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Showing posts from 2010

YOU SHOULD LOVE TO HELP A CUSTOMER

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For the maintenance of my car I am using a (very) small garage, which services cars from all brands. There are just three men working there. The service is good and not expensive. I can even borrow a bike while my car is being serviced. The best thing is when I have an unplanned visit. I just drive by and ask them to have a look at some problem. Even when they are very busy, the owner stops, laughs and asks me how he can help me. He immediately checks out my car and most of the time solves the problem. For him, the customer is not a nuisance, not at all. It even looks like he likes being interrupted. He loves to help his customers! That is quite different from a lot of stores where customer service people don’t like to be interrupted at all.   It looks like they don’t want to be bothered at all. But, hey, it is fun and fulfilling to help a customer! That attitude is a must for success. GROW YOUR PEOPLE, GROW YOUR BUSINESS! www.theproperway.com

MEANINGFUL OR MEANINGLESS

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Last night I did watch TV and I was irritated by the commercials. 7 out of 10 were for perfumes (Chanel, Dior Dolce & Gabbana etc) and the rest was for deodorants. So, what is the customer need there? Are you smelly? Not likely. Ohhh, I see you are looking for a new partner and you want to be attractive by using a quality perfume/deodorant. But, do you really believe that these odors will do the trick? No, I don’t think so. The setup of all these commercials is the same. They show a beautiful man and a beautiful woman in a luxurious environment. And they are attracted to each other. The perfume is the key or ......is it?! Who really believes this? I would say that there is contempt for the consumer. The deodorant (Axe) is even worse. If you spray it on the right places the girls will be flocking to your house....... These products and their marketing is really meaningless. The money, which they spend on these commercials, could better be given to charity. And their marketing

BE A DETACHED OBSERVER, REGULARLY

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Mobile technologies have increased the speed of doing business. However, there is also a risk associated with the usage of them. That risk is that you are putting in much more hours in your work. The distinction between work and play is blurring. How many of you read your messages/email when you are sitting on the couch at night? Are you immediately responding to requests, also in the weekend? Even while traveling we are constantly telephoning, reading or texting. In business it becomes more and more difficult to distinguish yourself from the competition. But if you are vigorously playing the game, you don’t see everything that is happening on the playing field. You have to detach yourself to see properly. So, you have to make time for this on a regular basis. Blue Oceans don’t pop up by itself. You have to take some distance (in time and space) to see what is going on and to ‘see’ where you can be a real differentiator. This timeslot will not appear by itself, you have to plan f

WALK THE TALK, LITERALLY, ALSO IN SERVICE.

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Yesterday I did go to a DIY store to buy an extra heater (yes, winter has fully started here). There were several types available, e.g. Ceramic, halogen, oil. As I had no clue what was good for my situation, I went looking for some help. A couple of isles further I did find some employees and asked my question. One of them did give me some very good advice on why I needed a heater based upon oil. But........ they did not follow me back to show relevant alternatives. No, they stayed in their current isle. Clearly there were no oil heaters available; there was nothing in stock. So, I decided to visit another store. And yes, they had a good oil heater available, which I did buy. What can be learned from this is that they should have accompanied me back to the heaters. And if they, for instance, told me that the new stock would be arriving in a day or so, I would have waited for that. But now I had no clue, so I did leave. They were not really interested in the sale. Next time, pleas

WHAT IS WORKING WELL?

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I would see that it is part of our cultural heritage that we focus on things, which are wrong, things, which are not working. This already starts in your upbringing and is strengthened in school. The teacher says: “you made 3 mistakes” and he didn’t tell you “ 7 answers were right” ! This attitude extrapolates into the workplace. The focus is on what is broken, defect and not working appropriately. This all creates a culture of fear and employees will be afraid to make any mistakes. Let’s start one day a week in which you focus on what is working well. On your successes, on what the customer really appreciates. That will have two benefits. it will make you aware of opportunities to multiply successful services and it will boost the morale of your people. It easy to implement, so what day of the week is your day of positive focus?? GROW YOUR PEOPLE, GROW YOUR BUSINESS! www.theproperway.com

