Be Different or be dead

June 24, 2010

14 important roles that define an epic frontline leader

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14 important roles that define an epic frontline leader.

The frontline leader position is THE most important position given the critical strategic role it plays carying out the business plan of the organization.

Most organizations aspire to provide exemplary customer service, but they need amazing frontline leaders to pull it off.

This is the job description for the position.

▪️Barrier basher — eliminates the grunge in the workplace;

▪️Roadblock destroyer — removes impediments to getting the job done;

▪️Execution maniac — has only one focus; act quickly with purpose;

▪️One-and-only people server — understands that if their team isn’t served well, nothing happens;

▪️Dumb-it-down fanatic — knows that simple gets done;‘complex doesn’t;

▪️Ultimate cheerleader — keeps the energy up for the team;

▪️Praise lavisher — looks for opportunities to recognize and reward team mates;

▪️Celebration host — loves celebrations of team performance; takes personal responsibility to make them happen;

▪️Recognizer and rewarder of dazzling moments of service — looks for examples of people dazzling customers; makes a big issue of it;

▪️Chief custodian of the customer moment — puts their personal fingerprints on how customers are to be treated;

▪️Relentless advocate of the frontline on the inside — protects and advocates for their team to others in the organization; fights for what they need;

▪️Customer “secret” gatherer — is addicted to discovering the hidden desires of customers and using the knowledge to serve them better;

▪️Service recovery addict — turns the organization upside down to fix a problem when there is a service failure. Has personal contact with the customer at all times;

▪️Get-me-the-results — extremely results focused; creates a sense of urgency for the team to deliver.

Recruit individuals who have the ability to perform these responsibilities consistently.

Hold them accountable to perform these 14 roles in a superlative manner.

Pay them for doing this stuff.

The result?

Customer moments that will create fans and advocates for your business for life.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 6.24.10 at 01:00 pm by Roy Osing
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June 21, 2010

Why an ‘opportunity spotter’ is necessary for amazing customer service

Source: Unsplash

Why an ‘opportunity spotter’ is necessary for amazing customer service.

If your organization really is obsessed about customers, spotting opportunities routinely happens because it is a fundamental part of your business plan.

I’m talking about the inclination and ability for someone (normally a customer server) in the organization to anticipate an opportunity — a moment — to do something special and unusual for a customer and do the thing that will dazzle them.

Give them something they don’t expect. Blow them away. Surprise them. WOW! them.

Spot it; Act on it

My son and his family recently vacationed with us in Maui and they took the opportunity to spend an evening in the Ritz-Carlton in Kapalua, comforted by the fact that the kids were in good hands with Gramma and Papa.

Knowing that I am an absolute customer service experience fanatic, he told me the story of what happened to him around the Ritz pool; he was obviously very impressed.

Apparently he was lying in his lounger struggling to adjust the back position of his chair and was startled when a pool attendant came up to him and said “Here, sir let me help you”, at which point the attendant adjusted the chair back to the precise position my son desired.

He apparently he did it cheerfully, with a gleam in his eye and an attitude that shouted out “I want to help you (no, I really do)!”.

A customer opportunity spotter in action! Not serendipity. Not a fluke. Not an isolated incident.

This was an occurrence that I would bet is hammered into Ritz employees heads as an expected behavior. Look for every moment to serve a customer in a way that they don’t expect.

This is the essence of creating dazzling customer moments.

If you can surprise them and do something they don’t expect you will literally take their breath away. They will remember the moment and they will tell others about it.

They will take every opportunity to visit you again, and again, and again…..

So if your organization professes to create amazing service experiences for your customers, does your strategy include the customer opportunity spotting tactic?

Does it articulate this specific expectation of customer servers? Is it included in the server performance and compensation plan?

If not, your customer server journey has just begun.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 6.21.10 at 01:00 pm by Roy Osing
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June 14, 2010

1 easy way to describe your unique competitive position

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1 easy way to describe your unique competitive position.

It is critical that organizations declare their competitive position in the market in simple, clear and compelling terms.

The fact is, most don’t do it very well. They use vague words and phrases like ‘best’, ‘number one’ and ‘leader’ to describe the differential advantage they believe they have in the market. Words like these do little to give a prospective buyer reasons to do business from them as opposed to others.

Seth Godin says “If you can’t describe your position in 8 words or less, you don’t have a position.”

I agree that a positioning statement is critical, but I think we need to be a little clearer in terms of the competitive element. I would amend Seth’s statement to read “If you can’t define your unique position in 8 words or less, you don’t have a position.”

An 8-word positioning statement that doesn’t deal with how you are unique among your competitors won’t have any impact at all

Winning and survival demands that organizations create unique value differences between themselves and their competitors.

Failure to do so gives customers no compelling reason to do business with them as opposed to others with a predictable end result.

The ONLY Statement is a way to crystallize your uniqueness; it captures the essence of your business plan in terms of how you intend to differentiate your organization from your competitors.

This claim is the ultimate manifestation of differentiation, a rallying cry for the organization and the guiding light for all marketing communications activity.

Complete the sentence: “We are the ONLY ones that…” and you have a positioning statement that works.

Example of an ONLY statement..

MUG Solutions of Vancouver, Canada:

“We provide the only permanent solution that prevents biohazard contaminants (such as used syringes) and all other debris from entering manholes.”

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 6.14.10 at 01:00 pm by Roy Osing
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June 9, 2010

1 proven way to keep your job during organizational change

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1 proven way to keep your job during organizational change.

There are many external uncontrollable and unpredictable events that impact our organizations, and success and survival in challenging circumstances requires an individual to be unique and standout from everyone else around them.

— Stiff internal competition is at play among the high potential and promotable now group, who are all vying for the few top jobs available;

— New leaders are brought in to address key challenges that the organization is facing, introducing change, uncertainty and causing risk for incumbents;

— Numerous and inconsistent messages clutter the internal environment resulting in uncertainty around the values and priorities of the organization;

— Hiring managers are unclear on the critical skills and experience required for a particular position, bending the requisites to suit a favored candidate. Often, people like to hire in their own image and ignore established job requisites;

— Outside influences complicate internal organizational dynamics as Board members, key customers and other external stakeholders influence the decision making process;

— Internal politics influence who gets selected and who does not for the key positions;

— Expense reduction programs are implemented to improve economic results thereby reducing leadership layers and the number of opportunities available;

— Decision making inconsistencies can be observed among leaders in the organization often making it difficult for upward mobile people to get a clear picture of what they are expected to do in order to succeed;

— Demand for the plum positions - the number of people available - in any organization always exceeds the number of positions available, resulting in intense rivalries and at times dysfunctional leadership behavior;

Your success in advancing to leadership levels in the organization depends on your ability to stand-out and be noticed in the crowd of people all vying for the same positions.

Your challenge is to develop a career plan and strategy that clearly spells out clear, relevant and compelling terms why you, and ONLY you should be placed in a position to lead your organization and to create the value necessary for it to successfully perform and survive.

You don’t necessarily have to be better than your internal competition, but you have to be different.

You have to possess the uniqueness that will capture the interest of the decision makers in your organization.

You need to stand out in the crowd of possible candidates as the one who has the experience, skills and currency to do what the organization requires.

You need to be perceived as the natural selection choice for the key roles.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 6.9.10 at 01:00 pm by Roy Osing
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