Delivering Happiness

PLUR: Peace, Love, Unity, Respect.

applying lessons that I’ve learned

increasing the average gross profit and order size per customer, increasing conversion rates, increasing new qualified visitors to our site, and increasing the percentage of repeat customers

To all of us in the room, we knew it wasn’t just about the money. Together, we had built a business that combined profits, passion, and purpose. And we knew that it wasn’t just about building a business. It was about building a lifestyle that was about delivering happiness to everyone, including ourselves.

I could be creative and eventually live life on my own terms.

Many companies and managers believe that giving employees more money will make them happier, whereas most HR surveys show that once people’s basic needs are met, money is farther down the list of importance than intangibles such as the quality of the relationship with one’s manager and professional growth opportunities.

Happiness is really just about four things: perceived control, perceived progress, connectedness (number and depth of your relationships), and vision/meaning (being part of something bigger than yourself).

As we near the final pages of this book, I’d like to ask you to actively participate and think about the answer to this question:

“What is your goal in life?”

When I ask different people this question, I get a lot of different answers. Some people say they want to start a company. Other people say they want to find a boyfriend or girlfriend. Others say they want to get healthy.

Whatever your response is, I’d like you to think about your answer to the follow-up question:

“Why?”

Depending on what they said before, people might say they want to retire early, or find a soulmate, or run faster.

Again, whatever your response to the previous question was, I’d like you to ask yourself:

“Why?”

The next set of answers people give might be so they can spend more time with their family, or get married, or run a marathon.

What’s interesting is that if you keep asking yourself “Why?” enough times, you’ll find yourself arriving at the same answer that most people do when they repeatedly ask themselves why they are doing what they are doing: They believe that whatever they are pursuing in life will ultimately make them happier.

In the end, it turns out that we’re all taking different paths in pursuit of the same goal: happiness.

Top 10 Ways to Instill Customer Service into Your Company

Make customer service a priority for the whole company, not just a department. A customer service attitude needs to come from the top.
Make WOW a verb that is part of your company’s everyday vocabulary.
Empower and trust your customer service reps. Trust that they want to provide great service… because they actually do. Escalations to a supervisor should be rare.
Realize that it’s okay to fire customers who are insatiable or abuse your employees.
Don’t measure call times, don’t force employees to upsell, and don’t use scripts.
Don’t hide your 1-800 number. It’s a message not just to your customers, but to your employees as well.
View each call as an investment in building a customer service brand, not as an expense you’re seeking to minimize.
Have the entire company celebrate great service. Tell stories of WOW experiences to everyone in the company.
Find and hire people who are already passionate about customer service.
Give great service to everyone: customers, employees, and vendors.

Evaluating Market Opportunities

Table selection is the most important decision you can make.
It’s okay to switch tables if you discover it’s too hard to win at your table.
If there are too many competitors (some irrational or inexperienced), even if you’re the best it’s a lot harder to win.