photo credit: midiman

Random thoughts get me in trouble sometimes. Today I got a call from the service manager of one of our local Chevy dealers.

Every February, the troop helps them by hand washing 250-280 cars during the dealer’s annual customer care clinic. It’s a brilliant free event that gets the dealer’s customers into the showroom for 30-40 minutes, feeds them, offers them door prizes, and most importantly - gets their cars run through the shop for a head to toe diagnostic/safety once-over by their certified mechanics.

In addition to finding some safety issues that could be fatal because they stranded you somewhere remote during our Montana winters, it also does a nice job of filling out the repair shop’s appointment book for a couple of months. 

After the inspection once-over is done, it gives the Scouts a chance to be seen in public doing something people appreciate (ie: handwashing their cars in February in Montana - albeit in a heated auto shop).

Anyhow, that conversation and the related thought process got me to thinking about The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA otherwise known as HR4040) and Scouting. Yes, its a bit of a tangent, but I got there, so let’s move on.

Patches, Pinewood and Pants

Im wondering if Boy Scouts of America (BSA) National Headquarters is aware that the CPSIA drastically tightens the rules for the sale and manufacture of children’s products, including clothing, furniture, toys and other items (basically, *everything* created for a young child).

Patches, gear and uniforms will fall under this law for Scouts in younger age groups. Old gear AND gear *currently in inventory* that has not been tested CANNOT BE SOLD, by Scout shops, on eBay, by retail stores, etc.

Even Cub Scout Pinewood Derby car kits are impacted. No manufacturers - not even one-of-a-kind (OOAK) products are exempted.

They didn’t leave out the Girl Scouts, of course.  All their gear and clothing are also under the watchful eye of this law.

The gear, patches and clothing currently in inventory is what will cause the most interest by BSA National because 300+ council offices have lots of stuff in inventory in their stores and summer camp trading posts. 

All of it has to be certified or tested, or it must be removed from sale on Feb 10th. Or someone has to find an exemption. Right now, there are no exemptions.

Why pick on the kids?

This law was written primarily to deal with large multi-national firms importing containers of lead-tainted junk toys, so the fines are substantial.

This law is big trouble for people who make homemade clothing/toys/furniture, for diaper services, for resale shops, those making their living on ebay/etsy.com and many others (including everyone they buy items from to make their business run).

Lots of effort is taking place to try and get it fixed, but its already a law and many of the rules have yet to be written by the CPSC - despite the fact that the major components of the law go into effect on Feb 10. As written, the law impacts everyone.

Im curious if this is even remotely on the BSA’s radar because it will impact every council scout shop and every retailer who carries Scout items, new or used.

It will impact all the ordering of gear, patches and so on for NOAC 2009, for the 45,000+ attendees of the 100th Anniversary National Scout Jamboree at Camp A.P. Hill in Virginia, and every summer camp’s trading post for the 2009 season (and so on). That’s a lot of stuff. 

Is the CPSIA a surprise for you? You’re in luck

Ive posted a number of articles about the CPSIA, so if this is the first you’ve heard about it, I’d suggest starting your CPSIA education here and I would also suggest calling the BSA National office and ask them about CPSIA compliance of items from BSA National Supply. Don’t bother your council office with this (unless you’re on the council board) because they really can’t do much about it other than make sure they are ordering from CPSIA-compliant vendors.

In the meantime, you might also see if your Scout shop has a sale on Pinewood Cars - and buy your model car paint early. At present, there’s no telling what the status of model paints will be after Feb 10.

The reach of this law never ceases to amaze me.

Have you called your Senators’ DC offices?

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photo credit: Gustty

I spent some time on the phone today with Senator Baucus’ office in DC. Ended up spending about 20 minutes with Bruce Fergusson, Baucus’ business specialist in this area. 

Bottom line - he said this:

• If you contact your reps/Senators, calling them by phone is far and away the best thing to do. Call their DC office. Everyone emails and almost no one calls. Calling stands out and gets a real person on the line most times.
• Because the legislation is already law, calling the CPSC for clarification of the impact on your specific business is best. They have till Feb 10 to formulate the first set of rules for the CPSIA. Your call - the sooner the better - can impact the result. You can contact the Consumer Product Safety Commission via the contact info behind this link.

Meanwhile, keep working on the other channels of communication:

• Work as much as possible by phone.
• Blog.
• Write letters - real ones with a stamp.
• Fax.
• Get interviewed on local tv, radio or in the newspaper.
• Talk to your vendors, manufacturers reps and markets about it. 
• Tell your customers about it and ask them to contact their representatives. Give them a short letter to mail and sign to make it easy.

The number of people who know about this law is still very, very small. You can fix that.

February 10th is just around the corner.

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photo credit: ckindel

For months, my youngest son has been saving for a new set of skis. Given the instant gratification culture we’re surrounded by, its a good thing to watch a kid save his shekels for a few months for something he really wants.

The timing is good for him to reach his goal, as we’ve gotten over 5 feet of snow on the mountain in the last 7 days. Skiers and snowboard riders are in heaven around here.

