caring Archives - Dennis E. Gilbert

21
Nov 19
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A Perspective About The Noise In Your Head

That noise that is rattling around in your head is obvious to you, but no one else really notices or cares. As people we often hope that someone will notice, and more importantly care.

Ask someone why they were disappointed with their service and they’ll likely tell you that it was because no one seemed to care.

Why Care?

When you think about your friends from grade school, high school, or college do you wonder if they’re thinking about you? Perhaps they are, yet most people are much more engaged with what is happening right in front of them.

We sometimes refer to this as the squeaky wheel principle. The idea that whoever squeals the loudest gets the attention. In some regards, this is always true.

As humans we are hard wired to be alert to what is happening right in front of us. If someone starts shouting, we stop, we observe, and we listen more carefully. It is our instincts at play.

If we feel threatened or hungry or scared, we follow instinctual instructions to change the situation or be more alert than normal. We care about what happens next.

What does it take for you to notice or care enough to give your undivided attention?

Noise In Your Head

This is important to remember, the noise going on in your head is really just your noise. It isn’t necessarily noticeable to others.

Sure, you could walk with a stomp, put on a pout face, or clench your fist, but unless you are in front of an audience, it’s likely that no one will notice.

The noise in your head is your noise, unless of course you choose to share it. Even then, it is up to others to notice, observe, and listen.

Here is what matters the most. When we take a minute to care enough to ask someone else about their World, it gives them the opportunity to have their noise heard.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

07
May 18
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Care More and You Will Spend Less

Tags : caring costs customer experience service

Is customer service at an all-time low? Many people suggest that it might be. Does spending less pay off with more? Do the businesses that care more have the biggest advantage of all?

People are wondering what happened to customer service. The well-known restaurant chain, the shopping mall, and the pharmacy, what happened to the customer experience?

Keep Costs Low

Many businesses connect caring with costs. Perhaps not always consciously, but they still do it.

Why train our youngest workers in customer service, they’ll be gone at the end of the season.

It takes an extra full-time employee to monitor the rest rooms, the landscaping, and the outside trash containers.

Only one checkout line is necessary. Customers can wait when we get busy.

Call us back in a couple of hours, we’ll give you and update.

Sorry, we did nothing. We needed more information before we could process your order.

The customer experience is a simple one. Do more, give more, and care more than what is expected.

Measuring the Experience

Sometimes the trick is analyzing what is expected. Expectations are not driven by the front-line supervisor, the storeowner, or the even the marketing committee. While all three may have a hand in it, ultimately the customer decides.

When the high cost franchise restaurant cannot survive while the mom and pop diner consistently is consistently packed, or when the local shopping mall closes, and when the medical office cannot understand why patients are so angry. Perhaps they need to consider how much they really care.

Better yet, start with caring, it may be too late when everyone has already starting leaving.

Care More

It really isn’t that hard to grasp. If the population of those you serve are citing the chronic problems with customer service, your opportunity is to care more, not less.

The best businesses avoid correlating expenses with the bottom line. They correlate expenses with growth which leads to a better bottom line.

When cutting costs to improve cash flow is the only thing you’ll do to improve your position. Your position will lack service. Your culture will be focused on spend less and earn more, instead of care more and spend less.

The biggest advantage is the one waiting on you to make a difference for human interaction. Dollar for dollar customer onboarding, retention, and lifetime value will be more effective when you care more.

It is the only effective way to get more by spending less.

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a five-time author and some of his work includes, #CustServ The Customer Service Culture, and Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

06
Apr 18
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Service Culture Noise, It Does Not Sound Like Spam

Tags : caring culture service spam

Spam annoys everyone. Most of us wonder why anyone would spam as a business strategy. If you’re striving to build brand and make some noise, try service culture noise, not the sound of spam.

Certainly, definitions of spam vary. Some believe spam is anything they don’t want shoved in front of them. Email, social posts, even traditional USPS mail is sometimes being labeled spam.

Others believe it is the repetitive nature of unwanted electronic communication, mostly email. Some marketers urge you to spam as a strategy. Hit your email list hard and often. Just keep emailing and emailing, it will eventually result in a purchase.

Spam Concepts

The concept of spam is simple, perhaps that is the exact reason why it is a bad idea. The concept is that you are going for volume.

If one email a week is a good idea, then five a week must be five times better. Certainly, there is some value to people seeing your offer more than once, but it is not a simple linear ratio.

Still businesses and even individuals do this. Time and time again. More is better, more increases my odds, and more guarantees some results. Let’s make some noise and really get noticed.

