EXCELLENCE IN CUSTOMER FOCUS

Focus is much harder than it sounds. It has happened to all of us, we are in a meeting or having a conversation when little by little some outside thought creeps in and pervades our consciousness. Suddenly we have lost track of what is being said and when it becomes our time to contribute we are clueless. It can be embarrassing, it is a huge waste of time, and it is always counterproductive.

Let’s begin with the basics; the big difference between listening and hearing. Hearing is the passive act of being aware of voices or noises around you. Listening, or better still active listening, is focusing on what is being said and assimilating the information for storage, analytics, and response.

Listening versus hearing is easy to demonstrate. The next time you are in a crowded restaurant make an effort to listen to the din, a cacophony of voices and conversations that blend into a dense background, or a sort of white noise. Next focus on a table within earshot and center your attention on what is being said by the table’s occupants. You will immediately understand the conversation as though you were at that table. Your focus excludes the confusion of the ambient noise. The dissonance of sounds comprise the act of hearing, picking out a specific target is listening.

Part of the problem with listening is our brains’ ability to process information more rapidly than we speak. This allows for free mental time and our brains search for information to fill the lulls. The key to focusing on what is being said is the same as it was in the restaurant scenario, we must focus on the speaker, the content of what is being said, and not allow our brains to take us away on a tangent. We can consciously fill the additional time in our brains by considering multiple aspects of what is being said as we decide how the information relates to us.

Focus is an important part of everything we do. We are more successful when we focus on our customers, coworkers, employees, family, friends, and the people we meet every day. In every interaction we must ascertain its value and determine the appropriate amount of time, effort, and resources. Especially in the case of customers and clients we should always make an effort to determine their true need and expectations. Only when we understand our customers’ true need are we able to serve them with a high degree of satisfaction.

Focus can and will improve everything we do. Focus creates a safer more productive work environment, content employees, and satisfied customers. In fact, by focusing on our family and friends when we are together we can improve our relationships. There is no down side.

Give it a try, focus!

Your comments and questions are welcome.

Paul D. Alexander
Alexander Group, Inc.
www.AlexanderGroupInc.Net
Sullivan, Missouri
(573) 468-4719

ANTICIPATION EXCELLENCE

Chances are you have never heard anyone speak of anticipation excellence. Everyone who learns to use anticipation as an effective tool, when working with other employees, suppliers, and contractors along with engaging customers, will benefit. Simply put, anticipation is the art/science of projecting and forecasting what will be asked, expected, and required in every situation.

Imagine your sales staff going to client meetings with an accurate, correct answer to every question and concern, which they deliver without hesitation. Clients would view your staff and your company as professional and competent. Picture your employees arriving at internal meetings fully prepared with all relevant information for the questions at hand. Meetings would be shorter, more productive, and morale would improve.

Anticipation Excellence can be achieved by most individuals, there being a small percentage of employees who will not change existing behavior, who are willing to use their past experience in similar situations, their knowledge of individuals, products, and the business to prepare intellectually and emotionally for meetings and working sessions. Anticipation is not the ability to see into the future. Rather, it is the skill to take what you already know, relate current situations to past experiences, and forecast what will be asked and required.

The key to anticipation is thoughtful consideration. Take a few minutes to prepare by picturing what will take place in the upcoming interaction and make a mental or written checklist of everything that might occur. It is always better to over prepare. Having information in a meeting that is not required is a much better scenario than not having something that is.

Using anticipation as a tool can be taught, incentivized, and measured. Anticipation will make your employees the best, happiest, most thorough, and most profitable.

I anticipate that Anticipation Excellence is something which will greatly benefit your organization regardless of your number of employees or business type.

Next entry we will discuss Excellence in Customer Focus

Your comments and questions are welcome.

Paul D. Alexander
Alexander Group, Inc.
www.AlexanderGroupInc.Net
Sullivan, Missouri
(573) 468-4719

COOPERATION EXCELLENCE

Inter and intra-company cooperation along with employee relationships with suppliers and subcontractors can make the work environment pleasant and enjoyable. Getting along with others, including management, is the basis for good morale. Additionally, cooperation reduces turnover, cuts lost hours, and improves employee engagement. In short, people who happily cooperate and help us with our tasks and challenges make our lives better.

Cooperation is a state of mind, a culture, and a way of living. In the workplace, it begins with communication from management and feedback from the workforce. Management asks what can be done to make it easy for everyone to cooperate and the workforce responds with what it believes it needs. Sometimes what the workforce asks for must be adjusted to accommodate business goals and objectives, but often much of what is asked can be provided. For example, a workforce asks for a clearer understanding of the chain of command. This is something we all take for granted and assume everyone knows, yet sometimes they do not. In response management provides an organization chart and one roadblock to cooperation is eliminated.

Next, management explains the importance of cooperation and what it means to the individuals and the company. If necessary, management can provide cooperation training sessions. These sessions begin by explaining that the only way to expect others to cooperate with us is to cooperate with them. A combination of simple actions will give us the cooperation we want and need, things such as: always imagine that every other person’s actions and words, written or spoken, are of the best intent, never react without all of the facts, think before you speak, before you press send on a retaliatory e-mail give it some time and reconsider.

In summary, give everyone the benefit of the doubt, and treat everyone as you would like to be treated.

Next entry we will discuss Excellence in Anticipation

Your comments and questions are welcome.

