May 24, 2025
Writing from Alberta, Canada

“Remember! When something goes wrong in the circus, they send in the clowns to distract the audience. Well, something has gone wrong with the circus and now the clowns are everywhere.” 

(Can’t read the full email – click here for the online version.)

While visiting with my mother-in-law in Lethbridge earlier this week, she handed me a small slip of paper with the above quote written upon it. Given the almost comical, if not so serious, level of incompetence with all levels of government, but particularly at the federal on both sides of the border, the paragraph sure rings true. 

Afterwards, she told me that her son had seen this piece of paper tucked under her calendar that shows all the Catholic holidays and important dates. He initially thought the quote was one from the bible and asked her from which section it originated.

This story brought a chuckle to us both.

The truth of the matter is that clowns and misfits certainly do seem to be ruling the roost.

But it is not governments alone that can go astray. 

Later in the evening, the house phone rang. My wife decided to answer it for her mom, as the latter was busy finalizing dinner. Personally, I would have let go to voicemail. Isn’t that why we invited that technology?

The caller was one of the big telecom companies, calling about some new promotion. That is when the call took an interesting turn, since it was the same company which my mother-in-law has her phone, internet and TV service with. She wanted to know why her bill was inexplicably $30 dollars more than the month before.

This naturally led to the salesperson transferring the call to someone else – with the usual lengthy wait time with awful music.

Finally a lady comes on. But she can not or will not explain why the bill is higher, nor how a lower bill might be possible. She keeps repeating that there is promotion on, perhaps that would work.

Since a satisfactory solution did not seem likely with this lady, my wife asked to be transferred to her manager. After another long wait, a fellow comes on, and says he is with the loyalty program. 

Long story short, he was able to offer a 2-year promotion at a rate lower than the one my mother-in-law had. And he would refund the month of extra charges. Turns out that she had been on a previous 2-year program that had ended. 

So, in the end – a good outcome albeit after close to an hour of persistence.

Better, however, would have been if the company had sent a series of communiques starting a month before that prior program’s expiration date. This could have been via email, phone and mail.

Doing that not only would have been better customer service but also ensured a long-time customer remained a satisfied one. They were lucky their salesperson had called when my wife was visiting her mom. Otherwise, the result might not have been in their favor.

Regardless, one cannot help but feel that this company’s policy is to let their promotions die, increase the price without notice and hope that their customers do not notice. No wonder large utility companies often evoke negative emotions from many customers. They allow the clowns to run the circus.

The late Tony Hsieh, former CEO of Zappos, a company he was instrumental in growing from a small company to over a Billion dollars in “Valuation”, set up a simple set of values that helped employees deliver maximum customer service with no red tape. 

The result was massive sales growth fueled by customers so satisfied they not only purchased often but they actively referred others to join the “movement”.

I suggest you ensure the clowns are not in charge of your business and pursue the kind of customer loyalty Zappos generated.

Until next week, 

Stay healthy and focus on profit! 

 - Hugh 
The “Profit Accelerator” Expert

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