Author: sybil

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Engagement

Engaging Conversations with Volunteers

“Volunteers … work not for money but because they want to give back, make a difference, change the world.”  Sally Helgesen

While the need to give of themselves may motivate volunteers to get involved, it doesn’t ensure their continuing commitment. What keeps them involved is the quality of their experience with an organization.

The best way to understand your volunteers’ experience is to engage them in conversation. This can be done in individual conversations or, if you manage a large group of volunteers, through roundtable discussions or surveys.

Engaging conversation starters

Ask these key questions to learn what your volunteers think – and how they feel – about your nonprofit:

• What is it about this organization that appealed to you to get involved?

• What about this organization keeps you involved?

• What do you expect to give and get from your volunteer involvement?

• What do you enjoy most about your volunteer experience?

• What suggestions do you have to improve the volunteer experience?

• Would you recommend this organization to other volunteers?

What to do with volunteer feedback

Listen carefully and acknowledge your volunteers’ value – both in serving your organization and in sharing their thoughts with you. Collective responses to the first four questions provide important insight to reinforce volunteer engagement and may be used in your messaging to recruit new volunteers.

Responses to the last two questions will help you identify concerns that need immediate fixing and those that need to be addressed in the long term. Share and communicate any follow up to let your volunteers know that you heard them.

Volunteers are precious resources. Listen to them and treat them with the respect they deserve.

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Customer service Engagement Training & Development

A Manager’s Guide on How to Cope When Team Efforts are Taken For Granted

I had an interesting discussion with a colleague who manages an internal service department for a medium-sized organization. She’s a supportive manager whose team takes pride in providing quality service to internal clients. However, she finds it a challenge to keep her employees at the top of their game when some internal clients are unappreciative of their efforts. Part of her dilemma is rooted in an organizational culture where administrative support is taken for granted.

She and her team acknowledge the situation and focus on how to work effectively within – and despite – the culture. She also encourages employees to rise to the challenge of working with unappreciative clients. Yet there are still occasions when team members find it hard to muster enthusiasm to serve such clients.

You can’t fake it and other important tips
How does she continue to motivate her team? She knows she can’t fake her own engagement, so she starts by staying positive. She also focuses on how she can best support her team and internal clients with the following actions:

  • Keep the “big picture” front and center by reminding employees how they support the department’s mission and contribute to the organization’s mission in the process.
  • Engage employees in sharing what works to keep them motivated, such as providing peer support and finding the humor in their experiences and ways to safely blow off steam. This is done regularly in staff meetings and when difficult situations arise.
  • Share and reinforce client service success stories with the manager’s boss as well as with the team itself.
  • Acknowledge those clients who are appreciative of staff efforts, while also diplomatically standing up for employees dealing with difficult clients.
  • Maintain a positive culture within the department that values both clients AND team members.
  • Continue to acknowledge and recognize employee efforts with little gifts, food, and ongoing professional development.

Just as importantly, she models and reinforces what Chip Bell describes in his new book, Kaleidoscope:

“We are what we serve to others. It is our signature that sums us up each time a customer is on the receiving end of our efforts. And your customers remember how you served long after they have forgotten what you served! How can you deliver service in a fashion that says, ‘This is me, and it is my very best gift to you?'”

Categories
Customer service Engagement Marketing

Are You Guilty of Treating Your Customers Like Chopped Liver?

The phrase “What am I, chopped liver?” is uttered when a person is made to feel that he or she is not special. It’s exactly how some customers feel as a result of neglect by companies.

I’m seeing this scenario play out in a membership-based company that’s constantly offering special discount pricing to acquire new customers while ignoring their current ones. Those in the latter group are questioning their customer loyalty given management’s attention on attracting new business while little investment is made to improve member services and facilities. Some customers are paying fees higher than those offered to prospective customers. However, they can get a few extra months of free membership IF they help bring in new customers.

Churn, churn churn
With little confidence in the company to take care of current customers, turnover continues … as does the search for new customers. The company may not realize it, but turnover would be much greater if it weren’t for customer inertia – whether their customers are locked into annual contracts or unable to find suitable alternatives. The reality is unhappy customers who stay don’t bring in additional business.

Heavily promoting to attract new customers at the expense of taking care of existing customers is the perfect recipe for making customers feel like chopped liver. It’s also a strategy that leads to continued high turnover and brand damage. Customer churn isn’t the only issue here – employee turnover is also evident.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Here are four steps companies can take so their customers and employees don’t feel like chopped liver.

