and variables at play.  But I'd be willing to bet that yesterday's results would have been somewhat, if not significantly, different.

You may disagree.  Here's the trump card:  I think the American people are smart.  They know it took years to get into the mess we're in today, and that it will take years to get out.  So, after only two years, they weren't voting on the success or failure of the programs - they know that there hasn't been time for new programs to make a huge impact.  They were voting on the vitriol, animus, arrogance, and downright hypocrisy that they saw for the last two years.  They didn't like the process.  They let people know it.

And two years from now, if nothing changes, they'll do it again.

Aligning Incentives with Goals: An Historic Perspective

 

Having the right incentives in place, with those incentives fully aligned to goals, is critically important to strategic success. 

I cannot tell you how often I have heard organizations complain about the "chasm" between sales and delivery, that sales sells something that implementation cannot successfully deliver.  In almost every case, we find the problem in minutes.  Getting management to have the will to make the corrections needed is the real challenge.

From NPR's Planet Money series comes one of the best and clearest stories I've ever heard about the immediate and positive impact that comes from having the right incentives in place.  Enjoy!  http://alturl.com/hy7kc

Rarely A Straight Line

One of the hottest groups in music today is Sugarland.  Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush have hit it big.  

But, success did not come easily.  Both of these great musicians, individually, have fought hard for what they have achieved.

Kristian and Jennifer have trained as musicians.  They have been in different bands, playing different genres of music. Even when they started Sugarland, it was as a trio.  Although their first album was a runaway hit, the trio had challenges and, next thing you knew, Sugarland was a duo.  The industry wondered - What next?  Was this the end of the road for Sugarland?

But over the years Kristian and Jennifer, both individually and together, kept focused on their goals.  They adjusted, changed tactics.  To start Sugarland, they moved into country music. No, country music was not where they started.  My guess (and it's only a guess) is that it wasn't necessarily where they wanted to be.  But they had clearly defined their goals, recognized a path to achieving them and, with focus, clarity, and flexibility, went after them.

And today, Sugarland is (to borrow from the title of their upcoming album) an incredible machine.  Five #1 singles.  Country Music Association Vocal Duo of the Year for the last three years.  CMT awards, ACM awards.  A Grammy.  Now, they are headliners, filling venues across the country.  All in their first 5 years of existence. 

I am sure, if you had asked Kristian or Jennifer ten years ago how they were going to become stars, you would have heard a path - and it would not have been what actually happened.  But these two musicians didn't hold tight to a tactic, insisting that was the only way for them to succeed.  No, they stayed fixed on a target, focused on a goal, kept their eyes on it - and willingly changed tactics along the way, to keep aligned with reaching their goals.  As a result, Sugarland is one of the biggest - and best - acts in music today.  As for Kristian and Jennifer, you'd have to ask them, but I'm willing to bet that they are each very close to reaching their true goals.

(Check out their newest video:  Stuck Like Glue!)

Priorities and Focus

It has been nearly eight months since my last post.  There is no good excuse.  But, perhaps, there are good reasons.

One of the most important skills in strategy execution is priority setting.  There are never enough time and resources to get everything done one wants.  So one has to focus on those efforts that are critical to success, that must be done.

I have been fortunate that RedZone Consulting has been remarkably busy over the last several months.  And so, the blog got cut.  Not easily and not without significant thought.  But it was cut intentionally.  


It is not that the blog is unimportant.  By no means.  If it was not important, then there would be no blog at all.  None of us have time to waste on unimportant busywork.  


No, it's just that the blog has not been as important as other priorities.  Now, with goals accomplished, there is time to return to the blog.


Will it be as frequent as before?  Who knows?  That all depends on what tomorrow brings.  For the moment, updating this blog is the most important task at hand. 


For successful Strategy Execution, one cannot allow preference to take hold over priority.  Focus on what must be accomplished to reach your goals.  That will guide where you spend your valuable and oh-so-limited time.