My First Movie: Taking Those First Steps
Part One: An Introduction
an article by Rob Lohman
They say the beginning is never easy. This seems to be at least partially true. It has taken me a long (and winding) road to get me to making my first little short (a short little movie). When I was in high school there where two things interesting to me: acting (which turned out to be a love of things visual instead of acting) and computers. Somehow I rolled into the computer branch and began my career as a computer programmer.
Move forward a few years later and this is what I am doing professionally at this very moment. How this all relates to my first movie? Well, the love of things visual never went away and by 2001, the year I was mostly 23 years of age, my collection of DVD's had grown quite large. I saw every "making of," if you get a chance rent the El Mariachi DVD disc. Watch the movie, then watch it again with Robert Rodriguez's commentary track and play his 10 minute film school extra. Now if this is too your liking I suggest checking out his book Rebel Without a Crew) and got more interested in making movies. All these years reading internet sites, books and magazines about the subject suddenly caused an electronic charge in my brain that I needed to do something. Why was I not doing anything with my information and love? No clue.
The Beginning
I am a firm believer in preparation and doing things the hard way. Learn a lot, do a lot, fail a lot and get good at what you do. I immediately decided things were required: books, camera and ideas. Bought myself a pile of books about directing, lighting, digital movie making, etc. A while earlier I already had begun writing down movie ideas, scene ideas, character ideas. Anything and everything that could come in handy some day (even things I thought would never come in handy). I encourage anyway who wants to make movies to start the habit of writing things down. In about a year's time, eight ideas have been written down by me, what I call large ideas (a movie, a TV show or a short movie). Next to that there are also numerous ideas that are committed to paper about all sorts of things. It might never get used (some if it already got used now), but there is a lot of stuff for me to fall back on later!
While reading all the books (and still continuing to read the articles on the Internet) my mind started thinking about a camera. After a month or two the choice had been nailed down to the Canon XL1S camera (PAL edition since I live in Europe). Why this one? good preparation! This is one important piece of it. The camera is well known for its beautiful picture, extendibility (different lenses, third party support etc.) and support from Canon. The only thing against it was the price. Everything in Europe is expensive, cameras included. Fortunately for me there was a heavy project at work during the last months of 2001. This allowed billing overtime to the company, in turn allowing me to buy the camera (together with some savings of my own). First week December 2001 I picked up my camera: happy day in my life!
After some two months of experimenting (December 2001, January 2002) I bought myself the Canon filter set containing the following: ND (less strength then on the manual lens), UV filter (filters out UV light and protects your lens from dust, scratches etc.) and a Circular Polarizer filter (this filter can be rotated so that you can remove reflections etc. on surfaces like glass and water. On a car window you can rotate it so that you see through the window into the car or that you see the reflection instead). All of these filters have been used on my little short movie, they came in very handy! The UV filter is on my lens permanently to protect it. Also bought myself a case for the camera (not a real camera case but a toolset case) which has room for cables, tapes, batteries and all sort of things that need to be dragged along for the ride (this turned out to be a very wise thing to buy as well, it protected my camera and allowed me to bring everything with me in an easy to move case). At this time there was no money left to spend so the tripod had to be borrowed from a friend, a Manfrotto (no fluid head unfortunately).
The Movie
The feeling came that I needed to do a movie. What about was the question. Some ideas where already on paper (as described above), but I wanted to start small and easy for a number of reasons. My friends and myself all have jobs or school, so time is limited. Furthermore it usually is wise to begin small (and thus also making small mistakes), which has some nice side effects: it will be much cheaper, easier and faster too make! While looking around in my country for film schools I might wanted to attend (there are only 2), one required a movie to be submitted (on a very tight deadline, but we will get to that later). This was interesting. It gave me an opportunity to make something that could also be used if deciding to apply for this school, also giving me a deadline in which to work to stimulate me further. Splendid! The deadline was 3 weeks away (that is a very short period of time). What was needed was a simple idea, easy to execute: a story about a burned out business man. It wasn’t a very big interesting story, but it allowed me to make the following shortcuts:
Easy access to locations:
Since I am a business man myself (where did you think part of this story came from?) there was direct access to all of my sets without needing to dress them. If asked gently we would be allowed to film at my own work. This was granted (swell). The other location was my own house (and my lead characters house) which was easy to use as well.
Traveling time:
Driving from my home to work is only a 15 minute drive. This was handy because my 2 person crew (friends of mine) could sleep at my house. The only downside to this was they had to picked up from far away and dropped off at the end of the weekend (some money went into car fuel here). This tremendously cut down on the time to shoot this movie. We shot this movie in 3 days, 2 of which we where at work.
Even though things were looking favorable two more things where cut: sound and light. While one of my crew (the lead actor) is an audio engineer (and had brought professional audio equipment with him) I decided to not use any audio. My idea was to let the movie be told from the perspective of the character, as if he was looking back on his own live. To add to this feel the movie is going to use music and VO (Voice Overs) of the character talking about his own life). Second, we probably would not have any time to do extra takes if the audio was not correct. Besides this I also choose to not use any additional lighting, due to a number of reasons. Money (of which there was not much left), no time to buy any lighting gear or rent it (which cannot be done easily here), and again the time that would be required to learn how to light and place these lights. These two things together saved me days of time (really). If I had not done this all the footage that would was needed to be shot would never have been shot, no way!
Equipment
The following equipment was used to make this short movie:
Canon XL1S PAL (standard 16x II lens)
Canon filter set (ND, Circular Polarizer & UV filter)
Manfrotto tripod (no fluid head)
Dolly (a little car from work with big wheels)
2 MiniDV tapes
Some power extension cords
Firewire enabled laptop from work (comes with my job)
Windows 2000 professional
Adobe Premiere 6.01 for editing
Pre-production
The total project was supposed to last three weeks, one and half weeks where spend on pre-production (idea, script, planning etc.). Came up with my basic story idea in a couple of days, putting it down in a couple of sentences. The next thing I did was to write down the number of scenes the idea needed, describing and numbering them (came to 20). although I had started writing a true script there was no time to finish it (had no vacation during my pre-production). This was mistake number one. I should have taken the time to write at least a very basic script outline (this should not take too long if you already have a scene/story outline).
One thing that triggered my slow script writing (and therefore running out of time) was language choice and my choice to do voice over. Since my native language is not English I was debating with my self to make the voice over English or my native language (Dutch). This together with actually coming up with voice over lines was too much in the small time available. From my first thoughts voice overs did not seem that more difficult than "normal lines". I was probably wrong in my assumption. It is probably "easier" (not implementing that the craft is easy!) to write character dialog then voice over dialog, because you do not want the voice over to be cheesy, easy and tell the viewer everything. It must, however, grab an audience, inform them and keep them interested in what they are seeing as well. This turned out to be more difficult than I had initially thought. It really became a double cutting sword. On one side it was working in my favor (not having to record audio on set) and on the other side it was working against me (more difficult to come up with interesting lines). This problem must still be tackled this very moment. Wish me luck.
My second mistake in pre-production was to not storyboard, mostly out of time constraints. The other part was a little arrogance from my part thinking that I had the shots in my mind and that the movie would not need that many (since it was a little short movie). How more wrong could I have been. I realized there was a problem after the shoot was over and editing had started. Suddenly there were scenes that could not be put together. Let me explain this a bit more with an example from my movie:
My main character has entered his work and is walking down a hallway. The camera is following him with a dolly down the corridor as he turns into a office room. This scene needs to be cut to a scene where he is working. The problem here lies in that I do not have any footage to go in between these two shots. It feels very unnatural to see a person walking down a corridor (with his coat etc. on) and then suddenly working. Something needs to happen in between. Now if the jump in time was bigger, say from leaving his home to working, that would have been acceptable. An audience just simply fills in the blank here. In my case the jump is just too small. It does not seem to work.
If there had been an storyboard session (even if it was rough with pictograms or something) this probably would have been noticed before it was shot. I am currently thinking about drawing some pictures, shots and sequences that where in my mind before the footage was shot to help me in my final editing moments. It can be quite disorienting to have a pile of footage and no visual guideline other then a scene list! Not every movie will need a full drawn out storyboard, but I truly have learned that it is a good thing to really think about how scenes and shots will connect to each other both before it is shot (also handy while you are shooting).
One final thing I did in my pre-production phase was planning: calling all the people again to make sure everyone was ready to go, writing a second scene list in the order I was planning to shoot it (instead of the order they would appear in the movie). Planning all the shots around locations is a good idea, it allows you to go through your sets as fast as possible. You also ensure that important things do not change in the mean time. First day and half were at work and the last day and a half at home. We started out at work because this was the most important set where we could only be at specific times. My own house was available to us whenever we wanted. This list proved to be a very good thing to make because everyone knew exactly when we where going to be where and what we were going to shoot. It also allowed me to track everything while my mind was in a thousand different places (working with equipment, instructing actors etc.). I am going to drop the bomb here. Take half of the scenes of the first day of shooting and mirror them on the second day of shooting, moving everything half a day back. Why? Two reasons. You are not going to shoot everything within your chosen timeframe so over calculate. Reason 2, your very first day (ever! Remember this was my first movie and perhaps yours too!) will be chaotic, disorganized and above all very informative and learning. That last part is a very, very good thing. It takes a lot of time though, so double half of your scenes from the first day to the second day.
Production (the actual shoot)
There we were. At my work with a car full of people and equipment (it was a small car). It was end of the afternoon of a Friday. Out three day shoot was about to begin, boy, was I nervous! For the first time in my live I was embarking on creating something of my own (truly my own) with the help of other people. We unpacked our gear from the car and headed inside, some co-workers interested in what was about to happen. Luckily for me not much people were around. When you set up your very first scene to be shot in your live, I don’t need anyone to watch other then the people who I truly need (and trust around me).
Only one scene got shot from the 3 planned the very first day, luckily for me the most important one: my main character working during the evening. The scene was shot in about an hour. The rest of the time was spent unpacking, fiddling with the tools, discussing the scene, instructing the actors and repacking the equipment. although this scared me off a bit at first it turned out all right the next day when we shot a heck of lot more scenes. We had gotten our important scene which we couldn’t do any other time (we needed an evening scene and only had access to work the next day during day time). The other scenes where miscellaneous scenes which could also be shot during day time.
I learned an important lesson here: as with everything in live it takes a lot longer then you initially think (or perhaps hope). Later that evening, after dropping of equipment at home, I took my crew (3 people total, including myself) out for diner in a very nice restaurant. We had a nice time eating, laughing and discussing our first day of shooting.
Do not forget to feed your crew! Sounds simple enough, and it is. Everyone needs food and drinks to survive the day. Your actors and other crew will be happier with a full stomach (not too full) then an empty one! For my movie I needed to shoot a short little lunch scene where everyone was eating around a table. Knowing this when scheduling my scene and knowing that we needed to lunch ourselves as well on Saturday I planned this scene in the middle of that day. Just before we needed to shoot this scene we went off to a bakery to get all kind of things for lunch. When all the crew (including the actors) and myself sat around the table to eat our lunch letting the camera roll (and moving it around a couple of times). This worked out very well! Together with fuel for my car these where the only costs I truly had. Pretty doable.
While filming the second day I made my next big mistake: forgot to bring an important piece with me: the lead character’s laptop (actually my laptop from work). It was still at home. Instead of going back to get it (which would have taken at least 30 minutes plus the time to get everyone working again) we found some old unused laptops and used that instead. No-one will probably notice the difference anyway since the focus is not on the prop, but on the character using it! During shooting I was also very please with my earlier made decisions to not record audio or do lighting. In simulating working (and phoning for example) the characters just talked about anything they want (some pretty hilarious things like trading an old car tire for a mother-in-law). The sound will not be used, so it does not matter! Together with not having to set up lights, which I have never done (so removing lengthy testing and fine tuning), this turned out to be great time savers. Without these "restrictions" the shooting would have never been completed in 3 days!
