That’s a big mistake, say Kathy Cuff and Vicki Halsey, co-creators of The Ken Blanchard Companies’ new Legendary Service training program.

“Every organization knows they need to focus on the external customer—the person who buys their products or services—but they forget two other important groups of people who need care and attention,” says Cuff.

“Before you can care for your external customers, you need to take care of your own people,” says Halsey.

Taking care of your people means providing your frontline service personnel with the direction, support, and authority they need to serve your external customers.

“This starts with a clear service vision at both the organization and individual level—a vision that spells out who you serve, how you serve, and for what purpose. Surprisingly, 19 percent of the 500 people we recently surveyed told us their organization had only some degree of a defined service vision and an additional 14 percent said they had little or no published service vision to guide the actions of employees.”

“Once you have that vision in place, you need to train your people how to deliver on that vision. We teach the CARE model: being Committed to service, Attentive to customer needs, Responsive in providing service, and Empowered to take action.”

Halsey and Cuff also reinforce the importance of getting managers involved in a customer service initiative. Why? Because frontline service people usually care for customers the same way their managers care for them.

“We teach managers to use the same CARE principles in their approach to their people: to be Committed to serving their people, Attentive to their needs, and Responsive in providing direction and support, with a focus on Empowerment,” says Cuff.

“The final person you need to take care of to provide great service is yourself. We’ve all experienced  service providers who didn’t have a service mindset. You can usually trace this back to something happening in their work environment. We teach frontline service personnel and managers how to speak up for themselves and take initiative to solve company problems and improve processes and policies instead of complaining about them.”

Halsey adds, “We also teach people the importance of self-care on a mental, physical, and motivational level to help them bring their best selves to work every day. It’s a holistic approach that brings out the best of everyone in the organization so that they can better serve the customer.”

Interested in learning more about Halsey and Cuff’s approach to improving service in your organization? Check out our customer service resource page at The Ken Blanchard Companies website where you will find eBooks, white papers, and interviews with both program authors. We also invite you to attend a complimentary webinar with Vicki Halsey on May 23: “Taking a Top-Down, Bottom-Up Approach to Service in Your Organization.” The event is free, courtesy of The Ken Blanchard Companies.

A new infographic just published by The Ken Blanchard Companies identifies that poor customer service costs organizations in excess of $300 billion dollars annually.

Statistics shown in the infographic include results from a recent survey conducted by Blanchard involving more than 500 leadership, learning, and business development professionals. Survey results reveal that 78 percent of respondents have bailed on a transaction or not made an intended purchase because of a poor service experience. And a whopping 89 percent have begun doing business with a competitor following a poor customer service experience.

Survey results highlight three common mistakes organizations make that limit their customer service effectiveness.

1. Failing to Define a Service Vision. 19 percent of organizations have only some degree of defined service vision. And another 14 percent have little to no service vision.
2. Failing to Measure Customer Loyalty. 12 percent of respondents said their organizations do not measure customer service and another 16 percent said they didn’t know whether their organizations measured customer service.
3. Failing to Train Employees. While 76 percent of respondents agree that customer service is everyone’s job, only 20 percent said their organizations provide training as a means for improving levels of service and only 15 percent provide training to managers of customer-facing personnel.

“Our approach with the Legendary Service program goes beyond traditional customer service training,” says Cuff. “Service is an organizational culture issue. Our goal is for everyone in the organization to see customer service as their job. Whether you’re an individual contributor, a manager, or the CEO of an organization, you must recognize that you can make a difference within your own realm of influence.”

“That begins by being Committed to customer service,” adds Halsey. “It continues with being Attentive to customer needs, Responsive in taking action, and finally, Empowered for the next opportunity to serve.”

You can download the infographic, access the research, and learn more about Halsey and Cuff’s recommendations at a free resources page on The Ken Blanchard Companies website.

“One of the times companies need to review the quality of their customer service is when they are trying to create a culture of service across the entire organization. That could be because they’ve grown or because they are merging or acquiring other companies and want to make sure there is a consistent culture as they come under one umbrella.”

Another event can be the annual customer service survey.

“Most companies have some kind of measurement tool that they use to measure customer service. It’s either a survey they send out, a Net Promoter Score evaluation, or something internal they use to measure customer perceptions about their service.”

These scores can be incredibly important, says Cuff—especially in industries such as healthcare where set standards and rankings are published nationally.

“When companies have that kind of data and are measuring constantly, they have to make sure there is consistent performance and a consistent level of service from their employees,” Cuff says.

Although she is a big believer in traditional customer service training that teaches basic skills, Cuff also believes that organizations need to take a look at how their culture impacts service.  That starts by recognizing that everyone has internal customers.

“Many customers come to us looking to improve the relationships and culture within their organization. They recognize that when people aren’t engaged with a company’s vision, mission, and values, it translates into their not being willing to go the extra mile to work with each other to improve processes. This will have a negative effect on service.”

In their development of The Ken Blanchard Companies new Legendary Service program, Cuff and co-creators Ken Blanchard and Vicki Halsey have focused on both the mindset and skill set required to serve customers at a higher level.

“It’s about looking at the relationships and mindset within the organization.  We try to get to the heart and help people realize we are all in the service business—and serving others is just as important as getting that report done, or doing that research, or making that outbound call.”

It starts at the top, with managers and senior leaders turning the organizational pyramid upside down and embracing their role in helping the people closest to the customer succeed.

“We teach managers that their number one customer is their direct report and that creating a customer service culture is an inside-out process. You have to demonstrate the same commitment, attentiveness, responsiveness, and empowerment internally as you would externally. That’s the magic of our approach.

“Whether you’re an individual contributor, a manager, or the CEO of an organization, you must recognize that you can make a difference within your own realm of influence. You can impact external and internal customers in a positive way that will keep them coming back.

“Our four-step Legendary Service model is about showing people you care.  It goes deeper than simply using someone’s name or smiling and thanking them. It’s about letting people know you are here to serve them. Every phone call, email, and interaction is about letting people know they are important to you and to the company. If they are external customers, let them know you appreciate their business. If they are internal, let them know you appreciate their work.”

This approach can succeed in any organization, says Cuff. She points to customer success in industries as diverse as healthcare, education, insurance, and business relocation services.

“At a relocation services company, for example, our client has earned more best-in-class ratings than any other company in the industry. Their net satisfaction rating is the highest among the industry’s four largest global suppliers—in fact, three times higher than any of the other three.

“The company also ranked first among the four largest global suppliers in the Willingness to Recommend category, which is widely considered to be the truest indicator of brand advocacy.”

Cuff encourages leadership, learning, and talent development professionals to learn more about the Legendary Service program and its immersive experiential design.

“It’s a one-day training that causes people to look at customer service differently.  We accomplish that through a number of activities where people get to practice what we are teaching them in the moment. That is the differentiator from other training where people just sit and take notes. This allows people to practice as they learn—and own it.”

Seeing customer service training as a culture initiative that is everyone’s responsibility is a bit of a radical approach. But organizations ready to take service to another level should give it a try, says Cuff.

“It’s an eye-opener for people. At the end of the program I often hear participants say how important it was for them to recognize internal customers. People feel great when they can connect to the bigger picture of serving others. A participant at a recent session said, ‘I’ve never thought of my peers or coworkers as customers! It’s one of the biggest aha moments I’ve had!’”

Legendary Service training is a great way to create a better customer service experience for you, your organization, and your customers!

Would you like to learn more about creating a customer service mindset in your organization?  Join us for a free webinar on April 24.

Creating a Customer-Focused Mindset in Your Organization

Tuesday, April 24, 2018, at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time

Great customer service, helpfulness, and collaboration are paramount to organizational success, yet few organizations have a strategic plan for building a service-minded culture. If you are responsible for creating a culture in your organization that’s focused on service, you won’t want to miss this one-hour webinar with customer service expert Kathy Cuff.

You’ll learn how to help the people in your company:

• Define a personal service vision
• Identify customer needs and wants
• Develop the skills needed to build customer satisfaction and loyalty
• Create a self-empowered action plan

Learn how to create a customer service mindset that teaches your employees how to deliver ideal service to internal and external customers in a way that creates a real competitive edge for your company.

