The USFitties in partnership with Money Supermarket, started the ‘Get Fit, Feel Epic’ contest for a chance to win both the Fitbit Zip and Fitbit Aria, worth £150 ($240). All I had to do is write about what I do to get fit and feel epic.

I try to stay in shape. I really do! You can stop laughing now…seriously…

My workout and regiment is built on a few key factors:

1- “Daddy! Uppy Uppy!” This is the strenuous by effective workout designed by toddlers for parents. The art of lifting, carrying and crunching a toddler for blocks at a time is both great for the arms, shoulders, back and mind. OK, it’s none of those things at all really however it is the only workout I currently have time for.

2- “Daddy! Can we have chicken nuggets for dinner?” This is the healthy eating regiment that all toddlers swear by and all parents get sucked into so the kid will eat anything short of sweets, gummy thingy or chocolate. We there for purchase something dreadful while at said large “M” establishment so we don’t have to “cook” 2 meals and or purchase something better for ourselves which means we must travel (more “Uppy Uppy”) and therefore robbing parent and child of precious playtime.

3- Finally, get real! Step away fro the nuggets and the child (this is what the Television is for) and really take care of yourself. For more information on how to do this please visit MoneySupermarket.com (where you can try out their health calculator to show how much you can save by getting fit) and check out USFitties.

Now….Where did I leave my Mini Me…?

OK, listen up generals and leaders of customer service builds for the world’s work force! The Beatles said it in that quote above. You need a plan. Got one? Well just in case you don’t or you want to add to your war chest of customer service training materials, here are the Top 10 Hits of things your customer service reps need to battle for when on the front lines!

Representation- Represent your company in a positive manner
Enlist- Every time you provide excellent customer, you enlist a new guest to your brand
Volunteer- Offer up ways to help the guest. Don’t wait for them to ask!
Olive Branch- Something wrong? Get that apology out ASAP soldier!
Loyalty- Excellent customer service means you have earned that guests loyalty
Unity- Remember there is no “I” in team but there is in “unity”
Tolerance- Everybody has a story, as a customer service rep it’s your obligation to listen
Invest- Go beyond what seems like your limits and you’ll succeed in maximizing your return.
Outflank- Go take a look at other customer service reps at the completion and be better!
Needs- Always gauge the guests tone, demographic and use logic to lock in their needs

The Beatles knew something about Revolution. Of course not in the violent, burn the city to the ground and drown the village kittens kind of way but in the call to action of a better world and how we can just “get on with it” as Lennon once said.

So, here is your homework: I’m giving you permission to cut and paste this REVOLUTION list, this tactical manifesto, and use it to guide your customer service teams. Heck, make posters of it and get a little creative. But most importantly, LEAD the REVOLUTION! It doesn’t matter if you’re a call center, restaurant, online customer service trouble shooter or a guy that sells mysterious links of meat and calls it a Hot Dog stand.

Now gear up leaders, rock and rollers and start the REVOLUTION. I’ll catch up with you after my mani-pedi appointment at 3:00.

And So It Goes…

You can just tell when someone has it and when they don’t especially in the field of Customer Service. We choose our friends based on their being authenticity and a bond based on a foundation, a feeling of trust and joy. The same can be said about the customer service representatives we deal with on a constant bases.

I constantly tell CSR’s at speaking engagements that people can go anywhere to get a product like the ones they sell, be it down the block or on the internet. But what keeps the consumer coming back are them. The individual. The CSR’s the “get it”. The guests are there daily or frequent to see their “friends “where they know it’s safe and the customer service is great! Make that exceptional!

I deal with retail businesses where their CSR’s interact daily face to face with guests and yes, they have an easier time of it because they can learn guests names etc. But the philosophy applies to CSR’s online and via phone activity as well. It’s what I call the BECAUSE factor.

Being
Engaging
Centered &
Authentic
Ultimately
Serves
Everyone

By following the BECAUSE factor it simply benefits the CSR, the guest and the company as a whole. All it takes is a person who “gets it” as far as how to deal with humans on a genuine level to make a difference all around. That CSR may not have all the answers, but if they stay focused on the customer, if they stay concerned and engaging with the guest, problems will dissipate in their severity at a much faster pace than an with an “auto response”.

