Management | Make a difference

Going the extra mile to Delight your customers–in 3 steps!

Posted by Haja in Business, Leadership, Management

Browsing the Net, I chanced upon this article at the Fast Company site. Reading this article, rekindled a thought on customer service and how one can make a difference.

http://www.fastcompany.com/1657030/the-happiness-culture-zappos-isn-t-a-company-it-s-a-mission

It also brought memories of a recent trip I had made by Air France to the US and back. During my return journey, I missed the connecting flight because of Air Frances’ delayed arrival. What I went through made me think of customer service in a completely different light- and how the employees, let go of an excellent opportunity. Given a choice of either delighting a customer OR losing the customer-for life, they unfortunately chose the latter. I am sure that Air France, as an organization and the top management views their customer service to be one of the best in the Industry. But what companies see in feedback forms OR Customer Satisfaction studies done by Agencies – do not prepare them to create a culture of customer service- that is targeted at DELIGHTING the customer. In most cases, I think it is just plain corporate speak- rarely delivered on the ground by the customer facing reps.

Coming back to the article, I was stuck by the corporate ethos of Zappos, the company that was profiled (I confess, I had not heard of them before this)-

Deliver Wow Through Service
Embrace and Drive Change
Create Fun and a Little Weirdness
Be Adventurous, Creative and Open-Minded
Pursue Growth and Learning
Build Open and Honest Relationships with Communication
Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
Do More with Less
Be Passionate and Determined
Be Humble

Cool. I guess most companies have similar ideals that they promote on their sites and corporate presentations. How many of them actually translate it into value?

It appears that they (Zappos) are going a step ahead of the rest. And it appears that they are actually executing well on their vision.

My top 3 to be the best in customer service- and to me this starts with EVERY employee. They should –

Be a bundle of Positive Energy–

Be the person who is brimming with Positive energy. Show a lot of enthusiasm. Let the customer feel that the employee is actually enjoying his time helping him.

Be a Problem Solver

Think of your experiences as a customer. Think of a situation that you particularly remember positively. Chances are it had to do with someone solving a problem for you WITHOUT you having to chase them. Someone who went out of the way to help you and left you feeling truly great. Let the customer feel that his voice has been heard. Be a solver of problems and if you are the Management – Reward those who are problem solvers.

Follow through

Call the customer a few day after he has bought! Does your company have the systems to track the customer database- and respond to them within a week of purchase? Can you imagine the feeling- and the power of CRM will come alive post that! Customers who are followed through, will remember what happened- and will buy again, and again. More importantly, they will talk about you to their other customers.

Think about it. There is a goldmine out there with millions of customers who are starved for quality customer service. How are you as an individual or an organization going to deliver what they want?

Aug.24

2 steps in changing your perspective of life!

Posted by Haja in Goals, Leadership, Management, Personal Effectiveness

Not what we have, but what we use

Not what we see, but what we choose

These are the things that mar or bless human happiness

Joseph Newton

Every now and then people have a challenge – and get stuck with some problem that may appear to be insurmountable. Some drown and some come through it with flying colours. Let us talk about those who make it through!

I have friends of mine who were made redundant in their jobs- for no fault of theirs. Instead of wallowing in self-pity, I saw them emerge stronger, and more secure in their approach towards life.

How did they do it?

I believe they changed their view of life. Rather than look at what the rest of the world looks at (the negatives), they choose to look at the positives.

They shifted their perspective of life.

They saw life differently – and that is what made the difference to them.

Here are some tips on how to change the perspective- and do things differently –

1. At a personal thought process level –

– Focus on how far you have come, not how far you have to go.

– Focus on what you have rather than what you lack- a.k.a Count your blessings. Seriously – how often does one do it?

o Take 5 min of your time now- and list out things that are blessings for you

§ Family

§ Kids

§ Dog/ pets that make life complete

§ Friends who stand up for you

§ Maybe a great work environment

§ Perks on the job

§ The car you have

There are always numerous things that work well despite the challenging situations you may be up against.

List them out

o Tear that paper out and carry it with you always!

2. At an Action level – do the following –

a. Focus on the solution – not the problem

i. List out the problem statement and position it as a question to be solved. Instead of saying “I have been fired from this job” – ask – “What can I do now that I have an opportunity to start afresh?”

1. Do a mindstorm – and list out 20 things you could differently

2. Prioritize and start doing the top 3 immediately.

b. Think of – “How can I leave my mark on this role”

i. It will force your mind to identify at least 2-3 things that should be your hallmark and the “legacy” you leave behind

Remember-In all situations, remember, what you have, is your ability to CHOOSE.