Register today!

Every interaction we have with a service provider leaves us with some sort of emotional response, from neutral and bland to deep anger and frustration at one extreme, joy and delight at the other.

We’ve all felt the stress associated with a provider whose customer experience is unresponsive and sometimes downright antagonistic—and the health effects of stress are well documented.

So are you killing your customers with stress and hostility? What are some straightforward steps you can take to nurture their long-term well-being? And why should you care?

Much has been written on the profit impact of customer service. Ken Blanchard sometimes describes profit as “the applause you get for delivering Legendary Service to your customers.” But there is a more simple, subtle, and powerful aspect to customer care. Customers will naturally move toward experiences that meet their needs and align with their values (see Susan Fowler’s book Why Motivating People Doesn’t Work—and What Does for more on this). Consistently creating these experiences—and building a reputation for service so good that it’s legendary—is just a matter of a little CARE:

Culture of Service

Your customers and their needs should be at the heart of your organisation’s values, rituals, stories, and celebrations. Ensure that your people are focused on customer well-being first and foremost and eliminate processes that don’t serve your customers. Celebrate and reward behavior that is service oriented and redirect any behaviour that detracts from it.

Attentiveness

Listen to your customers. Take the time and interest to really get to know them, what they need, how they prefer to communicate, and so on. But more than this—you can help build their competence by asking yourself What do I know that would be valuable if I shared it? And remember that in order to be able to serve your customers, you must be in good physical and mental shape—your customers are depending on it!

Responsiveness

Once you understand your customers’ needs, you need to respond to them in a way that demonstrates a consistent, genuine interest in serving them. This is best demonstrated when a situation arises that has the potential to disappoint the customer—if you keep a positive attitude, you will have a better chance of resolving the issue. When necessary, apologise sincerely for the problem. Remember, from the customer’s perspective you are the company. Listen to their concerns and work with them to develop a resolution strategy. Most customers will return if a challenge can be addressed promptly.

Empowerment

If you are in a service delivery role—and nearly everyone is—you probably have more control over the customer service experience than you realise! Blanchard’s EDGE assessment instrument, which compares individuals’ perceptions of their level of empowerment with the perceptions of their supervisor, routinely reports that people could be taking far more initiative and ownership than they do currently. Stay true to your organisation’s vision, mission, and values, and you can do a lot to build customer loyalty by delighting your customers just a little more with each interaction.

In their book Legendary Service: The Key is to CARE, coauthors Ken Blanchard, Kathy Cuff, and Vicki Halsey write, “Legendary Service means consistently delivering ideal service that keeps customers coming back and results in a competitive edge for your organization.” We experience amazing turnarounds when we help clients implement these practices in their companies.

Try it yourself—add a little more CARE for your customers today and see the difference it can make!

About the Author

Ian Beeson is the managing director of Blanchard International, Australia. He can be reached at ian.beeson@blanchardinternational.com.au

Here is the synthesis of the brilliance from amazing leaders just like you.

To rally your people to unleash the dream of Legendary Service and fuel repeat business, drive customer loyalty, and increase employee devotion, you must:

• Listen to people’s ideas for improvement. Really listen. Spotlight situations where you have acted on their ideas. Listen with curiosity, not necessarily to find solutions.
• Empower your team. Set clear agreements about their decision making authority. Ask them to describe circumstances where they would like the power to solve a customer’s issue without manager approval. Continually build their authority by increasing their scope of influence.
• Generate Meaning for the work they do. Let them see the impact of their efforts on the greater purpose of the organization and the world. People thrive when they know their work is meaningful.
• Energize others. To keep people energized, hold standing or walking meetings—20 percent more energy goes to the brain when you are standing! Get them to set a goal for taking better care of themselves. Help them remember to take regular breaks during the workday. You can also energize emotionally by asking them to share with you what they are proud of or how they achieved one of their great successes.
• Notice Your People. Look at them when you walk by. Ask them about the project they are working on. Pay attention to what they say and ask questions to engage. Start sending out birthday notes. In addition, help them to notice each other. People often tell me after the training experience how much they loved being with and learning about their peers. They say it enabled them to better serve their external customers—and they felt more inclined to find opportunities to serve at the highest level.
• Develop Their Capacity. Send people videos, white papers, books, links to TED talks, and articles you think will up their game. Educate them through the power of learning and have them teach each other what they put into action from that learning.
• Attend to their needs to either be taught or teach others. When they come to you with something to discuss, ask my favorite question: “Would you like me to share my ideas for how to do this, or would you like to share your ideas for how to do this?” If they want your ideas, they are asking for help. If they want to share their ideas, they are ready to unleash their talents.
• Recognize their efforts. Celebrate small and large successes. Start meetings with status reports where people share what they are proud of or how they made a difference due to their ingenuity. And give them opportunities to praise each other at meetings.

There is one last, vital element:

• You! You are the person everyone is watching at work and discussing at the dinner table. How are you taking care of you? Are you leaving your people with the same legacy of service that you want them to leave with external customers?

Use these nine ideas and strategies to create L-E-G-E-N-D-A-R-Y (can you see the acronym?) internal and external service in your organization!

About the author:

Dr.Vicki Halsey is VP of Applied Learning at The Ken Blanchard Companies and coauthor of Legendary Service: The Key Is to Care. 

Over my many years of eating out while traveling, I have learned food is only part of the experience. If the food is only fair, the right atmosphere can make up for it.  This place missed on both counts.  The pizza was just okay and this restaurant completely failed at what ultimately could have made my visit into a good experience.  It is a very simple thing that many businesses fail to do every day.

They failed to make me feel welcome.

Picture this. I walked in and nobody greeted me, smiled at me, or even looked at me.  I stood by the front door for a few minutes, and then moved toward a table in the bar area.  A waitress passed by me without acknowledging me. A minute or so later she came up to me and, as I stood there, asked if I wanted something to drink.  When I requested a menu, she handed me one without a smile and walked away.

After reviewing the menu, I decided I might as well stay, so I sat down at a table.  About five minutes later the same server came over to me to take my order, still without a smile.  This was my entire dining experience.  Even when I paid my bill, she never smiled or thanked me for my business.

I know some people have a hard time making small talk.  However, especially when you are in a job where you are interacting with the public, it is imperative that you learn how to converse with strangers to make them feel welcome, want to stay, and want to come back.  Think of it as having a series of conversations. We have conversations all day long with our colleagues, friends and family—and the same can be true with total strangers.

Here are 4 key conversations to have with customers to make them feel welcome and want to come back:

1. Greet them and welcome them to your business.  This can be as simple as saying “Hello and welcome to our restaurant” or “Thanks for coming in—you must be from out of town.”
2. Identify their needs.  In this case, the server could have asked if I was looking for dinner or just something to drink.  She could have offered suggestions of an appetizer, a special drink, or something on the menu.
3. Be responsive to their needs.  She could have stopped by my table as I was eating to check on how I liked my meal and to ask me if I needed anything else.
4. Follow up.  Once she brought my check to me, she could have asked how long I was in town or invited me back for their special the next night. She could have tried to make the restaurant feel like my home away from home!

But none of this happened.  I left feeling as if I had intruded on their nightly routine.  I received no “Thank you for coming” or “Have a nice night”—just a few stares from the patrons in the restaurant.

Don’t let any customer leave your business with these thoughts and feelings.  A simple conversation can make the difference between keeping a customer or losing a customer.

About the author

Kathy Cuff is a customer service expert and coauthor, together with Ken Blanchard and Vicki Halsey of the book,Legendary Service: The Key is to Care.

But can summer also teach us something about creating memories with our clients?  Yes!  It can help us remember that when emotion is attached to a memory it becomes more indelible.  People are more likely to remember experiences— both good and bad—when they are tied to emotion.

How do you want customers to remember their experiences with you?  Here’s a six-step S-U-M-M-E-R plan that can help.