Most Important: The Ability To Learn, Fast

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In these times of rapid changes it is crucial to look in front of you (instead of in the rearview mirror), to digest the relevant info, to learn and to (re)act. FAST! However, many large corporations are still managing with a focus on data from the past. That is why they have installed all these huge ERP-systems. It is a management-style, which is dominated by control and an inward focus. This is also the way they look at their (prospective) employees. The main driver whether you qualify for a job is your resume/cv. And this provides a view of and in the past. This approach is no longer working. The market is changing so fast that ‘results from the past are no guarantee for the future’ anymore. This notification is even a legal requirement for financial services. Market savviness and the ability to learn – fast - is much more crucial now . With respect to learning there is a difference between the willingness to learn and the ‘should’ learning. Again the practice in most compa

PERSONAL SERVICE PAYS

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Last Saturday I did visit an optician (Bellavista in Baarn). I was curious as they offered a design service for glasses. I am interested in design and I am wearing glasses since I was a young child, so that is why I did go. I had never seen this ‘bespoke’ service from Tom Davies (the manufacturer) before. I wanted to find out how it works. As I made no appointment I had to wait some time until the female owner approached me. She took all the time I needed and explained the concept very well. She even had me try on some of the glasses, even while there were other customers waiting. Her partner overheard the conversation and told me about his experience with this bespoke service. What struck me was his honesty. He told me that most customers are hesitant because you don’t know the end result as you order. It will be a bit of a surprise, although you have defined the specifications yourself. He said that this ‘fear’ prohibits a large interest in the service. Isn’t this great when you

A ME-TOO STRATEGY NEVER DIFFERENTIATES

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The autumn has started and especially car dealers and tire providers are very active. The car dealers are offering ‘free’ winter check-ups. You can come and they will check whether your car is winter-ready. And of course they hope to find something, which needs to be taken care of. Well, it could be beneficial for you, but mainly it is for them. There are two ‘buts’: Most of the car dealers are offering the same type of winter check. So, customers perceive it as nothing special. This me-too strategy has as a consequence that customers just expect this service and don’t value it all. If I let my car have its regular, planned maintenance then why should I go to the garage an extra time? Did they miss something? Is there something, which they did not check there? This is confusing. The tire providers are now offering to put some winter tires under your car. This means that you as a customer are supposed to have two sets of tires, one for the winter and one

WHAT SPORTS TEAMS AND BUSINESS CAN LEARN

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Here in The Netherlands, the football (soccer to some of you) competition is well under way. And of course some teams are performing better than expected and others perform worse than expected. The first trainer has already been fired and more will soon follow. These trainers get the blame (from the owners and the spectators) for not winning their matches......... although they don’t play themselves. In most businesses it is the other way around.   If the results are negative, then in most cases the employees are getting fired and the leaders remain in their position. Both actions (firing respectively the trainer or the employees) bring rarely the required change. Most of the time the shock-effect is short lived and the downward trend continues. It only gives those in power the feeling that at least they have taken action. So, they cannot be blamed. This blame-game creates a negative energy and it will increase fear. So, people and players are not encouraged to take risks, to be

CUSTOMER SERVICE AND SOCIAL NETWORKS

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Obviously there is huge growth in the use of social networks. But there is still a large part of corporations, which don’t see the real added value yet. They, these corporations, might not see it, but certainly their customers do! The 2010 customer experience impact from RightNow has the following findings: ·      55% of the respondents became a customer of a company because of their reputation for great customer service. ·      58% of respondents expect a response to a comment on a social network site. Only 22% got a response. This means two things. If you want to attract new customers than you better make sure that you provide great service and if you want to retain them than you better respond to their questions! So, there is a new layer of communication (social media) that needs to be integrated into the main customer service processes. And this is not just an activity on which you want to spend as little as possible, because you view customer service as a cost-center only.

OPPORTUNITY TO IMPROVE THE CUSTOMER SERVICE EXPERIENCE

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 In the May 2010 Survey from the Temkin Group they did ask this question: ‘How often do you delight customers when they get customer service in these channels?’ The result is quite shocking: - In person             43% - By phone             37% - Online             17% Well as our famous Dutch footballer Johan Cruyff says ‘every disadvantage has also an advantage’, so there is plenty of room for improvement here. However, this is not a ‘nice to have’, it is a must. Why? In general it takes much more effort to attract a new customer than to retain an existing customer. But if you treat him or her badly they will leave and on the way out they will also inform all their friends about their negative experience. That is why there is an urgent need to improve the performance of customer service. This should cover not only the department with that name, but basically everyone who interacts with the customer. Customer service is a crucial factor in creating and maintaining a great cu