Together with my crew I learned a lot of things: thinking about how to shoot a scene, moving the camera around, doing more then one take, different angles to shoot at etc. etc. Listen to what you crew has to say, in my case they had some very good ideas! My first shooting experience has certainly been an exciting journey! I can still remember the thrill of seeing your first footage on the TV, raw, just shot. Together with my crew we watched the "dailies". It was a fun experience. Some things worked and looked great, others did not. One thing we all noticed immediately where auto focusing problems. These where most evident during our dolly shots down a hallway (these could have been shot in manual focus since the character keeps the same distance throughout the "walk") and shots inside an elevator (here the auto focus had difficult focusing on a light surround a button). Next time I will try to shoot as many things in manual as possible, otherwise beautiful shots look now rather dull. Oh well, this was mainly a learning process anyway!
This is it for the first installment, I hope everything was readable and you did not got an information overload. Next time we are going to talk about the editing process, color correction effects work and a bunch of other things. I promise to include a whole bunch of pictures then to balance out the text some more. If you have any comments (positive, negative or any you want to share), ideas, suggestions, remarks or questions you can reach me at visuar@iname.com
Monday, March 19, 2007
Calif - Wilson, thoughts
Wilson pays workers well to boost profits
Automotive News / March 19, 2007 - 1:00 am
David Wilson, president of David Wilson Automotive Group in Orange, Calif., says the key to his company's success is grooming strong dealership general managers.
Wilson's 15 dealerships in California and Arizona recorded revenues of $1.67 billion in 2006. The company ranks No. 13 on this year's Automotive News list of the 125 largest dealership groups, based on new retail vehicles sold in 2006.
Wilson discussed his operating philosophy with Staff Reporter Donna Harris.
You've said your company thrives on strong general managers.
I have a 25 percent partner in every dealership. They have earned that partnership out of sweat equity, and they are treated like they own 75 percent.
How did you arrive at that philosophy?
The ultimate oxymoron is "minority stockholder rights." There is no such thing. I realized that from my experience as a 25 percent partner. When I became an owner, I was going to treat my junior partners in a much different way.
Do they have a lot of autonomy?
I am running the company; I'm not running dealerships anymore. In 1989, before we opened Tustin Lexus, I helped the general manager interview salesmen. I recognized I didn't have time to help interview salesmen. I was running Toyota of Orange. I said, "Hire whomever you want."
I didn't go back to that dealership for three years. It is the same way with the other stores.
You say you overpay your employees. Why?
If you don't pay people enough, you get more turnover. Our managers would be training people and interviewing people all the time. Let's sell something instead of looking for people.
How do you find good general managers?
We grow our own. We don't hire general managers - we hire salesmen. We've had many general managers from other dealerships apply for general manager positions. We say, "We do have sales openings." We have three examples of people who were general managers somewhere else, started as salesmen at one of our dealerships and are now partners.
The policy keeps people from quitting. I had a fellow who had been a general sales manager for me, and he quit to become a general manager for somebody else because we didn't have an opening. He came back because it did not work out. He started as a salesman, even though he had been with me 10 years. Now he is a general manager.
You have a reputation for paying your employees more than they would get for comparable jobs at other dealerships.
We overpay our people by 20 percent, but we net 5 percent on sales before taxes. Our people are hyperproductive. If a comparable dealer has six sales managers, we might have four. They generate the income of six managers, but I am only paying four.
Our vacation policy is two weeks after one year. Most everyone else gives one week after one year. We give three weeks of vacation after five years and four weeks after 10 years. We have a pension plan and a profit-sharing program. We don't pay anybody minimum wage - 150 percent of minimum wage is the starting salary at any dealership. And we let our people work overtime.
What impact does that have on employee turnover?
In the last 20 years, I have never advertised for employees. All of our people are promoted from within. We have second and third generations working for us. They know what a great place to work it is, and they recruit good people. We hardly have to fire people because we are hiring only productive people.
You run very large dealerships.
We average over $100 million in revenues per dealership. The opportunity for economies of scale is in the big stores. If you want to be a big dealer, you need to be in a big market with a volume brand. You have to have a plan. You have to have some belief in yourself and your ideas.
We have a benchmark of $1 million per employee. I send the general managers a report reminding them of that every month. If a store has 100 employees and is on track to do $90 million, they have to get rid of 10 employees or jack up sales.
All the stores are within one or two employees of that benchmark. Some are more efficient. Toyota of Orange has 150 employees and is doing $240 million in sales.
Some would argue you are successful because you have the right brands.
I am lucky to have Toyota, Lexus and Honda. But I have spent over $100 million on blue sky. I didn't win that money in the lottery.
The only open point I got was Right Toyota in Scottsdale, Arizona. I held the land for six years at a cost of $50,000 a month. I was in it for the long run, and it's now the number-one Toyota store in its region.
It was the same way when I got the first Lexus franchise. A lot of people turned that car down. I started building in 1987 and opened in 1989. I spent $8 million before I saw the car. There were a lot of sleepless nights thinking: "Am I going to lose Toyota of Orange over a Japanese luxury car that some people say isn't going to work?"
I lost money the first four years at Desert Lexus. Sure, it looks good now. But it wasn't always that way.
How is your Ford dealership in Orange County doing?
It is the second or third most profitable Ford store in California. We were selling 300 new units a month there five or six years ago. Now we are selling less than 100.
That was the reason I bought a Mazda franchise to put in with it. Ford did not want that. But what can you pay employees? It gave me the opportunity to keep people and shore up the expense base. Nobody wants duals, but manufacturers have to be realistic.
You are opening Toyota dealerships in Mexico. What's that like?
Mexico is the land of opportunity. Toyota has been there only a couple of years, and they already have 10 percent of the market.
For customers with good credit, the interest rate is 15 percent. Mexican dealers make 6 to 7 percent. We can make more on the interest than we do on the car.
Do you plan to expand in the United States?
I have potential general managers pushing, wanting to know when we are going to get another store so they can be a partner. Our goal this year is to exceed $2 billion in revenue. I have a list of people I call four to six times a year, to let them know to give me a call when they think about cashing in.
Didn't you consider going public?
In 1995, Merrill Lynch approached me to go public. My controller explained to me that we will make the money we would have raised in a public stock offering in five years anyway. So why sell for five times earnings? I did not want to retire.
We had what they call an all-hands-on meeting. You have lawyers, underwriters and CPAs in one room. I looked at those 20 experts, who were making $300 per hour, and realized who was paying for it all. It was our last meeting.
Is there room for more public dealership groups?
Ultimately, there will be more publicly held groups, because the manufacturers limit acquisitions. There may be spinoffs. There is a tremendous amount of venture capital available, and some dealerships have terrific and proven returns.
Lots of private groups do as well as or better than the public companies. They don't need public money. But at some point, what is the exit strategy for those people? This is an evolving as well as a consolidating industry.
Automotive News / March 19, 2007 - 1:00 am
David Wilson, president of David Wilson Automotive Group in Orange, Calif., says the key to his company's success is grooming strong dealership general managers.
Wilson's 15 dealerships in California and Arizona recorded revenues of $1.67 billion in 2006. The company ranks No. 13 on this year's Automotive News list of the 125 largest dealership groups, based on new retail vehicles sold in 2006.
Wilson discussed his operating philosophy with Staff Reporter Donna Harris.
You've said your company thrives on strong general managers.
I have a 25 percent partner in every dealership. They have earned that partnership out of sweat equity, and they are treated like they own 75 percent.
How did you arrive at that philosophy?
The ultimate oxymoron is "minority stockholder rights." There is no such thing. I realized that from my experience as a 25 percent partner. When I became an owner, I was going to treat my junior partners in a much different way.
Do they have a lot of autonomy?
I am running the company; I'm not running dealerships anymore. In 1989, before we opened Tustin Lexus, I helped the general manager interview salesmen. I recognized I didn't have time to help interview salesmen. I was running Toyota of Orange. I said, "Hire whomever you want."
I didn't go back to that dealership for three years. It is the same way with the other stores.
You say you overpay your employees. Why?
If you don't pay people enough, you get more turnover. Our managers would be training people and interviewing people all the time. Let's sell something instead of looking for people.
How do you find good general managers?
We grow our own. We don't hire general managers - we hire salesmen. We've had many general managers from other dealerships apply for general manager positions. We say, "We do have sales openings." We have three examples of people who were general managers somewhere else, started as salesmen at one of our dealerships and are now partners.
The policy keeps people from quitting. I had a fellow who had been a general sales manager for me, and he quit to become a general manager for somebody else because we didn't have an opening. He came back because it did not work out. He started as a salesman, even though he had been with me 10 years. Now he is a general manager.
You have a reputation for paying your employees more than they would get for comparable jobs at other dealerships.
We overpay our people by 20 percent, but we net 5 percent on sales before taxes. Our people are hyperproductive. If a comparable dealer has six sales managers, we might have four. They generate the income of six managers, but I am only paying four.
Our vacation policy is two weeks after one year. Most everyone else gives one week after one year. We give three weeks of vacation after five years and four weeks after 10 years. We have a pension plan and a profit-sharing program. We don't pay anybody minimum wage - 150 percent of minimum wage is the starting salary at any dealership. And we let our people work overtime.
What impact does that have on employee turnover?
In the last 20 years, I have never advertised for employees. All of our people are promoted from within. We have second and third generations working for us. They know what a great place to work it is, and they recruit good people. We hardly have to fire people because we are hiring only productive people.
You run very large dealerships.
We average over $100 million in revenues per dealership. The opportunity for economies of scale is in the big stores. If you want to be a big dealer, you need to be in a big market with a volume brand. You have to have a plan. You have to have some belief in yourself and your ideas.
We have a benchmark of $1 million per employee. I send the general managers a report reminding them of that every month. If a store has 100 employees and is on track to do $90 million, they have to get rid of 10 employees or jack up sales.
All the stores are within one or two employees of that benchmark. Some are more efficient. Toyota of Orange has 150 employees and is doing $240 million in sales.
Some would argue you are successful because you have the right brands.
I am lucky to have Toyota, Lexus and Honda. But I have spent over $100 million on blue sky. I didn't win that money in the lottery.
The only open point I got was Right Toyota in Scottsdale, Arizona. I held the land for six years at a cost of $50,000 a month. I was in it for the long run, and it's now the number-one Toyota store in its region.
It was the same way when I got the first Lexus franchise. A lot of people turned that car down. I started building in 1987 and opened in 1989. I spent $8 million before I saw the car. There were a lot of sleepless nights thinking: "Am I going to lose Toyota of Orange over a Japanese luxury car that some people say isn't going to work?"
I lost money the first four years at Desert Lexus. Sure, it looks good now. But it wasn't always that way.
How is your Ford dealership in Orange County doing?
It is the second or third most profitable Ford store in California. We were selling 300 new units a month there five or six years ago. Now we are selling less than 100.
That was the reason I bought a Mazda franchise to put in with it. Ford did not want that. But what can you pay employees? It gave me the opportunity to keep people and shore up the expense base. Nobody wants duals, but manufacturers have to be realistic.
You are opening Toyota dealerships in Mexico. What's that like?
Mexico is the land of opportunity. Toyota has been there only a couple of years, and they already have 10 percent of the market.
For customers with good credit, the interest rate is 15 percent. Mexican dealers make 6 to 7 percent. We can make more on the interest than we do on the car.
Do you plan to expand in the United States?
I have potential general managers pushing, wanting to know when we are going to get another store so they can be a partner. Our goal this year is to exceed $2 billion in revenue. I have a list of people I call four to six times a year, to let them know to give me a call when they think about cashing in.
