The New INTERNATIONAL Home of ceuWOW

We have just finished our first CAD class since it has been approved by the TECQ for Texas landscape irrigators. As it turned out, two of the class members had Mexican-sounding surnames. That's not unusual anywhere in Texas, but especially not in San Antonio. When I asked them where they were from, they said they were irrigators from Monterrey, Mexico!

That's makes our company an international provider of CAD training. So, just in case you had missed the largeness of it all, I hope you are duly impressed. ;-)

New CAD Class Approved

ceuWOW would like to announce that our new CAD Class, a 16 hour continuing education unit (CEU) class, has been approved by the TCEQ for Texas Licensed Irrigators.

We are holding the class in the major market areas of the state now. At this posting we still have room in the Houston and Austin classes. Classes are small due to the hands-on nature of the instruction, so enroll early.

The CAD Class teaches irrigators how to use RainCAD's latest software offering, Pro Contractor Studio.

The cost of the class is $275 for both days.

In favor of the abolition of “You’re welcome.”

It’s a matter of perspective, I know. You go to a “big box” store and are waited on by a helpful and friendly employee. Because your mother did a good job of raising you, you say “Thank you” to the employee. He says, “You’re welcome.” Just a polite exchange of pleasantries, right? But so, so wrong.


The perspective of the employee is the important thing here. It is this perspective that is so wrong. The employee is looking at this encounter with the customer from the natural, unenlightened viewpoint of the hireling. It goes something like this:

“My job here is to keep this section of the store nice and neat. Safe too. I keep an eagle eye out for spills and sharp pokey things. Nothing gets past me. Fully stocked shelves, that’s my job too. And customer service. Like the manager said, ‘Nothing is more important than helping the customer.’ Oh there’s one now.”


So they help the customer and expect the customer to show their appreciation for the help. When they say “thank you,” the employee says, “You’re welcome.”


Now, lets say you own this store.


You know that payroll is this Friday and everyone expects to be paid. Not just this Friday, but also next Friday and every Friday for the rest of time. Vendors will be paid or they stop vending. And it all depends on customers buying from you. Not just this week, but next week. There are many alternatives out there and you realize that the only reason a customer would choose you is because they had a preference for you. Maybe you are the only store that could supply a certain part or service, but probably not. More likely, there are dozens of companies that can provide that part or service.

So, what is your attitude about that customer? They are the reason this store exists—that’s for sure. But, they must be so tickled to do business with you that they prefer you to the competition. You have done everything you can think of to make this the preferable business for your products.

You, Business Owner, are incredibly thankful for that customer. And, if that employee has half a mind, he will grasp that thankfulness and take it to the very center of his soul. How will you know that he did?

“Thank you.”


“Oh NO. Thank YOU.”


And he will mean it.


If you are a business owner, or an employee that “gets it,” you too will be in favor of the abolition of “You’re welcome.”

Forgetting the Purpose--So Easy

May I tell you about a distaseful conversation I had Thursday with a yellow pages salesman? The conversation was completely amicable, but, at least for me, tense.

We had tried this new phone book for two years. Last year we even put in a different phone number so we could really test the book's effectiveness. It wasn't. I was dropping our investment from about $2,000 for the year to $300--and would have gone lower if I could have.

When the salesman asked about what I wanted to do in the white pages, I said I wanted just a regular listing. He said that would be an extra $10 per month. I didn't think he understood so I clarified by saying, "No, I don't want bold or anything--just a plain, regular listing." He understood all along and reiterated that it would be $10. "You mean I have to pay just to get my name in the book?" I said incredulously. He said I could take my chances, but if I wanted to be sure it was there, I'd have to pay. I told him I'd take my chances.

Now understand, our day job is sprinkler repair and about 70% of our business comes from the yellow pages. I need the yellow pages. The yellow pages represent a form of advertising that works for us. I have no ax to grind with the yellow pages. But . . .

The yellow pages are only good as an advertisement for me if the book is seen as a valuable and complete reference book for our prospects. The reason I don't use this new telephone book is because I could not consistently and reliably find the phone numbers I was looking for. I have to assume ditto for the rest of Waco.

Somehow the management of this new phone book has lost sight of the purpose their book absolutely must nail with perfect precision. There's really just two points:

1. They must have a book that has every person and every business in alphabetical order with their correct phone number.

2. They must make sure that book is in everyone's hands that lives or works in the area they intend to serve.


If they don't do that, they have no reason to expect advertisers to patronize them. I don't hope they go out of business. I hope they change.

We believe that our purpose is to repair sprinkler systems as quickly and painlessly as possible. May we never loose or confuse that purpose with anything else.

My Double Life

Only recently have I thought of my business life as going down two different paths, but, from the perspective of the customer, the paths have two very different destinations.

On the CEU side, I see the target as you being blown away by our classes. (www.ceuwow.com) We try to engage through asking a lot of questions, using surprise to teach and using different media to get across ideas. We want to be idiosyncratic with the idea that you will love us and come back again and again.

But, I also own an irrigation company. (www.rainstat.com)

And yes, we want people to love us, but on a different level. Beginning when we answer the phone, there's no theatrics. There's not even a hint of anything outside of "get your head in the game, fix this thing and get out." (all we do is repairs and upgrades)

And that's the two choices with any business isn't it.

One is to WOW and be effective and different--even fun, entertaining, having an emotional element.

And the other is to reduce the pain as quickly and painlessly as possible.

Right?

Designing the CAD Class

The past four days I've been hold up in a hotel in Fort Worth with one purpose in mind: Designing a CAD class that was something other than the same ol' type of class. I thought of every detail and every skill-set we wanted to convey and wrote it down on a Post-It note. I used the hotel's wall to start placing these benchmarks in order (right) and started the task of building slides to support it.

I hope you'll join us when we come to your town and let me know how we're doing. We are trying to make this class engaging and an experience that you will remember for a long time.

Remember this is specific to RainCAD's Pro Contractor Studio. It is not transferable to RainCAD 10. Call if you have questions: 866.728.9834 or doug.s@ceuwow.com.

Surprising Best Tool for Pro Contractor Studio

Just press an arrow key and magic happens. At least if you're comparing your productivity to getting out the pencil, ruler and compass. That's because arrow keys invoke a tool on RainCAD's Pro Contractor Studio's CAD program they refer to as "point polar." If you're familiar with RainCAD's other editions, it would be something like the Drafting tool.

The arrow keys don't "do" in that they don't really move the cursor. But press any one of the keys and Pro Contractor Studio brings up "Point Polar," which looks something like a field compass (as opposed to drawing compass). "North" is 90º, south is 270º. Now all you need to do is enter the number of feet you want the line to be drawn and press the Enter Key and, viola! you're line is drawn in that exact direction for that exact number of feet.

I realize that the newbie to CAD might not be all that excited about this, but believe me, mastering it, although not difficult at all, is huge.

ceuWOW's CAD Class teaches this new, robust, and affordable software package to irrigators. If you're in Texas, you know our law has changed to require a scale drawing for every installation. Deviations from the drawing can be made, but they have to be reflected on an updated "as built."

If you'd like to enroll in one of our classes, we will have them in the major market areas. Just check our schedule here.