Notes
introduction
1. Textual and geographic characteristics have been altered to avoid identification. The original was at least this extreme.
2. Richard Wiseman, 59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot (Borzoi Books, New York, 2009), p. 140.
3. If you’re reading the footnotes, you must be the thorough type. So, if you must know: Yes, there was exactly the correlation you might expect.
4. If wandering forests for old fencing and foundations isn’t your thing, you can do it in your armchair in the excellent discussion of these mid-nineteenth-century changes in Bill Bryson’s At Home:A Short History of Private Life (Doubleday, New York, 2010).
chapter 1
1. Accenture Newsroom, “Use of Smartphones by Bargain-Hunting Consumers Is Changing the Customer-Retailer Relationship, Accenture Survey Finds,” http://newsroom.accenture.com/article_print.cfm?article_id=5109.
2. Unfortunately, Amazon.com may be pursuing this need for speed at the expense of the workers who fulfill these orders, an approach that’s problematic if a company’s striving to build a great company culture. Read the Sidney Award–winning exposé here: http://www.mcall.com/news/local/amazon/.
3. “The New Consumer Behavior Paradigm: Permanent or Fleeting?” 2010 PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP/Kantar Retail.
4. Andrew Adam Newman, “A Direct Approach to Disaster Relief From Procter & Gamble,” New York Times, quoting study by PR firm Edelman, June 3, 2011, p. B3.
5. Leigh Buchanan, “Decoding the New Consumer,” Inc., September 2010, p. 159.
6. Ibid.
7. Emily Weinstein, “All That Authenticity May Be Getting Old,” New York Times, October 27, 2011, Home & Garden section.
chapter 2
1. Alan Levin, “No U.S. Airline Fatalities in 2010,” USA Today, January 21, 2011, http://travel.usatoday.com/flights/2011-01-21-RWaircrashes20_ST_N.htm.
2. AirSafe.com, “Recent Fatal Plane Crashes and Other Significant Airline Safety Events,” http://www.airsafe.com/events/last_15.htm (last reviewed 10/30/11).
3. Alain de Botton, A Week at the Airport: A Heathrow Diary (Vintage Books, New York, 2009).
4. Tom Peters, Liberation Management: Necessary Disorganization for the Nanosecond Nineties (Ballantine Books, New York, 1994), pp. 682–683.
5. Jimmy Kimmel, “A Dramatic Story, at the End of Which Nothing Happens,” Huffington Post, March 14, 2011, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jimmy-kimmel/jimmy-kimmel-tsunami__835389.html.
chapter 3
1. Which, with nifty circularity, was inspired by the early practices and writings of Henry Ford.
2. Another benefit to the company, of course, is the value these perks add in employee hiring and retention.
3. Proust’s letter is cited in Alain de Botton, How Proust Can Change Your Life” (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, New York, 1998).
4. I’m not in any way suggesting you skirt overtime rules, incidentally. My point is rather the opposite.
chapter 4
1. Thanks to John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing for sharing this phrasing with me.
2. Apple is number three as of this writing for customer service of any company in any industry, according to the annual J. D. Power Bloomberg survey: http://www.businessweek.com/interactive_reports/customer_service_2010.html.
3. As Mike Wittenstein points out in his excellent white paper on the Apple retail experience “You Had Me at Hello,” http://www.mikewittenstein.com/download/general-files/Apples_ Customer_Experience_Secrets_2011.pdf.
4. Ibid.
5. See p. 52, Leonardo Inghilleri and Micah Solomon, Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit: The Secrets of Building a Five-Star Customer Service Organization (AMACOM Books, New York, 2010).
6. As this book is going to press, Google just announced that the fate of some of these innovations is up in the air, due to Google’s winding down of its innovative Google Labs.
chapter 5
1. Scott Martin, “How Apple Stores Rewrote the Rules of Retailing,” USA Today, May 18, 2011. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2011-05-18-apple-retail-stores_n.htm.
2. Barbara Talbott, “The Power of Personal Service,” Cornell University School of Hotel Administration/The Center for Hospitality Research, September 2006, http://www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/research/chr/pubs/perspective/perspective-14183.html.
3. Isadore Sharp, Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy (Portfolio, New York, 2009).
4. Gretchen Morgenson, “Some Bankers Never Learn,” New York Times, Business section, July 31, 2011.
5. You can get a vivid glimpse of the fiasco’s origins via Chicago Public Radio’s “This American Life,” available as a podcast for free (but do contribute at pledge time). Start with the episode “The Giant Pool of Money,” done in collaboration with Planet Money and the winner of a Peabody, http://www.thisameri canlife.org/radio-archives/episode/355/the-giant-pool-of-money.
6. Talbott, op. cit.
7. Anthony Lane, “The Fun Factory: Life at Pixar,” The New Yorker, May 16, 2011, A Critic at Large.
8. There’s an excellent discussion of this in Daniel H. Pink’s Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (Riverhead, New York, 2009).