There is little doubt that a bigger list, with more potential customers, more potential opportunities has value. It may be called prospecting. Hitting the same potential contact too often is called spam.

Service Culture Noise

Service culture noise does not include spam. Services cultures are more about quality interactions. They show interest, caring, and represent more value. The service culture is an investment in time, resources, and requires more effort. This is exactly why it stands out.

Spam is like the lottery, you probably are not going to win.

On the other hand, a service culture, one that includes patience, illustrates caring, shows up, and makes it a little bit more personal has a different kind of noise. It isn’t about volume. It is about harmony.

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a five-time author and some of his work includes, #CustServ The Customer Service Culture, and Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

05
Feb 18
-

Motivation And Caring And Other Things That Move Us

Tags : caring money motivation organizational culture

Do you believe you are motivated? Are motivation and caring connected? Understanding motivation may not be as simple as many people believe.

Things That Move Us

I have to keep pushing to get this done otherwise I may be fired.

We need the numbers for the meeting on Thursday; next week’s inventory purchases depend on it.

I dropped the customers fragile package but I don’t think anything broke we just need to get this shipped.

Is this about motivation? Is there a connection to caring? I may care about being fired. Do I care about inventory, or would I care more if it were about payroll? I’m measured by orders shipped not by customer satisfaction that is the salespersons job.

I’m not sure that I believe people are either motivated or they are not. In many of our workplace behaviors, I believe people either care or they don’t.

Motivated by Purpose

During leadership-oriented seminars, I’m often compelled to initiate a short discussion about how motivation in the workplace is connected to a sense of purpose. A purpose may be something we care about, or we don’t.

I want to get the data on the Excel worksheet to be exact, no errors.

That customer has been waiting a long time; I’m going to expedite their shipment.

Jack needs some help and I’m going to stay late with him to get things caught up.

All are connected to caring. Either we care or we don’t. However, some may argue that most of our motivation comes from money.

Leadership Challenge

The challenge then for organizational leaders may come down to one of two paths.

Either our story is persuasive enough to get the employees to care based on a very compelling sense of purpose that is deeply rooted in our culture, or we pay very, very well and base both the principle of motivation and caring to be rooted in compensation.

A third but somewhat different argument may be that both the organization and its employees need some combination of both.

Motivation and Caring

Maybe we should look at it another way.

Do the restaurant employees care if our food that is intended to be served hot is cold? Do they only care if we pay them to care?

Perhaps the motivation for money doesn’t always connect with an organization that cares, but I’ll take the bet that the organization that cares is always motivated.

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a five-time author and some of his work includes, #CustServ The Customer Service Culture, and Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

23
Dec 17
-

Employees That Care Change The Customer Experience

Tags : caring customer experience employees policies rules

Rules, policies, and procedures are often in place to ensure the customer experience is delivered consistent with the brand promise. Have you considered that having employees that care is really what changes the customer experience?

Organizations can set policy and have rules, but often the values and beliefs of the employee will be the biggest factor for outcomes. Demonstrating caring starts with the employees believing that the organization they work for values both the employees and customers.

Bounds of Rules and Policies

Employees will make decisions both within the bounds of rules and policies and outside of those parameters too. What they decide will really depend on what they value. Culture, driven by leadership often shapes value perceptions.

A gallon of milk has a drip, but put it on the shelf anyway. I hope that someone grabs it soon.

There is an empty coach seat on the unfilled airplane but the three biggest people on the plane are required to sit in the same row.

The roofer drops some nails in your yard, but oh well, perhaps no one will notice.

At the automobile repair shop, the mechanic steps in grease, gets it on your floor mats, but ignores what he sees because it isn’t his problem.

Food for table four sits and grows cold since the waiter is more preoccupied with his friends seated at table eight.

Chances are great that all of these circumstances, as well as thousands of others are against the rules. They break the fundamental policies, procedures, and what the organization leadership claims as the brand promise.

Caring Starts Inside

Caring starts on the inside. It starts with the organization philosophy that is carried out every day. Not the rule in written in the manual, the one that the employee feels based on the cultural environment.

The dairy department manager is measured in part by loss due to spoilage or out of date merchandise.

Airline personnel aren’t sure that comfort is one of their problems. Security is what really matters. Stay in your ticketed seat. Passengers should be more weight conscious.

The boss wants the roofer on the next job, they already lost a day because of rain. Picking up a few nails is a waste of time.

Grease, what grease? I work in grease every day and I can’t afford that car. Deal with it, it didn’t come from my boot.

Why do people eat burgers and fries anyway? They should be vegans. Who cares if their food sits. Reminiscing about high school is much more fun.