Didn't you consider going public?
In 1995, Merrill Lynch approached me to go public. My controller explained to me that we will make the money we would have raised in a public stock offering in five years anyway. So why sell for five times earnings? I did not want to retire.
We had what they call an all-hands-on meeting. You have lawyers, underwriters and CPAs in one room. I looked at those 20 experts, who were making $300 per hour, and realized who was paying for it all. It was our last meeting.
Is there room for more public dealership groups?
Ultimately, there will be more publicly held groups, because the manufacturers limit acquisitions. There may be spinoffs. There is a tremendous amount of venture capital available, and some dealerships have terrific and proven returns.
Lots of private groups do as well as or better than the public companies. They don't need public money. But at some point, what is the exit strategy for those people? This is an evolving as well as a consolidating industry.
A dealer with a bias toward centralization
Baltimore dealer group is known for innovation
Automotive News / March 19, 2007 - 1:00 am
With seven dealerships, Schaefer & Strohminger is a relatively small group. But the Chrysler group and many larger dealership groups cite the private Baltimore company as a model of operating efficiency and a source of ideas to borrow.
Schaefer & Strohminger CEO Joe Jankowski has a reputation as an industry maverick because of such innovations as eliminating general managers at dealerships. Jankowski, 51, discussed his business strategy with Staff Reporter Donna Harris.
You are considered a pioneer in centralizing your operations.
Back in 1992, we centralized accounting. There was no technology to do this. I had an IT person build a customized system. It was considered taboo. I was the Antichrist.
In those days we had general managers who wanted complete control over financial statements and cash flow and how inventories were handled. There are people in the auto retail industry still talking about centralizing operations and whether they want to pull that trigger.
We dramatically reduced staff. We had 38 total accounting people in five or six stores. Today we only have 15 people for seven stores. In 1997 we eliminated general managers. We have store managers who run sales in our dealerships.
Our fixed-operations people report to our two fixed-operations directors, who work for the management company. One specializes in service and body shop, and the other in parts. We used to have a formal director of sales but eliminated that position. Co-owner Dave Strohminger fills that role now.
We now have centralized accounting, legal, information technology, tax, human resources, warranty administration, fixed operations and Internet lead management.
What's your next initiative?
We just started taking incoming service calls in a centralized environment. We have Web-based service scheduling, and our entire phone network is linked to handle this. So when a customer calls, the person who answers the phone can immediately help schedule an appointment. If they can't handle the call, the customer will be linked to a service manager or adviser.
We already field phone and Internet sales leads in a central environment. Internet sales represent about one-third of our total volume. We record all incoming calls for quality purposes, and we track them for advertising sources. Each advertising source has a different 800 number, and we monitor those calls. We try to help the customer immediately.
How much have your centralization initiatives saved the company?
I couldn't tell you anymore - it's so deep in the culture. It's really a savings in personnel.
What about used cars? F&I?
We are bringing in a used-car sales trainer so we will not take our eyes off the ball.
We also are driving higher levels of finance and insurance profits. In the last year, we have moved our numbers up by over $100 a unit. We expect to add another $100 per unit this year. We are running $920 a unit now, and our goal is to be at $1,000 per unit.
We've had a really serious focus on training personnel and setting expectations. You get what you expect. We have three managers consistently selling over $1,000 per unit. And they are very customer-friendly.
You have said your focus is on selling prepaid maintenance plans.
Maintenance plans are part of a holistic approach that moves the customer from the sales department to the service department and captures customers for the long term. We have three stores doing in excess of 50 percent sales penetration on maintenance plans. The goal is to have every store sell over 50 percent of its customers maintenance plans.
We have dramatically lowered the price of the product, to $295 for three years worth of oil changes and rental cars if they bring their car in for service.
How soon do dealers start losing their customers' service business?
From Day 1. Forty-five percent of people who buy cars from us never show up in the service department for customer-pay work. After three years, 75 percent of our customers are gone.
We have high customer satisfaction. But why don't they come back for service? If 75 percent of customers are gone three years after the vehicle purchase, lots of stuff has to change.
We are going to have mandatory training over the next four months for every service adviser and manager. We are going to certify these folks, and we will give them continual feedback. Whenever customers walk into the service department, they will know exactly what to expect from that experience. We expect increased sales.
What's your goal?
If we retain 50 percent of our customers after three years, I would consider that a wild success.
Our average hours per repair order used to be 1.6. Right now it is running at 2.1. We think this program will take us to 2.5 hours per repair order.
Why did you divest your Toyota dealership?
It was in a tough area of town, we couldn't get inventory from the factory, and somebody offered us a significant amount of money for the property. We were going to have to build Toyota a new facility. So instead of putting capital in, we took capital out.
You have bought out competitors only to close the points.
We are strengthening our operations and doing more with our existing brick and mortar. On two occasions we have bought competitors and closed the points.
We purchased a Mazda store at a very good price. There are seven Mazda dealers in our market, including our two. There is not another competitor until the 15-mile radius. As part of our strategy, we studied traffic patterns. The harbor is a natural barrier between us and our competitors. And between two major interstates, I-83 on one side and I-95 on the other side, there is a swath down the middle that is about 400 square miles. We now have control over that geographic market.
There are seven Hyundai stores in the Baltimore market. The dealer who sold us the Mazda store also owned a Hyundai store within that same swath. We took that dealership and moved it 3.5 miles to an existing facility. We still have one of the only two Hyundai dealerships in that geographic area.
Your company has a long history.
It is the oldest Baltimore city dealer. It was started in 1917 by two brothers-in-law, the father and grandfather of the existing dealers.
If you question anyone in this town about our reputation, we will be off-the-chart good. Hopefully we will stay ahead of the curve so we will be here for the next 90 years.
Automotive News / March 19, 2007 - 1:00 am
With seven dealerships, Schaefer & Strohminger is a relatively small group. But the Chrysler group and many larger dealership groups cite the private Baltimore company as a model of operating efficiency and a source of ideas to borrow.
Schaefer & Strohminger CEO Joe Jankowski has a reputation as an industry maverick because of such innovations as eliminating general managers at dealerships. Jankowski, 51, discussed his business strategy with Staff Reporter Donna Harris.
You are considered a pioneer in centralizing your operations.
Back in 1992, we centralized accounting. There was no technology to do this. I had an IT person build a customized system. It was considered taboo. I was the Antichrist.
In those days we had general managers who wanted complete control over financial statements and cash flow and how inventories were handled. There are people in the auto retail industry still talking about centralizing operations and whether they want to pull that trigger.
We dramatically reduced staff. We had 38 total accounting people in five or six stores. Today we only have 15 people for seven stores. In 1997 we eliminated general managers. We have store managers who run sales in our dealerships.
Our fixed-operations people report to our two fixed-operations directors, who work for the management company. One specializes in service and body shop, and the other in parts. We used to have a formal director of sales but eliminated that position. Co-owner Dave Strohminger fills that role now.
We now have centralized accounting, legal, information technology, tax, human resources, warranty administration, fixed operations and Internet lead management.
What's your next initiative?
We just started taking incoming service calls in a centralized environment. We have Web-based service scheduling, and our entire phone network is linked to handle this. So when a customer calls, the person who answers the phone can immediately help schedule an appointment. If they can't handle the call, the customer will be linked to a service manager or adviser.
We already field phone and Internet sales leads in a central environment. Internet sales represent about one-third of our total volume. We record all incoming calls for quality purposes, and we track them for advertising sources. Each advertising source has a different 800 number, and we monitor those calls. We try to help the customer immediately.
How much have your centralization initiatives saved the company?
I couldn't tell you anymore - it's so deep in the culture. It's really a savings in personnel.
What about used cars? F&I?
We are bringing in a used-car sales trainer so we will not take our eyes off the ball.
We also are driving higher levels of finance and insurance profits. In the last year, we have moved our numbers up by over $100 a unit. We expect to add another $100 per unit this year. We are running $920 a unit now, and our goal is to be at $1,000 per unit.
We've had a really serious focus on training personnel and setting expectations. You get what you expect. We have three managers consistently selling over $1,000 per unit. And they are very customer-friendly.
You have said your focus is on selling prepaid maintenance plans.
Maintenance plans are part of a holistic approach that moves the customer from the sales department to the service department and captures customers for the long term. We have three stores doing in excess of 50 percent sales penetration on maintenance plans. The goal is to have every store sell over 50 percent of its customers maintenance plans.
We have dramatically lowered the price of the product, to $295 for three years worth of oil changes and rental cars if they bring their car in for service.
How soon do dealers start losing their customers' service business?
From Day 1. Forty-five percent of people who buy cars from us never show up in the service department for customer-pay work. After three years, 75 percent of our customers are gone.
We have high customer satisfaction. But why don't they come back for service? If 75 percent of customers are gone three years after the vehicle purchase, lots of stuff has to change.
We are going to have mandatory training over the next four months for every service adviser and manager. We are going to certify these folks, and we will give them continual feedback. Whenever customers walk into the service department, they will know exactly what to expect from that experience. We expect increased sales.
What's your goal?
If we retain 50 percent of our customers after three years, I would consider that a wild success.
Our average hours per repair order used to be 1.6. Right now it is running at 2.1. We think this program will take us to 2.5 hours per repair order.
Why did you divest your Toyota dealership?
It was in a tough area of town, we couldn't get inventory from the factory, and somebody offered us a significant amount of money for the property. We were going to have to build Toyota a new facility. So instead of putting capital in, we took capital out.
You have bought out competitors only to close the points.
We are strengthening our operations and doing more with our existing brick and mortar. On two occasions we have bought competitors and closed the points.
We purchased a Mazda store at a very good price. There are seven Mazda dealers in our market, including our two. There is not another competitor until the 15-mile radius. As part of our strategy, we studied traffic patterns. The harbor is a natural barrier between us and our competitors. And between two major interstates, I-83 on one side and I-95 on the other side, there is a swath down the middle that is about 400 square miles. We now have control over that geographic market.
There are seven Hyundai stores in the Baltimore market. The dealer who sold us the Mazda store also owned a Hyundai store within that same swath. We took that dealership and moved it 3.5 miles to an existing facility. We still have one of the only two Hyundai dealerships in that geographic area.
Your company has a long history.
It is the oldest Baltimore city dealer. It was started in 1917 by two brothers-in-law, the father and grandfather of the existing dealers.
If you question anyone in this town about our reputation, we will be off-the-chart good. Hopefully we will stay ahead of the curve so we will be here for the next 90 years.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Customer Service Tips
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/customerservice.html
Seven steps to remarkable customer service
By Joel Spolsky
Monday, February 19, 2007
As a bootstrapped software company, Fog Creek couldn’t afford to hire customer service people for the first couple of years, so Michael and I did it ourselves. The time we spent helping customers took away from improving our software, but we learned a lot and now we have a much better customer service operation.
Here are seven things we learned about providing remarkable customer service. I’m using the word remarkable literally—the goal is to provide customer service so good that people remark.
1. Fix everything two ways
Almost every tech support problem has two solutions. The superficial and immediate solution is just to solve the customer’s problem. But when you think a little harder you can usually find a deeper solution: a way to prevent this particular problem from ever happening again.
Sometimes that means adding more intelligence to the software or the SETUP program; by now, our SETUP program is loaded with special case checks. Sometimes you just need to improve the wording of an error message. Sometimes the best you can come up with is a knowledge base article.
We treat each tech support call like the NTSB treats airliner crashes. Every time a plane crashes, they send out investigators, figure out what happened, and then figure out a new policy to prevent that particular problem from ever happening again. It’s worked so well for aviation safety that the very, very rare airliner crashes we still get in the US are always very unusual, one-off situations.
This has two implications.
