Customer Experience…More than Good Service! A Tip From The Manager’s Answer Book

I just had one of those amazing customer services experiences that reminded me of how things should be but how rarely they are.  

It was a simple on line transaction that was made far too complicated by their processes and I had to make multiple attempts to fix simple mistakes. So, when I FINALLY resolved the issue and got an immediate message from their site asking for feedback, you can bet I did the quick survey which took all of 10 seconds because all I had to do was to click on the image that best fit how I felt about my experience.

Within minutes, I had an email message from a real person who apologized, explained what had happened and, here’s the best part—before she emailed me, she’d checked to see that everything was in order and wished me a great trip. The message was warm and friendly without being intrusive.  I felt so much better about the time I’d wasted on their site.

Manager’s Tip:  In our latest book, The Manager’s Answer Book, we pose a question: “I want to be sure we’re providing our customers with the best customer service, but I keep hearing that good customer service isn’t enough—that we have to give them a good customer experience. How can I make sure we are doing that?”

One thing we say in our answer is: “Create an emotional connection with your customers, because customers become loyal when they feel they received how they felt when they used a particular service or product. Studies show that an emotionally engaged customer is at least three times more likely to recommend your product or service. Emotional connections are formed when your employee finds a way to do something so special for a customer that the person is blown away.”

See page 159 of The Manager’s Answer Book for the full answer and a great example of how to provide a customer experience from Zappos. 

Royal Changes

Like 1.9 million other people, I watched the royal wedding between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle last May. And what a wedding it was with the beautiful dress and the adorable flower girls and page boys—especially the twin sons of the bride’s friend who so loved being in the spotlight as they carried her train up that very long aisle and taking their responsibilities quite seriously!  All the pomp and ceremony you'd expect, but with some exceptions.

I, like a lot of people, saw this event as more significant than the average wedding--even an average royal wedding. A normal wedding impacts the families and especially the couple who are joining their lives—but this wedding seemed to have broader implications for more people.

Think about all that was different about that particular wedding.  The bride is an American actress with an African American mother and Caucasian father. An African American Episcopal Bishop preached a sermon about love, a gospel choir sang Stand by Me, and a 19-year-old black cellist played. It was enough to shake the foundations of the century’s old chapel in which all this took place!  Queen Elizabeth’s head must have spinning, especially when the Bishop was preaching in a style that appeared to make her and many others in the Royal Family a bit uncomfortable. I imagined her saying or thinking “We've never done it this way!”  Change does not come easy in a world where traditions run deep!

Change is a topic that didn't escape The Manager’s Answer Book. Managers need to understand that everyone approaches change differently. Some fight and resist it no matter what. Some stay quiet, taking a wait and see attitude sometimes hoping that it will go away. Some—the change champions—embrace change for what it is—an opportunity for growth and progress.  Managers have to help employees understand their response toward change and how the change will affect them. They must be on the lookout for conflicts to ensure that the changes positively drive the results the organization is seeking.

Never would I ever have thought I’d write a blog to compliment Queen Elizabeth on her ability to accept change but here it is!  I hope you can take a lesson from this royal experience—even if you stayed away from all the wedding news and slept in that Saturday morning.

Barbara Mitchell

Can you speak up?

Living in the Southwest, I'm once again reminded that there are so many dimensions of diversity. 

An article in the Albuquerque Journal on May 4, 2018 caught my attention. It was about two Native American teens who had travelled to a city out of state for a college tour. During the tour they were pulled from the group by two police officers. A complaint had been made by the mother of another student who stated, according to the article, they were too quiet. The teens were the only minorities in the group of white teens and parents.

The incident made national and international news with allegations of discrimination, negative stereotyping and racial profiling. That’s not what this post is about. It’s about a comment made by one of the officers.  He was reported as saying to the teens mother, “Maybe it will be a lesson for your kids that when they’re in a public situation to speak up.” 

There are numerous dimensions of diversity that go well beyond the ones that are obvious, the ones that can be seen and observed, like race and sex. People have different work and personality styles – they can be introverts or extroverts. My reaction when I read the comment by the officer: Maybe they are both shy! Maybe they are introverts.

Management lesson:  Every team will have introverts.  In meetings, you want to encourage everyone to participate in discussions. But remember, introverts don’t tend to speak up. They may have to be asked. They may need time to process the information being shared. You sometimes have to be creative and draw them out, especially in a meeting situation.  