That is what makes the difference.

Aug.19

Tips for getting the most out of Meetings

Posted by Haja in Goals, Leadership, Personal Effectiveness

How many times have we walked out of a long meeting with these feelings-

It was so absurd! It went all over
Too long- we could have done this in a shorter period
The organizer was not prepared..and was talking extempore
It was SO unnecessary – it could have been done without going through this pain!

In most cases, it is so true… and so easy to overcome it.

In the interest of simplicity – I am listing 3 things that I think we could follow to make meetings work!

1. Write down the participants and your key objectives

List out the people you are inviting, and list out the reasons and what you want to get from the meeting. Write down all the objectives and see whether the objectives are relevant from the participants point of view as well.

You take away the key challenge of –

not having a clear objective and
ensuring objectives match the people in the room/call – in one single shot.

Identify the top 3 objectives you want to achieve – and list them out in the meeting request!

2. Prepare & share meeting objective & any reading material – before the meeting

This is not about one-upmanship. The more you share, the more you get out of the meeting. Just don’t overdo it Winking smile

Just the enough material for reading/ homework (as less as possible) with very clear objectives & things to do, will set the tone for the meeting- and possibly make the participants happier at being able to get this completed quickly and move on to other things they do in their day to day lives!

3. Keep it short! Serious. 15 min is good!

Just because your calendering facility looks at meetings in lumps of 30 minutes or the norm is 1 hour, does not mean you need so much time for every meeting.

Try setting 15 min – 30 min and push the agenda in that time. Almost 80% of the meetings can be completed in that time if people are aware of the objectives, understand their roles, and things they need to provide- you will get more done in shorter time.

Try this out. You will save so much from your day – and use that time for other useful pursuits!

Aug.17

5 steps to overcome Email addiction- Notes from a Reforming email junkie

Posted by Haja in Career, Goals, Management, Personal Effectiveness

Courtesy: Dilbert

How true is the above cartoon? How many of us actually end up spending “full days at office” either attending meetings or responding or writing mails? All a lot of work without actually getting any work done!

Every morning once when we get to office, the first thing we would do is to switch on the computer & look at the emails. Those who do not do this are typically those who risked life & limb by checking the mails on their “Smart Phones” while driving in to work or just when they were leaving their home.

This sets the tone for the rest of the day.

Most of the work day is defined by the mails you get and how you react to it. Many do this because they believe they need to be “on top” of things happening on the work front. And it does not stop in the day.. it moves on to the nights as well. How many times have you sent a mail at 1AM to receive multiple responses within the next 15-20 minutes? Bosses and other colleagues who are online and reply almost immediately at all times, add to the stress for most executives. The expectation is to be responsive 24×7. The need to be online now takes a new meaning to prove to everyone that one is “committed” and responding “immediately”.

With email becoming the norm in most workplaces, people have moved away from a “thinking and doing” mode to “Read & Respond” mode. Fewer and fewer people actually think of strategy and are proactive- most are becoming machines that read and respond to mails- and therefore more reactive. This cannot be good for the employees, and definitely not good for the employers in the long run.

On an average, it is said that an average employee gets around 150-200 mails a day. This goes up significantly as you move up the organization.

So the question is this. Does email- reading, writing and responding to it – immediately in many cases, constitute being effective in the job?

My personal view is NO. And it appears I am not alone in this this thought.

One key idea that most Time Management guru’s and Business Consultants advise is to cut the time spent on emails systematically. This will help in a) planning your day and b) Move away from a reactive thought process to a more proactive, strategy oriented thought process.

Here are some tips that I use to try and get my life back-

Avoid checking the email first thing in the morning and the last thing in the evening– Always keep the first 30 min to 45 min in the morning after coming in, free to plan the day and list out things that you need to do. The last thing you do before you leave is to plan for the next day – and do a quick check on your mid and long term goals & list out things to do the next day.
Check mails only 2-3 times a day– Now this is the tough one. How many of you have your emails switched on & have this pop-up’s that announces every new mail that comes in. The natural tendency is to check who wrote & if serious, drop everything else and respond immediately. The first thing to do is to avoid being connected to mail ALL the time, when you are working. Go off-line & connect to your email ONLY 2-3 times a day to check all incoming mail & respond to mails. This will be difficult initially. How? First- Set aside time in your calender which is blocked as “Email Time”. This ensures that you go online and download mails & respond to mails only during this time. Set aside around 30 minutes for every slot so that you respond to mails – and plan for any strategic activities that may come out of these mails- and plan to work on them during the time you are not connected.
Think of other options before you email – Before you write a mail- think if you can handle it any other way? First- do you need to respond? If yes, can it be done on phone? Write email ONLY if you really need to. (Many of us have a need to put things on mail to CYA).
Use Paper – Use a paper to write down your To-Do’s. This simple task will make it easier for you remember things + get you away from looking at the computer to track all the to-do’s.
Try to be an email change agent - If you do not expect any response- put it in the headlines “No Response Required”, or “Not Urgent”. This will help your readers also plan their time at least on your emails. Advise people on your plan. Use the time you have gained away from email to do some innovative work.