State your intention. Let your team know that this summer you want everyone to deliver legendary customer service. You want them to look up and notice people—smile at them, inspire them, and listen to them. Last week I was shopping at an upscale boutique to purchase a magical present for a friend who is turning 40. I found it interesting that the salesperson never actually looked at me.  She looked at my shoes (hmmm—maybe they weren’t upscale enough for her standards), at the merchandise, and at the cash register. She never looked at me. I left the store feeling invisible and unimportant.  Share this with your team: customers fuel business. And tell them you want them to appreciate each and every customer who chooses your establishment!

Understand customer needs. Have your team ask questions that drill down into specific customer needs. It’s nice to begin with “How may I help you?” But then, after listening to the customer, check for understanding by repeating back to them what you heard. If the person is doing a home improvement project, listen to their vision and ask clarifying questions. Make it your top priority to understand the customer’s needs. I once watched a woman share that she wanted to grow some vegetables in her garden, and the salesperson silently pointed to the back of the store where the plants were located.  As I looked to the left, there stood a rounder with seeds of every type. I wondered if the customer had wanted plants or seeds. When you understand customer needs, you save them time and show you care.

Mine new ideas. At this time of year, people are rushing to get home so that they can be with others and have fun.  Have you made it easy for them to do business with you? Ask your team and your customers: “What can we do to make it easier to do business with us?” Write down the top ten—and implement five of them as soon as possible!  At a five-diamond resort where I was training, one of the customers made a suggestion: “You could entertain my kids while I am checking in.” What a great idea! And now it is a practice embraced by that hotel so that parents can focus on checking in. Many simple ideas, put together, create a conscious flow of new ways to engage people.

Make memories. Do little things that let people know you care. If a customer tells you they are shopping for a certain item, don’t just point in the direction of that department—take them there. On the way, remind them of what else they might need to make their purchase even more fulfilling and complete. Recently, I was purchasing a sundress and the salesperson said, “We have a sandal downstairs that matches this shade perfectly—would you like me to run down and get a pair in your size so you can try them on?” Well, of course, I got the sandals, too!  Note: Because of the caring and personable way the salesperson made the suggestion, I saw it as a helpful idea, not an up-sell.

Engage the emotions. Summer is fun, joyous, and light. It gives people an opportunity to relax. When you infuse your conversations with action verbs and emotions, you actually wake up the hippocampus—the part of the brain that activates long-term, meaningful memories. Infuse your language with emotions such as “Wow, that must have made you feel joyous”—or blissful, thrilled, wonderful, enthusiastic, exuberant, assured—you get the idea!

Reconnect: How do you create lasting memories of summer? With the last memory you give to your customer. Be sure to follow up with customers and see how they like the product, if they have any suggestions, any other needs, or any examples of how they used it. And if you think of something else they might need, give them a call and let them know you thought of them and had X Y or Z for them.

Remember, summer is a time for making memories.  Use this six-step S-U-M-M-E-R acronym to remind yourself and your team how to create positive memories for the people you serve this season. Give someone a mini-vacation by giving them legendary service. Set an intention that everyone in your presence will feel just a little better about their life after being with you. And have a great summer!

About the author:

Dr.Vicki Halsey is VP of Applied Learning at The Ken Blanchard Companies and coauthor of Legendary Service: The Key Is to Care. 

I was out of town with a friend of mine who is building a new home and we needed a measuring tape to measure some things in the kitchen. We found the tape at a nearby store and took it to the counter to check out. The young man checking us out picked up the item to scan, but the price did not show up. As we all know, this happens from time to time, so he paged a runner to go to the aisle and find out the price.

After a couple of paging attempts, it was apparent no one was going to answer the call. Since the cashier could not leave the counter to check on the price, he told us to just take the measuring tape—for free. “Don’t worry about it,” he said. My friend felt strange about taking it and offered to walk back and get another one or write down the information for him, but he kept insisting she take it for free, saying, “No one will ever know.”

This item was under four dollars—not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things—but think about the underlying attitudes this behavior represents.

• Does this sound like an employee who was surprised no one answered his store page for a price look-up? What does this say about an internal expectation of responsive service in this store?
• Does this sound like an employee who was proud to work at this store and who felt like a part of the team? Or was he just trying to move things along—even to the point of giving away merchandise?

Attitudes matter. If each employee at the store felt this way and allowed at least one customer a day to take something for free—or a similar scenario—think about how quickly those cases would add up and impact the store’s profitability. Sure, some customers may have said “Great, thanks!” and left, but no one feels good when standards are lowered. It reflects poorly on the store, the individual employee, and even the customer if they accept the trade-off.

Serving customers is not about giving away the store. It’s about demonstrating a genuine, caring attitude toward them and making them feel taken care of and responded to. If you want your employees to know the difference, do these three things to help them serve your customers at a higher level—a level that makes everyone proud of every interaction.

1. Onboard your people with the right amount of training before they have customer contact so that they are ready to answer questions and serve customers with the right information.
2. Share company financial information with employees—it will educate them and give them a sense of ownership in the business.
3. Train all employees on the skills you would like them to demonstrate in providing legendary service to customers. Don’t expect people to know what a high level of service looks like—show them what it looks like in your work environment. Then hold all employees accountable for using those skills on the job.

While the young man probably thought he was serving the customer, my friend felt uncomfortable not paying. She gave him four dollars, saying she knew it wasn’t more than that, and asked him to ring it up when he found out the information. But the damage was done. My friend didn’t feel good about the experience at all. She walked out of the store vowing to find a better place to shop the next time she needed similar products.

Low standards don’t benefit anyone. Teach your people to serve at a higher level. When they do, everyone will feel better about the experience—and your customers will come back.

About the author

Kathy Cuff is a customer service expert and coauthor, together with Ken Blanchard and Vicki Halsey of the book,Legendary Service: The Key is to Care.

“Think of Yelp or TripAdvisor,” says Kathy Cuff, coauthor of Legendary Service: The Key Is to Care. “You can go online and read hundreds of experiences other people have had with individual employees at thousands of restaurants, resorts, and other companies. What does this mean to you? It means that one customer’s good or bad experience with one of your employees can become front page news for other prospective customers at precisely the time they are considering buying a product or service from your company.

In an interview for this month’s issue of Blanchard Ignite! Cuff explains that, “Today’s customer has a big megaphone in that small mobile device and isn’t afraid to use it. Here’s an example: I was on a flight recently that was delayed because of weather. Finally, at midnight, the flight was canceled. As the airline was trying to rebook all of us, a young man behind me logged into Twitter and started tweeting about how frustrated he was with the airline and how horrible they were.

“I got on standby for the first flight out in the morning because I had mileage status with that airline, but the young man was rerouted on a later flight and wouldn’t get to his destination until 24 hours later. I settled into a chair to take a nap until morning.

“When I got in line for my flight, I was surprised to see this man at the gate. I asked him what had happened and he said, ‘I’m on this flight—my tweets did it.’ So apparently as a result of the man’s incessant negative tweeting about his experience, the airline put him on the same flight I was on.”

Any experience a customer has with one employee suddenly can become accessible across the entire mobile platform, says Cuff. This means that now more than ever, every employee has to be responsible for customer service—and that can only happen if you build service into the culture of your company.

“The best companies exhibit a service mindset throughout the entire organization. It’s not just a frosting of friendly people on the front lines,” explains Cuff. It’s baked into the entire organization.

“It’s great when an organization has good people dealing with external customers on the front lines. The problem arises when those people need help and are not supported by their coworkers or managers. Colleagues don’t return phone calls or are short with each other, or managers are unresponsive.

“If you want a true customer focused organization, start internally. You can’t just have a few people out there serving the customer. Today’s customers interact with all aspects of your organization and you need to be strong at all levels. Directly or indirectly, everyone needs to be serving someone.”

I recently had to return an item to an office supply store (a national chain) where I encountered this very situation. The item had not been opened from its original packaging, cost less than $20, and I had the receipt of purchase from the same store just a few days prior. The cashier was as helpful and polite as he could be but he couldn’t process the return on his own. He had to call his manager over for approval and get him to unlock the register with his “magic” key so he could take back the item and refund my money.

Really? For a $20 item that hadn’t even been opened? Are you telling me you can’t trust your employees to make that decision on their own? Do you distrust your customers so much that you’re afraid they’ll sneak one over on your unsuspecting cashiers?

