CarusoBlog

Deliver Trustomer Service Or Take Delivery on Negative Word-of-Mouth

Composed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana--

I called a tele-seminar vendor to inquire about what looked to be a double billing on a recent invoice.  An account representative saw that an error had occurred.  She didn't offer an explanation, perhaps because she wasn't embarrassed.  She didn't offer an apology, perhaps because she hasn't had sufficient training.   

Instead, the rep responded as if the call were some kind of game show.   "You're right," she said, "We'll issue a credit."

As I explain in my audio FastLearnerAudio2 program on customer service, trust plays a critical role in customer service.  When trust is betrayed, reps should not take the issue lightly because they are on the verge of losing a customer and engaging the dreaded flywheel of negative word-of-mouth.

I trusted the vendor to only charge me "x" and if I hadn't caught the mistake they would have charged me"2x."

Recently, a major hotel chain wanted to charge me for a room even though I had canceled well before the cancellation time and date.  When I protested, the representative gave me a homework assignment and asked me to contact their billing department. 

Call me old-fashioned, but I think someone from the hotel should contact the billing department.  It was, after all, their mistake.

The tele-seminar vendor was quick to issue a credit.  The hotel made things right, but only after a high-ranking person in their district office got involved.  Now I wonder if I can trust either company to look after me next time.  If there is a next time.  Customer service is trustomer service.

The Osmonds and the Carusos Were the First Boy Bands

Composed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana--

The Osmond family is celebrating 50 years in show business.   They've had  dozens of gold records and are still red-hot in the United Kingdom, having recently sold out Wembley Stadium in 24 hours. 

Everyone knows that Marie Osmond was on last season's Dancing With the Stars.  Donnie, I'm told, is close to signing a long-term deal to perform in Las Vegas.

You may know that my brothers and I emulated the Osmond brothers in our early years as the Caruso brother band.  We thought we were hipper than the Mormon family, but who didn't?  Anyway, the sibling connection wasn't lost on us.  The media loved the angle and we got tons of local and regional press.

I'm sure that all the time I spent in front of rock 'n' roll audiences helped prepare me for a career in the speaking business.  What do you think?

My brothers and I informally sing together once in a while.  Dave, Rob and I had some musical fun over the holidays at Rob's beautiful waterfront home in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

I Met Bob Seger the Other Day

Posted from Royal Oak, Michigan--

I've met a lot of famous people in my life, including George H. W. Bush, Rick Springfield, Mike Love of the Beach Boys, Joan Jett and Anthony Robbins.  I tell how and where in How to Network Like a Pro, which is part of the FastLearnerAudio3 program.  Anyone can do this networking thing.

Anyway, I had the pleasure of meeting Bob Seger this week.  It was at the dentist, of all places.  He seems like a nice guy, very unpretentious and conversational. 

I don't think our meeting was an accident.  One of the secrets to good networking is being in the right place at the right time.  My dentist (the best dentist in North America) is an implant specialist who happens to be a "celebrity dentist."  A lot of Detroit area notables see him, so I'm more likely to run into these types of people in Dr. Banda's waiting room.  Pretty cool.

No End in Sight for the Raging Steroid Controversy

Posted from Royal Oak, Michigan--

You might say that baseball's steroid controversy is raging. 

Before "'roid rage" became a sound byte, I remember a pitcher named of John Rocker who had a smack down with a reporter in public.  At the time, baseball fans were muttering, "He needs an anger management course." 

It turns out that Rocker is on the long list of steroid users.  So is Rocket Roger Clemens.  When I read his name on the list, I wondered what in the world he would say to his kids. 

The next day, Clemens answered my question by issuing a public statement denying that he used illegal drugs.  Aaah, so that's what he told his kids.

Andy Pettitte was quick to offer this unusual apology.  "I'm sorry I used steroids for two days."

I expect the next round of denials to be something like:  "I only used steroids for two minutes."

The steroid controversy is big news in baseball, but only moderate news in cycling (Floyd Landis) and track (Marion Jones).  Juice was only passing news in the wrestling world when Chris Benoit died.

I suspect we're going to hear a lot more about 'roids in football and basketball as this thing plays out.  Regardless of the sport, many athletes will blame personal steroid use on their trainers and doctors.  Many of the accused have already said things like, "I didn't know what was in the syringe."

The "I didn't know" defense is compelling.  Now that I think about it, I can't be sure what's in the syringe my doctor uses when he gives me a shot.

Getting the "shooters" to play ball isn't going to be easy until prosecutors start offering immunity.  Barry Bonds' trainer, Greg Anderson, has been jailed twice already for refusing to cooperate with authorities.

The Best Part of My Job--Teaching Others What I Do

Posted from Royal Oak, Michigan--

I've had some great success in the publishing business.  The speaking business has been even more kind to me.  And in 2007, my consulting business grew by at least 50%.  Imagine having a triple revenue stream from writing, speaking and consulting.

The concept of a triple revenue stream was initially introduce to me by Dottie Walters, grand dame of the speaking business and a great person.  Unfortunately, Ms. Walters passed away on Valentine's Day of this year.  Her book, Triple Your Income, encouraged me to think big.  I've just announced an event in Las Vegas where l'll teach people to do what I do. 