9. Leigh Buchanan, “A Customer Service Makeover,” Inc., March 2011, http://www.inc.com/magazine/20110301/a-customer-service-makeover.html.
10. Tina Rosenberg, Join The Club: How Peer Pressure Can Transform the World (W. W. Norton & Co., New York, 2011).
11. Tony Hsieh, Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose (Business Plus, New York, 2010).
12. Not that I’m saying all is always rosy with Keiretsu, where suppliers’ allegiances become entwined in a web that is hard to unwind. For more on the pros and cons of Keiretsu, it’s worth looking at the rise of Carlos Ghosn and his rehabilitation of Nissan, a subject I wish I had room for here.
13. Wording is fictionalized slightly to avoid specific identification, on the off chance anyone still cares.
14. Raini Hamdi, “Horst Schulze: Defining the New Luxury,” ehotelier.com, October 20, 2006, http://ehotelier.com/hospitality-news/item.php?id=A9500_0_11_0_M.
15. Isadore Sharp, Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy (Portfolio, New York, 2009).
16. Kelly Hodgkins, “The Secrets of Apple’s Retail Success,” TUAW (blog), June 15, 2011, http://www.tuaw.com/2011/06/15/the-secrets-of-apples-retail-success.
17. Tom Peters, “Excellence Always,” August 21, 2008, www.tompeters.com/slides/uploaded/NewMaster090508_Part_1-3.ppt.
18. Lucas Conley, “Cultural Phenomenon,” FastCompany, April 1, 2005, http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/93/cultural-phenom.html.
19. Joe Nocera, “The Sinatra of Southwest Feels the Love,” New York Times, May 24, 2008, Talking Business column.
20. “2010 Southwest Airlines One Report,” http://www.south west.com/html/southwest-difference/southwest-citizenship/one-report.html.
21. Larry passed away before press time. Here is a memorial site, with clips of him speaking as well: http://drivingvision.com/wordpress/.
22. AZCentral.com, “Airline Workers Helped Save Guide Dog,” July 20, 2007, http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/0720biz-buzz0720.html#.
23. The Colbert-Banner-Southwest story is featured on Beth Terry’s blog The Cactus Wrangler, http://cactuswrangler.com/2007/07/16/southwest-airlines-employees-save-seeing-eye-dogs-life/.
24. Raymond Davis and Alan Shrader, Leading for Growth: How Umpqua Bank Got Cool and Created a Culture of Greatness (Jossey-Bass, New York, 2007), p. 116.
chapter 6
1. Personal conversation with Michele Livingston, July 26, 2011, Seattle, Washington.
2. Raymond Davis and Alan Shrader, op. cit.
3. Alain de Botton, A Week at the Airport.
4. Marilyn Suttle and Lori Jo Vest, Who’s Your Gladys: How to Turn Even the Most Difficult Customer into Your Biggest Fan (AMACOM Books, New York, 2009), p. 20. Questioner referred to is Robert Spector.
5. Talbott, op. cit., quoting Isadore Sharp’s Singapore Workforce Development Agency Leadership Forum Address, October 27, 2005.
6. Read more at wholefoodsmarket.com/careers/hiringprocess. php.
7. Max Chafkin, “The Zappos Way of Managing,” Inc., May 1, 2009, http://www.inc.com/magazine/20090501/the-zappos-way-of-managing_pagen_5.html.
8. Ibid. You may also enjoy the following colorful, if fermented, references:
http://www.ideaowl.com/blog/2011/06/5-things-i-learned-at-zappos-awesome-las-vegas-hq-tour/; http:// www.geekatsea.com/inside-zappos-headquarters;, http:// blogs.zappos.com/taxonomy/term/8458; http:// www.deliveringhappiness.com/through-the-eyes-of-our-editor/.
9. Harvard Business Review, Blog Network, Bill Taylor July 12, 2011, http://blogs.hbr.org/taylor/2011/07/how_do_you_know_a_great_person.html.
10. Peter Carbonara, “Hire for Attitude, Train for Skill,” Fast Company, August 31, 1996, http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/04/hiring.html.
11. Personal correspondence with Michael Hyter, July 20, 2011. More on Hyter’s work at www.globalnovations.com.
chapter 7
1. Bruce Horovitz, “Applebee’s, Olive Garden Face PR Problem After Serving Alcohol to Kids,” USA Today, p. B1, April 15, 2011.
2. Sontaya Rose, “Fresno Mom’s Death: Dangerous Dosing Levels Revealed,” ABC News Fresno, April 11, 2011, http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news/local&id=8065801_.
3. There’s a great discussion of this in Daniel H. Pink’s Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (Riverhead, New York, 2011).
