Change Just Creeps Up On You And Then? Boom!

Back in July my wife and I played in a pickleball tournament in Newport Beach. If you won your bracket, you earned a Golden Ticket to the National Championship in November in Mesa.

We got ... KILLED.

Two years ago the guy generally covered much of the court, with the woman playing a postage stamp. The guy would hit a drop shot to a woman, then the women would dink back-and-forth until somebody made a mistake.

Last year, the pro game began to change. Guys were more aggressive than normal, and women became very assertive.

Last week, points in the mixed championship match looked like this (click here for this one point). Women driving the ball, guys poaching, gun fights galore (heck, watch the women here just throwin' haymakers ... it's not a game of dinking for relaxation anymore).

And, unsurprisingly, that style of play tricked down to Newport Beach, rendering my old-school strategy useless.

I've spent the following eight weeks reinventing my style of play. I have no choice. It's a long slog, it is absolutely not how I want to play. Adapt or die.

The first month was awful. Let's assume I'd play six games and typically win three of the six games playing the old style. Playing the new style was uncomfortable. My results were not good ... I'd win two games out of six instead of three games out of six. Unforced errors increased. In other words, all of my metrics "looked bad". My partners looked at me ... "what is wrong with you?"

It would be easy to say "nope" and go back to the old style of playing, to just try to "be better" at the old style of play. Had I done that, I'd have gone back to winning three out of six games on average and I'd be ... average ... in the short term. But I'd also be falling farther behind the rest of the world on a daily basis. Eventually the gulf between everybody else and me would be too big ... a canyon too big to cross.

Maybe you see where this is headed.

When you get back from your three-day weekend, give some thought to those who keep asking you to pay Facebook/Google for access to your own customers. Ask yourself if you are falling behind companies leveraging alternate ideas? And if you are in the print world, for crying out loud, ask yourself if the LinkedIn professionals asking you to use the hashtag #printrevival have an alternative agenda to keep you buried in the past? There is no #printrevival, and if there were, why would they be using an ancient digital tactic (hashtags) on an antiquated digital platform (LinkedIn) to promote print? Wouldn't they leverage print to tell you? Are your print-centric partners moving into the future, or are they like I was at the pickleball tournament in Newport Beach, applying outdated skills to a modern game?

Pundits Talking About Your Marketing Plans For The Election

It's hard to visit LinkedIn these days ... it's even harder as an election barrels toward us and pundits are telling you what you need to do from a marketing perspective.

Nobody, and I repeat, nobody, has any idea what is going to happen over the next ten-ish weeks.

If I would have told you on Memorial Day weekend that one candidate would be forced out while another candidate would survive an assassination attempt ... and both events are already ancient history by Labor Day weekend, you'd have barely believed me. And yet, here we are.

So what if customers are distracted for a week? You made it through a pandemic ... you think your customers weren't distracted then?

In e-commerce, you have businesses that create demand-generating scenarios, and you have businesses that react to those who create demand-generating scenario. Too many readers react. Not many create.

I know, you are going to tell me that your business analyst says sales will be down 20% that week or whatever. Fine. So what? It happens every four years. Every five-six years you lose a week between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and you somehow get through that situation.

You'll get through the election as well. Take a breath. Focus on what you control, focus less on what controls you.

A MineThatData Minute: New Items and Existing Items - Customer Preferences

Another quick video to peruse, enjoy (https://youtu.be/PDoyRBd22kY)

A MineThatData Minute: New Customers via Marketplaces

Many of you expanded into Marketplaces (ahem ... Amazon) over the past 2-3 years. If that's you, give this short video a view.

Forecasting Season is Coming!

The requests are coming in now, a bit earlier than in prior years ... readers wanting to know what 2025 looks like if certain changes are made to the business model.

Start thinking about your needs ... it is common in the e-commerce world to want to know what happens when PLA/Search spend is increased/decreased ... our catalog audience ... you know the drill.

Forecasting Season should be fun ... you get to see what the future holds, then you get to make changes to better adapt to the future. Let's have fun this Fall, ok?!