USING SOCIAL MEDIA FOR (CUSTOMER) SERVICE

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 Many traditional, established companies still view social media as a fad, a fad especially for young people. That is the reason that they do not put a high priority on the application in their daily operations. This can be a costly mistake. The number of users in platforms like Facebook and Twitter is huge and it keeps on growing. One of the major areas of discussion is (customer) service. People share their experiences online. Actually ,   satisfied customers tell three friends and angry customers tell three thousand (source: Pete Blackshaw). Customer service is also the main reason people switch brands across every major industry (source: Accenture). Key drivers of satisfaction (in customer service) are polite and friendly representatives, resolution of issues in a timely manner, whether customer service agents take responsibility for resolving issues, and the convenience of service representative’s availability. So, social media becomes a sort of early warning system. Is some

AMAZON + AMEX: AN UPDATE ON AREAS FOR SERVICES IMPROVEMENT

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Here follows an overview of what happened since my article from last week. American Express Immediately the person who is responsible for social media reacted via Twitter. She put me in contact with their @askamex people to help me further. She was very helpful and did find out that there was indeed a software problem (Safari and Chrome access didn’t work). That is what I told the Amazon people in the first place, but they wouldn’t listen. Then she said that she could not assist me any further as my card was issued in the EU and she could only work with US issued cards. As a global customer however I expect global, seamless service. But that is not the way they are currently organized. So, I would suggest renaming their account into @AskAmexUS. Amazon Via Twitter I did receive no reaction at all, although I copied them on my Tweets. Also there was no reaction to my negative ratings on their service performance. So, why do you ask your customers about their satisfaction, when you

AMAZON’S Backlog in Building Earth's Most Customer-Centric Company

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Last week I did read an article in TechCrunch that Amazon now accepts American Express membership rewards points for purchases on Amazon.com. Well this is good news, I thought, as I have quite some points to use. So, I logged into the specific page on Amazon to link both accounts. I just had to fill in a few details regarding my American Express account and then hit the last button ‘Link rewards account’. But........ nothing happened, I expected a confirmation page which tells me that everything is linked now, but no reaction at all. I could only see that my cursor was back at the place where I first provided my details. So, I tried again and again, but every time no result. Pff, this was frustrating. While I was so happy with the possibility of buying books from my points. What to do next? I had to get in touch with customer service. This is where we get in an area where there is a huge opportunity for improvement. It is very difficult to find a way to email/contact customer serv

WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM OUTLIERS AND ICONOCLASTS

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In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell argues that there is something profoundly wrong with the way we make sense of success. It makes a difference where and when we grew up. The culture we belong to and the legacies passed down by our forebears shape the patterns of our achievement. The emerging picture from studies is that then thousand hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a worldclass expert – in anything. So, you need to have parents who encourage and support you. You can’t be poor. But before we can become an expert, someone has to give you the opportunity to learn hw to be an expert. What truly distinguishes outliers is not their extraordinary talent, but their extraordinary opportunities. Their success was not just of their own making. It was a product of the world in which they grew up. IQ is a measure, to some degree, of innate ability. But social savy is knowledge. It’s a set of skills that have to be learned. It has to come from

VALUE YOUR FRONTLINE EMPLOYEES

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More than 80% of our   (Western) economies is based upon services. However, most tools, processes, research and business models are still based upon products and manufacturing know-how. This creates tension, especially on the work floor. In the case of services, the person who delivers the service is in essence the service. Indeed, a human being and not a machine or a part. Human beings can and would like to think for themselves, they would like to grow, have meaningful work and feel engaged. Who are these frontline employees in service jobs? They are food service workers, nurses’ aides, janitors, home healthcare workers, waiters, cashiers, receptionists, rental-car agents etc. 45% of all jobs are these routine service jobs. We have to make these service jobs even more innovative, more productive, and higher paying. This is beneficial for them as well as for the business. Employees who are enthusiastic, engaged, and fulfilled are also happy. This lowers the use of the healthcare

