Dickeson--Warm Fuzzies vs. Cold Pricklies

Did the Big Boxes (Walmart and Home Depot) start it? I find it at every post office, at the Safeway, at the Department of Motor Vehicles, at church, at doctor's offices and hospitals—everywhere. Everyone's so darned helpful, courteous, attentive and friendly. (I don't know about New York cabbies, but maybe even they . . . no, that's too much!) It's all up close and personal these days. So huggy. And I love it.

Maybe it's a reaction to all those "Your call is important to us. Press five to talk to a human" impersonal answering machine messages. How I despise those. Maybe it's responsive to the impersonality of Internet "chat rooms" or e-mail "spam." Perhaps it's our opening skirmishes against takeover by robots—computers smarter than we are. Whatever.

It's the triumph of the Warm Fuzzies over the Cold Pricklies. If commercial printing is a service business, as I believe it to be, then every POC (point of contact) with a customer had better be warm and fuzzy—as courteous, helpful and attentive as possible. Pick up the phone and dial your own company number. What's the response? Warm fuzzy or cold prickly?

Go to your local Walmart. There's a kindly senior citizen in a blue jacket greeting you, smiling, offering you a shopping cart, giving directions. Ask one of the Home Depot people where some item is. The law of Home Depot is "Don't just point. Walk with the customer to the shelf, all the while chatting her/him up with personal concern for his/her plumbing problem or new wallpaper."

What we're learning is that customers, whether handsome and beautiful, or short, fat and homely, respond to warm, human interaction. A certain President you may have heard about retained his popularity, despite some naughtiness, by showing deep respect for people—his customers—and "feeling their pain." Maybe it all started with him. If we're in competition, as the USPS is with UPS, then we'd better provide it.

Start with this little exercise: Make a list of every POC opportunity your business has. Pass that list around, and let your colleagues add any you've missed. Even when you make a collection call for a delinquent payment, it's a POC, an opportunity to demonstrate respect and understanding. It must be genuine and not the phoniness of a recorded "Your call is important to us," or a tiresome "Have a great day."

Then get the gang together and talk about that list. Ask yourselves: "At each POC, what can we at Ajax Printing do to express attentiveness, concern, respect and even affection for our customers and their problems? How do we make it genuine?" Think about it. Talk about it. Even practice by doing it among each other at the company. Get infected and you'll transmit it to each contact.

Concentrate on your points of contact. Go hug your receptionist and customer service reps. They're the front-line troops fighting the Cold Pricklies.

Can you train yourself to be this way? Can you train others? Can you demand it? I don't know. Perhaps it goes to deep motivational values you either have or you don't. We must try. You're a printer and that's a proud and wonderful service opportunity to help people in their lives and businesses.

Nothing is new in what I'm saying. It's the degree of intensity and pervasiveness that has increased. As the Internet technology increases with e-commerce and B2B commerce, warmth in remaining person-to-person points of contact is increasing in direct proportion.

One recent industry newsletter reported that there were 40 new print brokerage startups on the Internet. A recent technology newsletter had an item on a breakthrough technology by a firm named TeraBeam: "wireless multigigabit optics." DSL is here now on phone lines. Cable is now connecting. Fiber optic cables are crossing oceans and continents. Wireless satellite transmission is available immed-iately. And now wireless laser optics. Toner and ink-jet printing are encroaching daily on traditional ink-to-paper, with forecasts reaching as high as 48 percent of traditional printing. Booksellers are beginning installation of print-on-demand book equipment. These initiatives are all happening at mind-boggling speeds. All those digits flying around!

Six months ago, I read Ray Kurzweil's "The Age of Spiritual Machines" (Viking Press, 1999) and shook my head in disbelief, even though his forecasts have been remarkably accurate. Machines more intelligent than humans? Come on, Ray!

Six months later, I'm not so sure. It's a quiet battle of humans against digits we're just beginning to wage. The weapons are Warm Fuzzies against the digital, Cold Pricklies. Think about it. Isn't it wonderful to be in a world where the battle is fought by out-nicing the competition to retain traditional markets?

If you can do it, you'll be able to tell the digits to "Have a bad day. Your call is not important to us. Press three and get lost!"

—Roger V. Dickeson

About the Author
Roger Dickeson is a printing productivity consultant based in Tucson, AZ. He can be reached by e-mail at Roger@prem-associates.com, by fax (520) 903-2295, or on the Web at http://www.prem-associates.com.