The Fred Factor - Find Your Inner Fred

The Fred Factor - Find Your Inner Fred

Just read an interesting book - The Fred Factor: How passion in your work and life can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary by Mark Sanborn.

The book starts by describing a postal worker named (Fred) who consistently provides exceptional customer service as a mail carrier to the author. The author then describes many other instances of people acting in a similar manner to "Fred" to provide memorably positive customer experiences in everyday interactions.

There are 4 main principles detailed in the book: Everyone makes a difference.

1. Success is built on relationships.

2. You must continually create value for others.

3. You can re-invent yourself regularly.

A major theme of the book is to develop the skill of creating value for customers and colleagues without spending money to do it. In other words substitute creativity for capital.

On a recent trip my wife and I met 2 "Freds":

The first was at a local supermarket- we were looking for fresh strawberries and asked the produce manager if there were any. He walked us over to the display case and then apologized as there were none left. He indicated that there would be a delivery tomorrow. However a short time later he found us in another part of the store and handed us a package of strawberries. He had went back into the kitchen prep area where they chop up mixed fruits for packaging, and found a full package of strawberries for us.

The 2nd "Fred" we encountered was at the condo hotel we were staying at. Due to car trouble we needed to stay at the hotel another night. We spoke with the manager and he told us a room would be available, but we would need to check out and then check in again for the new room. This meant bringing our luggage and food from the refrigerator to the management office by 11 am and then returning by 3 PM to check into the new room. No worries - as our "Fred" called us a short time later to tell us that he was able to rearrange the reservations and that we could stay in the same room.

In both instances above we were pleasantly surprised by employees providing exceptional customer service, beyond what was expected. No one told them to do this, they did this on their own initiative.

It makes one think that anyone can be a "Fred" regardless of their type of job and everyone should strive to be a "Fred" in their daily interactions with clients, colleagues and family. This certainly makes sense for project managers who work with a team, build and maintain relationships and whose primary objective is to continually deliver value that meets or exceeds customer expectations. If you can also delight your customer, this is even better !

Aside from external competitors, we are often competing against ourselves - where we must beat the silent competitor of "Mediocrity". I encourage you to find your inner "Fred" and if you work at it, you will find that your interactions are more enjoyable, positive and memorable.