The Incredible Tale of Johnny the Bagger
Here's one that never made it to Oprah's Book Club: the book The Simple Truths of Service, which tells the story of Johnny the Bagger. It's 76 pages long, literally a 15 minute read. I encourage you to read the book, but here is a video the authors Ken Blanchard and Barbara Glantz created from the book. By the end, not only will you be smiling, but you will innately begin thinking about your personal "signature" and vocational values. 

Care Means Not Always Thinking About Dollars And Cents
I always wanted my signature to be unmatched customer care; thus, I get turned on when I see someone else with the same aspirations. All the more so when I see them achieve it.

My son, daughter-in law, and newborn grandson live in a small apartment building. Recently they saw one of the maintenance folks and chatted a bit about the new baby. A few days later they get a card from the multi-building owner/landlord welcoming their newest tenant.  The card read, "You're the person we've been waiting for." 

This gesture struck me because property management companies are not typically in the business of customer service. (I despise that word SERVICE...everyone thinks they offer it and so few deliver it or understand it. It's all about CARE.) My kids already signed their lease. There's no more business to be done, and do they think that this card is going to be the difference between the kids renewing or moving out? 

The ONLY reason for the card, the real signature, is to let their tenants know that "we care".

Your Mistakes Define You...In The Most Positive Way
Signatures can take on a couple of different identities. In the world of client/customer/congregant-care, you don't generally receive a standing ovation for doing what you're supposed to be doing. It's your job to make that hospital visit, to check the legal precedent, to call when the desired item comes in. 

But what separates you from those service providers is how you handle that "whoops." How you recoup from mistakes can be the difference between quality care and inattentiveness. 

When I had my men's clothing store, each time a customer picked up a garment, tried it on, and exclaimed that "these pants are way too tight and I don't know when I can come back to try them on again," I saw an opportunity. Here is a chance to not only impress, recover, and retain a customer but a chance to get someone to brag about me to his friends. 

By merely offering him a cup of coffee (and, let's be honest, sometimes a shot of Crown Royal) asking him about his job or his kids, and using the 15 minutes it takes to let the waist out by showing him I care, I turned the tables and turned a potentially lost customer into an ally. If the tailoring took more than 15 minutes? No problem. I would send him on his way and drop it off later at his home or office. 

We received referral after referral based on scenarios like this. 

Creating Your Signature
Signatures can be overt, like always handwriting your thank you notes and making them personal, or the Johnny the Bagger way. Or, they can be subtle. The important thing is that they are constant and ingrained in what you do. Paying attention to details, so often overlooked, can be the easiest signature... remembering someone's name after your first encounter or picking up from the last conversation you had with them. Making sure your waiting room has fresh coffee and a plate of cookies... making sure your store's sidewalk is perfectly shoveled, walking around and greeting all of your congregants personally before services begin (my rabbi actually does this), quickly and efficiently handle your mistakes. 

I keep thinking of my son's landlords. They clearly understand that the small touches add up to a much larger whole, that the greeting card most certainly contributes in a substantial way to an environment we want to be part of. 

Create your signature, create it from within, from whom you are. And then start signing it.  

Sometimes You Can’t Scream Over The Competition
When you sell a product or service, one of your key battles is jockeying for your clients' attention. We are in the midst of a busy, busy attention economy and sometimes we don't have loud enough voices to simply scream over the competition.
 
That's why I tell the folks that I coach that there are other ways to win the war for your clients' attention. There are ways to cut through all the noise, like being edgy, doing the unexpected, and finding creative paths into your potential clients’ consciousness.

The Problem: Too Much Inventory
I faced a daunting situation many years ago when I had my own retail men's clothing store.

So was the case one early Autumn: I had the right merchandise but way too much of it. See, fall isn't exactly "sale" season; in fact, it's more-often-than-not "full price" season.  And I was getting nervous. With inventory high, I was heading toward overstocked at way too fast a clip.

I needed to "bring 'em in," get customers through the door, and give them a reason to do it now.  Simply put, I needed a Washington Birthday's Sale in September.

The Solution: Martha Washington
I did some research about the time of year and discovered a detail I nearly overlooked. Martha Washington's Birthday was right around the corner.  Aside from "revolutionary" good pricing, I added a band in my emptied storefront window and had them play songs like Yankee Doodle Dandy in addition to favorites by Paul Revere and the Raiders...anything to get people through the door.

The store stayed open until midnight. My brother, dressed like Uncle Sam, handed out gifts and favors all night long. For one night, it was more than a men's retail store: it was a party, a happening, a next-day-water-cooler story in the making.

And it was all thanks to Martha.

The volume was brisk. The margin: better than anticipated. The attention, the newcomers, the happy and enthusiastic customers: it was all a thrill and a rush.

What’s Your Martha Washington’s Birthday Sale? Get Creative!
I share the story with you simply to demonstrate that sometimes you need to be edgy when preparing your arsenal in this war for attention. Sometimes our ideas stick, sometimes they don't. But the important thing is to think strategically about ways to cut through the clutter and to try something new.  

Otherwise, just lay down your sword, wave the white flag, and get used to the fact that the British are coming. Because in this economy, behind every great man, there's a great woman's birthday ready to be unearthed and celebrated.

I always tell my clients, "sometimes you gotta get in the door; get noticed; then you can sell yourself or your product."

Opportunity Knocks
My Dad was so ahead of his time with regard to this mantra. He owned and operated a full-service, truly-customer-care store in a small town in Western Pa, sort of a  Mom and Pop store, carrying work clothes, dry goods, hunting gear, some men's and women's wear, and Boy Scout uniforms and equipment. 

One November, in the early 1950's he was the first merchant in the area to become aware of, and have in stock, something revolutionary...cutting edge, practical, desirable, the golden ticket of merchandise: men's thermal underwear. 

So, what to do with it? Display it in his window? Run an ad in the local paper? Give it prominent floor space? Yeah, eventually, but not at once...not my Dad.

Getting Attention The Old Fashioned Way
The first thing he did was rent a freezer from a local appliance store, remove its lid, put it on the sidewalk right in front of his store. He hired a high school student, fit him up with some thermals, put him in the freezer, filled the freezer with ice, and placed a large sign next to the kid: I AM WEARING THE NEWEST THERMAL UNDERWEAR. I AM NOT COLD....AND WE'RE THE ONLY STORE THAT HAS IT! 

Here's a "pop"quiz for you: How long did it take for my Dad's stock of long johns to sell out? His next two orders went faster than his first!


Tried and True Is Just Plain Tired
Now, here's what I coach my clients to do when writing cover letters, follow up thank-you letters, answering the standard interview questions: it's ok to be edgy...a little out there. 

I implore sales people, fundraisers, professionals, and anyone with donors, customers, patients or their own, clients, even congregants: tried and true is just tired. Be edgy with style and class. Capture and keep their attention.   Once you have, then, it's your time to fulfill your purpose and achieve your goal.