Tag: employee engagement

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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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Engagement Marketing

Treating Customers Like Employees & Vice Versa

The scene: I’m an Executive Visitor at the Iacocca Institute’s Global Village, a special international program for up-and-coming leaders.

The topic:  Marketing — an open discussion that ranges from dealing with difficult customers (yes, it’s OK to  terminate a relationship with customers when there’s no longer a good fit between them & the company; that’s what ING Direct does with customers who use too much customer service) … to internal marketing (how managers can apply marketing to effectively communicate with, educate & motivate employees to deliver on the brand promise).

The question: “Excuse me, but I think you have it backwards. You talk about ‘firing’ customers as if they are employees, and you also talk about marketing to employees as if they are customers? How can this be?”

[An excellent question … and one that takes me somewhat by surprise because I’d never thought of it that way before.] The answer is not so simple, or is it?  What’s the different between customers and employees?

My response: Let’s see – customers pay for your goods/services, which means they contribute the revenue that’s used to pay employee salaries. No customers =  no operating income = no business = no employees. On the other hand, without employees to produce & deliver your goods/services, there’s nothing to offer customers. No employees = no business to compete in the market = no customers.

The bottom line is the organization depends on both groups. As such, it needs to develop positive and loyal relationships with its employees AND customers. So the marketing and management strategies aren’t that different when you consider an organization needs to attract and retain the right employees (who are competent and capable) to establish and retain relationships with the right customers (whose needs will be best and profitably served by the organization).

The take-away: Yes, you can market to employees and you can manage customers … done effectively, you’ll have the best of both serving as brand ambassadors.

 

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Customer service Engagement Marketing

Employee Satisfaction: Happiness Pays

“Dispirited, unmotivated, unappreciated workers cannot compete in a highly competitive world.”  It’s one of my favorite quotes from nonprofit leader Frances Hesselbein, and it’s an important reminder for all organizations.

To all those reading this blog: how many people do you know who are truly happy in their workplace?  Most of my friends in this situation are the ones who are self-employed; i.e., spared the BS of inane office politics and the incompetents in charge.  (As I’ve explained to friends & family over the years, the reason I’m happily self-employed is because I work for someone I respect.)

Why should management care about how its people feel?  The benefits of a positive workplace go beyond the warm & fuzzy directly to the bottom line.  According to the Customer Loyalty Research Center, which specializes in measuring both employee and customer satisfaction & loyalty, employees who have better relationships with their companies are more likely to:

  • Stay with the company, reducing turnover costs.  (You want sticker shock? Ask Human Resources what this really costs.)
  • Recommend the company to other potential employees, reducing search expense (which also makes HR folks happy)
  • Be more productive on the job
  • Provide higher service levels, ultimately increasing customer satisfaction & loyalty (which should make everyone happy).

What does the Customer Loyalty Research Center use to measure employee satisfaction & loyalty? They look at variables that contribute to overall job satisfaction including:

  • Relationships with managers and co-workers
  • Customer-focus
  • Organizational improvement
  • Rewards & recognition
  • Communication.

How do you tell if your organization needs to get serious about employee satisfaction?  Here’s the magic question — just ask employees “Would you refer a friend to work here?”  It’s a loaded question, but one that will give you tremendous insight into your organization.

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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.

Application

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

Internal Marketing Fundamentals – Gaining Employee Commitment (Part 2 of 3)

This post continues the series on the 3Rs of gaining employee commitment as the foundation of internal marketing:

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

2nd R: Recognition

Catch people doing something right  — like going the extra mile for customers & other employees (aka “internal customers”) — so they can continue doing the right stuff.

Recognition is a critical means of making people feel valued.

Unfortunately, it’s not always applied that way.  Positive reinforcement in the workplace is usually a lack of negative reinforcement — meaning you’re more likely to get a slap-on-the-wrist for doing something wrong than a pat-on-the-back for a job well done.  We’re downright stingy when it comes to praise.

A Gallup poll found 65% of Americans received no recognition in the workplace.  So is it any wonder that the number one reason people leave their jobs is because they don’t feel appreciated?

It won’t break the bank

Recognition need not cost much; a simple, sincere acknowledgment can go a long way.  Motivational guru Bob Nelson suggests the things that are motivating to employees tend to be relatively easy & inexpensive: personal recognition (“atta boy!”), a written thank you, or public praise.

