Dear GetMoreCustomers reader: Stephen Covey said it to great applause. That you're most effective when you properly prioritize your time. And the way I remember it, his proposition seemed intellectual and complex...that big box divided into four sections with all those pages of explanation for each! But the gist was, Secret #1---do important and urgent things first.

He's right, of course. And all good things flow therefrom--including excellence in customer service. You'll find several intriguing formulas in this new book for maximizing high personal effectiveness (note: not high efficiency, which just means doing more stuff). It's called The 4-hour Work Week. Author Timothy Ferriss suggests if you truly want to become more effective, ONLY do the quadrant I stuff. And that means learning to delegate...and outsource.

Among other things, Ferriss says you must write your employees an email saying, “Keep the customers happy. If it is a problem that takes less than $100 [you pick the amount based on what your time is worth] to fix, use your judgment and fix it yourself.” Do you recall the times when a service person said something like, "Oh, I'm sorry, sir/madam, let me fix that for you right now"? Of course you do. Those are the golden customer service moments of our lives. You tell all our friends. You might even blog about it...

Assuming of course you’ve hired the right people–supervisors and employees with brains who care about the company and the customers–this alone should gain you a significant amount of time...time that you would have spent answering questions and giving permission. I love this quote, “It’s amazing how someone’s IQ seems to double when you give them responsibility and indicate that you trust them.” If it doesn't work that way with everybody, hire people it does work with.

Great advice: Set yourself up as information-free as possible–a huge challenge in today’s multimedia-ed assaultive world. Do you read newspapers and/or watch television news? My long-time personal favorite–stop. You’ll gain that time every day. And you’ll discover that if there’s anything you should know, you’ll find it out anyway. Set up specific times when you’ll read your email and check your voice mail–let people know what those times are, and then stick to them.

Read the whole article to learn what Smart Money says about Secret #2: outsourcing–including your blog and the 5 musts for doing that well....

Sincerely,
Barbara

P.S. Want to reach your customers more effectively? Ready to start that company blog but want help getting started? Give me a call. 216.472.8502 or 773.292.3294.