One: it’s crucial that tech support have access to the development team. This means that you can’t outsource tech support: they have to be right there at the same street address as the developers, with a way to get things fixed. Many software companies still think that it’s “economical” to run tech support in Bangalore or the Philippines, or to outsource it to another company altogether. Yes, the cost of a single incident might be $10 instead of $50, but you’re going to have to pay $10 again and again.
When we handle a tech support incident with a well-qualified person here in New York, chances are that’s the last time we’re ever going to see that particular incident. So with one $50 incident we’ve eliminated an entire class of problems.
Somehow, the phone companies and the cable companies and the ISPs just don’t understand this equation. They outsource their tech support to the cheapest possible provider and end up paying $10 again and again and again fixing the same problem again and again and again instead of fixing it once and for all in the source code. The cheap call centers have no mechanism for getting problems fixed; indeed, they have no incentive to get problems fixed because their income depends on repeat business, and there’s nothing they like better than being able to give the same answer to the same question again and again.
The second implication of fixing everything two ways is that eventually, all the common and simple problems are solved, and what you’re left with is very weird uncommon problems. That’s fine, because there are far fewer of them, and you’re saving a fortune not doing any rote tech support, but the downside is that there’s no rote tech support left: only serious debugging and problem solving. You can’t just teach new support people ten common solutions: you have to teach them to debug.
For us, the “fix everything two ways” religion has really paid off. We were able to increase our sales tenfold while only doubling the cost of providing tech support.
2. Suggest blowing out the dust
Microsoft’s Raymond Chen tells the story of a customer who complains that the keyboard isn’t working. Of course, it’s unplugged. If you try asking them if it’s plugged in, “they will get all insulted and say indignantly, ‘Of course it is! Do I look like an idiot?’ without actually checking.”
“Instead,” Chen suggests, “say ‘Okay, sometimes the connection gets a little dusty and the connection gets weak. Could you unplug the connector, blow into it to get the dust out, then plug it back in?’
“They will then crawl under the desk, find that they forgot to plug it in (or plugged it into the wrong port), blow out the dust, plug it in, and reply, ‘Um, yeah, that fixed it, thanks.’”
Many requests for a customer to check something can be phrased this way. Instead of telling them to check a setting, tell them to change the setting and then change it back “just to make sure that the software writes out its settings.”
3. Make customers into fans
Every time we need to buy logo gear here at Fog Creek, I get it from Lands’ End.
Why?
Let me tell you a story. We needed some shirts for a trade show. I called up Lands’ End and ordered two dozen, using the same logo design we had used for some knapsacks we bought earlier.
When the shirts arrived, to our dismay, you couldn’t read the logo.
It turns out that the knapsacks were brighter than the polo shirts. The thread color that looked good on the knapsacks was too dark to read on the shirts.
I called up Lands’ End. As usual, a human answered the phone even before it started ringing. I’m pretty sure that they have a system where the next agent in the queue is told to standby, so customers don’t even have to wait one ringy-dingy before they’re talking to a human.
I explained that I screwed up.
They said, “Don’t worry. You can return those for a full credit, and we’ll redo the shirts with a different color thread.”
I said, “The trade show is in two days.”
They said they would Fedex me a new box of shirts and I’d have it tomorrow. I could return the old shirts at my convenience.
They paid shipping both ways. I wasn’t out a cent. Even though they had no possible use for a bunch of Fog Creek logo shirts with an illegible logo, they ate the cost.
And now I tell this story to everyone who needs swag. In fact I tell this story every time we’re talking about telephone menu systems. Or customer service. By providing remarkable customer service, they’ve gotten me to remark about it.
When customers have a problem and you fix it, they’re actually going to be even more satisfied than if they never had a problem in the first place.
It has to do with expectations. Most people’s experience with tech support and customer service comes from airlines, telephone companies, cable companies, and ISPs, all of whom provide generally awful customer service. It’s so bad you don’t even bother calling any more, do you? So when someone calls Fog Creek, and immediately gets through to a human, with no voice mail or phone menus, and that person turns out to be nice and friendly and actually solves their problem, they’re apt to think even more highly of us than someone who never had the opportunity to interact with us and just assumes that we’re average.
Now, I wouldn’t go so far as to actually make something go wrong, just so we have a chance to demonstrate our superior customer service. Many customers just won’t call; they’ll fume quietly.
But when someone does call, look at it as a great opportunity to create fanatically devoted customer, one who will prattle on and on about what a great job you did.
4. Take the blame
One morning I needed an extra set of keys to my apartment, so on the way to work, I went to the locksmith around the corner.
13 years living in an apartment in New York City has taught me never to trust a locksmith; half of the time their copies don’t work. So I went home to test the new keys, and, lo and behold, one didn’t work.
I took it back to the locksmith.
He made it again.
I went back home and tested the new copy.
It still didn’t work.
Now I was fuming. Squiggly lines were coming up out of my head. I was a half hour late to work and had to go to the locksmith for a third time. I was tempted just to give up on him. But I decided to give this loser one more chance.
I stomped into the store, ready to unleash my fury.
“It still doesn’t work?” he asked. “Let me see.”
He looked at it.
I was sputtering, trying to figure out how best to express my rage at being forced to spend the morning going back and forth.
“Ah. It’s my fault,” he said.
And suddenly, I wasn’t mad at all.
Mysteriously, the words “it’s my fault” completely defused me. That was all it took.
He made the key a third time. I wasn’t mad any more. The key worked.
And, here I was, on this planet for forty years, and I couldn’t believe how much the three words “it’s my fault” had completely changed my emotions in a matter of seconds.
Most locksmiths in New York are not the kinds of guys to admit that they’re wrong. Saying “it’s my fault” was completely out of character. But he did it anyway.
5. Memorize awkward phrases
I figured, OK, since the morning is shot anyway, I might as well go to the diner for some breakfast.
It’s one of those classic New York diners, like the one on Seinfeld. There’s a thirty page menu and a kitchen the size of a phone booth. It doesn’t make sense. They must have Star Trek technology to get all those ingredients into such a small space. Maybe they rearrange atoms on the spot.
I was sitting by the cash register.
An older woman came up to pay her check. As she was paying, she said to the owner, “you know, I’ve been coming here for years and years, and that waiter was really rather rude to me.”
The owner was furious.
“What do you mean? No he wasn’t! He’s a good waiter! I never had a complaint!’
The customer couldn’t believe it. Here she was, a loyal customer, and she wanted to help out the owner by letting him know that one of his waiters needed a little bit of help in the manners department, but the owner was arguing with her!
“Well, that’s fine, but I’ve been coming here for years, and everybody is always very nice to me, but that guy was rude to me,” she explained, patiently.
“I don’t care if you’ve been coming here forever. My waiters are not rude.” The owner proceeded to yell at her. “I never had no problems. Why are you making problems?”
“Look, if you’re going to treat me this way I won’t come back.”
“I don’t care!” said the owner. One of the great things about owning a diner in New York is that there are so many people in the city that you can offend every single customer who ever comes into your diner and you’ll still have a lot of customers. “Don’t come back! I don’t want you as a customer!”
Good for you, I thought. Here’s a 60-something year old man, owner of a diner, and you won some big moral victory against a little old lady. Are you proud of yourself? How macho do you have to be? Does the moral victory make you feel better? Did you really have to lose a repeat customer?
Would it have made you feel totally emasculated to say, “I’m so sorry. I’ll have a word with him?”
It’s easy to get caught up in the emotional heat of the moment when someone is complaining.
The solution is to memorize some key phrases, and practice saying them, so that when you need to say them, you can forget your testosterone and make a customer happy.
“I’m sorry, it’s my fault.”
“I’m sorry, I can’t accept your money. The meal’s on me.”
“That’s terrible, please tell me what happened so I can make sure it never happens again.”
It’s completely natural to have trouble saying “It’s my fault.” That’s human. But those three words are going to make your angry customers much happier. So you’re going to have to say them. And you’re going to have to sound like you mean it.
So start practicing.
Say “It’s my fault” a hundred times one morning in the shower, until it starts to sound like syllabic nonsense. Then you’ll be able to say it on demand.
One more point. You may think that admitting fault is a strict no-no that can get you sued. This is nonsense. The way to avoid getting sued is not to have people who are mad at you. The best way to do this is to admit fault and fix the damn problem.
6. Practice puppetry
The angry diner owner clearly took things very personally, in a way that the locksmith didn’t. When an irate customer is complaining, or venting, it’s easy to get defensive.
You can never win these arguments, and if you take them personally, it’s going to be a million times worse. This is when you start to hear business owners saying, “I don’t want an asshole like you for a customer!” They get excited about their Pyrrhic victory. Wow, isn’t it great? When you’re a small business owner you get to fire your customers. Charming.
The bottom line is that this is not good for business, and it’s not even good for your emotional well-being. When you win a victory with a customer by firing them, you still end up feeling riled up and angry, they’ll get their money back from the credit card company anyway, and they’ll tell a dozen friends. As Patrick McKenzie writes, “You will never win an argument with your customer.”
There is only one way to survive angry customers emotionally: you have to realize that they’re not angry at you; they’re angry at your business, and you just happen to be a convenient representative of that business.
And since they’re treating you like a puppet, an iconic stand-in for the real business, you need to treat yourself as a puppet, too.
Pretend you’re a puppeteer. The customer is yelling at the puppet. They’re not yelling at you. They’re angry with the puppet.
Your job is to figure out, “gosh, what can I make the puppet say that will make this person a happy customer?”
You’re just a puppeteer. You’re not a party to the argument. When the customer says, “what the hell is wrong with you people,” they’re just playing a role (in this case, they’re quoting Tom Smykowski in the movie Office Space). You, too, get to play a role. “I’m sorry. It’s my fault.” Figure out what to make the puppet do that will make them happy and stop taking it so dang personally.
7. Greed will get you nowhere
Recently I was talking with the people who have been doing most of the customer service for Fog Creek over the last year, and I asked what methods they found most effective for dealing with angry customers.
“Frankly,” they said, “we have pretty nice customers. We haven’t really had any angry customers.”
Well, OK, we do have nice customers, but it seems rather unusual that in a year of answering the phones, nobody was angry. I thought the nature of working at a call center was dealing with angry people all day long.
“Nope. Our customers are nice.”
Here’s what I think. I think that our customers are nice because they’re not worried. They’re not worried because we have a ridiculously liberal return policy: “We don’t want your money if you’re not amazingly happy.”
Customers know that they have nothing to fear. They have the power in the relationship. So they don’t get abusive.
The no-questions-asked 90-day money back guarantee was one of the best decisions we ever made at Fog Creek. Try this: use Fog Creek Copilot for a full 24 hours, call up three months later and say, “hey guys, I need $5 for a cup of coffee. Give me back my money from that Copilot day pass,” and we’ll give it back to you. Try calling on the 91st or 92nd or 203rd day. You’ll still get it back. We really don’t want your money if you’re not satisfied. I’m pretty sure we’re running the only job listing service around that will refund your money just because your ad didn’t work. This is unheard of, but it means we get a lot more ad listings, because there’s nothing to lose.
Over the last six years or so, letting people return software has cost us 2%.
2%.
And you know what? Most customers pay with credit cards, and if we didn’t refund their money, a bunch of them would have called their bank. This is called a chargeback. They get their money back, we pay a chargeback fee, and if this happens too often, our processing fees go up.
Know what our chargeback rate is at Fog Creek?
0%.
I’m not kidding.
If we were tougher about offering refunds, the only thing we would possibly have done is pissed a few customers off, customers who would have ranted and whined on their blogs. We wouldn’t even have kept more of their money.
