satisfaction Archives - Dennis E. Gilbert

12
Nov 18
-

Career Speed Is More Like Coffee

Tags : anticipation career persistence satisfaction speed

Anticipation was keeping kids waiting in 1979 with Heinz ketchup. It seems like things have developed improved speed across the years, but faster isn’t always better. What about your career speed, is it worth the wait?

Anticipation

For years and years, I used a Mr. Coffee brand electric drip coffee maker. You know, some water in the reservoir measured just right with ground beans in the paper filter that sits in the basket.

Push the button or throw the switch and in a few moments, you’ll hear the water heating and the tiny electric pump start to drop hot water over the fresh coffee grounds. Eventually it drips to your pot and the pot begins to fill.

The anticipation can be incredible.

We could also go with the more modern single cup coffee makers. They introduced a trendy, faster, single serving.

Of course, if we have a daily commute, we could veer off course slightly and stop at a nearby McDonald’s or other choice franchise coffee shop.

Let’s not forget the barista. Gourmet, brewed while you wait is trendy. It has people anticipating a slow brewed, usually more expensive cup, in a cozy little shop.

There are a lot of choices, and each one requires some time. Some more than others, but then the quality or value also seems to become more important.

Career Speed

Regardless of choice or speed, most people estimate their wait time and they don’t abort early. The anticipation may feel a bit painful but they can see the pot filling, the cup steaming, or the barista taking the time to make it just right.

Your career speed may be similar. You have options and choices, but in the end, you still have a career.

The best careers are not the result of a single day, month or year. One drop at a time they are creating your masterpiece.

Speed may not be as important as satisfaction.

-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.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

30
Jul 18
-

3 Emotionally Intelligent Actions For Customers

Tags : customer service emotional intelligence memorable satisfaction

In a service economy, customer service means everything. Unfortunately, sometimes our perceptions or behaviors don’t seem to align with customer needs. Are you taking emotionally intelligent actions?

Organizational Actions

Certainly, most organizations believe that they are acting responsible for the customer. At the same time, they are also appropriately conditioned to act financially responsible for their organization.

Here are three of many emotionally intelligent actions you can take for your customers.

Be perceptive. Emotionally intelligent organizations are working with their social radar to scan the environment for needs. In the restaurant, it is the nearly empty glass of iced tea, the coffee mug running low, or the quiet table selected for two. Apply this type of logic regardless of your business.
Anticipate needs. Perhaps nothing is more powerful than the ability to anticipate the needs of your customer. While hard to describe this entails a sense of upcoming needs and offering a solution before the customer recognizes the need. Properly executed perhaps nothing will inspire trust or make the moment more memorable than this action.
Control Emotions. Good days, bad days, and unexpected situations may leave the human side of customer service scrambling to keep things in check. Our emotions will condition outputs. Hopefully good actions much more than not so good, but stress requires more effort to keep our human performance in check.

What emotionally intelligent actions make the top of your list?

Emotionally Intelligent

Thriving in a service economy will require you to be a step ahead of the competition.

Many organizations spend money, time, and other precious resources on items that don’t always have a memorable impact with customers.

In other cases, they struggle to balance financial responsibility with being truly customer centric. No organization can afford to “give away the store.” However, efforts to conserve resources often impact customer satisfaction.

Be emotionally intelligent, find the right balance.

-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+

17
May 18
-

Employee Development While The Pendulum Swings

Tags : development employee leadership satisfaction scale

A refusal of the offer is not the same as rejection. It is common that small businesses and some larger ones too, will refuse the offer or opportunity for employee training. Is employee development important for your organization?

Behind the scenes, quietly, the label is sweatshop. The organization that believes employees are a tool, and only a tool. They are a tool to push the button, drill the hole, and fill the box. Jobs like that still exist, but largely, they are rapidly being replaced by robotics.

Scaling

Most for-profit organizations are attempting to scale. They are trying to maximize value, ROI, and increase sales. The most fundamental underlying principle of scaling in a service economy driven by technology is, building knowledge.

General Managers, Presidents, and CEO’s alike have suggested to me that they don’t have time for training. The messages spreads, it goes to Human Resources, Engineering, and front line teams. The knowledge gain stops, stalls, and the organization temporarily stabilizes, right before the pendulum starts a backward swing.

Questions Drive Direction

Not so long ago a G.M. stated a rhetorical question, “When you have a chance to ship product and fulfill orders, or sit in training, what are you going to do?”

Perhaps we need to look at it through a different lens, with different questions.

How did you become the G.M.? (Not sarcasm, sincerity.)
What mattered most for you to become a supervisor, manager, or business owner?
Who will you promote or seek to help advance the organization?

The questions are the tricky part because they answers will illustrate the future of the organization. Will the organization scale, or will it become another statistic of stop, stall, and temporarily stabilize?

Employee Development

Nothing will help the organization scale faster than employee development. Knowledge gain for those who seek it will guarantee a better future.

