How did the Apple iPod become a runaway bestseller out of the dozens of digital music players on the market? What made Proctor & Gamble’s Prilosec stand out on a crowded shelf of heartburn remedies? Why was a sleepy little Seattle savings and loan able to run roughshod over huge rivals to become a financial services powerhouse?

In a word, design.

It’s not just the design of the product itself that’s important, but the design of the entire customer experience — from the first time a customer handles, buys, or uses a company’s product or service through every direct interaction with the people and systems at the organization itself. These interactions are what I call Product, System, and Human TouchPoints. Their design and alignment are critical to the success of your brand. 

Every level of the customer experience must be carefully aligned — and built on a foundation of detailed research. If each level is not aligned, the entire experience can collapse like a house of cards.

Think like consumers.

Apple dominates digital music today not because they manufactured a digital player, nor because they had an online music site. They are the leader because they thought like consumers and solved music fans’ biggest problems by integrating players, software, and licensing agreements in a way that finally made it safe, legal, and easy to download music from the Internet.

You need to think like your customers or members — and only pointed, comprehensive research will give you the required deep understanding of their emotional needs. With research in hand, you can creatively design your Product, System, and Human TouchPoints in ways that will differentiate you from your competitors.

Indeed, the CEO of one of the world’s most valuable brands is intensely focused on design. Proctor & Gamble’s A.G. Lafley once told Fast Company that he wants “P&G to become the number-one consumer design company in the world.” Under Lafley’s guidance, P&G had a parade of hits, ranging from Prilosec (which P&G differentiated by making it “The Purple Pill”) to perfume carrying the name of fashion icon Valentino, to the Crest Spin Brush. The latter, a $3 electric toothbrush that entices kids to brush longer, quickly captured a 20 percent market share. It starts with articulating a brand promise, based on research into customer expectations. Your brand promise must differentiate your products and services from the competition’s in ways that are relevant to your customers. After articulating a unique brand promise — an overpromise — you must then design your TouchPoints to overdeliver.

I phoned my credit card company recently and was told by an automated voice to punch in my card number, my zip code, and my Social Security Number. Then the associate came on and asked for the same information all over again.

Late one evening, I made a deposit at an ATM. When I phoned the bank the next morning, I learned that the deposit would not be transferred from the ATM location until 4 p.m. that day, and would not be credited to my account until the day after that.

What emotions do you think these experiences evoked?

In my book, Overpromise And Overdeliver, I describe a process for thinking about your brand and your TouchPoints that will help you create an overall design that delivers a superior customer experience.

Provide more than just service.

The customer experience starts well before customers enter your bank or credit union. It may begin with a conversation about finances at the office or a poker party. It may start when a young woman is contemplating buying a car and asks around for the best place to get a loan. It may start when a first-time homebuyer is researching mortgage rates on the Web. Or it may begin when someone wishing to open a checking account is circling your bank, unable to find a parking place.

Design with different audiences in mind.

Remember that “design” means to create for a particular purpose.” All customer experiences in your branches should not be the same. A business checking account must be designed differently from an account intended for a senior citizen. Needs differ — and so should the design of Product, System, and Human TouchPoints. They must reflect account holder differences and the brand differences you want to project.

Your TouchPoints must also reflect the true philosophy and personality of your institution or they will ring hollow with account holders — who will rapidly reject them as fake.

To demonstrate the proper alignment of Product, System and Human TouchPoints around a particular customer set, let’s look at two hypothetical designs for a checking account:

1. When designing a checking account to fulfill the needs of elderly customers, you might consider offering automatic transfers from retirement or asset accounts, bill paying by phone instead of online, large-print statements and duplicates for children or caregivers, and a fixed fee tied to income. The bank employees who handle these accounts should be trained to remain patient, to slow the process when necessary, and to be aware of other special needs these customers may have.
2. A checking account designed for a business, on the other hand, might include a cash-sweep feature to ensure maximum return, online bill paying, real-time reporting, a free online subscription to The Wall Street Journal, and a fee tied to account balances or one calculated as a percentage of the business savings you generate for these customers. The employees handling such accounts should be efficient, fluent in business-speak, and capable of speeding up the process when necessary.

