Monday Mornings with Madison

Yearly Archives:
2013

It’s Showtime… Almost!

Every serious profession in the world has a multitude of trade shows and conferences catering to the sales, marketing, networking and professional development of its members. While there are always local, regional and state shows, each national trade association has one monster annual show that is not to be missed.

Trade shows and conferences serve a multitude of purposes. They facilitate sales and sales pitches from a wide variety of vendors and businesses. Potential buyers can shop around while vendors get to show off what they have to offer. Attendees are also able to interact with many vendors of products and services in one concentrated location. Vendors also benefit from being in a place with so many potential customers. They have the opportunity to see what their competitors are doing, and if they are being successful at it. They can also gauge if new market trends are worth following. A business can create a new image or reinforce an existing brand. It also provides an excellent opportunity for vendors and attendees alike to gain new knowledge by receiving tips, tools, and strategies. For start-ups, trade shows and conferences are an excellent way for the business to make themselves known and for their leadership to learn more about the industry. Conference attendees are also able to attend a multitude of seminars and roundtables to help sharpen the saw.

That said, it is not enough to just show up at the show and soak up the ambiance in a scattered, haphazard way. To get the most from a conference or trade show, it is important to prepare for the show well and then leverage every opportunity once there. While it is usually clear what a vendor must do to prepare for a show, it may not be so obvious as to what an attendee should do to prepare for an important show Continue reading

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Six-Star Service – Part 2

When it comes to service, customers can easily distinguish poor service from good service. Poor service is when a customer is forced to wait 20 minutes in a long line to pay for goods or services at store. Good service is when the store manager directs staff to open as many registers as needed to ensure no customer waits more than three to five minutes to pay for a purchase. Poor service is when an auto service center quotes that it will take two hours to change the brakes on a car but actually takes four hours to complete the job. Good service is when the service center’s manager admits up front that it is going take three to four hours to complete the job and offers other appointment times that would minimize the customer’s wait time. The difference between bad service and good is as obvious as night and day.

Distinguishing good service from great service is a different story. Most people consider five-star service the benchmark of great service…. “as good as it gets”. However, that is not the case. Some companies have raised the bar even further on the concept of excellent customer service. It is called six-star service. What exactly constitutes six-star service? Does it make sense for a company to want to raise the bar even higher on customer service if is already delivering very good service? Is it even possible to consistently deliver six-star service? Continue reading

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Six-Star Service

Delivering consistently high-quality service to customers is the biggest challenge for many businesses. Some industries are rife with customer service complaints. In fact, in some industries, certain company names have become synonymous with bad service. For example, recently, USA Today published a list of nine retailers delivering the worst customer service. The ranking (March, 2013) was based on the American Consumer Satisfaction Index (which measures customer satisfaction with retailers). Companies that scored the worst in customer satisfaction included Safeway (which has been at the bottom of the ASCI data for 10 years in a row), Walgreens, Netflix, TJX (which owns TJ Maxx, Home Goods and Marshalls), The Gap, Sears, CVS, Supervalu and Walmart. Of course, retailers are not alone in the struggle to delivery consistently good service. The travel industry — including airlines, cruise ships and hotel chains – also regularly makes the news for its flagrant disregard for its customer’s needs.

That said, there is evidence that companies in every industry are striving to improve their service. In fact, according to the ASCI data, customer satisfaction with retailers is at an all-time high. Some companies even claim that what sets them apart from their competitors is their superior customer service. In the hospitality and travel industries, among others, they’ve adopted a star system to denote quality and service. Five stars has been considered ‘the best’, until recently an even higher level of service was denoted. So what separates bad customer service from good, and dare we say, even great service? And what is six-star service? More importantly, how does a company go about raising the bar and setting a new benchmark for its customer service? Continue reading

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Servicing the Internal Customer

Customer service is a topic that strikes a chord (often a sour note) with many. Some industries, such as air travel and cable / internet providers, are riddled with complaints about poor customer service. Their reputations for mistreating customers are the stuff of nightmarish legends. Other industries or companies are known for their excellent customer service. Apple. Ritz Carlton. Mercedes Benz. These companies consistently provide customers with five-star service. In fact, Ritz Carlton prides itself on delivering six-star service! Regardless of what a company does, builds, makes or provides, the ability to meet the needs of the client or customer is key.

