Vision Driven: Lessons Learned from the Small Business C-Suite. Mallary JD Tytel
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and was assured that smiling was indeed standard operating procedure - everyone truly “Smiled.” This unique and upbeat environment was the result of a corporate-wide attitude and focus on the positive, rather than negative. “Every company has areas for improvement and deficits that need to be addressed swiftly and in real time,” she told me, “including ours. However, this organization has made and carried out a commitment, from the top down, to put their principal energy and support into our assets, strengths and capabilities.” Of course she smiled.
This paradigm is akin to Appreciative Inquiry (AI), a theory and practice which seeks out the best in people, organizations and the world at large. An AI approach allows you to center on the positive aspects of any situation through the use of affirming questions. You can then expand that frame of reference to address the negative.
Please note that I am not doing AI justice here – barely scratching the surface of its possibilities. I did, though, like the notion of exploring and then leveraging what was right in a given situation rather than getting stuck on what was wrong.
I decided to try this at “home” at an all-hands meeting. The task was:
Think back on a time at work when you were functioning in a way that made you feel totally alive, completely energized with where you were and what you were doing and able to produce your best work. Who were you with, what were you doing and what did that mean to you at the time? Now, look at your answers; what do you see?
The following themes emerged during the debriefing session:
•Excitement: we were part of a new corporate direction, contributing members of a team, cohesive, trusting and committed
•Excellence: in the midst of chaos we were connected to each other and clients, envisioning the possibilities, doing our best work, united in our task
•Coherence and connection: all barriers were down, everyone was involved and felt needed, valued, appreciated, unified
•“Wicked good” work from all staff: we were purposeful and directed, with new emerging opportunities and learning
•Appreciation of each other: we valued our differences in thought and contributions
•Celebration: of the results as one whole entity
Try this at your next staff meeting. You will discover that within your own list of themes will be the not-so-secret roadmap to achieving and maintaining employee enthusiasm and drive in your workplace.
The next step is to begin to build these lessons into your everyday work processes. For example, you can potentially achieve cohesion, appreciation and excellence if the ground rules for your next systems update stipulate that no one individual will receive the credit, but the group as a whole will reap the kudos and the rewards.
No doubt you will bump up against barriers. Your task then is to identify an action or strategy to overcome these hurdles. Be sure to challenge yourself to practice diligently each time to jump higher and farther to reach your goal.
Think back on a time at work when you were functioning in a way that made you feel totally alive, completely energized with where you were and what you were doing, and able to produce your best work. Who were you with, what were you doing and what did that mean to you at the time? Now, look at your answers; what do you see?
10
Customer Experience Management
“If you don’t take care of your customers, someone else will.”
Commonly stated by corporate sales trainers.
I say it with tongue in cheek that every business at some point comes to realize that their main focus must be to satisfy their customers. This goes for manufacturing companies, the service industry, retail stores, nonprofit organizations and government agencies, as well as everyone in each of their divisions, departments and branch offices. Customer service is beyond policies and procedures: it is about what takes place during interactions with customers. For example, imagine a situation where you are the customer. How courteous was the sales person in answering your questions? How long did it take for someone to answer the phone or were you put on hold indefinitely? It may also refer to the identifiable, but sometimes intangible, activities undertaken by a company in conjunction with the basic goods and services it sells.
The elements of good customer service are not hard to determine. A simple brainstorm with a corporate sales team came up with the following list of quality factors:
•Meeting/exceeding someone’s needs, going above and beyond
•Building trust and rapport
•Paying attention
•Defusing the stress or anger in a situation
•Identifying the real issues
•Anticipating, being proactive
•Having an investment in the outcome and the relationship
•Putting yourself in someone else’s place
•Following-up/following-through
•Doing what you say you are going to do
•Coming to a successful resolution
Beyond the immediate outcomes of an exchange between organizations and clients, is the concept of the total customer experience. This speaks to the overall impression of the product based on the client’s exchanges and experiences with people, products, services and solutions in acquiring and using that product. Organizations need to manage that customer experience carefully.
Customer experience management, or CEM, has been defined as “the process of strategically managing a cus-tomer’s entire experience with a product or a company.” CEM highlights the notion that beyond the sale organizations need to truly understand what it means to create value for their customers, as well as an excellent customer experience.
This requires the following.
•Understanding best practices and the practices of your competition
•Developing a comprehensive approach to solutions
•Delivering high value to the customer
•Producing internal consistency across the corporation
•Meeting customer expectations for both processes and outcomes
•Offering flexibility of products and services to respond to clients’ needs
CEM includes three steps. The first is discovering the clients’ expectations. What do they have in mind and what is their desired outcome? The second is shaping services and products to meet client expectations. After all, the customer is always right. The third is making sure the customer is satisfied. Has the product or service met client expectations and how do you know?
For customer experience management to be effective, your approach must be comprehensive.
•Adapting to the needs of various projects and clients
•Covering all client contact from the first call to the final meeting
•Allowing the organization to learn how to improve products and services
•Using consistent corporate-wide tools for measuring client satisfaction, such as account management satisfaction surveys
•Including standard ways to respond to customer complaints or concerns, such as protocol, an escalation process and clear documentation of steps
•Allowing staff to evaluate performance against the client’s desired outcomes and expectations
•Integrating with processes across the corporation