What makes Customers Happy?

I recently read an article about online shopping and what it takes to make customers happy. The results indicated that the experience needs to be individualized, personalized, and centered around the customer.

There are some technology barriers to making this happen online, but we have no excuse on the phone or face to face.

Regardless of what we know in advance about the customer, our attitude and behaviour can accomplish these desired outcomes.

Cheers!

Bill's passion is improving business results by working with leadership teams to change employee behaviours. He does this by equipping leaders with the principles, processes and tools to cultivate an engaged customer-focused culture.

As well, he is a dynamic, results-oriented speaker on the importance of a customer-focused culture, either as a guest speaker or acting as a facilitator of a group discussion/workshop.

For more information please contact (905) 841-3191
Email: bill@billhogg.ca, Web: http://www.billhogg.ca/

The new old rules of engagement

Not that we need to say it again, but more recent research confirms that increasing employee engagement increases performance. Most boardrooms see employee engagement as a key priority for the future and investment in engagement is set to grow -- even in the current economic environment.

This is a key finding of a comprehensive study of engagement practice undertaken in the UK, commissioned by employee engagement consultancy, Engage Group.

The survey of nearly 23,600 directors, managers and employees, conducted during October 2008 , reveals that effective engagement can demonstrably improve an organisation's performance.

A high level of employee engagement is one of the top three drivers of an organisation's performance, and nearly a third of the UK's senior leaders see a fully-engaged workforce as one of the most critical factors in their organisation's success.

Key findings from the report are as follows;

• Effective engagement can demonstrably improve an organisation’s performance
• Most boardrooms see engagement as a key priority for the future and net investment in engagement is set to grow, even in the current economic environment
• Despite growing board support for engagement, most employees still feel disengaged from their organisation – board buy-in has not yet, according to employees, been translated into action
• ‘New world’ aspects of engagement, particularly the appetite and ability of leaders at every level to share power and engage people in decision-making, emerge as powerful new elements of engagement
• Delivering on the ‘new engagement agenda’ will result in more engaged employees, more committed customers and faster growth
• Forceful ‘command & control’ styles of leadership have little, no or even a negative impact on engagement and performance levels – less than 40% of employees view their leader(s) as effective
• Employee satisfaction, the oldest assumed element of employee engagement, sinks near the bottom of the list of influential factors
• Internal measurement lags behind external measures of performance – only 28% of board members claim to use robust internal measures of employee engagement
• This study confirms an earlier thesis, the outcome of an extensive research programme carried out in partnership with McKinsey & Company, that the drivers of employee engagement are steadily shifting towards a new inclusiveness

However, despite growing board support for engagement, most employees feel disengaged from their organisation. Only just over a third of employees believe their organisation engages them to perform well.

For those of us who live in the world of employee engagement this comes as no surprise, but for those clients who are still struggling to find the time, money or motivation, maybe this will help.

You can download a complete copy of the full report at Engage Group.

Cheers!

Bill's passion is improving business results by working with leadership teams to change employee behaviours. He does this by equipping leaders with the principles, processes and tools to cultivate an engaged customer-focused culture.

As well, he is a dynamic, results-oriented speaker on the importance of a customer-focused culture, either as a guest speaker or acting as a facilitator of a group discussion/workshop.

For more information please contact (905) 841-3191
Email: bill@billhogg.ca, Web: http://www.billhogg.ca/

All I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

Robert Fulghum is the author of All I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. As his title suggests, his basic premise is that what we learned everything important that we need to be a success in business and in life in kindergarten.

But let's make another comparison. How about all we need to learn about employee engagement we learned by observing kindergarten.

Think about your early days in school. Were you excited about going, learning, playing, meeting new people, and having new experiences? I suspect many of us were. When thinking back about our school days, our early grades were some of the most fun and also where we learned the most of our basic skills (i.e. the 3 R's).

So what happened as we got older and started to be less interested in school? What was the difference?

For the sake of discussion, I would propose were were less engaged because the learning environment became less about the student exploring, working together and more about the teachers dictating what we needed to know and lecturing about the subjects. Much less interactive.

Of course, we all had a great teachers in high school. But if you look at what made them great it was often the way they engaged the class versus simply "teaching" the material.

I think there is a lesson here. How can we take the best from kindergarten and incorporate it into our work environment? How do we re-inspire people to learn and grow based on the culture we set up?

