All posts by Cam Collins

About Cam Collins

@camcollins - dad, husband, entrepreneur, knowledge seeker, lover of the outdoors, fond of new ideas and how to spread good ones that add value to our world. View all posts by Cam Collins →

Gmail IMAP trouble

April 29, 2010Main Newsgmail, google, imap, ipad, microsft outlook, microsoft exchangeCam Collins

Is it just me or does Google’s Gmail IMAP implementation just plain suck? I have two e-mail accounts, a work e-mail (@dockmaster.com) on an Exchange server and a personal e-mail (@camcollins.wpengine.com). I was using a simple POP account through GoDaddy for my personal e-mail and storing all of my e-mail in folders locally on my laptop. I back my Outlook folders up once per week.

When I got my iPad I decided it was time to get with it. So I started using dropbox for my personal files (which I love!) and Gmail for my persinal mail so my files/folders/contacts will sync with my Google account and I can start living in complete wireless iPad bliss.

I found some great article on moving POP accounts to IMAP using Outlook and then syncing those folders/files with Gmail. Click here to enable IMAP on Outlook and here to see how to sync files/folders.

It’s the syncing part that’s been painful. The files will partially copy and then I’ll get FAILURE notices saying that the server cannot be reached.

I have changed folder names to no avail. The error I get before this says that Outlook lost connection to the server. One I get this error, the error above will come up every time I attempt a subsequent sync. t might just be me and I hope so. Please comment if I am missing something…

A short customer service story

April 22, 2010Main NewsCam Collins

While reading Chris Kourtakis’ blog post in Boating Industry about the upcoming spring launch in the Northern U.S., I was glad to see that he commented on the industry’s need to “turn things around…one customer at a time”. This piece of advice remains the hallmark of virtually every business regardless of the industry or economy. He didn’t say “turn everyone into a customer” he focused on the “one”. One happy customer, turns into two, then four and so on.

It reminded of a recent trip I took to my local West Marine store. I was looking for some parts for my boat and couldn’t find exactly what I needed. I stood at the register for a minute or two while the clerks were helping other customers. One of the clerks finally noticed me standing there and radioed for the manager to come to the front register. The manager was in his office (hidden from my view) only a few feet from where I was standing. At this point the customer (me) wasn’t happy! What went through my mind was “what could have been more important than helping a customer that is waiting to buy something?”

To his credit, the manager turned things around pretty quickly. I could not find a specific part for my outriggers. West Marine didn’t carry the part. Once I realized this, I was already thinking that my next stop was Lewis Marine Supply. However he creatively found a part that was similar and gave me a suggestion on how to make a simple modification such that it would work.

Moral of the story: Earnest and thoughtful customer service can turn negative situations into positive ones by simply caring enough to help people solve their problems.

Add value to your core

April 12, 2010Main News37signals, Amazon Kindle, Apple iPad, core values, marine management software, REWORK, spoke and hubCam Collins

What are you really good at? What recurring comments or suggestions do you receive from your customers or colleagues? Listening to customers, as well as colleagues and advisers is more than just noting the literal statements being made. It is also important to pick-up on verbal clues. I call this empathetic listening and it can help you add value to your products and services.

In the case of marine management software, simply adding features to our products because our customer says they need them doesn’t necessarily add value. Same goes for any business. Adding features to appease the few will disrupt the many. In software and web applications, layering feature upon feature makes products confusing and cumbersome. The value of your product is diminished if it causes frustration and anxiety because the customer is overwhelmed by features.

This scenario doesn’t just play out in the technology world. Ever go to a restaurant that had 50 to 100 items on the menu? It is down right overwhelming. Not only is it hard to choose, but I always ask myself “can these guys really perfect 50+ items?” The answer is typically “No”. Some of the best restaurants have 10 to 15 entrees that they’ve perfected. The menu changes over time as various ingredients go in and out of season. The goal is ultimate freshness for taste perfection.

So if you honestly ask yourself “what are you good at?” coupled with “what is your core business?”, you should be able to get the epicenter of your value. In their book REWORK, 37signals founders Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hanson talk about finding your epicenter and focusing on it like a laser. I will add that once you’ve perfected your epicenter, start adding “spokes to the wagon wheel”. There is a caveat! You can’t put all of your energy on “spokes” and neglect your “core”. The spokes must add value to the core.

Amazon illustrates this wonderfully with the Kindle. At the end of the day, Amazon distributes content. That content is typically in the form of books, CDs and e-books. The Kindle, their electronic book reader is a spoke as it gives readers another way to enjoy the content Amazon distributes. The Kindle adds value to their content and distribution empire.

