068: Are You Running a Grumpy Business?

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Rather than creating grumpy communications or at least missed opportunities in your business, how can you roll out the red carpet? Whether that's people visiting your website, for me here, maybe listening to the podcast, every interaction is an opportunity.

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Hi friends. So I'm here at the recording studio and there's a sign in the kitchen that cracks me up. That is the inspiration for today's episode. In thick, bold, underlined typed text, there's a sign posted in the kitchen here that says, this is not a community kitchen. Coffee is for employees only. Now, yes, I'm talking kind of quietly because everyone who works here is really friendly, but this sign is so grumpy. This is not a community kitchen. Coffee is for employees only. Now mind you, what this VIP kitchen is boasting is not much. There's sparse counters with a single Keurig machine. And I looked it up. This machine is about $120. There are a couple straws and some single use sugar packets. That's it. Now, couldn't you imagine them saying, you're welcome to use this coffee machine, please bring your own Keurig pods. Because the wild thing is I'm enrolled at a monthly membership here at this space, paying $68 per month just for the privilege of discounted booking. After that, about every hour that I record here and I do chunks of four hours at a time, it's about $50 an hour. So I've been recording podcasts here and using very minimal resources because I actually bring my own laptop and microphone. I just truly want the quiet space and I pay about $160 for each day that I'm in the studio. That, my friends, is the price of quiet in New York City. For that investment, they could buy a new Keurig every single time I visited. If me meddling in their Kitchen turned be as destructive as the sign implies. Instead, the first time I came here, I just remember thinking, this is so grumpy. Like, there's so many ways to create a warm, welcoming environment. And in some ways they have done that. The lounge, the waiting area is really nice. The decor in the room is not bad. I'm sitting on a nice mint green chair. There's nice paintings on the wall. I don't do video here, but it's basically, it's set up for that. But wouldn't it be great if I could bring my own Keurig pots and just make some hot coffee in between a four hour recording session? Yes. Yes, it would. When I first started coming here, it was around the holidays. And so not only did the kitchen sign say, this is not a community kitchen, coffee's for employees only, there were these homemade vegan cookies nearby and they were sitting on the counter. And it basically was this vibe of like, yum, but not for you. Like you can look, but you can't touch. And I don't think there's that many members here. So there is an opportunity to create a more welcoming environment. What I see here is a missed opportunity to surprise and delight that even the most simple change could help create more of a communal space, which leaves an impression of being taken care of. The reason I bring this up is not to throw them under the bus or anything. It's just to say, where in your business do you have the equivalent of grumpy signage? So consider the alternative. The sign could say, welcome to our kitchen. Please treat it as you would your own. You're welcome to use our coffee maker. We just ask that you bring your own supplies. What does this look like in your business? You know, some people have really hardcore return policies. Like there are no refunds ever, no questions asked, no exceptions. I get it. Maybe they've had a handful of bad experiences with people asking for refunds in the past. I've even had that where truly legitimate products that I know are good. People submit a request in PayPal that they contest the charge and they go through the formal PayPal channels of like, saying it's some illegitimate product or service. And I know that that's not true, but in those cases, we just try to resolve them as quickly as possible. What it doesn't lead me to do is create some kind of very grumpy signage, digital signage on my website for everyone else. Even when I'm working on legal agreements, I often have to ask my attorney, who I adore, to say, can we make this friendlier. Can we make this simpler? When I have podcast guests, there are terms that we ask people to sign. Just saying yes, I give you my permission to release this conversation publicly and perhaps even pull quotes and put them in an article or a book. That said, the agreement itself doesn't necessarily have to be grumpy. How can it be simple? How can it be simple and functional and still convey a sense of warmth?

We'll be right back just after this.

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So on the positive side, there's this bar that I used to go to when I first moved to New York called Employees Only. It's this glitzy speakeasy on Hudson street in downtown New York in the heart of the West Village, and I just love the name. So the name is Employees Only, but it's kind of a play on this whole vibe, the description on their website says. Opened in 2004 by five industry friends, the restaurant and bar is driven by an innate inclination for hospitality and a core tenant that one can enjoy flawlessly executed cocktails and delicious elevated food served in a beautiful space without pretense. Reflecting an Old World vibe through its art Deco accents like overhead luggage racks and backlit paintings, Employees Only is curiously tucked behind a fortune teller's lair. Upon arrival past this mysterious foyer, guests revel around a sensual curving bar and throughout an alluring back dining room. Ooh, I just love this description. And I love the idea that I would guess you could call it a speakeasy. Although it's not nearly as secretive as some speakeasies in New York where you have to go into a phone booth in a hot dog store or you have to know that this one metal door is going to lead to this epic cocktail bar down below. Or where Michael and I had our celebration the day after we got married at City Hall. It was this art gallery on the Lower east side, and it looks purely like an art gallery, but there's just a door at the back. If you go through the door at the back, there's a whole bar behind it. So here's my question. How can you create an employees only vibe? And I mean that like the bar. So taking this play on words that rather than creating grumpy communications or at least missed opportunities in your business, how can you roll out the red carpet? Whether that's people visiting your website. For me here, maybe listening to the podc, every interaction is an opportunity. And I myself, I have plenty of opportunity to go back through my business communications and spruce things up. I recently signed up for somebody's newsletter, Emily P. Freeman. She has a great podcast called the Next Right Thing. And I really appreciated that as a thank you for the double opt in. There's a redirect and you end up and you see a photo of her. And it was just such a nice moment. And I thought to myself, I would have never thought to put a picture of myself with a nice warm, welcoming message at the end of a email opt in. But all these little moments are opportunities to say hello, welcome, I'm so glad you're here. Here's what you can expect. Whether it's the first welcome email that somebody gets in a sequence after joining your community. Whether it's the confirmation page from the double opt in to your list. Whether it's the quote signage on your website or in a physical location. Whether it's the legal agreements that you're sending. I'm not saying that everything has to be warm and fuzzy and frou frou. I'm just saying look for the opportunities to extend a hand. Look for the opportunities to surprise and delight. I mean, that's a value that I hold. Maybe not everyone holds that, but certainly for paying customers, I would look for these ways that you can create small moments that create connection rather than creating these sort of grumpy communications or policies that reflect perhaps some of the worst clients and customers that you've had in the past. What is the equivalent for your business? What simple community investment could pay dividends for each person who used it? What is your equivalent of the coffee maker that's off limits versus the one that says, hey, treat this kitchen like your own. Thank you so much for being here. Listening everybody. Have a beautiful rest of your day.

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