opportunities Archives - Page 2 of 2

04
Oct 17
-

Is It Your Customer Service Responsibility?

Tags : cutomer service opportunities responsibility role models

Some businesses and organizations believe that their only responsibility is to offer the product or service. The thinking may be that when you build it they will come. Is there something more? What is your customer service responsibility?

You can make a plan. You can give it timelines and milestones. Perhaps you will chart it, graph it, and measure its effectiveness. You can tell everyone on the team the proper behaviors, update them on policy and procedure, and question them on their understanding. Will that make it happen?

The easy (and safe) answer is that it might. Many organizational leaders still struggle to understand though why the ball gets dropped.

Choices and Actions

Everything thing we do every day is about choice. Employees will come to work by choice. They’ll choose their mind-set, behaviors, and actions. There will also be ground breakers, rebels, and rule testers. We know that the trick is to have the right people, but is there something else missing?

What may be missing is the right culture. It is all about the culture. Tradition, the atmosphere, and the organizational climate guide every rule, decision, action, behavior, reaction, and opportunity.

The first question to ask isn’t how well the people are trained, it is probably better to be asking about their readiness. Is the entire organization ready to be responsible for the customer experience? Not just the front line, not just sales, or the department we fondly call customer service, everyone.

Customer Service Responsibility

What makes a difference for the customer experience is when the right people are on the job, the training has taken place, and the culture of the organization is ready.

Ready for what you may ask, ready to take responsibility. You can plan for a large possibility of customer interactions. Building the product is important, establishing the workflow matters, and every touch point represents a chance to set the standard.

Regardless of the business sector, it all matters. The decision to act, to be a part of the customer experience, to engage, connect, to share, and especially to lead is the opportunity.

It is all there, ready to be taken. Many people will follow the model. The model exists within the culture. Cultures don’t build models, models build culture.

Become the (role) model, it is an opportunity, but more than that it may be your customer service responsibility.

– 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
Jul 17
-

Customer Expectations and Top Performers

Tags : customer service expectations interactions opportunities performance

Being deeply connected with the customer experience is much more than identifying that you’ll take care of the customer. Often forgotten or easily misunderstood is that customer expectations are set by everyone they interact with, not just you or your organization.

Customer Expectations

When you are accustomed to being asked, “Did you save room for dessert?” You might not order if you aren’t asked.

When your packages arrive in two days or less, anything longer might be too long.

Experiences set customer expectations. It is not a slogan, tag line, or your mission statement.

The same is true internally in organizations. The boss or the department that you serve will base every interaction on the best experiences they have had. If they have had excellence before you, the bar might be set high.

Opportunities to Perform

Some might suggest that customers are trainable. The quality, speed, and value that they receive repeatedly will likely become their expectation. They learn what to expect, when, and how.

The organization that follows through, is appropriately fast, and provides the greatest value might also be the one that customers use to compare with everyone else.

Your performance in your job role might also be held to a similar comparison against other top performers.

What this really means is that every interaction, every touch point, it’s an opportunity. An opportunity that will be measured against what they expect. Any person or organization who sets the bar higher might become the one to beat.

Best Performance

Your customer service is not is good as what you say it is. It is only as good as what the customer expects.

In a world of fast paced, technology driven performance the best scenario might be having to meet or exceed your previous best performance.

Otherwise, you’ll have to live with the expectation set by someone else.

– 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 four-time author and some of his work includes, Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce and Pivot and Accelerate, The Next Move Is Yours! Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

26
Jan 17
-

Solving Problems, The Line Starts Here

Tags : employee engagement motivation opportunities problem solving

People seem to bring forward more problems than they do solutions. Solving problems seems to be the way we get things done, how we improve our products, our services, or how we make it through each day.

Outside of our organization we pay people to our solve problems. A doctor, an attorney, technical support, a plumber, or an auto mechanic, we find them or they market to us.

Back inside our organization individuals and teams often feel trapped, paralyzed, and unable to break free from problems. As a result some will never break free. They’ll only breakdown.

It’s the customer service representative, the technical support guru, the office manager, the sales manager, the human resources department, the procurement group, and the small business CEO. Any or all of them can get caught up in being the problem solver.