One More For You

Yes, go buy the book.

Maybe I'm obsessed by the book because it was written by a female coach butting heads in a male-dominated sport. Seriously, how many leadership books have you read, authored by women, women who didn't use the phrase "lean in"? Not many. How many e-commerce books have you read that were written by female executives? Not many.

A few quotes for you to think about.

• "The mind runs amok when it doesn't have facts to digest." In my project work, I present facts that many haven't seen before. You should see what happens to the mind when it is forced to digest a few facts! Praise to my clients for being willing to be challenged.
• "The word 'happy' would lose meaning if it were not balanced by sadness" (via Carl Jung).
• "Dressing rooms are hierarchical places" (so are the informal social networks created at your brand).
• "I couldn't compete with the power of bad memories." How many of you are still tormented by something that didn't work at your company? "We tried that in 2013 and it didn't work!" Well, it's 2024, isn't it? I said stupid stuff like this last week in an email to somebody, telling the individual I tried something in 2007 and it did not work. Take your own medicine, Kevin!

Ok, this is my final reference of the book. Now go do something with what you've learned after reading the book. You're capable of so much good work!

National Public Data / Data Brokers

Now that your social security number and phone number are linked together and available for purchase on the dark web, one can use their imagination as to what could possibly go wrong?

Many of you who are catalog-centric readers have used data brokers for three decades. One of you sent them parsley, one garlic, others oregano, peppers, olive oil, salt, pepper, red wine vinegar. The data broker puts it in a food processor, blends it, then sells you chimichurri sauce. You supplied them free data, they supplied you with customers, they made money.

All of you who are e-commerce employees leverage a different kind of data broker ... two modern ones ... Google and Facebook ... Alphabet and Meta.

I had a reader send me a nasty gram last month, wanting "actionable tactics" and less talk about "community". "Where is the information I can use today?"

Let me be really clear about something.

If your brand builds communities outside of old-school data brokers and modern digital data, you manage the relationship with the customer. Yeah, you. It might mean you host a loyalty program where you have a direct relationship with your best customers as opposed to a brokered relationship with a third party who just might slip up and cost you your personal data. It might mean you host a forum on your own platform instead of paying a third party money for access to a customer that the third party might carelessly abuse.

So, no, I'm not here to give you "5 Tips To Make Money Off of Google and Facebook".

I'm here to ask you to own the relationship with (checks notes) your own darn customers.

How is that a bad thing?

This is What Giving Up Looks Like

Trade journalists seem to love trying to protect Macy's ... a brand that proclaimed itself "America's Omnichannel Store" a decade ago. Good for them! How's it working out?

Oh, they're going with value messaging that goes beyond discounts. Ok. Let's go to the website and find out what that looks like. I elected to highlight the "messaging" they offer to the "consumer".

Bill Parcels, the famous coach of the NY Giants, once said "You are what your record says you are". Macy's is what Macy's tells us on their home page. And guess what? You're not going to "out-Temu" or "out-AliExpress" Temu or AliExpress.

It's always fun to read how the press frames messaging around Macy's. Here's two distinctly different approaches.

"Customers grow cautious". How come Amazon never seems to have customers who grow cautious? I'll wait for your answer.

This is what giving up looks like. You aren't proud of what you sell, so you gamify the system poorly so that you aren't even competitive with those who do it well (Temu / AliExpress), then the customer is blamed for being "cautious".

This is a brand that, since proclaiming itself "America's Omnichannel Store" a decade ago posted 7 quarters of growth out of (checks notes) 40.

Worse, four of the seven quarters of growth were off of COVID quarters when stores were closed due to a pandemic.

This business is an unmitigated disaster ... a complete representation of the failed omnichannel thesis paired with a gamification of prices that pales in comparison to modern brands doing it well.

Early in my career, I worked at Lands' End. That was a brand that knew exactly who/what it was. Mid-career, I worked at Nordstrom. That was a brand that knew exactly who/what it was. Between the two, I worked at Eddie Bauer, a brand that had no idea who/what it was. We'd be in meetings where one faction wanted to go back to our "heritage" ... another faction wanted to "update the brand". Non-stop arguing, back-stabbing, in-fighting, paralysis, red-tape, half-hearted change, mis-guided attempts to "re-invent", you name it. It was like the worst episodes of "The Apprentice".

