Bob Burg – Bestselling Co-author of “The Go-Giver”

Bob talks about:
• Your true worth is determined by how much you give in value than you take in payment
• The Five Laws of Stratospheric Success
• And the importance of communicating with tact and empathy

The person who has influenced Bob the most in the past year:
Nancy at the Juno Beach Cafe

His note to all customer service professionals:
“Never let compliance stand in the way of making an experience great for the customer.”
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Nick Glimsdahl 0:00
Welcome to the Press 1 For Nick podcast. My name is Nick Glimsdahl. And my guest this week is Bob Berg. Bob is a Hall of Fame keynote speaker and best selling co author of the go giver and the go giver book of book series. Welcome to the Press 1 For Nick podcast, Bob. Hey, Nick, great to be with you. Yeah, so I asked every single guest one question at the very beginning. And it’s, what’s one thing people might not know about you?

Bob Burg 0:29
Ah, gosh, probably that I’m, I’m very much an introvert

Nick Glimsdahl 0:34
to the point of being a hermit.

Bob Burg 0:38
And where has that always been the case? It’s always been my nature. But you know, of course, I’ve had to be out out and about in the world. And I’ve been able to, you know, to deal with that and manage that. But my energy is definitely derived from being by myself or with a very close, you know, group of people, family and so forth. But

you know, so So,

you know, it’s just, it’s, it’s something I’ve had to work at, at dealing with, but you know, it’s been fine. Just a part of life.

Nick Glimsdahl 1:13
stat. I love that, I would think a lot of people don’t realize it’s that. Others are introverts. So for an example, my wife is the most outgoing introvert, you probably would meet, where she would go to a go to an event, and

she would be the most talkative person, but at the end of the event, she’d be drained. And I

Bob Burg 1:41
know, I can relate to that. I wouldn’t go out of my way to talk, but I would engage in conversation and be, you know, the person that most people would say, wow, that’s the friendliest guy would, uh, you know, a polite and a, you know, an engaging person. Absolutely. But at the end of the night, I’m exhausted. And I just want to go, you know, and it’s the same when I speak, and I can speak in front of 1000s and 1000s of people, and that’s fine. I mean, I will feed off the energy off the energy of the crowd. I love meeting the people that that’s great. But when I go back to the hotel room, I’m out. I’m sorry, I just want to you know, I have to recharge. So yeah, that’s very relatable to me, actually. Wow. It’s It’s so interesting how the mind works. Yeah, isn’t it isn’t it yet. So going back to

Nick Glimsdahl 2:25
the go giver, I actually in I reached out to you and because I love your series I love. We’ll talk more about your books. But

I first before I got into podcasting, I started doing book reviews back in 2014. I actually wrote two book reviews, one that was the go giver, one was in endless referrals. And I just thought it was interesting. When I came back to the books on my bookshelf, I was like, You know what, this would be a really cool interview because it still focuses on customer service and customer experience.

Bob Burg 3:01
Sure, I mean, it’s really all about the other person about how to focus on bringing immense value to others. Yeah, so with the first book that I want to talk about is the go giver. So what what made you want to write that book?

Nick Glimsdahl 3:17
Well, it it sort of came off of the MLS referrals book, which you mentioned, the the ns referrals book is really a system if you will, for how entrepreneurs and sales people who they had a great product or service, they believed in it, they knew it brought exceptional value to others, but they may not have felt confident going out into their community and developing and creating those relationships with people that would cause people to want to do business with them personally directly and refer them to others. So it was really you know a how to book on how to do that and how to develop relationships to the point where people felt so good about you. They felt as though they they knew you liked you trusted you wanted to see you succeed, wanting to do business with you if they of course needed what you what you offer, didn’t want it to, to refer you to others that that’s what the book was really about.