I know of software companies who are very explicit on their web site that you are not entitled to a refund under any circumstances, but the truth is, if you call them up, they will eventually return your money because they know that if they don’t, your credit card company will. This is the worst of both worlds. You end up refunding the money anyway, and you don’t get to give potential customers the warm and fuzzy feeling of knowing Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong, so they hesitate before buying. Or they don’t buy at all.
8. (Bonus!) Give customer service people a career path
The last important lesson we learned here at Fog Creek is that you need very highly qualified people talking to customers. A salesperson at Fog Creek needs to have significant experience with the software development process and needs to be able to explain why FogBugz works the way it does, and why it makes software development teams function better. A tech support person at Fog Creek can’t get by on canned answers to common questions, because we’ve eliminated the common questions by fixing the software, so tech support here has to actually troubleshoot which often means debugging.
Many qualified people get bored with front line customer service, and I’m OK with that. To compensate for this, I don’t hire people into those positions without an explicit career path. Here at Fog Creek, customer support is just the first year of a three-year management training program that includes a master’s degree in technology management at Columbia University. This allows us to get ambitious, smart geeks on a terrific career path talking to customers and solving their problems. We end up paying quite a bit more than average for these positions (especially when you consider $25,000 a year in tuition), but we get far more value out of them, too.
About the Author: I'm your host, Joel Spolsky, a software developer in New York City. Since 2000, I've been writing about software development, management, business, and the Internet on this site. For my day job, I run Fog Creek Software, makers of FogBugz - the smart bug tracking software with the stupid name, and Fog Creek Copilot - the easiest way to provide remote tech support over the Internet, with nothing to install or configure.
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Seven steps to remarkable customer service
By Joel Spolsky
Monday, February 19, 2007
As a bootstrapped software company, Fog Creek couldn’t afford to hire customer service people for the first couple of years, so Michael and I did it ourselves. The time we spent helping customers took away from improving our software, but we learned a lot and now we have a much better customer service operation.
Here are seven things we learned about providing remarkable customer service. I’m using the word remarkable literally—the goal is to provide customer service so good that people remark.
1. Fix everything two ways
Almost every tech support problem has two solutions. The superficial and immediate solution is just to solve the customer’s problem. But when you think a little harder you can usually find a deeper solution: a way to prevent this particular problem from ever happening again.
Sometimes that means adding more intelligence to the software or the SETUP program; by now, our SETUP program is loaded with special case checks. Sometimes you just need to improve the wording of an error message. Sometimes the best you can come up with is a knowledge base article.
We treat each tech support call like the NTSB treats airliner crashes. Every time a plane crashes, they send out investigators, figure out what happened, and then figure out a new policy to prevent that particular problem from ever happening again. It’s worked so well for aviation safety that the very, very rare airliner crashes we still get in the US are always very unusual, one-off situations.
This has two implications.
One: it’s crucial that tech support have access to the development team. This means that you can’t outsource tech support: they have to be right there at the same street address as the developers, with a way to get things fixed. Many software companies still think that it’s “economical” to run tech support in Bangalore or the Philippines, or to outsource it to another company altogether. Yes, the cost of a single incident might be $10 instead of $50, but you’re going to have to pay $10 again and again.
When we handle a tech support incident with a well-qualified person here in New York, chances are that’s the last time we’re ever going to see that particular incident. So with one $50 incident we’ve eliminated an entire class of problems.
Somehow, the phone companies and the cable companies and the ISPs just don’t understand this equation. They outsource their tech support to the cheapest possible provider and end up paying $10 again and again and again fixing the same problem again and again and again instead of fixing it once and for all in the source code. The cheap call centers have no mechanism for getting problems fixed; indeed, they have no incentive to get problems fixed because their income depends on repeat business, and there’s nothing they like better than being able to give the same answer to the same question again and again.
The second implication of fixing everything two ways is that eventually, all the common and simple problems are solved, and what you’re left with is very weird uncommon problems. That’s fine, because there are far fewer of them, and you’re saving a fortune not doing any rote tech support, but the downside is that there’s no rote tech support left: only serious debugging and problem solving. You can’t just teach new support people ten common solutions: you have to teach them to debug.
For us, the “fix everything two ways” religion has really paid off. We were able to increase our sales tenfold while only doubling the cost of providing tech support.
2. Suggest blowing out the dust
Microsoft’s Raymond Chen tells the story of a customer who complains that the keyboard isn’t working. Of course, it’s unplugged. If you try asking them if it’s plugged in, “they will get all insulted and say indignantly, ‘Of course it is! Do I look like an idiot?’ without actually checking.”
“Instead,” Chen suggests, “say ‘Okay, sometimes the connection gets a little dusty and the connection gets weak. Could you unplug the connector, blow into it to get the dust out, then plug it back in?’
“They will then crawl under the desk, find that they forgot to plug it in (or plugged it into the wrong port), blow out the dust, plug it in, and reply, ‘Um, yeah, that fixed it, thanks.’”
Many requests for a customer to check something can be phrased this way. Instead of telling them to check a setting, tell them to change the setting and then change it back “just to make sure that the software writes out its settings.”
3. Make customers into fans
Every time we need to buy logo gear here at Fog Creek, I get it from Lands’ End.
Why?
Let me tell you a story. We needed some shirts for a trade show. I called up Lands’ End and ordered two dozen, using the same logo design we had used for some knapsacks we bought earlier.
When the shirts arrived, to our dismay, you couldn’t read the logo.
It turns out that the knapsacks were brighter than the polo shirts. The thread color that looked good on the knapsacks was too dark to read on the shirts.
I called up Lands’ End. As usual, a human answered the phone even before it started ringing. I’m pretty sure that they have a system where the next agent in the queue is told to standby, so customers don’t even have to wait one ringy-dingy before they’re talking to a human.
I explained that I screwed up.
They said, “Don’t worry. You can return those for a full credit, and we’ll redo the shirts with a different color thread.”
I said, “The trade show is in two days.”
They said they would Fedex me a new box of shirts and I’d have it tomorrow. I could return the old shirts at my convenience.
They paid shipping both ways. I wasn’t out a cent. Even though they had no possible use for a bunch of Fog Creek logo shirts with an illegible logo, they ate the cost.
And now I tell this story to everyone who needs swag. In fact I tell this story every time we’re talking about telephone menu systems. Or customer service. By providing remarkable customer service, they’ve gotten me to remark about it.
When customers have a problem and you fix it, they’re actually going to be even more satisfied than if they never had a problem in the first place.
It has to do with expectations. Most people’s experience with tech support and customer service comes from airlines, telephone companies, cable companies, and ISPs, all of whom provide generally awful customer service. It’s so bad you don’t even bother calling any more, do you? So when someone calls Fog Creek, and immediately gets through to a human, with no voice mail or phone menus, and that person turns out to be nice and friendly and actually solves their problem, they’re apt to think even more highly of us than someone who never had the opportunity to interact with us and just assumes that we’re average.
Now, I wouldn’t go so far as to actually make something go wrong, just so we have a chance to demonstrate our superior customer service. Many customers just won’t call; they’ll fume quietly.
But when someone does call, look at it as a great opportunity to create fanatically devoted customer, one who will prattle on and on about what a great job you did.
4. Take the blame
One morning I needed an extra set of keys to my apartment, so on the way to work, I went to the locksmith around the corner.
13 years living in an apartment in New York City has taught me never to trust a locksmith; half of the time their copies don’t work. So I went home to test the new keys, and, lo and behold, one didn’t work.
I took it back to the locksmith.
He made it again.
I went back home and tested the new copy.
It still didn’t work.
Now I was fuming. Squiggly lines were coming up out of my head. I was a half hour late to work and had to go to the locksmith for a third time. I was tempted just to give up on him. But I decided to give this loser one more chance.
I stomped into the store, ready to unleash my fury.
“It still doesn’t work?” he asked. “Let me see.”
He looked at it.
I was sputtering, trying to figure out how best to express my rage at being forced to spend the morning going back and forth.
“Ah. It’s my fault,” he said.
And suddenly, I wasn’t mad at all.
Mysteriously, the words “it’s my fault” completely defused me. That was all it took.
He made the key a third time. I wasn’t mad any more. The key worked.
And, here I was, on this planet for forty years, and I couldn’t believe how much the three words “it’s my fault” had completely changed my emotions in a matter of seconds.
Most locksmiths in New York are not the kinds of guys to admit that they’re wrong. Saying “it’s my fault” was completely out of character. But he did it anyway.
5. Memorize awkward phrases
I figured, OK, since the morning is shot anyway, I might as well go to the diner for some breakfast.
It’s one of those classic New York diners, like the one on Seinfeld. There’s a thirty page menu and a kitchen the size of a phone booth. It doesn’t make sense. They must have Star Trek technology to get all those ingredients into such a small space. Maybe they rearrange atoms on the spot.
I was sitting by the cash register.
An older woman came up to pay her check. As she was paying, she said to the owner, “you know, I’ve been coming here for years and years, and that waiter was really rather rude to me.”
The owner was furious.
“What do you mean? No he wasn’t! He’s a good waiter! I never had a complaint!’
The customer couldn’t believe it. Here she was, a loyal customer, and she wanted to help out the owner by letting him know that one of his waiters needed a little bit of help in the manners department, but the owner was arguing with her!
“Well, that’s fine, but I’ve been coming here for years, and everybody is always very nice to me, but that guy was rude to me,” she explained, patiently.
“I don’t care if you’ve been coming here forever. My waiters are not rude.” The owner proceeded to yell at her. “I never had no problems. Why are you making problems?”
“Look, if you’re going to treat me this way I won’t come back.”
“I don’t care!” said the owner. One of the great things about owning a diner in New York is that there are so many people in the city that you can offend every single customer who ever comes into your diner and you’ll still have a lot of customers. “Don’t come back! I don’t want you as a customer!”
Good for you, I thought. Here’s a 60-something year old man, owner of a diner, and you won some big moral victory against a little old lady. Are you proud of yourself? How macho do you have to be? Does the moral victory make you feel better? Did you really have to lose a repeat customer?
Would it have made you feel totally emasculated to say, “I’m so sorry. I’ll have a word with him?”
It’s easy to get caught up in the emotional heat of the moment when someone is complaining.
The solution is to memorize some key phrases, and practice saying them, so that when you need to say them, you can forget your testosterone and make a customer happy.
“I’m sorry, it’s my fault.”
“I’m sorry, I can’t accept your money. The meal’s on me.”
“That’s terrible, please tell me what happened so I can make sure it never happens again.”
It’s completely natural to have trouble saying “It’s my fault.” That’s human. But those three words are going to make your angry customers much happier. So you’re going to have to say them. And you’re going to have to sound like you mean it.
So start practicing.
Say “It’s my fault” a hundred times one morning in the shower, until it starts to sound like syllabic nonsense. Then you’ll be able to say it on demand.
One more point. You may think that admitting fault is a strict no-no that can get you sued. This is nonsense. The way to avoid getting sued is not to have people who are mad at you. The best way to do this is to admit fault and fix the damn problem.
6. Practice puppetry
The angry diner owner clearly took things very personally, in a way that the locksmith didn’t. When an irate customer is complaining, or venting, it’s easy to get defensive.
You can never win these arguments, and if you take them personally, it’s going to be a million times worse. This is when you start to hear business owners saying, “I don’t want an asshole like you for a customer!” They get excited about their Pyrrhic victory. Wow, isn’t it great? When you’re a small business owner you get to fire your customers. Charming.
The bottom line is that this is not good for business, and it’s not even good for your emotional well-being. When you win a victory with a customer by firing them, you still end up feeling riled up and angry, they’ll get their money back from the credit card company anyway, and they’ll tell a dozen friends. As Patrick McKenzie writes, “You will never win an argument with your customer.”
There is only one way to survive angry customers emotionally: you have to realize that they’re not angry at you; they’re angry at your business, and you just happen to be a convenient representative of that business.
