AchieveGlobal's blog

What Fits Your Training Program?

By Sharon Daniels 

It’s clear that on-the-job training has changed significantly over the past several years: from an increase in blended workflow learning, to recognition of the importance of pre-training planning and post-training follow-up.

But what can be said about current trends in employee training?

ON24 – the global leader in webcasting and virtual communication solutions hosted an employee survey to find out what executives, managers and the workforce generally think and feel about training. Some of the findings of the ON24 survey confirmed what we already knew or suspected, but there were also several findings that deserve added consideration. For instance:

• Participants said 45% of executives and managers need the most training.
• The best-trained industries include medical, technology, education and accounting.
• 48% of participants in the survey said that training takes place too infrequently.
• A whopping 80% recognized that training helps them do their job better.
• And lastly, 67% said it improves company performance.

While a number of the report’s findings seem to confirm all-too-common wisdom, there’s still something to be learned from the survey results. If the benefits of training are recognized so broadly, then why are some companies still not hitting the training nail on the head?

We might find the answer to this question in a somewhat different arena of training.

If we were to believe late night personal fitness infomercials, it seems that we still haven’t figured out what it takes to increase our personal fitness levels. Of course, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Time and again, research proves that good old-fashioned diet and exercise are key. What we need to remember is that trends like hot yoga or aqua spin are just tools to accomplish one part of that equation.

The same goes for organizational training. While trends may change – the rise of blended learning, for instance – the fundamental principles remain constant:

• Be sure training is designed for the specifics of your organization
• Link training to your core business strategy
• And, make certain to plan training in advance, and follow up training after the fact.

In a future post, I’ll share information about AchieveGlobal’s Sustainment Model which helps organizations ensure these principles are considered for every training implementation to make learning initiatives more successful. Once an organization has internalized these fundamental principles, only then can the organization explore the deeper nuances of training tactics.

 

Sharon Daniels is CEO of AchieveGlobal in Tampa, Florida

Appraising the Appraisal Process for Sales Reps

By Sharon Daniels 

For sales leaders, providing performance reviews of the salespeople on their teams is crucial. These reviews can give sales associates valuable feedback about how their performance compares with their sales goals, and what changes should be made in their approaches and behaviors.

While few would question the value of sales performance reviews, there’s a wide array of viewpoints about how sales professionals should be evaluated, and for which skills they should be reviewed.

In a recent Dear Workforce article, titled, “What Could We Do To Better Evaluate Sales Reps?” AchieveGlobal’s Chris Blauth considers this very question, and provides specific steps to help ensure that sales representative performance appraisals are clear and effective.

One of the major points Chris makes throughout this article is that performance reviews for sales reps should focus on their integral skills of prospecting, time management and account management. In addition, there’s a need to consider related skills and experiences, including industry savvy, research capabilities and presentation skills – to name a few.

The article also goes on to point out several important steps that leaders can take to ensure that both managers and employees benefit from the performance review process, and can identify what needs to be done to gain further strength in the review process.

Among others, the list of practical steps for productive performance reviews includes:

• Helping the salesperson understand the process, even before the review begins
• Focusing the performance review discussion on links between organizational goals and skills development
• Encouraging honest and open conversation
• Using the review as an opportunity to develop a plan for moving forward, strengthening performance

Performance appraisals aren't only about evaluating the past. They can be great opportunities for managers to assess areas where future coaching should occur. And the more specific your observations about a salesperson’s performance, the more “on target” the coaching you offer will be.

The following are three areas of competence which provide a general basis for sales coaching (both inside and outside of a sales call) along with questions to help assess performance within each area:

1. Product/Solution Knowledge 

How well does the salesperson understand the features and benefits of his or her products and organization? How familiar is the salesperson with relevant proof sources and stories that illustrate successful applications of the products/solutions?
 

2. Selling Skills and Sales Process

How effectively does the salesperson manage the sales call by: Opening, Probing, Supporting, Closing, Addressing indifference, and Resolving customer concerns? How effective is the salesperson at prospecting and new business acquisition?

3. Customer Knowledge

How well does the salesperson understand the customer’s business/industry (e.g., customers, suppliers, products, competitors)? How effectively does the salesperson identify the personal needs of the individual customer?

And one other big picture point is that the overall intent of sales rep performance reviews is to improve sales results for the individual salesperson, and for the organization as a whole. It can help tremendously for both employee and manager to keep this as a focus in all their discussions.

 

 

Sharon Daniels is CEO of AchieveGlobal in Tampa, Florida

Up, Up and Away? Training Takes an Upward Tick!

By Sharon Daniels 

It’s always nice to end the business week on a positive note and last week we certainly did.

With the Dow and S&P finishing at record highs, investors nodded to the latest positive job market report. And while most economists and analysts are all too hesitant to say we’re out of the woods quite yet, one trend seems to give new insight into the importance of training in this, and perhaps every, economic climate.

