Thank You Cards

I remember the first time I had to write a massive quantity of thank you cards to people.  It was 2001 and I was getting ready to graduate from high school.  Gifts ranging from clothes to dorm room supplies to (my personal favorite) money began to pour in from even the furthest branches of the family tree. 

It was great.

It was so great that I wanted to do it again.

I'm not saying that I got married for the gifts but that was a really sweet perk of my nuptials.

Then we had a baby and I didn't get a lot of gifts but whatever.

Then I graduated from college and had more parties with more Adam-centered gifts.

Throughout these processes of receiving gifts, the voice of my mother continued to resonate in my head.  (Hearing mom's voice isn't an uncommon event.  It is more of a daily occurrence and some of the time it is a good thing.)

Mom always taught me to write hand written thank you notes to people.  Because at 18, I was way smarter than my mom, I asked why I couldn't just make a form letter of thanks and mail it out to everyone.  Efficient right?  She didn't go for it.  She said that hand written notes were the way to go so I hand wrote thank you notes to everyone.  Every high school graduation gift, every wedding gift, every baby shower gift and every college graduation gift was followed up by a hand written thank you note.

My strategy today as a working professional is no different.  People need hand written thank you notes.  It doesn't matter what industry you're in.  Non-profits should thank their donors for giving money.  Salesmen should thank customers for spending money with them.  Employees should thank their bosses for the opportunity to work and serve people.  Bosses should thank their employees for faithfully serving the company or organization.

Everyone needs a thank you note. 

I write two different kinds of thank you notes to our donors, supporters and team members.  The majority of notes I write are simple, hand written thank you notes.  Some people (like the 18 year old version of me) thinks that this is an inefficient way of spending time, other people hate the way their hand writing looks, and still others simply think that the person on the receiving end doesn't really care whether the note is hand written or not.

In my experience:

• Hand written notes are warm and personal not cold and corporate.  Who would you rather do business with?  Would you prefer a salesmen that talks to you by name and seeks out ways to take care of your needs or a vague, one-size fits all on-line order form?
• Hand written notes don't take a lot of time.  My notes are typically three to four sentences conveying my appreciation for the gift, how I intend to use the gift, and an offer to be of service to the donor in the future.  I don't write a novel, I keep it short and sweet.  I typically do not include the size or value of the gift (i.e. thanks for your $50 donation).  These cards do not suffice for purposes of tax write offs.  They are specifically to convey appreciation.
• Hand written notes are not expensive.  I usually buy about 250, custom printed cards each year.  It runs me about $100.  My cards are simple.  They are on white card-stock paper with our logo on the front.  Inside they are blank and thus a canvas for me to express my appreciation.  They measure about 5.5" wide and 4.25" tall when folded. 
• Your handwriting makes it unique.  Obviously you'll need to write legibly.  Outside of that, by your handwriting you have communicated to the donor that you personally sat down and took the time to hand write a card of thanks.  That shows appreciation.    

So does that mean that I never use canned form letter thank you notes?  No.  I do use them.  Occasionally I receive a gift from a company or an estate.  Those types of donors need something from our agency that they can use for a tax write off.  They would rather have that than the warm and fuzzy feelings that accompany my hand written cards.  I get that and I'm okay with it. 

Here's a copy of the form letter that I use (click the image to enlarge it):

 

 

I included the line numbers for this blog post so that you can see how I space everything.  I don't print a document with line numbers.

 

You'll notice that it is on company letter head with contact information.

 

I have the date of the letter.

 

 

I include the mailing address of the donor.

 

I use a simple "To whom it may concern" salutation.

 

I keep it short.  I thank the company for their donation and I'm specific to list the monetary value of the gift. 

 

I offer to be of further assistance to the agency and then I close by listing my name and position with the agency.  I print this and sign it in blue ink and mail it to the donor. 

 

Is it cold and impersonal, yes.  Does the IRS care?  No. 

 

I fit the thank you note to the need of the donor.  90% of my notes are hand written.  10% of our gifts are corporate or from an estate that require a letter like this. 

 

 

So there you go! A quick guide to professional thank you notes!

