A 'practice' of building and maintaining customer focus, appreciation, recognition, and relationships.

Strictly a 'tool' for the follow-through of existing operations.  Do not change a single thing you are currently doing.   A trial can be done with either a single or multiple teams.

A "How-To" for provider teams and their leaders to answer the all important question "How are we doing?"  More importantly, developing the skills to "ask" the same question.

This practice is about soft skills for teams or groups to align performance with organizational strategy through accountability, teamwork and focus.

http://ThankingCustomers.com

The Customer Focus 'Best Practice' Cycle  - illustrates how this is an evolving process and not a one time event.  As team leaders take the members of their team through the cycle, they practice and hone their skills for leading the culture of their team and coaching the team's performance.  With this practice, your team and organization learn to take 'customer recognition' past hospitality skills in daily operations to growing and maintaining the 'customer' importance in all areas of daily operation teams as well as organizational support functions.

Let's look at these aspects of the cycle.  Leaders, using these six steps, initiate this practice of thanking customers.  To keep the practice ongoing, team leaders monitor the four action points:

1. Customer Feedback - the reports, answering the question "How are we doing?"
2. Involve  -  by sharing and communicating with all team members.
3. Focus  -  measuring to collectively decide "where we are and where we need to be" as well as "what questions we need to ask to get there?"
4. Thanking Customers  - on top, because should be viewed as not only the last step but the pivot step in repeating the cycle/process.  This is the point where the team recognizes and thanks the customers for their participation and "asks" for more feedback. 

The practice helps "lead" the culture of the team and the organization by building,  as the cycle repeats, soft skills in the following areas :

• Relationships  -  as a result of thanking customers, team members learn about customers.  Relationships are built and a dialogue developed not only with customers but about customers as well among team members and collaborative teams both internal and external. 
• Confidence  -  as team members get feedback from customers and communicate needs, their confidence to control their destiny increases.  
• Actions  -  when members get customer feedback and share it, everyone becomes more aware of their actions individually and collectively in influencing results.  As actions are elevated intentions are demonstrated through operations and commitments are made. 
• Results  -  As associates receive feedback from the activities themselves they continue customer focus, learning, and commitments which in turn supports leading experiences and relationships through daily operations. 

Cycle demonstrates how this 'best practice' can assist team leaders to coach team members' performance.  This is apart from using managerial skills to enhance performance. 

• Intentions - the practice of "thanking customers" gives  provider team members, individually, the opportunity to demonstrate intentions to customers as a specific aspect of relationship building. 
• Assessment  -  by asking and receiving feedback from customers. team members can make assessments, work on truths, about where they are in meeting customers' needs. 
• Commitment  -  as team members share customer feedback and become involved in the process, they discuss and become committed, work on trust, through their actions.
• Change  -  as members, with their leaders, become more practiced at recognition they make decisions for results.  As the team becomes increasingly focused, they can view change as moving forward and as a transformation.

(learn more about words, conversation, assessments, and commitments) 

Management support is most effective and welcomed in each step in the formation of a 'practice' (Team Leadership Practice) for a team.  This is a teaching/learning process for everyone each time it is done; with the mutual understanding that it is ongoing and will not end as long as the team exists. After assisting with all steps in formation, management can best provide continued support and build leadership by helping team members and leaders with the monitoring of the four action points of the cycle for this 'best practice'.  These steps are a continuous cycle:

1. Customer Feedback (Reports) - decisions on the frequency and consistency with which the reports are needed for the team.  Helping the team learn to ask and answer the question "How are we doing?"  by providing support on the 'criticals' the report needs to address. 
2. Involve (Display)  -  decisions on how, where, and quantity of feedback/reports to be displayed or bulletined to team members.  Support for creating feedback of interest to the most team members possible, especially those who provide services to the customer.
3. Focus (Decision-making)  -  decisions, based on the measurement of feedback, as to how it is integrated into and supports existing operations.  This fosters soft skill development, such as leadership, for all team members in all operational areas.  Management can provide support to team leaders to insure the feedback facilitates coaching and follow through of operational strategies. 
4. Thanking Customers (Process)  -  decisions on recognizing customers and "thanking" them for their support (whether they elect to participate or not) and participation (for those providing feedback).  This is the focal point at which the cycle culminates and re-launches continually.  Here management can support teams in thanking customers for their help and starting the practice over by asking "How are we doing?"