Bob Burg 4:15
However, I’d always read parables, business parables, since I’d been in sales, and I always love them. I believe that stories connect on a heart level, you know, Heart to Heart level in a way that a traditional how to book doesn’t, which doesn’t mean there’s not a time in place for for both genres. It’s just that there’s something very special about a parable that really connects like that. And whenever I’d read parables, I always felt a, you know, a special connection to the author to the characters and to the message. And so I thought, wouldn’t it be great if we could take the basic premise of endless referrals that all things being equal, people will do business with and refer business to those people they know like and trust and put it in parable form, so

Coming up with a title, I simply asked myself, What is it? You know, what’s the essence of those people who are able to, to both quickly and sustainably create those know, like, and trust relationships and it’s that they’re givers. They’re they’re always looking to give value to others to make it about the other person and the other person’s success. And of course, as they do this, they themselves profit greatly. So but so calling the book The go giver was the easy part. The best thing I did for the book, though, was asking john David Mann, who at the time, I knew only as my editor of a, of a magazine I used to write for monthly, he was the editor in chief, and I got to know him through that. And I got to know the reputation he had within people within a very specific niche about for being a brilliant, brilliant writer. And so I asked john, if he would be the lead writer and storyteller of the book, because I do get I’m a how to guy right, um, step one, step two, step three, I knew john could make this thing thing much more than I could and that’s in That’s correct. And that’s really how the go giver came about.

Nick Glimsdahl 6:10
Yeah, and for the people that don’t know about the go giver, maybe give them a quick, high level about what the book is about. Sure, it’s

Bob Burg 6:18
a it’s a short parable, about a guy named Joe, who’s an up and coming, you know, ambitious, aggressive, really out there to try to make it happen. But he’s very frustrated. Because the results he feels he should be getting right, he’s not getting at all. And he’s, he’s in danger of losing his job, because he’s, you know, he’s not meeting a quota again, and so forth. And he, you know, finds a mentor that is able to kind of guide him and help him shift his focus and teach him the basic lesson of the go giver, which is that shifting your focus, and this is really the key, shifting your focus from getting to giving. And when we say giving, in this context, Nick, what we really mean is simply, constantly and consistently providing immense value to others understanding that when you do this, you know, not only is it a more fulfilling way of conducting business, it’s the most financially profitable way as well, and not for some, you know, woo way out there magical, mystical, you know, just feel good reasons. Not at all, it actually makes very logical sense, very rational sense, when you’re that person who can take your focus off of yourself, and place it on others, helping them solve their problems, helping them get what they want, what they need, what they desire, helping get them bring them closer to happiness, helping them feel good about themselves in the situation. When you’re that person, people feel good about you, right? People want to get to know you, they like you, they trust you, they want to be in relationship with you. And, and Joe, you know, live happily ever after, which is what happens on parables. You know.

Nick Glimsdahl 8:09
And I love that though, I think there’s a lot a lot to be said about that, you know, when even in customer service or customer experience, people want to feel known and valued customer service, nobody’s going to call and say, Hey, just want to let you know, your product is amazing. And hope you have a great time, we’ll talk to you tomorrow. And I’m gonna give you a five star on Google or wherever else, it’s, I want to feel known and valued and I want my problems solved. And so how do you do that in the least amount of effort in customer service, and add value to them along the way? So maybe even answer some questions that they didn’t ask. So hey, based off of what you just said, some other people might be feeling this or they had issues with this. So solving that problem, that additional problem and next step. So continuing to add value, like Joe does,

Bob Burg 9:00
Nick, I, you know, I think you brought up to such a great point, and that people want to feel listened to, they want to feel valued. I mean, this is basic human nature. You know, it’s um, it’s amazing that when, you know, someone can have a bad experience, and I mean, you know, everyone’s human, and there’s going to be bad experiences, sometimes a product’s not going to work, there’s going to be something you know. And, you know, someone can call up and complain, and you know, you hope people do it in a way that’s kind and courteous. But again, we’re talking human beings. So that’s not always the case. But how often have you seen as, as a teacher of this, that when you can just empathize with this person, genuinely, authentically, and let this person know that Yeah, you’re upset about it, too. You feel terrible that they’ve had to experience this and this must have really been inconvenient for you. And so it just totally turns it around. And you know, that problem didn’t seem to be so big a problem anymore to that person. It was more the feeling of the problem. Now. We also need to take responsibility and get it fixed and make sure everything’s fine. But you know what, you could do that in a cold calculated way, and that person is still not going to feel they had a good experience. So it’s all about the personal connection.

Nick Glimsdahl 10:14
That’s right. And it’s all about listening to them in that moment, instead of over trying to overtalk them and say, Well, fine, I’ll just do this. Well, you didn’t actually hear me out. You didn’t acknowledge what I’m saying you didn’t understand what I’m saying. So you shouldn’t be able to resolve my problem. Great point.