Get to know your team members and learn more about them and their preferred style. We all have our own comfort zones. If you learn some people are shy or intimidated speaking out in a meeting – respect that difference.  If some individuals tell you they like to have time to process information before offering solutions – respect that difference. Find out how they are comfortable contributing. Leave the door open to accepting suggestions – perhaps in person or via email – after the meeting has concluded.  Don’t overlook them – they may have the solution you’ve been looking for! 

Summer’s Here—Take a Real Break!

It appears that Americans are finally getting the message that taking time off is a good thing. We’ve all heard the statistics that tell us how many vacation days are unused annually and there has been a very slight decrease which means more people are actually taking the time off they’ve earned. Let’s be honest—it’s not just that we’ve earned the time off—it is that we NEED the time off. 

But, taking time off is just the beginning. How do we get people to actually disconnect from work? Most of us, even if we’re sitting on a beach and looking out at a beautiful ocean, lake or river, still check our email far too often. 

If you really want to disconnect, there are things you can do.

• Use the out of office feature on your email. Even if you plan to check messages from time to time, let people know that you will have limited access to email.
• Set one time a day to check your messages and stick to it.
• Lock your phone in the hotel safe if you can’t stop yourself from looking at it!
• If you need your phone to take pictures, keep your phone in airplane mode.

It’s not rocket science to understand that taking a real break from work can have real benefits toward your mental health. This may take some practice but give it a try! And, by the way, if you lock your phone up but keep your tablet by your side at all times, put it away as well!

When You Need Help at Work

Unfortunately, it happens to most of us. A personal crisis impacts us at work – our ability to focus and our ability to do quality work.  We don’t quite know what to do about it. We know this Does it make sense to ask for help or should we try to hide it and muddle through?

We all want to protect our privacy at work but if you find yourself in a personal situation, talk with your manager first. You don’t have to share everything but you should feel comfortable in letting your manager know that you have a personal issue that may require you to be gone from the workplace and also take your focus away from work even when you’re there. 

Hopefully, you’ve been a dependable employee who does good work so that you’ve built up a reserve of good will with your manager. I had a manager who said it’s like a bank account. You deposit money and then, when you need it, you can withdraw it.  Work, he said is the same—you do good work and contribute to the organization’s success and then, if you need time off or whatever, you’ve built up a reserve to draw upon.

Be clear about what you will need. It may be you need to work from home a day or two a week or some assistance with a deliverable with a tight deadline. Let your manager know what you think will be the most helpful and work it out so that the work gets done especially if you need to be away from work.

Do the same thing with trusted colleagues—you don’t have to share all the details but if you need help on a project, ask for it and of course, let your colleagues know how much you appreciate their support and that when you’re back to full capacity at work, you will be there for them. And support them if they need your help at some time!

Yes, we’re employees but we’re also human beings who need help from time to time.

Up Your Game in 2018

A new year is here and with it brings all the trials that come with people management. We’d like to offer not a resolution, but a challenge to managers – up your game and let us help.

We’re starting the year off by finishing our manuscript for The Manager’s Answer Book – scheduled to be published this spring. This has given us the opportunity over the past months to consider, discuss and write about those traits and skills that make a manager great – curiosity, courage, and collaboration – just to name a few. 

Here’s a preview of what we have to say about those traits:

• Curiosity.  Curiosity is one of the most important tools managers should be using in their management journey. Curious people are always learning because they're always asking questions, reading up on topics outside their field of expertise and generally exploring. Be curious about what’s going on in your organization. Find out what other departments or teams are doing. Ask about the challenges your external and internal customers face.  It will help you gain a deeper understanding of what’s going on in the organization and industry. 

• Courage. Courageous managers speak out, take opposing points of view, and confront unpleasant situations and bad decisions. In addition, they suggest and advocate for ideas and positions that may be unpopular.  They are not afraid to put the interests of an employee, their team, or even the larger organization above their own self interests.  They move beyond the “what’s in it for me” mentality, sometimes to their own detriment, because they have the vision to see greater, long-term outcomes. 

• Collaboration.  Build collaborative relationships with your peers. No one person or department stands alone.  Work is interdependent. Seek out your peers and explore common business and personal interests. Determine how you can support the work of each other's department or operation. Agree on those things that your can do to support each other and develop a follow-up plan. Be sure that plan is ongoing and commit to maintain it. 

Throughout the year we’ll be looking at these and other attributes that define a good manager. We’ll also be sharing stories from our own experiences and asking you to share your stories about managers who demonstrated the particular traits that we’ll be writing about. We want to make sure that 2018 is about Making People Matter.