Tag: internal communication

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Engagement Marketing

Internal Marketing’s Critical Connections (Part 2 – continued)

Building relationships among employees throughout the workplace enables them to feel connected within the organization.  Communication is a key ingredient in this process – sharing information within and across departmental silos to let people know what others are doing in the organization to help it move forward.

Trading Places

Role switching is another effective way to build internal relationships and appreciation for other employees. 

  • UPS sales reps accompany drivers on delivery runs, and drivers will go out on sales calls with the reps.  Sales reps gain appreciation on the experience of package delivery (and brand promise fulfillment), while drivers gain insight on what new accounts are looking for (including what it takes to land a new account).
  • Once a year, corporate employees from Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill & Bar work a shift at one of their restaurants.
  • I don’t know if they still do this, but Hyatt Hotels used to observe an “In Touch” Day where corporate staff went into the field to work in one of their hotel facilities – working alongside housekeeping, bell staff, catering, check-in or check-out.

The value of these programs is that they help build empathy for other staff, reinforcing teamwork and a sense of common purpose.  The combination of any such initiative to create a sense of appreciation and respect among co-workers, along with internal communications, helps strengthen employee relationships.  That’s what connecting employees within their organizations is all about.

Coming soon: the last in this series of Internal Marketing’s Critical Connections — connecting employees with customers.

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Engagement Marketing

Internal Marketing’s Critical Connections (Part 2)

Ever notice the natural divisions that occur in organizations?  I’ve seen this in every industry I’ve worked with; e.g., in financial services, it’s the branches vs. operations.  In higher education, it’s faculty vs. administration. In advertising, it’s the creatives vs. the agency’s business “suits.”

Doesn’t matter whether it’s manufacturing vs. sales … or sales vs. marketing … or marketing vs. engineering … there always seems to be an “us” vs. “them” mentality in organizations.  So how can employees effectively serve customers when they’re fighting internal turf battles?

Bridging the Great Divide

Everyone needs to understand where they & their colleagues fit in the scope of the organization and how working together, they can help an organization achieve its goals.  (This was addressed in my April 11th and 14th posts about connecting employees to their organizations through orientation & communication).

To bridge the internal divides, employees also need to feel connected within their organizations.  This involves building relationships with others in the organization so that everyone is on “the same page.”  Here again, communication plays a critical role in bridging the connection:

    • Open up staff meetings – invite reps from other areas of the organization to attend department meetings so they know what’s going on & can share what they’re doing.  This is especially important when departmental initiatives impact others’ work.
    • Showcase what a department or division does & how its work is important to the organization.  You can hold an “open house” type event or spotlight the department in print (e.g., in employee newsletter or intranet).
    • Southwest Missouri State University senior administrator, Greg Burris, launched an ‘ambassador’ program modeled after community leadership-type programs.  Groups of employees engaged in learning about the different facets of the school to improve cross-campus communications and, ultimately, customer service.
    • In his book The Customer Comes Second, Hal Rosenbluth, suggests management can also create cohesion by basing leaders’ compensation primarily on overall organizational performance, instead of relying on individual performance and fostering inter-departmental competition.
Building relationships with others in organization won’t preclude internal squabbles — there will always be internal politics — but it can help minimize them and get everyone working together to move the organization forward.
I’ll have additional ideas on how to strengthen relationships within the organization, so stay tuned for my next post.
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Engagement Marketing

Internal Marketing’s Critical Connections (Part 1-continued)

As part of my new series on internal marketing’s critical connections, my last post covered new staff orientation as a way to connect employees to the organization.  Now we’ll look at what happens next.

After Orientation – Communication

Orientation is great for focusing attention on the new hires.  But what about the employees who have been around for a while?  When do they get to be reminded of their fit in and contribution to the organization?  Unfortunately in a lot of companies, this may only occur once a year at performance review time … and we know how much people look forward to that process!

This is where constant communication plays a major role.  Through top-down communications — from the executive level to the front-line — managers & supervisors need to share three important types of information:

  • What is happening within the organization and where it is going
  • What is the employee’s role & what is expected of the person in the process
  • Feedback on how everyone is doing – individually and collectively.

