Effectively Managing and Motivating People explains the biology of human behavior and why people do the things that they do. Once you understand the basic biology of human behavior then you can apply that knowledge to understanding behavior in the workplace, the home and in those places where you encounter people in the course of your daily living.

All behavior is chemically controlled. This is a theme that I return to time and time again throughout this book.

Countless books have been written on the theories of people management and many are speculative. I will not be adding to their number.

I will explain the biology of behavior in an entertaining and informative way. This book is definitely not a hard slog. It is, however, based on sound scientific research. The information in this book derives from peer reviewed scientific literature.

Effectively Managing and Motivating People will provide the background to help you understand many of the functions of your brain, particularly in everyday management situations.

Examples and exercises focus this understanding on improving your performance as a manager. In addition the book recognizes that your performance as a manager also depends on your home and leisure activities and environment. It highlights many useful strategies for improving your day to day quality of life outside the workplace.

Much of this knowledge comes from recent discoveries in the field of medicine and neuroscience. Most of these discoveries have taken place over the past 25 years. The fruits of this painstaking research have been incorporated into this book to give you a new perspective on your role as a manager.

Once you acquire a basic understanding of the brain structures and chemistry responsible for behavior and motivation your ability to manage and motivate others will dramatically improve.

The ebook is available for $4.99 in all ebook stores including:

Amazon

iTunes

Barnes and Noble

I recently signed by to pingdom.com to keep track of the uptime of my website.

The site offered a 30 day free trial to test out the service. However I was astounded to find that the actual set up process consumed the free checks on offer with the free trial and I was asked to upgrade and pay.

I wrote to the company as follows:

“Very unimpressed that my “free pings” were all used up in the set up.

You are thrashing your business and your reputation by doing this to
potential customers.

I will certainly not be subscribing.

Please cancel my membership.”

The company responded as follows:

“Thank you for getting back to us.

Are you referring to the message shown on the “Home” page in the control panel ” You have reached the maximum number of checks allowed on the Free account. To add more, please upgrade your account. “? That message is shown because we only allow one site or service to be checked/monitored with a free account.

Each check (one in your case), performs many tests/checks at an interval decided by you with the “Check resolution” setting. The maximum amount of tests is 1*60*24*7 = 10080 tests performed every week (that is when the check resolution is set to 1 minute).

If you still would like to cancel your account you can do so by logging in to our control panel and then click “Account subscriptions” in the left hand menu. On this page you have a “Cancel account” link to the right of your selected plan. This will cancel your account.

Please always feel free to contact us if you have any questions, and of course you’re always welcome back if you would like to start using Pingdom again in the future.”

Absolutely hopeless. I even have to waste more time doing my own cancellation.

Please make free offerings generous and worthwhile to build a positive customer client relationship right from the start.

We had some issues with our web host supplier, VentraIP, and submitted an e-ticket outlining our concerns.

Their response was very honest and prompt and, in my opinion, provides a good benchmark for how a supplier should respond to a client who lodges a complaint.

Here is the detailed response with my concerns in italics:

“Thanks for your eTicket.

Generally we wouldn’t be able to respond to management requests on the weekend, but given I’m in to check out the issues with our monitoring I’m got the opportunity to get a response out to you.

1. OUTAGES: These have been much higher and more frequent than expected including 45 minutes today.

– I’m aware of the issues yesterday and today. The issue yesterday, we actually believe you had a part to play in it, hence your suspension. Today’s incident was a combination of a user on the server and our backup systems wreaking some havoc together. You will, without a doubt be able to claim an SLA credit via VIPControl for this month early in April, as we have unfortunately fallen below our SLA as a result of today’s outage. However, prior to the events within the last 24 hours the server you are on has excellent uptime – I believe 100% in January, a 5-10 minutes in each of December (a maintenance event) and February.

The length of today’s outage I agree was unacceptable and was actually rather unfortunate. It appears some enhancements to our monitoring system yesterday afternoon saw us come undone, as it developed a fault overnight which meant we weren’t receiving monitoring notices (which has now been rectified) – these being notices all staff receive. This, coupled with one of our staff going home sick and the replacement coming in when the downtime started, saw a delay in this being detected and rectified for which I do apologise.

2. ACCOUNT SUSPENSION: At 5.55pm on Friday (yesterday) we received an email notifying of an account suspension. Had we been a 9-5pm business we would have been down for the whole weekend.

– Unfortunately to bring a server under control where an account is causing the issue, all we can do is suspend it. If another user on the server is causing problems for the server, as was part the case this morning, I presume you’re of the opinion they should be suspended immediately to prevent continued issues? There is simply no other way for us to do this to ensure a continued stable service, and this process is outlined in our AUP – http://www.ventraipbusiness.com.au/terms-policies-agreements/

Regarding the suspension message which was displayed, this was another issue on our end which I’ve moved to correct. It should have displayed a ‘website unavailable’ message, which I have now rectified.