  • Take the time to proactively engage with and listen to your current customers and respond appropriately. Consider formal customer satisfaction surveys, customer roundtables, or lost customer analysis. The latter can be as simple as asking why a customer left, although it’s better to learn of customers’ frustrations before they leave.
  • Communicate with customers. If improvements in member services and/or facilities are in the works, let them know about it. If not, let them know why and when they can expect a future fix. The absence of such transparency leads customers to speculate about the company’s health.
  • Also take time to proactively engage with and listen to your employees, and respond appropriately. Seek their input on signs of customer frustration.
  • Communicate with employees and equip them to be customer-focused. Ensure they know what’s happening so they can address customer questions and concerns. Provide with them with training to provide top-notch customer service, and in the event of a problem, equip them to deal with customer complaints and recovery.

NOT for customers only
Engagement and retention efforts shouldn’t be limited to customers — if your employees don’t feel valued, neither will your customers.

How does your company make its customers and employees feel?

Categories
Engagement Training & Development

Sharing a Positive Message: Interview with Laughing at My Nightmare’s Sarah Yunusov

Shane Burcaw and Sarah Burcaw, Laughing at My Nightmare (LAMN]

I am one of more than half a million followers of Shane Burcaw’s Laughing At My Nightmare blog. I’m also greatly impressed with the nonprofit organization he co-founded with his cousin, Sarah Yunusov, with the mission “to spread a message of positivity while providing equipment grants to those living with muscular dystrophy.” The popularity and growth of LAMN’s brand has Shane and Sarah giving presentations throughout the U.S., so I was thrilled when they planned to speak at a “hometown” event in Bethlehem, PA, where I could hear them.

Their presentation was phenomenal – filled with the candor, humor, and positive perspective that characterizes Shane’s writing. I met with both of them recently, and we spoke about the critical need to embrace a positive attitude. Since Shane is busy writing his blog and has a new book in progress, I asked Sarah to share her thoughts here.

QSM: How did you and Shane get into speaking about the topic of positivity?

Sarah: Shane and I grew up in a family that was always laughing. Big family dinners occurred about once a month at our grandparents’ house, and the signature activity at these gatherings was making fun of each other. Most of our family has a twisted, sarcastic sense of humor, and once the jokes would start, they would never stop. This was the case at weddings, birthday parties, and even funeral receptions (it sounds wrong, but what better way to celebrate a life than by remembering the best moments with laughter?).

At an early age, we learned how incredibly powerful humor was when dealing with adversity. Fast forward to Shane starting his blog. His blog was basically just an extension of the mindset instilled in us by our family. It’s about the hilarious and crazy experiences Shane has had living with muscular dystrophy, but more than that, it teaches readers that a positive attitude can help them effectively cope with stress and adversity.

Science has proved this idea to be true. Studies show that “happy” individuals not only experience better life outcomes (such as higher income, better rates of marriage, etc.) but they also tend to be more productive than “unhappy” people.

The best part is that advances in neuroscience and positive psychology are showing us that it’s totally possible to actively increase your overall chronic happiness. Our happiness is composed of three basic parts: set point, circumstances, and intentional activity. Set point is your genetic happiness level. It accounts for about 50% of your overall happiness. Circumstances are things like job, geography, income, etc. These are the daily realities that we “think” have a huge impact on our happiness. Interestingly, though, studies suggest that circumstances only account for about 10% of our happiness. The last slice of the happiness pie are intentional activities—all the thoughts and actions we “choose” to think and do. These activities, which make up 40% of our happiness, are the key to becoming happier people. By learning techniques to live and think more positively, you can quite literally change the chemical functions of your brain to become a happier person. We think that’s pretty freaking cool.

QSM: What’s the key message in your presentations?

Sarah: The key message of our talks is that we have control over our happiness, as per the science I just described. We use funny stories from Shane’s life of living with a disability to illustrate these concepts. We’ve also done talks about inclusion and diversity, as well as anti-bullying themed presentations.

QSM: Your speaking engagements involve two distinct types of audiences: schools that range from elementary to high school, and businesses that include private companies and pharmaceutical firms. How do the responses you get from these diverse audiences compare?

Sarah: There are definitely some differences and similarities between the schools we speak at compared to the businesses. With kids, our message is more about showing them that we have choices about how we respond to adversity. Kids are endlessly curious too, which we love, because it allows us to understand the preconceptions they have about disability and gives us an opportunity to educate them. Adult audiences are more interested in the science and the concrete methods they can employ to become happier people.

QSM: How can your message of positivity help people today?

Sarah: We live in a time when fear and negativity are attacking our minds often, and in a variety of ways. Now more than ever, we need to remind ourselves why being alive is so beautiful. We believe our message can change the world with that very simple idea.

QSM: An inspired message and important goal, indeed. Thank you, Sarah!

You can learn more about the story behind Laughing At My Nightmare, Inc., in this video and on LAMN’s website.

Categories
Engagement

How Will You Honor Your Employees on Recognition Day?