Contrast that return policy with those of Nordstrom’s or Costco. You can return virtually anything, without a receipt, purchased from who knows how long ago, and they’ll accept it with little or no questioning. Their employees don’t have to call over a manager to make the decision and customers are rarely inconvenienced by the organization’s return policy. I purposely choose to go out of my way to do business with these companies and others with similar customer service policies because I know I’ll be treated well. If I change my mind about my purchase or something goes wrong with the product, I know I’ll be able to bring it back with no questions asked. They trust their employees to make smart decisions and they trust me, as the customer, that I’m not trying to take advantage of the situation.

If you’re interested in developing customer service policies that demonstrate trust in your employees and customers, consider these five strategies:

1. Operate from the mindset that people are generally trustworthy – Unfortunately, most organizational policies are developed from the opposite mindset: people are not to be trusted and the organization must protect itself from being taken advantage of. That’s operating from a distrusting, fear-based mindset. Undoubtedly there is a small percentage of people who look to take advantage of any given situation. Is it better to tailor your policies to the minority who want to abuse the system or design the policy to support the vast majority of trustworthy people? I advocate for the latter. When operating from a trustworthy mindset, the worse case scenario is you can monitor your policies over time and adjust as necessary given your particular business conditions. But don’t just assume your employees or customers aren’t trustworthy, because the vast majority of us are.

2. Define the boundaries – Let your employees clearly know the boundaries of your policies. Make sure they are clear on the decisions they can make within the purview of their role and which ones require input from leadership. I encourage you to make the boundaries as wide as possible and hire and train your people to take the lead within that space. That means you as the manager lets go and lets the employee operate freely within their boundaries.

3. Foster autonomy – In conjunction with establishing boundaries, foster an environment of autonomy with your employees within those boundaries. Give them the freedom to make decisions that are in the best interest of the customer and the organization. Will they make mistakes? Yes, they will. But they’ll learn from them and that’s one of the benefits and responsibilities of having autonomy. Autonomy fosters responsibility and you want employees who are responsible and personally invested in their work.

4. Share information liberally – When armed with information about the business, it’s strategies, goals, and performance, employees are compelled to act responsibly. Employees operating without the information they need to make good decisions are working with one hand tied behind their backs. Leaders often withhold sharing important information because they are afraid of what employees may do with it. Once again, that’s operating from a fear-based mindset and it reflects a desire to control, not empower people. Make sure your team has all the information they need to make good decisions on behalf of the organization and the customer and then trust them to do their job well (and manage the results if they don’t).

5. Reward appropriate risk taking – The previous four strategies create an environment where employees are empowered to lead on their own and take appropriate risks. When they do that, celebrate their successes. If the risk backfires, then treat it as a learning moment by analyzing what went wrong and what can be learned from it. Don’t treat mistakes as the apocalypse. Coming down hard on people for mistakes will only make them reticent to step out and take a risk in the future. I’m not suggesting you turn a blind eye to failures, because repeated mistakes shows the employee isn’t learning from his/her experience and using proper judgment. Those situations need to be managed appropriately. But for the occasional, honest mistake, celebrate the individual for taking initiative, help them learn the needed lessons, and encourage them to keep leading confidently.

So how does your organization rate? Do your customer service policies show you trust your employees and customers?

Randy Conley is the V.P. of Client Services and Trust Practice Leader at The Ken Blanchard Companies and his LeaderChat posts normally appear the fourth or last Thursday of every month. For more insights on trust and leadership, visit Randy at his Leading with Trust blog or follow him on Twitter @RandyConley.

The top industries for service: Televisions & Video Players (score 86), Credit Unions (score 85), Internet Retail, Internet Brokerage, Full-Service Restaurants, Automobiles & Light Vehicles, Personal Care & Cleaning Products, and Soft Drinks (6-way tie at 82)

The bottom three for service: Federal Government (score 64), Internet Service Providers (score 63), Subscription Television Service (score 63)

And while industry averages are important benchmarks, the more important question is “Where do you currently stand with your customers?”

For Kathy Cuff, asking that question is the start of doing something about it. Cuff is co-author, together with Ken Blanchard and Vicki Halsey, of the book Legendary Service: The Key Is to Care.  Cuff believes that improving customer service is a five-step process that begins with identifying what an ideal culture of service looks like and then taking action steps to turn that vision into a reality.

Looking to improve your customer service scores? Here are five areas to explore:

1. Ideal Service. Do employees recognize the importance of service and focus on performing tasks with the customer in mind?
2. Culture of Service. Do employees use the organization’s vision and values to guide decisions in daily interactions with customers?
3. Attentiveness. Do employees treat internal colleagues the same way they treat paying customers? Do all personnel strive to create lasting and positive first impressions?
4. Responsiveness. Do employees demonstrate a willingness to serve and maintain a positive attitude even in difficult situations?
5. Empowerment. Do employees look for ways to do their job better, provide the “extra touch” for customers, and share ideas for process improvement?

A little bit of work in each of these five areas can have big results. Customers notice when organizations truly care and value their business.

You can learn more about this philosophy in Legendary Service: The Key Is to Care—or check out a webinar Cuff is conducting on 5 Keys to Creating A Customer-Focused Company.  Even if you can’t attend live, the event will be recorded and all registrants will receive a copy of the presentation and handout. Learn more here.

• It doesn’t matter who made the sale, the client is your customer and you must help them – When Mark asked me who sold me the clubs, he said ‘he isn’t in today, but I can help you’. So often in sales roles we are concerned with ‘MY’ client rather than ‘OUR’. We look out for self interest rather than the company’s interest. It is vital that an organization creates a team culture, rather than an ‘I’ culture.

• You need to know what you are talking about – When Dan was swinging the golf clubs into the net, Mark was making notes. He could tell instantly what Dan needed, however he still followed the process of checking each detail to make sure that they altered the golf clubs just right. (If you are interested in the fitting process please see the below YouTube clip) 78% of customer satisfaction comes from a competent service rep.

• The manager needs to train you up and let you go –  I asked Mark how he had learned what he had. He mentioned that when he first started, his manager told him all he needed to know (direction). The manager then asked him to fit him with the right golf clubs following the process and equipment they had. He also mentioned that the manager encourages them to play golf and to always be on the lookout for opportunities of watching friends using their clubs.

When I was in American Golf the manager didn’t get involved once. He let his employee who obviously knew what he was talking about get on with it. This showed to me as the customer, that the manager trusted Mark to do a good job, and he did.
Why am I telling this story?
Customer service isn’t rocket science, yet it can create huge financial benefits to your company. 7 out of 10 people say they would spend more with companies who offered excellent customer service.
American Golf created a culture where employees feel empowered and trusted to do a good job. It also showed me there is a strong link between leadership and customer service. Without the right environment, Mark wouldn’t have been able to offer the great customer service that he did. The outcome of this great customer service is that I will always shop at American Golf and I will strongly recommend them.

All statistics are taken from helpscout . The American Golf store is in Guildford, UK.

We chatted about how the new direction had impacted her and she said that she now looked forward to coming to work. She proceeded to show me a new display of jewelry on the counter (as opposed to behind/under the counter where it had been before) that she had influenced.  She also pointed to the new purse display that her friend had created.  Wow!

Let’s dissect this interaction in terms of consistently delivering the Legendary Service you want your organization to be known for.

1. It is important to remember that people thrive when they feel their work is meaningful, when they have a chance to grow, and when they feel autonomous and recognized for their contributions. The salesperson was very excited to share with me that she had a new manager who acknowledged her ideas and allowed her to implement them. The truth is, a new manager can bring a real sense of hope to a team. If you are a manager who has been with your team for a while, think about this and ask yourself: What outdated or ineffective patterns of management behavior could I freshen up in order to lift my team and inspire them anew?
2. On a regular basis, whether they serve internal or external customers, ask your people for their ideas on how to improve customer service. This will keep them always thinking of new ways to create a better customer experience.  This is the backbone of Legendary Service: creating a culture that inspires people to think: If I were in charge, what would I do to serve customers at the highest level?
3. Because your frontline people interact with customers every day, they are at the forefront of knowing what your customers want. Take advantage of what they know! When they share their ideas with you, act on those ideas whenever possible. My service provider’s idea was that customers would be happier if they could actually touch the jewelry, instead of having to wait in line for her to show them different pieces.  Her new manager empowered her to act on her idea—so she took lower priced, but still sparkly and beautiful earrings, necklaces, and bracelets and created six different displays on the counter.  The result? Sales have increased and customers are happier—they can now have fun matching jewelry to their new outfits!

