Look for resolutions, not roadblocks
by Jan Quintrall, President/CEO, BBB
jquintrall@spokane.bbb.orgfor the Spokesman Review, 09/06/09
Mediation is a beautiful thing to experience. Resolution creates a satisfaction that is hard to describe, as it builds – and perhaps even heals – relationships through working past existing problems to solution.
Watching a skilled mediator guide opposing parties from negatively impacted issues toward a positive goal is like a conductor bringing an orchestra to a resounding conclusion. Begin with the end in mind and most anything is possible. These talents we use every day at the BBB come in handy with many struggles of everyday life.
But even these wondrous skills can fall short if one party is hung on obstructing options at every turn. The most common time you encounter this type of resistant behavior is at the beginning of a project. You bring your goal to a table, and all this type will do is present: reasons why you will fail, regulations that state it can’t be done, or hoops you need to jump through that are often expensive and pointless. This is the person in a meeting who just sits back and brings up every possible problem that may or may not occur. They take the air out of your sails, and derail your train.
In this economic climate, creative thinking is essential to growth. Working with partners, employees and agencies that roll up their sleeves to figure out ways to make possibilities transpire is refreshing, and unfortunately, rare. Think back on all those who predicted Spokane’s Davenport Hotel renovation would be a miserable failure. Remember how many felt that the Coeur d’Alene Kroc Center would never be built?
Why, these days, are many so quick to ignore the potential of a project, only to focus on the pitfalls?
Let’s start with us. As leaders, are we actually looking for ways to make things work? Do we embrace ideas from our new, young staff members? Do we allow ideas to gain legs, try new approaches – even at the risk of failure?
If we all waited to make decisions until we were absolutely sure of the outcome, not much would ever get done, would it? When a client comes to you with something out of the ordinary, do you work to make it happen, or immediately slip into the rut of what could go wrong?
I regularly interact with hundreds of business people. It is simply one of the most fruitful dynamics of my job. Right now, there exists a great deal of frustration about “roadblocks.” Progress needs to be quick yet collaborative, but those two characteristics in partnership are in short supply. The three biggest areas of frustration are lenders, government agencies, and building departments. From a business owner’s perspective, they mostly find that these areas just say “no.”
Lenders, whether banks or credit unions, are being tied up by regulators. Caught in the middle by new legislation, they can’t be very creative until finances become more fluid. Are the regulators listening?
Government agencies and building departments are another story. The perception many have of these entities is that all they do is block progress by creating a lot of red tape. Some of the stories business people share with me about rules and conflicting department guidelines are so absurd they would be funny, were they not true. It has been said more than once that a majority of staff in some of these agencies is merely implemented to create roadblocks.
It is a sad commentary that business people approach government ready for a fight rather than traveling the road to resolution together. If we all went into planning with the mindset to keep an open mind and look for solutions, how much more we would achieve!
When I am faced with a roadblock mentality, and after I have little success moving them to collaborator, I simply sit back and ask them, “Can you help me make this happen by looking toward a solution?” I then pause and wait for their response. Sometimes, this pause allows them to hear themselves for once and quit putting up roadblocks.
The changing customer: Where do you fit?
by Jan Quintrall, President/CEO, BBB jquintrall@spokane.bbb.org
for the Spokesman Review, 09/20/09
At this time last year, my husband and I were enjoying day seven of our two-week Coast to Coast ramble across England. It was a record year for rain in that part of the world, and we hadn’t been dry for a week.
The paths we needed to find to get from village to village were under water. Everything took at least an hour longer than anticipated, and we were making up routes as we went along. I had no idea at that time what was happening in the financial markets in the U.S. We were in remote areas and quite focused on getting from point A to point B each day, our only guide a map that had little connection to the conditions we were facing.
That experience should have prepared me for the next 12 months.
Back then, in England, when we heard the news that Lehman Brothers had fallen, we could hardly believe it. It seemed impossible. We saw through British eyes, feeling disbelief that the one thing we all had thought could be counted on, the American banking system, was full of cracks. We were in shock, questioning everything.
A year later, our routes have altered just like those flooded paths. They will never be the same. We are all finding our way in areas that look different, in a world that may only slightly resemble the map. What a challenging adventure. Our customers are changing, also, and as businesspeople, we need to adapt to the new mindsets of the buyers.
People are still spending, just a whole lot more carefully.
•They are looking for affirmation that the product or service they select is the right one.
•The buying cycle is a bit longer, and fewer people spend on impulse.
•Trust continues to erode, which brings many potential customers back to basic values.
•Loyalty is easier than ever to lose.
And how do I know this? Just looking at the statistics for your local BBB as well as BBBs across Canada and the U.S. We often are a stop on that path to purchasing, and our numbers of inquiries are almost unbelievable.
The number of potential customers checking company reliability reports for a letter grade before they buy has risen 24 percent over last year, and 2008 itself was a record-breaking year.
But the big change we have seen is in the number of people looking for a list of companies in a particular industry who have earned BBB Accreditation. And they end up with that list in a couple of ways.
The Internet often is the first place people go when seeking a product or service — to Google, Yahoo, Bing or www.bbb.org. And that search method is bringing more and more people to the BBB. Which is a good thing. Those almost unbelievable numbers I alluded to earlier? From Sept. 1 though Sept. 14 we have delivered 4,807 assorted industry lists to potential buyers just from our area alone. We regularly exceed 20,000 such lists each month, and that is a 217 percent increase from a year ago.
But the industries are interesting. Some of the most requested industry lists this month include:
•Contractors, remodelers and home builders
•Used cars
•Plumbers, electricians, landscapers
•Banks
•Financial and retirement planning
•Insurance companies
•Debt and credit counseling
Some of the requests are for seasonal industries, but other business categories are showing up as just one more sign of that elusive consumer suspicion about certain industries.
In view of this new business climate, it would behoove us all to change with the changing customer, and be sure to do what you can to accommodate their new paths. When you get a new customer, start building the relationship with good communication, lots of contact and focused affirmation of why you are the provider of choice. Let them know at every turn what they gain by doing business with you. Let them know that you care, that you are listening and that you do hear them.
Like a coast-to-coast path, trust can be built or eroded every day.