Dinosaurs

We don't always have awesome discussions at our team meetings, but when we do, it is because we talked about dinosaurs.

Today we had quite a few things to discuss.  After we finished all of our procedural and training items, we had a discussion about having a dinosaur mentality. 

Having a dinosaur mentality leads us to the same fate as the dinosaurs--extinction.

We posed the question this morning, "What can we start doing today to make our organization viable 5 years from now?"

We could, in all reality, sit back and rest and keep doing what we've been doing and be in good shape for the short term.  However, we realize that for every second we're sitting idle, we're getting lapped by technology and culture.  What we're doing today can't be good enough 5 years from now. 

Here's some qualities of dinosaur thinking that could potentially kill your organization:

1.  Dinosaurs say, "This is how we've always done it."  That's just foolish.  I certainly don't advocate changing just for change sake but thinking that there is safety in history is flawed logic. 

2.  Dinosaurs shake their fists and tell the kids to "Get off my lawn!"  Dinosaurs don't embrace advances in technology and communication and marketing strategies.  They ignore the value of Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn because they don't understand it. Instead, you have to communicate in ways and in places that your audience can hear you.  My name is Adam and I get all my news from my Twitter feed and Facebook.  I follow news channels, government officials and news personalities and organizations via my preferred social media outlets.  If you want to convey a message to me or market a product or service to me, your high priced newspaper ad or your expensive radio spot isn't going to catch me.  I will see you in my Twitter feed though.  That doesn't cost a dime.  We HAVE to embrace advances in technology and communication and marketing strategies.

3.  Dinosaurs don't like it when you say that they have ugly kids.  Okay, no one likes that.  What I mean is that leaders put years of expertise and experience into building an organization, product line, etc.  What they don't like is when someone comes in, looks at what they've built and says, "I think we can do this better."  The dinosaur takes that statement way too personally.  The dinosaur hears the person say, "you've got an ugly kid."  Instead, we've got to acknowledge that as a leader, sometimes we can't see the forest for all the trees because we're too close and too emotionally invested in the project or organization.  It is helpful to have someone come in and help you get refocused and suggest ways to improve what you've built.  I know it's difficult, but don't take it personally.  See it for what it is--an opinion. 

Dinosaurs go extinct.  As leaders we can't become dinosaurs and we can't be okay with thinking like dinosaurs. 

How have you caught yourself having a dinosaur mentality?

You Forgot the "Customer" Part of Customer Service

I run a call center.  Teaching and reinforcing outstanding customer service skills to my team is one of the most important things that I do.  If I ever forget to teach and reinforce customer service skills to my team, all I need to remind me is having to be a victim of poor customer service.

The phrase "poor customer service" is an oxymoron in its own right.  When someone "serves their customer," the fact that the service is high-quality is implied.  Without outstanding service, you're not being "served," you're being "interacted with." 

When I spend my money (valuable) or my time (extremely valuable) with you and your company, I expect that I will be served and not merely interacted with. 

You want two examples of this from last week?  You got it!

At the office, I have a Chase Visa Credit Card.  I don't use it often but I do have it and use it when necessary.  Every single time I have to call Chase's customer service department to make a payment, dispute a charge, ask a question, etc. I always am greeting with outstanding customer service. 

It is worth noting that I don't even like having to use a credit card.  I don't like credit cards and don't have one personally.  It is simply an agency policy that I use one.  That being said, I adore Chase's customer service department.  Simply outstanding.  Every single time.

On the other end of the spectrum, I have had poor dealings with Verizon.  Our office used Verizon as our telephone and internet company for years.  However, after a string of poor interactions that I had with their technical support office over the summer, they eventually lost my business and now we spend our money with Suddenlink.  Suddenlink has proven to be the anti-Verizon and we love doing business with (i.e. giving our money to) them. 

When we closed our accounts with Verizon, I continued to be billed.  For months.  The first month I called their billing department and was placed on 30+ minutes of hold on different occasions and was often disconnected.  The next month I wrote a note on my bill explaining the situation and mailed it back.  No response.  The next month I went online to their e-mail contact form.  It wasn't working that day, I was told by an automated message.  I tried the online, live chat.  The virtual, automated agent was no help.

