I recently placed an online order at Jockey.com for some t-shirts. My order was delivered as promised, but what really got my attention was an email I received a few days after the order arrived. It read in part:

"I just wanted to thank you for shopping with us–and to ensure that your experience with us was a pleasant one.

If you have any unmet needs or concerns, please just click reply on this email for a real, live, human response. Ninety-three percent of our emails are answered within 24 hours."

I think this email is impressive for three reasons:

1. It is unexpected. How often do you receive emails from someone after you've purchased something and it's been delivered?
2. It is easy. They ask you to reply directly to the email if you have any issues, as opposed to giving some link or another email address.
3. It is real. They tell you that the email will be answered by a human and even give you impressive statistics on how quickly they reply.

What's most interesting about this is the email itself can be automatically generated by a good ordering system to go out at some point after the item has been shipped, so no additional work is required. And the reality is, the vast majority of recipients will not respond at all. But they'll get the message: Jockey wants to be sure you got what you wanted, and if you have any questions, we're here to help. A real, live human being is here to help.

What is your organization doing to surprise and impress your members and customers?

I went to see my doctor the other day. At the end of the appointment, the doctor asked the receptionist to give me two sheets on "rotator cuff tendinitis" (which is what I'm being treated for).

The receptionist hands me two sheets of paper that look like they are about fifth or sixth generation copies. That is, the copy I was receiving was copied from a copy of a copy of a copy… well, you get the point.

The copies are so poor that I can barely read what they say. All of this begs the question: Do they not have computers in my doctor's office? The last time I checked, one could create a document in this fancy program called "Word," and every time you need another copy of it, you can click the print icon, and a brand-new, original copy prints from your printer.

Look around your organization. Are you distributing any kind of printed material that is not an original print from a printer (whether in-house or outsourced)? Print is cheap. There is absolutely no excuse for giving your members and customers anything but original copies of printed materials.

Not that I feel strongly about it.

Going through security at the airport the other day, I dutifully took my shoes off, pulled my laptop out of my briefcase, and placed my carry on luggage on the x-ray belt. At the last moment I remembered my "liquids" and pulled them from my carry on. Being the wise traveler that I am, I had already put my three liquid containers (toothpaste, shampoo, and deodorant) into a clear plastic ziplock baggie.

The TSA agent picked up my plastic bag, carefully inspected the contents, and then explained to me that the baggie I had put the three items in was too large. She gave me an "approved" baggie and I moved my three items from the "too big" baggie into the approved baggie.

Not three minutes prior, the overhead recording had explained to me the 3-1-1 rule. No item more than three ounces, in one one-quart baggie. This was done, the recording explained, to limit the number of items I could put in one baggie.

Mind you, my "oversized" baggie had exactly three items in it (all under three ounces). Yet I'm required to move the items to an approved size baggie? Why?

The simple fact is, the TSA agent was given rules, and she was following the rules. But either she didn't understand the purpose of the rules, understood the rules and chose to enforce them for no reason, or had been told to never, ever, ever bend the rules. In any case, she was completely disempowered. Bag is too big? Replace it, regardless of why we have that rule in the first place.

I realize this is a small thing, but look around your organization and ask yourself: Does your staff understand the reasoning behind your business rules? Or are they busily following rules that hamper customer satisfaction, create more work than necessary, and generally disempower staff from making decisions?

Ritz-Carlton is famous for allowing any employee up to $2000 to resolve a customer's complaint, no questions asked. That's a lot of empowerment. And trust. Why don't you trust your employees that much?

A client of mine asked her vendor to make a fix to their database. After making the fix, the vendor sent an email with the following:

"This has been corrected BUT this could have changed some other already established rules (that I don't remember) so please check this carefully."

Hold on a second. If the vendor makes a change to their program, is it my client's responsiblity to make sure that change didn't break something else?

This is actually a very common complaint I get from clients and potential clients. Something along the lines of "Every time the vendor makes a change, they break something else."

How would you respond? What can the customer do to hold the vendor more accountable for the changes they are making?

No, I'm not talking about data back up this time. I'm talking about having a back up plan for how you will handle incoming calls when your system is "down."

I called my doctor today to make an appointment. I was immediately told "Our system is down, can you call back in an hour?"

Really? A customer is calling you, to spend money on you, and your response is "call back later"? How about "Let me take your name and number, and once our system is operational again, I'll call you to make the appointment."

How about your association? Do you have a plan in place to manage those inevitable times when your system is inaccessible? If your database wasn't working, would you know what to do when users call to register for a meeting, join or renew membership, or otherwise do business with you? Or, like my doctor's office, do you simply say "I'm sorry, I can't help you right now. Please call back later."?

