A Different Perspective

By Anne L. DeCicco cae cmp ecam
aldecicco@aol.com

If physicians gave out "frequent patient" cards, I would have filled many during the past year. My list of specialists is longer than my holiday card list. I have made so many trips to doctors and hospitals that if physicians gave away air miles I would be eligible for an around-the-world trip.

During the past year I have had to force myself to become, in some ways, a different person. It hasn't been easy. None of us like giving up control of our personal lives -- what we do, when we do it, how we do it, and so forth. I have had to do just that, letting the medical world direct my own, and I wasn't very good about it. In fact, I am a terrible patient.

But, I learned some important lessons along the way that have application in my work and, I think, in yours, too. First, one cannot take anything for granted, change is the blink of an eye away. This the travel goods industry learned on September 11th. This I learned with a shocking medical diagnosis. How does our thinking change as a result of these experiences? Are we prepared to make quick right turns to meet life's changes that come faster and faster?

The second lesson I learned is to take nothing for granted. As unbelievable as it may seem, there have been times when I was given a different answer to the same question from each of the three or four specialists. As a result, I have had to force myself to accept more responsibility for finding information on my own, digesting it, and making my own decisions. In our business, I can't tell you how much of my office time is spent dispelling rumors about everything from another store going bankrupt, to manufacturers going out of business, to unpleasant and untrue comments about people in the industry. Unfortunately, one of the strengths of this industry is its ability to spread a rumor all the way to China in a matter of hours. How much better would we feel about ourselves as an industry if the messages we spread were true and positive ones!

Third, although I might consider myself, as a patient, to be a "frequent customer" and deserve some recognition (maybe a fee reduction?), the medical field doesn't yet equate patients as customers. Doctors and hospitals are both guilty of that. My health care travails have made me do a lot of thinking about what I see when visiting travel goods stores. As a result, one of my goals for this year is to renew my focus on how the travel goods industry thinks about its customers and treats them. Why do customers come into our stores and why do they return? Travel Goods Week will be a perfect time to start a new emphasis on customer appreciation and retention.

Fourth, the time I have been forced to spend on things other than TGA has been the hardest lesson with the biggest reward. I love my job and before my illness it was the priority in my life. In recent months I have readjusted my priorities and learned that I can accomplish even more on the professional side by spending more time enjoying the personal side of my life. How easy it is for all of us to become so wrapped up in our professional life that we miss a great new movie, a book by a favorite author, a child's lacrosse game, the smell of fall leaves and fireplaces, and spring flowers poking through the snow. Yet, each of these personal experiences better equips us to think and act differently and perform better in the workplace.

Something or someone has to shake you into making the changes you know in your heart you need to make. I encourage you to step back from the trials of your store or company on a regular basis and take a fresh look. And, I urge you to come to the Travel Goods Show this year and make that your Day One of approaching how you conduct your business in a new, profitable and rewarding way.