Transcript 0:00 [gentle music] We are on stage, both as parents and as leaders, and our employees are looking at us. If we show panic, they will panic. 0:11 If we show them confidence and that we w- and we are all gonna get through this, you know, and I do believe that there's gonna be a lot of major benefits that come out of this. 0:20 F- s- you know, social, you know, we're gonna appreciate... W- some of us, a lot of us will, will miss the days when we're all hunkered down, right? 0:29 We will talk about what good came out of it, as well as stepping up for our clients and showing them that it's not about enforcing the contract right now, it's doing what's best to help them keep their doors open or, you know, what's best for our customers and our employees, and that will go a long way with the emotional equity. 0:47 [upbeat music] Welcome back to The Peggy Smedley Show, the podcasting voice of IoT and digital transformation. Hello, listeners, and welcome back to The Peggy Smedley Show. 1:05 As always, I'm your host, Peggy Smedley. My next guest is actually gonna be a regular on this show. He, he is an author of five books on delivering exceptional customer service. 1:15 Several organizations across America use his philosophies and systems for creating world-class service. 1:21 Please join me in welcoming back John DiJulius, author of The Relationship Economy: Building Strong Customer Connections in the Digital Age. John, welcome to our show. Thank you, Peggy, for having me back. 1:35 I am pumped up. Well, you know what? 1:37 I am glad somebody's pumped up, because people are feeling a little bit stressed out, and you and I are gonna talk about how to bring down the stress a little bit, how people can kinda use this time right now. 1:49 We know the coronavirus got everybody a little over the edge right now, but we wanna calm them down and show them how they can use coronavirus crisis kind of as a way not to be freaking out, but actually how to manage their business during a time of stress a little bit. 2:04 So let's talk about that. W- w- we need to think about, you know, we've gone through sh- crises before. This is another one, but what are you trying to tell businesses? 2:14 What, what do they need to be doing for the customer experience right now? Well, you know, like, like anything, in any crisis, our customer experience and our employee experience is on stage. It's on center stage. 2:27 And how we react, you know, one of my favorite quotes is, is, "Tough times doesn't build character, it reveals it." Right? And, you know, it's revealing a lot of things right now, good and bad. 2:40 So, you know, we, we, e- I'm just reading and speaking to so many of my clients that are having challenges with... They, they had events coming up, conferences coming up, that they either have to reschedule or cancel. 2:52 And, you know, hotels, venues, convention centers are getting in these pissing matches, you know, still trying to enforce their six-figure, you know, um, you know, bill, uh, and arguing if it, uh, falls under force majeure, act of God, you know, you know, emergency crisis, and it's crazy. 3:12 This is gonna end, and customers and, and, and everyone is gonna wanna come back and eventually have these things, and they're gonna remember. 3:22 And no court and no judge is go- is going to enforce, uh, something like this, and you're just gonna get bad publicity. You know, the interesting point of this is there were so many cancellations. 3:34 I mean, the first one that I recall started with, you know, Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, and it just seemed like it was a domino effect, because it just... You know, what are you gonna do? And there's just... 3:44 I mean, I don't know how a court enforces this when there's so many. And thinking about this, I mean, w- in your mind, what are some of the, uh, good examples that people... 3:54 I- I mean, we've seen people handling it poorly. We're, we're talking about it. People are just doing things poorly. I mean, they're saying, you know, we're going to say to you, "Hey, you know, we're not... 4:03 We weren't enforcing it. We're making you pay." You know, and- Yeah... that's what they're gonna do. Tho- that's poor examples, right? That's just not stepping up and doing the right thing. 4:11 And one, one more poor example, the Southwest by Southwest, which is one of the hugest, uh, you know, events, um, in, in Austin. They, they canceled it. Right, they should. But no refunds under any circumstances. 4:25 I mean- No refunds for that. It's absurd, you know? Wow. And so anyway, but you're right. Let's talk about the good examples. Yeah. So, so there, there's an event that people knew that that was going... 