I was inspired by the Club K&J Escape Event #2 and rewrote a favorite song of mine as a tribute to the Lemonade Stand:
I see tees of green…. red artwork too
I see them gift wrapped from me to you
And I think to myself…. what a wonderful store.

I see molds of blue ….. snap-a-parties of white
Bright ….dark
And I think to myself …..what a wonderful store.

The colors of a rainbow…..so pretty…in all our soaps
Are also on the shells…..of jelly bean jewelry you can buy
I see friends buying gifts…..sayin… happy birthday to you
They’re really sayin……i love you.

I see babies stylin…… I watch them grow
They’ll drool much more…..than I’ll never know
And I think to myself …..what a wonderful store.

(instrumental break)

The colors of a rainbow…..so pretty…perched up high.
Are also on the feet …of people going by.
I see friends sharing hugs…..sayin… congratulations to you
They’re really sayin……i love you.And I think to myself …..what a wonderful store.

Yes I think to myself …….what a wonderful store.

** Adapted from the song “What a Wonderful World”

Technorati Tags: Lemonade Stand

In addition to our company’s commitment to helping organizations that impact the lives of children, we’re also dedicated to encouraging each individual employee a chance to make a difference where they feel most called. In fact, one of our employee benefits is time off to do service work. Sweet!

Last week I spent time in New Orleans working with Habitat for Humanity. I am fortunate to have worked with several Habitat affiliates over the last 12 years doing a variety of construction, rehab, and deconstruction projects and know that this organization makes an impact where ever folks are working.

We are all familiar with the devastation wreaked by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. I was amazed at how much damage remains.

I was able to work in St. Bernard Parish where there was 100% structural damage to residential and commercial buildings during Hurricane Katrina - every house, every business. Over two years later, there is a ton of work to be done. In 2000, the population was counted at 67,229 people; now the count is about 7,000 permanent residents plus 20,000 people who are living elsewhere while working on rebuilding their homes. That leaves 40,000 people either relocated or unable to rebuild. It’s little wonder that businesses are unable to reopen: not enough people for customers or employees.

The neighborhood where I worked had a range of homes. For every rebuilt/repaired home there were 10-12 with tarped roofs, broken windows, and gutted walls. Some had trailers or mobile homes parked on front lawns, some had for sale signs on their boarded up doors, while others were completely abandoned.

The photos below show some of the damaged homes oftentimes side by side with newly rebuilt ones as well as the remnants of some of the businesses.

While there is much that needs to be done, hope is springing up across St. Bernard Parish. Tomorrow I’ll talk more about the home I worked on and the folks I was able to work with.

Today is my birthday

I’m eating some of my favorite foods - donuts for breakfast, salami sandwich for lunch & chicken nacho bake for dinner - yum! I’m also watching football playoffs, reading a great book I got for Christmas, and enjoying a nice fire here on a cold January afternoon.

Because I love birthdays and enjoy celebrating, I have a couple things I’d like to share:

1) If you have a special birthday coming up check out our Birthday suggestion list for the Lemonade Stand.

2) Use the coupon code IMSPECIAL on orders of $25 or more and save $5.00 because birthdays are special and even if it’s not your birthday you should celebrate this week (offer ends 1/19/08)!

You can listen to a fun message I received from the local radio station.

Technorati Tags: birthday, celebration, Kraft recipe, virtual fireplace, VeggieTales, birthday song

I don’t know about you but at Christmastime I notice how many people we encounter who are in the customer service arena - some of them by title: complaint department, guest services, etc. and some by the nature of their job: sales clerk, financial planner, postal worker, etc.

Because we love great service, we wanted to reward those folks who serve us everyday, so we decided to share a little of our Wishmas cheer with our neighbors and friends. You may recall that on the first day of Wishmas we decorated cookies made from our super popular ABC Cookie Cutters. We made up some little batches of goodies for some of the people who give us great service.

