Recently, I sent an email to key business contacts letting them know my turnaround client needed a new CFO.  I received approximately 160 resumes.

The quality of the  emails most candidates sent was appalling.  Based upon what arrived in my inbox, here is my advice to those looking for work:

1. Read the job announcement. If you send a lengthy email in response to an ad that includes the word “turnaround”, you should  assume you will not be considered.  Turnaround experts are looking for people who can cut to the chase and won’t waste their time.
2. Use bullets not paragraphs. Time is money. Cash is king.  Make my life E-A-S-Y.  I am getting hundreds of emails a day.  Which emails do you think I am likely to read? Those with 5 lengthy paragraphs or those with 5 concise bullets?
3. Make sure that the file name of your resume includes your name. If your resume does not have your name in the file name, you are out-of-the-running with me because I have to take time–my time–to change the file name before I save it.  Please, make my life E-A-S-Y.
4. Don’t be a pest. If the job announcement says “send email to,” please don’t call.  If you do, it appears that you have no respect for my time.

Renee’s Rule™: Think before you respond. If you were in my shoes, what would you want to know?

• What has the applicant DONE?
• What is he/she LIKE?
  • Will he/she be able to work in a highly charged, fast-paced environment?
  • Will he/she be the kind of employee who anticipates what his/her supervisor needs?  who will make my life E-A-S-Y?

Renee’s Rule™: Make my life E-A-S-Y!

Over the years, I have had the pleasure of working with many wonderful CPA’s who truly put their clients’ interests ahead of their own.  They ask the key questions.  They know what they don’t know.

I have also, however, seen some CPA’s do some really appalling things; e.g.,

• Providing inappropriate advice  ( When I arrived at my very first client, the company was on credit hold or COD with all vendors, bleeding cash, and faced with a threatened shut-down by the IRS.  The CPA, blissfully unaware of the severity of the problems, was billing the customer for business planning assistance.)

• Being unwilling to recommend a change of CFO when that CFO was clearly unqualified  (I’ve seen this multiple times and don’t know whether this happened because the CPAs did not realize the failings of the CFOs or because the CPAs did not want to risk losing their clients.)

• Recommending consultants based on industry or turnaround “experience” rather than on RESULTS   (For the dangers related to this, please visit my post, THE EXPERIENCE FALLACY.)

• Giving false assurances  (Several years ago, I had as a  client a third-generation family-owned business.  The company had experienced increasing losses for three years straight.  The CPA had told the elderly majority shareholders, “Everything will be all right.”  When I arrived, however, the company was at Death’s Door.   The company survived, but it was  an extremely difficult situation.  We had to implement an out-of-court Chapter 11.)

• Preparing unrealistic financial projections because the CPA did not understand the business

It is really important that CPA’s–and other professional advisors–know what they don’t know.

I have concluded that the vast majority of companies today either do not agree with and/or do not care about and/or are clueless about how to implement the above Renee’s Rule™.   There is a good chance you have reached the same conclusion.  It has become incredibly difficult to get anything done.  The simplest tasks have become complicated.

There seems to be widespread recognition that being nice is an important part of customer service, but the other piece–making things easy for customers–has somehow been lost in translation.  Personally,  what this customer wants/needs is for the companies I deal with to make life really EASY for me.  What do you want/need?

As you may have guessed, this post is the result of a my experiencing a  spate of bad (abysmal) customer service over the last few weeks.  Everyone is NICE; nothing gets DONE--or gets done only with much wasting of time…..I know that you, too,  have “been there; done that;” e.g.,

1. You are required to enter your phone number to get to tech support, but the first thing the person asks is, “May I have your phone number?”
2. You call for repair help.  You provide a description of your problem in infinite detail, but the details somehow do not survive the distance between customer service and the people who actually do the repair work, and it takes forever to get the problem solved.

I understand that many of the  companies we call could not care less about whether they are wasting our time…but do they have so many customers, and are they making so much money that they don’t want to improve their bottom lines by streamlining their customer service?   Think of all the personnel time and $ that would be saved if no one had to ask, “May I have your telephone number?” or if the technical person “on-the-ground” received enough detail from customer service to solve the problem on the first try.

Enough complaining for one day–you can tell I’ve had too much TERRIBLE customer service from too many NICE people….It may be time for a new Renee’s Rule™: Enough is enough!”

In future posts, I’ll share some examples from my personal experience about how companies can reduce costs AND provide better customer service.

Both national and regional bankers have told me recently that they expect a second wave of troubled companies…..For those companies that may be at risk, here are my key recommendations:

1. Renee’s Rule™: Don’t sell to customers who won’t pay.
2. Prepare worst-cast cash projections for each of the coming 6 months; if necessary, take action now to prevent a meltdown.
3. Solicit ideas from employees and advisors; implement those that will have the greatest impact in the shortest time.
4. Implement changes to company processes that will lower costs and improve customer service.
5. Renee’s Rule™:  If you think you may need help, you probably do.
6. Renee’s Rule™: The sooner, the better.