One of my stop words is “Human”, just because of the fact, that the “factor” human is essential in our, ever changing, society. This is not only a fact in a private and offline field, this is equally important in digital and professional business areas.
Companies are doing business to earn money. That money comes from customers who buy the products or use the service(s) which are offered. Customers decide to buy a product, or to make use of a service, because they like the product or the service. But this is not the only and single reason.
They also must like the company because of the way the company is intereacting whith the customers and how a customer is treated. A customer needs the feeling, that his orher pains and needs are taken really seriously. That is is the most important purpose of a company: to help their customers, and the customers succes makes them happy.
This THE approach, to offer a great customer experience.
Of course companies are happy, when a customer is satisfied, because the customer generates revenue. But money should never be the first reason and goal of a company. The only purpose of a company is to make customers happy by fullfilling their needs. If a company acts this way, the money will flow automatically.
Making your customers fans. I have written about making customers fans before.
It is also very important, that the customer has the possibility to get a personal contact with a company. I am not talking about the huge call centers like the ones from DHL or Telekom. The people who are working there, have absolutely no conncetion with the company and they really can’t be bothered about the customers. They’re just doing a job.
I am sure, that we all have our experiences.
A bad service is, very often, due to a bad or not even exsisting comany culture. Call center agents, to name an example, are in general not coached, not supported and paidy badly. Furthermore, they are pressurized. I have no Idea aboit how it works, but I am thinking about an approach like “20 Calls must be performed in one hour” or something like that.
And that’s the reason, that many of those agents are quite indifferent and sometimes even blunt and unfriendly. Because they have no time to take really care of his or her counterpart at the phone and they don’t receive neither support nor esteem from the supervisors. No wonder, that they are not motivated to be friendly and go that famous extra mile.
If a company would pay more attention on the well-being of their teams (employee experience), they would also enhance the experience of their customers.
If the employee is esteemed, the employee is motivated
It’s is a proven fact, that team members, who live in a healthy environment, in which respect, trust, enabling and a open communication is lived, are willing to go the famous extra mile. Because they indentify themselves with the company and they like to go to work. Of course not every day 🙂 Everyone know that special day, one would like to stay in his or her cuddly bed 😉 ) But that’s okay!
Back to seriousity 🙂
About the importance of a safe working environment:
Everyone enjoys receiving praise for a job well done, but did you know that they would prefer this even more than money? It’s true, in fact 78% of employees would rather be recognized for their efforts when it comes to keeping them motivated, and they say money is everything, clearly not in the workforce.
Of course, making the appropriate amount of money for the role you are in is ideal but it is not the key of keeping you there. In order for brands to stay connected with their front-of-the-line advocates they need to learn how to motivate their employees.
People who love their job, their colleagues and the company, are proud to be a part of it and are also proud about the products and/or the services whch are provided to the customers. They are relaxed and this gives more motivation to give a good experience to the customer. Being friendly and helpful, is much easier when there is no pressure or an unempthic supervisor and or C-whatever-O.
And guess what… Customers are extermely sensitive. They notice intuitive, when things are wrong in a company. I have experienced that myself, when I was working as an eventmanager in luxury hotels. When there were frictions in the service team, in the restaurant or during and event, the guests would notice. One could see that by the way the guests were, subconsciously, reacting.
They were less laid-back, less relaxed and happy. Some guest would even ask me, if there was some internal problem, because the staff was so “different” and they didn’t feel happy about it.
Of course the waiting staff was friendly, attentive and acting normal towards the guests. But still, the people at the tables would sense the difference. And this is valid for all fields in which employees are interacing with customers. Stress and being not satisfied as an employee, is poission for customer experience and therefore for the company.
Customers are much more likely to spread bad experiences than good ones. It’shuman nature to complain instead of praising.