On Saturday, it was payday. He finally went to pick up his new skis (Elan something - you can tell I’m not a ski geek). He took them to a local ski house to get bindings mounted and fitted to his (also new) vacuum-fitted boots. The store is known for having an expert repair staff and this sort of work is critical to safely enjoying a pair of skis.

So he drops off the skis and asks if he can have them the next day. No problem, they say.

“No problem”

When he calls, they aren’t ready and in fact, it turns out they haven’t been started because the experts forgot to ask for details like weight and skier skill level - important factors in setting up bindings. He’s a patient kid (not sure where he got that from) so 90 minutes later, he goes to pick them up only to be told that he can’t have them.

Why? Because he’s not 18. 

He can’t enter into a legal contract because he’s a minor. The contract? A likely unenforceable “legal document” aka waiver of liability for injuries that might occur as a result of some problem with the repair/binding installation. 

Until a parent signs the waiver, his skis are held hostage. 

Because of that little detail, a parent (that’s me) has to stop what they’re doing and drive 25 minutes each way to the store to sign a piece of paper that is more than likely unenforceable. Why unenforceable? Because if someone has valid cause to sue and an expert can prove the binding install (for example) was the cause of an accident, this 5×9 piece of paper isn’t going to make much difference. 

Oddly enough, my son doesn’t have to get a signature to buy the skis. He doesn’t have to get a signature to buy boots, poles or bindings either. But he does have to get a signature if someone installs the bindings onto the skis for him.

It’s just our policy

When my son calls me to get his skis out of purgatory, I ask him to put the store guy on the phone.

When I question the ski shop guy, I get comments like “I just do the work” and “Its just our policy”.

Do I care if he just does the work? Do I care that “its just our policy”? Not even. When your staff answers questions like this - do your clients care? 

I’m not asking him why I have to sign the paper. I know that’s just something the store’s legal team cooked up because the industry advises they do so and I just have to tolerate it. 

I’m asking the ski repair guy why the store think it’s ok to take a kid’s money when they know the kid can’t consummate the sale and take delivery of their product.

I’m also asking them why they aren’t informing their customer at the time of the sale that picking up this item will require a parent signature. Telling them at that time, and perhaps sending them home with a form to allow for future pickups might prevent future customer service issues like this. 

Instead, I get nothing but policy speak. Bleah.

Making it better

What would have been better? Something like this:

“We require a parent signature because our management feels that most parents would want to know about purchases and repairs that have a potential to impact their child’s safety and experience on the slopes. While our legal team has their own reasons, we feel it’s important that parents are aware when we are selling certain items to their children. If you want to avoid this in the future, we’ve created an option for parents who don’t need at-purchase-time notification for each purchase. We started this program for our expert skiers and snowboard riders, like local world class snowboard rider Tanner Hall. If you trust the expertise of your kids, you can sign this special form that lets them get bindings and repairs done without parental interruption. The cool thing is that you still get a postcard in the mail each time they make a purchase covered by the agreement, so you know what’s going on.”

That’s what would have been better. 

Look, every customer realizes that businesses have to protect themselves, but they don’t have to care. 

Train your staff to communicate things in customer-centric reasoning, rather than “corporate legal” policy statements. That’s what the paperwork is for. Your staff is there to create and improve upon the relationship you have with your clients, not to spout policy.

So much for that day on the slopes

Going back to what happened with the store…By the time I drop what I’m doing and drive 25 minutes to the store to sign the waiver, it’s not even worth making the trip to the mountain because the lifts on the advanced slopes close at 3pm. What kind of taste does that leave in a customer’s mouth? My son spends more money at this store than I do. Far more:)

Bottom line: Make it easy to do business with your company. If you have policies in place that might be misunderstood by your clients or that might inconvenience them, explain them before they cause a problem and find ways to avoid the inconvenience altogether. This entire episode could have been avoided without reducing the company’s legal protection.

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photo credit: allyaubry

Only 2 Senate.gov sites mention the CPSIA.

Feinstein’s mention relates to her dislike for the CPSC’s interpretation of toy sales after Feb 10 and a press release regarding proposed changes.

Klobuchar’s simply crows about her involvement in passing the law. It’s understandable other than the lack of consideration for craftspeople and homemade products businesses.

NEITHER say a word about the impact the CPSIA will have on small businesses, craftspeople, artisans and others who make, sell or resell handcrafted items.

What did your representatives say about it when you called them?

Who will you blame on Feb 10th if there are no changes to the CPSIA that provide relief for homemade products related businesses?

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photo credit: Valerie Everett

You may have noticed that I took a little rest from blogging over the last couple weeks. Some of it was planned, some was due to surprisingly infrequent access to the internet during our trip to Missouri and Tennessee ( one example: a Starbucks with TWO tables, both next to the door in single digit weather, yeah, sure - and that was the only access I found other than a Panera restaurant).

Yep, we drove from Montana to the Midwest and back. Other than the “joy” of 20 below temps in Wyoming during the trip south, the trip was very nice and the roads were clear for the entire trip once we got out of Montana. The same can’t be said for my return home, where I found 2 feet of snow in my driveway and another foot the day after.