4:35 I mean, you, you... They had... There was a lot of up... People knew leading up to that that that was bound to get canceled. So it's, okay, they canceled that, and now they're saying that. 4:44 But then let's turn it, let's flip the coin on this and say, what are some good examples? Who are really doing the right things to bring down the stress in this and saying, "Look, you know what?" 4:54 Who's actually kinda stepping up to the plate for a change and saying, "Look, we're gonna do the right things for the American people"? Yeah. I can't believe I'm saying this. 5:03 [laughs] I can't believe I'm using them as the example, but the airlines, right? There's three majors- Wait a minute. We were talking the airlines, right? [laughs] We're, we're flipping the switch here for a change. 5:11 Right. 5:12 The, actually, US airlines, with three majors, not just Southwest, but, you know, American, Delta, and, and United ac- were the first to take the lead and said, "Listen, you can reschedule or, or, or, or cancel with no penalty fees." 5:27 I mean, you know, how, how, how easy and nice and, and, and, and peace of mind is that? 'Cause that's the last thing that consumers and businesses need to be worried about right now. 5:38 So can we say they learned a lesson from what they didn't do in the past when people were just crazed that they had all these charges from having to cancel trips and family and things like that? 5:49 Or are they just saying, "Look, we do this now. 5:51 We're gonna get hit with some big, but maybe the goodwill is going to bring a lot of customers back who are gonna wanna make trips, who are gonna wanna go on vacations, who are gonna say, 'Look, I've got cabin fever. 6:02 I've gotta get the heck out of here. We've been inside too long, and we want trips, and we're gonna take a lot of flights.'"That's exactly it. Right now, in these times, you, you could do one of... 6:13 You're creating one of two things. Brand evangelists that remember what you did for them when they were at their most vulnerable, or, or brand terrorists, right? 6:22 [laughs] And, and, and we, we don't need brand terrorists doing brand assassination. They will have a long memory, and it's the same thing. I mean, and there... 6:30 I, I believe there's so much opportunity in this corona virus to show, and I don't mean opportunities to, to, to take advantage and sell. I mean, let's stop marketing. 6:43 Like, like, I am so annoyed by the emails and even, even on social media with all these, you know, traditional marketing. I, I don't wanna be pitched right now, but, you know, talk to me about things I can do. 6:56 Like, you know, we're, we're reaching out to our clients and saying, "We understand you gotta reschedule or cancel, and we're gonna support you. But here's what we wanna do for you. 7:03 We wanna, you know, put on webinars for, you know, the morale of your employees. At no charge," right? Or, you know, doing things for the less fortunate. 7:12 While everyone's affected, there's a lot of people, you know, poorer family, lower income families that, you know, now have, uh, you know, their kids at home, don't have daycare, probably aren't working, and they aren't used to, uh, uh, feeding their kids when the schools were. 7:29 So, you know, stepping up and helping i- in, in those cases really shows what you're made of right now. So how companies can be proactive with their customers, saying, "Look, we know these are hard times. 7:42 We wanna help you get through 'em, and we're gonna all get through it together. By doing things proactively, we're gonna all do things together." At 1,000%. A- a- and we... It has to start at home. 7:53 And what I mean at home is in our businesses. You know, w- you know, w- I have three companies and, and had to face some tough decisions. 7:59 My first business is a chain of upscale salons and spas in the Cleveland area, and we had to close them all yesterday. 8:06 And, you know, I have 150 employees that are scared to death, but they needed to hear from, from me that we are gonna get through this. We are, we are prepared. This isn't the first time, right? 8:17 9/11 and the great recession and, and, and the other crises that we've gone through, and we are prepared for this. 8:23 And I told them, I go, "I actually, in a strange way, like when, you know, everyone else is running around, you know, with their head cut off panicking. 