"All you have to do is simply make sure you and your team treats each customer one level above ‘crap’."- Nice Companies Finish First, page 156
I heard Peter Shankman speak at an Infusionsoft conference in April 2014, and when he said this statement (or a variation on it), I was blown away. Partly with relief, and partly because I realised how true it is. Shankman says, “Our typical expectation for a customer service transaction starts out at ‘poor’ and, if we’re lucky, ends at ‘fair’.” We have been told for years that we need to be exceptional, awesome, amazing. To blow people away with huge efforts and drastic customer service actions.
But Shankman says no, and it’s with huge relief that we can say, you know what? He’s absolutely right. The last time I was at even one of my favourite stores or companies, it was enough that they treated me well. They didn’t go overboard, and I didn’t even Tweet about my experience. But it went well, I was happy, and I will buy more from them in future.
"If it is a huge decision, I’ll take a vacation for a couple of days so I am capable emotionally and physically of handling any fallout."- Nice Companies Finish First, page 31
This is actually a quote from Michael Tompkins, president and general manager of Miraval Arizona Resort & Spa. And this was so critical, such a powerful message that is not being preached to business owners and leaders today, that I had to include it as a GEM. Because of the hurry-hurry, instant-access, now-now-now, 24-7 culture in which we are immersed, we believe the best choices we make are the fast ones. The instant ones. We feel we have ‘arrived’ as a business owner when we make snap decisions.
But now we’re reminded, refreshingly, that we are human. “Our human side comes before the business side,” Michael adds. “At first I’d get advice along the lines of not mixing personal with business, but…why not? I am the same at home as I am at work.”
This concept is integral to this entire book, and to Shankman’s entire life. I follow his blog, I read his Tweets and Facebook posts. He’s a real person. He sends photographs from his New York apartment, shares videos of his one-year old daughter. This is what our customers and prospects want – they want us to be real, living, human beings who have preferences, who share ideas, who (gasp!) make mistakes from time to time.
So in order to be the best human being you can be, get rest. Get sleep. Think about things for a few days. And then implement with focus and determination.
"There’s a big difference between being nice and being taken advantage of."- Nice Companies Finish First, page 6
It’s refreshing to know that Peter is not just telling us to be nice. If he stopped there, he wouldn’t have a successful business (or series of businesses, which he has), and neither would we. So many business owners’ greatest problem is being nice – too nice. Nice to the clients who treat you like rubbish. Nice to the team member who consistently shows up late. Nice to the supplier who never delivers on time.
Peter Shankman does not advocate being an idiot – he advocates being a nice guy (or gal), but reminds us not to be taken advantage of.
One of the ways he points out that you can ensure you are being nice and are not being taken advantage of is by having a system in place to track things. Track feedback. Track profits. Track products. Track team member time. Even the simplest system in the world (notes on your iPhone, an Excel spreadsheet, a Basecamp project) will have a huge impact on your business if you keep it up.
Nice Companies Finish First surprised me at first because of the heavy focus on how to manage team members or staff or people. I thought it would be more about principles to live and work by, with perhaps a chapter or two about dealing with employees. But by the end, I realised that Shankman has nailed it when it comes to being nice – it starts with those who are integral to making the business what it is. You can be the most profitable CEO or business owner on the planet, but if you’re not a genuinely nice guy (or gal), following Shankman’s nine traits, you will be shown up. “It’s a transparent world out there, so you really don’t have a choice. You have to be nice”, says Joel Bomgar, one of the case studies in the book.
The New York Times has called him “a public relations all-star who knows everything about new media and then some,”, while Investor’s Business Daily has labeled him “crazy, but effective.” Peter Shankman is a spectacular example of what happens when you merge the power of pure creativity with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and a dose of adventure, and make it work to your advantage. An author, entrepreneur, speaker, and worldwide connector, Peter is recognized worldwide for radically new ways of thinking about Customer Service, Social Media, PR, marketing and advertising. Peter is best known for founding Help A Reporter Out, (HARO) which in under a year became the de-facto standard for thousands of journalists looking for sources on deadline, offering them more than 200,000 sources around the world looking to be quoted in the media. HARO is currently the largest free source repository in the world, sending out over 1,500 queries from worldwide media each week. HARO’s tagline, “Everyone is an Expert at Something”, proves over and over again to be true, as thousands of new members join at helpareporter.com each week. In June of 2010, less than two years after Peter started HARO in his apartment, it was acquired by Vocus, Inc. Peter is currently a Principal at Shankman|Honig, a consultancy designed to help corporations, businesses, and retail operations create stellar customer service that resonates in our new “conversation economy,” driving revenue, repeat business, and new customers. Peter is also the founder and CEO of The Geek Factory, Inc., a boutique Social Media, Marketing and PR Strategy firm located in New York City, with clients worldwide. His blog, which he launched in 1995 at http://shankman.com, both comments on and generates news and conversation. Peter’s Customer Service and Social Media clients have included American Express, Sprint, The US Department of Defense, Royal Bank of Canada, Snapple Beverage Group, Saudi Aramco, Foley Hoag, LLP, NASA, Haworth, Walt Disney World, Abercrombie and Kent, The Ad Council, Discovery Networks, New Frontier Media, Napster, Juno, Dream Catcher Destinations Club, Harrah’s Hotels, and many, many others. Peter is the author of three books: Nice Companies Finish First: Why Cutthroat Management is Over, and Collaboration is in, (Palgrave/Macmillan, 2013,) Can We Do That?! Outrageous PR Stunts That Work–And Why Your Company Needs Them (Wiley and Sons, 2006,) and Customer Service: New Rules for a Social Media World (Que Biz-Tech 2010,) and is a frequent keynote speaker and workshop presenter at conferences and tradeshows worldwide, including South By Southwest, Affiliate Summit, BlogWorld, TBEX, The Public Relations Society of America, CTIA, CTAM, CES, PMA, OMMA, Mobile Marketing Asia, and the Direct Marketing Association. Peter sits on the advisory boards of several companies, all visible on the Advising/Investing page, and is honored to sit on the NASA Civilian Advisory Council, appointed to his position by NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. He’s also an angel investor, specializing mostly in very early stage tech and social media companies. A marketing pundit for several national and international news channels, including Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC, Peter is frequently quoted in major media and trade publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Daily News, The Associated Press, Reuters and USA Today. A proud Boston University graduate, Peter started his career at America Online as a Senior News Editor, helping found the AOL Newsroom and spearheading coverage of the Democratic and Republican 1996 conventions, which marked the first time an online news service covered any major political event. Born and raised in New York City, Peter still resides there with his beautiful wife and daughter, and NASA the Wonder Cat, all of whom consistently deny his repeated requests to relinquish the couch. In the few hours of spare time Peter has per month he’s completed 13 marathons, seven Olympic distance triathlons, two half-Ironman triathlons, and one full Ironman Triathlon. He’s also a “B” licensed skydiver with over 400 jumps. He’s currently training for the 2014 Louisville Ironman. In 2011, Peter authored a tweet that was voted as one of the Top Ten Tweets of the year by Twitter, out of more than 160,000,000,000 tweets sent.