Let me give you an example. We have a Starbucks near our house (go figure) that we go to as it’s the only one near us (go figure that one too). Even if there was a Tim Hortons or Café De Spend Tu Dinero Here within reach, I would still choose to go to Starbucks. The CSR’s there are friendly, polite, accommodating and more importantly they know me. There is one CSR, Jasmine, who I saw once when my 2 year old daughter and I went there for coffee and juice after a grueling music class. When I saw her again 2 weeks while on a solo visit she asked me, “So where is that adorable little one today?”

WOW! One meeting. One time serving me and she remembered! Guess who I look for when I’m there? Jasmine! She gets BECAUSE. But it’s not just her. It’s Tanim who always knows I have a Half Decaf-Half Regular Black so I don’t leap out of my skin and send my ADD into overdrive with regular high octane coffee! It’s also the dude whose name I don’t know with the goatee (looked for him for a pic with him but not working) who knows what my wife drinks and makes it a point to play with my 2 year old when we are on line. These are the people I like to reward with my business and my time BECAUSE…!

Customers who feel they have been treated well and in an authentic manner have a 70% chance of returning to a business they have developed a relationship with even after just one positive visit.
BIGresearch, an Ohio-based market intelligence firm, asked thousands of shoppers what kind of customer service they expected. Customers said they sought friendly, authentically polite service and wanted to feel that a company valued them more than the sale. They look for value, but define it as more than the price of a product; it also includes the service they receive. According to the survey, 71 percent said they stopped doing business with a company due to bad customer service.
So, before you have to go chasing down unhappy guests asking why they left and they just tell you, BECAUSE, train your staff in the Beatle version of BECAUSE. It will HELP you in THE END during the Customer Service REVOLUTION.

Oh, and yeah…that is me with the Beatles (thank you Photo Shop) and yes that was me with longhair and face fuzz. Be kind in your comments.

Peace and Imagine great customer Service (That’s what Lennon meant…right?)!

OK, listen up generals and leaders of customer service builds for the world’s work force! The Beatles said it in that quote above. You need a plan. Got one? Well just in case you don’t or you want to add to your war chest of customer service training materials, here are the Top 10 Hits of things your customer service reps need to battle for when on the front lines!

It spells out like this…

Representation- Represent your company in a positive manner
Enlist- Every time you provide excellent customer, you enlist a new gust to your brand
Volunteer- Offer up ways to help the guest. Don’t wait for them to ask!
Olive Branch- Something wrong? Get that apology out ASAP soldier!
Loyalty- Excellent customer service means you have earned that guests loyalty
Unity- Remember there is no “I” in team but there is in “unity”
Tolerance- Everybody has a story, as a customer service rep it’s your obligation to listen
Invest- Go beyond what seems like your limits and you’ll succeed in maximizing your return.
Outflank- Go take a look at other customer service reps at the competition and be better!
Needs- Always gage the guests tone, demographic and use logic to lock in their needs

The Beatles knew something about Revolution. Of course not in the violent, burn the city to the ground and drown the village kittens kind of way but in the call to action of a better world and how we can just “get on with it” as Lennon once said.

So, here is your homework. Let’s get this on the record: I’m giving you permission to cut and paste this REVOLUTION list, this tactical manifesto, and use it to guide your customer service teams. Heck, make posters of it and get a little creative. But most importantly, LEAD the REVOLUTION! It doesn’t matter if you’re a call center, restaurant, online customer service trouble shooter or a guy who has a hot dog stand that sells questionable links of meat and its mysterious origins.

Now gear up leaders, rock and rollers and start the REVOLUTION. I’ll catch up with you after my man-pedi appointment at 3:00.

And So It Goes…

There is a lot that can be said about Lennon. We’ve heard all the good, the bad and the bizarre over the years and we’ll always have the debates of who was the most influential of the Beatles from lyrics to melody. But one thing that cannot be said about John Lennon is that he was not a leader. He built The Beatles. He fronted the anti war movement. He brought people together to open their eyes to injustice and lead them into action.

