Talking About Your Business

Tattoo's and Customer Service

Greetings from Portland, Oregon. An absolutely beautiful place to visit and from what I hear...to live too!

I have been surprised by the number of passengers on my flight and customer service people in the Portland area that have tattoo's and wear just enough clothing to let you see many, if not most of them.

For starters, I must admit that I have no interest in having a tattoo of my own. Here is my dilemma. I look at some of the body art work and am totally impressed (my daughter would have loved the dragons on the lady at the airport) yet I don't know that this is the image of a customer service person that I would want in my business. Now, if I owned a tattoo parlor or head shop, it might fit...at the airport, hotel, restaurant or getting a rental car...I really start questioning what's appropriate and what isn't.

Tattoo's are certainly an approach to expressing one's individual self. Companies tend to squash individualism by having employees wear uniforms and dress codes that might include suits and ties for men, and skirts and panty hose for women.

So what do you think? Are tattoo's acceptable in front line customer service? Or should they be covered up for the good of the customer? And what about tattoo's and internal customer service?

Let me now what you think...and join us on our radio show tonight at 10:00 pm est...I'm going to pose this question to Ned and our listeners.

We Love to Fly -- Well, We Used To

Many of my friends in the speaking business and I have something in common this week. We have been inconvenienced by flight cancellations. I'm not blaming American Airlines (Their CEO has publicly taken the blame) or the FAA (Can you say government over reacting?) or even my travel agent (Actually, they have been very helpful to many of us in this situation) for the past few days of inconvenience. Our lives have been affected and business has been lost...yet I think there's a bigger picture point to consider here:

The state of health of the airlines.

ATA, Skybus and Aloha Airlines have closed their doors. Frontier Airlines has filed for bankruptcy protection. Delta and Northwest Airlines are closing in on a merger. American Airlines will lose tens of, if not hundredes of millions of dollars because of their cancellations this week.

If you are dependent upon an airplane to get you somewhere for business or pleasure frequently...this is a wake up call for all of us. More change is coming to how we travel across our states, countries and world.

If you've had your travel plans interrupted this week, I'd like to kow what you're thinking about the future of air travel in the United States.

Feel free to get out your crystal balls.

A New Product from Hyatt

By ALL measure I am a devout Hilton customer. I can tell you not one time have I been let down at any of the Hilton properties.

On the flip side I groan when I am forced to stay at a Hyatt. I find them stuffy, pretentious, policy not customer driven, and WAY overpriced.

Well Hyatt has come out with a new product, The Hyatt Place. Six weeks ago I stayed at my first one in Ontario, California and yesterday and today I stayed in my second one in Dallas, Texas. Boy am I impressed. From the moment you drive up it is a different experience. When I walked through the doors there stood a "host" dressed in an earth tone v-neck sweater and matching pants with a sharp looking Hyatt Place logo on it. The front desk is more like a front table low, personable and easy for the host to walk out from behind to greet you. Speaking of the greeting gone is stuffy, snotty, fake, scripted Hyatt line that will come complete with a $300.00/night bill. Instead you get a warm smile and a real hello.

I could go on about the building and rooms but that would take away from the well done website which has pictures you an see that give you a real sense of what you will walk into. The restaurant is simple but fairly priced, fast, and good. The only complaint it is that the food selection is too limited.

Anyone with a big pocket book can build a hotel as nice looking as a Hyatt Place but it took something special to make the massive shift that Hyatt has made from terrible at their first class properties to just outstanding at the Hyatt Place.

Don't worry Hilton, I am a Diamond Hilton member and plan on staying that way but I will tell you for sure that when a Hyatt Place is in play I will take a long look at them!

Ned

Leading from Any Position

On April 1 & 2 I was in Lexington, Ky delivering a 2 day workshop on leadership and management at the Embassy Suites about 3 miles from Keenland Race Track.

Keenland is one of the premier tracks in the  country where you will find the best of the best when it comes to horse racing.

As far as I am concerned the morning workout is the best time to be at the race track. First of all there is nobody there except for the trainers, workout riders, a few owners, and the horses. Second of all it is FREE. Third you can stand right there next to the rail and listen to the pounding of the thoroughbreds as they thunder by and the trainers give instructions to the riders as to what pace to keep, how far to keep it and asking for feedback from the riders as to how the horse is doing.

So on I got up at 5:00 AM and drove out to Keenland and spent a hour just soaking up the sights, smells, and sounds.

There were about 60 horses moving around and waiting their turn to "breeze", when the regulars began to chuckle and starting calling out to one of the riders as he entered the track to start breezing his horse. He then began to sign songs in Spanish as he rode.

 

Here he is on top of a 900 + pound race horse galloping around the track and singing out loud in Spanish. We could hear him coming, getting louder and then blast past and hear him fade away.

You've Got 2 be kidding me:

Here was a guy that does not make a lot of money, gets up at the crack of dawn every morning and literally puts his life on the line to train horses and does the whole thing singing.

This one man was leading everyone there and NONE of them worked for him. His attitude was infectious and it was clear the regulars were delighted when he showed up to start his singing routine.

Leadership can take place from any position.

Ned

Media Melt Down

Are we getting the service we should be getting from the media? We are the customer remember? Well on March 28, 2008 Lou Dobbs in one of his famous rants was making a comment about something Condoleezza Rice said about race in the U.S.

Dobbs began to say how "these cotton..." and then caught himself. It appeared Mr. Dobbs was heading down the path of using a racial slur in response to what Condoleezza Rice said.

What is so distrubing about this is that CNN removed the work "cotton" from the transcript when they posted in on their web site as you can see right here.

BLITZER: Let's check in with Lou. He has a show coming up in an hour. I want to pick his brain on some intriguing comments from Condoleezza Rice involving race in our country.

     You saw what she said. 

LOU DOBBS, HOST, "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT": I saw what she said. That the United States has a birth defect on the issue of race. I think it's really unfortunate that Secretary of State Rice believes as she does. The fact is most Americans don't have a problem talking about race.

What we have is a problem of talking about race without fearing recrimination and distortion and someone using whatever comments are made for their own purposes. Usually political purposes.

The reality is, this is the most socially, ethnically, religiously, racially diverse society on the face of the earth. Wolf, we don't make enough of that in the nation media. We listen to some idiot say you can't talk about race or there ought to be these responses when you talk about race or ethnicity and too often, in fact nearly always, we fail to point out that there is no country on the face of the earth as progressive, as racially and ethnically diverse as our own.

It's something for us to be proud of and if any - and to hear a politician whoever it may be talk about how difficult it is to talk about race, well the heck with them. We're living with the issue of race. We've got to be able to talk about it and I can guarantee you this, not a single one of these just ridiculous politicians should be the moderator on the issue of race. We have to have a far better discussion than that.

     BLITZER:  Lou, we'll see you back here in one hour.  Thanks very much. 

Ok now you look at the video and see for yourself!   

Where we have been let down is that the ONLY place I can find this in the blog world, no major news group as reported on this, at least not much. What great service we are getting from the media!

I would really like to hear from you on this, am I off the mark or should Dobbs and CNN be held accountable on this? Ned