Archive for the ‘Advancing Your Career / Building Your Business’ Category

Of all the stories I have shared in the Customer Astonishment book, one that is easily remembered by many readers is the story of my son and me ordering our salads at that small café in Wichita, Kansas, a number of years ago. If you’ve read the book, you will recall that important Moment of Truth as I inserted my fork into that cherry tomato hoping it would be crisp and flavorful. The restaurant failed the test. As the saying goes, “You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.”

The professional responses we predetermine and commit to give to customers as they face these Moments of Truth can be characterized as our Pride Factors. These are the crucial factors for creating positive impressions that demonstrate the extent to which we take pride in the work we do. These are the hallmarks of personal excellence. Thus, one Pride Factor of that Wichita restaurant’s salad chef might be: “No customer will ever taste a stale cherry tomato on my watch.”

As we approach the end of 2009, it is time to review the past year’s business and professional performance and to set goals for the New Year. Performance Management is about preparation, follow-through, and accountability in all that we do. Why is a year-end assessment important? There are many reasons and some of these have to do with the bear. In the Customer Astonishment book, Secret #5 is “Know the Bear.” 

Performance Management is about what our customers expect and what we expect of ourselves. The message of “the bear” is that we can never let ourselves become complacent, but must keep our performance standards high and the positive momentum of service excellence going strong. 

The bear symbolizes our competitors and the challenges present in the larger economy. The bear reminds us of the need to be vigilant, to be prepared, and to be diligent so that we can run faster than the bear as needed or learn from the bear to be powerful in the ways we need to be more efficient and effective. This is true as you manage your personal affairs, your career, and your business enterprise.

As November is the month of Thanksgiving, we have a special opportunity to be thankful for our customers. Great customer relationships make the world go around. Customers give us the opportunity to apply our talents to serve them. Then, they transfer money from their bank accounts to ours so that we have the financial leverage to meet our goals. This simple, everyday economic interdependence is what business success and personal prosperity are all about.

Thanks to our customers for making our livelihoods and our lifestyles possible. To learn how you can strengthen customer relationships, let me invite you to read Customer Astonishment: 10 Secrets to World-Class Customer Care.

Why does a business shrink and struggle to survive the recession? Is it that market demand has evaporated due to all-around belt-tightening? Is it that technological obsolescence becomes more obvious as competition for those sparse dollars heats up? Every company that has experienced a business decline is asking these questions and dozens more. It would appear that we do become complacent when times are good. So, what do we become when times are not so good? We become smarter. 

I just read about a major newspaper that has lost a quarter of its circulation this year. I’m no expert on the newspaper industry, but isn’t such a decline way overdue. When I’m at a hotel, I do like to open my hotel room door in the morning and pick up that fresh copy of USA Today. I can get a snapshot of global news without turning on my laptop and without the noise that TV often represents. However, back at home, I’d rather just click on CNN.com and have the world of news at my fingertips. Our family stopped getting the local paper at home years ago. Now, we even get our coupons online.

I love it when I read about companies that are re-inventing their products and services. Re-invent doesn’t necessarily mean throw out the old and bring in the new. It means to take what you know and make whatever you do next smarter. For example, let’s have a contest to suggest how newspapers could be smarter at what they do. How can we all be smarter at whatever we do next?

A Reminder for Leaders: These have been tough times for employees. Many have lost their jobs. Many are feeling uncertainty about the future. And, many are continuing their dedicated work in hopes that their loyalty and determination will be recognized.

Whatever the formalities of your reward and recognition systems may be, these are the times to be sure employees who dependably do their work feel appreciated. One of the most effective ways to do this is to take a genuine interest in your employees. Know their family circumstances, their hobbies and interests, and their career aspirations. It is demoralizing to feel unappreciated or that the person for whom you work has no interest in your well being. 

A mistake many managers make is to forget what it’s like to be “an employee.” You may see employees’ needs through your own filter of what’s important in terms of recognition. Whatever your own needs may or may not be, it is your responsibility to reach out to your people. Such appreciation goes a long way, especially now.

This is an excerpt from the book, Customer Astonishment: 10 Secrets to World-Class Customer Care.

Secret #3 is “Get It Together.” As you set out to create a “Culture of Service Excellence” where you work, it is vital that you address the Systemic and Cultural (S&C) Factors that help or hinder progress. Systemic factors have to do with the processes and technologies you use to run your business. Cultural factors are about the principles that guide you (what you stand for) and how you interact with each other as teammates, which sets the pattern for how you are likely to treat your customers. 

Getting it together means your work team is committed to these two outcomes…

1. Process Simplicity: You are both efficient and effective. They say that efficient is “doing it right” while effective is “doing the right it.” 