Paul D. Alexander
Alexander Group, Inc.
www.AlexanderGroupInc.Net
Sullivan, Missouri
(573) 468-4719

COMMUNICATION EXCELLENCE

Today begins our first focused entry in the Excellence series. Communications, both internal and external affect the work environment, employee morale, customer satisfaction, and sales success. It stands to reason; with this much at stake it is a topic worth considerable time and effort to perfect.

We call the new generation of eighteen to twenty-something’s “Millenniums” and many believe they will be our most successful generation in a long time. They are bright, tech savvy, and have plenty of good, recent examples of what not to do. However, I believe there is a chink in their armor, one that also permeates the behavior of Seniors, Boomers, Generation X, and Gen Y. This profound flaw is their manner and style of non-verbal, technology assisted communication.

Texting is portable, stealthy (send and receive silently from almost anywhere, including church and school), and non-confrontational. How easy to deliver bad news with a one line note. Ardent users are extremely proficient typing with their thumbs and their use of acronyms, such as LOL, and abbreviations. There is an argument to be made that all of this is beneficial. However, in business the disadvantages of this methodology can far, and quickly, outweigh the benefits.

Some of the chief drawbacks are:

• Foregoing a respectful style, giving up “Dear,” or “Good Morning,” or even a simple “Hi” in favor of launching directly into the subject, which leads to the end of the communication also lacking a personal sign off
• Inability to convey tone and emotion
• Failure to write grammatically correct sentences or use punctuation, thus establishing lack of quality as a customer’s expectation of the entire business

This is not to say that text communications with our customers must always be as formal as a typed letter. If we begin with a slightly more formal style we impress our customers with our professionalism and quality. Then, as the interactions continue, especially they are frequent and part of a thread; we can become more informal and follow the style established by our customer. When mimicking a customer’s communication style we must still maintain a degree of decorum and a representation of quality and professionalism. Meaning, if our customer continues a more formal approach to communication we should always respond using the same format. This is a sign of respect.

In many businesses verbal communication, in person as well as by telephone, are essential. We must be careful to not allow our informal, non-verbal habits to negatively affect our verbal opportunities to serve our customers well. When answering the phone, if we use our first and last names we eliminate misunderstandings. Besides, how can we expect our customers to give us credit card numbers, social security numbers, and other sensitive, personal information if we are unwilling to at least share our complete name with them? Again, as communications and frequency increase with a particular client or customer we can relax our approach. Of course, while always maintaining a respectful posture.

The same rules of communication as laid out above for client/customer interactions, also apply to intra-company and inter-departmental communications. Nothing deteriorates office morale and cooperation faster than communications perceived as disrespectful or rude. Intent is unimportant, perception is all that matters. If you send a note to a coworker with the best of intentions and he/she perceives that note as rude the backlash will be immediate and generally descend into a very unpleasant, non-productive conclusion.

The solution is simple. Begin every interaction with customers and coworkers in a slightly formal, respectful manner, treat everyone as you would like to be treated, and never assume the worst when reading a note or having a conversation. If it seems bad ask for clarification before making a brash retort. You will be surprised at how often the meaning and the perception are far afield.

Next entry we will discuss Excellence in Cooperation.

Your comments and questions are welcome.
Paul D. Alexander
Alexander Group, Inc.
www.AlexanderGroupInc.Net
Sullivan, Missouri
(573) 468-4719

EXCELLENCE, THE FOUNDATION OF AMERICAN BUSINESS

Today marks the first week, entry, in a series of Performance Improvement related posts. I decided to begin with Excellence because it is truly the foundation of everything we do. Jim Collins published a very popular book a few years ago entitled Good To Great. I like the work for a couple of reasons. First, it is based on extensive research done with the cooperation of many important companies and not only someone’s opinion. Secondly, I like it because it pulls away the shroud of performance and how dependent every company is upon the choices and attitudes of top management. For any company to move from good performance to great performance the organization’s leader must say, “I am not satisfied with our performance, profitability, and customer satisfaction index. We can and will do much better.”

Our American economy is slowly improving. During the darkest days of our new Millennium Recession most companies went to ground. Even those with substantial war chests decided to preserve their cash by cutting spending and reducing operations. A common mistake was cutting marketing and training, which in most cases created a self fulfilling prophecy of gradual demise. Companies that choose to be, or become, great know that an excellent workforce is essential. Those leaders are acutely that only well trained employees with clear objectives, quality training, and the proper tools can perform their tasks with excellence. Employees must be engaged and filled with desire to do the best possible work. Only engaged employees can truly engage customers and drive exceptional Customer Satisfaction.

Excellence can be an essential element in all we do. We should strive for and achieve excellence in:

• Communications, both internal and external
• Cooperation, inter-company as well as intra-company
• Anticipation, imagining what will required before it is necessary
• Focusing upon the customer’s true need

…and a myriad of other job categories and functions.

Employees can and will only be excellent if and when they want to. Leadership must understand the wants and needs of the employee body as a whole. Communication must be clear, concise, and in a format and language everyone understands. Employees must have a sense of connectedness to their employer and their employer’s goals and be ready and willing to go the extra mile to defend and promote the well being of the company above all.

The question then is: “How do we create this environment of Excellence?”

Next entry we will discuss Excellence in Cooperation.

Your comments and questions are welcome.

Paul D. Alexander
Alexander Group, Inc.
www.AlexanderGroupInc.Net
Sullivan, Missouri
(573) 468-4719