The Soft Pitch

Several years ago, I was reading a self-help book, I really can’t remember which one –either from the guru of positive thinking Tony Robbins or from king of the one-line success quips Zig Ziglar or maybe even someone else.  It doesn’t really matter as the lesson was simply around “the most important words in the English language.” Since then, I’ve read many different versions of the same sort of list, but one of the things that strikes me is the list almost always includes “Thank You,” and so I’ve come up with my own list of the most powerful words, and it starts with “Thank You.” Those are short, simple words with a potent punch.  Sharing appreciation by saying “Thank You” makes you step out of yourself even if just for a second and acknowledge to the world that you’re not an island and others are an important part of what happens every day.  These words are so important they can make or break a marriage, because if no one appreciates you, why bother with doing the dishes after dinner or even making dinner to begin with? A sincere Thank You can let a child know how special that hand-made birthday card was to you. Or can let a friend know you appreciate them listening to your latest rant about car repairs. Or let a customer that you appreciate their business.

I was tickled last year when Avnet decided to participate globally in Customer Service Week and adopted the theme of “Just Say Thank You.”  It worked so well, we kept it this year for Customer Service Week again.  So we here at Avnet are celebrating Customer Service Week by doing our best to reach out to thousands of customers this week with a simple little message – “Thank You.”  There are videos from Rick Hamada, Avnet Chief Operating Officer, from Patrick Zammit , the president of our components group in Europe, e-card messages, internal training programs, customer appreciation events with moon cakes and balloons, and a whole lot of thanking going on internally and externally.  The point is to just say “Thank You” to our customers and suppliers for doing business with us.  We want all of you to know, that we appreciate you choosing Avnet. 

So here I am, chiming in to say “Thank You” for reading this blog.  Al and I appreciate your comments, questions and the few minutes you spend with us reading our random musing on baseball and all things Avnet.

Michelle

PS – The other most important words in the English language? Here’s my list: Please, Sorry, and Help.  Do you have a list of the most powerful words?

I recently started subscribing to a blog about how to write a better blog (for those interested it’s Copyblogger and I find it interesting and instructive). The last post I read admonished bloggers to focus more on providing quality content and not be so self-promotional. A blog post should be like a gift, providing you something of value. Got me to thinking – are my post too promotional? Maybe, I always try to provide some insight into Avnet readers might not get otherwise, but since this is a corporate blog, it’s always about Avnet in some way.

I had planned on writing about Avnet’s new customer loyalty champion, Michelle Gardner, who recently took over the Customers Matter blog  and the Customers Matter Twitter account. I met with her the other day as we started talking about plans for communicating more with employees on customer service. I knew Michelle Gardner from before when she was focused on operational excellence. She’s intelligent, thoughtful and committed to enhancing the total “Avnet customer experience.” Now, I don’t know how much of a gift this is for you, but if you haven’t checked out her blog yet, you may find it interesting. She offers insight into great customer service, and she wants to hear directly from our customers and potential customers about what’s on their minds so she can build that into her plans. I can’t help but thinking her energy and enthusiasm is going to make a real difference.

I believe we’re going to see customer engagement really pick up momentum in the coming year. At all levels of the company, I hear Avnet employees and management talking about how to take the data from our customer surveys and turn it into specific actions to improve how we serve and engage individual customers.  Of course, it’s also one of those things that if you don’t play, you can’t win.  In other words, as with any survey, not everyone participates. But for those customers who do, it can make a real difference because our teams are listening carefully to what you say on those surveys to see if there are opportunities for us to do a better job for you – and of course we hope to win more of your business in the process. It’s a win-win proposition. So that’s my gift to you – check out her blog as Michelle has some good customer service info, and if you’re a customer, please take the survey when you get it so we can do a better job for you.

Forgive the cliché headline, I couldn’t resist. It’s still Customer Service Week for Avnet employees here in the US (I hear in the UK they will extend it another week and participate in some local activities there).  We’ve posted some employee-made videos about customer service on our website for everyone to vote on – if you haven’t already – go take a look and vote for your favorite: http://www.avnet.tv/contest_vote.php .

As promised, here’s another example of an Avnet employee taking that long walk going down the proverbial “extra mile” on behalf of customers.