I don't view other speakers and authors as my competition so I don't mind sharing my trade secrets.  In fact, these types of events have become the most rewarding part of my job. 

The conference in Las Vegas on February 15 and 16 is for anyone that wants to become a speaker, author or consultant.  I'm sure there'll be people who have achieved various degrees of progress in all three arenas.  I promise there'll be twelve jam-packed hours of content and of course, we're gonna have some fun on the Strip.  What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.

I'm hosting a preview call for anyone that wants more information on Saturday at noon ET, but space is limited at the February conference, so I recommend that folks register right away.  Here are the details:

How to Become a Speaker, Author or Consultant
February 15-16
Courtyard by Marriott Convention Center (1/4 mile off the Strip)

It turns out that this mentoring event will be one year and a day after my mentor, Dottie Walters passed.  I'll be channeling Dottie when we get together in Las Vegas.

Want the 411 on Storing Information?

Composed in Phoenix, Arizona--

It's the Information Age, baby.

My brother Rob just wrote to inform me of his new online storage account with a company called Carbonite.  Now he can store his computer files off-site and save room on his hard drive.  Scoff if you will, at the concept of paying rent for your .jpgs, .pdfs and .movs.  This information racket ain't what it used to be.

Consider that I'm composing this blog entry on a 60 gigabyte Dell Inspiron notebook computer.  It's my primary computer and the same machine that I take on the road when I'm out speaking.  Over time, I'm accumulating  tons of correspondence for my business, Edison House, not to mention my niece's cheerleader photos.   

The computer's hard drive filled up a while back, so I bought an external drive and then another.  External drives have amazing capacity, but without a better data storage system, I'll soon have a whole closet full of external hard drives.

The newest and largest hard drives feature a terabyte of storage.  A terabyte is about 1,000 gigabytes or one trillion bytes. A terabyte is roughly the equivalent of the contents of books made from 50,000 trees. Tera comes from the Greek word teras meaning monster.  As in pterodactyl.

(I know pterodactyl begins with a "p" and doesn't even have the word tera in it, but this is an article about the wonder of numbers, not the craziness of language.)

Anyway, back to this business of using external drives to solve the info storage problem.  Here's the bad news:  all drives go bad.

Ian Ayres, author of Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-by-Numbers Is the New Way to Be Smart, reports that the entire Library of Congress takes up about twenty terabytes, but WalMart's data warehouse takes up about 570 terabytes.  We're storing more information than ever before.   

I guess it's time to get with the times.  As always, the trick is to anticipate what comes next after what comes next. 

Petabytes.  Petabytes are next.  A petabyte is around 1,000 terabytes. 

That's the 411 on storing information.

Do You Have a Future Income Limiter?

Composed in Phoenix, Arizona--

Someone once introduced me at a conference keynote speech as a "word smith"  It's true, I love the English language.  For years, I've subscribed to a service that sends me a new word every day.  It's available at www.Wordsmith.org.

Comedian Norm Crosby used to make up words as part of his funny routine.  Tony Soprano, Archie Bunker and lots of other television characters had a similar fondness for malapropisms. 

I use words to name Edison House products and programs and I love using words in unique combinations to introduce marketing concepts.  That's how I came up with "predictive dialogue," the art of taking the conversation where you want it to go.

A while back, a friend mentioned a new phrase that immediately captured my imagination.  The phrase was "future income limiter (FIL)."  FIL is featured at a site called Urban Dictionary.com.  My friend was using the phrase to describe the long-term effect of an exposed tattoo.

Al Hatfield, a senior Vice-President at Discount Tire, tells me that an exposed tattoo on a job candidate will keep him from hiring the person to change tires in one of his stores. 

Applicants have been known to get tattoos removed in order to get the job.  Anyway, a tattoo can be a future income limiter. 

Other future income limiters include a lack of confidence and the inability to make a change.  Likewise, a person's inability to think of himself/herself differently can limit future income.

I'm about to announce a unique event for anyone interested in a triple revenue stream.  If you've ever thought about being a speaker, an author or a consultant, this conference will be for you.  And I'm hosting it in Las Vegas! 

Stay tuned . . . as I roll out this "future income expander."

Creative Chipmunks Visit Again This Holiday Season

Posted from Royal Oak, Michigan--

When my brothers and I were young, we would endlessly listen to the singing Chipmunks, a creative venture if there ever was one. 

Alvin and the Chipmunks were the brainchild of Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. in 1958.  The group consisted of three cute animal personalities, known worldwide as Alvin, Theodore and Simon.  The Chipmunks were named after their record company executives.  Very clever.

Most cartoons today begin as an animated offering and then branch out into music.  The Chipmunks did the opposite.  After winning two Grammys for engineering and earning the number one song in America, the act was rolled out as a cartoon series and in the movies.

Why the Grammys?  All three of the Chipmunk voices were performed by Bagdasarian, who multi-tracked his voice at a half-speed and then sped up the playback to create the higher-pitched voices.  The technique was not new.  The Wizard of Oz movie, for example, used a similar technique to achieve the voices of the munchkins.

Contemporary recording artists such as David Bowie, Prince and Kanye West still play tricks with recording speeds.   The effect is much easier with today's technology and can be attained in real time, which makes the achievement of Bagdasarian all the more noteworthy.