When Gallup sent out the survey on our behalf, our customers had to answer the question “Can you imagine a world without TNG.”

When I address a group of people with this question, I typically get the following companies mentioned:

• Apple
• Nike
• Coke
• Costco
• Walmart

Let’s take Apple for instance. If Apple vanished tomorrow, what would Apple users do? How has Apple shaped its customers lives and how much does its customers depend on the company each day?

Yet while Apple is now the biggest tech company value wise, it is getting thumbs down on several issues, recently its antenna problem with its new iPhone 4. Also, people are yapping that Apple is too big to care about its customers like it used to when it was much smaller and that Apple is too corporate. Steve Jobs in fact will address the antenna issue Friday; it will be interesting to get his take on this.

But what if Apple said we did our thing and we are retiring? What if Walmart said they want to be the new high price leader? What if Nike said watching TV is healthier than running so who needs athletic shoes? Can you imagine a Coke drinker drinking Pepsi?

What companies come to mind that you could not live without? I would bet the list would be less than five.

What does it take to be a company people can’t life without? Plenty. I will be talking more about that tomorrow.

In the meantime, TNG has ranked in the top 95th percentile with your customers as it pertains to that question. For that, we are quite proud. As we continue to rock and roll (remember Grand Funk Railroad?), we hope that you could not imagine a world without us.

Happy Thursday!

What timing. Yesterday I blog about optimism and pessimism and February results are released shortly thereafter that consumer confidence plunged the most in 27 years.

68 EXPERT ECONOMISTS predicted the number to fall in the range of 50-58. The January number was around 56. The actual number came in at around 46. NOT ONE OF THE EXPERTS WAS EVEN CLOSE.

This is exactly what happened in September 2008 when the economy collapsed. Not a single expert in forecasting, banking or politics predicted the course of events that would wipe out trillions and lead to the precariously situation we are in today.

IF THE EXPERTS ARE WRONG, WHAT CHANCE DOES THE REST OF US HAVE?

How much confidence do USA consumers have in Toyota right now? How much confidence do seniors in high school have in U-M’s football program? How much confidence do we have in Obama’s health care proposal passing?

The endgame dictates that we must have confidence to move forward. Gallup Organization includes confidence as one of their four key principles in engagement and this is the lowest one of the four. If we can’t even exude confidence, what chances are that the higher up principles can ever take form: Integrity, Pride, and Passion? Zero.

Consumer’s are saying that they are fed up with political infighting, wars, unemployment, indignant CEO’s, higher taxes and the list goes on.

Locally, two suburban communities, Troy and Clawson, easily rejected millage requests slamming the local communities into action. Residents are saying cut your costs, we have cut ours. People are fed up.

But if we expect government to bail us out, we are all in deeper trouble than we think. We need to take a leap of faith and block out the external crap and focus on our own “confidence” day by day. Here at TNG, we are seeing huge breakthroughs being made in technology, marketing, new products and logistics through individual efforts. This is what we need to move forward.

Right now I’m most excited about a disposable razor. I’ll explain later.

Happy Wednesday!

Gallup Organization is the leader in employee and customer engagement studies, methodology and implementation. We should know, we have been students of Gallup for more than three years.

Their employee engagement test is simply called Q12. It is comprised of 12 questions, each ranked 1 to 5 with a 5 being the highest level of engagement.

One of the questions that ranks among the lowest score of the dozen is "Have you received recognition in the past 7 days?"

Recognition can come from a co-worker, manager, or customer. It can be formal or informal. It can be as simple as "good job" to a written note.

Gallup points out that people are quick to point out errors, mistakes, screw ups and bad customer service. But the same people are aloof in providing positive feedback.

Like anything, it’s easy to get involved with this early on but as time passes, it’s easy to let it fade into the sunset. Gallup has pointed out that for engagement to be on the high end, recognition is important (when deserved).

With this in mind, I would like to recognize a few individuals as I have muddled through several projects over the past few weeks.

Dan, Jesse, Charles and Jason for doing the heavy work in loading and unloading the store fixtures.

Shelly for providing the design graphics. Dennis and Chuck for getting the display materials on time. Rick from Innovative Media who got not one, not two, but three installers on location to keep the signage hanging.

Craig for getting the Academy sound station up and working plus a redesign to boot. Mark for creating software to install a scanning station for our outlet center. The CTS talent for organizing their first clearance sale. 

Kelly for organizing two great Academy events, Hair Manya and Rockaholic. Finally Gaye and especially Rob for working out the transfers, price records and new product setups for the flagship store.

I will say one thing more for Gallup’s Q12: Simple questions but not easy to do consistently. But in the end, priceless.

Happy Wednesday!