I’m sure you noticed how all TouchPoints change to reflect the needs of the customer being served. It is this alignment that makes each experience valuable to each type of customer.

It’s this alignment that makes customers say, “Wow, they really get it! They understand me!” Loyalty and profitability are sure to follow when you have aligned the design of your TouchPoints. Success will be in your cards, too.

Rick Barrera is a nationally acclaimed author, marketing consultant, and speaker known throughout the Fortune 500 for his unique approach to brand building. He has helped hundreds of companies re-design their systems and implement a holistic approach to customer service. His client list includes Abbott Labs, AutoZone, Bayer, Caterpillar, IBM, Intel, Merrill Lynch, and Verizon. His latest book Overpromise and Overdeliver: Secrets of Unshakable Customer Loyalty, recently debuted at number 10 on The Wall Street Journal bestseller list.
©2005 Deluxe Financial Services, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
©2005 Rick Barrera. All Rights Reserved.

by Michelle Casto

                They sit around waiting for Mr. or Mrs. Right to come knocking on their door, without doing much to prepare themselves for the special gift of love. If this sounds like you---- it is time to Get Smart!

We seem quite inept in choosing life partners. One only has to take a look at the current divorce rate to see that we have not developed effective decision making skills when selecting mates.  This is not only due to a general lack of education on the subject, but also because of the lack of selection criteria and the habit of making premature romantic decisions.   However, lives and families do not have to be broken.  All that is needed is enough people making smarter decisions.  Is this wishful thinking?  Not really, because as we move towards the new age, more people want to make better decisions and live a higher quality life.

The societal pressures to have someone are pervasive.  We are inundated with images and messages that life is just not complete until you find that someone special, which leads us to ponder what to do in the meantime?

Liz Smith once said,  “Love is the outreach towards self completion.”   As you are more able to love yourself and others, the more complete you will feel.  If you want more love in your life, be more loving.  Share more of yourself with the people already in your life.  The law of attraction says that like attracts like, then it follows that love attracts love.

Why not improve your own life---- polish yourself so that you shine and sparkle?

I once read a card that said “The arithmetic of love is unique.  Two halves do not make a whole.  Two wholes make a whole.”  In the meantime, you can be working on making yourself to become the best you can be.  By working on your own issues and becoming the kind of person you seek, you set the stage for meeting that special someone.  And when love comes into your life, you will then be ready and willing to experience it on a higher level.    

                 Things to Know About Modern Love

                It’s been said that love makes you blind and can often trick you into thinking that you really have love.  All too often, the illusion of romantic love leads people down roads that turn out to be wrong turns or dead-ends.  How can you spot the difference?  By tuning into what your intuition is telling you.

Finding real love means learning from your past mistakes and requires that you develop an open mind and heart, patience, and a willingness to let go of worn out belief systems and limiting thought patterns.  It also requires setting aside your ego, and letting your soul be your guide.

If you have been lead astray time and time again, you are most likely allowing your ego to make your love decisions. If you consistently rely on a lack of sense, clarity, and vision of what you desire, you will miss your mark every time.  If you want to find real love, you must look at what needs to change (within you),  visualize the kind of love you desire, and then consciously work on creating it.

Our way of living has evolved dramatically, yet our way of loving seems to be stuck in the romantic era.  Many people still believe in the knight in shining arm concept of love, which is completely misleading to millions of people.  If you too would like to find ultimate love, you must learn to love in a more modern, equal, and enlightened way. 

Another key aspect in finding real love is an awareness of what you think about love.  Do you perceive love as choice or chance?  Do you believe that you deserve to have love?  Or do you believe that love is only for the lucky ones?  Indeed, you may need to clear some mental programming in order to find the kind of love you are seeking.  There is a saying in the Unity church that “thoughts held in mind reproduce in their kind.” So just by thinking that you are worthy and deserving of real love can help bring it into your life.   Thinking about love also involves knowing it when you see it, so developing your own definition will enable you to recognize love when it magically appears. 

 Romantics will not like reading this, but love is a practical matter.  There are only a few people on this earth who will fall in love at first sight and live out the rest of their lives together as a couple.  For the rest of us, we need something more to go on than pure destiny and hope.  The Get Smart! approach is about learning to utilize your decision-making skills and to spot trouble ahead of time, long before you find yourself in an unhealthy relationship. Smart people know that giving yourself away too soon can deplete you of your ability to love in the highest way.  Being smart means saving yourself for the right person and then experiencing the romance that develops naturally.