In a recent article on LinkedIn, Principal and Founder of Bersin by Deloitte, Josh Bersin, noted that “US training organizations grew their spending by 12% last year,” and that this is the highest growth rate since 2004.

Why such rapid growth? And why now?

Bersin’s article goes on to point out that companies have realized that even though unemployment rates continue to be high in some areas, and therefore the candidate pool is significantly deeper, it’s still difficult to find employees who have the right skill set. Added to this, in today’s market, employers seek employees with more specialized skills – not always provided through schooling from today’s educational institutions. The result of this perfect storm is that corporations need to fine-tune the skills of their own talent to meet the specific needs of their organization.

Let’s just say (hypothetically, of course) that the economy continues along a general trend of strengthening. The need for training becomes all the more dire, as companies become even more competitive in hiring employees with even some relevant training.

So what are some the big-picture insights to keep in mind about learning?

1. Leaders should have a vision and strategic direction for their learning initiatives.
2. Develop a learning experience that is specifically matched to the needs of the learners and the organization.
3. Commit to learning, shape a learning environment, and assess learner performance.
4. Embrace modalities based on the organization’s situation and needs.
5. Re-assess the changing needs of the organization from time to time.

While it sure feels like the economy is at least ambling toward lift-off, the uncertain realities of today’s business climate mean that having a vision for organizational learning also means having possible alternate routes in mind. But the main idea, of course is to develop employee competence through learning, stay tuned in to the factors at play, and prepare to shape the organization for new possible new paths to learning.

 

Sharon Daniels is CEO of AchieveGlobal in Tampa, Florida

To Telecommute… Or Not…?

By Sharon Daniels

Much has been made, recently, of the debate over whether working from home is an employee right to be encouraged across the board, or an employee privilege to be discouraged in some circumstances.

The reality of today’s workplace means that companies within the same industry and even executives in the same company can differ greatly in their approaches to whether working from home would be a good option for their company. Even while the general trend has been toward embracing the work-life balance, in more recent times, CEO’s have come under fire for their decisions that may curb employee freedoms in the arena of virtual work.

Wherever you stand on the working from home issue, the reality is that now leaders are more likely than ever to lead teams that are dispersed across geographies. Along with a focus on the core competencies of successful leadership today (we believe these competencies can be classified into six major categories or “zones”) having an awareness of changing technology capabilities and workforce trends can help leaders conquer the world of virtual work.

With our recent research and infographic about virtual work, AchieveGlobal set out to build an understanding of who makes up the virtual workforce, how much time they spend away from the office, and what this means to leaders of virtual teams.

Here are just a few key facts from our infographic:

• The number of people working at home grew 86.6% from 1980 to 2009
• 47% of the U.S. workforce does not work in the same office building as their manager
• 57% of workers say that trust and communication are The Top Challenges for managers of virtual teams
• 79% of leaders have not been trained for effective virtual leadership

What do all these numbers mean? In short, the virtual work trend continues to increase; yet most managers are ill equipped to lead teams of employees working virtually. If you think this seems like a recipe for failure, you’re absolutely right.

So what should a leader do in order to improve success at leading virtual teams? Should you bulk up on all the technological savvy that you can find? Well some of that may help, but in a very fundamental way, success in virtual leadership is only partly about understanding and mastering the virtual world. It’s equally important to focus on the six zones of leadership I referred to earlier and to provide the structure and engagement that has a positive effect on remote teams. Building group cohesion and individual commitment helps team members work productively from a distance and achieve business goals.  It can also diffuse mistrust of people we cannot see and, ultimately, answer the leader’s question…

 ‘How do I know they’re working?’

 

Sharon Daniels is CEO of AchieveGlobal in Tampa, Florida

How to Inspire Innovation: A Culture of C’s

By Sharon Daniels 

We all want it. But we’re not always sure how to get it.

Innovation.

In a recent post, I wrote about the ingredients of innovation including questions, observations and ideas. But what can leaders do to foster an innovative environment? 

A research report, “Leading Innovation: Insights From the Real World,” by AchieveGlobal provides significant detail that answers this very question. The report provides an effective summary of “the most important word in the vocabulary” and includes quotes from study participants exhibiting the importance of adopting a culture of innovation across an entire organization. In fact, one manager who participated in the research noted, “There is almost nothing you could achieve just by your own knowledge or expertise.”

Creating a culture of innovation can be a difficult prospect, particularly when corporations are struggling to manage time constraints and work through existing organizational structures. But there are some specific characteristics that organizations can strive to develop in order to build innovative workplaces.

Consider Fast Company’s list of The World’s Most Innovative Companies of 2013. This list recognizes organizations such as Apple, Nike and Amazon whose commitments to innovation are so strong that they have caused substantial impacts on their industries as a whole. 

What can your organization do to keep up with such companies? How can a company create a culture where innovation thrives?