Rose worked on a large RFP for a customer. She created several options for an entire disaster recovery solution (uspv, uspvm, ams1000, SAN options) from scratch, working closely with the customer. She worked on this solution for three weeks, produced 20+ quotes, and put in 40-50 hours and in the end presented the customer with a complete disaster recovery solution (including SAN). The customer was more than pleased with the level of service and knowledge that Rose provided, and was able to get their quotes to the end user in time, due to Rose’s diligence. Here’s what the customer had to say … “Rose: I was able to get this information into our quote yesterday. We really appreciate your hard work and insight with creating the quotes. We could not have completed our response without you. Thank you! Ricardo, IT Sales Consultant.” And this from her manager: “Rose during this time was also handling normal team duties such as phone lines, the queue and her own inbox full of other quote requests as well. She went above and beyond expected customer service to complete this RFP, and I think she should be recognized for it.”

Yes, I agree, Rose should be recognized for it.  Thanks Rose!  Wouldn’t you like someone like Rose working on your account?  Or I’d at least like to go shopping with her knowing she wouldn’t rest until I had chosen the most perfect-fitting jeans possible.

At the beginning of Avnet’s Customer Service Week, I promised a few stories of what our employees are doing. Here’s the first example – in this case Michael developed a couple tools that provide technical information to customers in a jiffy. By the way, this story comes from an internal program we have recognizing employees for service called ACE — the Avnet Customer Experience.  This is from Michael’s nomination for an ACE award:

“Michael has risen to the occasion to assist several business groups to meet the needs of their customers.  Example #1: A customer needed information on disk sizing for an exchange storage information solution.  Michael immediately responded with a document solution that he created explaining how disk sizing was accomplished.  This was exactly what we needed to help our customer and Michael should be recognized for providing the excellent customer service and technical knowledge.  Example #2: In addition to his normal job duties, Michael built an impressive web-based tool called ‘VAR MD’ designed to better communicate with EMC and our partners.   It is impressive and he has done this on his own.  This tool puts us way ahead of the competition because it tracks all metrics of EMC and is used to evaluate the value of distribution.  Thanks to Michael’s dedication, knowledge and skills in creating this tool, we are projecting a increase in our team’s revenue, which will have an impact on growing our EMC business.”

If you would like to learn more about Michael’s VAR MD, just let me know.  It’s initiative and innovation to help the customer like this that’s true service that makes a difference.

By the way – a note to any Avnet employees out there reading this.  If you have a great example of customer service you’d like to share, please post it as a comment.  Or if you’d prefer, send me an e-mail at michelle.gorel@avnet.com and I’ll share your story.

There’s a few things that no matter what you say or how you write about them, it sounds like “Motherhood and Apple Pie” – an American term for something that’s truly great that you can’t argue with, but also a bit cliche.  Great customer service is kinda like that.  Who’s going to argue with it?  We all want it, we all know when we get it, and we complain to anyone who will listen when we don’t get it.

So, Sept. 29 to Oct. 3 at Avnet is Customer Service Week.  I’d like a slice of apple pie with that, if you please.  But here’s the catch.  Of course at Avnet we strive to deliver what I call the “triple S” – Simply Superior Service. – every day. And I’ve got some great stories to share about our team members doing just that. (I’ve got a few tucked up my sleeve that I’m planning on sharing on this blog during the week.)  Customer Service Week actually reminds me of the old-fashioned customer appreciation days from when I worked in a bank (many years ago, and way before the mortgage debacle).  We’re asking all employees to call one customer each day and just thank them for their business.  No sales pitch, no “Hey did you know about our new service?” Just, “Thank You.”  Thank you for choosing us.  We appreciate it.  We wouldn’t be here without your business. You are important to us. 

The way we figure it, if every employee makes just one call each day that’s more than 60,000 calls during one week just to say thank you.  Pretty awesome.  I’m going to do it too.  I don’t sell stuff, but I do “sell” Avnet to the journalists who cover us.  So, I’m going to call them and let them know we appreciate their interest in Avnet. 

By the way, while I’m at it – let me thank YOU for reading this.  Because like all the things my Mom did for me and for the sweet tang of good apple pie, I appreciate you taking the time to read this post.  Thank You.