Categories
Customer service Engagement

A True Story of a Happy Employee

I wanted to share this e-mail from a friend who raved about her work as a “seasonal associate” for the Williams Sonoma store in Cross Keys/Village Square, Baltimore MD. My friend is a professional who has worked in the nonprofit field for many years; she is currently in-between jobs as a result of burn-out.

She wrote: “I’ve not worked so hard or so happily in a long, long time. Despite the [hectic] holiday season … the culture is relaxed and positive and always human. Store managers are able and caring coaches; they listen to employees, meet employees’ scheduling needs wherever possible, and — get this — they THANK US for our day’s work as we leave the store each evening!  And, it’s not proforma, it’s sincere. Internal and external — these folks get it and they LIVE it!”

So I asked my friend if the culture was a reflection of local store management or the organization’s corporate culture? She told me it’s both: “The customer service philosophy is a company-wide one with frequent visits by secret shoppers who issue detailed reports. The approach to staff is more individual and Claudia, the manager of Cross Keys, and her staff are extraordinarily dedicated to creating a warm and motivating culture.”

I’ll have more to share in my next post from another seasonal associate with a truly unique perspective. So stay tuned …

Categories
Musings

“Bid & Bake for a Breath” and Help Put LAM on the Lam

In the spirit of Valentine’s Day with its outpouring of love, I had to write this post. My intent is not just to touch your heart strings, it’s to ask for your help.

Question: What do you do to help a friend who’s been diagnosed with a rare terminal illness and fighting the disease despite major cutbacks in its research budget?

Answer: Everything possible.

In addition to supporting emotional and financial support, I want to help publicize her special fundraising event, Bid & Bake for a Breath, and her overall cause.

Alanna Nelson (pictured holding her daughter, Sadie) is one of my former students when I taught as an adjunct instructor at Lehigh University back in the early 1990’s. We’ve been in touch over the years as she graduated, progressed in her career, got married, and started a family (beautiful Sadie) … all wonderful milestones. Now, however, Alanna is fighting for her life, and she is not alone.

Here’s Alanna’s story in her own words:

“Recently my three-year-old daughter, said to me, “Mommy, when I grow up I want to be a doctor to make you better. I cried an entire day, but after crying, I decided to act. I am a happily married woman who has been recently diagnosed with a rare terminal lung disease that affects only women. The disease is called Lymphangioleiomyomatosis, or LAM for short. It is a genetic lung disease, which destroys healthy lung tissue by causing bubble-like cysts that cannot transfer oxygen to the blood. This means that people with LAM will eventually need full-time oxygen, and finally must resort to lung transplantation to stay alive. There is currently NO CURE and LAM is ultimately fatal.

There are 1500 confirmed cases worldwide, but LAM Foundation scientists estimate that there are over 250,000 women going undiagnosed or misdiagnosed. I was misdiagnosed for seven years! I had a lung collapse in 2000, followed by the discovery of cysts on my kidneys, and in October 2006, when I had my gall bladder removed and then suffered another lung collapse, I was finally diagnosed with LAM.

LAM is cruel. It lurks silently as women begin their careers and start their families, then it slowly destroys their lungs. The progression of the disease is dramatically hastened by estrogen, so doctors advise against having children. I was lucky not to have a lung collapse while pregnant. However, my disease was probably kicked into high gear by becoming pregnant. I’ve learned that others share similar stories. Like many women, I now live with the guilt of asking the ‘what if’ question: “What if I never had a child – would I be in the same condition I am in now?” Then the guilt creeps in for having thought about such a question in the first place. My every day life is no longer the one I led previously. I now must worry about how things will affect my lungs or my ability to breathe. I can no longer fly in an airplane, ride a roller coaster, or even take a hot steamy shower without getting short of breath.

For me, and for so many other women, the only way to “live life” is to be proactive and to help raise funds to find a cure. The LAM Foundation has raised over $10 million to help to find a cure and dedicated nearly 70% of all funds raised to research alone. Most of the funding has come from private donations; very little has been through government grants. Federal funding for the National Institutes of Health was recently cut, thereby making our fundraising efforts even more crucial.

While there is no cure now, there are several drugs that might be effective, if only funding were available for more clinical trials. I am organizing a fundraiser in February 2008. All proceeds will go directly to The LAM Foundation to further the search for a cure. The LAM Foundation is a 501(C)(3) non-profit organization and all donations are tax-deductible.”

“Bid & Bake for a Breath”

Alanna and her friends have organized a wonderful family-friendly fundraiser, Bid & Bake for a Breath, to be held Sunday, Feb. 24, 2008. It will be a great event with a kids’ baking contest and silent auction with terrific items – all-in-all, a great way to beat the winter blahs this time of year while supporting a great cause.

If you’re in the area, please stop by. Regardless of where you live, I encourage you to support The LAM Foundation … for Alanna’s sake … for her family … and for the families of those affected by this disease.

(Note: If you make a donation to The LAM Foundation, please do so in Alanna Nelson’s name so she can acknowledge your contribution.)