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Dr. Michelle is known as the Soul Diva Coach, Speaker, and Author.  Michelle knows that there is a divine spark within each of us.  Her life’s work is to empower herself and others to fully shine their bright light, master their life, and share what she learns along the way.  She helps you to see the light, come up with bright ideas for your life, integrate your humanity and divinity, and shine more brightly in all dimensions of your life. 

A recent study published in the European Heart Journal cited 8.5 hours as the average time most working Americans sit each day!  Over that period of time, we start to slouch. This affects the low back because we are sitting in the reverse of the natural curve of our back. It affects our neck because we are encouraging the dreaded dowager's hump.  Most back pain issues come from ligament and muscle strain or weakness.  Sitting properly at a desk or when we are driving, stretching to break up prolonged sitting in one position and strengthening of core and back muscles , all make a huge impact on posture. 

If you're reading this , I bet you are sitting taller with your shoulders back right now! Being conscious of your posture is key. Remember the old adage, you can't correct the problem unless you know you have one?
There are a multitude of exercises to correct posture out there but until you become conscious of your posture in sitting and standing, you won't be able to exact a change.

Proper positioning of the computer: the screen should be eye level, the desk height should allow the forearms to rest comfortably at 90 degrees, feet should be flat on the floor with your back against the chair. Set an alarm on your phone or clock to remind yourself to get up every 20-30 minutes to do the following stretch. Standing with your hands on your hips , like your putting your hands in your back pockets, pull your chin in and squeeze your elbows together. Repeat 10 times.This position puts you into the natural inward curve of your neck and low back. Keeping a rolled towel behind your low-back and the back of a chair or car seat also helps to maintain your natural lumbar curve.

Taking core strengthening classes like Pilates and stretching class like Yoga are just two of the many ways you can learn to recognize and release tension that may be habitual that interferes with good posture.

Are you still slouching after all this information? The European Journal of Social Psychology did a study of people told to sit up straight vs. people told to slouch performing a specific task. The ones with the good posture said they had more self-confidence vs. the ones that slouched.

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Nancy Whelan, PT , is the owner of the West Palm Beach Physical Therapy Center . Physical therapists are licensed professionals qualified to treat a variety of conditions such as arthritis, auto and sports related injuries, fractures and joint replacements, back pain, muscle sprains/strains and repetitive use injuries as well as postural problems that may cause neck, back and arm pain.

When you start to feel chaos in your head because you have taken on too much or simply because you are overwhelmed or stressed, it is important to tune into your body. We all know that the body takes on the stress we feel in the mind, as evidenced by the ailments and symptoms that crop up when we are stressed. But did you know that your body also holds within it the answers you seek? You just need to learn to listen.

Sometimes we go about our lives pushing ourselves to do more and more because “we have to.” But who says? Today, I released a “have-to” and I let in a new choice. When I did, I felt unexplainably lighter. It was like my body was holding onto the stress so deeply and then the instant I allowed in the possibility of letting that “have-to” go, my body just released all that stress. Instantly I knew I had made the right decision because it was evidenced by how much better my body felt.

Take the time to tune in – let go of the voice inside your head telling you that you “have-to” do things that are stressing you. Allow in new possibilities and then let your body tell you which choice is the right one. You’ll be glad you did!

________________________________________________________

Faith M. Davis is an internationally recognized author, an artist, and a copywriter and marketing professional with a background in life coaching. She uses words and art to transform lives through 1) Freelance Writing, Copywriting & Marketing for the Holistic Industry: www.faithmdavis.com, and 2) Enchant ~ Designs for the Soul: www.enchantgifts.com.

What does it take for a person with chronic illness to continue working ?  And, if possible, to do so in a rewarding way?  I've wrestled with  this personally for over 30 years, and more recently in my professional life as a coach/writer/activist of sorts in the past 10 years.

A recent New York Times article profiled a  self-described "high powered executive" with schizo affective disorder .  Against all odds, she discovered for herself that the best medicine for her is an intense work environment.  The very idea defied what everyone around her believed.