He believed in Peace & Love and at one time thought it was all we needed. As he grew older he realized that as long as we kept preaching it and believed in it, then there was at least hope for us all. So, I’m going to use those two words to make a point about leadership and its responsibility to their employees and consumers alike

Proactively
Encourage
Ambient
Customer
Experience

Lennon used his musical and poetic abilities to call attention to things that were happening around us and break it down to simple words and emotions. He disseminated the message in a passionate and authentic way that all of us could understand. He Proactively Encouraged us to stand up and let our voices be heard. Through the Ambient Consumer Experience of music. he reached out to his customer base, the young and “the tuned in” and was also able to encourage those who may not have been “consumers” of his music to tune in as well and to at least listen to his message.

Leaders
Oblige
Versatile
Employees

As we all know a good leader knows how to work with, bring out the best in and learn from their employees. Within the dichotomy and infrastructure of the team called The Beatles it cannot be argued that Lennon & McCartney were the embattled leaders of the band. But George Harrison and Ringo Starr all brought something to the table as well. Particularly Harrison, who left us some of the greatest songs of the last century. It was known that Lennon encouraged and in a way mentored Harrison in the later years of the bands time together. He saw the potential in Harrison and helped him to bring out the best of his abilities so that he could succeed as a member of the group.

With Ringo as well, Lennon supported him in his solo efforts by lending him songs that he wrote and would later become rock radio hits like “I’m The Greatest” and “Goodnight Vienna”. As Ringo once said, “I learned lyrics from John and I learned music from Paul. I had quite an education.”

Lennon was a Leader who Obliged his Versatile Employees. I know, I will take it on the chin for saying Ringo and George were employees of Lennon & McCartney but work with me here.

As leaders of any kind of business, especially ones that are involved with Customer Service, it’s important that we at least take note of the Peace & Love mentioned above. It’s also important that you also have a sense of real Peace & Love as it will guide you into a better place that your “Ringo’s” and “George’s” will want to follow you to and be an active part of.

Lennon said, “We were just four guys who made it very, very big. That’s all.” But they could not have done it without great leadership, teamwork and an understanding of each other and yes, love.

Peace.
Love.
And thank you John Lennon.

Recently, my daughter opened up her first lemonade stand and…

Here’s the follow-up line with the hook:

She did it for charity by her own choosing, raised over $700 before she even squeezed a lemon and then made $135 in 2 hours for the No Kid Hungry charity!

OK, so secret told that she did not even squeeze a single lemon ( I did) and she only mixed the batter for the cookies we sold (wife made those) but, what she did do was organize her toddler army to form a Little Rascals style sales force of terminal cuteness! Complete with “mister, mister buy some lemonade for charity” dialogue, hair in pig tails and little doe eyes flashing about, how could anyone NOT donate? One Clarence Clemons sized look alike came over to donate $20 just because he thought it was a fabulous feat. When he handed my daughter the money, she noted the notes worth and she sized him up and all she could ask was, “How much lemonade do you need mister?”

It was like watching used car salesmen surrounding the possible patron as they entered the lot. The rascals ran like packs of wolves to surround people on the street, strong arming them to purchase the charityade. It was both epic and disturbing but the memories are delightful. All the parents agreed that it was a valuable and enjoyable lesson for all the little rascals.

So here is what I ask after being witness to this: If a 4 year old child can grasp the importance of charity and raise over $850 selling lemonade and online donation help, why can’t we “grown-ups” do something as simple and perhaps with the same monetary results? If every person with a social media presence reached out to do some social good with a charity of their choice, even just for 3 days a year, imagine the impact. Picture the trickledown effect. Every person seeing their Tweet or posting is exposed to that charity and that charity has a hope of achieving its work. If every person gave up 2 venti mocha-frappawhatevers a month to a different organization…Imagine how we can change the world.

We may not be able to stop the icecaps from melting through this method but we can stop the meltdown of human hope.

Take it from a bunch of little rascals that want a better future for themselves. Teach your children well and they in turn will teach us as well.