How can you update your management style?  Can you promote a Legendary Service culture by asking front-liners for ideas, and accelerating those ideas into action? As we move into a new quarter, think about what you can do to inspire innovative, customer-centric ideas and let your people know they matter.  They will appreciate the opportunity and you’ll be surprised at the great ideas they come up with to serve and delight customers!

About the author:

Dr.Vicki Halsey is VP of Applied Learning and coauthor (together with Ken Blanchard and Kathy Cuff) of the new book, Legendary Service: The Key Is to Care now available in bookstores everywhere. You can read an excerpt from the book, download an online quiz, and learn more about Legendary Service at this book page.

While on the call with the client, it dawned on me just how important their jobs are –a recent study shows that most students make up their decision on what school they want to attend within 15 minutes of being on the campus. As a parent of two college students, I can attest to the power this first impression has and how it will influence the experience and where the student wants to attend.

So let’s look at your organization.  What are the impressions that your company makes on customers, or potential customers?  Here are three things to keep in mind when you want to make a good first impression:

1.  Try to look at things from their eyes.  Put yourself in the customer’s shoes.  What would you notice about the store, product, service, or in this case, campus, if you were seeing it for the first time as a customer?

2. Now, dig a little deeper. Survey your customers to find out what attracted them to your company.  Pick their brain about what stood out—and what possibly needs to be changed.

3. Continue to look for ways to make “new” first impressions with your customers. Don’t get too comfortable with doing things the way you have always done them—that may not be the impression you want to make in the future.

I will be going to pick up my son in two weeks at his college, and I have to say, I am looking forward to not only seeing him again, but driving on the campus and seeing what MY first impression is of the facilities.

About the author

Kathy Cuff is a customer service expert and coauthor, together with Ken Blanchard and Vicki Halsey of the new book, Legendary Service: The Key is to Care.  Use this link to read more of Kathy’s posts on service.

1. Start with the open door policy: Hopefully, you’ve heard of this term. If not, the basic idea is that your door is always “open”. If someone you lead has an issue they need to discuss, they can come by your office, email you, call you, etc… at just about any time of the working day. Having this policy can remove a major hurdle and allow the people you lead to get past problems faster than having to waiting until you’re available.
2. Draw a boundary with your open door policy: While it’s great for your people to be able to discuss issues or get direction at any time, it may not always be feasible for you to maintain this policy at all hours of the day. If you have approaching deadlines or your own workload is starting to pile up, block out some time on your schedule. Set a ground rule with the people you lead that you can’t be disturbed during this time unless it’s absolutely critical. Be sure to follow up with step 3 below after establishing your boundary.
3. Find your second-in-command: You’ve established your boundary, but now what? Your people need a backup plan for time-sensitive issues. After all, customers will only wait for so long before an issue gets out of hand. If you work in an organization with a large workforce, perhaps there’s another manager in the same department as you who can be your backup (also allowing you to reciprocate the favor).
   If you work in a smaller organization and there’s not an immediate manager who can cover for you, perhaps there’s someone you lead who is an expert in their role who can be groomed to take on this responsibility. Not only will it allow you to keep your boundary, but it allows you to tackle another management responsibility of developing your people.

Finding the right balance between being available and completing your own work will always be a juggling act, and you may find yourself needing to adjust and readjust your boundaries depending on the needs of your work and the needs of your people.
Leave your comments!

I recently had an opportunity to experience this technique from the customer’s point of view while setting up an account with a Microsoft technician so that I could access one of their buildings to train an upcoming class. Before we began, he assessed my technological skill and said, “Since you’re new to this, would it help if I walked you through the steps to ensure your success?”

Wow, I thought to myself. As a beginner on accessing this information, I had been worried that I wouldn’t be able to figure it out alone. What a gift it was to me to have a highly directive level of support! Because I had no experience in this specific area, that was exactly what I needed.

Today’s internal and external customers are looking for personalized, specific, efficient attention. They want people to serve them in the way they would like to be served and give them exactly what they need in the shortest amount of time possible. For example, a customer who is new to a task or product is hoping someone will share steps about how to do the task or use the product. They don’t want to be told, “It’s easy. You’ll figure it out.” A customer who has great ideas but is not terribly experienced is looking for a service provider who will patiently ask clarifying questions and listen carefully to the answers while ensuring the customer’s lack of experience doesn’t lead them down the wrong path.

Service Flexibility Quiz

Let’s see how flexible you are in giving people exactly what they need. Take this quick assessment.  Rank yourself on a scale from 1 (I can’t do this) to 6 (I’m a rock star at this!) on each point below:

SCORING

If you scored 40-48, you are a rock star at these behaviors! Your flexibility enables people to take clear action and move forward on their goals. You develop people when they need it; listen to them when they lack confidence and aren’t competent; and delegate the task when they are competent and committed.

If you scored 30-39, you are flexible, yet you could benefit from determining the specific type of help a customer needs before you speak or interact. Increase your flexibility by withholding your thoughts and encouraging theirs if they have been successful at the task, can teach a customer or show an example, or can show you the steps for how they might proceed.

If you scored 29 or less, you might need to work on your skills of being other-focused. Pay attention if you see that someone is still learning and needs you to provide clarity on what to do and how to do it. Or, if you check in with a person who has successfully done the task or used your product or service and find that they feel motivated and confident about their ability to move forward, you can go ahead and trust their talent—let them make the decision about what to do in the future.

Great customer service is about caring to give people what they need, not only what we want or know how to do. Develop your skills to serve customers completely. Learn how to assess and deliver the appropriate style when needed—and you’ll be on your way to delivering Legendary Service.

About the author:

Dr.Vicki Halsey is VP of Applied Learning and coauthor (together with Ken Blanchard and Kathy Cuff) of the new book, Legendary Service: The Key Is to Care now available in bookstores everywhere. You can read an excerpt from the book, download an online quiz, and learn more about Legendary Service at this book page.

For example, one of the main characters in our story, Professor Hartley, a college professor who teaches business at the local university gives his students an assignment to help them recognize the importance of building stronger relationships when serving customers. Hartley also wants them to be less focused on themselves and more focused on the people they are interacting with.  He gives them some general instructions to be friendly, learn and use customer’s names, and talk about something other than the transaction.

What the students don’t know is that Hartley is also laying the foundation for changing their beliefs about serving others.  His parting comment to the class is that they may be in for a surprise, because when you put your customers first, believe it or not, you will notice an immediate difference in how YOU feel about your job.

Too many people see customer service as an unrewarding assignment dealing with the problems and personalities of a cranky public.  And while these types of customers certainly exist, going to work with that expectation never makes things better.  The most successful—and happiest—customer service professionals go to work with a different attitude—they approach their work with an attitude of caring.

This one change makes a world of difference.  Now you see your role as solving problems, making life a little easier, or bringing some joy and happiness into someone else’s life.  When you look at your job that way, it’s easy to see how that leads to a more fulfilling sense of accomplishment.

What’s your attitude toward customer service?  It’s amazing how often service providers get caught up in their own world and their own needs.  Now, serving customers is a pain, annoyance, or at best, a necessary evil to be managed.

If your beliefs around service could use some reframing, here are a couple of ideas to consider.  Answer true or false to each of these statements:

1. It is better to give than receive.
2. Doing nice things for others makes you feel better about yourself.
3. Some of the greatest joy in life comes when helping others.

If you answered true to any of these, you already know (and have probably experienced) the joy and fulfillment that comes from serving others.  And while most people might think that joy comes when you look out for #1, service professionals will tell you that there is also another way.  Try it this week.  Be interested in others; help others; and see what a difference it makes in your own life.

