For years I have heard a simple phrase over and over and over concerning customer service.  (Or really anything I guess.)  I have heard it so many times in fact that I heard myself say it last week, twice!  In the same conversation!  I hope someday I can be forgiven.  And now for the phrase:

“We pride ourselves in customer service.”  You know, now that I type it out, I don’t even know if I am saying it right.  “in customer service…,” or “on…,” or “in our…,” I don’t even know.  But anyway you say it, it is a dumb thing to say.  And this is why.

You usually hear someone say this overused, misunderstood phrase in order to apologize for messing-up or exhibiting crappy customer service.  But regardless of whether or not you have just made a mistake and are trying to talk your way out of it, or have been brainwashed to think that this phrase makes you sound smart or cool, you should not ever say it.  The point of all of this is that “priding” yourself in customer service is a waste.  Actually be good at customer service.  Don’t tell people “I like customer service because I read in Forbes that good companies have good customer service,” but figure out how to actually HAVE good customer service and then go out and execute.  (Do it!)

It drives me crazy when I talk about how important doing something is with no, or little intention to actually do it.  Customer service unfortunately falls in this category sometimes.

The interesting fact is that there is a fine line between being exceptional at something, or just good at it.  The bad news is that we barely push ourselves that one more step to be exceptional.  The good news is that if you are good at something you are usually tantalizingly close to being exceptional at it.  If you just do it!

A strange phenomenon is happening in China dealing with travel and foreign visitors.  The Chinese government has literally started denying travel visas.  Business, tourist, student and work visas all alike.  (Although mainly business visitors.)  I do not really know what to think of this, and I think most of the foreign business population does not really seem to know either.  Call me naive, but I thought China was pretty high on rich, westerners coming to their country to invest, spend, invest and spend some more.  Is China really worried about us entering China legally and then not leaving?  Now I realize that the Olympics and China’s 19,887 Olympic fears has them in a tizzy these days, but still seems strange.  China during the Olympics is going to be nuts!

here are some articles I have run by on the subject:

Business Visas Restricted to Shanghai During Olympics

Olympic Paranoia clutches China

Immigration rules restrict business opportunities

I finally saw a Mac commercial that I did not like. For clarification, I don’t particularly like most of the Mac commercials I have seen, but I have not disliked them either. I saw one yesterday that I did not like.

The commercial itself was ok. It presented the build-up and suspense around a secretive “new” phone that was going to be the iPhone killer. Turns out this “new” phone is just the new iPhone. I thought this part of the commercial was fine, even kind of clever, except for the fact that the key sales point was that it is everything you like about the iPhone, but 2x faster and half as expensive. This is where I have a problem.

Yeah the handset it cheaper than it used to be, but the data plan has increased in cost 33%. The new iPhone is not cheaper at all, in fact it is $160 more expensive than the old iPhone. Do they really think we are that stupid? (Yes, they do.) So, if you bought your phone and never activated it you would truly have a sweet desk decoration at half the price of the old iPhone. But you can’t even do that. You’re not allowed to buy an iPhone and not activate it. (Unless you want to buy one on the black market.)

source: (Only one out of 997 out there) consumerist.com

It would be similar to if Honda sold you a “new” Civic for 8k that could only run on $13 per gallon “special” gas. I guess Americans jumped all over the subprime party, so why not market phones in the same way.

Market the iPhone because it is cool and because it is the best phone out there, but don’t sell it because it is 2x as fast and half the price of the old iPhone. Make more of those trendy iTunes commercials and call it a day. Don’t make stupid commercials that are deceiving, you don’t need to.

Excitement is passed, now what?

So we hired a PR guy, CNBC guys came from NY to visit, we displayed a new line of kick-butt office chairs at NeoCon in Chicago, created new marketing materials and hired an awesome designer to re-brand and build a new website, (which is coming soon) and there was a lot of excitement.

We are back from Chicago now and it is time to really get to work. But what do we do? It is not as idf there is nothing to do, on the contrary, there is so much to do it is hard to know what should be done first. Leading-up to NeoCon there seemed to be a ton to do too, but the difference was that we knew exactly what needed to be done and when. Now we are faced with mountains, and the excitement has somewhat worn-off. The rubber has hit the road and the work that we do know is really going to determine our success. It is now time to prioritize and get focused. (While including golf, motorcycles, traveling and camping into those priorities.)

Do Your Homework

By

Aaron Wong, CEO

AQI (Arrow Quality International)

Are you going to buy a house after the very first visit with no questions asked? Are you going to buy a car after only one test drive from the very first dealer you met? In the business world, there is a term called “due diligence”, which means to carefully investigate a business. Usual due diligence tasks may include finding out the financial history, past experience, company organization, and legal state of the company. You typically will not be able to find all of this information from your very first contact with a factory. It will take multiple contacts and a certain amount of time to complete proper due diligence. Factories are naturally skeptical of someone trying to find out detailed information about them.