8:33 I, I feel l- I'm at my best, and our leaders are at our best, that we can navigate and help us, you know, the companies, the brands, get back to where we need to be." And employees need to hear that right now. 8:46 You know, love or, or hate, you know, your politics, I'll never forget sitting, you know, on the day 9/11 happened, and when, when, uh, you know, George Bush came on, he, he made me feel better. 8:59 He made me see hope when it looked like there was no hope, and that's what great leaders need to do for their employees right now 'cause they are scared. They're 10 times scarier than we are. 9:09 So the leaders that guide, and that's what we want. 9:12 Leaders that get out there, that are in front, that say, "Look, let me tell you how we're going to get through these turbulent times," are the ones that put their employees at ease. 9:20 That say, "Look, we know it's gonna be tough. It's not gonna be an easy road, but look, this is what we're gonna have to do. We're gonna have to hunker down, and this is how we're gonna hunker down and get through it." 9:31 A- a- absolutely. A- and that doesn't mean that when, you know, after you deliver that message, you don't go into some closet- [laughs]... 9:37 and, and scream into a pillow and cry your eyes out and get in the fetal position. But, you know, we are on stage, both as parents and as leaders, and our employees are looking at us. If we show panic, they will panic. 9:51 If we show them confidence and that we w- and we are all gonna get through this. You know? And I do believe that there's gonna be a lot of major benefits that come out of this fo- s- you know, social... 10:02 You know, we're gonna appreciate... Well, some of us, a lot of us will, will miss the days when we were all hunkered down, right? 10:08 We will talk about what good came out of it, as well as stepping up for our clients and showing them that it's not about enforcing the contract right now, it's doing what's best to help them keep their doors open or, you know, what's best for our customers and our employees. 10:24 And that will go a long way with the emotional equity. I'm just saying, you know, we're supposed to keep separation. 10:31 Are we gonna find out we're gonna have a whole new birth of baby boomers, like after the war, after 9/11? [laughs] I mean, what's gonna happen here? I'm just saying- Right... 10:39 we're gonna have a whole new intimacy world going on. I think we're gonna see a lot of positive coming out of this. I mean, we have to look at the joyfulness out of all of these things. 10:48 You know, kids are spending more time with their parents. The dogs in the world, all the pets of the world are happy. Their, their pet owners are around. 10:56 I mean, we have to think positive about some of these things, right? I mean, I'm kind of looking at- We do. 10:59 I mean, I, I, we, we, as I, you know, mentioned earlier, you know, before we got on the call, w- we're, today, we're doing, me and my boys are doing the, uh, DeJulius Olympics, right? 11:09 We're, we're playing ping pong, we're, we're shooting baskets, we're playing pool, we're playing card games. We're creating a DeJulius family trivia game, right? 11:18 That, you know, these are all things we never have time to do. 11:21 And if you look at it from a business standpoint, there's all, all this stuff that we know that we as leaders need to do to, to, to, uh, innovate our businesses, but the daily minutia never allows us to do that. 11:33 Well, the minutia's gone. Now, we can focus on what is next in our business, and we don't have any excuses not to create it. I love it, bringing back all those board games. 11:45 The next time we talk, we're gonna have to find out who's winning in the Olympics. [laughs] The DeJulius Olympics. 11:50 All right, John DeJulius, author of The Relationship Economy: Building Strong Customer Connections in the Digital Age. Thank you for your time. 11:58 Where can our listeners go to always find out more about what you're doing, John? Uh, thedejuliusgroup.com. Thedejuliusgroup.com. All right, John. Thank you so much. 12:07 All right, listeners, that's all the time we have for today's show. Remember, we are broadcast live every Tuesday at 12:00 PM Central. Please check out our website at connectedworld.com or our show website. 12:18 But most importantly, you know what we want you to do, we want you to tweet at us. And right now, if you've got an idea or you wanna know what you can do, tweet at us, @connectedwnmag. 12:26 But most importantly, let's keep those conversations going. Just tweet me, maybe we'll answer some of those great questions you have. All right. 12:33 This is the Peggy Tiffany Show, the podcast for those who thrive on change and transformation. And remember, with great technology comes great responsibility. Have an awesome week, and stay healthy. [outro music]
