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Vol. 23, No. 9 • September, 2005
You can find this newsletter on the web at Freeman-Spicer.com
Job Offer or Identity-Theft Scam?
It seems a terrific opportunity. Laid off from a senior marketing job, Tom (not his real name), an MBA with 22 years’ experience, spent several months looking for a new position. Then he got a phone call from someone who said he was the human resource director of a large, well-known insurance company. The HR guy said he was impressed with the resume Tom had posted on a popular Internet job site and was eager to meet as soon as possible, since Tom was the ideal candidate for a new marketing job the company was creating. Just one tiny detail: “He told me that since they were anxious to fill the position quickly, they wanted to save some time by starting a routine background check right away,” Tom says. “He e-mailed me a very detailed form to complete and return.” Tom complied, filling in the blanks for Social Security number, date of birth, mother’s maiden name, even a bank account number. After a few days of vainly trying to get back in touch with the HR director, Tom began to feel uneasy. Then he tried to use one of his credit cards and discovered that not only was the account maxed out, but several new accounts had been opened in his name and squeezed dry. His identity had been stolen, and it has taken him almost a year to straighten out the mess - all the while kicking himself for having fallen for the scam. (For the rest of this article on ways of protecting yourself, see the September 5, 2005 Fortune Magazine - Anne Fisher column. If you can’t find it, we will be happy to fax you a copy.)
Words
Some words work like potions: They alter how we feel. One word of special value to service providers is welcome. That word reduces the heart rate and anxiety of people who hear it. In our work, we have learned that the first five seconds - the greeting, the welcome, the receptionist’s answer - influences customer satisfaction more than any other act. Clients love feeling welcomed. How do you greet your prospects and customers? How do people answer your phones? Are they welcoming? Or do they answer like the former receptionist of a large New York accounting firm? An executive there described his own receptionist’s greeting as “....... curt and rude!” Master the welcome. (What Clients Love)
Communicating Gratitude
Communicating gratitude in writing. Harvey Mackay talks in his book about “short notes that yield long results.” He comments on how few people send follow-up notes to customers, even those who have made a major purchase. Have you received a thank-you note from a business lately? MacKay cites many successful people who constantly send out short but effective notes with messages like “I want you to know how much I enjoyed our meeting / your gift / your hospitality” or “Congratulations on your new house / car / tennis trophy.” The moral of the story: Don’t hesitate to let people know that you appreciate them, and do it in writing. Don’t worry about format. Often a handwritten note works fine. Just do it. (51 Ways To Save Your Job)
If corn oil is made from corn, and vegetable oil is made from vegetables, what is baby oil made from?
Daily Briefs
Safety Funds .............................. Building an emergency fund should be your top savings priority. Standard financial wisdom is to save enough cash to cover 3 to 6 months of living expenses in case you lose your job or are hit with a large bill. But only 38% of Americans keep that much savings on hand. Credit cards and retirement accounts share some of the blame because both divert cash from emergency savings and create a false sense of security. But financing a calamity with credit at a 19% interest rate creates a vicious cycle of more debt and little savings. A cash reserve should be your first saving priority. Start on it now. (Kiplinger’s Personal Finance)
Interns ........................... Several years ago, a company had an intern who was none too swift. One day she was typing and turned to a secretary and said, “I’m almost out of typing paper. What do I do?” “Just use copier machine paper,” the secretary told her. With that, the intern took her last remaining blank piece of paper, put in on the photocopier and proceeded to make five “blank” copies. (Shirleyf)
Small Customers ....................... Never look down on small customers or take them for granted. Here’s why: ✱ You get better gross margins with small customers because they pay more. I’m not talking about gouging. It’s simply a matter of buying clout. ✱ Small customers bring stability to a business. If you treat them right, they’ll stay with you forever. That’s partly out of loyalty, but they’re also less likely to be chased by the competition. ✱ A broad base of small customers makes your business less vulnerable to the loss of any single customer. If you rely too much on one customer, the truth is, you are not in control of your own business. What’s the goal? I don’t think a single customer should represent more than 10% of sales. (INC. Magazine)
Why Do Certain Types of Trees Lose Their Leaves While Others Don’t ........... A leaf’s main job is to make food for the tree through a process call photosynthesis. Leaf cells contain chlorophyll, a chemical that enables them to absorb sunlight energy and use it to make nutrients. Trees that lose their leaves once a year are called deciduous; they shed their leaves through a complex, energy-intensive process called abscission. In autumn, changes in day-light hours and temperature trigger the leaves to stop producing chlorophyll, and any remaining nutrients are transported out of the leaves into the tree’s trunk and roots. This is what makes the leaves change color - chlorophyll is green: in it absence, other chemical pigments present in the leaves, such as yellow and orange, are revealed. Red and violet colors appear when sugars are trapped in the leaf. Meanwhile, cells at the base of the leaf begin to form a corky membrane called a separation layer. When all the food has left the leaf, the cells in the separation layer digest themselves, and the leaf, now sealed off and only weakly attached to the branch, falls. According to Bernard Rubinstein, a professor of biology at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, abscission does not occur at the same rate or in the same way in all trees. Oak trees, for example, hold their dead leaves through the winter because the separation layer never fully detaches. Younger trees keep their leaves longer than older ones of the same species. Because abscission is triggered by light reduction, a deciduous tree near the artificial light of a street lamp will lose its leaves more slowly than one that is located a distance from the street. Evergreen trees, such as pines, spruces, cedars, and firs, do not lose their leaves or needles annually. In these species, a heavy wax coating protects the needles, and the fluids inside the cells contain substances that resist freezing. These trees lose and replace their needles continuously, rather than all at once, and the needles can live for several years before falling. Why deciduous trees shed their leaves annually and evergreens less frequently is hard to pinpoint, but it is almost certainly the result of an adaption to climate. According to Rubinstein, deciduous trees lose their leaves in the winter because the cold temperature would kill the sensitive leaf tissues; evergreens, which usually grow in colder climates, can better withstand the harshness of the cold. (Popular Science)
Unlikely Opponents........................... Stevie Wonder and Tiger Woods are in a restaurant having dinner.