2. Effective Communication: You communicate openly and constructively with each other to be sure that all members of the team are “in the know” so that customers (a) hear a consistent message from you and (b) see you as a unified team ready to serve them.

It is a great compliment when someone says to your team, “Wow, you’ve got your act together.”

Invitation: Tell us how you help your team “get it together.”

In a landmark book written by Tom Peters at the turn of our new century, he issued this challenge: “Every person a business person; every person a Michelangelo.” What did he mean? 

At this time when we all seek to rekindle our prosperity, we will do so more readily as we enlarge the spirit of ownership where the economy and our individual careers are concerned. I love the word “stakeholders” to express the idea that we all have a stake in the outcome of things. We are all involved in business—the “business of life” for starters. We each manage a budget and make investments. 

As employees, we will experience greater job security and satisfaction as we see ourselves also “in business” to care for the customers who are the source of our livelihoods. As we do, we discover the Michelangelo inside each of us—that creative force that can help to make each enterprise better. 

Invitation: As you head to work, rather than focus on the “job” you must do, consider “the business” you help to operate. Ask: “What can I create for our business that will bring greater prosperity to all the stakeholders who are involved in it—owners, employees, customers, suppliers, and communities?”

In business, we often hear of a “chain of command.” By contrast, let me discuss the “Chain of Customers” wherein, as members of an organization, we are all linked as internal customers who are then linked to external customers. It is said, “If you are not now serving the end customer, you are serving someone who is.” As with links in any chain, if we are to prove useful to each other, we must be connected. 

How does this connection come about? In the most fundamental sense, it comes about through the genuine conversations we have about who we are as a team, what’s especially important, our plan to accomplish the mission, and how we’ll deal with any challenges along the way. As your team has such conversations, it is possible to achieve “agreement in principle” to assure follow through and mutual support. There is a distinction between meetings and conversations. Conversations are less formal and more inclusive.  

The other key factor in keeping the team connected in purpose and in practice is that the team leader serves as the “Team Linkage Protector.” It is essential that there be clarity about the responsibilities and the interdependencies of team members so that those all-important conversations can occur. The team leader facilitates such clarity and assures a shared commitment to your shared objectives. 

Here’s a clever and important reminder: Great teams learn to talk about what they may need to talk about before they have to talk about it.

Question: How does your team assure that essential conversations occur?

This is a true story. I was leading a “Customer Astonishment” workshop. One individual raised her hand and said, “I know customers are important, but I just wish they wouldn’t keep calling up all the time.” I went on to tell the audience how much I love it when customers call me. I explained that those who may not “love” their customers or love hearing from them have never started their own business. When Sharon and I began Cornerstone in 1985, I remember the longing of our hearts that our very first customer would show up so we could send them an invoice. I realized that, until we had someone to invoice, we didn’t have a business. 

What do you need to start a business and succeed? Here’s my “Top 5” answer:

VISION – PLAN – PRODUCT – PROMISE – CUSTOMER

The VISION captures the passion you have for the goals that your business represents. The PLAN is the key to your credibility as a “make it happen” person. A PRODUCT is what you’ll exchange for the money you expect to receive. The PROMISE is what captures the attention of your potential customers. It says that your product is what they want and will be a reliable solution to meet their needs. Of course, the CUSTOMER is the key to everything. One of my mentors said, “You can have a talent, but it’s not of much real value until someone gives you the opportunity to use it.” You can have a product to sell, but until someone believes your promise and buys your product, you don’t have a business.

Invitation: What would you add to my “Top 5” list?

Certainly, a critical element of The New American Prosperity is to raise the bar for customer care. An important part of my life’s work is to help organizations develop a ”Culture of Service Excellence.” As I support the leaders of these organizations, we follow the principles found in my book, Customer Astonishment: 10 Secrets to World-Class Customer Care. In this online conversation, I will periodically share the essence of one of the 10 Secrets. 

Secret Number One: “Be Customer Champions.” When we think of champions, we think of individuals who perform at high levels of excellence. The particular definition I have used with many client organizations over the years is…

Customer Champion: “An individual who works with a clear sense of purpose to satisfy the needs and exceed the expectations of his or her customers. As a true professional, this individual performs to recognized standards of excellence and puts the needs of his/her external and internal customers first in order to produce results that are mutually beneficial.”

Being a Customer Champion is about a high level of commitment to your customers or others whom you serve. It means you truly understand the interdependency that exists between you and your customers. They value your services. You value their business. Therefore, you “champion” their needs to be sure you earn their loyalty. Customer loyalty is the crowning achievement in any business.

Invitation: Tell us what you do to positively astonish those whom you serve.