I was sick of it. 

I took to Twitter.

 

As you can tell, I received a human response to my tweet within a few minutes.  Within an hour, I had the entire situation resolved.  And, to give credit where it is due, I had a great experience with the three people that, because of a tweet, got my problem rectified. 

 

 

All that being said, I want to tell you what makes for an outstanding customer service experience like I have with companies like Chase and Suddenlink and this one interaction with Verizon.

 

1.  Treat me like I'm the only person in the room.  I know your day is full.  I know that you have a lot more people to see besides me.  I know the line is getting long behind me--but you don't have to let me know that.  I love it when the person I am talking to gives me all the time necessary to resolve whatever my issue is.  When the customer service associate gives time and attention to solve my issue, I can leave that conversation confident that I've been taken care of and I really appreciate that.

 

2.  Use my name.  I love it when people call me by my name.  The second that you use my name, I feel the conversation become a little more personal.  When you use my name (and I will typically use yours as well) you separate yourself from your competitors.  When I say that you separate yourself, I mean that when given the choice of where I will spend my money, I will choose you instead of your competitor that treated my like a number rather than a person.  I will choose you even though your prices may be slightly higher.  I will choose you even though it takes a little longer to receive the service.  I will choose you because you use my name when we talk.

 

3.  Over deliver.  This is easy to do because your competitors have really lowered the bar for you.  Let me give you and example of over delivering:

 

A couple of weeks ago, I had to take a day off to stay home with my son.  Of course, that's the day that our internet service at the office went down.  Since our work is web-based, the office came to a stand still.  I talked my staff through some typical troubleshooting and when that didn't work I had to call Suddenlink (our internet provider).  I told the gentleman that we had an internet outage and that I was at home, not at the office.  Because of my previous internet provider, my expectation was that the technician would field my call and then after about 30 minutes of my begging would schedule another technician to come to my office sometime in the next week. 

 

Not this time.

 

Upon hearing that I was at home, he laughed and said, "that's about right, the problem waited for you to leave, huh?" Jokingly I agreed.  After about 5 seconds he said, "I think I know what's wrong.  May I have the phone number of one of your folks at the office?  I'll call them and I know that they can fix this on site."  Stunned, I agreed.  He was proactive.  He was sympathetic to my situation.  He took care of it for me.

 

He over delivered.  He blew away his competitors.  He gets my money.

 

I know that those are just three ways to deliver awesome customer service and obviously there are so many more.  But in just one week's time, those are the three that have come up big for me!

 

In what ways have you received outstanding customer service?

  

The Complaint Department

I recently heard of a colleague of mine that has one job at her agency--running the complaint department.  Oh sure, some clever administrator somewhere realized that he'd never be able to hire someone to run an actual "complaint department" so he dressed up the title a little bit and called this department the "Quality Assurance" department.  Wow! What a different feel to that department! Now instead of listening to complainers all day, you're goal is to assure that your agency is awesome!

Slow your roll. 

It's the same thing. 

Fielding complaints is a very necessary and valuable part of assuring that your agency is providing high quality service.  Naturally though, dealing with complaints is a tough aspect of an administrator's job.  I've been fielding complaints and dealing with the complaints for several years now and I've discovered some practices and strategies that have worked for me.

First and foremost, you have to realize what a complaint really is.  A complaint (albeit negative) is third-party feedback on your agency's performance.  Feedback is important for any business and it is so important so some that they pay people for their feedback through the use of surveys, focus groups, etc.  Feedback provides you with opportunities to train your staff, assure that your staff is performing up to your expectations and in rare cases, allows you to discover poor performing staff members so that you can coach, retrain, re-assign or fire. 

Secondly, you've got to know how to handle a complaint once it arrives.  For me, I typically ignore the occasional complaints here and there.  I look at it this way:  My favorite baseball team, the Texas Rangers, play 162 regular season games. If they have a stellar season, they'll win 90-100 of those games.  That means that they will lose 62-70 games.  By that thinking, no one overreacts when the team loses a game here and there.  No one freaks out when the ace pitcher has a bad outing or two each season.  It's a long season and you have to evaluate the entire body of work. 