There’s lots of talk about Apple’s iPad threatening the Kindle. While the iPad could certainly stymie Kindle sales, it should boost Amazon’s core – that is the distribution of books across various mediums. On 3/30/2010 an AP artcle in NYDailyNews.com stated “If the Kindle e-reader falls out of favor with people drawn to Apple’s offering, there could be a very thick silver lining for Amazon: It sells e-books that can be read on many kinds of devices, including the iPad and other Apple gadgets. That means the Kindle could fade and Amazon could still occupy a profitable perch in e-books.” In other words, the iPad becomes another spoke, or outlet for Amazon even though its not their product.

We have been looking for ways to help our customers provide better service to their customers, e.g. boaters. To that end, we have observed that more and more boaters want to use the internet to communicate with their marina, marine dealer or boatyard. Therefore we’ve decided to add web-based functionality to our core marina management system that allows customers to book a boat slip reservations online, submit an online service request or review invoices online.

What we as managers and business operators need to do is use these suggestions from customers and trusted advisers as points of reference. But you must have the fortitude and vision to guide your customers where they need to go. Just doing what they want today doesn’t necessarily help them or your business going forward.

“If Iâ€™d listened to customers, Iâ€™d have given them a faster horse.â€
â€”HENRY FORD

This could happen to you (if you are lucky)

February 24, 2010Uncategorizedblogs, customer sentiment, facebook, groundswell, online communities, social media, twitterCam Collins

If your products and services are perfect, and every customer of yours is completely satisfied, then stop reading this now. For the rest of us, we need to be embrace the fact that consumers have never before had more power. Social media and online communities are something that we as marketers should view as an unprecedented opportunity rather than another channel to contend with.

In their book Groundswell, authors Charlene Li and John Bernoff explain it this way:

“Right now, your customers are writing about your products on blogs and re-cutting your commercials on YouTube. They’re defining you on Wikipedia and ganging up on you in social networking sites like Facebook. These are all elements of a social phenomenon â€” the groundswell â€” that has created a permanent, long-lasting shift in the way the world works. Most companies see it as a threat. You can see it as an opportunity.”

Our DockMaster business had a “close call” with this type of negative customer sentiment. Over the past five years we’ve been upgrading our 250 clients, some of them with 10 or more physical locations from a legacy “text-based” version of DockMaster to our Windows platform. I am happy to say that we have completed this task and I want to thank our customers for sticking with us through the transition. It was difficult for both them and us. Some of our customers had been using our text-based system for over 10-years. It is very difficult to transition from one way of doing things (keyboard entry) to another (mouse-driven navigation).

One of our customers was struggling with not only a DockMaster change, but also a change to their network infrastructure. The transition was painful for this customer and in the midst of the transition, the owner e-mailed me an image one of his employees created that mocked the DockMaster logo.

What struck me was the fact that someone took the time to create this image and pass it around their company as a show of their frustration. I envisioned it hanging on a wall with a bunch of darts stuck in it. This image was a painful, but insightful wake up call for me at two levels:

1. It gave me some insight into how difficult a system transition can be and our team needed to be more sensitive of this.

2. I thought to myself what if this gets out on the internet? How would this tarnish our brand?

The owner did me a great service by sending it to me. Back in 2007 when I received this feedback, I would never have imagined that I would be publishing this story. After all, I am the CEO of the company that makes DockMaster. Shouldn’t we always try to paint a rosy picture for the world to read or spin a story to our advantage? To all the other company managers reading this post: you can’t do that anymore. The world doesn’t want “rosy” or “spin”. They want the truth. This includes open, honest, engaging “conversations” with customers, suppliers and the public at large.

Keeping your eye on the present

January 22, 2010Main News80-20 rule, limit tasks, pareto's law, pareto's principle, seemingly urgent, task management, tim ferris, time managementCam Collins

In December of 2009 I posted a blog called Threads of interruption: How to keep your day from spinning out of control . In it I described a process that I use to keep myself focused on what’s important and abstain from being distracted by the “seemingly urgent”. In the second part of this series, I will explore the Pareto Principle , more commonly known as the 80-20 rule, and how you can use procrastination to your advantage.

The 80-20 Rule (applied to time and task management) basically means two things to me:

– Limit tasks to the important to shorten work time
– Shorten your time frame to ensure heightened levels of focus

Following these two principles will allow you to focus on execution with a very clear deadline.

Remember in high school or college when a teacher assigned a term paper three months in advance? What most of us did is procrastinate until the very last minute to get it done. When you think back on that experience, can you remember the final days or hours before the paper was due and the intense focus you had on completing that task?

That same level of intensity should be utilized in your professional life as well. I am not saying that you should freak out management by doing nothing for weeks and then pulling a handful of ‘all-nighters” to complete a project. But what I do advocate is to create short, compact time lines to immerse yourself into projects. Block out that time on your calender so you can focus on the project. NO PHONE CALLS, NO E-MAIL. I don’t care if you are a programmer, outboard engine mechanic or a writer; this act of compartmentalizing a project into a compact time line and then executing with intense focus to complete the task in my experience produces the best results.