Recently while driving along the GW Parkway (just outside DC) I came upon an electronic road sign (you know, the kind that tells you about upcoming events or road construction).  The sign read (and I quote): "On or about August 19th, roadwork begins."

That's it.

Ntohing about what kinds of roadwork. Nothing about how it would affect the drive. Nothing about whether or not I should plan to take alternative routes. Just "roadwork begins."

It struck me that this is often how we communicate during projects. For example, we tell staff "We'll be replacing our old database with a new one" and that's the extent of the information we provide. No information on how. Nothing on how this will affect my job, or whether or not I should change how I do things.

When launching a new project that will affect staff (whether it's a new database, a new HR policy, or a new event), we need to provide as much information as possible, and we need to help staff understand how the change will affect them (if at all). This means not only a "kickoff" meeting but also "check in" meetings throughout the life of the project.

So ask yourself: Are you telling your staff "roadwork begins" without giving them any details?

Just got back from Chicago and the ASAE Annual Meeting. I think ASAE outdid themselves once again with this meeting. I'll go so far as to say that the opening general session, with "An Association Musical" as its theme, and featuring Lee & Bob Woodruff, was the best ASAE opening session I've ever attended (and this one marks my ninth). The way ASAE interwove the business portion of the meeting (e.g., delivering news about what the association has accomplished, talking about upcoming initiatives) was very well done. And the Woodruffs were moving and inspiring.

Another highlight for me was Lieutenant General James L. Campbell, speaking on leadership. If even half of the world was as passionate about their work as General Campbell is, there would be nothing we couldn't accomplish. Absolutely fascinating stories and a truly remarkable man. I watched him talk to the 30+ people who lined up to greet him after his presentation, and I was amazed at how he locked eyes on every person who spoke with him, and listened like they were the only person in the room. Very impressive.

But my favorite part of this meeting, as it is every year, is re-connecting with friends and colleagues. I really enjoy catching up with people I haven't spoken with in awhile, and seeing the vendors out on the show floor showing off their latest goods. Everybody who is somebody is at this meeting, and if you're not attending, you're really short-changing yourself. If you're serious about your association career, ASAE's Annual Meeting is a must-attend!

A colleague of mine tells me that his hard drive on his laptop has crashed, and it's unlikely he'll be able to recover it. The kicker is that he hasn't run a back up on that drive for almost a month, so he's probably lost a month's worth of work.

What's amazing is that even in this age of "instant" online back ups, I still run into this problem fairly frequently. Either the organization is not backing up its data, thinks it is backing up the data when it is not, or just doesn't have any idea. See here for my rant on backing up. (Note that this rant came as a result of my not backing up a data source.)

Do you know if your database is being backed up (and the rest of your organization's digital files)? What about files on your own computer, including the computer desktop? Are you sure they're being backed up? And are they being backed up frequently enough so that when the inevitable drive failure occurs, the damage is minimal?

I was on the phone today with a hotel, confirming my reservations. The reservations agent asked me for my name and then said "Let's see how they have your reservation set up."

"They"?

If I'm calling your hotel, isn't it "we"?

I come across this too frequently when talking to association staffers about what they need to do in the database. I'll often hear things like "…they want…" or "…they have set it up this way…". Maybe I'm overreacting, but if you work in the association, then you're part of a "we," not a "they." And if you really feel like it's us against them, then perhaps you should find another job.

Granted, you may not have power over all decisions, so in some cases "they" might refer to senior management. But more often than not, I think "they" really means the person saying it doesn't feel like they're part of the team. And that's a problem.

What about you? When you refer to the organization that employs you, do you say "we" or "they"?

On his Membership Marketing Blog, Tony Rossell has a post about membership dashboards. He provides a link to a chart that shows all kinds of membership information. I noted in the comments section:

"…I must take exception to the use of "dashboard" with the example you provide. A dashboard, at a glance, provides instant information to the reader. For example, when I glance (not study) my car's dashboard, I can instantly tell if I'm going 60mph vs. 20mph by the direction of the speedometer dial.

The charts you provide are just that: charts. Dashboards give you an instant reading; charts require studying."

This isn't the first time this has come up for me. Several weeks ago I had a lengthy discussion with an esteemed membership colleague of mine, who was arguing the same point as Tony. I contended then, and I contend now, a dashboard gives you instant information, at a glance. If you have to study it, it's not a dashboard. And incidentally, dashboard information should be up-to-the-minute. Imagine if your car's dashboard provided you information about how much gas you had yesterday, instead of how much gas you have this minute.

This is not to belittle the need for the charts that Tony describes. Those data sets are important. But let's not call 'em dashboards; let's call them charts or reports.