I distinctly recall when the "Executive Vice President of Global Brand Direction" (let that title sink in for a moment) came out on stage ... took a deep breath, and then talked about updating the brand. On the outstanding PA system in the meeting area that seated hundreds of eager employees, he played a song from the 1940s ... then he played an updated version of the song from the 1990s. He asked if anybody noticed how "updated" the new song was? (heads nodded). He told the audience of Managers, Directors, and Executives that Eddie Bauer was going to go through a similar evolution, then left the stage. No insight into "how" this would happen, just the mention that it "would" happen and he left the stage.

Two things shouldn't surprise you.

1. Eddie Bauer was a brand that adored the Macy's style of discounts/promotions to cover up weak merchandise productivity and poor marketing strategy.
2. Eddie Bauer would go through bankruptcy twice in the ten years that followed.

Also - I adored the CEO of Eddie Bauer at that time. He was great. What an impossible job he had.

Discounts and Promotions are what giving up looks like, dear readers. Ask Macy's.

Your Competition Creates Unfair Situations

You recall the book I talked about a few days ago.

Emma talks about creating unfair situations for her good players, especially before an important road match.

• "... including the stimulation of situations that trigger overwhelming emotional responses. When the time is right, I consciously set out to provoke the team by being an outrageously poor referee during training games. I let challenges go, give imaginary fouls, and award free kicks and penalties on a whim. I will allow play to continue if the ball goes marginally off the pitch, provided it inconveniences my scheduled starters, the players who make up my best team. It drives them mad. They hate me."

This reminded me of a discussion I had at a conference (pre-COVID) where the Executive complained about how unfair it was that a large competitor ruined Google for his brand. He was exasperated that they sat on all of his important keywords, spending whatever they want. He couldn't believe that their organic results never kept up with this large competitor. His Facebook page had 30,000 followers, the large brand had 850,000 followers. He'd tell me that "they have all the advantages, this is such an unfair game."

It drove him mad.

Remember the movie "Enemy of the State?" It's on linear television three times a week. Brill has a quote in the movie:

• "... if they're big and you're small, then you're mobile and they're slow. You're hidden and they're exposed. You only fight battles you know you can win."

In a recent call, the CEO told me his brand was "scrappy". He was right. What he described to me sounded like an underfunded group of renegades who would not let unfair situations stop them from being excellent. They had a great process, which led to great results.

Your competition creates unfair situations that you have to deal with. Be scrappy! Fight through it. Imagine what the competitor is saying about you!

Unique and Special

Back in 2012 I worked on a project where the elements of my work became the Merchandise Forensics framework that formed the basis of my consultancy from 2013-2018.

This business was leaking customers right and left. It had poor processes - marketers didn't know what merchants were doing, merchants thought the marketers were marketing to the "wrong people", creative was detached from everybody. Just a mess.

In trying to explain to Leadership what I observed, one of the Leaders gave a passionate speech. She told me that I misread her brand, that her brand was, and I quote, "Unique and Special".

I turned in my invoice a week later.

No payment.

I applied interest and re-submitted the invoice.

No payment.

No communication from the individual who hired me.

Then a letter arrived from a lawyer. The brand went bankrupt. I would receive a handful of dollars as the assets of the brand were divided up, liquidated, and shared with those owed money, on a proportional basis.

There's a reason why the late Don Libey told me to collect half of a project fee up-front.

This brand was not unique, and it was not special.

Clients who prioritize process over results understand their place in the world. They know the exact reason why customers choose them, and they are constantly looking six months to five years out to understand how they have to evolve and adapt. They could care less about Cyber Monday discounts. They care more about knowing that money spent with Google might be money poorly spent in five years when Google's AI engine becomes hyper-efficient at steering traffic away from you. This fact is part of their process, and they plan accordingly.