Bob Burg 10:31
Absolutely. Absolutely.

Nick Glimsdahl 10:33
So in chapter three, you have a quote that says your, your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment. And we kind of touched on that, can you go into a little bit more detail what that means?

Bob Burg 10:47
Yeah. And I think when you first hear it, it’s a bit counterintuitive, give more in value than I take in payment. I mean, is that sounds on nicey? Nice and everything. But isn’t that a recipe for bankruptcy? So we simply have to understand the difference between price and value? Price Is $1. figure, it’s $1. amount? It’s, it’s finite? It simply is what it is. It’s the price value, on the other hand, is the relative worth or desirability of a thing of something to the end user or beholder? In other words, what is it about this thing, this product service concept idea, what have you that bring so much worth or value to another human being that they will, in the business sense, willingly exchange their money for it and be ecstatic that they did, while you make a very healthy profit? You know, we could we could say, you hire an accountant to do your taxes, and she charges you $1,000 That’s her fee, or literally her price. $1,000. But what value is she giving you an exchange well, through her her years of experience, her knowledge, her wisdom, her getting to know you, and focusing on what what you’re looking to accomplish, you know, through her work, learning about your company, learning about the special intricacies that are specific to you, she’s able to save you $5,000 in taxes, she also saves you countless hours of time, she also provides you and your family with the security and the peace of mind of knowing what was done correctly. So she gave you well over $5,000 in in use value, right? In exchange for $1,000. Price, she gave me more in value than she took in payment. So again, you feel ecstatic about it, right? You receive a lot more than what you paid for. But she also made a very healthy profit, because it was it was to her well worth it to exchange her time, energy expertise and so forth for that $1,000 fee. In fact, in any market based exchange, meaning no one is forced to do business with anyone else, there should always be at least two profits, the buyer profits and the seller profits because each of them come away better off afterwards than they were beforehand. But the key Nick, and this is, excuse me, the big thing is that this didn’t happen with the accountant, because she was focused on her fee, she was focused on the immense value that she was providing you. And the money was the result. This is why john David Mann and I say that money is an echo of value, your money is simply an echo of value, it’s the thunder, if you will to values lightning, which means nothing more than that the value must be the focus, the value comes first, the money you receive is simply a natural result of the value you provided.

Nick Glimsdahl 13:49
Man, I want to dig just a little bit deeper into that because you said a couple of things you said service in value and cost. And then you mentioned just a little bit you said peace of mind. And when it comes to peace of mind, is it the when you’re paying for something, you know, you’re gonna get a service in return. But how important is that peace of mind to that customer?

Bob Burg 14:16
So they’re there when we talk about value, the value that you provide to another human being through the sale itself through the customer experience or both? What have you, okay? There are two types of value. There’s intrinsic value and extrinsic value. intrinsic value is the type of value that is provided in received through the natural function of the thing. So in other words, a, an accountant by by the title of their job is supposed to save you money, okay? Or how do your taxes How do your taxes in such a way that it’s legal and ethical and saves you as much as possible that that’s what they do. That’s the intrinsic value. You a real tour is supposed to help list your home doing all the things they do to list a home or sell a home, or what have you, though, that’s the intrinsic value. And it’s important. But it’s the extrinsic value, which is what separates and distinguishes one person or company from another. And that extrinsic value is, is the value that you bring to the table that makes it so worthwhile for that other person. And it does that that is all about you. That’s it’s, it’s you who brings this. The The neat thing is that there are hundreds of ways to add this kind of communicate this, this additional, this extrinsic value, but they tend to come down to five, what we call elements of value. And these elements of value are excellent consistency, attention, empathy, and appreciation. And to the degree that you’re able to communicate one or more, hopefully, all five of these elements at every single touch point, that’s the degree that you have, again, distinguished yourself from the competition, you’ve taken price out of the equation, right, and you’ve made this experience that this person will, will remember and feel great about.

Nick Glimsdahl 16:24
And not only will they remember and feel great about it, but they’ll refer others to.

Unknown Speaker 16:30
Yes, exactly.

