Episode #22: COURTESY COMMUNICATION

Uh, it's can be found on Amazon. You can go to our website, simple biz , three sixty.com . If you wanna , um , buy it, you know , click on , uh , Amazon straight from there. We do blogs. We do some , uh , Tuesday tip videos and we do a weekly podcast. We're trying to be 10 to 12 minutes, some go over, but you know, we're, we're in that, we're in that zone and we're all about trying to improve customer satisfaction. That's the whole emphasis. That's the whole goal. That's what we do.

That's what the book's about too. So anyway , uh , exciting episode 22, we've got , uh , Alex on the boards over here. Great job Mason, and , and , uh , launching the episode and, and doing the little intro. And let's just dive into this. We're in the communication chapter. This is a fun one. This is one of my little , uh , creations , uh , but it is called courtesy communication and we reference it as sea H and calm in the book, but courtesy communication. What is it?

Well, here's the good news. It's generally about two sentences. One to two sentences takes about 30 to 60 seconds to email those one to two sentences. And what it does is it works off the premise of getting to your customer before they get to you. Now, we did an , we did an actual , uh , podcast on that. It's actually one of the, the tools in the book. It was one of the early podcasts.

We really didn't get a lot of viewership on it, but I encourage you go back and try to visit that one, because the premise of courtesy communication is saying, Hey, I respect your time whether, and whether you're an internal , um, associate of mine or whether you're an external customer, and if you're an external customer, you're saying, Hey, I respect your time and your money. And internally you're saying, Hey, I respect your time and your teamwork .

And you know , the fact that we're doing this together. So I'm gonna give you some things , uh , voluntarily before you come and ask me. And that's the whole premise of courtesy communication. It's, it's turned out to be kind of one of my little flagship things. I've gotten scores of , uh , kudos over the decades over the years saying, Hey, you know , I really, really appreciate you sending this. Thank you so much for this update.

And the way I approach it, the way I approach communication in general is when I get something , uh , I use what's called the acronym, a R U and it's acknowledge, respond and update. And I always, again, you've heard me say it. A gazillion times respond to a hundred percent of inquiries. I always let somebody know I got their email. I never want them to think that email went into cyberspace. So I just acknowledge it. It's the courteous thing to do. It's courtesy communication, right?

It's another element. Another arm of it. Hey, got your email. Thank you very much. I will look into this tomorrow. I'm on the road. I'll make a call today, but I'll look into this tomorrow. And the you update. I'll give you an update once I have it. And then you, you , you kind of put that into that , um , portfolio, if you will of follow up and follow through. So remember part of that three wide challenge is respond, which we're talking about now, and then the follow up and follow through.

So follow up and, and look into what you told the customer you're gonna do, and then follow through and make sure you give the customer that piece of information, but do it in a courteous way before they get to you to ask the question, right? I presented this to a , a VP of sales one time, and he, he laughed at me and it's in my book. I'll never forget. I , I wrote his quote down , not gonna happen. Oh, really?

You're that adamant against courtesy communication, cuz we knew none of it in this company. I mean, we have horrible courtesy communication in this company and we did nobody communicate anything. I mean, I'd , I I'd get a , I'd get a call from a customer and go, Hey, if I , if I get this ordered to you by four o'clock today, do or five o'clock today, do I still get the 10% discount? I'm like, okay, why would you get a 10% discount?

Well, cuz your company's offering the , you know , if I get this order to 'em by four o'clock today , I get a 10% discount. Where did this come from? But it's a special you've had all month. It's a special we've had all month really? Uh , could you fill me in guy , sends me a flyer on it and you know, nobody ever told me it just, you know, it happens all the time just, but you don't want to do that. Right? You want to provide courtesy communication for your customers. So what does it do?

How does it look to an internal customer? How does it look to an external customer? Let's take a look at, at , at a customer first, right? It answers a question they probably have. And that's probably top of mind. I bet you , Hey, I wonder when that's gonna deliver, man. I gave them that order two weeks ago. Hey, you know what? Just checked on your delivery. It should be going out next week. Um, ah , that's awesome. Great to , I just , uh , I was just thinking of that.

I , I mean, I couldn't tell you how many times those dynamics are at play and we just miss it. Right? So that's one thing provides the answer before a question is asked, which we've discussed, establishes buying confidence, right? Creates and sustains long-term trust between you and the customer. They begin to really trust you. People buy from people they like, right? So they really start to like you, they start to see you as professional. You're winning the middle, right?

You're not an either way proposition. You're right there in their sweet spot. It enhances the perception that you are taking care of their money, right? It's perception's reality. We've said it a million times. It is perception is not fact it's reality. It's based on what people think, what , what , how they perceive you to be handling them. That's just how it is. It's it's the law of ewe . It is what it is. It just doesn't change. Right?

Um, it demonstrates that you value their business partnership. You're by offering this Curtis communication, you're showing them, Hey, you're important to me. I , I wanna let you know that through how I handle your business transactions and then enables you to create and deliver on expectation timelines. You , you establish the expectation it's now created. It's stated.

