The Breakfast Fairy Challenge - Part Two

Just had to share this great email that I just received from my dad. What amazing timing as it was obvious he not yet seen my BLOG post from yesterday when he decided to take on the challenge and play the role of Breakfast Fairy.

Pretty damn cool!

Just in case your interested...here's a pic of my folks with Josh peeking over Grandma's shoulder.

Hi Steve,

Yesterday morning Mom and I went to Le Chantilly for our favorite Bow Tie pastry and coffee after getting an X-ray for her follow-up appointment with the doctor. Le Chantilly is an informal place -- sometimes they wait on you at the table, often times you have to go to the bakery cases to get any attention. Either way, they just get what you ask for, bring it to the table, and you may not see that person again. No check. So, I was waiting at the register to be noticed by anyone of a group of employees chatting while preparing food or simply chatting, These waits can sometimes be quite long, and this was no exception, And older fellow walked up to join the "wait ritual". He kept looking back to see if his wife was coming as we chatted about the slow service.

His wife obviously had difficulty walking ,,, shuffle steps, much like Mom's were a few year back. I told him that I admired them for getting out and about. We had a minute or two to chat further before an employee finally showed up at the register. I told her what we had ordered, and said I wanted to pay for this couple; meal as well. He was a bit flustered and argued a bit -- he said it was the first time in his 88 years anyone had ever done that.

I shared the "Breakfast Fairy" story and one or two others that had given me the incentive to "pay forward" rather than pay back. I told him Alzheimer's and our determination to stay active was the common thread between the stories. It was no surprise when he told me his wife had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's about four years ago. He said he had been career military, and he thought of her disease as his "last battle". Neat couple that we will look for again.

What could have been a story about poor customer service turned in to a great "pay forward" opportunity -- what a surprise to then read you blog last night.

Love ya ... Dad

The Breakfast Fairy Challenge

For those regular readers of my BLOG you know my dad cares for my mom who is suffering from the later stages of Alzheimer's disease. Despite the obviously challenges of carrying for someone in her condition he still does everything he can to include her in his everyday activities. That includes trips to Starbucks, shopping and to one of their favorite breakfast places in Albuquerque called Wecks.

Dad is a big believer in my Ripple concept. In fact he has been so great at promoting my book that I wish I had done this ten years ago so I could have hired him full-time as my agent when he might have had more time. He really missed his calling! Anyway he is especially sensitive to Ripples when they happen and enjoys sharing the stories of them with me every time they occur.

Despite my mom not being able to carry on a conversation dad makes sure that she never just sits there. He talks to her non-stop and has enough conversation for them both and I truly believe that though this disease has taken its toll on mom she still hears and understands what he is saying to her. Well the intense love and affection that dad shows mom when they are out and about gets attention. To some it might appear sad but to most, I like to believe, it might serve as a tiny bit of inspiration as to just how to be in this world.

It was during one of mom and dad's routine trips to Wecks that this attention and the power of the Ripple collided. It seems that as dad was finishing feeding mom and was looking to settle their tab that the waitress said the bill had been taken care of by the breakfast fairy. I can almost see my dad's expression as the sheer gesture assuredly caused his eyes to water up.

It seems that another couple sitting close to mom and dad asked their waitress to put their breakfast on their ticket and paid for it. There was no grandstanding or fan fare, they just wanted to pay for that tiny bit of inspiration that they had seen exuding from my parents at the next table. It was their way of saying thank you. They left, unfortunately, without saying a word to my folks.

Dad assuredly sat there perplexed by what had occurred but no doubt basking in the after effects of being Rippled.

Since dad shared this story with me they have had several other occurrences of various people doing the very same thing. It is so reassuring to know that the spirit of kindness and recognition is still very much alive and that breakfast fairies apparently run rampant in Albuquerque, New Mexico!