Make it fun

If you have a little bit of money, you can send flowers, balloons or special gift to deserving employees.  Spring for pizza or send a goody basket filled with food, and you’re like to start a feeding frenzy!  (Face it: food can be the ultimate motivator in an office setting.)

The Lesson of the Golden Pineapple

One of my favorite examples of the power of recognition comes from Bob Wood, EVP, Sodexho, when he was Chairman of Wood Dining Services.  Bob spent nearly 70% of his time in the field visiting clients & staff.  And when he saw an employee doing something right, he would hand them a small, gold pineapple pin that he carried in his pocket.  (Pineapple is the international symbol for hospitality and was part of the Wood Company’s logo at the time.)

In an interview I did with Bob several years ago, he told me he never ceased to be amazed at employee reaction when he gave out the pineapple pins.

“I think these pins cost 47 cents … but these people think you gave them a pile of gold.  Everyone wants to be part of something … everyone wants to feel that they are valued, that they made a difference.  To the degree we can celebrate our people, that’s our greatest tool.”

Application:

How are employees recognized in your organization?  I’d love to hear your experience on what works or what doesn’t regarding employee recognition.

Coming up next, the last in this series — the 3rd R: Reinforcement.

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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.

Application

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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Engagement Marketing

Employee Engagement: Walking the Walk

In this week’s internal marketing workshop in New Orleans, I had a wonderful group of attendees interested in learning how to better engage employees. They came from a variety of organizations at different stages of internal marketing – ranging from those already doing it (and doing it well) to those just getting into it.

What was disconcerting was hearing about situations where management freely “talks the talk” but doesn’t “walk the walk” … i.e., they green light the launch of new employee incentives and recognition programs but don’t follow through consistently to support them.

Cycle of Cynicism

All this does is create a cycle of cynicism where employees don’t buy into company programs because management has no credibility. Then when faced with motivational programs that don’t work, the clueless in charge approve the creation of yet more initiatives that, without appropriate support & follow-through, are doomed to fail. Frustrated by the waste of resources put into these “flavor-of-the-month” programs, employee cynicism only deepens.

Unfortunately, there are no easy answers to dealing with this situation. Ideally, someone in the organization needs to convince management of its credibility gap. (“Look, the emperors have no clothes! Or are we into an extreme version of business-casual?”)

Sometimes management just doesn’t get it. So people continue to ride wave after wave of short-lived employee motivation programs.

Crossing the Chasm

If this describes your organization, you need to assess your tolerance threshold:

  • Maybe you can find some amusement in seeing what management is going to come out with next.
  • Maybe you can hang in there despite management.
  • Or maybe it’s time to find a place where management’s credibility gap isn’t an issue.

So have fun with it, hang in there, or best of luck!

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Customer service Engagement Marketing

It’s the Experience, Stupid!

I used these very words (in the title) in response to a recent post by a colleague Dana (Feb. 21, 2005) ranting about the lack of customer service. Customers have lots of choices these days, sometimes too much. It’s one of the reasons the “customer experience” has become a critical differentiator – treat customers right if you want to keep them coming back.

Too bad more companies don’t get it. I’m seeing this more & more as a business traveler. Wading through airport security … being herded on planes like cattle … and without the amenities we used to get (a small package of pretzels just isn’t enough on a cross country flight). Fellow passengers share the same frustrations, complaining about a particular airline or the industry in general.

On my last trip I heard a traveler comment about some surly airline staff. A few passengers tried to empathize with the staff given the instability of the industry and the fact that their jobs are in jeopardy. (In my experience, it’s only a handful of staff who have poor attitudes. But if they continue to to alienate passengers, their companies may not last much longer.)

My concern is for those airline staff trying to stay positive while taking care of customers. It truly is a delicate balance: as a result of cost-cutting reductions in staff & operations (needed to remain viable), airline staff have less resources at their disposal. (The good news was the last leg of my flight arrived on time; the bad news was we had to wait for baggage handling staff to unload the carry-on luggage.)

Remember, we’re also talking about employees who have taken pay-cuts, given back benefits, or haven’t had salary increases in a while. So yes, we passengers may need to be more understanding & perhaps lower our expectations a bit. At the same time, airline management needs to know it’s not a good experience – for either passengers or employees.

There’s no magic bullet for this. I just hope airline executives & managers are doing their best to be supportive of their employees — recognizing those who continue to take care of customers (despite the situation), while providing remedial attention to those don’t.

(Hint to those employees with a negative attitude: customers aren’t the only ones who have the option to leave!)

Categories
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.