Is that how it should work?

Solving Problems

At times I’ll ask workforce teams, “What makes up your day?” It’s not uncommon for someone to metaphorically shout out, “Fighting fires!” There is almost a sense of pride and confidence in the problem solvers voice.

For the solution seeker it’s a match. It’s an invitation, a recognized opportunity to bring forward something they feel they cannot solve or would rather not be bothered to figure out. In addition, there is always the excuse from the solution seeker, “It’s not my job,” or “That’s what they’re paid to do.”

Problem solvers tell stories about a line of people at their door, or of the revolving door, and of their frustration with not getting their real work done. For them, inappropriately and often by unconscious behavior they’ve metaphorically hung a sign that reads, “The line starts here.”

Invite More Opportunities

Solving problems is important for businesses. Internally when problems become the habit, and opportunities only seem to create more problems, business slows, sometimes it halts, or as a result of chronic turmoil, it goes away forever.

Perhaps the focus should be more on becoming aware of opportunities, seeking them, pursuing them, and celebrating them. Instead employees often find themselves focused on what didn’t work and consequently they are saturated with negativity and see everything as a problem.

The Solution

Consider focusing more on your successes, what works, and what you’re doing right. Build on your talents, your core competencies, and seek the opportunities that align closely with them.

Approach your work and the mission of your business by being more strategic. Use tactics that pursue strategy, not just tactics that fight fires.

Do you really want the motivation, the energy, the excitement, and the worker engagement? If yes, open your door for more opportunities, but do it strategically, tactfully, and by invitation.

Be careful what you invite.

Start a new line.

– 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 four-time author and some of his work includes, Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce and Pivot and Accelerate, The Next Move Is Yours! Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

29
Dec 16
-

Busy and Afraid, or Busy and Motivated?

Tags : leadership motivation opportunities risk

Every workplace is unique. The people, the work, and the culture, all workplaces have these, but each one is different. Look around your workplace, are people busy and afraid or are they busy and motivated?

Peer-to-peer asking for help or assistance is often met with, “I’m too busy.” Some workplace cultures quietly promote hiding out, hanging out, and just plain blending in. It’s certainly not everywhere, but it always seems to exist somewhere.

When you are too busy to get involved you might feel safe. You can’t possibly get in trouble. You know your work, so failure is unlikely. You can’t go wrong because you’re working, you’re not goofing off and you’re risking nothing so certainly this must be good. It’s easy and you get a paycheck. Hang around long enough and you might get a promotion.

On the other hand, you might be too busy but you are very motivated. Sure you have a job description and it mostly aligns with the work that you do, but you’re always interested in more.

Busy and motivated also likely means you’ve helped shape your job description and what you do the most is deliver great value. You understand that risk is required, that obstacles are opportunities, and that getting involved and making a difference fuels your energy and passion. You don’t hide out. You squeeze out—a lot of valuable work.

Are you busy and hiding, or busy, motivated and looking for more?

Here are a few traits that might help you discover ways to bring more value to your work.

Problem Solver. Being a problem solver makes sense. Sometimes people dread another telephone call, another email, or answering questions for the second or third time. Sure there might be some disadvantages connected with those scenarios but imagine if your telephone never rang, no one sent you email, and no one valued or respected you enough to seek your opinion. Be available, be the solution.
Explorer. Sure some opportunities may come to those who wait, but the faster movers aren’t waiting, they’re creating. They are open to doing more, delivering more, and having just enough thirst for risk that they make intelligent, appropriate, and reasonable decisions to bring more value. Don’t hide in the background. Don’t blend in. Explore.
Leader. Great leaders are needed everywhere and at all organizational levels. Choose who you will role model and be a role model for others. Organizations always need both leaders and followers and most leaders do some of both. Leaders don’t always shout from the front, sometimes they also push from the back. Get involved and stay involved, that’s leadership.

Busy and afraid might feel like a smart choice until you realize that you’ve been left behind.

If you aren’t moving you’re not safe, you’re stuck.

Solve problems, explore, and lead.

