Blog Posts

The article below was originally published in Lawn & Garden Retailer in 2017, as a collaboration between former ZingTrain Community Builder, Gauri Thergaonkar, and myself.  I vividly remember sitting at a table in our lobby area, discussing all of the fine points of the 10-4 Rule - what would be the most useful to our audience and hotly debating what to include (and ultimately leave out, though it was a hard call to keep anything back!)  We had a lot of fun writing it, and I’m proud of what we created together. I’ve lost count of how many times we’ve shared this article with folks in training, and now we’re sharing it with you!

Over the years that I’ve been a Trainer and Speaker with ZingTrain, sharing how Zingerman’s builds a culture of great service, I’m sure you can imagine how my awareness of the way that different companies deliver customer service has only increased.  Of course, there’s a wide range out there - I personally try to patronize businesses that prioritize service and give constructive feedback when my expectations aren’t met.  And thankfully, the clients we get to work with at ZingTrain are typically high performers when it comes to customer service and don’t fall into these customer service traps.

Before we dive into what it means to be an effective Servant Leader, I want to tell you a story...

It’s January 1, 2025 and your business has been quite successful.  What do you see, hear, smell and feel going on around you that is evidence of that success?  If you can describe that scene, you’ll have a vision of greatness for your organization - an incredibly powerful tool to get everyone working together and moving in the same direction.

You’ve probably spent some statistically significant portion of your life on the phone. You know how to pick up the phone, basic phone manners, and how to hang up. We’re all, most likely, perfectly capable of picking up a phone and talking into it...

But we also need to learn to take the art of telephone service seriously. At Zingerman’s, we do millions of dollars of business a year on the telephone so it's imperative that we give the best, most professional service possible whenever we are on the phone.

We are often asked, “How did Zingerman's build this great group of people? How do you get people to care and have such a good time at work?"

Ian Gurfield, Co-Founder of Ian's Pizza, is a long-time client and dear friend of ZingTrain.

Below, he shares how he came to learn about Visioning, what the process of writing his first Vision was like and the impact it's had on his business. And be sure to scroll down to to the end of this post to see his January 2018 Vision realized... it involves delicious Italian pizza!

Check it out below and prepared to be inspired!

Before I get too far into this blog post about how to write a vision, it feels appropriate to share a vision of what success looks like for this blog post.  Here goes:

Ask any Ann Arborite where to find a pair of shoes that are as comfortable as they are stylish, complete with a truly enjoyable shopping experience, and it’s more-than-likely that you’ll be guided to MAST Shoes.