Marty Grunder: Government regulations

I think I’m turning into a grumpy old man at age 43. It seems we are constantly bogged down with everything other than what we should be doing: selling and taking care of the customer. There is too much regulation in our world. And the government has proved time and time again that it isn’t efficient.
Here are a few examples of how bad our government does things. Do the opposite and you’ll find success.
 
U.S. Postal Service. They lost more than $7 billion in 2010. They lost another $2.5 billion in the first quarter this year. That’s no surprise, is it?

Ever go to the post office and leave impressed? Ever see a postal worker hustling? Have you ever gotten a dose of the classic, business-killing line “We can’t do that” from them? I know I have. Oh sure, I’ve encountered many good postal employees. But overall, the organization is so rigid, so structured, so set in its ways, they’ll never make money. Meanwhile, private endeavors like FedEx and UPS continue to take market share from them.

The message: Give your employees the freedom to get things done, take care of your customers and make them happy. It will pay off.
 
Various government agencies. I recently saw a state road crew of 12 installing rip-rap stone in a ditch. Why? Who knows. If a private contractor were doing the job, there would have been three people doing the work.

There seems to be no incentive for a state employee to work faster. Recently, we had a person from the U.S.

Department of Agriculture inspect our chemical records. He showed up (not in uniform) and spent hours looking through our files.

He didn’t find much, and he was polite; I’ll give him that. But why couldn’t he have come to see us in January? Why’d he wait until the busiest time of the year? When he showed up, we had to stop everything to show him our records.

The message: Make sure you have a professional appearance and think about when your services, calls or other customer contact is convenient for them.  

TSA. I travel a lot as a professional speaker. A few months ago, I cut my finger severely getting off a plane in Chicago. Still don’t know how I did it, but I had blood everywhere.

I ran straight to the TSA station with blood dripping from my hand and asked the TSA agent if she had a Band-Aid. She glanced at me, turned away and said, “No.” I asked her if she knew where I could get one, to which she said, “No.” I went to the gift shop and bought a Band-Aid.

The message: No one in your company should ever say – or even think – “That’s not my job.”
Customers view you as a resource, and not just for landscaping. Be there for them.

It’s really hard for me to see a lot the government does well. I see waste, I see arrogance and I see lack of vision in most governmental agencies. And that’s the problem.

I can’t do much to change how the post office or TSA operate, but I can change how I coach my team and how I lead my company.

Take a lesson from the government and don’t over-regulate your employees. They’ll take care of your customers better, and your company will be better for it.

Marty Grunder is a speaker, consultant and author; he owns Grunder Landscaping Co. See www.martygrunder.com; mail
mgrunder@giemedia.com.