SALES & SERVICE GO HAND IN HAND

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Last week I had to buy a new TV, so I went to several stores for orientation. I am not up to date on the latest technologies in that industry, though. And that is what happened, I was bombarded with jargon out of that world (LED, LCD, HD, 50 Hz, 100 Hz, 32 inch, 40 inch, digital subscriptions etc). In one shop they only explained about the TV, which was on sale, and where I was just standing as the salesrepr approached. He made no other suggestions or explanations. In the second shop, I did get an excellent technical explanation of the possibilities. The best, however, was a demo of one 50Hz TV which was placed next to a 100 Hz TV. In that way I could really see the difference in quality. What surprised me most is that no salesrepr actually asked what kind of a TV viewer I was. In other words what my needs were. So, no questions, as to how many hours I watch TV, whether I watch DVD’s with surround sound, how many people does my family consists of, whether I want to connect my stere

PUTTING INNOVATION IN PERSPECTIVE

That is what Richard Florida does in his latest book ‘The Great Reset’. I would say that this book is a must read for every innovator. We know that for every creative process, the following steps are necessary: What is the end result? What is the current reality? What are the action steps? Florida gives us a perspective on all these steps, both eco no mically and from a society’s point of view. Below I have listed some inspirational thoughts: -        Great resets bring about shifts in consumption that fuel rising industries. -        The places that thrive today are those with the highest velocity of ideas, the highest density of talented and creative people, and the highest rate of metabolism. -        The jostling of many different professions and different types of people, all in a dense environment, is essential to the creation of things that are truly new. -        Local cultural and social life determines who gets the talent. -        It is that the old world will ine

SERVICES ARE HOT

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In a great article from W.P. Carey’s Center for Services Leadership called “Making Services a   Science – new study finds great interest – and great confusion ( http://bit.ly/dmdAgy )” the need for service innovation is being recognized. ‘...... more companies than ever are interested in services innovation -- the creation of "transformative" services. More companies than ever are interested in smart services design. More companies than ever are interested in creating service-centric cultures, in leveraging technology to boost services and in creating consistency of service across geographies.’ I am inclined to say ‘finally’, but there is a right time for everything. It is good that more and more companies (and also governments) see the need to add services to their portfolio. And it is also very good that they understand that service business is fundamentally different from product business. In essence, service business is people business, it is a human being who deli

FOCUS ON THE NEW WAY OF WORKING

Last week I attended a webinar with Gary Hamel. He mentioned the following challenges, which trigger the need for management innovation: Accelerating change Intensifying competition Diminishing differentiation Growing mistrust I would like to add these observations: Increasing globalization Standardizing social media Integrating technology Collaboration between generations Let’s have a quick look into each of them. Ad 1. You could say that this is an open door. However we still have not learned to cope with change in an effective and efficient way. Many researches indicate that most change efforts do not bring the required results. Especially when it concerns personal change. Leaders and managers still do think that they are doing fine and that only the employees need to change. Ad 2. The marketplace is becoming more and more crowded. And it will even become more crowded as many unemployed cannot find jobs and start their own business. Also the demographic growth means t

CONNECT OR PERISH

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 It looks like there is a dichotomy growing at many different levels (communities; business; society). A dichotomy between: ·       Supporters of the old/current system   and supporter s of a new system ·       Old generations and young people ·       Guardians of the establishment and radicals ·       Specialists and generalists ·       Hierarchies and networks ·       Bosses and employees ·       Governments and the masses I can continue with this list, but the point is that it looks like the divide is broadening, rather that that we are busy building bridges to connect these ‘two worlds’. The more we try to convince the establishment that they have to change the more they will resists and the more it will frustrate the revolutionaries. This is not a healthy trend. What is needed is an open attitude on both sides with the intention of creating solutions. And solutions are needed badly for many of today’s’ challenges, like the environment (see the gulf oil spill and the role BP

BUSINESS NEEDS A REFRESHER COURSE

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In many professions (doctors, dentists, lawyers, judges, coaches) you need to follow, at least yearly, a refresher course. Otherwise you will loose your license or certificate. The goals of these refresher courses is to train on the new developments in the their respective field. These can be new methodologies, new laws, new procedures, and new ways of working. There is benefit for both the participants (they keep up to date with their knowledge) as well as the customers (they receive the latest, proven treatment). So, wouldn’t it be a good idea to institutionalize this also for managers and leaders in business? Businesses have a huge influence in our society, often more than even governments. Leaders are co-responsible for the wellbeing of their people and their respective families. And I would say that the most changes happen in this area. There is ongoing newness in technology, regulations, standards, communications, employee relations, stakeholders, personal motivation, sustai