iPhone 3G is Pushing the Work Happy Now Theme
The iPhone can sync with your calendar, contacts, email, car, wife, and thoughts to help make you a happier worker. After all, we all know that more productivity makes us happier. That sounded tongue in cheek, but really it wasn’t. When I check off my “to do” list throughout the day it makes me feel good. I actually get a little buzz from accomplishing more than I expected.
We are programmed to accomplish by our parents. As children we were rewarded with praise when we picked up our toys. Even when we drew an ugly stick figure it made them smile which made us feel great.
Apple Gets It
Apple understands that we want beautiful design and things that actually help us be more productive. It worked for the car industry. Who buys a car that’s ugly, but gets great gas mileage? Ok, a few of us do, but most of us want beauty combined with functionality.
Happy Employees and Their Customers
If you are in the service industry you may not be able to give customers beautiful things that they can hold in their hands, but you can give them something that tugs on their heart strings. A beautiful interaction.
I called one of my web hosting providers this past weekend. I wanted to cancel a blog that I haven’t updated in six months. I was greeted with a gruff and annoyed operator who sounded like I had interrupted him in mid stream. He did a fine job, canceled my hosting and even sent me a confirmation email like I asked, but still left a bad taste in my mouth.
The funny thing is that in other situations I’ve been treated much more kindness and I never even received my confirmation email, yet I still felt better about the kind employee’s response to my inquiry even though they didn’t do everything I asked because I felt appreciated.
The equation looks like this:
Friendly Operator – Poor Execution = Still a Happy Customer
Why do I fall for friendly and nice when good execution should win out? It’s because of acceptance. I feel accepted by the friendly person. The gruff guy on the other end of the phone made me feel like crap.
Happy Employees Make for Happy Customers
Make your employees happy, teach them to treat each customer as if they are Angelina Jolie (or substitute any star that gets wonderful service wherever they go) and you can make mistakes and still make the customer feel good. I’m not advocating making mistakes. It just helps, especially when going for repeat business. The most important thing at the end of the transaction is how the customer feels. Does the customer feel like he won or lost?
When I opened the box to my last iPod I won the transaction lottery. It was all mine, to put as many songs, videos, and audio books on it as I wanted. It was shiny, sleek, and made me feel as if every dollar I parted with was worth it. Create that “Apple” feeling within your customers and they’ll allow you to make mistakes.
Have you had a similar experience and if so – which company and what happened? Or do you disagree? You would rather have great service from a grumpy employee. Let us know in the comment section.
* After I wrote this post an article in my local paper Apple manages to overcome bad buzz from iPhone glitches came out. It shows that loyalty to a good experience always wins.
Articles that are Related to Happy Employees Treating Customers Better than the Grumpy Ones:
- Cajole Yourself into a Good Mood Before Work
- Great Managers Care About Their Employees
- Mini Sabbaticals Should Be Mandatory
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Image courtesy of powerbooktrance
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Design Friendly Atmosphere for Employees and Clients
Here is my first video for the Work Happy Now audience. The video is only five minutes and gives you valuable information on what to do and what not to do with your workspace.
Leave a comment to let me know what you think. I’m trying to give you as much value as I can, and I could use the feedback. Thanks for watching.
Related Articles:
- The Google Slide
- Put People in a Design-Friendly Atmosphere to Inspire Excellent Work
- Why Your Company Should Budget for a Fun Work Environment
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Video on Work Happy Now
No one has time to do it all and I’m no different, but I want to keep improving this site’s value for employees as well as employers. That’s what working happy is all about: developing new ideas and running with them. I had to figure out the best way to create dynamic content that would really help my visitors. What to do? MP3s or video?
There is enough business development audio to make your mind spin. What I don’t find a lot of is… video. There are people who are shooting their seminars and putting small cuts on YouTube, but most of them are commercials for their information.
I wanted to create small videos that people can watch at work or at home without having to filter through an ocean of articles. We live in the age of the iPhone, so I may as well take advantage of all my outlets. If I could create something that people can watch on their phones, I’ve reached a new segment of the population.
I shot two short videos. The first is about workplace design and the second is about relaxing at work. Both are very important topics for working happier.
The first one will be up tomorrow.
It’s a little scary putting myself out there for everyone to judge me, but I figured I would ignore all that and go for it. It’s not perfect, but it is interesting.
Challenging myself to give all of you something new that can help you at work really makes me happy. The video may not be perfect, but it does give good value. When you watch it, don’t be afraid to give me some feedback.
I want to thank my friend KJ and my wife for helping me through this learning process. KJ helped me shoot the video and my wife edited the content. I couldn’t have done this without them. Check back here tomorrow to see my first Work Happy Now video on creating a design friendly workplace for customers and employees.
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Here is a cool shot from a man tricking out his cubicle. The found this photo at Escape From Cubicle Nation and the original photo is at Jared D. Nielsen’s website.
Related Articles:
- Put People in a Design-Friendly Atmosphere to Inspire Excellent Work
- How You Are Silently Signaling Your Co-workers to Treat You
- Create the Work Atmosphere You Want
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1st photo courtesy of derekdavis. The 2nd photo courtesy of Jared D. Nielsen.
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