And since they’re treating you like a puppet, an iconic stand-in for the real business, you need to treat yourself as a puppet, too.
Pretend you’re a puppeteer. The customer is yelling at the puppet. They’re not yelling at you. They’re angry with the puppet.
Your job is to figure out, “gosh, what can I make the puppet say that will make this person a happy customer?”
You’re just a puppeteer. You’re not a party to the argument. When the customer says, “what the hell is wrong with you people,” they’re just playing a role (in this case, they’re quoting Tom Smykowski in the movie Office Space). You, too, get to play a role. “I’m sorry. It’s my fault.” Figure out what to make the puppet do that will make them happy and stop taking it so dang personally.
7. Greed will get you nowhere
Recently I was talking with the people who have been doing most of the customer service for Fog Creek over the last year, and I asked what methods they found most effective for dealing with angry customers.
“Frankly,” they said, “we have pretty nice customers. We haven’t really had any angry customers.”
Well, OK, we do have nice customers, but it seems rather unusual that in a year of answering the phones, nobody was angry. I thought the nature of working at a call center was dealing with angry people all day long.
“Nope. Our customers are nice.”
Here’s what I think. I think that our customers are nice because they’re not worried. They’re not worried because we have a ridiculously liberal return policy: “We don’t want your money if you’re not amazingly happy.”
Customers know that they have nothing to fear. They have the power in the relationship. So they don’t get abusive.
The no-questions-asked 90-day money back guarantee was one of the best decisions we ever made at Fog Creek. Try this: use Fog Creek Copilot for a full 24 hours, call up three months later and say, “hey guys, I need $5 for a cup of coffee. Give me back my money from that Copilot day pass,” and we’ll give it back to you. Try calling on the 91st or 92nd or 203rd day. You’ll still get it back. We really don’t want your money if you’re not satisfied. I’m pretty sure we’re running the only job listing service around that will refund your money just because your ad didn’t work. This is unheard of, but it means we get a lot more ad listings, because there’s nothing to lose.
Over the last six years or so, letting people return software has cost us 2%.
2%.
And you know what? Most customers pay with credit cards, and if we didn’t refund their money, a bunch of them would have called their bank. This is called a chargeback. They get their money back, we pay a chargeback fee, and if this happens too often, our processing fees go up.
Know what our chargeback rate is at Fog Creek?
0%.
I’m not kidding.
If we were tougher about offering refunds, the only thing we would possibly have done is pissed a few customers off, customers who would have ranted and whined on their blogs. We wouldn’t even have kept more of their money.
I know of software companies who are very explicit on their web site that you are not entitled to a refund under any circumstances, but the truth is, if you call them up, they will eventually return your money because they know that if they don’t, your credit card company will. This is the worst of both worlds. You end up refunding the money anyway, and you don’t get to give potential customers the warm and fuzzy feeling of knowing Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong, so they hesitate before buying. Or they don’t buy at all.
8. (Bonus!) Give customer service people a career path
The last important lesson we learned here at Fog Creek is that you need very highly qualified people talking to customers. A salesperson at Fog Creek needs to have significant experience with the software development process and needs to be able to explain why FogBugz works the way it does, and why it makes software development teams function better. A tech support person at Fog Creek can’t get by on canned answers to common questions, because we’ve eliminated the common questions by fixing the software, so tech support here has to actually troubleshoot which often means debugging.
Many qualified people get bored with front line customer service, and I’m OK with that. To compensate for this, I don’t hire people into those positions without an explicit career path. Here at Fog Creek, customer support is just the first year of a three-year management training program that includes a master’s degree in technology management at Columbia University. This allows us to get ambitious, smart geeks on a terrific career path talking to customers and solving their problems. We end up paying quite a bit more than average for these positions (especially when you consider $25,000 a year in tuition), but we get far more value out of them, too.
About the Author: I'm your host, Joel Spolsky, a software developer in New York City. Since 2000, I've been writing about software development, management, business, and the Internet on this site. For my day job, I run Fog Creek Software, makers of FogBugz - the smart bug tracking software with the stupid name, and Fog Creek Copilot - the easiest way to provide remote tech support over the Internet, with nothing to install or configure.
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Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Mind interval training approach
I mentioned this as a comment to a previous post, but I thought it deserved its own post as well. If you haven’t exercised in a long time and have gotten out of shape, mild interval training is a good way to rebuild endurance and cardiovascular fitness without killing yourself.
Let’s say your exercise of choice is running. Maybe you can only manage to run a few minutes before your heart feels like it’s about to explode out of your chest and you’re forced to stop for fear of passing out. It’s going to take you a while to build up to 30 minutes if you simply run your maximum each day and then stop.
So instead of that, try running 1 minute then walking 1 minute, repeating this cycle for as long as you can. You’ll find that you can go much further without overtaxing your heart and muscles. Maybe you can even go 10-20 minutes your first time. If run 1 walk 1 is too hard, try run 1 walk 2 or run 2 walk 3. Experiment to see what intervals work best for you. If your heart is still racing after the walking interval, increase the walking interval and/or reduce the running interval.
I recommend you aim for an initial interval that allows you to do the most amount of running in a 25 minute period. If you can only manage run 1 walk 4, that’s fine. Take a week to experiment with different intervals if you need to, but find one that allows you to go 25 minutes total (even if it’s run 1 walk 24). You should be physically challenged but not to the point of feeling nauseous or faint.
Once you’re able to go 25 minutes, gradually increase the running time and reduce the walking time. Aim to reach run 1 walk 1 for 25 minutes for an initial goal. Be patient as it may take you a few weeks to get there if you’re starting with a longer walking interval.
Next, gradually increase the running period while keeping the walking period at 1 minute. Go from run 1 walk 1 to run 1:30 walk 1. Then try run 2 walk 1. Keep extending your running intervals until you can manage run 8 walk 1 for 25 minutes.
Now keep those intervals the same, and gradually build your time from 25 minutes to 45 minutes. Don’t worry about distance, and don’t be concerned if you run a little slower. Just put in the time. Aim to increase the total time by about 10% per week, which roughly averages out to adding about 30 seconds per day.
Once you can do run 8 walk 1 for 45 minutes, you can switch to running continuously. You’ll likely find you’re able to do 25 minutes continuously without any trouble. After that you can continue to increase the distance, build your speed, do harder forms of interval training, or just maintain your current routine.
The advantage of this type of interval training is that you’re still spending most of the time in your aerobic range, so your circulatory system will get the benefit of that conditioning. If you’re out of shape, the running intervals will spike your heart rate quickly, and your heart rate will take a while to come back down, so even while walking you’ll still be mostly in the aerobic range. But you’ll avoid burning out from having your heart rate get too high. Walking won’t tire your muscles as much as running, so your legs won’t give out as quickly, and you won’t be quite as sore after your runs.
You can adapt this idea to other aerobic exercises as well. For swimming you can switch to a slower stroke or a glide. For bike riding you can coast instead of pedal hard.
This technique is also useful for distance running. Some people run marathons in a pattern of run 7 walk 1 (or similar intervals), and they often find their finishing times are better vs. when they run continuously. The brief walking periods slow you down in the early miles, but they make up for it in later miles by keeping your running muscles fresh. So you end up maintaining an even pace even through those last 6 miles where many people hit the wall. I once used a run 7 walk 1 pattern for a 13-mile training run, and I finished in 2 hours, which was a good time for me. I felt I was running strong all the way without dragging at the end.
Even if you’re terribly out of shape, you can use mild interval training to rebuild your fitness to a healthy level without causing yourself tremendous pain and discomfort. And it probably won’t take that long. A typical marathon training program can take you from running 3 miles to running 26.2 miles in six months, and that requires much more time and effort than going from 0 to 3 miles.
Let’s say your exercise of choice is running. Maybe you can only manage to run a few minutes before your heart feels like it’s about to explode out of your chest and you’re forced to stop for fear of passing out. It’s going to take you a while to build up to 30 minutes if you simply run your maximum each day and then stop.
So instead of that, try running 1 minute then walking 1 minute, repeating this cycle for as long as you can. You’ll find that you can go much further without overtaxing your heart and muscles. Maybe you can even go 10-20 minutes your first time. If run 1 walk 1 is too hard, try run 1 walk 2 or run 2 walk 3. Experiment to see what intervals work best for you. If your heart is still racing after the walking interval, increase the walking interval and/or reduce the running interval.
I recommend you aim for an initial interval that allows you to do the most amount of running in a 25 minute period. If you can only manage run 1 walk 4, that’s fine. Take a week to experiment with different intervals if you need to, but find one that allows you to go 25 minutes total (even if it’s run 1 walk 24). You should be physically challenged but not to the point of feeling nauseous or faint.
Once you’re able to go 25 minutes, gradually increase the running time and reduce the walking time. Aim to reach run 1 walk 1 for 25 minutes for an initial goal. Be patient as it may take you a few weeks to get there if you’re starting with a longer walking interval.
Next, gradually increase the running period while keeping the walking period at 1 minute. Go from run 1 walk 1 to run 1:30 walk 1. Then try run 2 walk 1. Keep extending your running intervals until you can manage run 8 walk 1 for 25 minutes.
Now keep those intervals the same, and gradually build your time from 25 minutes to 45 minutes. Don’t worry about distance, and don’t be concerned if you run a little slower. Just put in the time. Aim to increase the total time by about 10% per week, which roughly averages out to adding about 30 seconds per day.
Once you can do run 8 walk 1 for 45 minutes, you can switch to running continuously. You’ll likely find you’re able to do 25 minutes continuously without any trouble. After that you can continue to increase the distance, build your speed, do harder forms of interval training, or just maintain your current routine.
The advantage of this type of interval training is that you’re still spending most of the time in your aerobic range, so your circulatory system will get the benefit of that conditioning. If you’re out of shape, the running intervals will spike your heart rate quickly, and your heart rate will take a while to come back down, so even while walking you’ll still be mostly in the aerobic range. But you’ll avoid burning out from having your heart rate get too high. Walking won’t tire your muscles as much as running, so your legs won’t give out as quickly, and you won’t be quite as sore after your runs.
You can adapt this idea to other aerobic exercises as well. For swimming you can switch to a slower stroke or a glide. For bike riding you can coast instead of pedal hard.
This technique is also useful for distance running. Some people run marathons in a pattern of run 7 walk 1 (or similar intervals), and they often find their finishing times are better vs. when they run continuously. The brief walking periods slow you down in the early miles, but they make up for it in later miles by keeping your running muscles fresh. So you end up maintaining an even pace even through those last 6 miles where many people hit the wall. I once used a run 7 walk 1 pattern for a 13-mile training run, and I finished in 2 hours, which was a good time for me. I felt I was running strong all the way without dragging at the end.
Even if you’re terribly out of shape, you can use mild interval training to rebuild your fitness to a healthy level without causing yourself tremendous pain and discomfort. And it probably won’t take that long. A typical marathon training program can take you from running 3 miles to running 26.2 miles in six months, and that requires much more time and effort than going from 0 to 3 miles.
Physical 1st
If you have many improvements you’d like to make in your life — career, relationship, health — where should you begin? My suggestion is to start with your physical body. Improving your diet and level of fitness will produce positive results in every area of your life because you’ll have extra energy available to you every day. This means more energy to invest in your career, relationships, and mental and spiritual development.
You take your body with you wherever you go. If you’re overweight then you carry that excess with you at all times. You’ll see it every time you look in the mirror and carry it up and down every flight of stairs. An extra 20 lbs may not seem like much, but if you carry around an extra 20-lb dumbbell all day long, you’ll see that it feels burdensome and tires you out much faster. 20 lbs of excess fat weighs the same as a 20-lb dumbbell, and carrying it around all day will drain your energy.