I have a lot of catalog clients this year, far more than the past four years. These brands are prioritizing process over results. They are building a strategy for the next five years. Does it anger their paper rep, printer, or the USPS? Maybe. Is it the right thing to do? Absolutely!

It's been fascinating to watch the push and pull between my clients and the old-school vendors who supported them. You hear the vendors talking about how unique and special print is. It is no longer unique or special, hasn't been for decades.

P.S.:  I realize you have no interest in sprint car racing, but the innovation happening over just the past month has people gossiping and speculating and trying to copy the competition (https://youtu.be/U47IJynmW-4?t=193). This brings up a question ... when is the last time you saw something happen in e-commerce that made you say "WE MUST COPY THIS EVEN IF THERE IS NO PROOF THAT IT WORKS?" Send me your thoughts (kevinh@minethatdata.com).

A Threat To Leadership

In the before times (before COVID, before video conferencing), I visited a client. The marketing team had an absolute superstar in the room. She had "it".

When this employee spoke, the rest of the room turned to her and listened. When she finished talking, the Executive took over, either borrowing her idea as his or dismissing it.

Remember the book I spoke about last week?

Emma offered a quote about her leadership position within the soccer hierarchy in England / Europe.

• "It is almost as if I am regarded as an existential threat instead of a colleague with great experience. It confronts you in so many ways."

In the meeting I was in, it confronted the young marketing star in so many ways ... every few minutes."

There is a significant generational difference out there. It isn't necessarily age-driven, but it can sure look that way. More important, it is a "command-and-control" generation, refusing to cede control to new thoughts, new ideas, new approaches, new individuals. It's like the leader who knows television advertising inside-and-out and pays $6,000 per commercial to reach 12,000 "viewers" refusing to yield ground to the YouTube expert who generates 150,000 online views at almost no cost, telling the individual what to do.

It's happening in politics.

It happens in sports.

It happens in your business, to varying degrees.

If you prioritize process over results, you'll have an employee development plan where you are pushing your responsibilities and accountabilities to a new generation.

Process > Results

A year ago the USWNT (women's soccer) failed miserably at the World Cup, not making it out of the Round of 16. Anybody watching could see that the team had aged.

As happens in sports and business, when things go awry, people get fired. The new Manager, Emma Hayes, had a decorated run as Manager at Chelsea in the UK.

When the new manager chose her roster, she left several of the legacy stars off the 18 player roster. And yeah, she took some heat for that decision.

Five weeks later, the team she selected ... a considerably younger team than usual, won Olympic Gold. The team won six games in seventeen days, losing zero, outscoring the competition 12-2.

So yeah, I bought her book on Amazon.

If you choose to read it, you'll be struck by the honesty, the audacity, bravado, and maybe most important, process over results. You'll be surprised that somebody would be so open about crisis in a personal life and how that interacts with a stressful job. There's a moment where she is attending a conference and she shows up late for a session. The person running the conference tells her she must make a decision ... to commit to the conference or not be there.

She talks about being demanding, and yet, caring. She cares about her players, their lives, and their dreams.

I knocked the book out in three nights and I don't read books.

But wow, the recurring theme in the book is of prioritizing process over results. About doing the right things.

Which brings me to e-commerce. How many of you apply deeper discounts when things go sideways? Most of you? That's an example of prioritizing results over process. Heck, it's a failure of process. How many of you take shortcuts to bump up conversion rates and/or the ROAS of your campaigns? That's prioritizing results over process.

I was on a Zoom with an e-commerce brand awhile back. This brand prioritized results and could have cared less about process. A simple question like "who owns email campaigns?" brought blank stares. The CEO would speak first - the dozen employees on the Zoom would listen to the CEO, oftentimes squirming, making uncomfortable faces. There was no process. There was just a CEO giving instructions.

Almost everything you read about e-commerce focuses on results, or focuses on very pithy processes. You'll read a book where the author tells you that you must "Be Excellent." Hey, thanks, great advice, we'll take that one back to the CEO.

