ANTARCTICA TRIP – January 10 -28

Day One, July 10:

After all the trauma of finding out just a few hours before we left that my assistant was quitting in two weeks, a sleepless few nights trying to get everything ready to go, especially packing for almost 3 weeks with just two 30# bags (I cheated and will leave one BIG one at the hotel in between! ;-), and then the usual stress about leaving the country and making sure all the legal and family issues were covered, I could hardly believe I was really on the plane which left Tampa at 6:30 pm.

I got to Dulles and waited at the gate for my friend, Nancy Cobb, who was flying in from Chicago. When she hadn’t come and everyone else was on board, I checked with the agent. He said, “If she runs, she might make it!” Anyway, she did, and we were on our way. The 10 hour overnight flight was pretty uneventful except for having to go back to the gate for a sick customer to get off. I had a lovely Spanish woman next to me who was a lawyer in the US and was coming to visit family. She suggested lots of things for us to see, directed us to the best shopping areas ;-), and especially the best wines to try! We got a couple of hours of sleep and finally arrived at the airport in Buenos Aires. The customs forms were in such small print that no one could read them, and even the flight attendants did not know what they said, so bring a magnifying glass if you ever come here.

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November 21, 2006

NOTE:  For those of you who read my first entry in this blog, please forgive me – I had not completed it before it went online!  I wrote about car buying and planned to share that I have NEVER bought a car, and I am deathly afraid of the kind of experience I might have since I do not do well with negotiating and verbal game playing.  My question to you was going to be:

“What has been your experience in car purchasing and what advice do you have for me?”

Now, for today-THANKS FOR RELATIONSHIPS

Happy Thanksgiving week!  I have been thinking lots about what I am thankful for today as I travel from Tampa to Nashville to Seattle to spend the holiday with my son, Garrett, his wife, Ashley, and my two little grandchildren, Gavin, 8, and Kinsey, 5. What I realize I am most thankful for is relationships – my faith, family, friends, clients, neighbors, and even those folks we sit by for short periods of time on airplanes!  Isn’t it interesting how these relationships come and go in our lives, sometimes lasting for a few hours and others for a lifetime?

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Hello! Welcome to the first edition of my blog. I will try to write several times a week about experiences I have had, thoughts that occur to me, ideas to apply in your workplaces and lives, quotations that stimulate and inspire me, and news about my work and family. I will be eager to hear your comments and ideas as well.

As I write this first piece, I am in Portland, Oregon, where I spoke at the American Honda Facilitators Conference this week. One of the things I shared with them was that they were better able to dazzle their customers than in most other industries today, simply because the customers coming into the dealerships have very low expectations. In fact, I read a study recently that said that when people were asked to rank the things they most disliked doing, buying a car was outranked only by going to the dentist!

So, because customers expect to have to be aggressive and distrustful when buying a car, if the sales person treats them with honesty and respect and focuses on THEIR needs instead of simply selling a car, they will be amazed and thrilled. For once,
they did not have to “do battle” during the transaction.

The moral: When someone shows that they truly care about you and your needs, you will not only be a loyal customer but you will also tell all your friends.

The bottom line is that they are really in the RELATIONSHIP BUSINESS, not simply the car industry. Whether a person buys a car or not, if they are treated with respect and caring, a relationship of trust is developed, and they WILL come back.