Information and knowledge are spreading more rapidly and easier than ever before. Perhaps the best part of all is that developed employees create other developed employees. Standards for work performance rise and so does the quality, customer service, and sales.

Employee development ensures that reputation, loyalty, and job satisfaction continue to rise. People on the outside want in and those on the inside want to stay.

Momentum is a hard thing to start, but it is also a hard thing to stop. Which way is the pendulum moving?

– 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
May 17
2

Customer service surprises Appreciative Strategies

Customer Service Surprises Come From Expectations

Tags : culture customer service expectations satisfaction surprise

Many workforce professionals will tell you that they know and understand customer service and satisfaction. After all, they’ve been witnessing and interacting with service experiences since they were children. What customer service surprises do your customers experience?

Surprises develop from a difference between expectations and outcomes. Expectations are likely set by your promise. The best question might be should you manage from a stand point of lower expectations or higher expectations?

Lower Expectations

Lower expectations represent the model of, you get what you get and you value doing business with us because of it. This might be the fast food burgers and fries restaurants or it might be the web based commodity product sales with no telephone number.

Most people doing business there recognize the limitations and they are okay with that. Their expectations are lower and their satisfaction might be high.

In these scenarios the promise clearly expresses the limitations and sets the expectations for quality, price, and yes, customer service. It might be the all sales are final model but you’ll take the chance and feel satisfied. Success in this model is always dependent on high volume.

Higher Expectations

In a higher expectations model you are always striving to create the wow moments for the customer. You might feel forced by the competition to raise the bar because you want to maintain profits and be the go to resource.

In this model managing higher expectations and keeping your promise are part of the vision. The idea is that customers are willing to pay for better quality and higher levels of service. They’ll be loyal because you are worth it.

The challenge here might be maintaining the proper focus, finding the right balance, and staying within budget. You might also have to consider how you’ll manage your workforce talent to ensure the on-going promise is kept.

Customer Service Surprises

One of the most important things in either model is to carefully consider your offer. What is your promise and does your customer base (or the one you want to create) have lower or higher expectations? What examples will you illustrate and what expectations will you create?

Managing your message is always important. Remember their expectations are likely driven by what they perceive which might not be exactly the same as what you say or mean.

In either model, the customer service surprises should always come from exceeding expectations. This is the only surprise they’ll accept.

Whatever promise you’ve made, you’ll have to keep.

Your customers expect it.

– 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+

08
Mar 17
-

Employee Loyalty and the Search for Retention

Tags : employee retention leadership loyalty satisfaction

The organization you work for probably cares about employee loyalty. When you agree with the work, accept the compensation, and start the job there is an expected commitment, right?

Loyalty is important for most people. It is important for businesses with their employees as well as with their clients and customers. The trouble spot for loyalty is that not everyone agrees on the definition.

Many people suggest that they are very committed and loyal, but what that really means is that they feel loyal until a better opportunity presents itself. In this case, one might believe there is loyalty. Another might suggest that there is none.

A different definition might suggest that loyalty is earned. Doors that might exist are ignored, or never considered. It might have something to do with the integrity of your word but it might also have much to do with mutual respect.

Employee Loyalty

Employers believe that they make an investment in their employees. Many of them do, quite substantially at times.

These employers understand that doors might open, but they really aren’t worried about someone exiting. Not because other opportunities don’t exist, but because the employer to employee relationship is well respected and it has been earned.

They aren’t worried about blocking an exit. They are more worried about somebody who wants to leave staying. In this environment loyalty is self-managed or self-regulated. It comes naturally.

The Other Type

There is another type of employer. This employer wants to get the job accomplished with as little cost as possible, and who doesn’t? But there must be a balance.

The CFO, Controller, or CPA love the management of the numbers, but the best of those also recognize the value of the people. The trouble occurs when the culture of managing costs outweigh the respect of the human relationships.

This type of employer might attempt to (metaphorically) block doors and lock people in. Relationships are viewed as expendable and short-term. Loyalty is (attempted to be) forced by management.

Search for Retention

In the search for retention sometimes the right words are chosen, but the conversation is not compelling.

It’s not compelling because what is shown is different from what is told. The often unspoken message becomes, I don’t care about you. The result is a feeling of, you don’t care about me, and so I don’t care about you.

Retention shouldn’t have to be created by rules, fear, and blocked doors. This isn’t loyalty, it’s not respect.

Employee loyalty and respect happen when the door is there, but no one is interested in what’s behind it.

An occasional glance might occur, and to some extent people will come and go.

You might discover that you are happy about that.

– 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+

Tag Archives: satisfaction

Nov 18

-

Anticipation

Career Speed

Jul 18

-

Organizational Actions

Emotionally Intelligent

May 18

-

Scaling

Questions Drive Direction

Employee Development

May 17

Lower Expectations

Higher Expectations

Customer Service Surprises

Mar 17

-

Employee Loyalty

The Other Type

Search for Retention

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