Improving Employee Engagement by Eliminating the GarbageFactor™
Archive for January, 2012
Study Says That Most Managers Are Ineffective
124 days
I’m not really surprised at the results of this study. What does surprise me is that the words “Employee Engagement” don’t appear anywhere.
While some experts are focused on all the things managers should “do” to get more employee engagement, why aren’t more looking at the skills of the managers? Take a look at the second to the last paragraph “did they start well and just run out of steam?” I think this question is critical for us to discover the answer. More of the problem lies with management abilities than people are recognizing, but the old adage “some people are born to manage” just isn’t true. Professional athletes had to hone their talents, professional actors have to hone theirs, I certainly have to hone mine as a professional. Why not managers? If they don’t get the support, training, & coaching they need to be effective, they won’t be able to do it on their own. What can you do to help managers improve their skills in your organization?
Major Fail for Papa Johns…But What about Leadership???
129 days
There’s a lot of discussion about the major fail for Papa Johns PR & Marketing. It involves an employee at a franchise that used a slur as a description of a customer (see pic below). Not only did the customer discover it, but as a PR professional, she took a picture of it and published it in the world of social media. I’m sure Papa Johns would prefer it is all history, but it’s not over yet. Check out this link for the story http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/10538.aspx
Papa Johns has posted that the franchise employee has been terminated, but isn’t that a private matter? And what of the leadership in that franchise? Have they trained employees on: customer service, communication skills, and/or dealing with difficult situations? Has this employee shown signs of poor form in the past? And, just to be fair to the employee, is there any chance this person is just really ignorant and doesn’t know better?
You might be surprise at my last question. How could people not know better in this day and age with so much information available. I personally can’t relate to people who live such lives, but my travels have proven to me that many such folks do exist. And more often than not, there is nothing mean spirited in their intent, it is just purely ignorance. They don’t know better until they are taught.
As a leader, you may find yourself in situations where people who work for you seem to not have even the most basic of skills. No doubt, you will find it frustrating to have to train them on such basics. But by doing so, you ensure that the encounters your customers have with your staff will not leave you as embarrassed as Papa Johns is right now.
Office Signs 5
138 days
Our mothers noticed this first. It sounded something like “I can tell who you’ve been hanging out with by your attitude.” People’s attitudes do rub off on us, and if we’re not careful, it will be the wrong attitude. I love how Jim Rohn says it. For more info on this post, see the post from 12/28.
The concept of great customer service isn’t new…Why are there so many people who don’t get it?
139 days
I’m a new convert to Groupon. I have to admit…I’m crazy about it. I’ve been a deal or bargain shopper since elementary school. Not on my own obviously. My mom passed this on to me. I learned how to discover fashion finds and furnishings by going to second hand shops, resale shops, and consignment stores. Heck, my mom was known for bargaining in the grocery store if she thought veggies were sub par. A fun bonus of getting a phenomenal bargain are the bragging rights they afford you. And of course bragging rights for me is free advertising for the merchant.
That said…bragging rights for me will evaporate like the mist on my sun glasses on a cold day if I’m treated poorly by a merchant. And that’s exactly what recently happened.
My deal was to treat myself to a remote start for my car. I hate getting in a cold car and have been quite spoiled by having a garage. But this winter I’m traveling out of state less, so I’m driving my car more. And when my car is ice cold inside, the last thing I want to do is sit in it waiting for it to warm up (which is bad for the engine). I figured getting remote start was a win-win. I’d have a warm car, and it’s better for my car if it’s warm before I drive away. It was also 60% off!
It took me about a week to call and make my appointment. HUGE mistake. The soonest they could see me was February 28. What a disappointment. By then, I wouldn’t need the remote start! I said all this to the merchant rep on the phone. That’s when things went south. His response to me was a smart aleck “Well, you could wait until NEXT year and pay 3 times as much!”
Wow…and this guy’s boss actually pays him to talk to people that way!
Do you have staff that deal with the public? It is inevitably going to happen that a customer is going to be disappointed. Garbage Happens!!! When it does, it only takes a little effort to understand things from the customer’s perspective. In my situation, it would have gone a long way had the guy acknowledged the obvious “ma’am, I’ll bet it IS disappointing. We had no idea the deal would have been this popular, so there’s no way you could have known we were booking so far out.” He could have then given me options for cancellations etc. It wouldn’t have taken any more time than the smart aleck remark that only did damage.
It’s not easy being in customer service, but a little understanding can go a long way to move your staff from “order takers” to sincere customer service agents. Share your scenarios. Have you ever experienced a smart aleck? Have a smart aleck employee? Let me know if you need verbiage to teach the employee how to respond differently, and I’ll give you some options.
Office Signs 4
139 days
Sometimes I fill this in with things I want to accomplish to help me stay focused.
(See blog post from 12/28 for more info)