So who could you be the breakfast fairy for this weekend? Who is sitting behind their laptop at Starbucks looking as if they could use a piece of coffee cake. What older couple do you see still hanging together after all these years that might be blown away by having their check taken care of? Look around when you are out today, tonight, this weekend.....who could use a little breakfast fairy Ripple magic?

Talk about an incredible Ripple!

Thank you breakfast fairy for being so kind to my parents. The stories and the Ripples are forever etched in BOTH of their minds and hopefully in those of my readers as well!

If you find inspiration in this do me a favor....don't just read it. Do something with it. Be a breakfast fairy, Ripple On, this blog post and let's see if we can drum up a lot of breakfast fairy appearance this weekend! What do you say?

Ripple On!!!

Steve Harper


P.S. Do you have a Breakfast Fairy story? Or perhaps you create one this weekend....Please share it with us! Your submission may just end up as an inclusion in my next book!!!

Customer Service Critical to Success

I received some interesting emails last week when I spoke about the customer service training I was delivering for the State. Those emails led to some interesting conversations about the priority certain organizations place, or don't place, on the importance of serving the customer. To be perfectly honest I was surprised and dismayed to learn what little emphasis some well known companies place in continually training their employees on how to take care of the customer.

I don't want to go out on a rant here (thank you Dennis Miller) but customer service in my opinion is one of the most important functions a company undertakes and it plays a critical role in the success and longevity of the company. Employees at every level serve, regardless of rank and file, serve a customer. Those customers are either internal customers such as staff, co-workers, colleagues, management, vendors or suppliers or external and well, those are the people that vote with their dollars and agree to keep you receiving those nice little things we call paychecks. If you are in a company....simply put you serve a customer.

So why don't organizations place more emphasis on customer service training? Well I believe they have taken their eye off the ball. They focus too much on making this quarter's objectives and long range forecasts but forget that their foundation was and continues to be built by both their people in the trenches and those people/companies that paid for their products and services last week, last month, last year.

Smart organizations know that every single person needs constant and never-ending reinforcement that we as employees are all in the serving the customer game. Smart organizations don't just talk a good game but invest heavily in making sure every single player within an organization appreciates, understands and executes in a manner that delivers outstanding customer service to all internal and external customers period!

Interested in learning how easy (and yes, cost effective) it is to create a more customer focused approach to servicing your customer and ultimately growing your company? Let's chat for a get acquainted session on what my Ripple-Centric approach to delivering my Customer Service Essentials Training can do for you, your team and ultimately your customers.

To schedule some time to chat email me at steve@ripplecentral.com.

Ripple On!!!

Steve Harper

Avoid Foot In Mouth Disease

Nothing will short circuit an important business relationship quicker than introducing a professional colleague (or someone from your network/community) to someone else and not fully understanding what it is that they actually do. Though the person you are just introducing your colleague to will hopefully have no idea you bungled the introduction, rest assured your colleague will and it can and will cause some serious damage to your relationship. Likely to the point of never being able to recover it!

I attended a function yesterday where I had the unfortunate pleasure of witnessing this happen first hand. A sales representative whom I know brought someone over to introduce them to me. She started off by saying "Steve this is my good friend BLAH BLAH and I just had to introduce you two. BLAH BLAH does X and is one of the best in the business. At my former company she was the only one I ever used for Y and we are about to start using her here at the new company."

Someone quick get an egg.....we have a face!

Blah Blah's expression completely changed from one of open friendliness to one that showed just the growing fringe of major annoyance and quite possibly a side of violence.

"Actually....I haven't done that in nearly a year. I now do Duh Duh Duh," Blah Blah arched with a marked edginess to her tone.

Obviously it was an uncomfortable position to be in but I tried to save the day with a welcoming tone, acknowledging smile and a firm handshake. But as you can imagine the damage was done. Blah Blah wasn't interested in me or my work at that point. No, all she cared about was getting away from "her good friend" who didn't seem to know her well enough to know she had changed careers some time back.

I won't go into further detail as to how this sales rep dug herself in a deeper whole by acknowledging that she had no idea she had changed jobs and did she (brace yourself) think that her knew company would need what she the sales rep was selling.