You can tell the difference between someone who is doing a job and someone who loves what they do. The folks who love what they do, treat each interaction as an opportunity for outstanding customer service. You see excitement on their face, hear interest in their voice, and a general sense of positive energy from them.

Merry Christmas and may you have a 2008 full of great service!

Technorati Tags: great service, gingerbread cookies, 12 Days of Wishmas

It’s the time of year for a flurry of presents to make their way across the country and around the world. Since I get a lot of experience prepping packages at the Lemonade Stand, I thought I’d share some tips so that your goodies arrive the way you send them and on time.

Packing with care:

13. It is best to use new cardboard boxes. Some boxes are double walled or actually have a series of check boxes on the bottom for the number of uses it is rated for, but when in doubt use a new box to help prevent collapse and damage to contents.

12. Always use a big enough box for your goodies. If the contents are bowing out your box or creating a bulge on top, you risk things being crushed or broken while they are in transit. So be sure to leave enough room for plenty of packing materials.

11. There are a variety of packing materials to cushion your fragile items. Packing foam peanuts, bubblewrap, and foam egg carton pieces are the best because they have “memory” - they bounce back into shape as things shift. Paper can be used but remember it will crush down when contents shift - so use newsprint or kraft paper for filler on non-fragile items.

10. The order you stack things can also help protect fragile gifts. Place things like books on the bottom with wrapped breakables on top surrounded by those cushioning products to fill the rest of the space.

9. When closing your package, use packing tape rather than masking or transparent gift wrap tape. You get better adhesive keeping your box sealed tight.

8. Using at least 2″ packing tape, seal all of the edges. This will help prevent moisture seeping into your boxes and keep your gifts dry.

7. To help the delivery folks get your package to the right person, make sure the full accurate address is written in clear lettering with permanent marker. Using a label or even taping the address written on a piece of paper on a dark package can help as well.

6. Protect addresses with tape. It’s snowing and raining and dripping all over, you don’t want to delay delivery because of illegible address information. It’s not a bad idea to protect your return address too in case it would need to come back to you.

5. Confirm that someone will be there to receive the package. You may want to choose to have a signature required to make sure that gifts aren’t ruined or stolen because they are left on a porch while folks are away.

4. Often there is insurance included in your shipping cost, be sure it is enough to cover the value of replacing the gifts. Don’t add unnecessary coverage but it may be worth paying a few extra dollars for peace of mind.

3. Plan to give your package plenty of time to arrive. It’s more fun to create anticipation with the “Do Not Open till Christmas” on the outside than a phone call saying it will be there before New Year’s. You can use the websites for US Postal Service, UPS and FedEx to calculate both cost and transportation times.

2. If you don’t have a big window of time (and December 1st is Saturday), be aware that you get what you pay for. Choosing higher valued services like Overnite, Express, and Priority Mail means that those packages get on the truck first. When the truck fills, lower priced services like Parcel Post and even First Class Mail is left for the next available space.

1. The number one tip I can give you is be thorough. Take your time to get every thing inside that you want, that it’s properly packed and sealed, and that you have the correct address on the right packages. If you rush, you can make mistakes that can make a mess instead of making a Merry Christmas.

I hope this helps make packing up those gifts for the holidays a little less stressed and little more fun!

Technorati Tags: shipping tips, sending gifts, holiday packages, packing ideas

Ever wonder why Customer Service Week is in October? Well, Halloween is in October: you dress up as make believe characters receiving and handing out sweets. Customer Service Week can be like that too - companies pull out all the stops to create images of themselves as service superheros and give away awards and prizes to everyone around them.

I think the mission of Customer Service Week is a great one. I know folks who have all the giddy anticipation for it that a 6 year-old with a Spiderman costume has for October 31st. Here’s my concern: don’t let this be the only time you put your customer service best on display. Don’t make celebrating customer service a one-week event.