About the author:

Kathy Cuff is a customer service expert and coauthor of the new book, Legendary Service: The Key is to Care.  Learn more about her book here and also check out a free webinar Kathy is conducting on April 16, Creating A Customer Focused Organization, courtesy of Cisco WebEx and The Ken Blanchard Companies.

From what I’ve experienced, being around a group enhances the effects of the smile test. Why? Because happiness is contagious. And by smiling, you encourage better moods in the people around you, which can even circle back around and improve your own mood further.

So share your smile and laughter with those around you as much as you can every day. You’ll be regarded as a more positive leader, someone who uplifts and inspires anyone and everyone. You may even find, as Brent did in his experiment, that your day becomes a lot brighter!

Smiling Girl

I was recently working with a client in Toronto where one of the company’s salespeople was emphatic that a certain customer “belonged” to him, not to the organization.

The organization, on the other hand, tried to get the employee to see that while he did serve this particular customer, others in the organization did, too—not only other departments within the company (finance, project managers, shipping, etc) but also other salespeople in other geographic areas .

The bottom line is that a customer can “belong” to both the employee and the organization.  Let me give you a perfect example of this.  While staying at a hotel, I ordered room service for dinner. Upon entering my room and throughout the seven minutes he spent verifying my order and having me sign my bill, the hotel employee made small talk with me and made me feel welcome by asking if there was anything else he could do to make my stay more enjoyable.  For those seven minutes, I was his customer—the customer he was serving and focusing on at that moment—and I was also still the customer of the hotel overall.  He wasn’t responsible for taking care of everything I needed during my stay, but for those brief minutes, he understood that his full attention should be on me.

This is a very important concept to teach your employees—how to take ownership in serving “their” customers while recognizing that others in the organization will be serving them as well. Here are 3 ways to do it:

1.  Discuss with employees what their specific role is with their customers. Get them to identify ways they can build a unique relationship with the customer based on their role.
2.  Help your employees understand how the same customer can also “belong” to others in the company who serve the customer—the finance department that deals with billing questions; the project managers who may answer questions or provide information; the shipping department that may send materials to them; etc.  Your employees need to see the big picture—customers are probably dealing with multiple touch points in your organization, not just them.
3.  Encourage your employees to partner and communicate with others in the organization who interact with the customer to make sure there is consistency in service and nothing falls through the cracks. 

Ideally, we want our employees to take ownership of their relationships with their customers but at the same time recognize that they share this customer with others in the organization. The better we can make the overall customer experience, the more likely we are to build customer loyalty.

About the author:

Kathy Cuff is a senior consulting partner and one of the principal authors—together  with Vicki Halsey—of The Ken Blanchard Companies’ Legendary Service training program.

Since this is a relatively new crime there aren’t a lot of procedure manuals to turn to to determine what to do for customers. What did Target do? Announced what they found within days; it was the right thing to do. What did the credit card companies or banks do? Here is what they did for me:

I have a credit card with a Mission Federal Credit Union.  They sent me a letter very shortly after the Target announcement of the data breach that stated, “We have reviewed our records and found that you used your credit card at Target during the time frame the breach happened. We have closed that account and reissued you a new card. It will arrive in the mail within 2 days. We have no evidence that your data was accessed but we felt this precautionary step was necessary for your protection and financial security.

Impressive – such a proactive step. I immediately felt my initial concern fade away, and I felt cared about and valued as a customer. I began to realize that Target and Mission Federal Credit Union not only understood taking care of customers, they were nimble enough to respond to a situation where all the nuances aren’t clear to us yet.

Then today, I received an email from Gregg Steinhafel, Chairman, President and CEO of Target. He once again acknowledged the breach, truly apologized and then noted that since they valued their customer’s trust and loyalty, they offered us one year of free credit monitoring through Experian’s ProtectMyID product, which includes identity theft insurance. He thanked me for my patience and loyalty and included a phone number. After reading his email I have a very clear picture of what Target stands for as it relates to customer service.

So as a customer of Target and Mission Federal Credit Union, I learned some things organizations can do to make customers feel valued, respected, and loyal, especially after a very public criminal incident.  They are:

1. Be honest with your customers. Trust that they will know what to do with the information you share with them.
2. Apologize – even though it was beyond your control.
3. Proactively do the right thing. Don’t hesitate, or wait.
4. Make amends to gain back trust and loyalty.

If your organization isn’t quite prepared for a data crime involving customer information, Target offers a great model. If you work within the banking industry, Mission Federal’s response created a ‘customer for life’ response.

About the author:

Barbara Notre is Director of Corporate Communications and Initiatives for The Ken Blanchard Companies.  You can read Barbara’s posts as a part of our customer service series which appears twice a month here on LeaderChat.

A couple of months ago I was flying from Savannah, Georgia to Chicago on a business trip. I made it to the Savannah airport in time to call a client while waiting for my Chicago flight to board.

As the call was winding down, I heard my flight being announced for boarding, so I ended the call, quickly packed up my belongings, and headed to the gate. Halfway to Chicago, at 30,000 feet, I decided to pull out my computer to do a little work—and realized I had left it on the seat next to me in the gate area at the Savannah airport!

I started to panic thinking about what I was going to do without my computer—I needed it for the Chicago workshops I was to conduct. After a lot of self-talk to calm down, I put together my plan of next steps. Upon arrival in Chicago, I immediately called the Savannah airport and asked for the lost and found department. I was transferred to Security. I quickly explained what had happened to the woman on the other line, who listened patiently to my story. She then asked me to describe my laptop.

“Well, I know it’s black and I think it’s a Lenovo.”

She said, “Are you Escondido?”

This was music to my ears and I responded, “YES!” (Our office is based in Escondido, California and when she turned on my computer that was the first word on the screen.)

What followed in the next 48 hours was nothing short of a miracle. I was going to be in three different hotels in the next three days. This wonderful woman, LeeAnn Norris from the Savannah airport security department, helped me every step of the way through numerous phone calls and emails to make sure my computer finally found me. She never transferred me to someone else, nor did she say “This isn’t my job.” She took me by the (virtual) hand and reassured me she would see this situation through until the computer was back in my possession. And she did.

Leaders, my hope is that you do these three simple things with your employees to make them feel empowered in their jobs and able to serve their customers in a legendary way:

1. Identify the things that can potentially go wrong and have a recovery plan ready.
2. Make sure all your team members know the plan and are empowered to deliver on it.
3. Hire people like LeeAnn, who make it clear to customers that they are there to help when something goes wrong—because they care. 

LeeAnn Norris from the Savannah airport security department proved to me that each of us can make the difference in a customer experience. I look forward to my next trip to Savannah so I can thank LeeAnn in person!

About the author:

Kathy Cuff is a senior consulting partner and one of the principal authors—together  with Vicki Halsey—of The Ken Blanchard Companies’ Legendary Service training program.

Conceptually, the resort was not designed to be anything grand—simply a nice hotel in a part of the country frequented by visitors seeking the warm, dry, desert air. Bob took on this project with a very different vision for Rancho Las Palmas than just being a nice hotel in the desert. He saw Mobil Travel Guide’s Five Stars. He saw potential for a great resort, beautiful grounds, top notch people, and success in occupancy and revenue rates. And he knew how to get there. It was about vision, focus, and—most importantly—service through people. So, how did he do it?

People: Bob knew everyone—Annie who ran the laundry, Freddie the bellman, Eddie the landscaper, and every other person who worked there. He knew what made them happy and sad, and what made them tick. He also made sure they had The Vision. He talked about it on a personal level to everyone, every day. Every employee wore a gold star lapel pin, which represented the fifth star we were working toward. He taught people; he led by example; and he liked people. And they knew it.

Presence: Bob was everywhere. Sunday morning prior to brunch, he was in the kitchen. Not only was he a cheerleader, he also tasted the food. His famous line, “Inspect what you expect,” was his mantra. “Hi everyone—we will have record crowds this morning. Knock them dead! Are you all ready? Do you have what you need? You are the finest culinary team in the desert and everyone knows it. That’s why there is an hour-long wait for this brunch. It doesn’t happen by accident.”