Working on a project a little at a time far in advance of a deadline is ineffective. That’s because there is a ramp-up period each and every time you start working on a project. What people tend to do who perform a “little at a time” is attempt to multitask. The illusion that you can effectively multitask is the biggest time waster of them all.

QUICK TIP: Keep your calendar empty. Some of the most effective time managers I’ve met guard their calendar’s with their life. They will not schedule meetings too far in advance, so that they can remain nimble and thus shorten their work time. If something important comes up last minute they are able to make time for it on their calendar. In addition, don’t be afraid to say “NO”. If the meeting, event or task you are being asked to do isn’t in alignment with what’s important to you politely decline.

So it’s 2010, now what?

January 14, 2010Main Newscam collins, dockmaster, dockmaster.com, marina management software, marina software, marine management systemsCam Collins

I just gave my first All Hands presentation to the Exuma/DockMaster team this afternoon. I started creating the presentation at 8am this morning. The talk started at 1pm. In between creating the presentation and delivering it I drove the 35 minute commute to the office and grabbed lunch. Next week I will post a blog that describes this process of shortening your time frame to ensure heightened levels of focus .

In the All Hands presentation I outlined 3 Words (themes) that should help shape the company in 2010. As per my personal 3 words , the words I’ve selected for Exuma are designed to challenge both me and my team to take our company to the next level. The 3 words are: CHANGE, LEARN, GROW.

CHANGE: It’s cliche, but change is everywhere and accelerating. Look at how quickly Social Media channels have been accepted into the main stream of life and compare the rate of adoption to e-mail. I have no data to back this up, but it seems like it took 10-years for e-mail to garner the same number of users that its taken Social Media outlets like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to gain in a year. We must not only embrace change, but we need to seek it out. I’ve instructed my team that phrases like “we’ve always done it this way” or “we don’t work that way” are no longer acceptable at our company.

LEARN: Learning is the antithesis of talking. In other words I am coaching my team to spend more time listening than talking. We are too quick to react – to answer a question before its completely stated. We will never learn and grow if we can’t listen. By listening I mean doing it emphatically and actively. Not simply to placate someone. We also need to look outside of our industry for examples of systems and ideas that work well, so that they can be evaluated and adapted in our own company. Lastly, learn from the mistakes of others as this is often more instructive.

GROW: Last year was about survival. This year we are back in growth mode. We are excited about expanding both in our market and in other markets as well. 2010 won’t be a walk in the park – its going to be full of challenges, but if we can stay focused we can grow our businesses.

I’ve challenged each of my team leads to carry this message through to their respective groups and to develop meaningful incentives to embrace these themes.

2010: Great blogs to kick-off the decade

January 6, 2010Main News2010 Goals, Chris Brogan, Focus, Learn, Simplify, Thoreau, WaldenCam Collins

I read some great blog posts at the dawning of the new decade. The amount of quality content out there is staggering. Some of my favorites were posted by Josh Bernoff, Radian6 and Seth Godin .

One of the most practical posts I read was Chris Brogan’s My 3 Words for 2010 . The 3 words are to be used as a guidepost for the way you should conduct your efforts in the year to come. The words can help you set goals, and establish projects with deadlines. Brogan claims that this technique is helpful for those who have struggled with goal setting in the past.

My 3 words are: FOCUS, LEARN, SIMPLIFY

FOCUS: I have begun to lay the groundwork for pursuing what has the most meaning for me; both personally and professionally and then focusing on what’s important to achieve these goals. I talked about this in my post entitled Threads of interruption: How to keep your day from spinning out of control . My next post will expand upon this and discuss the 80-20 Rule.

LEARN: In 2010 I want to explore new ways of doing things and new ways of thinking. It’s time to embrace change and to stop looking through the “lens” of the past. In the internet age, “rules” are being challenged and broken at breakneck speed. For me, this will be the year to completely embrace Social Media as a tranformative and lasting means of communication.

SIMPLIFY: This has some deep meaning for me that I won’t share in this post. But some of my philosophy was introduced in my Boating: The Good Old Days post. When I read Walden in high school I thought that Thoreau was a nut job. However as a middle-aged guy who’s collected a lot of “stuff” over the years, I think back on Walden Pond and wonder if Thoreau was on to something.

Threads of interruption: How to keep your day from spinning out of control

December 10, 2009Main News, Popular7 habits, business automation, business effeciencies, business process, effective meetings, interruptions, seven habits, stephen covey, streamlining, task management, tim ferris, time management, time wastersCam Collins

I will admit that I am easily distracted. Staying focused on the “task at hand” has always been a challenge for me. Some people call it ADD others call it a “creative mind” with a lack of “attention to detail”. I imagine if I grew up in the agrarian age I would have a better go of this. If it were my job to plant 10 acres on a given day, there probably wouldn’t be a lot of distractions (no e-mail, no cell phone). Assuming the neighboring tribe wasn’t on the warpath.