Nick Glimsdahl 16:32
And so are those elements the same as the five laws?

Bob Burg 16:36
No, all those elements are actually within the law of value the first so the five laws from the go giver are the laws of value compensation, influence, Authenticity, and receptivity.

Nick Glimsdahl 16:48
Okay, and in Why are those your five laws of stratospheric success?

Bob Burg 16:55
Well, with john and i found in in your john and i have both been in business for years before we met, okay. And we both not only were entrepreneurs, but because of the different work we did, he is an author. And and myself as a as a speaker, we both got to meet some of the most successful people in the world, you know, we were doing this all the time at the whether he was doing a feature on someone or I was speaking at an event and right. And we know and so we both in students have success. And and we you know, when we when we really were talking about the book and outlining the book, we were talking about those things that people have done since time immemorial, for as long as there have ever been market economies. And, and there were certain things that people did. And if they did these, and by the way, many people just did them intuitively, right? I mean, though, not nothing that john and i talked about in the book is particularly new, right? These are all principles that have been around forever, we just named them a certain thing. And we presented them in a certain way, but not none of its new. But people who did these five things were successful. And if if people did not do all five of these, they could reach some level of success. But they never reached the type of stratospheric success that we talked about in the Caribbean, the characters talk about in the book.

Nick Glimsdahl 18:20
I love those in I’d love to continue to keep digging further, but we only have so much time. So want to continue to add value to the listeners in pushing you into more of a different questions. You mentioned the endless referral book. There’s a bunch of questions that you can ask to receive endless referrals. But what additional questions can you recommend my listeners ask for these referrals?

Bob Burg 18:48
So So let’s look at questions in a couple of different areas. One is when you’re first meeting someone, and you’re first establishing a rapport and beginning the relationship with someone, and some of the best questions you can ask are what I call feel good questions. And feel good questions are simply questions that by their very nature are designed to make this person feel good about themselves feel good about the situation feel good about, about you. They’re not prospecting in nature. They’re not salesy in nature, they’re not intrusive, they’re not invasive, they but they very, very quickly establish a report. You know, too many people when they meet someone in a business setting, they think they’ve got to overwhelm this person about their product or service have their great elevator speech. But here’s the thing, when you first meet someone, Nick, their level of interest in you or in me or in anyone other than them themselves can be really, really communicated in three words. They don’t care. Okay, they care. So the best thing we can do is shift the conversation on to them. You know, when I was in sales, I used to sell on the phone Quite a bit when I first started, and I’ll tell you something I noticed. And I noticed this fairly quickly. Nobody ever hung up the phone on me. While they were talking, it was really an amazing thing. And it’s the same in person, it’s the same in zoom. If you let the other person talk about themselves, they’re going to consider you to be the most fascinating conversationalist they’ve ever they’ve ever met. Okay, and it’s going to very quickly create value in their mind, regarding you. So, you know, just a couple of questions that can be asked as to it. Let’s say you’re meeting someone by the name of Gary, who sells copying machines. And you just say, Gary, how did you get started selling copying machines, or more edifying way to ask might be, how did you get started as an office products professional? And this is a question that’s certainly not particularly clever or slick. I mean, it’s a pretty mundane question, how did you get started? or How did you get your start? As, but it’s a question people love to answer. You know, I call it the movie of the week question. You’re making this person the star, you’re giving this person an opportunity to share his story. And you know, most people do not ask this person, how, how they got their start, and to tell them their story, right? This person’s own family has probably never asked him that question. And here’s you they first met who rather than telling him about you trying to sell him your hats, right, like everyone else is doing. You’re actually asking about him, and he’s gonna love answering and we need to actively and authentically, listen. The next question is sort of a follow up question to that. And that is to simply ask, you know, what do you enjoy most about your work? It probably sounds like, wow, you must have had some fascinating experiences over the years. What do you enjoy most about your work? Or what do you enjoy most about what you do? And again, it’s a feel good question. It elicits a feel good response. Okay. And he’s very quickly feeling very good about about you. Now, you’ve asked a couple of questions. And I’ve got 10 of them in my arsenal. But But you’ll never have time to ask all 10 and nor should you even if you have the opportunity, because that would get you know, but but just a couple of quick questions. But then the next question to ask is what I call the one key question that will set you apart. This is not a one of the fielded questions. This is its own separate question to be asked only after the initial report has begun to be established. in it. It sounds like this, Gary, or Patricia? How can I know if someone I’m speaking with is a good customer for you? Wow. I mean, you have just asked this person something again, no one else has ever asked. But the way you’ve asked is basically created a frame for their answer to help you to help them. And they understand this and you very quickly become someone of value to them. Now, you know, this is just a thumbnail here. But that’s what those are. If you begin with those questions, you’ll be amazed by the way if the person is not in sales, per se, it simply asked, you know, the same other questions, how did you get started as what do you enjoy? But then the one key question would be, how can I know if someone I’m speaking with would be a good connection for you? Or would be someone you’d like to meet? By the way? A good way to frame that question is to start with, you know, Gary, or Diane, I was loved connecting good people with other good people. Tell me how can I know if someone I’m speaking with is someone you’d like to meet? Yeah, I mean, just to just, you know, using the principle Now, let’s go to let’s let’s go down the line to where you have a relationship with this person, let’s say this person is a customer, okay? And

