Strategy Sarah

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Cleaning and organizing tip: Just do ONE thing

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Three years ago I wrote a guest post on my favorite local frugal living blog. It’s a theme that has stuck with me, and I still firmly believe that focusing on the one next action is essential to success in any area of life.

Action Makes a Difference | strategysarah.com

Doing one thing is a step in the right direction. If I avoid the clean laundry pile because it’s overwhelming, there will always be an overwhelming laundry pile. Action, any action, makes a difference.

Some days, one thing is truly all I have time and energy for. Other times, I find that once I make that first step, I have motivation to do a little more. Maybe 5 minutes, maybe 15 minutes. Occasionally, I finish a whole task. Giving myself permission to only do one thing, gives me the freedom to want to do more, rather than feeling like I have to do more.

Read the rest here.

Why customer service is critical

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Alternately titled: Why I love Costco. And why I almost didn’t love Costco anymore. All because of customer service.

Let me preface this with the fact that I love Costco, have been a member my entire adult life, and many many have fond childhood memories of long Costco trips with lots of samples. My family is notorious among my friends for being an extreme Costco loving family.

I made special trip to Costco for diapers today. It wasn’t totally out of my way, but diapers were the only reason I went today rather than a more convenient time next week. For the first time ever, they were out of Kirkland Signature diapers in our size.

The alternative was a new-to-us upgraded version of Huggies. That cost a full $8 more than the Kirkland Signature – for the same sized box. Yikes!

My options, as I saw them:

  1. Grab a box of more-expensive Huggies and ask if a) there were more Kirkland Signature diapers somewhere I missed or b) if they would price match.
  2. Not bother asking, and pay for the more expensive diapers.
  3. Not bother asking, and make another stop at the regular grocery store for store-brand diapers.

Option 1 seemed the most logical. Option 2 wasn’t an option I could bring myself to do. That’s a chunk of change, and the type of thing that gets me on principle even if we did have wiggle room in our budget. Option 3 seemed exhausting and an option to avoid if at all possible (see: two toddlers).

At the check stand, I asked if there were diapers somewhere I had missed, and about price matching otherwise. The person boxing groceries (whose name tag also read “Supervisor”) went to check.

Sure enough, the diapers were on back order. And no, they couldn’t price match.

I commented that I expected more from Costco’s customer service. I asked if any other locations had diapers, naming my next closest location. It would be another trip, but I could hold off a day or two and make it work if I needed to.

Nope, the only location that has diapers is a good 40 minutes from our house the opposite direction. And when I clarified again that that didn’t work for me location wise, and was there anything they could do for me, I was told again, nope, sorry.

Resigned to a trip to the grocery store for cheapo diapers to last until Costco re-stocks, I figured it would be worth swinging by Member Services and asking about a complaint form. I proceeded to share what had happened, and Rachel became my new hero.

Actually, first she just handed me a form to fill out, then as I was starting to fill out the form, we were casually chatting. I mentioned how long I’d been a Costco member, she asked me what had happened. I told her. She said she was going to go check something. A few minutes later, she came back – with a $20 Costco gift card. I told her that definitely wasn’t necessary, I wasn’t looking for a handout. She then offered to have someone go get a box of diapers for me, ring them up, and use the gift card toward them.

Um, well, if you insist. Give me what I came for originally, at a deal and save me a trip to another store? Why, yes and yes.

I was tempted to give her a hug. I resisted. Instead, we came home with diapers, our budget and my heart both a little happier.

The moral(s) of the story:

  • It always pays to ask politely. And ask again, respectfully, if you get an unreasonable answer.
  • Customer service up front can save a company money – as well as loyalty. Had the front line supervisor agreed to price match, my frustration would have been avoided, and the company would have saved $12. And what if I hadn’t gone to customer service to give feedback? I would have shared my frustration with Costco with at least one person (hopefully I wouldn’t have let it get to me too much, although this is the type of thing that has been known to drive me batty. Sorry real life friends and Facebook friends. I’m working on it.)
  • No matter what your job or business is, customer service matters. Providing excellent customer service the first time around not only leads to loyal customers, but is likely to save the company money in the long run. In this case, Costco would have been $12 richer by agreeing to my initial (seemingly logical) first request.

PS – Am I the only one that thinks it’s slightly odd that the only time in three years I have seen a Costco diaper outage just happens to be the first time there is a more expensive alternative? I’m really hoping that was random coincidence, although the cynic in me is slightly skeptical.

What would you have done in this situation? Do you have an example of customer service making or breaking a brand or store loyalty? 

 

What’s your one next action?

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A few weeks ago, I attended my first conference since I left the corporate world. I signed up for the World Domination Summit on a whim. I first heard about WDS two or three years ago from J.D. Roth, founder of GetRichSlowly.org. To be honest, I thought the whole thing sounded a little hokey, and over-the-top and had no interest in attending – even though it takes place in my backyard.

Last year I was a little more curious, but still thought it sounded a little out there. And with a newborn and a toddler, attending any type of conference or event was far from my mind.

This year, I was still skeptical, and thought tickets were insanely expensive. Then I saw the message that the “last tickets are going on sale this week!” And I saw that Michael Hyatt was going to be speaking. I’m a huge Michael Hyatt fan.

Scarcity mentality set in. So, I bought a ticket. Naturally. And then immediately started second guessing myself. What did I just spend that much money on? Is it going to be ridiculous? I can’t find much of anything specific about it except that it’s cool. And local. What did I get myself into? 

Of course, the last round of ticket sales coincided with the last days to change the name on a ticket. It was a done deal – whether I actually attended or not, there was no getting my money back. So I better show up and get the most out of it.

Then life got a little crazy and a lot insane. (Isn’t that how it always happens?) Next thing I knew, it was here. I hadn’t  had the time to do any of my normal obsessing and getting my hands on all the information I could. This turned out to be a really good thing, as I went into the weekend with no expectations other than to soak it all in.

Friday afternoon, I hopped in the car, dropped the boys off at Nana’s house and headed in.

I didn’t know a single person going to the conference. My “do I really want to be doing this?” fears kicked into overdrive as I trudged the sweaty blocks from the parking garage to the venue. (Did I mention that we were having a heat wave that weekend?) I walked in to my first event, a low-key meet up, and looked around for someone, anyone, to talk to.

A friendly face smiled at me.

Introductions were made, and get this: My new acquaintance lives in the town I grew up in, we did our undergraduate degrees at the same college and she currently attends the church I grew up in. Yes, it’s all in Oregon, but this is a conference that people fly in from around the whole world to attend. Later that afternoon I met people from Missouri, Kansas, New York, Holland, Denmark, California, Texas and I don’t even know where else.

But to have that many connections to the first person I met? You can’t make this stuff up.

 

One of the big themes of the World Domination Summit this year was taking action – specifically the next single action, brave thing or one thing that is going to move you forward.

This message hit me over and over in different ways from each of the speakers. In processing the weekend and recapping learnings, I realized that there are 10 key things I learned. Would you like to hear them?

The Top 10 Things I Learned at #WDS2014

  1. Take action.
  2. Imperfect action will always beat inaction.
  3. Move forward.
  4. Even when it’s scary.
  5. Take the next step.
  6. You’re not the only one who is afraid and uncertain.
  7. Take one action to move forward.
  8. Take one more action to move forward.
  9. Don’t talk about talking action, take action.
  10. No, really what’s YOUR one next action?

 

Disclaimer

The views expressed on this site are those of Sarah Parsons only, and do not represent those of any employer or client past or present with whom I have worked.