One of my favorite clients is a $30,000,000ish brand that is growing. This brand prioritizes process over results. Oh yes, they care about results. But they care more about doing things the right way in March so that November turns out well. While other brands plan their "Holiday Campaigns" and "Cyber Monday Discounts", this brand hires merchants who share their plans with the marketing team in February/March, so the marketing team can feature key products at the right time in November/December to maximize sales and please customers. The marketers aren't planning campaigns. The marketers have a process for featuring the joy the merchants have for their products during the August/September/October timeframe so that the customer is primed and ready to buy in November/December. This brand doesn't panic when sales on a Tuesday in August are 6% below the forecast ... they're more likely to question the process surrounding the creation of the forecast.

Yes, I get it, you have to have results.

But results without a process or with a bad process is like going on a cross-country trip from Boston to Portland without GPS or a Map ... just looking for highway signs that say "WEST".

Ask yourself on a scale from 1 to EMMA (Emma is the Manager of the USWNT) how your internal processes grade out? Do you prioritize process (doing things the right way), or do you prioritize results?

Impact of Print on My Business

Earlier I shared something about content behind a firewall (click here). Responses were plentiful, and they were all of the "don't put content behind a firewall" theme.

So here's where I link print and a content firewall together. My version of putting content behind a firewall has always been the booklets I've written. The vast majority of booklet sales are via print ... not many people download via Kindle. Let's look at indexed book revenue over the past thirteen years.

What do you observe?

You observe the death of print, don't you?

This requires me to change as well. I released a booklet last Fall, and am considering one more. But it is obvious that era is over. Which means it is time for a new era, correct?

Marketplaces

Recent work requires me to grade each item based on "who" buys the item.

For instance, one company outsourced customer acquisition to a broad category called "Marketplaces" (i.e. Amazon). For many catalogers, that's the choice right now ... the industry sunk my clients (co-op performance, paper/printing/postage availability/costs) and their ability to acquire new customers, so they're doing what they have to do. Can't blame them.

However, this decision (one made out of necessity) comes with a series of consequences.

Certain items sell well on Marketplaces.

Certain items appeal to New Customers.

Where those two things interact, you end up with a nasty dynamic.

Here's a crosstab of the top 207 selling items for a brand. Each item is graded ... A/B/C/D/F for the propensity of the item to attract new customers, and for the propensity of the item to sell at above-average levels in Marketplaces. Let's look at the crosstab.

Read across the items that are graded as "A" for attracting new customers (top row). There are 41 items that do a very good job for this brand ... 31 of those items are "A" items for Marketplace sales, 7 are "B" items for Marketplace sales.

Here's the nasty dynamic / consequence that happens when you go down the Marketplace path.

1. Marketplace customers are typically lousy customers from a future-value standpoint.
2. You have no choice but to pursue new customers, so you pursue marketplace customers.
3. Those customers have a specific item interest.
4. They're not going to repurchase going forward.
5. Your merchandising team is going to see in reporting that marketplace items perform well, causing them to pursue more of those items. But those items appeal to first-time buyers on marketplaces, creating more of a problem.

There's a level of merchandise sophistication that is required, going forward. We are going to have to change our definition of what a winning item is. Is a winning item an item that sells well on marketplaces, attracting customers who won't purchase again?

Give it some thought.

Categories Have Different Purposes

In a recent project, I wanted to see if merchandise categories played different roles for the brand. In other words, did some categories drive new customers while other categories "stole" new customers?

Column "LY Give" tells us the percentage of customers who bought from that category last year and then bought the following year from a different category without coming back to the category they bought from. For this brand, categories with fewer buyers are more likely to "give" their customers to other categories. The most popular category (labeled 17 above) does not give customers away. Hmmmm.

Column "TY Take" tells us the percentage of this year's customer base that was taken from other categories. Notice that the categories that give customers away also take customers from other categories. Those categories are not "sticky", are they?

Column "TY Keep" calculates the percentage of this year's customer base (within the category) that also purchased from the category last year. The best performing categories (number of customers) are better at "keeping" their customers.