I treat my staff the same way.  On an average month, my call specialists will talk to 1,500-2,000 individuals.  If they get one complaint out of 2,000 interactions, I'd say that they are doing a great job.  Wouldn't you?  When you receive a complaint, consider the whole body of work.  (Obviously, this does not include the staff member making an egregious error like the use of foul language, physical or sexual inappropriateness, etc.  I'm referring to simple complaints like "the girl had an attitude" or "I got hung up on.")

Each time I get a complaint, I do let the 'offending' staff member know.  Because of my previously stated stance on complaints, I don't levy any type of administrative repercussions on the staff member but it would be unfair of me not to let them know that a complaint was logged against them.  If you don't at least notify the staff member, you run the risk of alienating them if there turns out to be a trend of complaints against them.  You end up having this conversation:

"Hey Bill, we need to talk."

"Sure boss (no one actually calls me 'boss' but that would be pretty awesome) what's up?"

"Well, over the past few weeks, I've had several clients complain that you are not very engaged when you are trying to help them."

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize that I was being perceived like that.  How long has this been going on?"

"Two months."

"Two months?? Why didn't you tell me about this two months ago?  If I knew there was a problem, I could have rectified it by now!"

That's an unfair position to put a staff member in.  Always be upfront and honest with the 'offending' staff member even if you're not taking any administrative action on the complaint. 

Third, I look for trends in the complaints.  After I get the initial complaint and tell the 'offending' staff member about it, I will have to be cautious to note whether or not I get additional complaints similar to the first.  If I do, then we have a problem.  If you get multiple complaints from multiple sources over a relatively short time period, you have a trend on your hands.  At that point, you've got to be willing to take some sort of action. 

The action that you take varies based on the complaints.  Some complaints may simply require some additional coaching on your part.  Maybe the staff member just needs some encouragement and support to improve their job performance. 

You may find that you need to do some additional training or re-train the staff member. 

Sadly, if after you've tried to address the problem, and you still receive complaints, you may be forced to re-assign the staff member or relieve them of their duties. 

Long story short, don't be quick to overreact to a complaint BUT be willing to take action if you notice trends in complaints. 

What are some of the "best practices" that you've found in dealing with complaints?

The Math-hate of a CFO

I'll just come right out and say it:  I have a pretty limited skill set.

From the time I was in the seventh grade, my only tangible skills seemed to by my ability not only to be willing to be a public speaker but also to enjoy being a public speaker.  I'm not super awesome at anything else outside of that.

I majored in and attained a bachelor's degree in human communication and I thoroughly enjoy reading or hearing about any topic that has to do with communication.  Trust me, that's not nerdy at all.

I hate math.

Even though I'm confident that the Bible tells us not to 'hate' things, I'm even more sure that hating math is the exception to the rule.  Math is on the axis of evil.  The only thing that weirds me out more than math are people that love math. 

It is safe to say accounting skills are not my strong suit. 

Unfortunately, within my duties as Executive Director, I'm also our agency's Chief Financial Officer. 

Now, before you withdraw your financial support and encourage others to do so as well, let me explain how I overcome a critical deficiency.

I'm not alone in this.  In my experience in dealing with many different administrators from non-profit and social services agencies, I've noticed that there are a lot of administrators that don't like dealing with the finances of the agency.  These administrators work in the human services industry because they love to help people.  These folks move from front line, direct client interaction to administration because their agencies recognize how much they love to help people and how good they are at their job because of their passion. 

Sadly, because the administrator is focused on the hands-on aspect of helping people, they neglect the finances of their agency.  This leads to mismanagement and fraud. 

That being said, the first way that I overcome my lack of financial management skills is to recognize that I have a lack of skills in an area where those skills are critical.  The first step is to admit it. 