There are many good factories in China; however, there are also many bad factories. With the advent of the internet, it is much easier for anyone to go global. What you must keep in mind is that this same technology also makes it easier for scams. You have got to also be very skeptical of factories you are in contact with. It will definitely be worth your time to do your due diligence with each factory to eliminate the factories that do not meet your needs, lack the experience, and are scams.

Some common questions to ask the factories you are interested in working with can include:

* Company. How long have they been doing business? How many employees

are working for them? What is the name, position title, email, and phone number of your factory contact?
* Supplier’s Supplier. Who supplies the materials used to make your products to the factory you are working with? You need to find out as much about your factory’s suppliers as you would about your factory. Mattel knew just about everything there is to know about their factory, but knew very little about their factory’s supplier.

* Work Experience. What type of products do they produce? What is the percentage breakdown of each product produced? What projects have they worked on in the past related to your project? (They may not drop names of specific companies. This is typical for privacy purposes.)
* Quality Control. What is there typical quality control procedure? How many times is quality control conducted during the

production process?
* Warranty Policy. What is their warranty policy for defective items? For how long is this warranty effective?
* Payment Policy. What is the down payment percentage and how is it to be paid? How and when is the remaining amount to be paid?

Great post by Seth Godin from a month or so ago.  As a marketer, it is always nice to be mentored.  Whether authors and bloggers realize they are mentoring or not, they are.  I have read this list a half dozen times since I first read it a year or so ago, and seeing that Seth has added some additional points at the bottom, and so I thought it would be nice to share.

I think each one of the points on the list could have a book written about them.  So take each one individually, and don’t go through it all at once and see it only as a list.  take some time and think about how each one can improve your business.

Source: Seth Godin, What every good marketer knows

I saved this post from a few weeks ago and wanted to share my thoughts on it.  In this post Seth talks about how the closer the consumer is to the pain, the more they are willing, and often are forced to pay for the good or service that they need.  In Seths post he says:

“The single easiest way to increase your fees is to get closer to the pain.”

I have been thinking about this idea a lot lately.  Lately at Seatability I have been trying to come-up with and identify the pain, or the void that motivates people to buy a Seatability bungee chair.  Going back to Godins statement above, I would make the argument that the same pain that is a motivator the closer the consumer gets to the pain is also the same motivator that comes into play at any time during the purchasing process.  Why do people buy your companies product?  The most basic answer is that your product fills a pain, or a need in their life.

If you can find that pain BEFORE they get close to the pain described in Godins post, you can afford to charge more from the very start.

Source: Seth Godin: Feeling the Pain

Jason Barber - Director of Marketing and Special Projects
422 North 1280 West Provo, UT 84601 jason@seatability.com		Tel: 1-800-715-3346 x501 Cell: (801) 830-1798 Fax: 1-888-412-2913

So back when Derek and I started Seatability he was the CEO, Chief Executive Officer, or the head guy and I was the COO, Chief Operations Officer, also a very important person in the organization. I became the COO out of necessity. Some one has to handle shipping right? It also might have had something to do with the fact that the original container of chairs was stored IN my house, and in order for them to leave I had to to do some logistics. So in the beginning I did help set up operations, but that was a long time ago. For the past couple years I have spent most of my time and talents in marketing and sales. So with that background I now announce that my title will slowly be changing to Director of Marketing and Special Projects.

Why special projects you may be asking, well here is why. In a start-up company, a title means nothing, or at least close to nothing. Tasks and responsibilities mean everything, but everyone does a little of everything. So now that we are a little bigger of a company with more developed (note I say more) positions I can say without laughing that I do spend “most” of my time on marketing. But there are still plenty of special projects, and they are what make me excited about being an entrepreneur. I don’t ever want to be tied down by a position or title. I just want to make Seatability awesome in any way possible.

Here it is -

Get Real

By

Aaron Wong, CEO

AQI (Arrow Quality International)

Can you expect to get gas for $1 per gallon? If you could, what would the quality of that gas be? My guess is a little bit of gas and a lot of water. Realistically, you would be expecting to pay a few dollars per gallon for gas. Making products in China relies upon the same principle as buying gas-you have to be realistic in what you will be paying to make your products. If you expect to pay pennies for your products, then that is exactly the type of quality you will get from your product.

Products can be made cheaper with very high quality in China; however, you must also remember factories still need to make money. If you are willing to pay only an unfairly low price for a product, then factories are going to reduce the quality of materials used in your products to make what you want at the price you request.

Consider the following suggestions when planning your manufacturing in China:

* Purchase more. China is a volume-based market and in order to get the best prices, you need to purchase larger volumes compared to manufacturers in the U.S. Factories will always have a minimum order quantity required. Consider purchasing more than the minimum in order to lower the price per unit. This will require additional cash in the beginning, but will pay off in the long run since you will be making more money per sale.
* Pay more for quality. With the minimum order quantities required by factories, you will be making your products cheaper; therefore, be willing to pay more for higher quality materials in your products. Not only will your products last longer, you will make more long-term customers because of your product quality.