For people to continue to be involved their skills must match their challenges
"Being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you're using your skills to the utmost." - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describing "Flow", Wired Magazine issue 4.09 September 1996
"Our best course, I believe, is to promote pride in performance mastery and eschew taking sides publicly -- in the discussion of rewards and justification and ownership philosophies." -- Ronald Zemke
........ Involving all team members requires sharing information where there is a common bond, such as customers. It is natural, if given the opportunity, for members to team up, get involved, commit, communicate, learn, and contribute to win. Learning is on the job and by doing, for one another and the customer.
........ Involvement is part of the "how" operations are conducted and actions taken. This is critical for a user-centered approach and those individuals taking care of customers directly on a daily basis. They participate in the "how" (Skills) while receiving the "what" (Challenge) through support from Management. Both aspects are re-enforced through learning experiences on-the-job. Dr Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describing "Flow" in his book "Good Business"
The Art of Work - What would happen if the best moments of your life happened at the office? That would be "flow," and thanks to a guy with an unpronounceable name, more and more businesses want to know about it.
Sure getting feedback is important, but what you do with the feedback is much more important. Especially for the team environment, leading human relationships creates results and retention of members and customers alike. Sharing the feedback is key to involving all team members on a day-to-day basis. Answer for everyone the all important question of "How are we doing?", not once in awhile, but daily on an ongoing basis.
Involvement, by service team members, needs to begin daily and transform to long-term in order to create a sustainable focus on customers. To accomplish and lead this feedback most effectively all of the following criteria should be met:
- Frequent - to make it routine and part of general interest level. Seen as a learning tool rather than a check. Create atmosphere of working together as a team to get it right. If we mess up, learn from it and go on. Makes measurement more representative even though it is not scientific.
- Consistent - team knows what to expect and multiple inputs of feedback can remain in view of members all the time. One report does not a whole weekly or monthly measurement make. Team members come to learn and have empathy for customer perspectives. Being human, this can include mistakes as well, but this long-term only serves to gel the whole relationship building practice.
- Valid - feedback has meaning and sparks interest from team members. Feedback must be from real customers in a sincere effort to support and help the team be better. Customers are thanked but not paid money for their help, thus are not as apt to become literally or figuratively "professionals".
- Real-time - responses are proactive, for a "snapshot" of service that the team requests the parameters of. Responses are also timely. Team members view or read about the results within a few days of the event much like a newspaper article you seek out because you have an interest in or knowledge of the event and are interested in facts and outside opinions and viewpoints.
- Simple - from start to finish, as the practice cycles and builds, keep it simple. Do not try to make the journey at a dead run, or you will burn out and be all alone. Take it a step at a time, don't push it, simply let human nature take its course and set the pace. By keeping it simple, especially the feedback and measurements, you enhance the short-term learning, involvement, and actions of those taking care of customers.
- Proactive - best results in the long-term when feedback is proactive (ask what you would like to know before the service/product is delivered) as opposed to reactive (ask what you would like to know after the service/product is delivered). This provides greater opportunity to demonstrate intentions not only to customers, but fellow associates and partners as well.
- Shared - make sure everyone taking care of customers is exposed to the feedback by posting it, typically on a bulletin board. Could be a physical bulletin board or an electronic one but accessible to give everyone a chance to participate and become involved. It is a natural leadership process which builds interest and learning through peer review, recognition, teamwork, questioning, assessments, commitment. and success all as the practice continues to cycle.
Many organizations and industries are using customer relationship marketing in some form. Some are identifying their Most Valuable Customers. This tool compliments relationship marketing very well and customer identification processes. If a team is already participating in customer identification and in meeting those customers needs and wants then the focus tool will be an excellent catalyst for the follow through and involving the service teams with the effort. They have the first two steps figured out and are ready to get feedback and start finding out "How are we doing?"
Contact me by Fax at 918.742.3659 or e-mail: george@thankingcustomers.com
Copyright © 2005, George Reavis