To learn more about Share Our Strength and to make a donation under my daughters lemonade stand page just visit >>Skylar’s Page

And so it goes…

As a chief reporter Clark would be obligated to be blogging, Tweeting, Facebooking, Pintresting and being a good little chief reporter for a metropolitan newspaper!

Now if this was the case, how fast do you think it would take a follower of his who has too much time on his hands (like I clearly do) to piece together Clark and Superman’s identity. Let us look now at a section of that blog post from said social media troll or rather shall I say, curious individual…

“…and after closer examination of Mr. Kent’s social media footprint, or shall I say lack of one, I have come to the conclusion that this mild mannered reporter is quite possibly living amongst us as Superman! Note the lack of pictures on Facebook pre his reporting career, his LinkedIn profile has no prior experience short of his journalistic work at Smallville High School and his Twitter profile picture is just an “egg”. Is this any way for a “chief reporter to be “out there” and accessible as a brand element of the Daily Planet?

I also noticed how he gets all those “exclusives” on Superman rescues and stories (just short of Lois Lane) when he is never even on the scene of said feats. PLUS I took Mr. Kent’s Facebook profile picture and compared it to that of a recent Superman picture from the Superman Fan web site and clearly you must see the resemblance!

Why has no one seen this before? It’s not like he’s Batman hiding behind a mask like a scared child concealing some hidden pain. Start following this guy on Twitter. Guaranteed, you will NEVER see a tweet from Kent while Superman is in battle.”

I guess here is the point: There is nowhere to hide now days. Everyone can be found now days in a hot second on a Google search. Anyone can be a celebrity via Social Media and celebrities are supposed to be regular transparent and approachable via Social Media. Even if here were superheroes they could be outed by clever bloggers or the average 10 year old. Unless they were smart like, Tony “Ironman” Stark or Princess “Wonder Woman” Diana, and just say, “Hey, this is me, accept it oh and please “Like” my page and RT my Tweets”.

Now if you would excuse me, I have to do some audio check, photo-shop work and Facebook, Twitter checks on this Batman guy. I could swear he reminds me of George Clooney, Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer or…is it Christian Bale? Hmmmm…

And So It Goes…

Remember seeing Queen give one of the best performances in rock history? Phil Collins playing both London and Philadelphia? Remember how it made us all fell to be a planetary communality that day?

You want to feel that feeling again? Well you can by helping out and getting involved and being a rock star as a Changers of Commerce. It’s a group of people who through the power of leadership stemming from the restaurant industry, work together, civil groups, NGOs, private enterprise, and the public who benefit by considering and responding to the evolving needs and beliefs of society today. Imagine if we all “took that “it takes a village”, mentality and incorporated it into every aspect of a business strategy as a key driver of sustainable business success.

Its old school-meets new-school, small town-meets-big business. It means understanding that in our ever-more-connected world, that which affects our stakeholders affects us now more than ever before.”

This past summer, some very dear friends of mine went on a trip (I sadly could not join them on this round) to Ethiopia where the situations of what Band Aid worked so hard for are still a tragic issue for its people. What became a fact finding mission to better understand the needs of the many, turned into something else. It became a passion to help those that want to help themselves! This rag tag band of leaders decided to find a way to raise money to help these local leaders build wells for fresh water, crops and get them on a path that will alter the course of their villages for generations.

The starvation is still there. The lack of clean water is still there. But what is also there is the human spirit to survive. The human moral fibers to help.

Today August 21, 2012 the Changers of Commerce are holding a Tweet-a-Thon to raise money and awareness for their mission. The goal is $10,000. The ability to make that happen is real! Go to this link and donate. Tweet it out to your followers, post it on your Facebook pages, sky write it if you feel it will help. But help.

Here’s the links and the tools you need. Now stop reading this and forward it around and be a Changer of Commerce. Be the hope for a better tomorrow.

The Changers of Commerce: http://changersofcommerce.com/

Twitter Hashtag for Tweet-a-Thon: #BTCEthiopia

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/changersofcommerce

Direct Donation Link: http://changersofcommerce.com/?page_id=214

NOW LET’S ROCK FOR ETHIOPIA

And So It Goes….

