Mark Blomeley

I was just reading a book today and came across a very important reminder of customer service, and it really brought to me perspective to what I am doing in my business and how to treat customers.  It also really made me think about how big companies treat customers and that has a lot to do about their reputation.

I have always prescribed to the notion that the customer is always right, I know it has been recently argued by some people that this isn’t right, but to me you really just need to have that mindset in business no matter what. More than anything it’s not so much about the telling the employees of the company that the customer is always right; it’s engraining a culture of doing this.

Within this book there was an interesting story about the author buying a round the world first class ticket and in one leg of the journey the lady at the first class lounge wouldn’t let him in because the leg that was coming up only had a business class option and therefore wasn’t technically flying first class.

Think about that, a guy that has bought a $20,000 ticket with the one airline, doing multiple legs with that one airline in first class and just because one leg of that journey wasn’t first class (because they didn’t have a first class section) he wasn’t allowed into the lounge. I know, I know, who cares about the poor rich man! But that’s not the point; the company should be doing anything possible to please this guy, it’s purely a case of a poorly engrained culture within the company as well as a black and white thinking employee.

On the flip side, there is also a story about a clothing store that had a really well engrained culture of saying yes to customers, to the point that they rewarded employees who had the best stories of delivering above and beyond customer service. One day a lady came in to the clothing store, to return some defective tires (that’s right defective tires!), of course the company didn’t sell tire because they were a clothing store. The shop attendant told the customer this but the lady insisted she bought the tires there. So the shop attendant gave the customer a full refund on the tires they don’t stock! A couple of days later the lady realised the error of her ways, apologised for the company and went to the media with her story. They got mountains of publicity!

This is an example of incredible customer service, although it might seem stupid initially to give the customer a refund on products they don’t sell, the end result was enormous exposure for this business. Although you might not get massive exposure for everything you do in your business, the point is that developing that sort of culture is going to produce extremely happy customers and a can do attitude amongst your staff.

What company do you want yours to be? The Airline or the Clothing Store?

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In terms of books, it is hard to deny that the four hour work week has had and is having a major impact on young budding entrepreneurs and why wouldn’t it? Heck I would almost think that the Four Hour Work Week was targeted specifically target to Generation Y. I must admit that it was one book that definitely caught my attention, and I believe that there is a lot that can be taken away from The Four Hour Work Week; however it can also be argued that the four hour work week also has its limitations.

Tim Ferris certainly does provide a unique positive perspective into how you can potentially to live life and how a business can work for you and I certainly believe that this is one of the greatest benefits that the book portrays. Most small business owners definitely spend far too much in their business and not working on their business and this is where the book definitely would assist any small business owner.

Tim also brings up some very important and valid points when it comes to customers, customer management and time management in the book. Actually scheduling what tasks need to get done and allocating the relevant time is incredibly important. So often we work for the sake of working when in reality we can get more done in a shorter space of time, this is what the book is encouraging. Additionally customers that soak up time, energy and almost more importantly morale can hinder your business efforts, so sometimes it’s simply better to set them free and fire them!

It could be argued that the book makes building a business and becoming part of the “New Rich” seem easy, when in reality it can be an incredibly hard and painstaking process. Additionally a lot of businesses will not suit to be geared towards working just four hours per week, or in particular going down the track of outsourcing. One thing that should be remembered here is that when Tim Ferris decided to join the new rich and work 4 hours per week, his business situation was ideal. He had a business that was already turning over $40,000 plus per month and it was an online business.

Whatever your view is regarding the 4-Hour Work Week and how you interpret the information within the book is going to determine how much you get out of it. Obviously the book is not how to create a business it’s about how you can potentially streamline your business life to get the most out of all the other aspects of your life. Which I think is a great concept.

Ultimately I believe the people who can benefit most out of the book are entrepreneurs with existing businesses who ultimately “know their business”. In other words they know and are comfortable with their product/service, have systems in place or at least know what day to day activities need to be carried out and ultimately know what activities grow their business.

There are still aspects of the book that are helpful and inspiring to budding entrepreneurs, but there are many more relevant books you should read and follow prior to aspiring to the four hour work week. Why? Well from my personal experience (and this is obviously entirely different to Tim Ferris) is that in order to remove yourself from a business you a need a very clear direction, have some stability within the business (i.e. critical customer mass) and to know your business operations. Achieving that can take at least 6 to 12 months for traditional businesses to achieve (potentially less for online businesses). Ultimately product businesses are going to be easier for the owner to achieve the four hour work week than service businesses, because a vast majority of the time the owner is the product and it takes time to change that.

I do highly recommend this book to business people and entrepreneurs as the concepts are fantastic but definitely consider your personal situation prior to trying to jump in and achieve the 4 Hour Work Week in the next two months. Ultimately the 4 Hour Work Week is possible, however as with anything plan your work then work your plan.

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