Mark Sanborn talks about the instinct for exceptional service in his book The Fred Factor. He was inspired by his mailman Fred, who exemplefied being personally motivated to give excellent care to customers. He observes:

It is easy to find and point out what’s “wrong” with quality, customer service and business in general. Finding examples of what’s “right,” or even praiseworthy, is much harder. Yet here was Fred, a gold-plated example of what personalized service looked like.

Wouldn’t you like to be known as a Fred? Wouldn’t it be great if your company gave such amazing service everyday that people checked the calendar to see if it was the first week of October? Take note of the following that Mark also says:

To this day, I can’t tell you what motivated Fred. I know he didn’t get paid more for his extraordinary work. I doubt he received any special recognition from his employer (if he did, I never heard about it). I know he wasn’t privy to any exceptional training or incentive programs.

If you think your company needs Customer Service Week maybe you need to freeze the calendar to the first week of October until it becomes an everyday instinct of everyone from top to bottom in every department.

Don’t settle for costumes and treats for one week - challenge your team/department/company to go beyond 5 days of wowing your customers.

Make the effort to become an everyday customer service hero. There’s only treats to be had from such an attitude.

PS - You can take the test to see if you’re a Fred.

Technorati Tags: Customer Service Week, Halloween, Fred Factor, hero

Check this out - Bob over at Every, Every Minute has this fun meme called MyTurn/YourTurn - it’s simple straight-forward fun, and no tagging, so I’m in! This edition is called Happy Songs.

Last summer I saw the Newsboys in concert where they previewed their “Go” album and the lead track entitled “Wherever We Go” has made me smile ever since. I’ve listened to it on my drive to our office pretty much every day. In my mind it’s a perfect company theme song because of lyrics like this:

Where we go, little glow-worms glow
Little roadrunners run ahead
Gonna tell their friends
Little mice, little men
Get ‘em all excited
All invited

Chorus:
Hands up
Holler back here
Let’s throw this party in gear
We brought the welcome mat
Wherever we go, that’s where the party’s at

Totally a natural fit for the continent-crossing speaking duo of Kim and Jason, but it also fits me because I believe every package I send from the Lemonade Stand is a little party in a box! With way cool stuff to transform home and office spaces as well as gifts to fight adultitis, how can there not be a celebration?

There is a smile on my face as I pack boxes of goodies when I envision joy as described in these two favorite verses:

Wherever we go, bluebirds sing
And the flowers bloom
And the grass gets green
It’s a curious thing
But it’s just our thing

Wherever we go, the bees behave
In the treetops, squirrels smile and wave
It’s a curious thing
And it’s humbling

And my absolute favorite line:

God help us, we just love our job

I really do love my job and I grin from ear to ear when I hear this song that happily reminds me of where the party’s at!

YourTurn: What song always makes you happy when you hear it?

Alternative: What is your company’s/job’s theme song? Do you want to change it or crank it up?

Technorati Tags: Every Every Minute, Newsboys, party, love your job

Kim Kotecki recently challenged me to name “Eight Random Things About Me in Eight Years” - a new twist on a familiar meme. As a committed dreamer, I love to imagine what my life will be like in the future, so this was a lot of fun to do.

Without further ado here’s a few things that are me in 2015:

1. One of my favorite things to do is travel to the New York Stationary Show to find the coolest goodies for The Lemonade Stand.
2. Many of my days are spent in appointments helping people choose the perfect items for everyone on their gift lists at our Escape Adulthood headquarters.
3. There is a great team of Sales Servants working with me to make The Lemonade Stand an awesome on-line store.
4. I speak with businesses about “Keeping Adultitis Out of Your Customer Service.”
5. My annual week-long service trip with Habitat for Humanity has once again energized me.
6. I have edited several books by friends and family helping them achieve their dreams of being authors.
7. Every month I spend time at a cabin on a lake; relaxing, reading, hiking and reconnecting with my outdoor spirit.
8. I am blessed with a joyful life - I am able to spend time with family and friends, laughing, sharing stories, and creating wonderful memories.