Woods turns to Wonder and says, "How's the singing career going?" Stevie Wonder replies, "Not too bad.
How's the golf?" Woods replies, "Not too bad, I've had some problems with my swing, but I think I've got that
going right now." Stevie says, "I always find that when my swing goes wrong, I need to stop playing for a while
and not think about it. Then, the next time I play, it seems to be all right." Tiger says, "You play golf?" Wonder
says, "Oh, yes, I've been playing for years." Woods says, "But you're blind! How can you play golf if you can't
see?" Wonder replies, "I get my caddy to stand in the middle of the fairway and call to me. I listen for the sound
of his voice and play the ball toward him. Then, when I get to where the ball lands, the caddy moves to the green
or farther down the fairway and again I play the ball toward his voice." "But how do you putt?" asks Woods.
"Well," says Stevie, "I get my caddy to lean down in front of the hole and call to me with his head on the ground,
and I just play the ball toward his voice." Woods asks, "What's your handicap?" Stevie says, "Well, I'm a scratch
golfer." Woods, incredulous, says to Stevie, "We've got to play a round sometime." Wonder replies, "Well,
people don't take me seriously, so I only play for money, and never play for less than $10,000 a hole." Woods
thinks about it and says, "OK, I'm for that, when would you like to play?" Stevie says, "Pick a night." (Waxman)
Google Earth ..... If you type an address into Google, you get a map and a satellite picture of the location. BUT, if you really want to see satellite views of almost any location, go to www.earth.google.com and load Google’s software and you will be amazed at the views that you will see. What’s really cool is the way it finds the location. Try it, you’ll love it.
Remember This ................. When you go into a public restroom, use the first stall available. Everyone seems to go to the rear of the room, so the first stall always seems to be cleaner!
What????????? .............. A man feared his wife wasn't hearing as well as she used to and he thought she might
need a hearing aid. Not quite sure how to approach her, he called the family doctor to discuss the problem. The
Doctor told him there is a simple informal test the husband could perform to give the
doctor a better idea about her hearing loss. Here's what you do," said the Doctor, "stand about 40 feet away
from her, and in a normal conversational speaking tone, see if she hears you. If not, go to 30 feet, then 20 feet,
and so on until you get a response." That evening, the wife is in the kitchen cooking dinner, and he was in the
den. He says to himself, "I'm about 40 feet away, let's see what happens." Then in a normal tone he asks, 'Honey,
what's for dinner?" No response. So, the husband moves to closer to the kitchen, about 30 feet from his wife and
repeats, "Honey, what's for dinner?" Still no response. Next, he moves into the dining room where he is about 20
feet from his wife and asks, "Hon, what's for dinner?"
Again he gets no response so, he walks up to the kitchen door, about 10 feet away. "Honey, what's for dinner?"
Again there is no response. So, he walks right up behind her. "Honey, what's for dinner?" ....... She says, "Earl,
for the FIFTH time, CHICKEN! (Lopatin)
Searching for Public Records ....................... It is no secret that public records are available over the Internet. Things like court records and professional affiliations are accessible with a few mouse clicks. But until now, you had to do all the legwork. This means you had to know what was available and where to look. Pretrieve.com changes that. You can find lot’s of information about people and companies for free, but it also leads you to where you can investigate for information much deeper. (Komando)
It Always Seems So Simple ....................... You are asked to leave a message and at the beep and you rattle off your name and your phone number and then hang up. How many times have you listened to a message and you didn’t understand the name and you had to play the message four times to get the number because the caller said it so fast you couldn’t get it the first time. We all think we do such a good job of leaving clear and easy to listen to messages. Next time, replay the message you left using the answering machines “other options” format. Did you speak clearly? Did you slow Sincerely, down when leaving your call back number? Just try it once, you might be surprised.
Edward C. Levy
President