Recognizing and affirming employee value is critical to creating and sustaining employee engagement. And while workplace recognition should be a no-brainer, Gallup research found otherwise. According to Gallup practice manager Annamarie Mann and researcher Nate Dvorak, ” … only one in three U.S. workers strongly agree that they received recognition or praise for doing good work in the past seven days. At any given company, it’s not uncommon for employees to feel that their best efforts are routinely ignored. Further, employees who do not feel adequately recognized are twice as likely to say they’ll quit in the next year.”

For managers who need an extra push when it comes to recognition, get ready for national Recognition Day, Friday, March 3, 2017. This special holiday is observed annually on the first Friday in March that 1) serves as be a springboard for those starting to get serious about the importance of recognition, and 2) enables those who value recognition to do something extra for their employees.

Effective recognition is authentic and genuine — it doesn’t work if it’s forced. If you’re serious about recognizing your employees, have fun with it and know that it doesn’t have to be expensive or time consuming. Your can find many great ideas here to celebrate Recognition Day and throughout the year:

Creative Ideas Abound as Recognition Day 2017 Approaches

51 Employee Appreciation Day Ideas That Won’t Break The Bank

Validation isn’t a once-and-done effort. Everyone needs to know that our work matters … that we matter.  How will you recognize your employees this Recognition day to let them know that they matter?

Categories
Engagement

What to Look for When Replacing a Manager

A colleague expressed frustration about a corporate search that took nearly a year to replace a department head. It takes time to bring in the right person, and urgency takes a back seat to finding the right fit.

The challenge, however, is getting through the process as employees cope with the “temporary” void feeling uncertain and even anxious about their manager’s replacement. Change can be scary given the unknown of the newcomer’s personality and agenda, particularly if the new manager comes from outside the organization.

That’s why it’s important to remember the words spoken by the wise knight in Indiana Jones’ The Last Crusade: “choose wisely.”

If you’re in a position to select a manager’s replacement, consider the type of engaging manager recommended by thought leader and academic Henry Mintzberg in his classic article “Managing Quietly.” He describes managers who:

  • Inspire rather than empower their people by creating a culture with “conditions that foster openness and release energy” so that “empowerment is taken for granted.”
  • Care for their organizations by spending more time “preventing problems than fixing them, because they know enough to know when and how to intervene.”
  • Infuse change so that it “seeps in slowly, steadily, profoundly” instead of dramatically so “everyone takes responsibility for making sure that serious changes take hold.”

For executives, search committees, and HR staff tasked with filling managers’ positions, you don’t want it said that you “chose poorly.”

Categories
Customer service Engagement Marketing

How to (Gently) End a Customer Relationship

good-bye blue-1477872_960_720When I asked other business professionals when it’s best to lose a customer or client, the reasons boiled down to the customer’s lack of respect and not being fully committed to the working relationship. Examples cited included:

  • difficult interactions with or mistreating customer-contact employees
  • being unresponsive and uncooperative
  • paying late or not at all.

The question then is how do you actually end such a business relationship in these situations? The best advice on “how to fire a customer” comes from customer-loyalty consultant and best-selling author, Chip R. Bell:

“Firing a customer is a bit like disarming a bomb; ‘very carefully’ is the operative term. The goals is to subdue animosity without scattering aftermath. Sometimes customers are so incensed at losing a favorite punching bag — even though it’s actually you who’s ‘lost’ them — they can move quickly from anger to vindictiveness, seeking opportunities to punish, not just put down. You can limit your chance of such backlash by handling firings in cool-headed but still sensitive ways.”

When terminating a business relationship based on the first two examples — when the customer has become abusive or difficult to deal with — Bell cautions against taking an angry, defensive, or otherwise emotional approach to avoid fueling the customer’s anger at ending the relationship.

” … a rational explanation for why a continued relationship will harm your business—how harsh treatment of service reps impairs productivity, or how a difficult relationship steals time from other deserving customers—should be your modus operandi here. The goal is to give the customer a signal that he or she is unwelcome if the unwanted behavior persists.  ‘Ms. Jones, I must ask you to leave. The morale of our associates is critically important to their well-being and to the well-being of our organization. While we are by no means perfect, our employees must not be repeatedly subjected to actions that demean them as people.’“

Bell also advises a rational approach when the issue is based on the bottom line, such as the client not paying.

“[Emphasize] how a continued relationship will negatively affect the business, not on how a parting of ways will make your long-suffering staff feel like it’s just won the lottery.  ‘Mr. Jones, we’ve greatly appreciated your business for the last year. We have elected to apply our limited resources in a new direction and will not be soliciting your business in the near future. Should you want to continue our relationship it will likely need to be at a (higher price, greater volume, faster cycle time, lower cost, etc.).’“

Granted, none of this is easy in a competitive and challenging marketplace. But it is essential to stand up for your employees and organizational principles. As Bell explains:

” … courageously ending relationships with customers who continually turn the blowtorch on the front line, or who over time siphon more funds from the bottom line than they return, sends a message about what you stand for as an organization.”