The article cites recent research on a small group of high achievers living with this diagnosis.   '“It’s just embarrassing,” said Dr. Stephen R. Marder, director of the psychosis section at U.C.L.A.’s Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. “For years, we as psychiatrists have been telling people with a diagnosis what to expect; we’ve been telling them who they are, how to change their lives — and it was bad information” for many people.

Sound familiar?  So what can the rest of us learn from this?

1. There's much to learn from others living with a chronic health condition.   Don't be fooled by a diagnosis.  In my coaching practice, working with more than 300 people living with all forms of chronic illness, I've found that most disease symptoms bring on some debilitating level of fatigue or pain.  And it's these defining experiences that hurt performance.  Isn't that what matters?

(If only researchers shared more of their findings among different disease and branches of medicine,  science would move much more quickly to finding sources and cures of disease. )

3.   You are responsible for figuring out what you can and cannot do, what is 'good for you' to do and what harms you. Yes,  that's hard.  When your healthcare practitioner (your psychiatrist, surgeon or acupuncturist, you name it)  tells you what you 'need' to do to 'take care of yourself', you should listen and try it.  But as you test this out keep an open mind to question if this is right for you.

3.   Stress comes in many forms and each of us has to figure out what it means .  We all  have different tolerance levels for stress.  It affects people differently and it can affect each of us differently at different times.   Let's say you believe that your job makes your health worse because it's  'stressful'.  Ask yourself:

• Does this mean that all work is "stressful"  for you?
• Are you working in a high stress environment (everyone finds it to be so) or is this your unique response to the stress that exists there?
• Is there another way to look at the 'stress' so it doesn't feel harmful?

Bottom line?  Life is a teaching opportunity.  What are you learning from it?

Building on her experience living with chronic illnesses, including multiple sclerosis and ulcerative colitis, Rosalind Joffe founded the career coaching practice, cicoach.com. Dedicated to helping others with chronic illness develop the skills they need to succeed in their careers, Rosalind firmly believes that living with chronic illness does not preclude living a full and successful life. 

Each year in January, the National Western Stock Show comes to Denver and takes over the town.  The Stock Show is a Denver tradition.  It features the highest paying indoor rodeo in the world.  Farmers and ranchers from all over the Midwest and West come to view the exhibits and see the latest in farm machinery and veterinary technology.  Kids exhibit the animals they’ve raised.  McDonald’s purchases the prize steer.  The young man who raised this year’s winner won $50,000 for his efforts.  Cowboys flock to the local bars and restaurants.  All in all, it’s a pretty cool thing – an event that has been going on for over 100 years and something that defines Denver in January.

You’re probably wondering why I’m telling you all of this.  There is a reason.  The Denver Post got into the Stock Show tradition and did a feature on a book called Cowboy Ethics: What Wall Street Can Learn from the Code of the West.  It’s written by James P. Owen, a retired Wall Street exec who is now a professional speaker on investments.  I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that these days Wall Street could use a dose of ethics – cowboy or otherwise.  Think Bernie Maddoff who defrauded investors of over $50 billion, or John Thain, the Merril Lynch CEO who paid bonuses to executives who ran a company that lost $15 billion dollars in the last three months of 2008, and spent $1.2 million redecorating his office.

James lists 10 principles for finance professionals that he says are part of an implicit code of the old west and “borne from both the need for rugged individualism and a sense of how a community can take care of itself.”  I think these ten principles provide a great guide for how to build and maintain strong relationships.  See for yourself…

1. Live each day with courage.
2. Take pride in your work.
3. Always finish what you start.
4. Do what has to be done.
5. Be tough, but fair.
6. When you make a promise, keep it.
7. Ride for the brand.
8. Talk less, say more.
9. Remember that some things are not for sale.
10. Know where to draw the line.

James autographs Cowboy Ethics with the words “Ride tall.  Shoot straight.”  This is great common sense advice for building the types of relationships that will help you create personal and professional success. 

The common sense point here is simple.  Successful people are interpersonally competent.  Interpersonally competent people build strong, lasting relationships with the people in their lives.  Cowboy Ethics provides some excellent advice on how to build and maintain high quality relationships.  There are ten points in the Cowboy Ethics code, but they can be summed up quite well in four words: Ride tall.  Shoot Straight.  Ride tall. 