And now you make sure you follow up and follow through on it to, to give it that connectivity, weave that thread together through all the elements to , to bring that home. Right? So that's what it's all about. So what does it do for an internal team member? It shows you value their partnership as well, demonstrates respect for their time, which we've discussed answers questions.

They're thinking about as a team member, as an associate, as a cubicle mate, down the hall, you know, if you're a bigger company , uh , as a remote , uh , access employee who , who don't forget those remote employees sometimes, you know , they don't , they're not at the water cooler. They're not hearing some of this stuff. There's a lot of meetings that take place in corporate America in corporate , um , conference rooms that these remote folks never touch see here, understand.

So, you know, try to include 'em on it. Uh , paves the way for a stronger partnership enables your partners to do a better, faster job. Now think of that internal one step further, it's now your vendors. So now your suppliers, are you gonna incorporate courtesy communication with your suppliers? Why not? Then when you need that person to go the extra mile, do you think they do? I think they do. I think they go extra miles more than a couple times.

So include them in a they're your suppliers, the more they do things successfully and in a timely manner and in a professional manner for you, the better you look to your customers, the better the perception is from your customers about your company, because you've got your suppliers tied into liking you, right? They don't see you as , uh , you know, cuz a lot of times what happens in that, in that dynamics is they tolerate you. They , I hate this guy. I hate this girl.

I'm gonna tolerate this cuz I need the money. But you know, can't wait for this . I just wish this guy would never call me again or never ask me questions. I can't stay in dealing with them . They tolerate it. Don't give them , give them the reasons to like you give, give them the best reasons you possibly can. And that I think you'll find is embedded in the whole formula of courtesy communication, prevents task duplication by uh , other partner associates. How many times have you into that?

Those of you in corporate America, where you go to do something, you spend 35 minutes on it, three and a half hours, three days. I don't know. And someone else has done it. Someone else has beat you to the punch and no one's connected to dots. No one's talked to each other . There isn't that courtesy communication taking place. Hey, don't go get that tracking number. I already sent that to the customer. Oh thanks.

You know, or I , you know , the customer asked me to look into this and do the exchange, do the RA number and , and set up the , uh , return authorization. I took care of it. Uh , Jim, Sally. Ah , great. Thank you so much for letting me know. I was just about to do that after lunch, it knocks all that stuff out. It , it , it co it brings cohesiveness to the team. It , it , it makes the team work and click a little better. It, it EV it prevents back peddling .

Hey, you're a corporate manager, you're an owner of a corporation. You're an owner of a small business, solar, you know, you've got other employees. If, if that's who's listening, Hey, you don't want them spending their time back peddling or doing task duplication, you know, mix this into the DNA of your management , um , um, edicts and how you wanna run the company, let these folks en enjoy and explore and learn and, and adopt courtesy communication.

It also helps everyone just be up more up to date with things. It brings people up to date. It's just a , it just a nice thing to do. So courtesy communication tool, number 1 69 out of the communication chapter . Um , really a cool thing. If you can adopt it. And I, I can tell you with great, great authority, the majority of these kick in parades principle, if you want the majority of these take, you know, it's one to two sentences, three sentences, maybe 30, 60, 90 seconds.

Boom. You're done and you're making people really happy. All right . So that's a little bit about that. So let's jump into the lost in the shuffle track for today. So let's, let's rewind the clock to the , um , you know, the counterculture movement in hate Ashbury in San Francisco in the late sixties, right? Some pretty notable bands came outta that whole movement. Grateful dead. I'm sure you've heard that name. Sure. You've heard Janice Jolin and big brother in the holding company.

You've heard of Jefferson airplane. We've got Santa in the mix. We've got quick silver messenger service got mobi , grape , a lot of , lot of wild bands, right? The Jefferson airplane guys, you know , uh , grace slick , uh , bleed singer for Jefferson airplane . She's got, she's going through some , uh , I guess recovery from some type of throat surgery. I think she had.

And , uh, a couple of these guys , uh , Y and , uh , Jack Cassidy branch off and decide , ah , let's put together a little band and start jumping around. We're a hot tuna, right? So it's a blues rock band, 69, you know, 70, around that era. And they , you know, they , they , they start , uh , they start tour and start putting together some stuff.

And then , uh, you know , they get kind of this, this inkling to kind of shift into heavy metal and, and go away from that, you know, bluesy acoustic sound in a lot of ways to a little bit more electro , a little more jumpy, a little more powerful, you know , um , heavy metal, nothing crazy, but you know, cool. So from the 1975 album called yellow fever, there is a tune on there. Great album. There is a tune on there that's called free rain .

R E I N again, you're gonna see it as I'm pointing up to it . The upper right hand corner of our YouTube screen here, our visual screen. Sorry about it, guys. Listening out there, but pull it down on your playlist. Go see it on YouTube. It's it's a hot tuna, 1975 free rain , great stuff. We'll see you next week. Thank you so much. Hold on to that sand , keep pleasing those customers and keep the shiny side up. Thanks so much.