It’s been said that people spend their first 50 years trading their health for wealth, and then they spend the next 50 years trading their wealth for health. But this isn’t a trade that you should make at all.
Losing your fitness can occur so gradually, you barely notice it. Even if you aren’t overweight, if you eat poorly and don’t exercise, you’ll suffer for it. But you may not see the symptoms of poor nutrition and fitness appear in your body right away — they’ll pop up in other areas like a feeling of malaise in your relationship, a lack of ability to concentrate well at work, a lack of ambition, or a feeling of fuzziness in your overall focus. You feel demotivated and don’t know why.
I recall that the times in my life when I exercised the most, I also had the clearest thinking, and I could concentrate for long periods without getting tired. Among the many benefits of exercise are in increase in blood flow, which helps oxygenate the body and especially the brain.
One of the key benefits of improving your body is that you’ll see physical results. When you look in the mirror or step on the scale and see that you’ve made progress, it’s very satisfying. And this self-esteem boost can lead to greater accomplishments in every other area.
Listen to your self-talk the next time you see yourself in the mirror. Is it positive or negative? Are you reinforcing the self-image you want?
Of the many stories I’ve read from people who’ve transformed their lives for the better, physical fitness was nearly always a significant component from the beginning.
Discuss this post in the Steve Pavlina forum.
If you find this site helpful, please leave a donation for Steve so you can enjoy the spirit of giving too.
You take your body with you wherever you go. If you’re overweight then you carry that excess with you at all times. You’ll see it every time you look in the mirror and carry it up and down every flight of stairs. An extra 20 lbs may not seem like much, but if you carry around an extra 20-lb dumbbell all day long, you’ll see that it feels burdensome and tires you out much faster. 20 lbs of excess fat weighs the same as a 20-lb dumbbell, and carrying it around all day will drain your energy.
It’s been said that people spend their first 50 years trading their health for wealth, and then they spend the next 50 years trading their wealth for health. But this isn’t a trade that you should make at all.
Losing your fitness can occur so gradually, you barely notice it. Even if you aren’t overweight, if you eat poorly and don’t exercise, you’ll suffer for it. But you may not see the symptoms of poor nutrition and fitness appear in your body right away — they’ll pop up in other areas like a feeling of malaise in your relationship, a lack of ability to concentrate well at work, a lack of ambition, or a feeling of fuzziness in your overall focus. You feel demotivated and don’t know why.
I recall that the times in my life when I exercised the most, I also had the clearest thinking, and I could concentrate for long periods without getting tired. Among the many benefits of exercise are in increase in blood flow, which helps oxygenate the body and especially the brain.
One of the key benefits of improving your body is that you’ll see physical results. When you look in the mirror or step on the scale and see that you’ve made progress, it’s very satisfying. And this self-esteem boost can lead to greater accomplishments in every other area.
Listen to your self-talk the next time you see yourself in the mirror. Is it positive or negative? Are you reinforcing the self-image you want?
Of the many stories I’ve read from people who’ve transformed their lives for the better, physical fitness was nearly always a significant component from the beginning.
Discuss this post in the Steve Pavlina forum.
If you find this site helpful, please leave a donation for Steve so you can enjoy the spirit of giving too.
Short horizon approach
A powerful personal growth tool is the 30-day trial. This is a concept I borrowed from the shareware industry, where you can download a trial version of a piece of software and try it out risk-free for 30 days before you’re required to buy the full version. It’s also a great way to develop new habits, and best of all, it’s brain-dead simple.
Let’s say you want to start a new habit like an exercise program or quit a bad habit like sucking on cancer sticks. We all know that getting started and sticking with the new habit for a few weeks is the hard part. Once you’ve overcome inertia, it’s much easier to keep going.
Yet we often psyche ourselves out of getting started by mentally thinking about the change as something permanent — before we’ve even begun. It seems too overwhelming to think about making a big change and sticking with it every day for the rest of your life when you’re still habituated to doing the opposite. The more you think about the change as something permanent, the more you stay put.
But what if you thought about making the change only temporarily — say for 30 days — and then you’re free to go back to your old habits? That doesn’t seem so hard anymore. Exercise daily for just 30 days, then quit. Maintain a neatly organized desk for 30 days, then slack off. Read for an hour a day for 30 days, then go back to watching TV.
Could you do it? It still requires a bit of discipline and commitment, but not nearly so much as making a permanent change. Any perceived deprivation is only temporary. You can count down the days to freedom. And for at least 30 days, you’ll gain some benefit. It’s not so bad. You can handle it. It’s only one month out of your life.
Now if you actually complete a 30-day trial, what’s going to happen? First, you’ll go far enough to establish it as a habit, and it will be easier to maintain than it was to begin it. Secondly, you’ll break the addiction of your old habit during this time. Thirdly, you’ll have 30 days of success behind you, which will give you greater confidence that you can continue. And fourthly, you’ll gain 30 days worth of results, which will give you practical feedback on what you can expect if you continue, putting you in a better place to make informed long-term decisions.
Therefore, once you hit the end of the 30-day trial, your ability to make the habit permanent is vastly increased. But even if you aren’t ready to make it permanent, you can opt to extend your trial period to 60 or 90 days. The longer you go with the trial period, the easier it will be to lock in the new habit for life.
Another benefit of this approach is that you can use it to test new habits where you really aren’t sure if you’d even want to continue for life. Maybe you’d like to try a new diet, but you don’t know if you’d find it too restrictive. In that case, do a 30-day trial and then re-evaluate. There’s no shame in stopping if you know the new habit doesn’t suit you. It’s like trying a piece of shareware for 30 days and then uninstalling it if it doesn’t suit your needs. No harm, no foul.
Here are some examples from my own life where I used 30-day trials to establish new habits:
1) In the Summer of 1993, I wanted to try being vegetarian. I had no interest in making this a lifelong change, but I’d read a lot about the health benefits of vegetarianism, so I committed to it for 30 days just for the experience. I was already exercising regularly, seemed in decent health, and was not overweight (6′0″, 155 lbs), but my typical college diet included a lot of In-N-Out burgers. Going lacto-ovo vegetarian for 30 days was a lot easier than I expected — I can’t say it was hard at all, and I never felt deprived. Within a week I noticed an increase in my energy and concentration, and I felt more clear-headed. At the end of the 30 days, it was a no-brainer to stick with it. This change looked a lot harder than it really was.
2) In January 1997, I decided to try going from vegetarian to vegan. While lacto-ovo vegetarians can eat eggs and dairy, vegans don’t eat anything that comes from an animal. I was developing an interest in going vegan for life, but I didn’t think I could do it. How could I give up veggie-cheese omelettes? The diet seemed too restrictive to me — even fanatically so. But I was intensely curious to know what it was actually like. So once again I did a 30-day trial. At the time I figured I’d make it through the trial, but I honestly didn’t expect to continue beyond that. Well, I lost seven pounds in the first week, mostly from going to the bathroom as all the accumulated dairy mucus was cleansed from my bowels (now I know why cows need four stomachs to properly digest this stuff). I felt lousy the first couple days but then my energy surged. I also felt more clear-headed than ever, as if a “fog of brain” had been lifted; it felt like my brain had gotten a CPU and a RAM upgrade. However, the biggest change I noticed was in my endurance. I was living in Marina del Rey at the time and used to run along the beach near the Santa Monica Pier, and I noticed I wasn’t as tired after my usual 3-mile runs, so I started increasing them to 5 miles, 10 miles, and then eventually a marathon a few years later. In Tae Kwon Do, the extra endurance really gave a boost to my sparring skills as well. The accumulated benefits were so great that the foods I was giving up just didn’t seem so appealing anymore. So once again it was a no-brainer to continue after the first 30 days, and I’m still vegan today. What I didn’t expect was that after so long on this diet, the old animal product foods I used to eat just don’t seem like food anymore, so there’s no feeling of deprivation.
3) Also in 1997, I decided I wanted to exercise every single day for a year. That was my 1997 New Year’s resolution. My criteria was that I would exercise aerobically at least 25 minutes every day, and I wouldn’t count Tae Kwon Do classes which I was taking 2-3 days per week. Coupled with my dietary changes, I wanted to push my fitness to a new level. I didn’t want to miss a single day, not even for sick days. But thinking about exercising 365 days in a row was daunting, so I mentally began with a 30-day trial. That wasn’t so bad. After a while every day that passed set a new record: 8 days in a row… 10 days… 15 days…. It became harder to quit. After 30 days in a row, how could I not do 31 and set a new personal record? And can you imagine giving up after 250 days? No way. After the initial month to establish the habit, the rest of the year took care of itself. I remember going to a seminar that year and getting home well after midnight. I had a cold and was really tired, yet I still went out running at 2am in the rain. Some people might call that foolish, but I was so determined to reach my goal that I wasn’t going to let fatigue or illness stop me. I succeeded and kept it up for the whole year without ever missing a day. In fact, I kept going for a few more weeks into 1998 before I finally opted to stop, which was a tough decision. I wanted to do this for one year, knowing it would become a powerful reference experience, and it certainly became such.
4) More diet stuff…. After being vegan for a number of years, I opted to try other variations of the vegan diet. I did 30-day trials both with the macrobiotic diet and with the raw foods diet. Those were interesting and gave me new insights, but I decided not to continue with either of them. I felt no different eating macrobiotically than I did otherwise. And in the case of the raw diet, while I did notice a significant energy boost, I found the diet too labor intensive — I was spending a lot of time preparing meals and shopping frequently. Sure you can just eat raw fruits and veggies, but to make interesting raw meals, there can be a lot of labor involved. If I had my own chef, I’d probably follow the raw diet though because I think the benefits would be worth it. I did a second trial of the raw diet for 45 days, but again my conclusion was the same. If I was ever diagnosed with a serious disease like cancer, I’d immediately switch to an all raw, living foods diet, since I believe it to be the absolute best diet for optimal health. I’ve never felt more energetic in my life than when I ate a raw diet. But I had a hard time making it practical for me. Even so, I managed to integrate some new macrobiotic foods and raw foods into my diet after these trials. There are two all-raw restaurants here in Vegas, and I’ve enjoyed eating at them because then someone else does all the labor. So these 30-day trials were still successful in that they produced new insights, although in both cases I intentionally declined to continue with the new habit. One of the reasons a full 30-day trial is so important with new diets is that the first week or two will often be spent detoxing and overcoming cravings, so it isn’t until the third or fourth week that you begin to get a clear picture. I feel that if you haven’t tried a diet for at least 30 days, you simply don’t understand it. Every diet feels different on the inside than it appears from the outside.
This 30-day method seems to work best for daily habits. I’ve had no luck using it when trying to start a habit that only occurs 3-4 days per week. However, it can work well if you apply it daily for the first 30 days and then cut back thereafter. This is what I’d do when starting a new exercise program, for example. Daily habits are much easier to establish.
Here are some other ideas for applying 30-day trials:
Give up TV. Tape all your favorite shows and save them until the end of the trial. My whole family did this once, and it was very enlightening.
Give up online forums, especially if you feel you’re becoming forum addicted. This will help break the addiction and give you a clearer sense of how participation actually benefits you (if at all). You can always catch up at the end of 30 days.
Shower/bathe/shave every day. I know YOU don’t need this one, so please pass it along to someone who does.
Meet someone new every day. Start up a conversation with a stranger.
Go out every evening. Go somewhere different each time, and do something fun — this will be a memorable month.
Spend 30 minutes cleaning up and organizing your home or office every day. That’s 15 hours total.
List something new to sell on ebay every day. Purge some of that clutter.
Ask someone new out on a date every day. Unless your success rate is below 3%, you’ll get at least one new date, maybe even meet your future spouse.
If you’re already in a relationship, give your partner a massage every day. Or offer to alternate who gives the massage each day, so that’s 15 massages each.