By the way, that 20 below thing is rare, but happens once or twice a year to keep the riffraff out:)

Normally when I leave town, I have posts automatically scheduled in Wordpress so that my schedule doesn’t interfere with keeping things moving here, but in this case I wanted to use experiences on the trip to seed those posts. I suppose the most noticeable seed from the trip is that in some areas, getting random access to the internet is a pain in the rump roast.  You wouldn’t think so in 2009, but that’s how it was.

Back to taking the time off. We all need it, of course. The only problem with taking time off from anything that you do regularly is that getting back into the game gets more difficult with each day that you’re gone.

People have asked me repeatedly how I manage to blog (almost) every single day. Quite simply, its a habit. Even on the days I don’t write (which are few - even on this last trip), I’m either taking notes about a future article or writing offline.

The secret is that writing is like working a muscle. Left unused, it’ll atrophy. You don’t want your blogging muscles to atrophy, just like you don’t want any other muscles to do that.

Writing, blogging, working out, golfing, reading and many other things are simply habits that must be developed. They aren’t instinctive (which is a good thing). Why good? Because anyone can train themselves to do these things.

Make constant improvement a habit

Most importantly - for your business, at least - the habit of working ON your business is a critical path habit that you need to do daily.

Yes, I said daily.

Even if you only spend 15 minutes a day working on improving your business, you’ll be surprised how it becomes a part of you and your business process. Its something that really must become a part of your business. Being the goto person in your business is fine, just keep in mind that your business looks at you that way too, not just your clients.

You’re one of the few who can help it improve.
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photo credit: Sukanto Debnath

In other words, can your community of clients depend on the quality, promptness, on-time-performance and regularity of everything you do for them?

Now is the time to start figuring out how to address that. For many businesses, these next 9-10 days are the slowest you’ll see all year. 

Even if they aren’t, take TWO minutes to talk to those who come in, call or email. 

Tell them you want to make sure that your service to them in 2009 is better than it was in 2008. Ask them for their help and let them know that 2 minutes is all you need.

Ask these things

Ask them if they depend on you.

If they say yes, ask them why.

If they say no, ask them why not - and shouldn’t you wonder why they are still coming back? - Ask.

Ask them what they can no longer depend on you for that they once did, if anything.

Ask them who at your business they can always depend on.

Ask them who at your business they can no longer depend on. 

Ask them if they can still depend on the quality of every single product or service you sell. 

If they say no, ask them which list is shorter - the ones they can depend on, or the ones they can’t depend on?

Once they answer, ask them for the items in the shorter list.

Get to work

With the answers to these questions in hand, it’s time to get to work.

Armed with these answers and a yellow pad, you can come up with strategies to deal with them even if you’re sitting in your easy chair. 

It doesn’t matter whether we’re talking about a panini sandwich, an oil change or a complex legal question related to salmon fishing in international waters. It can be improved. 

You can do it. Start by asking for two minutes of your customers’ time.

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photo credit: piotrek plecke

You’ve likely seen the catchy commercials for Axe products for men.

Here’s an example of how they are always looking for the right opportunity.

They could have staged the run. That would have cost thousands.

This cost them a tshirt and a few moments with a camcorder. My guess is that the guy doing the stunt was one of many volunteers, and possibly an Axe employee having some fun.

A little creative thought goes a long way, even if your product isn’t quite like Axe’s.

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photo credit: Nihit Goyal

Today’s guest post comes from David Armano, who provokes the manager in you by asking if you can handle the truth. 

No, wait. That was a movie..

David’s question is more challenging. Can you handle a passionate employee? Do they even belong at your business - even though you probably think and say that you want them? 

Anyone who has worked for someone else and felt like they were the only one who really, truly gave a rip will find themselves nodding their heads. 

http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/2008/12/passion-vs-productive.html

BUT…now that you’re in charge, could someone like you excel at your business? Or would just rather have someone who is “just” productive?

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photo credit: jonmatthew photography

Hildy Gottlieb, a fellow board member from my days on the CharityChannel.com board had the temerity to call me out on her blog yesterday. 

Well, maybe not call me out exactly. More like give me a hat size adjustment.

I only found out about her kind words because Wordpress told me I had a new inbound trackback. So I mosey over there like I always do when I get an inbound link and blammo, I’m humbled by her words. 

It was a nice really thing for her to do, and something that she had nothing to gain from. 

It made my day, if not my week.

Stephen Covey talks about making deposits in your personal account, but he isn’t talking about money. He never uses the word karma, but that’s what some might call it.

Regardless of what it is, the day after Hildy makes that post and calls attention to a number of folks including myself, she appears on a list in a post at FastCompany.com with some pretty amazing company (noting that she is pretty amazing herself).

Maybe it was a coincidence, maybe not. 

What can you do for someone today, without expecting a thing in return? 

To that end, as I asked the other day on Twitter: 

What local business in your area is in the most trouble, economy-wise? What can your business do to help them?

Speaking of deposits, karma and what not…

Tomorrow morning for a couple of hours, I get to carry out Christmas baskets at our food bank. Its cold as a welldigger’s, uh, boots here. Those boxes are heavy. Lots of fo