Thanks for the challenge Kim!

I believe it is so important to vision your future. Maybe you don’t have a blog, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take time for dreaming and imagining all the possibilities of what tomorrow holds. So grab a pen and a journal and start capturing your vision or maybe invest in “Goals” jar to help you unfog the future and shoot for the stars!

Technorati Tags: Kim Kotecki, The Lemonade Stand, Escape Adulthood, Habitat for Humanity, dreams, goals, vision, future

“Every time you place an order at The Kim & Jason Lemonade Stand, it’s kind of like getting the best part of Cracker Jack — and super sugary breakfast cereals, too — you get a free prize. Each prize is packaged inside a little toy capsule, just like the ones at supermarket entrances that you begged mom for. We guarantee that it’s a little something something that will put a smile on your face remind you of the best parts of childhood…”

That is a description of our Free Prizes that are included with every order. I really enjoy putting these together each month - a fun little piece of childhood in each package. With many online stores, you’re lucky if you get enough packing materials to keep your items from being crushed in the back of the delivery truck. As a company we make the effort to do more than pack and ship your order. We try to put a little bit of our mission in every box.

The Free Prize is one of the ways we try to help our customers fight Adultitis in their lives. There are a few other things we add to each order but I’m not going to spoil the surprise for folks who haven’t ordered from us yet. Here are some comments that were shared with me after receiving their orders:

Got my stuff! It is fun and I appreciated the extra goodies in the box Thanks!!

…LOVE IT… including the extra little thoughtful treats/toy in the shipment.

Thanks so much for the speedy delivery. We loved the additional “gifts” we received as well.

I received on Saturday – thank you! LOVE the marbles!

I just received my dirt candle today, and I wanted to thank you for the extra goodies in my package! How creative, and what a fun little surprise! Thank you!

Thank you so much! I got my order in today’s mail. WOW - that was fast! As always, I was not disappointed. I was like a little kid going through the box. I started with the comic on the outside, which made me laugh, and continued with the inside. I love the “secret present” in there. I couldn’t wait to see what it could be. I had to have a jelly bean right away. Please thank everyone involved! I love buying from Kim & Jason. It has always been a wonderful experience. THANK YOU!

And can I just say that I very much appreciate the assortment of goodies included with my toasted marshmallow candle I received today. I was having one of those days, and it definitely put a big smile on my face. Thank you so much!

Thank you for all your wonderful feedback. It brings a big smile to my face to know that the time spent putting those goodies in your orders is touching lives. I think that’s one of my favorite parts about being Chief!

Technorati Tags: free prize, Cracker Jack, goodies, Adultitis, Lemonade Stand

One of the questions I get asked is why sales “servant” instead of sales representative? For me, it’s more than just a unique title, it’s a totally different perspective to have a servant’s mentality.

A lot is said about customer service - some of it is good, more often what we hear is not. I think one of the reasons we hear a lot of horror stories about service is because the folks doing the serving don’t have a servant’s mindset. Customer service is set up to be reactionary. So what does it mean to be a sales servant mean?

A servant is defined as: “a person working in the service of another.”
And service is defined as: “work done by one person or group that benefits another.” It’s a bit of circular thinking to be. The Brand Glossary over at Yellow Pencil puts it another way:

Service is something that you do for somebody, or a promise that you make to them (emphasis mine).

What a great perspective to look at service as a promise, an oath, a pledge. With that in mind, here’s my personal Sales Servant pledge:

I Pledge Alligiance to the Customer
of the Kim & Jason Lemonade Stand;
and to the mission for which it stands:
Helping grown-ups,
escape adulthood,
and creating better childhoods & second childhoods for all.

Being a sales servant is a whole different mindset - instead of reacting to customer complaints and trying to service problems, we approach every step of customer interaction as an opportunity to serve them - to be wholly committed to their needs.

Simply put, as Chief Sales Servant I am at your service,

whatever you need,

I promise.