Our report on innovation features six characteristics of innovative company cultures, including:

1. Communication that flows freely
2. Customer commitment
3. Confidence-building
4. Curiosity among employees
5. Challenging environment
6. Collaborative settings

When it comes to innovation it’s important to hire the right talent, but it’s also important to develop the right culture with these characteristics in mind – one where employees feel inspired and motivated to develop something new that no one has experienced or to make better improvements to existing products and processes.

It just so happens that each of the characteristics mentioned above is an alliterative C-word, making this list and a dedication to innovation that much easier to commit to memory on a regular basis.

 

 

Sharon Daniels is CEO of AchieveGlobal in Tampa, Florida

An Achieve Survey Insight: Unforgettable Feelings

By Sharon Daniels

The American writer and theologian, Carl Buechner is famously quoted as saying, “They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” These words also ring true in the business world.

Each month, AchieveGlobal hosts an online poll through our eNewsletter, Achieve. In February, we surveyed how effective our readers are at addressing feelings and emotions in the workplace. Here is a summary of their responses:

A majority of the participants in our survey (71%) shared that they consider themselves sensitive to the emotions and feelings of others. This is great news, since emotion is a major factor in building productive or constructive relationships with coworkers within the business environment.

In fact, studies show that employees want to work with leaders that they can trust, and even more telling is the fact that trust is at the root of motivation.

But what’s the connection between trust and emotions?

Workers who are sensitive to the emotions and feelings of others tend to gain trust from others more readily.

So what can leaders do to build trust with others? AchieveGlobal developed six universal guidelines that, when regularly adopted by leaders, help build trust with others. You can read more about all six “Basic Principles” in this report, but here are two to think about right now:

• Maintain constructive relationships
• Lead by example

I reflect on the principles often, and for many of us, all six probably mirror the personal ethics we uphold on treating people right.

The challenge lies in having the leadership skills to apply these principles in the workplace regardless of any stress or pressures a particular situation may bring.

 

 

 

To subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Achieve and participate in our regular polls, visit: http://www.achieveglobal.com/research-and-resources/enewsletters.aspx. 

Sharon Daniels  is CEO of AchieveGlobal in Tampa, Florida.

Standing in Your Customers’ Shoes

By Sharon Daniels

When customers interact with a company, mostly they’re hoping to have their needs met (through products and services), and to receive good service (from associates). But for many reasons, these seemingly simple expectations can go awry.

Why? Because the customer relationship is complex… easily as complex as any other human relationship. However, it’s easy to simplify if we remember to see ourselves from the customer’s point of view.

It reminds me of that great line from the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, where Atticus says to Scout:

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb in his skin and walk around in it.”

In business, we can learn a lot about our customers just by standing in their shoes and looking at the world through their eyes.

An infographic recently published by AchieveGlobal, titled Through Customer-Colored Glasses offers this very perspective and highlights the top findings of a study where we asked more than 5,000 consumers from around the world to share their thoughts on customer service.

Here’s what we discovered:

• Three strikes (or fewer) and you’re out! An overwhelming majority (93%) of consumers will refuse to do business with a company again after 3 negative experiences.

• Be nice to me, or else! A substantial number of participants in our study (33%) said they’d rather be treated nicely than have their issues immediately resolved.

• You’re a click away from a bad reputation! More than one-third (37%) of consumers have posted a negative comment online about a bad customer experience.

• Down with robots! Up with real people! Consumers would much rather deal with live people than with digital devices. Emails, texts and online interactions may be quick and convenient, but customers prefer face-to-face first or at least a live voice on the phone.

And there are some things that consumers commonly like and dislike to hear from Customer Service Representatives (or “CSRs”). Our infographic goes into greater detail, but here are the top three things that customers don’t want to experience.

1. CSRs who are rude, short, nasty or impatient
2. CSRs who sound scripted, canned or fake
3. And associates who say, “no” or “I don’t know,” or just do nothing

On a more positive note, here are the top three things that consumers in our survey said that CSRs should do or say:

1. Apologize and say “I’m sorry”
2. Be polite, nice, kind and courteous
3. Listen

In my past three posts, I’ve written about ways to improve customer experiences, and our infographic does a great service of summing these up!

Don’t forget:

• Defining Moments drive customers’ experiences
• Net Promoter Scores can help you monitor whether customers will recommend you to others
• The more associates can truly identify and empathize with customers, the more genuine their emotions.  And the more positive the customer experience.

 

 

Sharon Daniels is CEO of AchieveGlobal in Tampa, Florida

The Ingredients of Innovation

By Sharon Daniels

Stories of innovation are everywhere. We celebrate the idea of innovation and enjoy hearing how entrepreneurs and corporations are making new advances, improving old products and offering something new.

But innovation doesn’t just make a captivating news headline. It’s common sense in business these days: a company must be innovative in order to flourish. But what does it mean to be innovative? What behaviors are associated with innovation? And how can your company factor in a focus on innovative behavior, when there are so many other things to think about already?

In a recent study, AchieveGlobal conducted 44 interviews with executive-level members of organizations, as well as midlevel members, to better understand innovation.