Be proud of who you are, what you do, and how you do it.  Shoot straight.  Be honest and straightforward.  Keep your promises, don’t sell your soul for a few (or a few billion) dollars.That’s my take on the National Western Stock Show, cowboy ethics and building high quality relationships.  What’s yours?  Please leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud

Recently, my daughter, Lucy,  a legislative aide to a New York City Council Member, contacted another Council member's legislative counsel, Q.  When Lucy didn't hear back after a few days, she contacted another member of his office. Not long after, Lucy got an email from Q explaining why he had been unavailable.  He had been on a short sick leave because of multiple sclerosis (MS).

Would you tell a colleague, whom you don't know well, that you were unavailable because of a chronic illness?  I'll bet not.  Maybe you're even thinking: "Are you nuts?  Why not just sign me up for unemployment?"

Q didn't know that Lucy's mom lives with MS, blogs about chronic illness and is a chronic illness career coach. So I can only assume that he isn't worried about telling people.  I haven't spoken with him but I have a hunch that he feels secure that acknowledging that he has MS won't jeopardize what people think of him.  Or maybe he feels that even if it does, it's not worth hiding it.

Also in that conversation --  in which he shared his story with illness and Lucy shared that her Mom lives with the disease -- he asked Lucy to sign up to walk in the New York City Walk for MS with him.  And she agreed.  This is the first time that Lucy has raised $ for MS (she's focused on other equally important issues, notes her proud mom).

My point?   Not only did Q demonstrate that you can choose not to hide that you live with a chronic illness -- but when you don't, there might be other unintended, positive consequences.  He recruited another fundraiser!

FYI: I'm not ADVOCATING random disclosure.  Plan first.  Check out my booklet Are You Talking? on my website first for some good ideas.

Building on her experience living with chronic illnesses, including multiple sclerosis and ulcerative colitis, Rosalind Joffe founded the career coaching practice, cicoach.com. Dedicated to helping others with chronic illness develop the skills they need to succeed in their careers, Rosalind firmly believes that living with chronic illness does not preclude living a full and successful life. 

by Anneli Rufus

Martha Stewart is a perfectionist.

"I don't think you can really be an excellent teacher unless you are a perfectionist," she told myprimetime.com. "Einstein - wasn't he a perfectionist? I would think so. His theories had to be perfect to work."

In this high-performance culture, we have a troubled relationship with perfectionists. We make heroes of them, we savor the fruits of their labors - and we call them kooks and laugh at them.

When the perfectionist burning the midnight oil for our benefit is Einstein - or Edison, or Michelangelo - it's one thing. When the perfectionist is making confectionery snowmen with every coconut-shred snowflake and marshmallow top hat in place, it's entirely another.

"I pay lots of close attention to detail," Stewart says in her own defense. "But if you're making a Christmas wreath" and you don't do it perfectly, she reasons, "it will look pretty hideous on television, in the pages of the magazine, on the Internet, and even describing it on a radio program. I would be embarrassed if it were sloppy. I'd be embarrassed if it were ill-made."

Priorities in the wrong place? Well, the girl can't help it. And in case you hadn't noticed, all those perfect wreaths have made Martha a very rich girl.

"My name's on everything. My name is now synonymous with 'Good Living,' with 'Well-Done Projects,' with 'Beautiful Objects,' with 'Wonderful Merchandise,' and I consider myself responsible for anything with my name on it."

And while "it doesn't even occur to me to slow down, to stop, to rethink," the perfectionism that turned a Connecticut catering business into a multimillion-dollar empire has had its costs. Stewart's famous divorce, for instance, was not "a good thing."

Because the focus of her perfectionism happens to be, of all the passé disciplines, homemaking, it's good for a laugh. But clearly somebody out there yearns to make ornaments out of pears and glitter - millions and millions of somebodies. It's just that nobody wants to admit it.

Being the butt of all those jokes doesn't bother Stewart much. She takes it to the bank. And while "I've always said that I could parody myself better than anyone," (nothing ironic about that one) deep down she is dead serious about pom-pom garlands.