What did we learn from our experience in kindergarten that we have forgotten?

Cheers!

Bill's passion is improving business results by working with leadership teams to change employee behaviours. He does this by equipping leaders with the principles, processes and tools to cultivate an engaged customer-focused culture.

As well, he is a dynamic, results-oriented speaker on the importance of a customer-focused culture, either as a guest speaker or acting as a facilitator of a group discussion/workshop.

For more information please contact (905) 841-3191
Email: bill@billhogg.ca, Web: http://www.billhogg.ca/

C-level or bust!

As we reflect on the importance of customer service in the current economic client, I recently read a blog by Management Consultant John Maven (ex P&G, Clorox) about the core competencies of the CEO. You can read the full post here, but I thought it was interesting that he felt that of the 10 competencies, 3 of them were linked to the customer-focus of the organization. He writes;

Vision - The CEO, possibly with the help of his executive team, creates and communicates a compelling and inspired sense of core purpose. This is based on the vision of the future, not the reality of today.

Culture – The CEO is responsible for creating and maintaining the desired culture and environment. If vision is where the company is going, culture and values tell how the company gets there. Values outline acceptable behavior. Work gets done through people, and people are profoundly affected by culture. Culture is built in many ways, and the CEO sets the tone. His every action—or inaction—sends cultural messages.

Customer focus - CEOs have a clear understanding of customers' needs, preferences, interests, timelines and decision-making criteria. Focusing on meeting those needs and doing so profitably means success for both the company and the customer. Long-term customer satisfaction builds loyal, repeat customers

Yet in spite of the fact that everyone is talking about it, we seem to constantly struggle with getting it right. I maintain that it is because too many CEO's do not have competencies in the area of customer-focus as demonstrated by the poor service we receive and the opportunities that abound even in these economic conditions for those who do.

So let's make sure we have the direct endorsement of the C-level if we expect a true customer-focus.

Cheers!

Bill's passion is improving business results by working with leadership teams to change employee behaviours. He does this by equipping leaders with the principles, processes and tools to cultivate an engaged customer-focused culture.

As well, he is a dynamic, results-oriented speaker on the importance of a customer-focused culture, either as a guest speaker or acting as a facilitator of a group discussion/workshop.

For more information please contact (905) 841-3191
Email: bill@billhogg.ca, Web: http://www.billhogg.ca/

What about internal customer service?

We spend a lot of time talking about customer service and how companies must focus on the needs of the customer. Usually we share lots of examples of customer facing people either failing or succeeding to demonstrate the need for this important value.

BUT WHAT ABOUT INTERNAL CUSTOMERS.

All too often the folks who do not face the end customer fail to recognize they also play a critical role in delivering excellent customer service to each other. They fail to recognize -- or be held accountable -- that their support of the customer facing personnel can make or break the relationship. They fail to recognize that they also have customers -- they are internal customers.

For example, I just got off a plane from Toronto to Washington enroute to a client meeting. The plan loaded on time, the boarding personal were efficient and we were all ready to go on time. But then we waited -- 1 hour!

The reason was -- as explained very nicely by both the captain and the flight attendant -- the baggage was not loaded to safety standards so it had be be removed and reloaded. I actually watched this process take place out my window. I assure you that the ground crew did not appear to be in any rush.

I fortunately made my connecting flight, but I cannot speak for other passengers who arrived 1 hour behind schedule.

The key thing is that no amount of positive customer service by the Flight Crew could fix this issue. Yet they received the brunt of the complaints -- which they handled professionally and with great empathy.

Problem was they were completely at the mercy of the baggage crew. Surely one must assume they had been trained how to load baggage -- yet they didn't do it correctly. But what were their consequences?

How often do we leave our own front line people without the support they need to do their jobs well. Do we have the same type of customer satisfaction rating for the people who support them? Are those support people also measured based on customer satisfaction? If not, they should be, because they are often the foundation on which to build a business. And if the foundation is weak -- well you know!

Something to think about.

Cheers!

Bill's passion is improving business results by working with leadership teams to change employee behaviours. He does this by equipping leaders with the principles, processes and tools to cultivate an engaged customer-focused culture.

As well, he is a dynamic, results-oriented speaker on the importance of a customer-focused culture, either as a guest speaker or acting as a facilitator of a group discussion/workshop.

For more information please contact (905) 841-3191
Email: bill@billhogg.ca, Web: http://www.billhogg.ca/