We learned that leaders define innovation in two major categories:

• An innovation can be a breakthrough that no one has experienced before, or
• Innovations can include advances, enhancements, and incremental improvements to or different applications for existing products, services, and processes

In short, innovation can be a whole new thing or an improvement to an existing thing.

In light of the recent celebration of Passover, a recent NPR story brings the idea of innovation to life. While matzo – the unleavened bread – has been eaten for centuries as part of the observation of Passover, this year, a new product, Matzolah offered a new choice for Passover observers.

This crunchy blend of nuts, matzo and raisins illustrates three realities about innovation:

1. The customer must be the focus of any innovation. The makers of Matzolah wanted to provide consumers with a traditional, yet tasty, Passover breakfast food.
2. Innovation is one part creativity, and one part implementation. The family who came up with the Matzolah idea and recipe had limitations on what ingredients could be included, since abstinence from other grains is a required part of the religious observations. But by adding nuts and raisins to the broken matzo, they were able to address the taste issue. But they still had to product-test with family and friends, package the product and shop it to supermarket chains
3. Innovation means change. For Matzolah, this certainly rings true. Had its makers kept to existing Passover breakfast fare, there would be no new product… no innovation. By simply changing the ingredients and coming up with a brand name that reflected the new hybrid product (matzo + granola), the newness became the marketable idea… and the interest for a number of news stories on the new product.

Our study revealed that while most organizations rank innovation as important for success, many found it difficult to allow time for it. So how might you encourage an innovative culture and environment? Our study points to these insights:

• Connect with customers in ways that help the organization more deeply understand their desires and needs, and examine how the organization might respond to these drivers with innovation.
• Ensure organizational diversity, which can inspire new thinking.
• Check that the organization has the resources, skills and commitment to execute on innovative ideas.
• Be aware of the organization’s change-capability.

The ingredients of innovation are simple: ask the right questions, make observations, encourage diverse ideas, allow experimentation and connect the dots. But as with Matzolah, it’s how you put these ingredients together that makes all the difference.

 

Sharon Daniels is CEO of AchieveGlobal in Tampa, Florida

Four Cornerstones of “The Customer Expectations Bill of Rights”

By Sharon Daniels

There are some things that transcend differences of time and place. In considering the customer experience, AchieveGlobal discovered that there are four things customers expect from interactions with employees of a company they do business with.

In our recent research report on what makes customers stay loyal to or stray away from doing business with companies, we asked, “What are customers’ baseline expectations of their interactions with employees?” The range of responses we received fell into four areas of customer expectations. Notably, these expectations are relevant regardless of the type of customer interaction, and irrespective of the company involved.

As we distilled our findings, a sort of “customer expectations bill of rights” emerged. Here’s what we learned that all customers expect when dealing with businesses…

“We the customers expect:…”

1. To be treated with care, individual attention and respect in all interactions.
2. To be spared unnecessary details, and for interactions to be grounded in a sense of simplicity.
3. To have issues resolved through honest efforts to correct mistakes, and be offered solutions by associates who are empowered to bend the rules in ethical and approved ways.
4. To deal with associates who have a keen sense of responsibility, and who persist at what they do, in order to deliver what has been promised.

If every employee in our companies could commit to meeting these four cornerstone expectations, it’s likely there would be greater chance of achieving positive outcomes on several levels. 

But what are the behaviors that characterize associates and companies that meet customer needs on these four global levels? In part of our study, we also surveyed top customer-contact employees to discover what they do, that others don’t do, or that others don’t do quite as well. We discovered eight major habits or behaviors that define top customer service associates:

1. Building relationships and communicating warmly, asking questions on both business and personal levels.
2. Listening attentively and focusing on how the company can solve concerns.
3. Gathering information and providing exactly the right response.
4. Communicating clearly, explaining things in terms that customers understand.
5. Managing difficult conversations, apologizing and admitting responsibility when needed.
6. Empathizing with customer needs, and listening to non-verbal cues like tone of voice.
7. Avoiding problems by taking preventive steps before things spiral out of control.
8. Committing to continuous learning, training and retraining.

Like everything else in customer relationships, it’s easy when you know how. And what we recognize is that this know-how can be gained through sincere emotional effort on the part of every employee.

 

Sharon Daniels is CEO of AchieveGlobal in Tampa, Florida

Building the Customer Experience: The Role of Emotions

By Sharon Daniels 

Imagine a customer is experiencing confusion over a product or service interaction. That customer would likely expect a service representative to express kindness, caring or understanding. On the other hand, a customer who is upset or even angry over a product malfunction or service weakness, would be more likely to expect associates to express urgent concern and immediate, pro-active response.

An interesting reality is that customers expect these appropriate emotional responses from company reps, whether the associates truly feel these emotions or not. And if employees fail to meet this expectation of “emotional effort” then the customer may be left with negative impressions and connect a bad experience with the brand.