Secondly, I'm open with my Board about every single penny that comes into our agency and leaves our agency.  Every donation is reported and every check that is written is scrutinized by our Board.  As a matter of fact, as an increased transparency measure, all of our checks must be signed by not only me but also an Executive Officer on our Board.  Our Board and I examine the following documents every single month, line item by line item:

• Previous month's Profit & Loss statement
• Fiscal Year to Date Profit & Loss statement
• Current Balance Sheet
• Bank-issued statements for each of our checking account WITH copies of every deposit and check written
• Credit card statement
• ANY other financial item requested by the Board

By faithfully examining these reports as a Board, we ensure that (in our case) eight different people authorize every transaction and the overall financial health of the agency.  In being open with your Board, you get support in your financial management of the agency. 

Thirdly, make friends with your CPA.  Ideally, your CPA should NOT be on your Board.  If your CPA is on your Board, there's a chance that the other Board members will not be as diligent in scrutinizing the financial statements because they'll defer to the CPA's knowledge and expertise.  While that sounds fine on the surface, your agency will lose all the benefits as previously outlined in having multiple people address the finances of your agency. 

Our CPA is awesome.  She is not only really knowledgeable but she's a fantastic and willing teacher.  Though her time is extremely valuable, I try to make opportunities to visit with her in person as often as she can.  When we meet, I am always prepared with a list of questions or concerns that I have.  Then, she talks and I listen.  I absorb her expertise and in doing so, I become a little better CFO after every meeting. 

Finally, I read.  I read blogs about financial management.  I listen to podcasts about financial management.  I look forward to any quality learning opportunity that I can use to improve my performance as CFO. 

I can happily report that although I still hate math, I spend a great deal of my time monitoring our ever-changing financial situation.  I give our finances the attention that they deserve knowing that if I mismanage them or make any fatal errors, all the people that I employ and all the people that we serve will reap the fruits of my errors.  I'm a far better CFO now than I was when I arrived here nearly three years ago and I no longer feel nearly as anxious or worried about my financial management skills.  (I still feel a healthy amount of anxious and worried, just not as bad as when I first arrived.)

What about you?  How do you overcome critical deficiencies in your professional life?

The Most Freeing Word

I'm a dad.

I'm a dad of two awesome kiddos, Hannah and Elijah and a third on the way. (Could be an Abigail or a Caleb.  We'll find out in a couple of weeks.)

I'm a dad of two awesome kiddos that are, for the first time, playing softball and blast-ball, respectively.

I'm a dad that makes time to study the Bible with people at church and has to study for himself too.

I'm a husband.

I'm a husband of a nurse that works 10 hours each day.

I'm a husband of a nurse that doesn't get home in time to get supper started and the laundry rotated.

I'm busy.

I'm a busy dad and a busy husband. 

Now, I don't want to come off as dramatic.  I'm a busy guy.  You're busy too.  For a long time, my goal was to make everyone happy and one way to do that was to commit to everything.  If someone needed me, I was there and I'd "work out the details later."

However, as I've gotten older and as I've matured a little (insert my wife's sarcastic laughter here) I have learned that there is such a thing as over committing myself.  I have learned that my time during the week is finite.  If I overload on commitments, I've learned that by definition, my relationships suffer. 

I've learned that there is a cure for over committing.

I've learned how to be free.

I've learned to say 'no.'

One thing that has been tough for me to get over is the false feeling that by saying 'no' to engagements or opportunities meant that I was being selfish.

In all reality, I have to say 'no' to some opportunities in order to give my top relationships a priority and strengthen them.  In addition, if I don't take some time for myself for relaxing, hobbies and personal growth, I will run out of emotional and spiritual fuel. 

So, how do I determine which engagements that I will say 'yes' to and which engagements I will say 'no' to?  Well, that's a difficult formula and it varies from person to person.

For me, I first look at my calendar.  I have my absolutes written in.  I know that Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings are off limits because that's time for worship.  I have my kid's practices, games, school events and family outings penciled in.  I don't let events interfere with those things because my time with my kids is finite and I refuse to spend my later years with a "Cats in the Cradle" type of regret.  I have other work-related events penciled in.  Those are required and I don't move them unless an emergency arises. 

After I look at the unmovable dates and events in my schedule, and before I add anything else to my calendar, I have to ask myself, "if I add this event, when will I be able to have a Bible Study?  When will I be able to spend time with my wife?  When will I be able to relax and unwind?" 