Give up cigarettes, soda, junk food, coffee, or other unhealthy addictions.
Become an early riser.
Write in your journal every day.
Call a different family member, friend, or business contact every day.
Make 25 sales calls every day to solicit new business. Professional speaker Mike Ferry did this five days a week for two years, even on days when he was giving seminars. He credits this habit with helping build his business to over $10 million in annual sales. If you make 1300 sales calls a year, you’re going to get some decent business no matter how bad your sales skills are. You can generalize this habit to any kind of marketing work, like building new links to your web site.
Write a new blog entry every day.
Read for an hour a day on a subject that interests you.
Meditate every day.
Learn a new vocabulary word every day.
Go for a long walk every day.
Again, don’t think that you need to continue any of these habits beyond 30 days. Think of the benefits you’ll gain from those 30 days alone. You can re-assess after the trial period. You’re certain to grow just from the experience, even if it’s temporary.
The power of this approach lies in its simplicity. Even though doing a certain activity every single day may be less efficient than following a more complicated schedule — weight training is a good example because adequate rest is a key component — you’ll often be more likely to stick with the daily habit. When you commit to doing something every single day without exception, you can’t rationalize or justify missing a day, nor can you promise to make it up later by reshuffling your schedule.
Give trials a try. If you’re ready to commit to one right now, please feel free to post a comment and share your goal for the next 30 days. If there’s enough interest, then perhaps we can do a group postmortem around May 20th to see how it went for everyone. I’ll even do it with you. Mine will be to go running or biking for at least 25 minutes or do a minimum 60-minute hike in the mountains every day for 30 days. The weather here in Vegas has been great lately, so it’s a nice time for me to get back to exercising outdoors.
Let’s say you want to start a new habit like an exercise program or quit a bad habit like sucking on cancer sticks. We all know that getting started and sticking with the new habit for a few weeks is the hard part. Once you’ve overcome inertia, it’s much easier to keep going.
Yet we often psyche ourselves out of getting started by mentally thinking about the change as something permanent — before we’ve even begun. It seems too overwhelming to think about making a big change and sticking with it every day for the rest of your life when you’re still habituated to doing the opposite. The more you think about the change as something permanent, the more you stay put.
But what if you thought about making the change only temporarily — say for 30 days — and then you’re free to go back to your old habits? That doesn’t seem so hard anymore. Exercise daily for just 30 days, then quit. Maintain a neatly organized desk for 30 days, then slack off. Read for an hour a day for 30 days, then go back to watching TV.
Could you do it? It still requires a bit of discipline and commitment, but not nearly so much as making a permanent change. Any perceived deprivation is only temporary. You can count down the days to freedom. And for at least 30 days, you’ll gain some benefit. It’s not so bad. You can handle it. It’s only one month out of your life.
Now if you actually complete a 30-day trial, what’s going to happen? First, you’ll go far enough to establish it as a habit, and it will be easier to maintain than it was to begin it. Secondly, you’ll break the addiction of your old habit during this time. Thirdly, you’ll have 30 days of success behind you, which will give you greater confidence that you can continue. And fourthly, you’ll gain 30 days worth of results, which will give you practical feedback on what you can expect if you continue, putting you in a better place to make informed long-term decisions.
Therefore, once you hit the end of the 30-day trial, your ability to make the habit permanent is vastly increased. But even if you aren’t ready to make it permanent, you can opt to extend your trial period to 60 or 90 days. The longer you go with the trial period, the easier it will be to lock in the new habit for life.
Another benefit of this approach is that you can use it to test new habits where you really aren’t sure if you’d even want to continue for life. Maybe you’d like to try a new diet, but you don’t know if you’d find it too restrictive. In that case, do a 30-day trial and then re-evaluate. There’s no shame in stopping if you know the new habit doesn’t suit you. It’s like trying a piece of shareware for 30 days and then uninstalling it if it doesn’t suit your needs. No harm, no foul.
Here are some examples from my own life where I used 30-day trials to establish new habits:
1) In the Summer of 1993, I wanted to try being vegetarian. I had no interest in making this a lifelong change, but I’d read a lot about the health benefits of vegetarianism, so I committed to it for 30 days just for the experience. I was already exercising regularly, seemed in decent health, and was not overweight (6′0″, 155 lbs), but my typical college diet included a lot of In-N-Out burgers. Going lacto-ovo vegetarian for 30 days was a lot easier than I expected — I can’t say it was hard at all, and I never felt deprived. Within a week I noticed an increase in my energy and concentration, and I felt more clear-headed. At the end of the 30 days, it was a no-brainer to stick with it. This change looked a lot harder than it really was.
2) In January 1997, I decided to try going from vegetarian to vegan. While lacto-ovo vegetarians can eat eggs and dairy, vegans don’t eat anything that comes from an animal. I was developing an interest in going vegan for life, but I didn’t think I could do it. How could I give up veggie-cheese omelettes? The diet seemed too restrictive to me — even fanatically so. But I was intensely curious to know what it was actually like. So once again I did a 30-day trial. At the time I figured I’d make it through the trial, but I honestly didn’t expect to continue beyond that. Well, I lost seven pounds in the first week, mostly from going to the bathroom as all the accumulated dairy mucus was cleansed from my bowels (now I know why cows need four stomachs to properly digest this stuff). I felt lousy the first couple days but then my energy surged. I also felt more clear-headed than ever, as if a “fog of brain” had been lifted; it felt like my brain had gotten a CPU and a RAM upgrade. However, the biggest change I noticed was in my endurance. I was living in Marina del Rey at the time and used to run along the beach near the Santa Monica Pier, and I noticed I wasn’t as tired after my usual 3-mile runs, so I started increasing them to 5 miles, 10 miles, and then eventually a marathon a few years later. In Tae Kwon Do, the extra endurance really gave a boost to my sparring skills as well. The accumulated benefits were so great that the foods I was giving up just didn’t seem so appealing anymore. So once again it was a no-brainer to continue after the first 30 days, and I’m still vegan today. What I didn’t expect was that after so long on this diet, the old animal product foods I used to eat just don’t seem like food anymore, so there’s no feeling of deprivation.
3) Also in 1997, I decided I wanted to exercise every single day for a year. That was my 1997 New Year’s resolution. My criteria was that I would exercise aerobically at least 25 minutes every day, and I wouldn’t count Tae Kwon Do classes which I was taking 2-3 days per week. Coupled with my dietary changes, I wanted to push my fitness to a new level. I didn’t want to miss a single day, not even for sick days. But thinking about exercising 365 days in a row was daunting, so I mentally began with a 30-day trial. That wasn’t so bad. After a while every day that passed set a new record: 8 days in a row… 10 days… 15 days…. It became harder to quit. After 30 days in a row, how could I not do 31 and set a new personal record? And can you imagine giving up after 250 days? No way. After the initial month to establish the habit, the rest of the year took care of itself. I remember going to a seminar that year and getting home well after midnight. I had a cold and was really tired, yet I still went out running at 2am in the rain. Some people might call that foolish, but I was so determined to reach my goal that I wasn’t going to let fatigue or illness stop me. I succeeded and kept it up for the whole year without ever missing a day. In fact, I kept going for a few more weeks into 1998 before I finally opted to stop, which was a tough decision. I wanted to do this for one year, knowing it would become a powerful reference experience, and it certainly became such.
4) More diet stuff…. After being vegan for a number of years, I opted to try other variations of the vegan diet. I did 30-day trials both with the macrobiotic diet and with the raw foods diet. Those were interesting and gave me new insights, but I decided not to continue with either of them. I felt no different eating macrobiotically than I did otherwise. And in the case of the raw diet, while I did notice a significant energy boost, I found the diet too labor intensive — I was spending a lot of time preparing meals and shopping frequently. Sure you can just eat raw fruits and veggies, but to make interesting raw meals, there can be a lot of labor involved. If I had my own chef, I’d probably follow the raw diet though because I think the benefits would be worth it. I did a second trial of the raw diet for 45 days, but again my conclusion was the same. If I was ever diagnosed with a serious disease like cancer, I’d immediately switch to an all raw, living foods diet, since I believe it to be the absolute best diet for optimal health. I’ve never felt more energetic in my life than when I ate a raw diet. But I had a hard time making it practical for me. Even so, I managed to integrate some new macrobiotic foods and raw foods into my diet after these trials. There are two all-raw restaurants here in Vegas, and I’ve enjoyed eating at them because then someone else does all the labor. So these 30-day trials were still successful in that they produced new insights, although in both cases I intentionally declined to continue with the new habit. One of the reasons a full 30-day trial is so important with new diets is that the first week or two will often be spent detoxing and overcoming cravings, so it isn’t until the third or fourth week that you begin to get a clear picture. I feel that if you haven’t tried a diet for at least 30 days, you simply don’t understand it. Every diet feels different on the inside than it appears from the outside.
This 30-day method seems to work best for daily habits. I’ve had no luck using it when trying to start a habit that only occurs 3-4 days per week. However, it can work well if you apply it daily for the first 30 days and then cut back thereafter. This is what I’d do when starting a new exercise program, for example. Daily habits are much easier to establish.
Here are some other ideas for applying 30-day trials:
Give up TV. Tape all your favorite shows and save them until the end of the trial. My whole family did this once, and it was very enlightening.
Give up online forums, especially if you feel you’re becoming forum addicted. This will help break the addiction and give you a clearer sense of how participation actually benefits you (if at all). You can always catch up at the end of 30 days.
Shower/bathe/shave every day. I know YOU don’t need this one, so please pass it along to someone who does.
Meet someone new every day. Start up a conversation with a stranger.
Go out every evening. Go somewhere different each time, and do something fun — this will be a memorable month.
Spend 30 minutes cleaning up and organizing your home or office every day. That’s 15 hours total.
List something new to sell on ebay every day. Purge some of that clutter.
Ask someone new out on a date every day. Unless your success rate is below 3%, you’ll get at least one new date, maybe even meet your future spouse.
If you’re already in a relationship, give your partner a massage every day. Or offer to alternate who gives the massage each day, so that’s 15 massages each.
Give up cigarettes, soda, junk food, coffee, or other unhealthy addictions.
Become an early riser.
Write in your journal every day.
Call a different family member, friend, or business contact every day.
Make 25 sales calls every day to solicit new business. Professional speaker Mike Ferry did this five days a week for two years, even on days when he was giving seminars. He credits this habit with helping build his business to over $10 million in annual sales. If you make 1300 sales calls a year, you’re going to get some decent business no matter how bad your sales skills are. You can generalize this habit to any kind of marketing work, like building new links to your web site.
Write a new blog entry every day.
Read for an hour a day on a subject that interests you.
Meditate every day.
Learn a new vocabulary word every day.
Go for a long walk every day.
Again, don’t think that you need to continue any of these habits beyond 30 days. Think of the benefits you’ll gain from those 30 days alone. You can re-assess after the trial period. You’re certain to grow just from the experience, even if it’s temporary.
The power of this approach lies in its simplicity. Even though doing a certain activity every single day may be less efficient than following a more complicated schedule — weight training is a good example because adequate rest is a key component — you’ll often be more likely to stick with the daily habit. When you commit to doing something every single day without exception, you can’t rationalize or justify missing a day, nor can you promise to make it up later by reshuffling your schedule.
Give trials a try. If you’re ready to commit to one right now, please feel free to post a comment and share your goal for the next 30 days. If there’s enough interest, then perhaps we can do a group postmortem around May 20th to see how it went for everyone. I’ll even do it with you. Mine will be to go running or biking for at least 25 minutes or do a minimum 60-minute hike in the mountains every day for 30 days. The weather here in Vegas has been great lately, so it’s a nice time for me to get back to exercising outdoors.
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