And we know what is likely to happen next…

Our recent study about customer experiences, titled Why Your Customers Stay or Stray: Insight From Global Customer Experience Research looks at the reality of emotions in service interactions, and points out that in order to meet customer expectations, customer-facing associates often engage in two forms of “acting”:  Surface Acting and Deep Acting.

When the associate is simply feigning the emotion, we refer to this as surface acting. And when employees are actually expressing a real emotion that connects to an understanding of what the customer is experiencing, we refer to this as deep acting.

When we compared surface and deep acting, we also noted that when an employee pretends to feel the expected emotion, it raises the stress level for that employee and generally results in a negative defining moment for the customer. (In previous posts, I’ve written about how every interaction a customer has with a company is potentially a moment that defines the overall impression that company has on the customer.)

On the other hand, when associates really express their emotions based on real empathy and concern for the customer, they themselves feel less stress dealing with the situation, and they’re more likely to effect a positive defining moment for the customer.

What can we learn, and what should companies do with this intelligence?

The more we can put ourselves in the customer’s shoes and try to understand things from their perspectives, the more likely we are to be able to understand their needs – both business and human.

And the more likely we are to ensure a positive outcome and positive defining moment for the customer.

 

Sharon Daniels is CEO of AchieveGlobal in Tampa, Florida

Respect and Resolution… The Two Sides of Customer Needs

By Sharon Daniels 

Trying to understand the needs of your diverse customer base can be a complex challenge. So it may help to simplify: there are two major categories of customer needs.

In our recent report titled, Why Customers Stay or Stray: Insight From Global Customer Experience Research, we published the findings of an AchieveGlobal worldwide consumer survey about building customer relationships. One of our areas of discovery in this report was that customers evaluate the companies with whom they do business based on these two distinct levels of interactions: Business Needs and Human Needs.

Business needs are perhaps more usually anticipated. When customers interact with organizations, they have specific needs, which they anticipate that company’s products and services will satisfy. They also engage contact with an organization seeking to have issues resolved. Most businesses understand the importance of meeting customers’ business needs, as this is the very reason their company exists. This should even be defined at the strategic level in the company’s mission statement.

The second category of customer needs – Human Needs – is just as important as business needs. When customers interact with associates representing a business, they also expect to have met their needs for respect, understanding, and individual attention. If you think of your own experiences dealing with different companies, you may not actively think about these “human needs” when you first initiate contact, but you’re sure aware of when these needs have been ignored, or when a representative of the company hasn’t given you the respect or understanding you deserve!

In previous posts, I’ve written about “defining moments” as moment-by-moment opportunities for your company to deliver service that ensures positive customer experiences. When considering both sides of customer needs, the truth is that preparing your employees so that they can meet both business and human needs requires support from all customer-facing associates. This ensures that each defining moment of the customer relationship adds up to customers who want to stay engaged with, and loyal to your business.

 

 

Sharon Daniels is CEO of AchieveGlobal in Tampa, Florida

Charting the Rough Waters of Customer Dissatisfaction … With Defining Moments

By Sharon Daniels 

In my last post, I wrote about customer relationships and how expectations have changed in recent times. One fact that stands out most from our recent research is that for many customers today, being heard and respected is actually more important than having an issue resolved.

The recent events on a cruise ship that experienced a breakdown in open waters seems to illustrate this fact perfectly. Time will tell how the cruise line will emerge from that incident, but as the ship approached its Alabama harbor, many of the stories that began to make their way to shore were of passengers who were perhaps surprisingly extremely complimentary of the crew – despite inconvenience and discomfort suffered by those same passengers.

How is this possible?

Management of defining moments.

Our research study confirmed that positive one-to-one interactions support customer satisfaction and favorable word of mouth. Businesses will often do all they can to avoid customer dissatisfaction, or worse – a major breakdown in operations. But there are lessons to be learned from organizations that weather the rough waters of customer dissatisfaction.

One lesson is to ensure positive defining moments in customer experiences throughout the year, building a strong foundation of customer impressions.

A second lesson is to ensure that personnel understand the importance of each defining moment, even – or especially during a crisis.

A major negative operational event can quickly turn into major negative customer relationships and major organizational failure. But with close management of the customer experience throughout such events, customers who have had to endure an unexpected negative event can become the organization’s strongest proponents.

As we note in our report, Why Customers Stay or Stray: Insight From Global Customer Experience Research, “While some moments are more important than others, each affects the customer’s overall experience and either builds or damages loyalty.”

You might think of each defining moment as a ripple in the ocean – all combining to make up the corporation’s image and reputation. It’s up to the company to manage whether those ripples become constructive or destructive forces.

 

Sharon Daniels is CEO of AchieveGlobal in Tampa, Florida

Listen and Respect: Why Interpersonal Skills Rule the Customer Experience

By Sharon Daniels 

Some years back, customers didn’t expect much from companies. Buy a product… get a thank you… and maybe a smile. Today’s customer relationship equation is markedly different. Customers expect not just friendly service; they expect a very distinct set of behaviors and experiences.