in this person is a very happy customer. And you feel very justified in being able to ask for referrals, they know you, they like you, they trust you, they’ve had a great experience. It’s a very it’s very simpatico, Okay, so the first part of of asking is really getting their attending their buy in to the referral process itself, rather than just going right into ask them for referrals. So I call this the referral bridge or the bridge phrase. In the physical world, Nic. A bridge is simply a medium of structure, that we’ve got a medium that helps transport a person from one safe piece of land to another, okay, the referral bridge, or the bridge phrase is a phrase that helps transport a person from one safe piece of land to another from the know like and trust relationship to the place where you can ask for referrals in a way that both you and the other person is very comfortable. Okay, so the referral bridge can be set up a couple of ways. So so here’s basically what I say But of course, you and your listeners will will modify it to their own unique style, but but I would suggest sticking with the principle and it sounds like this And let’s say and as your client, and is more and more of my business comes to me through referrals and introductions, I find it’s helpful to partner with my clients and friends such as you, can we take a few quick minutes and run past the names of some other people, I might also be able to help. Now just going through this very quickly, and why this is so why this is so effective. So you say, and by the way, you could start out by saying, I’m in the process of expanding my referral business. But I like to say, as more and more of my business comes through referrals and introductions because again, you’re making it natural that that’s how you write, that’s how you do business, I find it’s helpful. So again, helpful, not desperate, not that you know, helpful to partner partners or keyword you’re giving that person who already knows likes and trusts you buy in and ownership into your mission to partner with my clients and friends, such as you. Now the next part is key. Can we take a few quick minutes and run past the names? Now, this is what I call fast language, quick language, it’s not that you’re saying it quickly. But the word you’re using imply correctly, that you’re not going to take up a lot of her busy time listen to these fast words or quick words, can we take a few quick minutes and run past? Okay, then the names of some other people I might also be able to help? Why do we say might, because we always want to make sure that this person understands that there’s never any pressure you will ever put on another person to do business with you. Because not everyone’s gonna be interested. And you want to make sure she knows there’s always an out or a backdoor that emotional escape hatch. So we’re never going to make her look bad, right? And we just went to what so many people will fear so. So again, you know, well, as more and more of my businesses is now a result are coming to me through referrals and introductions or as however you want to say it or, or as I’m expanding my referral business. Again, however you want to frame that I like the first the first way, I find it’s helpful to partner with my clients and friends such as you, can we take a few quick minutes and run past the names of some other people I might also be able to help. Okay, so you’ve got her buy in. And now is the time that where you’re going to ask for referrals. But what most people do that is kind of counterproductive. And I know this because I did the same thing before I learned differently is we’ll ask Who do you know? Or do you know anyone who and the challenge with this is this person probably knows hundreds of people directly or indirectly. So when we say Who do you know? Or do you know anyone who a collage of you know, 250 300 people though dancing past their mind, but they can’t identify anyone. And remember, they want to help and they want to be part of this. And they know it’s a great product or service, they want to help their friends, right. But we’ve put them in a position where they can’t think of anyone and now they kind of you know how the mind is in the memory as you begin to put pressure on yourself. And now you can’t think of anyone. And now they say well, I can’t think of anyone right now. But when I do, I’ll let you know, or I’ll call you which probably isn’t going to happen, right. And so we want to make it very easy for them. And I learned this about 40 years ago, from Tom Hopkins. Classic how to master the art of selling. And he only devoted a half a page to this, but I’m going to tell you it is just it’s remarkable. It’s so brilliant. It’s one of those things I wish I thought of but never would have. But I’m glad Tom did. And what Tom suggested was to rather than leaving, it’s so open and difficult. We want to create the we want to create the environment for them to succeed. Okay, so we want to help them. And so, so what we do is we gently funnel down their world into small groups of people, they can easily picture in their mind’s eye. So just very quickly, a couple quick examples.