4. The most famous of these studies was conducted in a nursing home and demonstrated that providing autonomy can be a question of life or death: “The debilitated condition of many of the aged residing in institutional settings is, at least in part, a result of living in a virtually decision-free environment” [emphasis mine]. By giving those residents responsibility—decision-making power and something to be in charge of—their health was actually improved, while the decision-free group’s health continued to falter, to a very dangerous degree. (Ellen J. Langer and Judith Rodin, “The Effects of Choice and Enhanced Personal Responsibility for the Aged: A Field Experiment in an Institutional Setting.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 34(2) (1976): pp. 191–198.)
5. Hsieh, op. cit.
6. Hsieh, op. cit. on social media restrictions during Amazon acquisition; informal discussion with Zappos employees on restriction of photography due to potential tweeting and on related employee restrictions.
7. She’s Joanne Hassis, Nordstrom, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania!
8. Carl Sewell and Paul B. Brown, Customers for Life: How to Turn That One-Time Buyer into a Lifetime Customer (Crown Business, New York, 2002); “Systems, Not Smiles” is Chapter 5.
9. Isadore Sharp, Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy (Portfolio, New York, 2009).
chapter 8
1. Taylor Guitars, “FAQ,” http://www.taylorguitars.com/guitars/reference/faqs_answers.html.
2. Gerry Barker, “Aboard the Allure of the Sea: This Ship Is Giant Fun,” Palm Beach Post, December 1, 2010.
3. Christopher D. Salyers, quoted by Radley Balko, “The Subversive Vending Machine: The Liberatory History of Automated Commerce,” Reason, June 2010, http://reason.org/news/show/subversive-vending-machine. The book in question is Christopher D. Salyers, Vending Machines: Coined Consumerism (Mark Batty Publisher, New York, 2010).
4. Ibid.
5. Bill Price and David Jaffe, The Best Service Is No Service: How to Liberate Your Customers from Customer Service, Keep Them Happy, and Control Costs (Jossey-Bass, New York, 2008).
chapter 9
1. This information is accurate as of publication. Links can change.
2. The official CAPTCHA site: http://www.captcha.net/.
3. TechTarget/Search CIO website, http://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/Section-508.
chapter 10
1. Bill Price and David Jaffe, op. cit.
2. Hsieh, op. cit.
3. Bill Price and David Jaffe, op. cit.
4. Here’s an easy-to-follow one-page introduction to Seligman’s theory of learned helplessness: http://www.noogenesis.com/malama/discouragement/helplessness.html.
5. Henry Fountain, “When Warnings Don’t Work,” New York Times, May 29, 2011, Week in Review, p. 1.
6. Elizabeth Weise, “Apps Light Up as Skies Darken,” USA Today, May 31, 2011, http://www.usatoday.com/NEWS/usaedition/2011-05-31-stormapps27-ST-The-rash-of-torn_ST_U.htm.
7. Seth Godin, “Permission Marketing,” Seth’s Blog (blog), January 31, 2008, http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/01/permission-mark.html.
8. Quoted from a page in Amazon.com’s account management section.
9. Ibid.
10. Peter Shankman, Customer Service: New Rules for a Social Media World (Que, Indianapolis, 2011).
11. Bill Price and David Jaffe, op. cit.
chapter 11
1. National Public Radio, “Fresh Air with Terry Gross,” broadcast February 16, 2011.
2. (And if nobody tells you, it’s a sign that you have no friends.)
chapter 12
1. California Coastal Records Project, http://www.california coastline.org/.
2. Yelp.com. Emphases are mine. I have altered details of posting, including name of restaurant and some of the food details to avoid adding fuel to the situation.
chapter 13
1. “Hyatts Face Protests After Layoffs in Boston Area,” New York Times, September 24, 2009. Also see “Governor Threatens a Hyatt Boycott,” Boston Globe, September 24, 2009; “Hundreds Attend Rally for Fired Hyatt Housekeepers—Politicians Urge Boycott of the Hotel,” Boston Globe, September 18, 2009; and the “Hyatt 100” site: http://www.hotelworkersrising.org/hyatt100/.
2. Sarah J. F. Braley, “Cambridge, Mass., Bans Hotels from Outsourcing Housekeepers,” Meetings and Conventions, October 26, 2011, http://www.meetings-conventions.com/articles/cambridge-mass-bans-hotels-from-outsourcing-housekeepers/c44318.aspx.
3. Spencer Soper, The Morning Call, September 27, 2011, p. A1, http://articles.mcall.com/2011-09-17/news/mc-allentown-amazon-complaints-20110917_1_warehouse-workers-heat-stress-brutal-heat.
4. Amazon.com letter to OSHA: http://www.scribd.com/doc/65227130/Amazon-Letter-to-OSHA.
5. Personal correspondence with Tom Caramanico.
6. Randall Stross, “Consumer Complaints Made Easy. Maybe Too Easy,” New York Times, May 29, 2011, Business section, p. 3.
7. Heather Armstrong, “Containing a Capital Letter or Two,” Dooce (blog), August 28, 2009, http://dooce.com/2009/08/28/containing-capital-letter-or-two.