Our current business environment is one of heightened competition, and customer experiences are part of a complex matrix of what makes a customer choose or stay with one company over another.

In a recent report, Why Customers Stay or Stray: Insight From Global Customer Experience Research, we published the findings of an AchieveGlobal worldwide consumer survey about real customer service. Our discoveries point to how crucial it is for companies to get it right – to train their employees to listen, pick up on cues, and respond.

Here are a few key findings found in this report:

• Some customers said that being heard and respected are more important than having an issue resolved.
• Rudeness and indifference are ranked among top negative in-person behaviors.
• The top three negative phone behaviors included: being transferred multiple times, not getting a real person and being put on hold.

What’s the big picture take-away from these findings?

What matters most is the emotional impact of interactions with front-line employees. Even more than problem-solving capabilities, customers value good interpersonal skills of the employee representatives of the companies with whom they do business…

• Inability to solve an issue: Tolerable... 
  ...if a customer service representative demonstrates engaged listening, courtesy and proactive care.
  
  
• Rudeness, distraction and indifference: Intolerable!
  It’s as simple as that.

In the past, customers would be more likely to stay with a company whose products they valued, but whose customer service was mediocre. Today, the customer wants great products, coupled with great service.

In fact, fifty percent of our survey participants said they would be likely to take their business elsewhere after just one single bad experience.

As service companies, we have just one chance to get it right.

My advice? Teach associates to put added focus on the emotional, interpersonal side of customer interactions… Listen and respect!

 

Sharon Daniels is CEO of AchieveGlobal in Tampa, Florida

Differentiating DeVry: How One Global Educator Built Engagement and Loyalty

By Sharon Daniels



Like every other sector, the education industry is extremely competitive and experiences major challenges when times are tough. As part of this environment, DeVry University – a premier global provider of educational services – has experienced an increasingly competitive market, and the effects of a struggling global economy.

Faced with this reality, DeVry set out to redefine its customer service to both internal and external customers, as well as to students. Educating students since the early 1930s, the University focused on identifying and delivering “defining moments” to differentiate student experiences from what they might experience at a competitor university.

The mission: Through customized learning solutions, differentiate DeVry, by building memorable experiences for students, therefore making DeVry students more likely to succeed in their programs of study and recommend DeVry to others.

In short: get all faculty and staff to “own” the student experience.

Enter: DeVry’s senior leadership and AchieveGlobal.

How did they do it?

1. Step One: Recognize that this big, complex, global organization could best be understood and retrained by focusing on three groups of employees: DeVry leadership, DeVry faculty, and DeVry non-faculty staff. Doing this, the training and development process became much clearer, and programs could be developed that met the needs of each audience.
   
2. Step Two: Understand student perceptions of their interactions with DeVry on all levels.
   
3. Step Three: Develop relevant learning materials for the three distinct groups.

While the learning materials were tailored for each internal group, there was singular focus at the strategic level. The entire customer service initiative was named Project Delight and focused on developing ways to “delight” students at every opportunity.

The results? DeVry showed marked progress in its student experience, illustrated by significant increases in DeVry’s Net Promoter Score – a measure indicating students’ likelihood to recommend the school to others.  In addition, leadership, faculty and staff engagement scores increased by several points as well.

Lessons from universities are often taught in a live or virtual classroom environment. But in this case, the lesson to learn from DeVry’s development initiative is: with focus on a specific goal (building engagement) and soundly strategized initiatives, organizations can earn a much-improved customer service report card.

 

 

Sharon Daniels is CEO of AchieveGlobal in Tampa, Florida

Pitching the Perfect Learning Game: Is Virtual Training the Flawless Learning Modality?

By Sharon Daniels

If you were to judge virtual instructor-led training by its benefits alone, you might think that this learning modality plays a perfect learning game. In baseball, we’d say that’s a game where a pitcher allows no hits, and no walks.

Just take a look at the list of benefits offered by virtual instructor-led training (vILT):

• An instructor who’s a real, live person
• Learner interaction in synchronous time
• Similar structure to a classroom (whiteboard, asking questions, discussions)
• Often shorter sessions than ILT
• Live instruction for people dispersed across geographies

In effect, vILT offers many of the benefits of in-person training, and overcomes some of the limitations of that more traditional modality. Added to this, vILT provides so many possible ways for participants to interact, it’s easy to see why many consider this the perfect learning modality. From live conversation to chat, polling, digital slides, streaming media, file sharing and breakout rooms, vILT is highly interactive.

Despite these tremendous benefits, vILT has its limitations too. For example:

• vILT can make it difficult for facilitators to read group dynamics
• Some participants feel unmotivated to speak up
• Attention span for learners tends to be shorter than for ILT
• Learners rarely feel the true benefits of group learning, or any sense of cohesiveness
• Technology can become a barrier to learning.

 So, armed with this balanced view, the next question you may be asking yourself is: Should I try vILT for my next learning initiative?