In today’s information age we are barraged with interruptions. Besides this blog, how many other interruptions are staring you in the face? You’ve got e-mail, instant messages, Skype calls, Twitter messages coming from tools like TweetDeck, Facebook alerts, LinkedIn requests, etc, etc. And that’s just your computer. We haven’t gotten to your “smartphone” that has apps for all of the above, your office phone and lastly the constant communication (interruptions) from employees and co-workers.

With this “hostile” environment as the backdrop, you must be armed with a plan each and every day. At DockMaster (Exuma Technologies) we developed a strategy called the EX-PROCESS. This process was inspired by two of the greatest writers on task management (note I didn’t say “time management”) that I’ve run across: Stephen Covey (Seven Habits of Highly Effective People) and Tim Ferris (The Four Hour Work Week). Here’s how it goes:

First a Covey-ism. You must begin each year, each quarter, each week and each day with the end in mind. If you do not have a plan when you walk into your office, you are already a target for interruptions. Covey developed a prioritization technique called the 4-Quadrants. This will give you a framework for deciding what is important. Take your “quadrant 2” tasks and assign them to various roles you play throughout the week (e.g. father, husband, manager, soccer coach, etc). Click here for an Excel 2003 version of my Weekly Worksheet. This process will give you a framework for deciding what is important. I like planning tasks by the week. Go through this exercise either on Sunday night or Monday morning and ask yourself: “What are the most important tasks I must accomplish this week” and commit them to writing. (one-page only).

Next, you must follow a set of rules to keep interruptions to a minimum. This is what our EX-PROCESS looks like.

The best tip I can give you is to NOT check e-mail when you first walk into the office in the morning. If you plan to be in the office all day, start the day by tackling a project. Stay heads down on the project for 1 to 2 hours before you start checking e-mail, talking to staff and taking phone calls. This one idea alone will change your life!

Quick Tips:

1. Turn OFF the “tray icon” notification each time you receive an e-mail
2. Do not schedule meetings too far in advance, keep your schedule open as much as possible so that you can evaluate how important a meeting is with a 24-48 hour window.
3. Don’t dwell on projects with deadlines far off in the future (this will be the subject of my next blog)

How small changes can add up

November 23, 2009Main Newscredit card processing, ebay, employee effeciency, inventory, service department, service manager, service schedule, social media, utilizationCam Collins

After speaking to several dealers in recent weeks, I have come to the conclusion that if your service department is not profitable, then you are doing something wrong.

Little changes in the way you schedule your service work or how you have your shop organized can save you hundreds a week and thousands a month.Â How much are you paying for your credit card machine?Â Now is a better time than ever to negotiate your swipe and keyed rates.

Every technician should be having a shop efficiency rate of 70+% for billable hours.Â If they do not, then you need to look at what they are working on.Â Do they need training to better understand todayâ€™s motors?Â Are they spending too much time waiting for product to be brought to them or spending too much time in the yard trying to find it and gaining access to it?Â If you know a technician is going to be on the docks, have a yard guy uncover the boat and get it ready for the technician to work on.

Out of date parts inventory is not doing you any good sitting on the shelves and tying up possible investment funds. Let it go and create revenue.Â Even at a loss it is better than costing you money each month while it sits on the shelves.Â Ebay can be your best friend when it comes to eliminating parts room clutter. The revenue made from selling your non-current inventory can then be re-directed into training your technicians or service personnel.

Schedule training with your engine suppliers and other vendors.Â If you do not have enough personnel at your facility, coordinate with another marina and hold the training at a neutral site.Â Now is the time to utilize their time and yours.

Take your training schedule to a new level by holding training seminars for your customers.Â This is another great way to sell products, get customers in your facility during the off season and stay in front of them and communicate with them on a regular basis.

How are you marketing and advertising your service department?Â Social media allows you to do this in an effective and relatively cheap manner.Â I am sure that your dealership has a Facebook and Twitter account, but do you have separate accounts for your parts and service departments?Â If the answer is â€œnoâ€, then you are missing out on opportunities to effectively communicate with your customers and increase your revenue.

Tell your customers about overstocked items, a new product that came in or service specials that you are having.Â Furthermore, control your weekly work flow.Â If you see that you may not have enough billable hours for the following week, communicate with your customers and tell them that there is immediate availability for service.

Finally, make sure you are able to measure everything you do.Â You want to establish a bench mark and regularly check against it.Â If you can not track it, then you need to think twice before you implement it.

[Photo goes here]
Captain Christopher Kourtakis

chris@h2olimos.com
www.H2OLimos.com
www.Facebook.com/H2OLIMOS
www.Twitter.com/H2OLIMOS