Personally, I comment both, good & bad, experiences quite extensively. When I had a great experience, I find it important to tell a story about it, as a sort of customer generated marketing and support for the company. If my experience has been bad, especially when I was treated unfriendly, my comment become as long as the good ones. I am a local guide at Google
People who received a good feedback, normally thank me. People who didn’t keep silent. This is a bad customer care. If a customer was not happy, the entrepreneur should react by appologizing and offering some kind of solution. If there is no reaction, he creates an impression of “I can’t be bothered, mate”. Well, I can’t be bothered by going there again. And this is the reaction of many disappointed customers.
I like to follow a different approach.
When a regular guest would stay away for a noticeable amount of time, I used to call them and to ask if something had been wrong in the resaurant. When they would tell the reason, I used to invite them for dinner and I would ask them if they would be so kind and helpfull, to give us feedback in the future to enable us to improve our services and to make things better.
If the reason was one of the waiters/waitresses, I would talk to this particular employee privately. Sometimes it was not the fault of the employee, but just a bad and unconscious connection between the guests and the waiter/waitress. Nobody’s fault. The next time I would take care, that the waiter got another station where those guests wouldn’t be placed. It was important for me, to ensure the employee, that it was not his fault and that my future action had nothing to do with his skills or personality.
Both guests and waiter/waitress were happy. And, best of all, I was happy as well 🙂
Therefore it is of utmost importance, that the people, who have customer contact are relaxed and satisfied with their job.
Managers should become leaders, by supporting their teams
Company Culture has gained importance during the last few years and this importance is still increasing.
The whole world is talking about digitization. Deep learning software, artificial intelligence. We’re talking about automated marketing and marketing intelligence. Our devices and also our hardware (dishwasher, refrigerator, TV and cars, just to name a few) are continuously getting smarter. Even application files are thrown in an intelligent system and evaluated by some algorithms and keywords. I truelly hate this latter approach, becaue HUMAN ressources Management (I prefer Human Capital) is about interacting with HUMANS.
And humans are the ones who lead the companies into the new era, by dong the work.
Culture eats strategy for breakfast
All the terms and fields, which I named above, are great. I love the new world and all the exciting things that come with it. But if a company wants to become up to date and to be resillient against a changing world, by being able to adopt changes and adapt the new requirements, the company has to do one thing before starting digitization.
A digital transformation
A digital transformation is essential to a company nowadays, to survive in a complex environment. Our society is changing, markets are changing and customers are changing. Startups come with exciting new ideas and products and are even disrupting established companies by bringing innovative products, which offer better, more comfortable and improvementsto the products than the “old guard” is offering.
As you can see on the graphic above, the human factor is on top. And this is in no way a coincidence. The people in a company are the ones, who make a company thrive to make/keep the company successful. Let’s explore what is needed to achieve a successful digital transformation.
A good Managers is an enabler, a motivator and supporter
The days of top-down management are gone. Still a lot of companies are not aware of that. A lot of managers think in old patterns. “I am the boss, you shut up and you do the job for which you are paid. I do the thinking because I am the expert and it is is not your job to develop ideas”. Like Mr. Scrooge in Charles Dickens’ novel “A christmas carrol” 🙂
Still a lot of Managers are fetishists. And their fetishes are their position, their title and their bonuses. This is a mediaeval mindset. I get the slight impression, that also fear and a lack of self-confidence is the true reason that they are clinging to old “signs of power”, which are no longer valid. Also because fear of change and the fact that employees can also have ideas, which might even be better.
This attitude and mindset are very dangerous for business success! Especially German managers are celebrating this behaviour.
So what are the advantages of a happy team? Let’s first explore some effects on your business, when your team is unhappy:
Businesses are bound to crash once their customers are repeatedly turned off by their experiences with the employees to the point they seek alternatives. In order for your company to grow, you have to ensure positive customer experiences are the norm with your staff — not the exception, because happy employees create happy customers.
Employee unhappiness is, unfortunately, one of the most unrelenting problems in the corporate world. Many companies are dealing with unhappy, unengaged employees. Gallup’s State of the American Workplace report showed that just 33% of employees are engaged at work (and even the world’s best organisations reached only 70%). Gallup also found that negative employees scare off your customers.