The answer may be an easier pitch than you think.

vILT has so many benefits, that you shouldn’t allow its limitations to deter you from making use of it. Here are some of the key factors and best practices for success when using vILT:

• Plan for sustainment:
  • Arrange a pre-session conversation among learners and their managers, so learners can hit the ground running
  • Organize post-session conversations
• Keep it engaging:
  • Encourage virtual learners to interact at least every three minutes
  • Use compelling visuals
  • Limit group size
• Devote appropriate time and resources:
  • Pay attention to scheduling, technology set-up and communications
  • Minimize technology issues
  • Allow 2-7 days between component vILT sessions in a series

Keep the big picture in view when thinking about and implementing vILT: play up what’s great, plan well for potential challenges, and let vILT pitch a perfect learning game for your team!

 

 

Sharon Daniels is CEO of AchieveGlobal in Tampa, Florida

How Strong is Your Bench? Cheering For the Wisdom of Succession Planning

By Sharon Daniels

In sports, bench strength is recognized as the quality and number of players available for substitution during a game. A recent article in Psychology Today draws parallels between championship teams and the best corporate leadership teams, noting the wisdom of creating deep bench strength to draw upon. 

Each month, AchieveGlobal hosts an online poll through our eNewsletter, Achieve. In November, our survey asked, “How well does your organization do succession planning for key positions?”

Most of the respondents who participated in this survey (81%) responded that their organizations either handled succession planning poorly or fairly. For organizations overlooking the importance of succession planning, there are several reasons to consider a more strategic approach to readying managers for “substitution.”

As Ray Williams points out in that article, one excuse given for poor succession planning is economic factors: when times are tough, companies focus less on building bench strength. But consider this! An AchieveGlobal article points out that corporations that fail to identify and prepare current and future leaders are at high risk for failure across a number of areas. Such organizations often suffer in these ways:

• Inability to move quickly to capitalize on business growth opportunities
• Resistance to expand into new market spaces
• Incapacity to defend against sudden new threats from competition
• Inability to execute new strategic initiatives
• Insufficient seasoned leaders to wisely guide new acquisitions

On the positive flip-side of this discussion, organizations that engage in deliberate and systematic identification, engagement, and retention of potential leaders and talented performers, usually see targeted results, superior performance and financial strength for these reasons:

• Strong leadership bench strength = readiness = financial success
• Succession planning links directly to long-term viability of the enterprise
• Succession planning builds a sense of overall security throughout the organization

So what can you do to build bench strength in your organization? Our full report offers a long list of guidelines, but here are just a few in closing…

1. Secure senior executive buy-in about the importance of succession planning
2. Design and implement an overarching strategy for building bench strength, including assigning the right people, to the right place at the right time
3. Identify an accurate list of leadership competencies
4. Tie the process to the organization’s performance management, promotion, reward and recognition
5. Engage in at least annual reviews of the succession planning process and all candidates.

To subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Achieve and participate in our regular polls, visit http://www.achieveglobal.com/research-and-resources/enewsletters.aspx

Sharon Daniels is CEO and President of AchieveGlobal.

Starting the New Year POSITIVELY: Two Words to Develop a Loyal Customer Base

By Sharon Daniels

With a New Year upon us, many of us are committed to personal resolutions that likely involve introducing new behaviors or changing existing ones. As an organization, a good resolution to adopt in 2013 is to put added focus on developing a loyal customer base. In the same way we commit to personal resolutions, the first step is to evaluate the existing process in which customers are serviced. It is important to consider every customer touchpoint with your organization.

Our Retail Director, K.C. Blonski, recently spoke about doing this in a FastCompany 30 Second MBA video:

In the video, K.C. mentions two key words that are central to any employee/customer relationship. It’s a term I’ve written about a few times before when blogging about Owning the Customer Experience: Defining Moments.

While K.C. nicely summarizes a multifaceted customer service strategy involving defining moments in just 30 seconds (keep in mind a defining moment itself may be created in a time period shorter than this video!) we know it takes much longer to create a mutually beneficial, valuable relationship with a customer.

Even though “service mistakes happen” as K.C. pointed out in a previous 30 Second MBA, when an organization focuses on perfecting every step of the customer relationship process, then gives employees the ability to enhance it in every way they can, defining moments with customers become positive. And when a series of positive defining moments are delivered to a customer, their perception of the brand also becomes positive and they are likely to buy again or recommend the product/service.

Resolutions often turn into broken self-promises. But an organization-wide resolution to put added emphasis on improving your customer relationships while giving your workforce the skills they need to ‘wow’ customers at every step of the way is one promise worth keeping!

Sharon Daniels is the CEO and President of AchieveGlobal

An Achieve Survey Insight: If You Learn Just One Thing, You Better Learn…

By Sharon Daniels

Two of our most recent online polls have pointed to the importance of a major leadership concern. Among the many hats that managers must wear, there’s one that’s particularly important: the Change Manager.