Idiot party of one!

Let's just say that the temperature in that place turned a modest -31F and you could call the time of death on that relationship (what little there appeared to be in the first place). No amount of mouth to mouth or mouth to ass is going to save that one!

My point is before you ever make an effort to introduce someone make sure you know the lay of the land. Take some time to reengage and catch up before you start introducing them around. Make sure you don't ever "oversell" someone as a good friend, colleague, customer, etc. if they clearly are not. The time you take will help you from catching the often fatal foot in mouth disease!

One last thing....and I think this is a great advice if I do say so myself. If you are going to be hanging around people you know and there is a likelihood you will be put in a position to introduce them around, then ASK THEM HOW THEY WOULD LIKE FOR YOU TO INTRODUCE THEM. Simple. Easy. Straightforward. Oh yeah....and smart! Trust me your stock in their eyes will go up tremendously because you took the time to care!

Until next time....


Ripple On!!!

Steve Harper


P.S. Don't forget to check out our Ripplehead IPOD contest from Monday's BLOG post.

Calling all Rippleheads: Help Us Grow and Win!!!

Well if Jimmy Buffett can have his Parrotheads, why oh why can't I have my Rippleheads? Of course I can't claim to be as cool as Mr. Buffett (at least not where I will admit it that he might read it) but I can tell you that my BLOG readers and the fans of the almighty Ripple sure seem to be just as loyal as his.

Well one goal I forgot to mention in last week's post was increase our Ripple community. Oh the quandary as to how to do that? How to grow readership of the BLOG, participation in the online Yahoo Ripple Community and increase subscriptions to our free Ripple On News & Notes Newsletter. Bottom line, how to get more people talking, connecting and Rippling online?

Well in order to get a powerful Ripple someone has to cast a pretty big stone. So here's what I am thinking....Why not make spreading the word of this BLOG and the other "stuff" fun, engaging and perhaps even rewarding. Like IPOD rewarding!

So will you my faithful readers will help us grow our Ripple Community and turn a whole new audience of people into Rippleheads?

Here's what you do. There are a couple of ways to earn a "chit" in the Ripplehead APPLE IPOD giveaway.

Decide who in your network of amazing friends, family, colleagues, associates or semi-conscious connections would benefit from what we talk about here on this BLOG.

1. Refer said friend, family member, colleague, associate or semi-conscious connection to this BLOG and have them sign up to begin receiving the BLOG updates delivered directly to their email. (Psst....upper right corner of this BLOG).

2. Ask them to check out my website at www.ripplecentral.com and if inclined ask them to sign up for our Ripple Effect newsletter otherwise know as Ripple On News & Notes. Let them know to sign up at the bottom of our website's main landing page; lower righthand corner.

3. If they want to really get funky and help us grow our new Ripple Yahoo Community and add to the conversation then you can send them to the Ripple Community link on our website and for a quick and easy sign up for our Yahoo community. Or simply send them here:

http://www.ripplecentral.com/yahoo.php

We will be emailing everyone that signs up to verify who referred them. If the person you refer signs up under one of the three suggested areas, you earn one "chit" towards our drawing of an Apple IPOD. If your referred person signs up on the BLOG, Yahoo Ripple Community and for The Ripple On News & Notes you earn five "chits."

One last BONUS....if your referral ends up buying a hard copy or eBook version of my book The Ripple Effect of www.ripplecentral.com, you automatically get an additional five "chits" entered into the drawing. How sweet the Ripples are!

Easy...peasy...nice and easy!

So my fellow Rippleheads...are you up to the challenge? You may just Ripple your way to a brand new IPOD by helping us spread the word and adding a few more Rippleheads!

Contest begins at right now and runs until 9 P.M. May 15, 2007. Winner will be notified by email by the close of business on May 16th.

Grab those rocks and start creating some Ripples and help us take the Ripple message and conversation to a whole new level.

Ripple On!!!


Steve Harper