Furthermore, the cost of workers who do not commit to their work fully is very high for companies. Disengaged employees cost American companies around $450 to $550 billion a year. Kansas State University found that 100 unhappy employees cost $390,000 per year due to lost productivity.
What should be done, to avoid unhappy customers (the source of our income and our standard of living, to bring it to the point)?
Notice the problem, while staying cool
The first step, deal with disengaged employees is to become aware of the problem. To be aware of it doesn’t require direct communication or action. Become aware that there is a problem, stay calm and then proceed to deal with it.
Engage in conversation, cut the small talk but show concern
It’s important to speak to the employee who you believe to be disengaged, just do it discretely and one on one. Exchange pleasantries, mostly avoid small talk, it’s rarely helpful. Small talk allows one another to not fully address the issue, but instead dance around it.
Show you’re concerned, just try not to assume anything. It’s possible they’re just having an off day. Still, ask them if everything is alright and then let them do the speaking.
Sometimes, the reason forbeing unmotivated is not clear. In this case, I like to use communication tools like clean language.
Clean language aims to support clients in discovering and developing their own symbols and metaphors, rather than the therapist/coach/interviewer suggesting or contributing their own framing of a topic. In other words, instead of “supporting” the client by offering them ready-made metaphors, when the counselor senses that a metaphor would be useful or that a metaphor is conspicuously absent, the counselor asks the client, “And that’s like what?” The client is invited to invent their own metaphor.
Clean language was devised by David Grove in the 1980s as a result of his work on clinical methods for resolving clients’ traumatic memories. Grove realized many clients were describing their symptoms in metaphors drawn from the words of previous therapists, instead of from their own experience.
Clean language also is the basis for symbolic modeling, a stand-alone method and process for psychotherapy and coaching developed by James Lawley and Penny Tompkins; for clean space; and for systemic modelling, applied in organisational development. Clean language can also be used in addition to a therapist or coach’s existing approach.
Source: Wikipedia
Find out what they actually want
If you can do this through the conversation then that’s great. If not, then ask them what they really want out of their work and other aspects of their life. Take into consideration the issue they’re having. Then ask them “if the problem were to disappear tomorrow, would everything be alright”?
By asking this, you can gain a better understanding of the situation and the possibility of their future within the organization. This isn’t a bad thing. If you feel their days are potentially numbered within your company, that’s ok. Sometimes people just need a move and you can help them with it in a healthy way.
Provide some kind of action
Source: https://impactbank.ca/
To deal with disengaged employees, if you feel you can help, then do it. If you can help them get back into the swing of things, do it. If you need to suggest some time off, a day off, someone to talk to or anything else.
Do it. Do what you can. Be a coach. Be empathic and try to slip in the shoes of your counterpartand listen actively.
Support them
Whatever their decision, support them. Just let them know that you’re there if they need you again. Often people just need someone to speak to or bounce words and ideas off of. There’s nothing wrong with this, it’s your job to help them and support them in a healthy way. Depending on the situation.
Here’s a comment from one of my colleagues in my Team, when we were cooperating for a demanding project:
I had sent an article about the Dutch way of leadership (the article is in German language) https://www.consultingcheck.com/de/topics/die-niederlaendische-mentalitaet/564/
My colleagues reaction:
German
Das passt wie die Faust auf’s Auge. Genau so war die Zusammenarbeit mit dir 😄 pragmatisch, agil, Vertrauen in das Wissen des Teams, sehr persönlich
English
That fits like a glove. The collaboration with you was pragmatic, agile, trust in the team’s knowledge and very personal
Send them a report of the conversation
Take notes of the conversation. Ensure to contain a summary of the conversation, an action plan and any consequences of failing to meet the action plan. This let’s your employees know that you’re hearing them and taking it seriously. To get them reengaged and productive again, this must happen.
Report back after this process
After you’ve completed these steps, check in every now and again. This doesn’t always mean to speak to them, although it can. It could mean looking over their work, walking past or watching from a far.
What you want is your employees being happy and reengaged at work. You can suggest ways to improve if more serious queries arise.
The benefits for a company, when a team is a happy team
Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.