[Note: above excerpts cited with permission from Chip Bell’s book, “Wired and Dangerous,” co-authored with John R. Patterson.]

Categories
Engagement

Creative Planning for 2017

Napkin futures by David Zinger

“Tabling strategy.
Gel pens drawn
during fast food lunch
sparking napkin artistry.
Ink bleeds
arrows, word, and stick figures
into thin paper.
Absorbing both
strategic thinking
and mustard drips
oozing from the overflowing cheeseburger.
It is going to be a good year.”

— From David Zinger’s book of poems on workplace engagement, Assorted Zingers, illustrated by cartoonist John Junson.

Categories
Engagement

Read This If You’re Feeling Overwhelmed This Holiday

If you need help regaining your perspective on what’s important this holiday, consider these words of wisdom from business and life coach, Steve Davis. He offers a profound strategy to better cope with the stress of “too much.”

To find true fulfillment and better cope with the stress brought on by hyper-materialism and information-overload, Steve advises understanding the difference between “Assimilation vs. Accumulation.”

We haven’t asked ourselves the questions, “How much is enough?” “What do I value over everything else?” We just cannot say “no” to available things and information that meet our fancy. And in some ways, we crave each new thing with the hope that it will somehow set us free. Consequently, we are literally dying from over consumption in one form or another … People are busier, have less time, and often feel overwhelmed, surrounded by too much stuff and stressed out under the growing burden of too much information.

How do we cope with the temptation to consume ourselves into oblivion? …  First, begin replacing the habit of “accumulating”  [i.e., amassing information, material things, and experiences] with the practice of “assimilating”  [absorbing them]. And second, make sure that what you ingest in any form is of the highest quality possible. 

Satisfaction comes from fully digesting and extracting the fine nutrients from what we already have, and making choices for new input based on our true values and passions, not our casual likes and vague interests. – Steve Davis, Assimilation vs. Accumulation

I encourage you to read the complete article to better assimilate what’s most important. While Steve wrote this for an audience of professional facilitators, his message is applicable to everyone.

[Note: My loyal blog readers may recognize this content that I’ve posted before. Given our continual struggle with over-consumption, Steve’s valuable advice is worth sharing again.]

Categories
Marketing Training & Development

When It’s Best to Walk Away from a Prospect

For anyone focused on growing a company, it’s hard to turn down new business. But sometimes it’s necessary.

My first experience with this situation took place nearly two decades ago, and I remember it clearly. After much debate and hand-wringing about submitting a proposal, I turned to a fellow consultant for feedback. I explained my hesitancy based on my gut feeling that a prospective client would be difficult to work with, but business was slow and I really needed the work. I’ve never forgotten the sage advice I got that day from Alan Kay, who told me: “Don’t ever walk away from a prospect in that situation. Run as fast as you can.” I felt incredible relief at the time, and his words of wisdom continue to serve me well.

Recently I asked several colleagues to share their experience dealing with the dilemma of whether or not to turn away a business prospect, and here are their responses.

It’s time to walk away from a prospect when …

“When the prospective client does not understand the value of your services and 99% of your clients do. When you can be certain of this, it will be come crystal-clear that this client will never find the investment in your services worthwhile. You will expend more energy on this client than on what will likely be your longer term clients … It’s never easy but it always seems to open space up to let better clients in.”  Tina I. Hamilton, President, myHRpartner

“The cost of servicing/working with the business exceeds the benefits you receive. Or if your health is compromised because they are just too high maintenance. In 34 years in business I have only resigned two pieces of business. Once it was all said and done, I never looked back with regret.” Michelle Elster, President, Rabin Research Company

“You know what you’d have to charge exceeds what they would get back in a year. If it takes more than a year to achieve ROI, I am not the right coach or the right speaker for you or your team.”  Phil Gerbyshak, Sales and Leadership Speaker

It’s time to walk away from a prospect when …

“They insult you in the initial meeting. Several years ago, I was invited in to a company to meet with the Marketing head to discuss a proposed training initiative. In the meeting, the Marketing head said to me that she was very busy and that she can’t waste her precious time answering my questions. If I can’t just do what they need done, she said, then what good am I to them? She added that she might as well do the training herself.” Terrence Seamon, Leadership Coach/Career Coach

“You are exhausted when you are with them. Every time you attempt to identify the project scope, you discover it is made of jello and keeps morphing. RUN!”  Linda Reed Friedman, Advanta Strategies

Bottom line: Trust your instincts on whether you’ll be engaging in a mutually beneficial relationship. It’s not worth taking on a client you’ll resent – you won’t be at your best, and that’s not helpful to the client and your business.

Special thanks to my colleagues for sharing their thoughts.

[For a related post, check out When It’s Best to Lose a Customer or Client.]