Employees That Care

Chances are great that rules, policies, and procedures won’t matter that much. It is the integrity and ethics of the employees that will make the difference. They’ll decide. They likely make those decisions hundreds of times per day.

However, they aren’t the only ones to blame. Guiding their choices are the behaviors of the leadership agenda.

Time is money and waste is problematic are two leadership punishments that employees divert to the customer. They’ve learned it from the inside and they’re sharing it on the outside.

Do you want to change the customer experience? Employees that care are important. Leadership measurement should consider metrics of caring. Caring is never cheap, but not caring is the most expensive of all.

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a five-time author and some of his work includes, #CustServ The Customer Service Culture, and Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

21
Dec 17
-

In Customer Service Word of Mouth is Caring

Tags : caring customer service feeling word of mouth

Often people express that they get the most traction from word of mouth experiences. Has word of mouth changed? In customer service, word of mouth is caring, it is also about selling, branding, and marketing.

For many organizations, I can’t stress enough that your customer service is never about what you say it is, it is always about what the customer feels.

Convinced

Many individuals and organizations try to convince me of their exceptional delivery. They tout their brilliance and success while suggesting that their customers will back it up. Perhaps, but it is still never about what the vendors says, it is always about what the customer feels.

Today much of our word of mouth has become world of mouth. The incredible wave of communicating electronically has made our world smaller and our reach longer.

There is a saying, “People will not always remember what you said, but they’ll always remember how you made them feel.”

Feeling Average

People don’t talk much about average. Average is too easy. The regular haircut, the normal cheese and peperoni pizza, the typical commute to work. It isn’t discussed.

However, when the barber slips, or the hair coloring is off. We hear about it. A bad pizza or improperly cooked steak, we hear about it. A little road rage or a traffic jam, we hear about it.

The biggest fallacies I witness with organizations pursuing a culture of customer service is that they evaluate their level of service based on costs and their own perceptions. Nothing about good service is cheap, but it (good service) also isn’t always expensive.

The question that organizations should be asking themselves is, “Expensive compared to what?”

Word of Mouth

People aren’t talking about normal or average. They will repeat a pleasant surprise, and they’ll shout it out about unhappy experiences. Average, normal, or the basics aren’t enough. Certainly, poor service is a disaster.

Do you want world of mouth? Show your customers that you care because the most expensive customer service of all is when you are picking up the broken pieces. Word of mouth or world of mouth, both are about the outstandingly exceptional or else the drama filled disaster.

Most people just want to know that someone cares.

That is a feeling, not a slogan, phrase, or bumper sticker.

How much does a feeling cost? It is priceless.

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a five-time author and some of his work includes, #CustServ The Customer Service Culture, and Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

18
Dec 17
-

Care About Your Customer Or Else

Tags : caring customer service feel good policies rules

Many of our customer service successes or problems are the result of caring, or not. It seems simple to most. Which is precisely why so many take customer service behaviors for granted. Do you care about your customer?

I’m missing a shirt from my dry cleaning drop off.

Sorry, we accidentally gave it to another customer. He will bring it back soon.

Do you mean soon, as in an hour, or soon as in days?

We don’t know, soon. He usually comes in on Saturday.

I needed that shirt for a trip. I’m headed out of town.

Sorry.

Lack of Caring

Why do fast food drive through lines leave the bag open when there is warm food inside? Why does the garage move your car seat or mirrors and then leave them in that position?

The root cause of any or all of the problems is the same. They don’t care about how it makes it you feel or how it affects what happens next for you.

Sometimes it is about chance. The customer called saying he had a shirt that was not his. The thought is, oh darn; bring it back when you can please. More thinking, the customer has nine other clean shirts, this one doesn’t matter. Hope he doesn’t come in before the shirt gets back.

Sometimes it is about protection. The bag is likely open because the last thing they do is look inside, being sure they haven’t made an error. The thought is, keep the bag open so we can spot check and the customer can too.

Sometimes it is about convenience. The seat and mirrors were obnoxious in that position they are better now. The thought, how can someone drive with those positions, I can’t.

Care About Your Customer

Rules, policies, procedures, or even ignorance to the outcomes are often to blame for a lack of caring. Not caring feels wrong in a world that measures the service experience by advancing the needle on the gauge related to how good the customer feels.

What is worse than the customer not feeling good? The customer will tell others how it made them feel.

When you decide to make a difference, you will stop saying that you care about your customer and start showing them.

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a five-time author and some of his work includes, #CustServ The Customer Service Culture, and Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

16
Nov 17
-

Caring Costs but Saves Money in the Long Run

Tags : caring costs customer service money principle

Possibly the most fundamental principle that is so often violated in the workplace and especially in customer service is caring. Caring costs but it certainly can save money in the long run.