It’s also a hat not often worn well by many managers.

Each month, we host an online poll through our eNewsletter, Achieve. In September, our survey asked, “What do you see as the top learning topic recommended for managers in the coming year?”

Most of our participants chose "Change Management" as the number one learning topic for managers in the coming year. This is not so surprising given that the previous month, survey respondents also indicated that a recent change in their organization was handled incompetently.

All of this concern over this issue has likely come about because change has become such a major problem in today’s business environment. The reality is that change management is now a required skill among leaders.

Our recent article Creating a Change-Capable Workforce outlines seven common change initiatives facing organizations today:

1. Organization-wide restructuring
2. Downsizing/changing job roles
3. Radical strategic shifts
4. Culture change
5. Reengineering/business process redesign
6. Technology upgrades/system improvements
7. Mergers or acquisitions

The research also identifies ten recommended key practices which fall under three “hallmarks” of a change-capable organization. Organizations that manage change effectively tend to:

1. Activate capability
2. Communicate for results
3. Monitor mechanics and mood

Change can be stressful. It can also either create opportunities for organizational growth and development, or enhance the risk for failure.

The need to manage change is real and imperative. The good news: change management is achievable. So as you chart your learning topics for the coming year, consider whether change management should be at the top of your list.

To subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Achieve and participate in our regular polls, visit http://www.achieveglobal.com/research-and-resources/enewsletters.aspx

 

 

Sharon Daniels is CEO of AchieveGlobal in Tampa, Florida

As a New Manager, What’s “Job One?”

By Sharon Daniels

New leaders brought on to manage an existing team have a great deal at stake. Chances are, this team already has a track record, so everything the team accomplishes after the manager’s first day will be measured as testimony to their efficacy as a leader, or proof of their incompetence.

So for many leaders, the primary focus during the first few months of leading a new team is tangibly important.

Each month, AchieveGlobal hosts an online poll through our eNewsletter, Achieve. In October, our survey asked, “When you take over a new team, what is your top priority?”

Our respondents chose from such focuses as:

• Setting a vision and strategic direction
• Adjusting processes and driving core performance
• Building a relationship with your new boss
• Decorating your new office.

Happily, very few of our respondents chose the decorating option!

Most of our participants chose “Getting to know your people and build relationships” as the number one top priority when taking over a new team.

The profound wisdom of this priority deserves a little more consideration. We often think of the nuts and bolts of leadership as having sound strategy, and focusing on performance measurement. The reality may lean a lot closer to the more people-focused side of management.

Back when we published our research on the six zones of leadership, we noted one of the six zones as “People.” In particular, we said that leaders with strengths in this zone tend to:

• Read a range of emotions in others and respond appropriately.
• Adapt to the leadership needs of different groups.
• Help others resolve issues of work-life balance.
• Make a daily effort to inspire the trust of customers and colleagues.

There is recognition, it seems, among our survey participants that it is only by gaining the trust of the team that any manager can successfully achieve any degree of performance worth measuring. Taking this logic one step further, one might say that without a collaborative environment built through team relationships, the question of how to decorate your new office may well be moot!

To subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Achieve and participate in our regular polls, visit http://www.achieveglobal.com/research-and-resources/enewsletters.aspx

  

Sharon Daniels is CEO of AchieveGlobal in Tampa, Florida

 

The 11’s Have it! Keeping a :) On Every Worker’s Face

By Sharon Daniels

Joy, happiness and jolliness are what we all seem to want – perhaps especially at this time of year. And since I'm writing this post on December 11, it seems apropos to revisit a recent YahooNews article titled, 11 Things That Make Workers Happy.

Over the past few years, I’ve written about a number of these strategies and tactics, from using internal motivators, to embracing the idea of teleworking, to striking the right work-life balance.

As you read through this list, compiled by BusinessNewsDaily staff writer, David Mielach, perhaps you can contemplate which of these can provide a focal point for your efforts, in January…

So what are 11 things that might make your workers happy?

1. Provide an environment where promotion and advancement are encouraged and possible.
2. Support their efforts by offering relevant and effective training.
3. Offer even a small bonus, showing appreciation for their work.
4. Create an environment where internal motivation is encouraged and facilitated.
5. Make their work environment comfortable and pleasing, from communication to cushions.
6. Embrace teleworking.
7. Build a workspace that allows workers to focus on their responsibilities without excessive interruption.
8. Strike the right work-life balance.
9. Offer unique benefits packages that demonstrate caring and thoughtfulness.
10. Help workers achieve and maintain health.
11. Give workers a break for social media and other short breaks.

“Isn’t this all a little excessive?” I hear some of you ask. Not when you consider that happy workers tend to perform better, and leave less.

It may be hard to achieve all of these, all the time, but perhaps each month January through November, we can focus on just one of these.  Then, in December each year, we can reflect on how to fine-tune these principles for the next year.

 

Sharon Daniels is CEO of AchieveGlobal in Tampa, Florida