There are lots of internal communications vehicles for this:

  • Staff meetings
  • Internal memos & newsletters (print and/or electronic)
  • All-employee forums such as town-hall type meetings or video conferences
  • Special events such as employee appreciation programs, staff dinners/picnics.

Keeping Focused

Given the hectic pace of today’s workplace, it’s easy to lose sight of the “big picture” especially when people are so busy putting out the latest fires.  That’s why reinforcing the message is so critical — when employees feel a strong connection to their organization, when they know why they’re there & what they need to do, they’re more easily engaged.

My next post will continue this series and address how to strengthen employee connections within an organization.

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Engagement Marketing Training & Development

Internal Marketing’s Critical Connections (Part 1)

Internal marketing’s focus on valuing both customers and the employees who serve them requires strengthening three critical connections:

  • Connecting the employee to the organization
  • Connecting the employee within the organization
  • Connecting employees with customers.

This post begins a series on each connection, starting with connecting employees to their organization through orientation (for new employees) and constant communication (for all employees).  This establishes and reinforces employees’ fit in the scope of the organization (“big picture”) and what’s expected of them in helping the organization fulfill its mission & goals.

Becoming a Part of the Organization

Orientation’s role is to educate the new employee about:

  • The organization – its mission, values, goals, how it operates, where it’s going, etc. 
  • The specific job function – answering the employee’s questions on “What do I do & how do I do it? How will I be evaluated?” etc.
  • The industry in general – this is important for giving new employees a broader perspective by addressing how the organization is positioned within its industry; who its partners and competitor are; and trends (positive or threatening) that can impact the organization and its industry. (Unfortunately, this component of orientation – connecting employees to the “big picture” –  is often ignored.)

Starting off right

Starbucks‘ CEO Howard Schultz greets all new hires via video in which he shares the company’s history & culture, what it stands for, and where it’s going … he refers to this critical time as the “imprinting period of the new employee.”

Eat’nPark, a Pittsburgh-based restaurant chain, focuses on making new employees feel truly welcome.  Before a new hire starts in one of their restaurants, the manager circulates a “Welcome to the Team” card to be signed by staff.  This card includes a post-it note with brief information about the new team member – the person’s name, job position, and a fun-fact about the person’s hobbies or interests.  The welcome card works on several levels: it makes the new person feel welcome, facilitates communication between the new hire and current staff, and helps minimize some of the initial awkwardness of everyone getting to know each other.

 

Evaluating Orientation

After new employees complete their orientation, don’t forget to get their feedback in formal or informal evaluations.  A great question to ask employees after they’ve been on the job for a period of time (six weeks, three months, or longer) is “What do you know now that you wish you had known when you started?”

To be continued: my next post will address the communications aspect of this connection.

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Customer service Engagement Marketing

Internal Marketing Fundamentals – Gaining Employee Commitment (Part 3 of 3)

Welcome to the last in this series on the 3 Rs of gaining employee commitment as the foundation of internal marketing:

  • Respect – give people the tools to do their jobs [see post 3-14-05]
  • Recognition – catch them doing something right [see last post]
  • Reinforcement – continually support a customer-focused culture.

3rd R: Reinforcement

This involves supporting the importance of customer-care in both word & deed.  Consider the opportunities you have to share this message in verbal, print, and electronic communications — internal memos, staff meetings, intranet, special events, etc.  For example, you can publish success stories of staff who go “above & beyond” when it comes to taking care of customers, recognizing employees as roles models or organizational heroes.

Unlikely media

Financial services giant MBNA has the words “Think like the customer” printed above the doorways in its offices to reinforce customer empathy.

QVC, the shopping channel, has an expression of its values inlaid in the floor of its headquarters: “Customer focus: exceeding the expectations of every customer.”

And a growing number of companies now include their mission statements and/or corporate values on the back of employee ID badges.

Special events

You can also reinforce customer importance through customer appreciation-type events.  Such activities aren’t limited to for-profits — the U.S. Census Bureau celebrates Customer Service Week each October.  Census Bureau marketing staff & employee committees explore creative ways to honor the Customer Service Week event with special activities.  For example, field offices participate by creating customer-focused displays that are peer-judged on the Bureau’s intranet.  Customer Service Week program books are published & distributed featuring service success stories submitted by customers and staff.