Workplace Caring

At our job, someone leaves the printer without paper, or prints and leaves the tray filled with unwanted output. The office microwave has spills, the paper towel dispenser is empty, and all of your shared documents have moved to a different folder.

It seems doesn’t matter [sarcasm] because time is money and everyone is running late or behind, or perhaps, they just don’t care. We’ll leave it for the next person to clean up or take care of, after all, they have more time.

Customer Service

We see it, feel it, and hear about it all the time. The unclean restroom, food that should be warm, but is cold, or even the displays that clutter the isles of our local food store making it difficult for shopping carts to pass.

Caring may feel like it is expensive. It takes time, resources, and often money to make a difference.

Too often, the focus is on the short term, not realizing the negative repercussions in the long run.

Caring Costs

One of the best benefits of caring is word of mouth, today this is world of mouth. The C Suite fears the negative social media posts, but insists that organizational performance is relative to the front line.

Caring starts internally, it begins within the culture of the organization. It is hard to show external caring when internally the measurement of profit or sales trumps any philosophical position the organization claims to be taking.

Saves Money

Yes, in fact, caring costs, but it may also more than pay for itself. Caring builds relationships, creates loyalty, and increases lifetime customer value. Considering just those three things, it seems to me that in the long run this saves money.

Is caring important? Caring is so important that I devoted a chapter to it in my recent book.

Care more. It puts the human back in the equation—priceless.

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a five-time author and some of his work includes, #CustServ The Customer Service Culture, and Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

07
Nov 17
-

How Listening Improves Customer Service

Tags : caring communication customer service leadership listening

Many organizations who actually take the time to self-reflect suggest that one area they could improve is in their communication. Listening is one of the most fundamental and easily improved skills. Have you considered how listening improves customer service?

As a business consultant and organization development professional, I hear it all the time. I hear it mostly because I am listening, listening carefully and watch the non-verbal cues. Many businesses believe they are too good to change.

Their focus is either on the CEO’s area of expertise, often a technical skill, or on getting more sales. Neither of these are a problem, until; their focus becomes their blind spot.

Blind Spots

I’ve heard CEO’s of small businesses ($15k – $65k annual revenue) repeatedly suggest that they are too big to fail. Some of them flat out say it. Others are saying it when you listen through the words.

If you’re following along closely, you might wonder why I’m even in the room? Think about that for a moment. Honestly, I’m typically there because someone on the team has suggested to bring me in and the top brass tolerates it because they hope it will silence the team.

Now, I’m not bashing my clients, not at all. I’m honestly trying to help. However, too big to fail sometimes equates to too big to listen. This is most likely why the second string in the C Suite has recommended we work together. The first string tolerates it, again hoping to calm the restless.

Besides, they would never want to be accused of not supporting the team. The team needs this, but perhaps they do not, at least that may be the thought.

Customer Service Connection

The customer service connection should be starting to become clear. We’re in a service oriented economy. That isn’t really new, it has been shifting for decades, and many believe that it is accelerating.

In a service economy, the most valuable core principles should be closely aligned with [customer] service. This is important internally and externally. It is important for sales, brand promise, and understanding lifetime value.

Where are most organizations focused? They are focused on the external, closing the sale, increasing profit, and forging new relationships. Certainly, of course they are, as they should be. However, their focus on external push often eliminates listening to the service requirements.

Listening Improves Customer Service

How does this happen? Too big to fail, equates to too big to listen, which makes their actions and behaviors consistent with too big to care.

Caring is one of the most violated principles in a service economy. They may care, but sometimes they care incorrectly. Caring about closing the sale is sometimes not the same as caring enough to listen.

Listening, that is where it all starts. Not hearing, but listening.

In case you’re wondering, there is a difference.

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a five-time author and some of his work includes, #CustServ The Customer Service Culture, and Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

Tag Archives: caring

Nov 19

-

Why Care?

Noise In Your Head

May 18

-

Keep Costs Low

Measuring the Experience

Care More

Apr 18

-

Spam Concepts

Service Culture Noise

Feb 18

-

Things That Move Us

Motivated by Purpose

Leadership Challenge

Motivation and Caring

Dec 17

-

Bounds of Rules and Policies

Caring Starts Inside

Employees That Care

Dec 17

-

Convinced

Feeling Average

Word of Mouth

Dec 17

-

Lack of Caring

Care About Your Customer

Nov 17

-

Workplace Caring

Customer Service

Caring Costs

Saves Money

Nov 17

-

Blind Spots

Customer Service Connection

Listening Improves Customer Service

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