That's a key to success that we would all do well to own. Fussing and tinkering and erasing and rewriting until we get it right yields a satisfaction unlike anything else in the world. Those people snickering at you are just jealous.

"Intensity really can help get things done," says Stewart, who once said on Oprah that she could bend steel with her mind.

"I want to be known as a perfectionist. Any of the great professors are perfectionists. They demand perfection of their students. And my mission is to teach as much as I can about as much as I know, and to learn even more."

Perfectionism, as she sees it, is a kind of altruism. "I am my customer. I am my reader. I am my viewer. I am my Internet user."

Up all night working on that eggshell oeuvre or that bongo symphony? Your empire might be right around the corner.

by Paul Wolf

In his classic self-help book, Handbook to Higher Consciousness, Ken Keyes Jr. says the reality for everyone who walks this earth is, "You win some; you lose some."

Confidence isn't about expecting to win always. That's unrealistic. Confidence is a blending of optimism, hopefulness, self-reliance and freedom from inhibition.

Here are nine ways to build confidence:

1. Create a positive attitude. Optimism breeds confidence. Start thinking positively, and eventually you will act more confidently.

2. Set specific goals. It's hard to go after what you want if you haven't defined your goals. Write them down,  the more detailed description, the better.

3. Rehearse."The pianist doesn't play on inspiration alone," says self-esteem guru Jerry Minchinton. Anyone who has doubts about doing something right can benefit from rehearsals.

4. Act confidently (no matter how you feel). Pessimists are passive instead of active, which creates a vicious circle in which lack of achievement and low self-esteem reinforce each other, writes Bob Arnot, M.D., in The Biology of Success.

5. Take risks. The inability to act comes from an insistence on certainty, says cognitive therapist Michael Edelstein. Remember, the world offers no guarantees.

6. Give in to periodic struggles. What's effortless doesn't build confidence.

7. Review successes and failures. It's obvious that yesterday's successes are worth studying, but our failures are often more instructive.

8. Accept others. By recognizing we are all only human, it becomes easier to take risks.

9. Remember what's important. When Isaac Stern took his violin on stage, he could have thought, "I am getting a little too round in the middle." But you can bet the classical music legend's main thoughts were on the eternal beauty of Mozart. When you feel a lack of confidence, remember this: The mission is always more important than the man.

by Michelle Casto

In this time of accelerated pacing of online business, with all the tools, techniques, and technology we can use to “automate and monetize our businesses,” we can often get overwhelmed and not know what to do.  

When this happens to you, and you need to see more money flowing into your account, it pays to return to the old-fashioned human touch approaches.  Here are some ideas to get you going:

1. Give, Give, Give.   Be like bakers of old times who would throw in an extra loaf of bread.

2. Add true value    What can you add to the conversation in the form of information, education, or promotion that will help someone else?

3. Have a well developed set of scruples    Know who you are, what you value, & what you are willing to do.   Stand strong in this place and resist getting pulled into the HYPE.

4. Express appreciation and gratitude    Say “Thank you, I appreciate you” to those you serve and who support you.

5. Work on your inner game      Deal with gremlins, ghosts, and goblins of past and become as clear, clean, and pure of heart as you can. Develop a toolkit of mental and emotional  processes that you can do when you get triggered.

6. Learn that skill that you have been putting off    Now is the time to learn something new , learn it. 

7. Join a targeted social networking group   Start making friends and influencing people because this helps you to know them and them to know you, which is mutually beneficial.

8. Express yourself    To be seen as an expert, you must voice your opinion about your area of expertise.  Write an article, be interviewed, or give a speech on your favorite topic.

9. Write out a 90 Day Plan and execute it.  This keeps your plan focused, fluid and flexible, as things are ever-changing online.

10. Get the help you need when you need it    Being self-employed means being willing to reach out for help?   Read that book, hire a coach, invest in training, etc.

11. Offer a special promotion.    When you give people a  good why, they will often buy.

12. Know your WHY Why are you in business , why do you do what you do, the way you do it?  

13. Master-Mind    Connect with a group of people and watch the magic happen.

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Michelle L. Casto is known as The Soul Alignment Life/Business Coach, because she delves deep into the client’s heart to see what wants to be seen and expressed.   Michelle’s coaching practice is Brightlight Coaching. http://www.brightlightcoach.com