A surprise show with the American Idols (R)

The entertainment business can be interesting at times, you never know who you will meet or will be on stage. Last night was just such an occasion. I was asked to work a "classified" event for Net Jets. Classified meaning, I wasn't told very much about it as I strictly had a time, location and what I was there to do - which was to keep the crowd entertained while they waited.

So I turn up at the Net Jets hangar at the airport (very cool party location) to find a line of 300-500 people I would guess. Upon introducing myself to someone official I was escorted beyond the lines and brought back stage where there were some others sitting around relaxing. I didn't think to much of it, until I recognized one.

OK....I admit I watched the first couple seasons of American Idol, but certainly was not up to par on the most recent celebs. Then I looked back at one and realized....hey...is that the Sanjaya guy that people were making fun of? I still wasn't sure.

I walked out to the main room of the party after preparing and sure enough, there was IDOL stuff everywhere. It turns out that Net Jets is the company that provides transportation to the idols on tour and prior to their concert here in Columbus they had arranged a special meet and greet opportunity for the employees of the company.

Now, I didn't even know who won the thing this year (you can fault me for that later) but I did go back and get autographs, have a few laughs over some tricks that they liked and because the only name I knew was Sanjaya - I told him he was a ROCKSTAR! Sorry I didn't have my camera.....

AMERICAN IDOL ® is a registered trademark of 19 TV Ltd

Do you TREAT your customers as Grade C - but edible?

Do you make your customers feel “STANDARD?”

How would you feel if a restaurant, hotel, vendor or other type of business greeted you when you walked in the door as….. “STANDARD”. I wish I could feel more “Standard.” It just warms my heart to be appreciated as a commoner. Let me ask - how often do YOU take the time to make your valued clients feel “Standard?” Every day, just now and then or every chance you get?

Traveling is just part of what I do for my lively hood. Well get this….I don’t generally have a negative experience with Hyatt Regency but when booking a trip to Chicago this coming January, I called the Hyatt of course as I am a ‘valued repeat customer’. Their wonderful automated prompt picks me up and begins to direct me appropriately. My options soon were “is your reservation with a group or meeting organization or as an individual.” I respond with “individual”.

My fair toned female auto-respondent friend replies. Thank you, we are transferring your call to…..standard. HUH?! I kid you not – I was being transferred to “STANDARD.” Is this a person, place or thing or possibly another 2 minutes worth of hold music that I didn't have time for.

I could go count the number of nights that I stayed in a Hyatt this year. It’s certainly (and thankfully) not as many as some of you, but I bet more than most. AND, even if I’m not in their top 20% of spenders, the last thing I want to be called is “Standard.”

Just to make sure I wasn’t a one-off call. I called back a few time to hear what other things I might be called. Which left me to believe I was either ‘standard’ or a ‘meeting’ to them – but certainly anything BUT a valuable client.

Webster’s defined standard as:
1) an object that is regarded as the usual or most common size or form of its kind
2) a grade of beef immediately below good.
3) an average requirement, quality, quantity, level, grade, etc.:

What do you do?
When you speak to your customers or clients, I dare you to make them feel as if they are the single most important client of your business. Not only will they appreciate it, but they’ll go out of their way to refer others to you. The business of relationships is a fundamental key to success (no new news there). And the moment you begin treating your valued clients as a ‘grade of beef below good’ is the moment they seek to find a relationship that builds them up to be more.

Maybe they’ve fixed it – check it out yourself: dial the Chicago Hyatt at 312-565-1234 and respond as an individual. See how you feel! PLEASE, let me know about it and see how long it takes them to change it.

You know what else – and this always perturbs me. After I DID make a reservation I was told to have a nice day, but was never told “THANK YOU.”

I’m sorry Hyatt. My usually high expectations for you have just gone to Grade C, but edible - “STANDARD.”

Sincerely, Your "valued client?"

Jon Petz

The book site: www.BoringMeetingsSuck.com
The Corporate site: www.BoreNoMore.com

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AAaaahh....YES! YOU get it Nationwide Insurance. Using Novelty to engage your audience.

Date: September 20th.
Venue: Hyatt Regency
My client: Nationwide Insurance

Doing what I do (motivational speaker and corporate entertainer) I walk into sooo many unique situations and meeting setups. When hired to emcee the days events and provide the closing keynote for a group of 350 Software testing analysts for their test symposium you may not expect the most exciting environment. However, I commend Heather at Nationwide for doing just the opposite and offer her BORING MEETINGS SUCK award for September 2006 for her use of novelty and entertainment as the MSRD (Meeting Suckification Reduction Device).

Let me share just a quick synopsis of what she planned to make sure he meeting garnered the attention of her attendees and the senior staff. Having been the first time they hosted the test symposium, she wanted to create the right environment and surprise them right from the start. The program started like a rock concert - with a haze filled room and lights dancing around the stage with music kicking it up at 8:30 in the morn. I was introduced and took the stage first. I had 15 minutes to get them laughing and engaged (what I do best) and showed the audience a sealed prediction of what I thought 3 people wanted to gain from the day. We then picked 3 people by throwing frisbees into the audience - upon which they stood and mentioned what they hoped to gain. As wild as it seemed - I opened the plastic encasing that was hung in full view of the audience. Inside of which was a prediction written on a large piece of paper and sure enough I had successfully predicted the attendees names and what they hoped to achieve from the day! The audience was in awe as well as physically and emotionally engaged in whatever was about to happen next. (I guess this doesn't generally happen in their morning meetings) I then introduced the CIO who spoke for a few minutes, following which we made the first keynote presenter *magically Appear* on stage using the theme words of the days conference. This all happened in the first 30 minutes!!

When your staff comes to your meeting, what do you do engage them from the start in order to create an atmosphere in which engaged interaction can take place, instead of the standard....here we go again in which they all sit back waiting for you to preach.....I mean present.

I am big into brain based learning - how and when the brain learns best. NEXT to Survival and emotions - novelty is the next BEST thing that engages the human brain and helps create long term memories of that occasion. How can you use novelty (trivia, jokes or photos perhaps) in your meeting that relate to your topic? What about having a story that builds one of the emotions with an analogy that related to your mission?

Face it - people want to be entertained. To use my favorite line from "The Fred Factor" by Mark Sanborn: Do your BEST work, while having the MOST Fun. For reference, Mark just published a new book that is also great: "You Don't Need a Title to Be a Leader"

Go forth, find ways to use novelty productively and Bore No More!

Look forward to YOUR comments!

Jon Petz
Because Boring Meetings Suck !

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