We know Anne is an avid golfer, okay, because she’s told us this we’ve gotten to know about her, we see the golfing trophies and our you know, whatever it happens to be. And we say and I know you you love golfing, or you’re an avid golfer, he says, Wow, yeah, I play it every, you know, Sunday afternoon. Do you play with different people every time or kind of the same force out same people every Sunday afternoon? You know, Harry Brown, Michael cloud, Dr. Mary ruark, the four of us we have been golfing buddies for years, boom, she has just now identified and named three people. So now we say do you feel that Harriet or Michael or Dr. Mary? Do you feel any of them would be interested in or open to or would like to know more about you know, whatever it happens to be that we sell now? Maybe yes, maybe no, maybe all three of them, two of them, one of them. None of them? It doesn’t matter. We’ve created the context for victory for her. We’ve helped her to come up with names she now knows she can do this. So let’s go to another frame. We know she’s a member of her Local Business and Professional Women’s Club chapter one. Now we don’t say, Is there anyone in your chapter who because it could be a very, very big chapter, right? So no. Instead we say, Is there anyone in your chapter who you’re particularly friendly with, or you sit next to every time or you serve on a committee with boom, we’ve given her quite right. And so now she’s able to say, Well, you know, there’s two people that come to mind, well, boom, now we ask, and so we can move to whatever frame we wish. And we always want to know what we’re going to ask before the appointment itself. But but so that’s basically a way of asking questions that will help position you to attain the referrals you want.

Nick Glimsdahl 30:44
I love I love these questions. And I love the fact that they’re thoughtful, and they’re not what status quo would do. It’s not sitting in and going to a networking event and saying, Hey, what’s your name? Bob? I can see. Right? You know, tell me Oh, you do? Okay. Great. Uh huh. And they’re waiting for you to respond back. So yeah, I love how you’re thinking through the process. And I love how you funnel kind of down in direct them, you can even push it and say, Hey, do you know anybody in Columbus, Ohio, with this specific title that is dealing with this exactly in point. But yeah,

Bob Burg 31:23
it depends what you do that, you know, it might be somebody who has colleagues, they’re an HR or something like that. So it might be members of their HR Association. Or it might be somebody at another company that Who’s there? Yeah, absolutely. You’re absolutely right. So you always want to frame this, based on how it would work out regarding that person. You’re totally spot on.

Nick Glimsdahl 31:42
I love it is is your success that you’ve had to date, predicated on the questions that you’ve asked.

Bob Burg 31:51
I’d say predicated on the questions I’ve asked myself regarding what I was doing and what I needed to learn. And it was once I really it came to the conclusion that I did not know anything. And that and I, you know, I love the phrase that’s attributed to Mark Twain, which I don’t know if he ever said, but it sounds very 20th. So kind of he you know, if someone’s very wise, it can be attributed to Twain or to Franklin or, you know, whatever. But so I don’t know if he ever did say this, but he’s credited with it. And it’s, it ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you’re absolutely, positively Sure. You know, that just ain’t so. And that. That was young Bob Berg. And so it was once I asked myself the right questions and realize that no, all these things I’m sure I know are just not true. I was ready to then ask other questions that would lead me to, you know, to creating that context for success.

Unknown Speaker 32:46
Love it. So

Nick Glimsdahl 32:47
I speaking of questions, I asked every guest two questions, Bob. So the first one is what Booker person in customer service or customer experience, or in general, I’ll spread it out. I’m not going to funnel it down for you. But that has influenced you the most in the past year. And then the second one is, if you could leave a note to all customer service or customer experience professionals, it’s gonna hit everybody’s desk Monday at 8am. What would it say?