Passion: Every single day, Bob inspected five rooms. He went to the front desk, asked for five room keys and thoroughly inspected five rooms. He always took someone with him, whether it was the housekeeping manager, the resident manager, or maybe the front desk manager. Why? To provide a learning opportunity. “This is what the inspectors from the Mobil Travel Guide will look for. To become a Five Star Hotel, the best of the best, you need consistency. Not one thing can get in the way.”

Competence: Bob really knew his stuff. He knew quality meats and the best produce. We didn’t talk about that as much in the 80s as we do today—but he did. He would even go up against Marriott’s buying practices—not that they were bad—if he thought he could make a better choice. For example, he had the notion that if the hotel grounds had citrus trees throughout, it would make a huge difference. There would be blossoms in the spring and glorious fruit through the winter. He didn’t imagine that anyone wouldn’t agree with him—so he asked the landscape manager to plan and order the trees. In the meantime, he sent a request to corporate to get the expense approved. The very day the trees arrived, the “request denied” paperwork arrived at Rancho Las Palmas. What did Bob do? He planted the trees.

How did he get away with that? Because average rates were higher than expected and occupancies were higher than expected—the things he knew, and did, worked! He was competent at his role and committed to the goal.

Heart: Bob’s weekly staff meetings were legendary. He read aloud from letters from our guests, which were always praising employees. He talked about The Vision—yes, every week. He highlighted successes, large and small, and talked about employees who stood out to him and why. He made it personal. He respected competence in the staff members and they knew it. They would work very hard because they, too, were vested in The Vision—a Five Star Resort. As Bob rode around the grounds in his golf cart, he stopped and spoke to everyone, asked questions about what they were doing, laughed with them, and understood who might need help and saw that they got it. He had heart—with conviction.

Marriott’s Rancho Las Palmas Resort did receive a Mobil Travel Guide Fifth Star. Inevitably, Bob Small moved on to become a legendary leader in the hotel industry at Walt Disney World as well as Fairmont Hotels. Reaching success through service isn’t complicated—Bob has given us a pretty clear roadmap.

The relentless pursuit of excellence came easy to Bob. He began with people, being present, and having a passion for excellence.  He focused on competence –personally, and for those on his team. He knew the importance of vision and heart. He really believed it’s your people who get you there. I think he’s right.

What about you? Could you or your organization apply Bob’s philosophy to earn the equivalent of a coveted five-star rating? What would a five-star rating look like in your industry?

Learn more about Bob at robertismall.com

About the author:

Barbara Notre is Director of Corporate Communications and Initiatives for The Ken Blanchard Companies.  You can read Barbara’s posts as a part of our customer service series which appears twice a month here on LeaderChat.

Rank your service through the eyes of your customers. How would they respond to this statement:

After an interaction with me, an internal or external customer would say they felt: A) Brilliant, Respected, Alive, Independent, and Noticed; or B) Bored, Rejected, Apathetic, Insecure, and Neglected.

To move responses in a more positive direction, consider using a neuroscience approach.  What would it take to help people feel brilliant, respected, alive, independent, and noticed?  Here are five ways to get started.

Brilliant: To feel brilliant, the pattern-seeking brain takes in millions of bits of information, seeking to connect them with other previous ideas and information. You can help people feel brilliant by making those connections—showing people how to connect what you are sharing to what they already know. For example, if you are selling a software solution, move beyond an early awkwardness with the new technology by sharing similarities to software the customer is already using successfully.  Showcase the skill and brilliance that the customer already has.

Respected: Listening is one of the most powerful strategies you can use to show respect. In many of the classes I facilitate, I use a ten-minute activity called “Being with…,” to show the power of truly listening. I divide the class into pairs and ask one person to speak and the other to listen—but in a very special way.  The speaker uses sentence stems such as, “Something I have been wanting to share with someone is…,” or “Something I am proud of is….” The listener just gets to say, “Thank you,” “Tell me more,” or “I understand.” The amazing outcome is that everyone connects at a powerful level and realizes that in their daily lives they are usually problem solving or speaking instead of really listening.*

Alive: In today’s world, people zoom from one thing to another which often causes them to miss the fun, engagement, and joy of life. You can help rekindle the feeling of being alive for customers by being unique, being a bit vulnerable, or increasing your level of generosity of thought and practices. I was at major department store getting supplies for my college grad in his new apartment. The salesperson went beyond just pointing me to what I wanted and, instead, took a moment to ask who the purchase was for and what was happening with this new transition. Because of this interaction, I felt a renewed energy and focus for the rest of my day. One person has the ability to create a space in which someone else is renewed. You can be that person.

Independent: Building competence in others is another great way to deepen relationships.  Teach people how to use the products they are purchasing.  Show them how to be successful.  Building and reinforcing valued skills in others deepens neural connections.  People love to learn new skills—it leads to increased independence.

Noticed: To connect, you first have to notice. Use customer’s names. Stop and really notice who they are. If face-to- face, look at them. If on the phone, listen to what is not being said as well as what is being said. Remember that each person you interact with has a life journey, experiences, and rich knowledge different from any other person. Find out what is unique about your customers.  Calling it out builds deep, permanent relationships by fulfilling the brain’s craving for relatedness.

Use a BRAIN-based approach

Apply the learnings from neuroscience to your customer service strategies.  Use the BRAIN acronym to remind yourself (and others on your team) about the impact you can have when you help people bring the full capacity of their brain to the experience.  Create connections that allow people to feel Brilliant, Respected, Alive, Independent, and Noticed for who they are and what they have done in their lives.  It’s a great way to create a lasting brain bond with customers.

*To learn more about the listening technique described above, I highly recommend Straight From the Heart by Paul and Layne Cutright

About the author

Vicki Halsey is a senior consulting partner and one of the principal authors—together with Kathy Cuff—of The Ken Blanchard Companies’ Legendary Service training program.

So, of course, they decided to sleep in and didn’t do any physical training for the day.
And of course my team was upset that they didn’t get to sleep in and come to work at 9:30. The last thing I wanted to create was resentment across the two teams. I thought that maybe a “team building” exercise was in order, but I didn’t carry it out because I felt I would probably screw that up too.  I was upset about the whole situation, but mainly I was irritated at myself.
After looking back on the incident, here’s what I learned:

• I never really gave him full autonomy

Here’s what I really said: You can have full autonomy unless you do something I don’t want you to do or something that I disagree with you on. What I told him he could do and what I wanted him to do were two separate things.

• I shouldn’t have given him full autonomy

Giving full autonomy over everything is not really leadership at all. I thought I was doing the right thing by giving him autonomy, but what I should have done in that situation was to give him more direction as to what is expected and necessary. Autonomy has its place and limitations; using it correctly is when it’s the most impactful.

• My communication was not aligned with my expectations

I was never clear on my expectations. What was standard and status quo for me was not necessarily the same for him. Talking through each other’s expectations would have been helpful for minimizing conflict and building trust.
For any further information or questions contact me at gus.jaramillo@kenblanchard.com

• Can the process be duplicated by others with relative ease? (i.e. is it scalable?)
• Is the process efficient for your employees and/or customers so they don’t have to jump through hoops?
• Are there potential holes in the process where the ball might get dropped by one or more individuals?
• Does the process give a desired outcome in the shortest possible timeframe?
• Most importantly, can employees/customers move forward outside of the establish process under special circumstances?

