guidelines Archives - Dennis E. Gilbert

29
Apr 19
-

Cultural Acceptance Is Just The Beginning

Tags : acceptance behavior culture guidelines leadership

Organizations are built through culture. What is being accepted in your culture? Does cultural acceptance guide what happens next?

Whether it is ethics, dress code, or diversity and inclusion, your culture plays a role in what happens next. Your culture creates the allowance or defiance that shapes its future.

Observed Guidelines

Most modern social guidelines suggest more freedom, more openness, more be who you are and do what you want. Are there limits? What defines those limits?

Of course, there are limits. What does the group allow?

That customer just bought the fifteen-year-old hunk of junk car we had out back and never asked about the transmission.

We sold them a hundred units at ten percent over our list price. They never said a word.

I closed the deal and hung up before she could ask any more questions. (Fist bump!)

Our workplace is our community. What is the culture of your community and what do you allow, congratulate, or celebrate? What are the performance guidelines? How are customers treated?

Cultural Acceptance

You have a choice in your community. You can be part of the future or part of the problem. Often the problem is our quest for the short-term win. Grab the easy money or deliver with the sleight of hand to the unknowing.

What your organizational culture tolerates is what your workplace becomes.

The challenge is often connected to cultural acceptance. In matters of ethics, integrity, and moral values, nearly everyone knows better, yet fitting in is often why they were hired.

When employees weigh the risk of not fitting in with the perceived value of staying; they often choose to stay, regardless of the cost or potential value of the return on risk.

This is where things start but often not where they end.

-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.

01
Jun 18
-

Customer Rules Should Work, Will They?

Tags : customer experience guidelines rules service

Many businesses adopt customer rules. Sometimes these are designed for safety or other critical concerns. Many times, the customer rules are designed to be convenient for the vendor.

No one needs another customer service horror story, we get plenty of them already. This is the short story to illustrate a point.

Short Story

Recently I had minor surgery on my eye lid. Following the procedure, I was prescribed a prescription drop to use for a few days. The surgery center sent my prescription electronically to a pharmacy about twenty-five miles away.

More than ten minutes later I was released from the center, I had to have a driver, and needed get my drops. Thirty-five to forty minutes later we arrived at the drive through lane at the pharmacy.

The prescription, that only required a label to be placed on the packaging (no pill counting, etc.) was not ready. The employee working the drive through window provided two options, “You can either come inside and wait, or come back later.”

Leaning across the center console of the car I asked, “How long until it is ready?”

The employee said, “If you come inside it will be twenty minutes, if you are coming back through the drive through it will be one hour.”

I laughed, and she walked away from the window.

I’m not released to drive, not really in a great position to enter the store, and my driver has other commitments. All of that aside, who is this customer rule benefiting?

Customer Rules

Businesses do silly things every day. Rules, guidelines, and ways of doing business that are designed to benefit someone, but it is a stretch to see the benefit to the customer.

Customer rules should work, but do they? Unfortunately, many rules actually punish the customer.

What are your rules?

-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
Feb 18
-

Add Energy Instead Of Subtracting It

Tags : change guidelines human resources leadership

We make lots of decisions daily. While not everyone believes it, we have choices about our behaviors, situation outcomes, and what we’ll contribute. Do you add energy to your workplace or subtract from it?

Rules are rules and guidelines are guidelines, perhaps more people prefer to work with guidelines instead of rules. Rules are more matter of fact, they are black or white, typically with very little grey.

What if we changed the guidelines? What if the guidelines became more about giving instead of taking? I’m not referring to charity or forwarding a few dollars to a cause, I’m talking about just giving more.

Would Things Change

How would our workplace change if:

Everyone was truthful
There were more offers of help
People owned their mistakes
Assistance was given before the ask
There was more sharing of information
People cared more about listening
Promises were kept
Commitments were promises
We welcomed different ideas
We had more learning opportunities
There was was encouragement for speed
Employees valued quality more
Fear wasn’t the motivator for action
We gave better feedback
More respect was given

This is the short list. We could continue to explore more.

What about meeting the pace of the customer, could we do that? Imagine considering a draft, just that, a draft, and keeping things fluid. And simply caring more about the outcomes of others instead of paychecks for ourselves.

Certainly, nearly everyone needs the paycheck but does it come before civility?

Add Energy

I can’t think of a business that doesn’t have a human side. Even the most tech savvy, robotics driven environments still rely on having humans at the helm.

Organizations often talk about it, occasionally they throw some energy into it. What if it was part of the guidelines?

Imagine if every person had the goal to add energy? Would it change a few unspoken rules?

– 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+

14
Nov 17
-

Vague Customer Service Guidelines

Tags : customer service goals guidelines milestones vague

Milestones and goals are always important. Many people stress how critical metrics and measurements are for the performance management process. How are you managing customer service? Do you have vague customer service guidelines?

When you attend a meeting, get involved in a committee, or volunteer to help steer the direction of a project you may insist on some goals. The funny thing about most of these endeavors is that they are built on one underlying, often-subconscious premise, keeping everything vague.

Customer Service Culture

Your organizational culture is developed from many things, including: brand, symbols, language, methods, and processes. Most of all, it is carried out by people, and is often intended to be role modeled from the behaviors of organizational leaders.

Is customer service part of your culture? Customer service shouldn’t be viewed as a department, in today’s economy customer service is about culture. Most leaders will quickly grab on to this idea, but as role models, they may leave some gaps.

Not Specific Means Vague

Positive language is often spread throughout the organization by role models, but it is often vague.

Here are a few examples:

Improve satisfaction.
Increase lifetime value.
Enhance the customer experience.

Anything that is vague is hard to measure.

What about the committee or project management team, how do they contribute?

Vague Customer Service

The committee will most likely leave some gaps when the leadership is vague about guidelines. Vague customer service guidelines leaves wiggle room. Wiggle room means the measurement will be subjective.

It is hard to do anything wrong in an environment with vague guidelines or goals. They’re vague, so just wiggle, but that also makes it hard to move forward.

Unfortunately, being vague is often the self-deceptive and unrealized output from the meeting, committee, or project team. What is worse, often the language is handed down and passed around. It is role modeled.

In most cases, it is not intentional. Everyone has good intentions, but vague allows everyone the opportunity to wiggle.

Wiggling isn’t winning. Vague customer service guidelines aren’t helping anyone, especially the customer.

– 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: guidelines

Apr 19

-

Cultural Acceptance Is Just The Beginning

Observed Guidelines

Cultural Acceptance

Jun 18

-

Customer Rules Should Work, Will They?

Short Story

Customer Rules

Feb 18

-

Add Energy Instead Of Subtracting It

Would Things Change

Add Energy

Nov 17

-

Vague Customer Service Guidelines

Customer Service Culture

Not Specific Means Vague

Vague Customer Service

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