It just keeps going & going …

Organizations that successfully cultivate a customer-focused culture know it takes continual effort beyond just using internal media or special events.  It also means management’s actions need to be consistent with its customer-focused message, whether on a daily basis or during extraordinary times.

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How does your organization reinforce a customer-focused culture?  Let me know.

Gaining & maintaining employee commitment to serving customers involves an ongoing demonstration of respecting employees, recognizing their efforts, and continually reinforcement a customer-care orientation.  This is the foundation of internal marketing.

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Engagement Marketing Training & Development

Internal Marketing Fundamentals – Gaining Employee Commitment (Part 1 of 3)

In my initial post, I promised to share what’s involved in internal marketing, a concept focused on employee & customer care.  Remember, if your employees don’t feel valued, neither will your customers.

The foundation of internal marketing is based on what I call the ‘3 Rs’ of gaining employee commitment:

  • Respect – give people the tools to do their jobs
  • Recognition – catch them do something right
  • Reinforcement – continually support a customer-focused culture.

This week I’ll start a series on each of the 3 Rs & how they underscore internal marketing.

1st R: R-E-S-P-E-C-T

An organization respects its employees when it gives them the tools & info they need to do their jobs.  This involves communication, training, and empowerment.

Communication – people need to know what their organization stands for & what it’s all about (= mission), what its goals & objectives area, and what’s expected of them in helping to achieve these goals; i.e., how they fit in “the big picture.”

How can people be expected to contribute to an organization if they don’t know where it’s going and what’s expected of them in helping it get there?

Unfortunately, this type of communication is overlooked — it gets mentioned a few times and is assumed to be understood. So managers need to find ways to constantly reinforce employees’ fit in the organization, including explaining how their works contributes to customer satisfaction & the bottom line.  (Substitute “stakeholder satisfaction & mission fulfillment” here for nonprofits.)

Training – respect also means helping employees develop/enhance relevant job skills.  This includes:

  • training on how to do a specific job;
  • orientation to your organization and industry (it’s surprising how often the latter is ignored);
  • product knowledge training (features & benefits of your firm’s offerings);
  • interpersonal communications skills + customer relations skills training (also assumed);
  • and other ‘soft’ but important training like supervisory & management development.

And finally, respect means Empowerment – giving staff the latitude & authority to take care of customers (as well as other employees) without having to stop to ask permission every step of the way.

An easy way to remember Respect in this context is “explaining, training, and refraining” — explaining where employees fit in the organization & what’s expected of them … training them to do their jobs … then refraining from getting in their way.

It’s a no-brainer: employees who are properly equipped to do their jobs can better serve customers.

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How does your organization demonstrate respect for employees?  Feel free to share your comments in response to this post.

And stay tuned for my next post on Recognition.

 

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Customer service Engagement Marketing

Pop Quiz: Customers 101

Over the years I’ve developed internal marketing as an approach that recognizes the value of employees in serving customers. (Remember my mantra: take care of the employees & they’ll care of the customers.) 

You can use marketing to communicate with, educate, and motivate employees as effectively as you use it to communicate with, educate, and motivate customers. Especially when it’s based on respect — giving employees the tools they need to serve customers and each other (i.e., employees as “internal” customers).

I’m talking about the basics here … letting staff know as much as possible about your customers.  Basic stuff like:

  • who your customers are (e.g., general customer profiles & product usage)
  • what’s important to them in dealing with you
  • how they feel about your organization (from customer satisfaction surveys, complaint tracking)
  • what competitive options they have, etc.

Does any of this info get shared with employees, or is it kept for senior management’s eyes only? Excluding proprietary & confidential data, the more employees know about their customers, the better they can serve them.

Try giving your staff a quiz sometime about your customers (you can use some of the questions listed above). And if the very thought of doing this scares you, it means you have your homework cut out for you. Communicate with & educate your employees about your customers. The results will benefit everyone involved.