3. UNAUTHORISED CHANGES TO WEBSITE: In the process of assisting us with a previous technical issue one of your IT staff replaced a .htaccess file without permission reverting our site to a much older version. We would have preferred to have been told that there was an issue with .htaccess that we needed to sort out.

– Looking back at your ticket history, this was me who actioned this after it was escalated to me to resolve. We were under the impression you wanted the problem fixed, and I did so. Apologies if this was not want you wanted, but given it was your change to your .htaccess which caused the issue it was assumed that reverting it back to a working state would be what you wanted.

Hopefully I’ve addressed each of your concerns, but if you have any further questions please let us know and we’ll get back to you.

Regards,

Jesse Mahoney
Level 2 Support Analyst

VentraIP Group (Australia) Pty Ltd
VentraIP (USA) LLC

Yes, Jesse you did address all of our concerns and we definitely appreciate the way in which you did it.

Today I received the following email from Open DNS which was unexpected and much appreciated.

====

“How’s OpenDNS Deluxe working out so far?

Hi John,

You’ve been using OpenDNS Deluxe for a few days now, and we want to check in and see how things are going. Anything we can help with? Simply reply to this email and we’ll gladly assist.

Here are just a few of the many benefits you’re now enjoying:

• A faster Internet. Web pages load much quicker with OpenDNS.
• A more reliable Internet. No more interruptive, intermittent downtime.
• A safer Internet. “Phishing” identity theft websites are blocked automatically.
• A smarter Internet. Helpful typo correction and “did you mean?” spelling suggestions are a big time-saver.
• More control. OpenDNS content filtering lets you decide which websites are inaccessible on your network. Block entire categories easily.

Help spread the word about OpenDNS by emailing your peers, liking us on Facebook, and tweeting about how great OpenDNS is.

-The OpenDNS team”

====

They have really set a new Benchmark for online service with this excellent follow up.

I did take advantage of the offer for more information.

HOW….

WHY…

TELL ME MORE…

DO YOU…

HAVE YOU…

HOW MANY…

IS IT TRUE THAT…

Listen for clues in the reply especially statements like:

“I want” “I need” ‘‘I hope’’ “It is important to us that” “Our objective is” etc.

1. I follow up by phone with my customers after gaining commitment.

Always     Sometimes     Never

2. I follow up in person with my customers after gaining commitment.

Always     Sometimes     Never

3.  I measure the extent to which the customer’s success criteria are being met.

Always     Sometimes     Never

4.  When a customer has a problem I get actively involved in solving it.

Always     Sometimes     Never

5.  No matter what the problem I resolve it no matter what it takes.

Always     Sometimes     Never

6.  After a problem has been resolved the relationship is stronger than before.

Always     Sometimes     Never

7. I get repeat business from customers who have had problems with my product.

Always     Sometimes     Never

8. I have a system in place to make sure I’m in contact with all of my customers on a regular basis.

Always     Sometimes     Never

9. My customers feel as important after they buy as  before.

Always     Sometimes     Never

10. I measure and quantify the results my customers get from my products.

Always     Sometimes     Never

1. Answer the call after three rings
2. Smile
3. Use names (e.g. “Hello Ken”, “Hello Sir Julius”)
4. Listen
5. Bouquets & questions (e.g. “I hear you had a very successful sale”)
6. Close
7. Confirm the details
8. Get their phone number
9. Make them feel valued and appreciated
10. Hang up last

Complete the following questions to qualify the potential needs of your existing customers:

1. Write down the name of an existing customer.

2. What is the nature of their business?

3. Who are their customers?

4. Where is their market geographically located?

5. What plans do they have for expanding their business?

6. What are their most pressing and immediate needs?

7. What are their needs over the next 5 years?

8. What would you do if you were running their business?

9. Who are they doing business with apart from yourself?

10. How satisfied are they with these suppliers (circle one)

VERY SATISFIED
SATISFIED
NOT SATISFIED
DON’T KNOW

11. Who are your customers primary competitors?

12. What new rivals threaten their business?

13. What products or services do you have which your customer is not using but could potentially use?

Complete the following questions to identify customer sources:

1. List the business clubs and associations that your customers might frequent?

Example: Rotary Club, Golf Club, Swimming Club etc.

2. List online telephone books or directories where potential customers could be listed?

Example: Linkedin

3. What other products do your customers buy that might he related to your products?

Example: If they buy computers from you they may buy stationary from another company. Perhaps you can do a joint promotion.

4. What Trade Journals, Magazines, Newsletters or newspapers do your customers read? Check your local paper to see who is advertising and ask yourself “should this person he a customer of mine?”.

Complete the following questions to identify your competitive advantage:

1. What do you have that your competitors don’t have?

Example: same day service, better pncing, free cup of coffee

2. What do we have that our competitors have but ours is better?

Example: better packaging, better location, better free cup of coffee

3. What does the competition have that we don’t?

Example: faster service, better pricing, larger range of products