A Habit Of Amazing People – Work on Lombardi Time
Shep Hyken’s book, Be Amazing or Go Home, talks about “Amazing people”, why they’re amazing, and the habits they have in common. Previously we discussed the first habit, amazing people show up ready to amaze.
Next, we discussed what it means to be amazing, providing a benchmark for the journey to “amazing”, and in the most recent post, we discussed the importance of remembering that you’re always on stage: “When it comes to Amazement, make a habit of aiming high. People are watching.”
In this post, we discuss working on “Lombardi time” – always showing up early and never making the customer wait.
“Set a higher standard. Never be late. People who count on you shouldn’t have to wait to get a great experience.” This quote from Hyken sums it up, but let’s expand a little.
Those of you who are not big-time NFL fans (like me) are probably wondering what Lombardi time is. Vince Lombardi is a Hall of Fame football coach who insisted that his players show up to every event 15 minutes early, or they were considered late. Being from a military family, I always heard this referred to as military time. The thought behind this time buffer is that you need to show up early, so the customers you are helping are never waiting for you to be prepared to help them.
So, how can you implement this as a company? Using the 10-minute rule for scheduling calls is an excellent place to start. When you have a meeting, make sure you end at least 10 minutes before your next session starts. Taking 10 minutes will give you 5 minutes to review your notes before your next meeting and allows you to call into the number for the meeting and be there 5 minutes before anyone else shows up.
Over the last couple of years, I have let this practice slip, and I have noticed a MAJOR difference in how prepared I am for those meetings. That 10 minutes helps me to gain the focus I need so I can provide my current call my FULL, undivided attention, but also allows me to be on the call when the client calls in, so they are not waiting for me.
Microsoft Bookings is one of the tools that you can use to set up this buffer automatically when clients are looking at your calendar to set up meetings. I started using this recently, and once I got used to the odd times for meetings on my calendar, it allowed me to prepare for external facing meetings and be on time. I have not found a way to enforce this for internal meetings, but I have been thinking that I might start sending back meetings with that 5-minute buffer at the beginning and end of meetings to allow for this 10-minute rule. (I am still trying to work the logistics of this one out.)
Why is five minutes so important? How often have you been on hold while waiting for the next “representative” to help you? When you are on hold, it can feel like forever, and as a customer, this wait can put you in a lousy mindset. However, if you call in and the person you are meeting with is already there, this can put you in a favorable mindset right from the start. This one action shows your customers that you respect their time—that their time is important to you and the organization you represent. So just remember, if you are ONLY on time, in the customer’s eyes, you might already be late.
What do you do to ensure you’re on time and prepared for meetings? What tools do you use? What do you think you could do better? Please share your thoughts with us, and let’s talk about how we can help with ArcherPoint’s customer service offerings.