If you are a Version 2.0 of Email Junkism- i.e a Smartphone user- then ensure you tweak your phone settings to ensure that you do not get mails automatically. Do it 3-4 times a day only and reduce it further as you go along. Do not check your emails in the house on the smartphone! Home is time with your family – wife and kids. Give them the time – and your complete attention.

I realized early on that this is by no means easy. Once you start doing this, you realize that email is like a drug! You really need to check the mail. You will find yourself wondering what you are going to do when the mail is not on. Stay withthis and force yourself to do some intense thinking on areas you have been avoiding. Write rather than type. Another way is to take a step by step approach. Start by switching off the mail 5-6 times a day and then slowly bring it to control over a period of time.

Once you get into a habit of checking your mail 2-3 times a day, you suddenly will have more time that you can use for a lot of other strategic things that you may have been avoiding regularly.

Like blogging regularly 😉

Try it out. You will be happy to get your life back…

Got to go and check my mail (it is time) 😉

Jun.30

Freedom of Choice!

Posted by Haja in Books, Leadership, Management, Personal Effectiveness

Many companies & many people in their personal life, end up in a situation where they qualify it to be a No-Win situation. Many of them move into a shell & start being upset about their situation – and in many cases, lose heart – and in the bargain- lose the battle.

Recently, I was reading this book – Boom!. It gave me kind of refresher on changing my attitude, that I have started using this extensively….

Whilst the book has a number of other elements to talk about- one aspect that stood out (to me) was – the matter of Choice!

· The difference between ordinary people and extraordinary people is CHOICE.

· The freedom to choose may be the most power attribute and precious resource you have in your life.

· The Freedom to choose is yours alone to leverage or not. No one can grant it to you, and no one can take it away from you.

In your personal as well professional life- we just have to make that one choice – to work differently & look for Solutions (these are few) rather than problems (there are many). But the choice is OURS to make – and I choose to look for solutions- and the opportunities rather than the problems.

In the current situation, there are a number of things we cannot influence. However, we should actively look for areas that we can influence. What do we choose to be today?

Choose to be a PLAYER- not a BYSTANDER. We all have a choice to be a player- someone who is not standing idly on the ground, while a match is going on – but actively engaging with the other players in the team, and working towards a common goal of winning in this game.

Players chose to focus on what they can control.

· You can control your attitude towards your boss and senior leaders & the business.

· You can control your ability to perform, to become a guru, a thought-leader, a go-to-person who is seen as adding value.

· You can control your approach when interacting with your boss and other leaders.

What can we do as a Star Team? – we may not be able to single-handedly change our company’s culture, but we can….

· Create a small pocket of success in your own area of influence that inspires others to take notice and behave differently towards us, and our team. Share it with the rest of the team. Let us celebrate all our success together. Every small success will add a brick to our goal of being the OEM team in the world! (Why stop there – why not the best team in MS).

· Bring the right attitude. (Solutions – not problems)

· Avoid people who are tuned out and actively disengaged.

Another key element to becoming a very successful team is when EVERY member thinks like the OWNER of the company! Instead of being (and behaving like an employee), start behaving like an "Employer/ Owner" . Why would this be required? (this was truly an eye-opener- and I believe each of should adopt this as our mantra).

Why Owners? –

· Owners step out from behind titles and job descriptions to act on behalf of the customer , partners and the company.

· They never say "This is not my job" or "this is too big for me".

· Owners cater to the organization mission, vision and values. Non-owners cater to bosses.

· Owners focus on the business results of their actions

· Owners have the guts to ask the tough questions. They understand the consequences of complacency- and they aren’t afraid to challenge the status quo with the mantra "How can we make it better"

· Owners disregard functional boundaries to consider what’s goodf or the company as a whole.

· Owners pay attention to detail

Be the change you wish to see in the world – MK Gandhi

If you have stuck by till now – here is a quick homework for you.

Identify 3 activities you will take up immediately- take a pen & write it down- which will set you in the right direction. Think about your personal or professional life- and where you think you are not playing the role of a PLAYER- list it out- and start making a move to change that! Things will be different.

May.16