However, if you ask most business people to identify their ‘customers’ or ‘clients’, 99% will inevitably point to the folks spending money to purchase their products or services. Those are the ‘external customers’. Most will not identify their own colleagues and coworkers as ‘customers.’ But, indeed, many of the people who work for a mid-sized or large company don’t actually deal with the external customers or clients who are buying the products or services. Most of the staff of any company are actually ‘behind-the-scenes’, cogs in the machinery that allow companies to function, such as accounting, marketing, HR, IT, production and operations. These people seldom, if ever, speak to or meet an external client or customer. Instead, they provide services that make it possible for others in the company to meet the needs of the external customer. They service the ‘internal customer.’ Unfortunately, internal customer service is even more replete with bad service. Yet, the internal customer is as important as the external customer. Why is that and how does one go about improving a company’s internal customer service?
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Why Multitasking Actually Reduces Employee Productivity and Precision

Walk down any busy street in America and you are likely to see people crossing the street while texting. In any break room, you’ll see people eating lunch while using their smart phones to check social media sites. In most offices, you’ll see people having phone conversations with colleagues or customers while simultaneously surfing the web or writing an email. Some might even have two different cell phones, one to each ear, while talking to yet a third person in person. (This is not an urban legend. I’ve witnessed it.)
Dubbed ‘multitasking’, the ability to do two or more things at the same time is considered a plus in many jobs and essential for some occupations. Indeed, many employers talk about multi-tasking like it’s a good thing. There are very few occupations where multi-tasking would be frowned upon. Perhaps brain surgeon or race car driver. Otherwise, the ability to juggle multiple projects, tasks, or even conversations simultaneously is regarded as increasingly valuable by employers. But is it truly a good thing? And is multitasking even real? Can the human brain really multi-task? If not, what is really going on when a person is doing two or three or four things at once? And how does this impact their productivity and precision?
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Is Pride A Quality or Flaw at Work?

Pride is one of those puzzling traits that is seen at times as a positive and sometimes as a negative. On the one hand, we are encouraged to be proud of our accomplishments. Training seminars tout the need to take pride in the work we do. From a very young age, we are told that we should be proud to be Americans. We are expected to be proud of our accomplishments and of the accomplishments of our children and family. We hear things like: “Show some pride!” “Stand Up for yourself!” “Walk tall!” “Don’t be a doormat!” “Be proud of who you are!” “Stick out your chest and hold your head high!”

On the other hand, haughty pride is seen as the opposite of the spirit of humility. The proud are seen as so blinded by their pride that they think there is no higher power. So is pride a quality or a flaw? For example, is it wrong for an Olympic athlete to know they’re good at their sport? What is the dividing line between recognizing the truth about oneself and being prideful? Is it okay to have pride in one’s work or be proud of one’s accomplishments? How does pride impact a person’s work? Where is the line between being appropriately culturally confident and being prideful? Continue reading

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Build Confidence

Confidence is a topic that should interest anyone in business and every professional, executive and entrepreneur, male and female alike. Confidence is an essential quality found in most successful people. It is a quality that is not just fed by success, but typically precedes success. Most successful people were confident even before they were successful. It makes sense. People are drawn to those who are confident. Confidence is a magnet that attracts people, lures business and invites success.

Yet, for many, confidence is also elusive. There is no point in telling someone who is insecure, hesitant or unsure to “just be more confident.” To many people confidence is like a mirage in the desert… it is that vibrant place off in the distance, unreachable and unattainable. But if it is a precursor to success, then how does one go about boosting one’s confidence? Here are some tips to boost confidence and come into your own! Continue reading

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The Need To Lead

Much has been written and said about management and leadership over the last century. The question most often posed is whether there is a difference between managing and leading. The simple answer is yes. But separating the two is not so simple. More importantly, in today’s world, not only is it nearly impossible to separate management from leadership, it isn’t even practical or good.

