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Customer service is a rarely-deployed competitive advantage

chanman · Aug 22, 2019 · Leave a Comment

No matter what you buy, whether it’s a product or a service, customer service will be an element in your overall experience.

That customer service can be great or terrible, or most of the time, somewhere in between. That range is something I don’t understand because customer service is surely something that the product or service provider can control.

You can choose to smile warmly when you serve coffee or you can be grumpy and spill coffee on the table.

I bet that you can remember on one hand how many great customer experiences you’ve had this year. Which is pretty shocking given how many interactions we must have had as customers. The ones that stand out to me are airline cabin crew (of good airlines like Cathay Pacific) and the best customer service I’ve ever experienced which was at the Covent Garden branch of Aesop. It was so good that years later I still tell people about it, and I’m writing about it here.

I was looking for a Christmas gift for my wife. She loves lotions and moisturisers and anything like that. I was walking past Aesop and thought I’d pop my head in. I’ve never been in a shop like that, and certainly not on my own. I wasn’t a huge fan of moisturisers (at the time). When I got to the door, I probably didn’t look that comfortable and all the staff looked like they were with other customers. However, one of the staff looked up and acknowledged that I was there, and gently indicated that she would be with me after she’d finished with the customer that she was with, and the indication was done in such a way that the customer wouldn’t have minded the imperceptible break in attention even if they had noticed.

When she came over to me whilst I was pretending to browse, I explained that I was looking for a gift. She led me to a row of sinks where she asked for my hand and gently wet it. She applied a washing product and gently washed my hand. She asked me how it felt and if I liked the smell. I said yes it was nice. She then took a fresh hand towel and patted my hand dry. She then asked if she could put on a moisturiser. I said sure. She then applied it to my hand.

Afterwards, she asked me if I might be interested in a gift set. It was around £100 which I would normally have baulked at for a product like this. But something told me it probably good value. I said sure I’ll take it. I followed her to the till where she asked if I wanted to join the mailing list. I said sure. When handing me back my card, she had neatly folded the receipt around my card. She then took the bag in her hands and instead of handing it to me over the till, she walked with it like it was precious cargo, around the till and handed it to me with care. The BEST customer service I’ve ever received!

What is great customer service? I think you know it from getting a warm and fuzzy feeling. That feeling when someone gives you full attention, treats you with warmth and respect. It’s a rare feeling but surely possible to give regularly. I’m sure that Aesop manage to replicate this experience and feeling in most of its customers, if not all.

It’s not common, but that doesn’t mean that it’s hard or impossible to do. Pret asks that its staff smile and have high energy levels. It’s a condition of working there. Imagine that your favourite coffee shop gave you the sort of experience that I got in Aesop? Wouldn’t that coffee shop have a huge competitive advantage on other coffee shops. All things being equal with the coffee itself, the shop that can add incredible customer service is going to drive its rival into the ground.

What does it mean to eat well?

chanman · Apr 28, 2019 · Leave a Comment

For lots of people, eating is something to get done. For these people, food is fuel.

But what if we ask the question: “What is the best that eating can do for us?” the idea that ‘food is fuel’ becomes a deprived way of looking at eating. (Pint of Huel anyone??)

At its very best, food nourishes the body and nourishes the soul too.

Body. At the very least, what you eat should be nourishing for the body. It should be nutrient-dense, packed full of vitamins and things that help your body function at its best. It should give you energy, help your muscles repair and help your body’s complex chemical make-up be at its optimum.

Soul. It should delight the senses. From what goes into your eyes, to what it smells like, to what it tastes like, to the texture of your food as you eat it. Some of the best food experiences are those that remind of us of what our mum cooked for us when we were kids. For me, that was freshly cooked, deep-fried samosas with chili sauce, or crispy noodles, or scaldingly hot spring rolls.

Think about where the term soul food originates from. It’s food that nourishes and feeds the soul.

What should we eat?

We should be eating as good quality food as we can afford. We wouldn’t put crap oil into a Ferrari would we? No. So why would we do the same to our bodies?

Imagine we just ate things that were terrible for us? Say bad pizza, sugary cereals, solid junk food, for a month. I guarantee you’d feel terrible.

Imagine on the other hand that we ate things that were great for us? Look to the Greeks or the Japanese who routinely live long, active lives. Their diets contain:

Fish that are rich in protein and Omega oils
Dark green leafy greens
Fruit and veg

How should we eat?

“Before you eat or drink anything, consider carefully who you eat or drink with rather than what you are to eat or drink: for feeding without a friend is the life of a lion or a wolf.”Epicurus

(sourced here)

We can surely do better than eating in front of the TV with our plates on our laps. Think about past mealtimes that you cherish. It might be family roast dinners, long brunches with friends, BBQs with friends and families, weddings with long tables of people you know and people you’re getting to know. It might be nostalgic school dinners or in the mess hall with your peers. Whatever it is, it’s likely that eating with other people is more optimal for your enjoyment and well-being than eating alone.

Does eating well need to cost a lot?