Column "TY N/R" calculates the percentage of this year's customer base (within the category) that did not buy last year across any categories. Here's a little secret I've learned over the decades ... it is important for your best categories to bring in new/reactivated customers. There are categories that "can" bring in a lot of new/reactivated customers, but that category needs to be good at "giving" customers to other categories.

You analyze your categories and know the role of each category within your brand, right?

March 5, 2007

I've read content from John Dick at Civic Science for what seems like forever. Every Saturday morning I'd get to read something about his kids or Gen-X or survey results they compiled about people being over-worked.

And then, on Saturday, he announced future content belongs to paying customers and friends of his brand. As one gets bigger, traditions are shed in favor of the activities that allow one to get bigger.

I suppose I disagree with what he's doing, but I understand it ... and I should ask similar questions of myself. Should my content be behind a paywall, say on Substack, that you pay to have access to? How much "would" that cost you? Or should it stay here, for free? Tell me what your thoughts are (kevinh@minethatdata.com).

I searched through my inbox to find the date when I started receiving content from Civic Science ... and then I ran across this email I sent people on March 5, 2007. Take a peek at the content:

-----Original Message-----
From: Kevin Hillstrom [mailto:kevinh@minethatdata.com]
Sent: Monday, March 05, 2007 2:15 PM
To: kevinh@minethatdata.com
Subject: Leaving Nordstrom To Start A New Business

 

I want to let you know that I have decided to leave my position at Nordstrom, and start my own consulting practice.  My last day at Nordstrom will be this Friday, March 9.
 
I anticipate beginning my new consulting practice toward the end of this month, following my talk at the New England Mail Order Association event.  I am so excited to get started!!
 
My business will focus on the field of Multichannel Forensics.  It will be my job to help multichannel CEOs and Executives understand complex interactions between Customers, Advertising, Products, Brands and Channels.  I will use actual customer purchase transactions and records to thoroughly explain natural customer paths that lead to increased long-term sales growth, and increased long-term profitability.
 
Here's a subset of leadership questions I plan on supporting:

·         What happens if I decide to shut down my catalog division, and focus only on online initiatives?

·         Which advertising tactics drive the most sales to my online and retail channels?

·         Given our current practices, what do my catalog and online sales project to be over the next ten years?

·         What is the optimal level of offline and online marketing spend for my business?

·         What happens if I increase or reduce the merchandise assortment in my online channel?

·         Do my e-mail, catalog and online marketing programs interact to cause customers to spend more?

·         Do customers cross-shop various merchandise divisions online, and if so, which ones?

·     What are the dynamics that cause my business to be successful?  Is my business successful because of my acquisition or retention strategy?  Is my business successful because I cultivate my own customers, or because other business units send customers to my division?

Please visit my blog (http://minethatdata.blogspot.com) for daily updates, or my website (http://www.minethatdata.com) for details on my new consulting business.
 
Thanks,
Kevin

What strikes me is how remarkably faithful I have been to my original vision for the work I'd perform. Times change ... the questions asked in the origin email are somewhat timeless. Oh sure, the pendulum swings back-and-forth and channels eventually die ... in 2024 the pendulum swung wildly toward helping many of you cut way, way back on your catalog budget while investing much, much more on your merchandise assortment. The last few years the pendulum swung toward forecasting because of the impact of COVID on your business.

But the core concepts remain, unchanged over seventeen-and-a-half years.

Think about your business for a moment. What changed, and what remains timeless?

Get Your Hands On A Merchandising Table In Your Database

During times of merchandise transition, you want to get your hands on a merchandising table in your database. Specifically, you want to know the launch date of every item offered by your merchandising team. You want to pull the item number or sku number, the product division / department / category the item belongs to, the cost of goods for each item, and the first date the item was sold.

This information matches up to the customer tables in your database. From here, you can run your own analytics. A good first step?

• Count new items by month of introduction by division / department / category. This immediately tells you if your merchandising team understands that future success is fully dependent on new item launches today.
• For all new items, measure if existing customers are buying the new items at higher / average / low rates compared to prior years. Your existing customers are like canaries in a coal mine. If they don't like the new direction of your merchandising team, they'll vote ... loudly ... with their wallet.

