Be Different or be dead

February 13, 2012

Why company rules should be to delight customers not please employees

Source: Pexels

Why company rules should be to delight customers not please employees.

A local business school published an article based on the book Hacking Work, by Bill Jensen and Josh Klein. The article was titled: ‘School wants students to break dumb rules for smart results’ and it encouraged students to eliminate the ‘Corporate Rules’ that got in the way of job efficiency and effectiveness.

The message: eliminate the dumb rules in your organization that prevent you from doing your job in the most productive way possible.

This approach, recognized by the Harvard Business Review as one of the top 10 breakthrough ideas for 2010, does not go far enough.

It is focused internally. The benefits realized are improved productivity, lower costs and happier employees.

Nothing wrong with this, but…

Where is the customer in the discussion? — Roy, scratching my head

I have written extensively about the need to cleanse the internal customer service organizational environment of dumb rules and stupid things that don’t make any sense to your customers.

Look for a rule, policy or procedure that gets in the way of delighting your customers. Remove an obstacle that prevents them from providing WOW! service.

The internal cleansing priority must be on improving the experience for the customer, not increasing productivity. I’m not saying that killing rules that drive work dysfunction is not important. It is. But with limited resources and time available to any organization, we must do the really important things first.

What is more important that removing the stuff that annoys your customers and forces them to go elsewhere?

I suspect that you will achieve both goals by eliminating dumb rules with a customer focus. Destroying those little-BIG bureaucratic procedures that drive your customers crazy will also improve job productivity and employee satisfaction.

Form a Dumb Rules Committee in your organization and empower people to seek out this dysfunctional stuff.

And ACT on what they discover. If you do nothing with their findings your credibility and believability goes down to zero and your next attempt at engaging your employees will be met with (earned) skepticism and reluctance.

You will be surprised with the energy and passion that is released through this simple Dumb Rules exercise and the employee commitment and loyalty that is built.

People will have fun and spread the word that you really intend to be customer-obsessed.

Actions scream out your intent. Do it.

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

• Posted 2.13.12 at 11:57 am by Roy Osing
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February 11, 2012

5 proven ways to cut cost without hurting service

Source: Unsplash

5 proven ways to cut cost without hurting service.

Don’t fall victim to reducing costs and, as a result, killing your business.

If you have to take costs out of your organization, follow these 5 steps to ensure that you are better off after costs have been taken out.

1. Renew your business plan — Cost cutting in any organization should be preceded by a review of your overall strategy. If your margins are suffering, take a step back and renew the path you are currently on.

General across-the-board cost reduction in the context of a strategy that isn’t working could reduce performance further.

2. Determine your new cost envelope — To effectively reduce operating expenses, you need an objective. What should your expense base be given where you expect revenues to be and what margin would you be satisfied with? Cost = Revenue - Profit.

For example, if you expect revenues to fall to $100 but you expect a 25% margin, then all your operating costs can be no higher than $75. If current costs are $150, you have your work cut out for you!

3. Modify business processes — With a reduced cost envelope, look for opportunities to simplify your business processes. Taking costs out of the business without changing HOW you operate is a recipe for disaster as it generally negatively impacts how customers are served.

4. Simplify your organization structure — The flow goes like this: strategy -> process -> structure. Create your strategy; deliver it through simple business processes and then look for the appropriate structure to organize and apply scarce human resources.

A rich source of expense reduction after process change benefits have been extracted is your structure. Simplify it. Remove levels to get the senior ranks closer to the customer.

Remove ‘ion’ positions: co-ordination, liasion and so on. Keep the positions that drive output.

5. Cut the CRAP — Shed all the things you are doing that are no longer relevant to your renewed direction.

Consider crap candidates such as low value customers, unprofitable products, mass advertising and long terms projects that can be postponed.
Assign a Cut the CRAP champion to eliminate costs and give them a non-negotiable mandate to take a knife to irrelevant stuff.

If costs don’t serve customers directly, take them out!

Put the customer in the driver’s seat. Question all costs that can’t be linked to a customer deliverable.

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

• Posted 2.11.12 at 07:55 am by Roy Osing
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February 9, 2012

How a winning career can be made in 5 simple steps

Source: Pexels

How a winning career can be made in 5 simple steps.

If you’re not happy with the progression you are making in your career, follow these 5 steps that will power you forward.

1. Define the position you want in 24 months. Sales Director? VP Marketing? Call Center Manager? Having a target will focus your efforts in developing the action plan you intend to follow.
If you don’t have a specific target, your efforts will be diffused and your progress will be slow.

2. Find a mentor. Everyone needs advice and help; pick one who is skilled in your target position.

3. Identify the foxes — the key decision-makers in your organization that will likely factor in to your next career move. Treat them as your target market. Get to know each one of them and what makes them great. Make sure they know YOU.

4. Make a list of 3 things you need to do over the next 90 days to make you more qualified for your target position. And do them. Avoid having a grocery list of things to do; you don’t have the time or energy to get them done.

5. Create your personal ONLY Statement and work it every minute of every day. ONLY is how to define your uniqueness among the crowd of people competing for scarce jobs. “I am the ONLY one that…” will serve you well in an environment where generics run.
If you can’t create your ONLY, you won’t get noticed and your career goals will likely elude you.

Try these today.

I guarantee they wIll make a difference.

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

• Posted 2.9.12 at 10:00 am by Roy Osing
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February 6, 2012

3 simple ways to make your ONLY statement better

Source: Pexels

3 simple ways to make your ONLY statement better.

The ONLY Statement is the ultimate manifestation of your distinctiveness; of your uniqueness that will separate your organization from your competition.

If you can’t claim that “We are the ONLY ones that…” you’re part of the competitive herd awash with sameness and commodity suppliers

Jerry Garcia, of The Grateful Dead said it this way: You don’t want merely to be the best of the best. You want to be the only one’s who do what you do

If you’re not spending copious amounts of time creating your ONLY, you’re not using your time wisely.

And you’re falling deeper and deeper into the commodity herd.

You won’t be noticed. You will be ignored. You will be dead. It’s just a matter of time.

Follow these 3 steps to create your ONLY Statement.

Speak to what what people crave — Talk to the critical wants of the customers you have chosen to serve — your target market.
Remember it’s not about what you supply to the market; it’s about what your customers desire and want. Do you know the top three things they covet?

People today generally have what they “need”. The battle is over how to address what they “want” in a manner that ONLY you do.

Talk about value — What benefits, solutions, memories, joy, experiences and happiness are you creating? Pushing products and services has no role in The ONLY Statement. We are seeking to claim uniqueness in the way we impact the lives of those we are trying to serve.

And remember, price has no place in the ONLY Statement either. Price claims can never be distinctive. Easy to copy. Commodity behaviour.

Make it specific — At the end of the day, your ONLY has to be delivered by people. They need to clearly understand what it means in granular terms.

They need to be able to determine the appropriate behaviors necessary to “live” The ONLY. Leave helium-filled statements, vision-type claims and aspirations at the door.

“We provide the best customer service” is way off target. Means different things to different people. Probably is untrue. Can’t be measured.

If your ONLY can’t be translated into a detailed picture of what it looks like in the field. Trash it.

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

• Posted 2.6.12 at 11:00 am by Roy Osing
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