Thank you Amanda Hite, Kat Cole, Jim Knight, Joni Doolin, Wally Doolin and Jeff Power…You Get “IT”!

It’s who I am. It’s what my family has always been and it’s a part of my genetic design. It’s what Sullivans do and have always done. We put things right where they have been wronged and been part of the change needed to better the world around us.

My great great grand-uncle was Big Tim Sullivan the first Irish Catholic state senator elected to office in turn of the century New York. He rose in power through the harrowing streets of the Five Points district of old New York and eventually to the corrupt hallways of old Tammany Hall. Was he saint? No. Not by any stretch of the imagination. He was after all a politician.

But he cared about people and became the savior of the broken, the beaten and damned of the city. He filled his pockets with coins and as he left his office and poor street urchins would rush him and dig through the giant’s pockets for the treasure they knew awaited them. He loved the children and believed that no child no matter their race or religion should be shoeless. Every holiday season he brought shoes for every child that needed them and back then that was a lot of shoes.

He passed into law The Sullivan Law which meant you couldn’t carry a concealed weapon in the state of New York and was the first male politician to stand up and fight for a woman’s rights in the work place and voting booths. On his passing it seemed every citizen turned out for his funeral. It’s still considered to be the largest public funeral in the city’s history.

My father’s Aunt Betty, Big Tim’s niece was a chief player in Queens, NY where she worked with charitable organizations as well as school boards to better education in the areas of Woodside and Sunnyside, where I now call home. But the person that did so much for others was my mother, Dawn Sullivan.

Mom worked tirelessly as a tenant activist here in New York and is responsible for saving more people’s homes and changing rent laws than any other non political player in the city. She started the Eastside Tenant Coalition and volunteered for more charities and committees than were even thought of. And the funny part of it all was she wasn’t even a citizen. She was an Australian and fiercely proud of it! But she loved people. She loved her adopted city. She was me and my sibling’s direct inspiration for what we would become.

I see the same fire in my 3 year old daughter. I knew it was there when she overheard my wife and I talking about my work with Amanda Hite and the No Kid Hungry campaign to end childhood hunger in America. She was confused and asked, “You mean there are children that have no food? What can I do?” She understands hunger and her appetite to end it is strong. So she does what she can. It’s in her genetic make-up. She is a Sullivan.

Everyone has the gene to do good. To be the change. If you aren’t involved in some charity or organization that is trying to make a difference I urge you to get connected with one. You could be the start of generations of society changers and this world will be the better for it.

Creepy but cool all in the same breath mind you.

First off…WARNING: Wipe any inappropriate thoughts from your mind when you enter a Starbucks. Your mind is about to be invaded.

It was announced that Starbucks was teaming up with Square with a new technology that reads the customer’s cell phone automatically and notify the store that the customer has entered, and the customer’s name and photo will pop up on the cashier’s screen. The customer will give the merchant his or her name, Starbucks will match the photo and the payment will be complete.

Sweet right?

They already have the smartphone bar scanners that are cashless so I’m seeing two things here. Three actually.

- Starbucks dominated and destroyed all the smaller coffee chains shy of Dunkin’ Doughnuts and changed the way we even think about coffee and it’s brand identification.

- Starbucks may lead the way in swinging the axe that will behead the already dying paper currency.

- Starbucks will be the first public chain to open on Mars when we colonize.

OK, so the last one may not even happen for another 6 months or so but…It’s fascinating to observe how SBX is dominating the new era of technology when it comes to payment.

We already have started referring to coffee as a “starbucks” the same as we do “kleenex” for a tissue and soon we will be kissing George, Abe and Alexander off because SBX has said “Oh we have a better way to take you $7.98 for a coffee.”

Now, I’m in the middle of those final stages of toilet training with my 4 year old. TMI…I know…but do you think SBX can help with that too? Perhaps this new technology with Square can help them read my frustrations and as I’m waiting for my Grande Venti half caf light unsweetened Latte with foam and a splash of Hazelnut syrup, the customer service team member can suggest some reading materials on the subject while I wait for my drink to arrive.

Just a thought.

And so it goes…

Read the New York Times article on it here>> CLICK