Thank you from my heart.

Categories
Engagement Marketing

Getting What Internal Marketing is All About

I’m fascinated by audience reactions when I introduce the concept of internal marketing in my marketing training workshops. (Compared with attendees of my internal marketing presentations, these workshop participants are unbiased in that they’re not expecting to hear about internal marketing as part of marketing training.)

Following a recent training session, one young woman approached me to tell me she really got what internal marketing is all about. She shared the following saying [source unknown] that she felt best summed up internal marketing’s empathetic approach to employee-customer care:

People will forget what you said.
People will forget what you did.
But they will never forget how you made them feel.

Exactly.

PS. If anyone knows the source of this quote, please share it with us.

Categories
Engagement

What are Your Employees’ New Year’s Resolutions?

It’s a new year and a fresh start full of new opportunities for everyone, including your employees.

According to Chris Woolard, Senior Consultant at Walker Information:

  • 40% of employees say they evaluate their career at the beginning of a new year
  • 32% say they’ll conduct a job search in 2008.

These stats are from Walker’s 2007 National Employee Loyalty Report. The study also found 44% of employees say there’s some likelihood they will not be working for the same employer in two years – this is up from 37% in the 2005 Report.

Granted, there are some people that employers would be happy to see leave. But the critical question is who among your better employees may be planning to exit? And what, if anything, are you doing to strengthen their loyalty and retention?

Categories
Musings

Embracing the E-Card This Holiday

It’s been quite a roller coaster year for me. Professionally, I had the joy of working with wonderful clients and having my book, Taking Care of the People Who Matter Most, published. Personally, I’ve had to deal with much sadness – grieving for my father and my brother while helping take care of my mother who is terminally ill. The past few months have been increasingly difficult as my mother’s health continues to decline.

As a result, I didn’t have the emotional energy to send out any holiday cards to extended family, friends, clients, and colleagues. Interestingly, I didn’t receive the usual number of cards this year, and it’s not a matter of reciprocity as most of my friends and associates are aware of my family situation.

I did receive more e-greetings, however. One of the more interesting came from Justin Perkins at Care2, whose e-cards are environmentally friendly: “Care2 saves one square foot of rainforest each time you send a free e-Card.” (And I loved the holiday pledges shared by the Care2 staff in their e-Card).

So next year I may join the movement to send e-holiday greetings. I’m just not sure I’m ready to switch over to e-birthday cards yet as I find looking at Hallmark’s Shoebox cards and other funny cards a form of humor therapy. And these days I need all the laughs I can get.

Categories
Engagement Marketing

It’s NOT About the Holiday Bonus

Hold the merriment for a moment, something is happening in the workplace. Walker Information’s 2007 Loyalty in the Workplace study found employee disloyalty is on the rise. The percentage of “high risk” employees (36%) – those who plan to leave their employer within the next two years – now outnumbers the percentage of loyal employees (34%). This trend is frightening when you consider the costs of lost productivity and high turnover

Walker also reports that despite employees’ overall willingness to be involved in strategy development, just 44% indicated that they were involved. And only 50% of the employees felt senior leaders communicated the strategy well. (More evidence to support the need to listen to and engage employees as mentioned in my last post.)

There’s no one simple solution. According to Walker’s 2007 Loyalty Study, the top experiential drivers of employee loyalty include:

  • Fairness at work
  • Employer care and concern
  • Trust in employees
  • Feelings of accomplishment
  • Satisfaction day-to-day.

In other words, it takes more than just a once-a-year bonus to keep employees.

Categories
Engagement Marketing

Listen & Engage Your People or Else …

In Lewis Green’s recent blog post (Leaders Reap the Benefits of the Reality They Create) about why nearly two-thirds of U.S. workers are considering switching employers, he says higher compensation is not the answer. It’s more about creating better organizations for everyone: “We should set our goals to create a great culture, to keep our promises to our customers, and to create a better world …” A key ingredient in improving one’s organization is to listen to both employees and customers and “hear what they’re saying.”

His sage advice is reinforced by John Maver who has found employee frustration with management is based on employees “not understanding or having ownership of the company’s actions” although employees are held accountable for results. In his article, Aligning Employees with the Strategic Plan, Maver advocates talking to employees, training them, and engaging them so they “understand that their work fits into the success of the organization and how it fits in. People [need to] see how [the company’s] strategy is going to make them better off through job security, promotions and pay increases … as well as making the company more successful.” In other words, communicate what’s in it for them and the mutual benefit for the organization.

Want to improve employee ownership of business results? Want better retention? Then listening to and engaging employees is well worth the effort.

Thanks to Toby Bloomberg for introducing me to Lewis Green & John Maver in a recent Diva Marketing post.

Categories
Musings

What They’re Saying About “Taking Care of the People Who Matter Most”

Please know that I appreciate the positive feedback my first book has received. Thank you’s to my blog readers, book readers, and everyone who recognizes the value of “taking care of the people who matter most” in the workplace – our employees and customers.