Once upon a time — at the height of the industrial revolution and before the advent of the technological revolution — it was correct to call a manager just that…. a manager. The foreman of an industrial-era factory gave little thought to what was being produced or about the people producing it. His job was to follow orders, organize the work, assign the necessary tasks to the right people, coordinate the results, and ensure the job was done as ordered on time. The focus was efficiency. The typical foreman managed work; not people.

Today, management and leadership go hand-in-hand. They are not the same or synonymous but they are inextricable. If we were to boil it down to a singular statement, the manager’s job is to plan, organize and coordinate while the leader’s job is to inspire and motivate. But there is more to it than that. In today’s complex workplace, it is vital that every organization have people who can lead and people who can manage… preferably some who can do both. Unfortunately, there tends to be too much management and not enough leadership. What are the primary differences between leading and managing? Why is there a greater need for people who can lead? Continue reading

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Employee Loyalty: A Balancing Act Between Workplace Demands and Employee Needs – Part 2

Companies and their management are constantly weighing the needs of the business with the wishes of employees. It is a balancing act. When done well, a company is able to provide enough flexibility, incentives, inspiration and consideration for the well being of its employees while still ensuring the needs of the business are met. When companies such as Best Buy or Yahoo are struggling, however, management finds itself in the difficult position of having to make sharp adjustments to policies in order to achieve balance again. Those adjustments can often be difficult to swallow for the organization’s employees. In the case of Yahoo, for example, their policy rescinding remote employees primarily impacted about 200 workers employed to work from home full time. The decision was met with a huge outcry internally and a great deal of criticism externally. What Yahoo may have gained in improving innovation and collaboration may ultimately be lost in employee loyalty and morale. That remains to be seen.

While businesses like Yahoo and Best Buy may find it necessary to rescind employee-friendly workplace policies, it is certainly not the national or global trend. Many companies, particularly those that are cutting-edge or are fiercely fighting to lure top talent away from competitors, are looking for more ways to provide employees with a work structure that makes sense for both the business and the individual. This is especially since women now make up such a big part of the workforce. As companies move forward in an age of better technology with employees who value work/life balance, managers will increasingly have to grapple with their own position on workplace policies. What should businesses take into consideration as they try to strike a balance between a company’s needs and the needs of its employees? Continue reading

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Employee Loyalty: A Balancing Act Between Workplace Demands and Employee Needs – Part 1

Across every industry, companies today are competing to hire and retain employees with the strongest skills. While the unemployment rate may still be high, most companies will attest that there is a shortage of top talent. According to Forbes, some of the most sought-after skills today include: critical thinking, complex problem solving, judgment/decision making, active listening, computer, math, operations and systems analysis, monitoring/ assessment, programming, sales and marketing. Anyone with a combination of these skills — the top skills desired for the most in-demand jobs in 2013 — is considered highly valuable. To attract and retain the most talented workers, many employers have offered workplace accommodations that cater to employees’ needs including working remotely, flexible schedules, relaxed work attire, etc. These accommodations are meant to meet needs and thus increase employee loyalty. After all, without employee loyalty, employers have to fill the same positions over and over as the most skilled employees are hired, work for a short time, and then leave.

By the same token, companies find themselves in the unique position of also needing to remain relevant and competitive, which sometimes flies in the face of employee needs. For example, two major companies — Yahoo and Best Buy — recently found themselves trying to balance internal demands against employee needs. At Yahoo, new CEO Marissa Mayer announced that she was abolishing the company’s work-from-home policy in an effort to create a new culture of innovation and collaboration. To do that, she said employees needed to physically report to work. While Mayer said her decision was not meant as a referendum on working remotely, Yahoo did paint a picture of a company where employees were aimless and morale was low. No sooner did Yahoo make its announcement and another ailing company followed suit. Best Buy announced that it also would no longer permit employees to work remotely, reversing one of the most permissive flexible workplace policies in the business world. However, both companies are already viewed as struggling to remain relevant and competitive.

Do such moves help reinvigorate ailing companies or will these steps simply push top talent to leave those companies even faster? How are such actions perceived by employees? And what should businesses take into consideration as they try to strike a balance between a company’s needs and the needs of its employees? Continue reading

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