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Ok, so we like to watch a little TV and play video games, so what’s the big deal? We live life on the edge (of reality) and love to surf (the web) and socialize (on Facebook) all day. We are the doers. We seek not war, but peace. We love reality television and hang on every word they say (even the illiterate ones). We are not better than any of you, but we are special. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are just extensions of our inner self. We love rap music, iPhones, and Dancing with the Stars (my wife made me put that in here). We are not all about ourselves; everyone is just all about us.
This is our motto.
Tom Brokaw accurately named the World War II generation as the Greatest Generation. After reading the book, watching the Band of Brothers series, and hearing the stories from WWII vets themselves, I can’t deny this. These men and women were some of the purist of Americans—hard-working, dedicated, and loyal to their values. I remember visiting Normandy about 10 years ago and seeing the crosses of the buried soldiers neatly displayed—such a beautiful display of sadness and pain. In my own experience as a captain in the Army and a combat veteran serving in Afghanistan, I hardly saw any sense of entitlement among the troops. There were men and women who were generally unhappy to be there (I admit even sometimes I wondered why we were there),  and hated everything about the war, but they still wanted to fight. There was a sense of pride about them and they fought long and hard. While in Afghanistan, I had a West Point Captain tell me about his 18-month deployment. He said the length of the deployment really hit him hard at the first Thanksgiving dinner. They were just about to start eating when one of his soldiers said, “Hey sir, don’t worry about saying grace. I’ll do it this year and you can say grace next year.”
I don’t claim we are the Greatest Generation but I do think Gen Y has contributed significantly more than just TV and video games. We are a young generation, but like many others we adapt, overcome, and move on. I never liked the label, “entitlement generation” because frankly I don’t think we deserve it. I hope this generation can rid ourselves of this brand and demonstrate the core American qualities that have been delivered to us from previous generations.
For any further information or questions contact me at gus.jaramillo@kenblanchard.com

• Job Factors – Autonomy, Meaninful Work, Feedback, Workload Balance, and Task Variety
• Organizational Factors – Collaboration, Performance Expectations, Growth, Procedural Justice (process fairness), and Distributive Justice (rewards, pay, and benefits)
• Relationship Factors – Connectedness with Colleagues and Connectedness with Leader

Without question, all of these factors are vital toward achieving an engaged and passionate workforce. What jumps out at me, and with most other’s research on the subject, is that the focus areas all tend to be very, for lack of a better word, work-centric. Whether you subscribe to the notion of work-life balance or work-life integration, my belief is that, in addition to these crucial work-centric factors, any number of outside personal factors may significantly influence an individual’s level of engagement and passion at any given time. And yes, this may even include an individual’s reaction to the weather outside.
It’s important to remember that regardless of your industry, you’re in the people business. Your colleagues and customers are human beings who are affected by other life experiences, both good and bad, besides those that occur while they’re working. We are individuals with unique needs, wants, situations, and emotions. In future posts in this series, we’ll further discuss situations and possible solutions to achieve a deeper understanding of what drives the engagement and passion of the unique individuals who make up your workforce.
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Imagine going into a job interview or pitching a new project with the premise of retaining an individual’s services through the commitment to a steady dose of procrastination and indifference toward key tasks and reasonabilities. It’s an absurd notion. That organization would be foolish to hire for such a promise. It would be foolish for a person to settle for being average as an employee.
So then, why do organizations hire for excellence and settle for mediocrity? Why do teams within organizations get away with doing just enough to “get the job done?” Why do so many individuals settle for coming to work and being average, at best?
While modern thinkers like Jim Collins, in Good to Great, have evolved the meaning of the word “good” to mean something less than great, ancient writers, teachers, philosophers like Aristotle defined “good” as something extraordinary – exceedingly great. The classic notion of good is manifest excellence—actively pursuing behavior that excels beyond the normal, everyday basics of our mere existence—encouraging us to thrive, rather than simply survive. The pursuit of excellence has led individuals to a greater happiness in living and working throughout history.
The Nicomachean Ethics is one of the most important books in the whole history of philosophy and certainly the most influential works of Aristotle. It is a collection of his most profound thoughts and was based on an exhortation to his son to live the best possible life.
Though taught thousands of years ago, Aristotle’s thoughts on excellence—becoming exceedingly good, still serves as a call to action for those who desire and are willing to lead themselves at a higher level. Although there are many narratives that can be culled out from Aristotle’s epic work, there are a several broad narratives that have practical application in our modern workplace.
A Greater Good
For an individual to perform exceedingly “good,” they must believe that “good” is something beyond just their own need, but also the good of the community, organization, or society they live in. According to Aristotle, excellence is a mindset rather than just a set of activities. Most activities are a means to a higher end, or at least they should be, and our work is no exception.
When individuals start showing up to work just to pull a pay check or organizations get too focused on the profit margins, they loose site of why they exist—to serve a greater good. Excellent employees focus on using their skills and knowledge to serve a purpose greater than themselves and in the process meet their basic needs while achieving excellence.
Virtue, Vision, and Values
Excellence depends on living in accordance with appropriate virtues, vision, and values. A virtuous individual is naturally inspired to behave in the right ways and for the right reasons, finding happiness in behaving according to a set of higher standards of excellence—personal standards as well as the standards expected of them by their community.
The Excellent Employee performs all of their duties with clear expectations of their role and responsibilities, in alignment with the core values of the company. Aristotle is not referring to some imaginary notion of perfection, and neither should organizations expect that of employees. But striving for higher levels of behavioral excellence, creating a greater value in products and projects, should be the goal of every employee.
Know Thyself
The phrase, Know Thyself was inscribed above the entrance to the Lyceum that Aristotle attended as a young man in Athens. Most historians attribute the phrase as an admonition to those entering the sacred temple to remember or know their place before entering into the learning process. Modern philosophies and leadership theories have expanded the notion of self awareness as a means to become more in tune with one’s own personal strengths and weaknesses, beliefs and behaviors.
Excellent employees are committed to knowing themselves through a daily process of understanding the vision and values of the organization, and then aligning them with their own Key Areas of Responsibility. They are also keenly aware of their own assumptions about the organization or a project that may be holding them back. They are aware of where they are at in their own learning process, and what they need from others to successfully complete their daily tasks. Most individuals struggle to move beyond periods of disillusionment and conflict, settling for something less than exceedingly good. The Excellent Employee is equipped to understand their own needs and move through those periods of doubt and disillusionment efficiently and effectively.
Relationships
Aristotle believed that the bonds that tie citizens together are so important that it would be unthinkable to suggest that true happiness can be found in a life isolated from others. This understanding applies to the modern workplace as well. But excellent employees aren’t just good at building effective social and professional networks on Facebook and Linked In, they are dedicated to building intimate and meaningful relationships through personal one on one communication. They’re also aware of the fact that there are more ways to getting a job done by gaining the support of people in positions of power, but rather influencing peers and colleagues through other types of personal power in order to meet the needs of the greater good and do an exceedingly good work.
Action
Aristotle did not think that virtue could be taught in a classroom down at the local Lyceum or simply by means of a “good” argument, but rather by applying virtue and values to your daily actions. His claim that virtue can be learned only through constant practice implies that there are no set rules we can learn from in just a workbook or a presentation alone; rather we must find a means of transferring that knowledge into action. The Excellent Employee is committed to training in the skills sets that will help them excel beyond average. They are consumed with creating solutions and meaningful results, rather than wallowing in the challenges, setbacks, and conflicts that arise in the workplace.
Become Excellent
The Excellent Employee has a strategy to consistently align their vision and values to the organization’s vision and values, through a clear understanding of themselves and their needs. They also utilize key relationships and apply their knowledge and skills to their everyday workflow, aligning it with the greater good of their company and their clients.
Life is short. Be activly committed to living and working at a higher level, for yourself and the greater good. Aristotle would challenge today’s modern employee to become excellent by doing excellent acts.
Jason Diamond Arnold
Co-Author of Situational Self Leadership in Action

Dilbert by Scott Adams

• It significantly reduces costs. Gas is expensive. A plane ticket is, in most cases, even more expensive. And, don’t forget about travel expenses (especially if you have 5 star tastes). This, of course, doesn’t include the high cost of day rates you’d either be on the receiving end of as a client or, on the billing end as a service provider.
• It significantly saves time. Time is money so, by extension, travel time is very expensive. Does it really make sense to meet in person when that four hour meeting ultimately costs you three full days after you factor in the travel time?
• It allows you to build and develop relationships. Generally speaking, healthy, positive, productive relationships require a certain amount of face time. When you can’t physically be in the same room, this is how you can get it (with frequency and regularity).
• It forces you to be present. When you’re on the phone only, it’s easy to tune out or multi-task. When you’re on video, you’re engaged…you’re conscious of your body language and emotions because you’re observing the same from others.
• It forces you to improve your personal hygiene. If you’re working from home and know you have a video conference, you’re forced to get out of bed, get dressed, do your hair, and, well, look professional.
• What used to only be possible in sci-fi cartoons is now a reality for YOU. And you gotta admit, that’s pretty cool.

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