Bob Burg 33:14
So the first one, you know, there are so many really great customer experience people out there and their books are wonderful. I think Shep Huygens work is great. Joey Coleman’s, there’s just a bunch of really, really great people out there. One of my favorite customer experience people is Nancy, who works at the Juno Beach cafe, where I have breakfast on the weekends. And that whole the whole team is amazing. But Nancy is just extra extra special. You know, when I, usually my mom and I go there on a Saturday morning date, which we had, you know, mother’s Sunday, which we haven’t been able to do, of course, since COVID. So now I bring back the, the food to her and my dad, my dad really at 97 can’t leave the house at this point. And so mom and I usually and so we bring back oatmeal for my dad, and there are two big, you know, Styrofoam cups of it. And Nancy always writes a note on it. Oh, it First of all, she’s wonderful. Anyway, this is just an added Thing She Does that she writes a note, you know, Hi, dad, we love you. We miss you enjoy your breakfast, and she puts a smiley face. You know what I’m saying? I mean, that’s amazing. And now when I go in to pick up the food to bring it back to my family until until you know COVID xover she still writes the same, same things, and she always does it a little differently. And there’s always a smiley face on a that this is a person who you talk about a customer experience. We just adore her. Okay, so yeah, I think that’s you know, that’s a she’s a great example. Well, just the potty on that. It kind of goes back to your chapter three. So she’s adding more worth

Unknown Speaker 34:53
more in

Nick Glimsdahl 34:54
value than more in value than she takes in payment,

Bob Burg 34:57
and I tip her really well. So That, which helps. No, but but here’s the thing, what she What I mean is, she was doing that, before she knew that I was going to tip her really well, you know what I’m saying? So I did the tip Well, anyway, but when someone is like Nancy, they get tipped very, very well. But But her, you know, she was doing that before she knew that, you know, that’s just who she is who she is, you know, Nick, it’s who she is. And because it’s who she is, it’s what she does. She does that for everyone.

Unknown Speaker 35:28
You know, but yeah, she’s

Bob Burg 35:29
wonderful. What would I tell a customer service person that one piece of advice? You know, I’d have to say that to never let for lack of a better word, compliance, stand in the way of making an experience great for the customer. And I know there’s certain things obviously you can’t do and that’s not what I’m saying. I’m not saying break the rules of the company, I’ll be your you know, what I’m saying? I think, you know, really think and feel. Don’t be the bureaucrat, okay? Don’t be the bureaucrat who defaults to, this is how it’s done. This is our policy, this is the way it is, don’t default to that default to you are the most important person in the world right now. And I’m going to do everything I can to make sure you feel good about yourself, about this company and about me.

Nick Glimsdahl 36:24
I love that. My what’s the best way for people to connect with you?

Bob Burg 36:30
best way is just to visit my website, which is Berg spelled b u r g.com. And there’s a lot of goodies there and resources. So yeah, we welcome everyone to join and hang around and have fun.

Nick Glimsdahl 36:44
Great, Bob, thank you so much. I’ve learned a ton. I enjoy your books. And I highly recommend everybody go buy the series by the adversaries versus allies, which we didn’t get a chance to talk about by the endless referrals and follow him on on social and go to his website. So Bob, thank you so much, Nick. Thank

Bob Burg 37:05
you. You’re awesome. I appreciate you.

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The Press 1 For Nick podcast is both educational and engaging, and each episode offers listeners a dynamic blend of insightful stories, best practices, and invaluable lessons.

Nick’s guests – each with a unique wealth of knowledge – include leaders from a variety of backgrounds and industries. Some of his guests include:

• Customer service & customer experience leaders
• A hostage negotiator
• Award-winning authors
• Home Depot’s Senior Director of Customer Care
• Former VP of Disney’s Magic Kingdom
• Lyft’s Head of Partner and Customer Engagement
• Deputy Chief Veteran Experience Officer from the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs

On every episode Nick asks his guest two questions:

1. What book or person has influenced you the most in the past year?
2. If you could leave a note to all the Customer Service and CX professionals, what would it say?

You can find all the podcast guests’ answers under their episodes below.

If all you want is the guests’ book recommendations, you can go here.

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