Be Different or be dead

June 3, 2013

Why are company policies set to control customers who cheat the system?

Source: Pexels

Why are company policies set to control customers who cheat the system?

One of the things missing in most customer service plans is how to architect a rules and policies system that favours the customer.

The customer experience with any organization is destroyed when internal rules and policies are designed to prevent ‘cheaters’.

One of the main drivers of policy setting in organizations is to stop cheaters

Dishonest people who will try to beat the system for their own gain.

▪️ People who will steal from you — hence the policy of limiting the number of pieces of clothing you can take into a change room in a retail store.

▪️ People who will leave an outside serving area without paying their bill — hence the policy of requiring you to provide a credit card before being served. But it’s ok to be inside and be served without brandishing your card and having it retained.

▪️ People who will not spend enough money with you — hence the policy of refusing a booth for two people because booths are reserved for parties of 4 or more, who will generate more revenue per serving.

▪️ People who will not tip the server enough to compensate them for their hard work — hence the policy of automatically applying a 20% gratuity for parties of 6 or more.

How many more cheater policies can you name?

The truth is: people who want to screw you over wIll screw you over regardless of your policies and to the honest person the customer experience is ugly..

The problem is: while you go about implementing these cheater-policies, you infuriate all of your honest loyal customers who feel they are assumed guilty with unsavory motives.

That they are part of the cheater herd.

Here’s the distribution: cheaters = 2%; honest folks = 98%.

Which crowd do you think should determine your policies?

if you want to provide an amazing customer experience, create rules for honest people, not cheaters.

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

• Posted 6.3.13 at 06:12 am by Roy Osing
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April 29, 2013

6 proven ways to do a better job of innovating

Source: Unsplash

6 proven ways to do a better job of innovating.

Innovate! is critical to the success of any organization, and these innovation strategies have been proven to work

But the process must be guided by a strategy to be different from the competition and provide people reasons why they should buy from them and no one else.

These 6 actions will help you do a better job of innovation.

▪️Establish a context for Innovate! — Idea generation and brainstorming is a waste unless it is guided by strategic direction. Use your strategic business plan as the frame to drive your Innovate! activity.

▪️Develop specific objectives with accountability and time-frames assigned. — Establish specific Innovate! objectives in your game plan to focus on the specific elements which require you to create a “new box”.

▪️Target your Innovate! objectives around your ONLY Statement — It should be your beacon to follow because it establishes your unique position in the market.
Many organizations follow best practices. This works if you want to improve delivery of your core service but it’s NOT OK if you want to stand-out from the competition.

Copying a best practice is a catch-up game at best; it’s not strategic.

Innovate! rule — Consider best practices to deliver flawless core service and your ONLY statement to leave the herd.

▪️Develop your Human Resources plan — to acquire and develop the Innovate! skills and competencies you need as defined by your game plan?

▪️Design reward and recognition programs — around your Innovate! objectives. If you don’t, you will do nothing but encourage the status quo.

▪️Leverage your customer learning capabilities — to drive the Innovate! process. Use both analysis and observation to know everything there is to know about WHO you have chosen to serve. Follow their lead.

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

• Posted 4.29.13 at 06:53 am by Roy Osing
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April 22, 2013

Amazing customer experiences can happen by doing these simple things

Source: Unsplash

How do you create a customer experience that blows a customer away and can’t be boxed?

Amazing customer experiences can happen by doing these simple things.

It can’t be time-bound. It can’t be created with an employee trying to get a customer on and off the phone in 20 seconds or less.

It can’t be engineered or architected. It can’t be manufactured from a blueprint. It doesn’t come from a can.

A magic moment is created when someone ‘puts in the time’ with another person, showing caring and thoughtful behavior.

It’s created through a process of listening, asking questions and responding with a serving attitude.

The spellbound customer experience cannot be managed with efficiency in mind.

This is how to create a customer experience with magic moments:

▪️Remove time restrictions on people who deal with customers. Let them take as much time as they need to serve them well and deliver the magic.

▪️Establish loyalty- building outcomes as the prime objective of any customer contact not how long it takes to unload a customer.

▪️Redefine how you use ‘work force management’ to manage your call center. These are useful tools to diagnose problems and issues but they shouldn’t be used to drive behavior of the call center rep.

▪️Hire employees with a proven track record of taking care of others. You can teach them your business but you can’t teach them to be customer experience moment magicians.

▪️Empower people to do the right thing for a customer, not enforce organizational rules and policies that do nothing but piss them off.

▪️Encourage the surprise element in your customer service strategy. What can be done to surprise a customer in a moment?

▪️Recognize and reward moment magicians. Make a big deal of treating them as heroes.

▪️Talk to customers. Mechanized touch points are limiting in their ability to create magic. They are designed to minimize engagement time and simply cannot replicate the experience humans can create for other humans.

The customer experience riddled with magic moments will propel your organization to the top because your customers will never leave you.

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

• Posted 4.22.13 at 06:29 am by Roy Osing
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April 8, 2013

Why ‘comfy food’ will deprive you of a successful career

Source: Unsplash

Why ‘comfy food’ will deprive you of a successful career.

If you are to have a successful career, you must give up your comfy food and get out of your comfort zone

We all love our comfy food.

Food that makes us feel good. Food that takes away the pain when we hurt. Food that smooths the feelings of anxiety and apprehension when we are in a stressful situation.

Ice cream. Banana splits. Chocolate. Cheese cake. It’s different for everyone.

But when we discover our comfy food, we rarely go to anything else.  If chocolate ice cream soothes us, we tend to stay with it. we are creatures of habit and get sucked into our momentum track.

People in organizations behave similarly. They get on a track that is familiar.

They repeat the things that worked before; things that they know and understand.

They tend not to venture out of their comfort zone. It’s risky out there. It’s unknown. It will feel different. We might not succeed.

Unfortunately, comfy food robs us of taking on the new stuff that will help us and our organization grow.

And we don’t have sufficient time at our disposal to both continue to eat comfy food and try new food that will supply us with a different experience and renew us in some way.

Make a choice.

Choose comfy food. Stay with the tried and true all the way to the bottom.

Or, choose a different menu and open up the possibilities to grow and flourish. Career success awaits.

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

• Posted 4.8.13 at 09:11 am by Roy Osing
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