There are product/merchandise assortment catastrophes happening everywhere we look these days. When customer behavior changes (as it changed post-COVID), leaders respond by changing the merchandise assortment ... which causes customers to change their behavior. Somebody has to be on top of what is happening. Why can't that person be you?

Watch The Transition, Carefully

It's one thing when a new CEO takes over a brand.

It's another thing when a new Merchant takes over your merchandising team. It's arguably more important. I mean, the only reason a customer buys from you is because they want/need what you sell, right?

The new merchant looks at your assortment, and immediately has judgments. S/He may not understand your customer base, likely doesn't understand the history of assortment decisions, and quite possibly couldn't care less about any of it. S/He is there to fix something.

If you are a marketer, this is the time you want to pay attention to what is happening.

What is the plan for existing winners?

What is the plan for existing contenders?

What is the plan for long-term categories you've always sold?

What is the plan for new categories you recently expanded into?

Will there be enough new items so that five percent of 'em will become winning items 1-2 years from now?

The pattern repeats over and over ... the new merchant makes a bunch of decisions that nobody in marketing understands or even wants to understand ... the existing customer doesn't embrace the changes, sales decrease, conversion rates plummet, ROAS is awful ... and it becomes time to fire the marketing folks, it's their fault!

During times of merchandise transition, watch the transition, carefully. This is a key inflection point in the timeline of any brand. Understand what is happening. Measure the living daylights out of what is happening. Forecast what you think will happen based on what is actually happening.

Barking at the Staff

There are leaders who are out of touch, and there are Leaders who fully understand the misery their $13/hour staff suffer through.

So, last week I drop my wife off at the airport ... in my pickleball clothing ... and before playing I need to fill my belly with "something" (because it would be 100 degrees by 9:00am) ... something that is within a tenth of a mile of a freeway exit.

That something? McDonalds ... two breakfast burritos and a small orange juice for (checks notes) $7.70.

Yeah, whoa. That's a lotta inflation, peeps. Or a lot of profit. Or both.

And I suppose a fusion of inflation and an addiction to Cable News yields somebody who feels like this when things go sideways.

On this voyage into McDonalds last week, the angry cable news addicted customer walked in to the McDonalds in what appeared to be pajamas, asked for order number 443, then went off on a tirade for the ages because the 16 year old behind the cash register couldn't hand-deliver the order to her car. Even if the customer was right, the customer burned through her moral high ground within ten seconds of demeaning behavior targeted at somebody 55 years her junior.

It wasn't exactly Christian behavior on behalf of the customer. She didn't love her neighbor.

It was awful. De-humanizing. Cruel.

When the woman returned to her car to eat her disk-shaped hash brown, the customers inside the store consoled the young lady who was made to feel like a worthless human being.

If you are an Executive, how much time do you spend with your customer service staff, call center staff, or anybody who is public facing? Do you spend any time with them, or do you "outsource" all of that grief and soul-sucking activity to people you couldn't care less about and pay them $13 an hour to suffer on your behalf? Do you outsource it to a poor person in Topeka? Somebody in Singapore?

Or do you try to understand what these poor souls deal with?

When I worked at Eddie Bauer in the late 1990s, there was no requirement to understand the pure misery associated with call center work. This shouldn't surprise anybody, because the parent company (Spiegel) placed Executives on a separate floor in a tower in Chicago ... that floor had floors that were heated. Because if you are making $500,000 a year in 1997 dollars, you need a heated floor to perform better, am I right?

Heated floors.

When I worked at Nordstrom, we flew to Cedar Rapids many times to partner with call center and distribution center staff. When we shut down the catalog, angry customers in North Dakota were re-directed from the call center to me. I listened. I explained. The buck stopped with me. And other executives. And the Nordstrom family. We all took the calls.

Spend some time today trying to understand just how cruel your customers might be toward your staff. Your staff doesn't deserve the cruelty they absorb. Is there something you can do to help them?