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“Taking Care of the People Who Matter Most is one of the best books on internal marketing. What I liked most about the book are the practical and implementable guidelines for nurturing employee centric culture.”

Dr. Jagdish N. Sheth, Professor of Marketing, Emory University
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“Taking Care of the People Who Matter Most is a 130-page pocket guide for managers that basically covers the WHAT, WHY and HOW of building a strong internal marketing practice geared towards engaging not only your employees, but your customers as well.

The book easily connects the dots when it comes to the positive cycle that links good employee morale to great customer experiences (and back again!) … It is brilliant in its simplicity and clarity.”

Olivier Blanchard, The Brand Builder Blog
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“Read the essential and organizational transforming book Taking Care of the People Who Matter Most by Sybil Stershic and unleash the power of engaged employees as never before. Sybil bolsters the theoretical aspect of internal marketing with a step by step manual to integrate the concepts into the company DNA.”

Wayne Hurlbert, Blog Business World
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“If, after reading this book, you still need convincing that happy, engaged staff are critical to creating happy, engaged customers, then probably nothing will convince you until you wake up one morning and find your organization has become a non-differentiated commodity competing solely on price. Stershic’s guide is chock full of examples from a host of companies that are exploring the idea that regardless of how strongly you assert that your business is focused on the customer, unless you back that up by focusing on your staff, it’s a meaningless statement.”

Janelle M. Barlow, TMI US
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“If you care about your employees, your customers and their relationship, because that’s the foundation of your business, you will want to read Sybil’s book in order to know how to take care of them. So they can take care of themselves and you.”

Zane Safrit, Business consultant
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“A wealth of practical and sensible ideas for improving service by taking good care of the employees who provide it.”

Dr. Leonard L. Berry, Professor of Marketing, Texas A&M University
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“Leaders can set up the company strategy but unless they have the right people in the right jobs doing the right things companies won’t meet or exceed their goals. I really enjoyed how Sybil used quotes and stories to drive home a point.

“Sybil made it very easy to start a game plan with her Action Plan Starter Notes section at the end of a number of chapters. There is something to learn in this book for everyone person even if you have managed people for 30 years.”

Merrill Dubrow, M/A/R/C Research
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Categories
Marketing

The Ultimate Gift Card: The Good Card

For personal and corporate holiday shopping, consider the ultimate gift card – The Good Card, a gift card for charity that allows the recipient to donate to his/her charity of choice. The Good Card is the brainchild of nonprofit Network for Good, the leading online charitable resource that’s approved by the Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance.

Good Cards can be purchased online at Network for Good and can be sent via mail or email (the latter as an electronic gift card). The Good Card recipient goes to Network for Good’s website, selects his/her charity of choice from over one million charities registered in the U.S., and enters the donation amount using the code indicated on the card. Network for Good then sends to the donation to the chosen charity. And get this – 100% of the card’s value goes to the charity!

A wonderful gift from individuals and any-size business

Each card costs $5 plus the donation amount (ranging from $10 to $250). Both the donation and fee are tax deductible for the purchaser. (Remember, 100% of the donation amount goes to charity.)

For corporate gift-giving, companies can get logo placement on bulk orders of the physical cards for an additional charge. This unique charitable gift card allows a company to reinforce its philanthropic image without limiting its support to a single cause.

The Good Card – it’s the perfect gift suitable for anyone.

Categories
Engagement Marketing

Working Smarter, Not Harder: A Nonprofit Case Study (Part 3)

Here’s the last post in this nonprofit case study on how small nonprofits can effectively balance growing demands and limited resources by working smarter, not harder. As a quick review, the first two steps involved staying mission-focused and inventorying your organization’s program offerings.

The third key step called for role clarification and communication. Each ABC Healthcare affiliate was increasingly recognized as an organization that “made things happen and got things done.” As a result, other groups’ expectations were becoming unrealistic in looking to ABC Healthcare to do everything – providing funding, leadership, and manpower. The affiliates needed to better manage these expectations.

Step 3. Clarify and communicate your organization’s role

To do this, they assessed their participation in regional activities – from program development and implementation to assisting with other groups’ programs to serving on community committees. They recognized they played a number of roles (based on their mission and operation) that they labeled as: “advocate,” “catalyst,” “connector,” “do-er,” and “facilitator.”

The resulting discussion helped staff identify which role was most appropriate for certain situations instead of being all things to all people. When someone came to ABC Healthcare with a request for money and/or manpower, staff clarified “up front” their limited resources and the specific role the organization was willing to play. As a result, the affiliates learned how to better manage expectations within their communities.

An ongoing challenge

Coping with success involves a delicate balance of mission, need, and resources. To maintain equilibrium, nonprofit leaders need to continually ask hard questions: What are our mission and purpose? What programs and activities do we need to offer, maintain, or give up to fulfill our mission? What is our role in the community we serve? Should we change that role, given our capabilities and resources?

The answers may be as difficult as the questions themselves. But the results, as ABC Healthcare has learned, are worthwhile. Those who don’t engage in these critical discussions are at serious risk for fragmented focus and staff burnout.