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Business Lessons from “Undercover Boss”

One of the newer shows that has captured my attention this past year is “Undercover Boss”, which airs on CBS Sunday nights at 9 Eastern. The premise is simple: CEO’s and company Presidents go undercover as potential employees at their own companies. They work in starter jobs in various locations and departments in order to get a pulse on what conditions are really like, and what the employees really think of their jobs.

Although I always thought the idea was intriguing, I was surprised to find the show to be both sincere and captivating. My sole complaint is that it’s a little formulaic, but the stories and the payoff are so emotional that I can overlook that part.

At the end of each episode, the CEO calls in a few of the employees that they worked alongside and has a big “reveal” (“I’m actually in charge of the whole company”), which is typically accompanied by a reward for each employee. As an example, last night’s episode featured the CEO of UniFirst, who gave one employee a $5000 bonus and offered to pay her rent and utilities for one year. Amazing stuff, and I’m pretty certain that he has a supremely loyal worker now.

On a related note, I’m in the middle of reading a book called “Predictably Irrational” by Dan Ariely. In one chapter, Ariely discusses the difference between social and market norms, and how they dictate behavior. He talks about how market norms shouldn’t really enter social situations (e.g. “I will pay you $300 for this Thanksgiving dinner, mom.”). Conversely, he talks about how businesses that market their social side have to be consistent in this, rather than bringing in market issues. If your bank is all about being warm and fuzzy, providing cookies and coffee, and remembering your name, they can also drop the ball if they suddenly hit you with a weird unknown fee and won’t resolve it. This causes cognitive dissonance, in my opinion.

With that in mind, I think there’s a big lesson to be found in “Undercover Boss”, namely, that companies that demonstrate their authentic care for their workers have an opportunity to use social norms and develop long-term relationships, similar to real family members. Based on what I’ve seen and read, Tony Hsieh at Zappos strikes me as someone that has done a very effective job of creating a fun (family) atmosphere.

Obviously, the companies profiled on this particular show are probably willing to hold themselves to a different standard, merely by putting themselves through the experiment in the first place.

“Undercover Boss” is one of the few “reality” shows that gives me hope every time I watch it.

If you’re interested in watching some recent full episodes of this program, you can find them here on CBS’ website: http://www.cbs.com/primetime/undercover_boss/.

Is This a Preview of The New Facebook Email?

Facebook, Facebook For Business, Online Consulting, Social Media Advisors

So Facebook recently told the world about their latest and greatest feature, new Facebook email. I will be honest, I wasn’t really excited about this new feature. My initial thought is, another email address to keep track of and set up. My second gripe was that this meant another place for spammers to reach me and fill up another inbox. Today, my second complaint of this new email system was already met. See the email to the right that came into my message system. (I don’t even have the new Facebook email yet.)

Here’s a spammed message from someone who “found me in South Carolina” and wants to “expand their business.” Their project doesn’t interfere with what I am currently doing & can make me rich.

Now getting a spammed message once in a while is no big deal. I know that their are people trying to scam and do things the wrong way all the time. My issue though is going to be more with Facebook on this one. Since these messages are being sent from a member to a member always, how will they be filtering all the messages from their 500 million members? Or, will be just be inundated with so many spam & junk email messages on a daily basis that we all just ignore the account & never even look at the content inside it.

Are messages like this what we all have to look forward to with the new Facebook email? What do you think of this new feature that Facebook is launching?

Making it Count – Using Online Tools More Effectively

Social Media Advisors

Earlier today, a friend of mine on Facebook (Sally Cheeseman) shared a photo of her father that looked like it was probably taken in the 1940’s. I showed my wife, and we talked about what a cool picture it was. It made him look like a bomber pilot, maybe one from an old war movie.

Then, I reflected on the fact that although Sally lives in Hawaii, and I’m in Austin, Texas, it was almost as if I were sitting next to her looking at a family scrapbook.

Social media is amazing.

Technology has come so far so fast that sometimes I think it’s easy to forget how things used to be, not just for new media, but for the internet overall.

We don’t have to wonder about anything very long anymore. When I was in college, I had to speak with a reference librarian to get information that I can find on my phone in mere seconds today. There were a lot of things that I was curious about as a kid, but the effort that I had to expend to find out the facts was often more trouble than having the answer was worth.

It makes me wonder how much faster things can accelerate, now that any of us can “broadcast” via online radio/video and blogging. We can write and publish our own ebooks (and real books). We can publish on demand using Amazon and other online services. Additionally, the number of relationships we can easily maintain (even if only tenuously) is phenomenal.

I sometimes feel like I take these tools for granted, now that they are a part of my arsenal. It’s as if I have overlooked their potential power. Am I really leveraging them in the best way that I can for my business? Are you?

Before the internet existed, if I had come to you and told you that you would be able to do even half of the stuff you can do now online, you probably would have laughed in my face.

“No, really, you’ll be able to watch movies on your phone.”

“You can stay in touch with anyone in the world and have free video conferences using your computer. You won’t even need a phone for this.”

OR EVEN

“You may never touch a Yellow Pages again.”

You get the picture. I guess I’m just in a reflective mood this evening. I’ve been able to develop a network of friends across the country using social media. I’ve also learned how to gain exposure for free and position myself as an expert on topics that I care about. Maybe 2011 is the year that I figure out how to make better use of this.

Your thoughts? What do you have planned for this year?

Press “2” To Speak to An Actual Human Being

Social Media Advisors

We’ve all dealt with frustrating phone systems when we’re trying to accomplish something with a bank, large corporation, customer service issue, and more. A few days ago, I was dismayed to realize that dialing “0” even got me into a series of options, one of which was to dial “0” again to speak to an operator. I am not making this up.

My wife was trying to transfer some funds today from a bank in another city. It was like pulling teeth, only less pleasant. It was much like speaking to someone who was trapped in a concrete box with earplugs in, maybe? I don’t think I’ve ever heard her get that loud on the phone when repeating herself.

It made me think of a few choice options that should probably be added to corporate phone systems worldwide:

Press “0” to speak to someone with a higher IQ than the person you’re currently speaking with.
Press “1” to speak to an operator who is not hearing-impaired.
Press “2” to apply a mild electric shock to the operator. A nominal fee will apply.
Press “3” to apply a severe….well, you get the picture on this one.

On a serious note, I really wish that the people who design these phone menus were forced to use them and test them frequently, as I think that would cut down on a large part of the problem.

Here’s another pet peeve while we’re on the topic – I don’t like the ones that make me spell the person’s name to speak with them. I’m a good speller, but I seem to have a knack for getting this option when I don’t even know the person’s last name, and this is the requirement. In other words, if I need to reach Sherry _______ at the insurance company, it’s asking me to spell her LAST name. Dang it.

One company that I’ve called a handful of times (they shall remain nameless here, since it might deserve a post of its own) has one of the worst phone experiences around. You get one person on the phone, explain fully what your issue is, then they try half-heartedly to help before transferring to a specialist. Upon reaching the second person, you must RE-EXPLAIN EVERYTHING again, since they can’t access the notes of the first operator. Ugh.

Don’t even get me started on the voice recognition ones. “I think you said ‘banana’. Is that right?”

I’m sure that companies pay big bucks for these labyrinthine systems. I think I might develop a program to navigate these menus on my behalf, perhaps with an “auto-escalate” feature, since it seems like the most common outcome (“Can I speak to your supervisor?”).

Thanks for reading my semi-rant.