Not really. Okay free range chickens might be beyond the budgets of some people, but fresh food is available to everyone. Real markets sell fresh fruit and veg. You can get great food in tins as well. Tinned tomatoes are very often better than any fresh ones you can get (like for a puttanesca sauce).

You don’t need caviar, abalone, lobster, wagyu beef to eat well. You just need some knowledge and a will to do so. Check out this article about Jack Monroe from Lifehacker and then check out her site as well.

Does eating well require elaborate recipes?

Definitely not. Lots of great dishes require less than 5 ingredients.Cacio e Pepe has 5 or 6 depending if you put butter and oil in it, and why wouldn’t you?!

It’s mostly about timings, keeping flavours intense, putting interesting things together.

How about this for a nice meal:

Greek salad (cucumber, ripened on the vine tomatoes, red onion, feta, kalamata olives, capers, olive oil, cider vinegar, dried oregano)
Pan-fried salmon, with crispy skin
Sourdough bread with salted butter
Glass of wine of your choice

Add in a few people to eat with, some music and some laughter, maybe at a long table outside in the sun and you’re eating very well!

What does eating well mean to you? Let me know in the comments!

If you were asked to introduce yourself, would you sell yourself short vs what the objective reality was?

chanman · Apr 25, 2019 · Leave a Comment

Angelique told me about something that happened at her work. She was in a meeting where a new senior hire from the Product Team came to introduce himself to her team.

Everyone in her team introduced in turn introduced themselves back to the new hire. When it got to Angelique, she said that she was a bit nervous, and stumbled a bit, and when she sat down afterwards, she was mortified. Bear in mind that Angelique is an experienced professional, with nearly seven years at her company, and is also a veteran public speaker. If it can happen to her, it can happen to all of us. It could certainly happen to me.

Lots of career advice I read says that we should all have a short description of ourselves ready to be deployed whenever someone asks about us. It should be memorised. It’s good advice.

However, what would you actually say about yourself? If you’re anything like me or Angelique, it would be self-deprecating, full of caveats, loaded with the passive voice, and almost apologetic. I think it’s a fallacy that we’re all in need of reining in our salesy-ness. If anything, we need to become more salesy when it comes to talking about ourselves, to counter our natural self-deprecation.

Why do we do it to ourselves? Sell ourselves short? Jordan Peterson talks about our inner critic and how we let it talk to us horrendously. We wouldn’t let anyone talk like our inner critic to somebody that we cared about. Why do we let it talk to us like it does? Why do we listen to it?

Knowing that this internal berating is going on should free us to be more objective about ourselves. Let’s look at two examples of how Angelique could describe herself. Both describe the same thing, but one sounds weaker than the other.

Weak version:

Hi I’m Angelique and I’m a developer here. I’m originally from Wollongong, a city about 2 hours south of Sydney. I’ve been here about 7 years now. Yeah, that’s me. Great to meet you.

Strong version (and still more than true):

Good morning, my name is Angelique. I’m from Sydney, Australia. I was an art director at Fairfax Media, for the AFR (the Australian Financial Review). I transitioned into developing on the Methode CMS platform, and then I was recruited into the FT, to work in the Methode team here. I’ve been here about 7 years now and I’ve learned a great deal, and it’s a great team to be on. I also founded and co-chair the FT Women’s network, which runs monthly events and helps hundreds of women develop their skills in networking and so on. Great to meet tyou!

Which one sounds better? The second one right? I don’t think it sounds boastful. It’s all 100% true and factual. There’s not any exaggeration there but it still has hidden points in it that convey strength and value to any listeners.

For example, Angelique was recruited from Faixfax to the FT. This tells people that she was in demand and worth the effort to recruit from the other side of the world.
She might not be born and bred in Sydney itself, but most people here won’t know where Wollongong is, and will be thinking about that whilst you’re speaking about something else. She did live and work in Sydney so that’s more than true. Why confuse people otherwise?
She did found a women’s group, one that is successful, and so why wouldn’t she put that in her intro.

How would it work for you? What would you normally say about yourself? Are you selling yourself short? How can you make what you say about yourself stronger whilst still staying true to reality?

Write a short paragraph about yourself like the one about for Angelique and memorise for the next time you need to introduce yourself.

Can we apply what makes a great city/country to the individual level?

chanman · Mar 15, 2019 · Leave a Comment

I had this thought in Melbourne. I think from visiting the marvellous State Library of Victoria and the National Gallery of Victoria. Melbourne is regularly voted one of the most liveable cities in the world, and I thought what if we could take the elements that make Melbourne (and other great cities) and apply that at the micro-level, the individual level. So here’s a stab at what makes a great city:

A great city has:

Superb art galleries
Excellent libraries
Magnificent parks
Great architecture
Good schools and great universities
Bustling markets full of great produce
Strong sense of culture and identity
Food that you would travel for
Wonderful music performances
Quiet spaces
Proximity to water
World class sports teams

What about what makes a great country? There’s going to be a lot of overlap from the list above. But here’s some other factors I can think of:

Strong defence capability
Strong diplomatic ability
Willingness to help other countries and do its bit for the world
Investment in art and sciences
Commitment to R&D
Great infrastructure
Commitment to production over consumption
A desire to be great
Great universities
Looks after its weak
Open not closed worldview

Let’s take each list above and try to fashion some ideas about how to apply this to the individual level.