If I can reasonably answer those questions and I have time for the commitment, then I can put it in.  If I can't reasonably answer those questions, then I have to say 'no.' 

I'll admit, at first, it is difficult to turn people down.  However, when you have the realization that in saying 'no' to someone is the equivalent of telling my kids 'yes' or telling my wife 'yes' or telling God 'yes,' then the decision gets easier. 

Everyone is busy and believe it or not, most folks will understand when you have to turn them down. 

Do you have a hard time saying 'no' to people or opportunities?  Are you a people-pleaser?

The ATM

I am still young enough to remember the days before ATMs were prevalent in rural northeast Texas. I was sixteen and had my own checking account to deposit the massive amounts of cash (by a sixteen year old's standards) that I made at McDonalds.  Before the magical money boxes dispensed cash, you had to go into the bank and write a check for "CASH" to get dollar bills out of your checking account.  Standing there at the teller's window, you had to be sure that you had enough cash in your account to back up the check that you were essentially writing to the bank.  If not, you were faced with the crippling embarrassment of a human being (usually a pretty girl) telling you that you don't have enough cash in your account to cover the check. 

At the ATM it is a different story--slightly.  If you want cash, you still have to have enough deposited in your account in order to receive cash.  However, if you ask for more than you've got, you simply get an error message saying that you have "insufficient funds".  I'll take an automated error message rather than a person telling me that I have asked for more than I have given.  At the ATM, you can only receive up to the amount of cash that's available in your account.

Lately, I have started to feel like a human ATM. 

Every day, people walk into my office for help in filling basic needs such as help with utility bills, rent, diapers, food, clothing, etc.  Some days, it is easy to gauge which people are legitimately trying to improve their life and making positive decisions but have come up a little short this month in making ends meet versus the people that are simply using our services so that they won't be forced to work hard and make positive decisions. 

Other days, it's difficult to tell those people apart.

Generally, I'm a trusting person.  That type of trusting attitude can be dangerous in this business.  So, when someone comes in and breaches my trust, I tend to spiral out of control and become temporarily untrusting of everyone that walks in.  I begin to feel as though every person that sits across from me is using me as an ATM that simply dispenses goods and money.  I feel like the clients' expectations of me are to dispense the goods and services that they need and that they only "deposit" they have to cover their needs is "entitlement." 

As you can probably guess, that attitude on my part quickly leads to resentment.  It leads me to resent my work.  It leads me to resent my calling.  It leads me to resent the people that need help.  It leads me to resent my employees.  It leads me to resent my board.  It leads me to resent my supporters. 

It leads me to resent God.

After a time of having those feelings, I tend to go on the hunt for a different job.  (When I say 'hunt' I mean that I look on LinkedIn or in the newspaper classifieds for jobs that fit my skill set.  It is the job hunting equivalent of looking for a new car by simply driving down the street in front of the dealership without ever getting out of the car.)  In my 'hunt' for a different job I list all the qualities that I want to have in my new job.  Pretty quickly I realize that all the qualities that I want in a job exist at the very place that I'm ready to leave in my rear view mirror. 

Once I have that realization that I am at my dream job, the only thing that needs to change is my attitude.  I'm often taken back to the parable that Jesus gave of the sower in Matthew 13.  One of the interesting things about that story is that the sower spread the seeds out regardless of the type of soil they landed on.  The sower had very little control over how receptive the soil would be so he just spread the seeds out regardless of where they would land. 

Therein lies a powerful lesson for non-profits.  I would certainly hope that all non-profits seek to serve the people that have legitimate needs.  However, we can't read into the hearts of the folks that walk though the door.  We have no control of the soil that we spread the seeds of our good work into.  So, we need only to concern ourselves with spreading the seed and doing our good work.  We can have certain qualifications of people that are eligible for our services (ex. residency restrictions, limits on assistance, etc.) so that we are better stewards of what we have.  But, we cannot get into the business of trying to judge the hearts and intentions of the people that are eligible for our services. 

If we do try to make judgments on hearts and intentions, we're playing a losing game and not only does it add unnecessary stress to our already stressed lives but we're alienating the people we serve and potentially the donors that support us.