Take a look at a frontline perspective, our solution, or a proven practice!
You're implementing a training program designed to create greater customer focus and you wonder what happened with the program six months ago and if this one will work better?
You implement a new program to focus on customers in service delivery and see results through intentions but notice that where the customer is not present the focus does not carryover and wonder what intentions the customer perceives?
The more you try to empower your associates the more there seems to be too many chiefs.
As a manager you feel caught-in-the-middle trying to meet the results required of supervisors and, at the same time, being responsible for the efforts and motivation of those on your team.
You try to create a sense of urgency but some associates feel like you are pushing them. Or you catch someone doing something right and praise them, only to have them quit trying.
You have some associates who seem to try to almost create problems or issues to get your attention, or team members, even customers.
Daily operational decisions, of which there are hundreds, seem to focus more attention on the decision makers than the customers to whom they are intended for.
Systems for customer feedback tend to, over time, create a posturing effect at the front-lines. Associates focus more on beating the system than on the customers.
All your management processes - systems, programs, procedures, and policies - are in place and communicated to everyone yet operational focus, experiences, and intentions vary daily among teams.
It's a career skill for leading movement of the flywheel. The good news is you can start today and the bad news is you will never finish. The practice is not a "quick fix" but a leadership activity that is foundational for long-term relationships between associates themselves, their customers, and their partners. We have two objectives for helping you do it yourself:
Our first objective is to give front-line managers a proactive tool to provide their team members with the opportunity to participate and take ownership that can only really happen through a continuous process of asking, sharing, and assessing "How are we doing?"
Our second objective is for the operational group/team to lead, through the enterprise, by developing an ongoing process to thank customers, recognizing them, and demonstrating their intentions to be partners in meeting customer's needs.
ThankingCustomers.com is a user-centered practice for any person to begin a continual process of leading relationships for their group or enterprise. Use the Practice to:
Lead learning experiences, the foundation for accountability and alignment of culture with results.
Leadership activity to compliment existing managerial activities for daily operations and the key to long-term follow-through of programs
The Process of sharing and assessing the feedback from 'asking' creates attention, recognition, and appreciation in daily operations.
Lead and demonstrate intentions to foster customer retention.
Lead relationships in three critical areas simultaneously - Teamwork, Customer Service, and Collaboration.
Lead decision making in daily operations with continuous asking, assessing, and sharing keeping a focus and sense of purpose on the customer rather than the decision maker.
Based on a "best practice" which helped an enterprise grow from start to almost two thousand operational teams over a quarter century. Proving the practice could stand two of the toughest tests, those of growth and time,
The same enterprise proved over another decade that the practice would not be as effective if the simple, back-to-basics characteristics were not maintained. Truly being born and built out of the entrepreneurial spirit of maintaining relationships between the providers of services/products and their customers.
We believe that the 'process of asking, a fundamental element of human nature, is a missing link currently in most enterprises. And just may be the 'holy grail' of organizational leadership by providing an activity for working backwards from the frontlines to lead simultaneously three critical relationships of the enterprise
Teamwork - between associates themselves
Customer Focus - between associates and customers
Collaboration - between associates and partnering teams both internal and external to the enterprise