A great city has:

Superb art galleries
- Can we have more art in our homes? Yes.
- What should that art be? Reproductions of great works
- Have more art books in our homes
Excellent libraries
- Can we build great libraries in our homes? Yes. What could you do with 1,000 books? That’s a great library and probably two or three full walls of books.
Magnificent parks
- Maybe a full and rich garden? Or live near a good park? Or if you’re in an apartment like me, then maybe a decent selection of house plants in every room
Great architecture
- Ideally live in an area with magnificent buildings around you
- Photos of great buildings on your wall
Good schools and great universities
- Take regular courses online from great universities – a lot of these are free now
Bustling markets full of great produce
- Go to markets regularly and soak in the produce
- If you can’t get to a market like the Victoria Markets in Melbourne or Borough Market, then go to a decent supermarket and go to the fresh food section and the deli counter
Strong sense of culture and identity
- Who are you? Are you a culture vulture, a cross-fitter, a music obsessive, a vegan, a minimalist, a maximalist, a right-winger, a traditionalist? Whoever you are, own it.
Food that you would travel for
- Brunch in Australia is excellent, pizza in Italy is excellent, iberico ham in Spain is excellent. You can’t always get out there, so see what you can do at home. These days, it’s pretty easy to get good butter, good meat, great vegetables, nourishing bread. Try and knock up the best dishes you can at home. It doesn’t need to take ages or be lots of work. It could be as simple as putting great produce together on a plate.
Wonderful music performances
- We can’t always get to the opera but we can stream great music at the touch of a button. Get decent speakers and decent headphones and play the greats
Quiet spaces
- We all need some peace to recharge. If you live on a busy road, or have noisy neighbours, then maybe you could put on some noise-cancelling headphones or even put in some inexpensive earplugs
Proximity to water
- Great cities tend to be near water. Think Sydney on the coast, or Paris with the Seine. How often can you get to see big water like lakes, rivers, and the sea? I’m lucky enough to live near the Thames, but I don’t make the effort to see the water as often as I should do.
World class sports teams
- Play more sport
- Follow your local team or adopt a good one that appeals to you

A great country has:

Strong defence capability
- How secure is your house? Your job? Your assets and your money? How well can you defend yourself from violence?
Strong diplomatic ability
- How well do you get what you want from other people?
Willingness to help other countries and do its bit for the world
- Help out your neighbours? Support local events?
Investment in art and sciences
- How much of your paycheck can you commit to developing your artistic and scientific knowledge? Through books, magazines, courses etc?
Commitment to R&D
- What is R&D? At its simplest, I think it’s seeking out new ways of doing things. This could be new ways of living, new ways of thinking. There’s no way that we’re living as optimally as we can be. We’re often just happy with the status quo as it’s comfortable. Committing to R&D need not be expensive. It could also be commitment to taking the time to do it.
Great infrastructure
- A great country has excellent roads, bridges, energy supply etc. What about something as simple as installing great wifi in our houses? Efficient heating and water supply?
Commitment to production over consumption
- A great country has to produce something. It’s the same surely in the individual. Grow vegetables, build things, craft something, write something. We can all produce something.
A desire to be great
- Seek some glory. Achieve some feats. Do something noteworthy.
Great universities
- Can you read challenging works? Debate in clubs? Design a syllabus for yourself?
Looks after its weak
- Help the homeless? Give to charity? Sympathise with those less fortunate instead of judging them?
Open not closed worldview
- Do you travel? Read foreign newspapers? Know what’s going on in Central Asia and Africa?

What do you think? Let me know in the comments below.

Minimalizing my iPhone screens and iPhone apps

chanman · Aug 21, 2018 · Leave a Comment

Following on from my previous post on minimalizing my flat, I got the urge to minimalize my iPhone screens.

The amount of time I waste scrolling through my home screens looking for an app probably adds up to hours a year. I had 5 screens with countless apps and no real order to them. The only ‘order’ was the order in which I downloaded them.

Assume that I look for an app I use frequently eg. Whatsapp or iMessage and 10 times a day, and assume it takes 5 seconds each time to find it, that’s 50 seconds per app per day just to find the thing! That’s almost 6 mins a week just to find one app!

It’s not just the time waste. It’s the clutter and lack of order on my screens that I look at countless times a day. Chaos.

It was time to declutter my apps. Get rid of those I didn’t use and be ruthless about the cull. The cull still left a lot of apps and certainly more than could comfortably sit on one screen, so I started to make folders on my home screen. My aim was to get to just one screen of apps. This is what I ended up with:

It might still seem a bit busy (I know people who would freak out about the number of notifications on the mail apps!), but it’s a massive improvement for me having just one screen instead of five. And having some order on my apps, like messenger apps all together instead of scattered.

Another unforeseen benefit is that it’s harder to find apps that I can spend a long time in such as Instagram or the FT. Having them harder to find saves me time daily and therefore over the long term.

What do your phone screens look like? Are you tidy or messy with your apps? Let me know in the comments below!