– 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 four-time author and some of his work includes, Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce and Pivot and Accelerate, The Next Move Is Yours! Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

24
Oct 16
4

What Makes You Resilient?

Tags : focus leadership opportunities persistence resilient

Adverse conditions aren’t something that most people look forward to, but resilient people dig deep to find ways to overcome them.

Resiliency is a leadership quality, and of course, leadership qualities are appropriate for everyone. While many quickly recognize that resiliency means having an ability to bounce back, bounce back quickly, or return to original form, in leadership endeavors it may also mean that you get the bad news first, you must be able to accept adverse or difficult situations, and you must be responsible and accountable to bounce back faster than most.

Many people like the idea of being a supervisor, a manager, or in some way being recognized as a leader in the workplace, that is until they realize that leadership is not a bigger office, a nicer desk, and a bunch of job perks. It requires you to have a strong ability to work with others to accomplish a common goal, to be willing and able to face and solve problems, and to take some reasonable risk all while remaining very poised and confident. If you can do this, you might be resilient.

Building Resiliency

You’ve heard it before. The best people at doing anything (or nothing) make it look easy. It might be true that talent, expertise, and hard work can make overcoming adverse conditions or solving difficult problems look easy, but the truth for most people who make it look this way is that they are extremely resilient. There are many things that can help people become more resilient and here are a few of my favorites:

Appropriate Attitude. People have to come prepared with an appropriate attitude. Resilient people or people with a resiliency attitude tend to focus on making the most of every situation, they don’t focus on what they don’t have, they focus on effectively using everything they do have and sometimes this starts with having a good attitude.
Willingness to Jump In. Critical thinking and root cause analysis are important for problem solving and people should use all of their skills to be as effective as possible, but it is important to note that resilient people are not plagued with analysis paralysis; they have a willingness to jump in and get things started. Hesitation, procrastination, and any fears that halt progress might be the first step in creating additional failures. Resilient people balance their actions with well thought out plans but at the same time they don’t chronically plan, they jump in and get things done.
Create Opportunities. Change means opportunity and opportunity means change. If you believe the comfort zone is real then you might also believe that staying the same is the riskiest place to be. I believe the comfort zone is real and too many people are stranded because they don’t take appropriate risks. No one wants to risk something to end up worse off than before, but if you don’t see change as an opportunity and you fail to take any risk you won’t just stay the same, you’ll fall behind.

Resiliency is sometimes associated with mental and physical toughness and it certainly helps to have strength in those areas but resiliency can also be built. It starts by having the right attitude, it is important to have a willingness to jump in and get things started, and you have to seek (find, create) opportunities even when the circumstances seem overwhelming and the conditions extremely adverse. Overcoming problems and issues is never easy, if it was easy, they would already be solved. The best leaders are very resilient, instead of seeing a no win situation they find or create a no lose opportunity, it may have risk but they make it look easy.

What about you, are you resilient?

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and coach that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is the author of the newly released book, 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+

01
Jul 14
2

Out to Lunch

Tags : debate Lunch opportunities pessimistic

There is always talk about being positive, staying positive, or discovering the positive approach. Perhaps most alarming is that the talk is coming from people who are often very pessimistic, perhaps optimistic, and may self-identify as a realist. Their voice screams opportunity but their heart bleeds excuses. Why?

The opportunist may tell you that your energy is best utilized pursuing opportunities rather than discussing why things may not work, arguing about the risk, and claiming that the goal is unrealistic. How do you spend your time and energy? Do you argue, fight, or debate the next steps?

While you may have heard that the opportunist is out to lunch. Keep in mind it may just be your lunch that is being consumed.

Hurry, there is still time.

– DEG

Photo Credit: Jon Sullivan

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

Newer posts→

Tag Archives: opportunities

Oct 17

-

Choices and Actions

Customer Service Responsibility

Jul 17

-

Customer Expectations

Opportunities to Perform

Best Performance

Jan 17

-

Solving Problems

Invite More Opportunities

The Solution

Dec 16

-

Oct 16

Jul 14

Search This Website

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Blog (Filter) Categories

Follow me on Twitter

Assessment Services and Tools

Recent Posts

Email Signup

Subscribe to newsletter

Contact Info