Tag: human resources

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Customer service Engagement Marketing

Reflections in The Employee Customer Mirror

To describe the impact that employees have on customers, I often use a mirror metaphor. This “employee-customer mirror” reflects the reality that customers are affected by what employees experience on the job. If employees are frustrated by company policy or internal politics, their attitudes can be projected onto dealings with customers. And who wants to be served by disgruntled employees? It takes only one or two such encounters (depending on the customer’s tolerance threshold) before a customer takes his/her business elsewhere. And who knows how many other customers will hear of the experience?

It’s an easy principle to remember: the way employees feel is the way customers will feel – and if our employees don’t feel valued, neither will our customers. Unfortunately, too many organizations take this relationship for granted. (Don’t even think about using current economic conditions as an excuse.)

How do you manage employee-customer care? I’m talking the basics here:

  • open the lines of organizational communications (top-down, bottom-up, and laterally)
  • involve employees in improving the business operations – whatever is needed to survive and thrive
  • provide opportunities for continued learning and professional development
  • recognize employees who continue to rally the energy and enthusiasm to serve customers and co-workers despite limited resources.

What do you see when looking into your organization’s Employee-Customer Mirror?

  • a shiny reflection of employee- and customer-satisfaction?
  • a blurred image that needs polishing to be more employee- and customer-focused? or
  • a cracked image opening up opportunities for your competitors?
Categories
Engagement Marketing

Engagement Can Be Tricky in Association Management

A colleague recently wrote about not taking employee engagement for granted based on his experience working for nonprofit associations.

Here’s another reason to be concerned with staff engagement – loyal members who have strong ties to their professional associations, particularly those who are strongly committed to and passionate about their participation. These members tend to work closely with the association’s professional staff and develop strong collegial relationships with them. As a result, they become concerned with – even protective of – how staff are treated in the organization.

For association management, the staff-volunteer relationship can be tricky, especially in instances where volunteers overstep their bounds to interfere with personnel issues. The relationship works both way, however, as many professional staff enjoy working with the members and volunteer leaders; it’s one of the perks that compensates for working in a professional association at nonprofit wages.

For association management, the bottom line is that internal issues regarding staff engagement can also impact (and be impacted by) member engagement.

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Engagement Marketing

Internal Marketing – New Definition

Internal marketing is a critical management concept that is difficult to explain, let alone define. Throughout my work in the field, I’ve defined internal marketing simply as “the application of marketing inside an organization to instill customer-focused values.”

But now there’s a new, more comprehensive definition – thanks to the Fall 2005 graduate class in internal marketing, part of Northwestern University’s Integrated Marketing Communications program.

“Internal Marketing is the ongoing process whereby an organization aligns, motivates and empowers employees at all functions and levels to consistently deliver a positive customer experience that helps achieve business objectives.”

What I love about this expanded definition is that it captures aspects of both internal marketing and internal branding. The new definition is a result of an Internal Marketing Best Practice Study funded by the Forum for People Performance Management & Measurement.

I’ll have more on this study in my next post.

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Engagement Marketing

Marketing Marketing – Step 5

Now you’re ready to develop your resulting plan (building on the previous four steps).

Your ultimate plan will be reflective of your situation, corporate culture, and internal politics.  To give you an idea of what might be included in such a plan, here are some sample activities I’ve seen used to promote marketing:

  • Host a department “open house” so others within the organization can get acquainted with marketing & its resources.  (I did this in my earlier banking career, and it worked to the point that bank staff recognized the marketing department as more than “just the guys who blow up balloons at the branch openings.”)
  • Invite key people from other departments to your staff meetings to learn what marketing is doing and vice-versa.
  • Distribute an internal marketing newsletter or report to let other staff know what’s happening; e.g., share the latest on market & consumer trends, competitive analysis, product usage, customer satisfaction results, etc. (whatever is not proprietary or confidential).
  • Conduct mini-seminars or brown-bag lunches on marketing — feature subjects such as product development, pricing, understanding consumer behavior, etc.  (Better yet if you can afford it, spring for lunch or refreshments … an excellent incentive to encourage attendance!)
  • Participate in new-employee orientation.  (At the very least, make sure whoever is in charge of orientation covers the organization’s marketing/branding efforts.)

Following the five steps covered in this series can help you increase marketing’s awareness & visibility, increase your perceived value, and strengthen marketing’s relationships with others in your organization.

But what if, despite these efforts, your situation doesn’t improve?  The you can adapt this strategy to market yourself somewhere else!

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Engagement Marketing

Another Reason Why Marketing & HR Need to Work Together

As a follow up to my recent post on internal marketing and employee recruitment & retention, check out Using Branding to Attract Talent, the latest article from The McKinsey Quarterly — it goes beyond internal marketing to branding as a recruiting tool.

In addition to the usual attributes of recruitment (benefits, opportunities for growth, etc.), McKinsey urges companies to focus on their “intangible, emotional associations” (e.g., “it’s fun to work here” … “we have a passionate and intelligent culture” … “there’s a strong team feeling”) for competitive differentiation.

Working for an organization with a strong brand, inside & out … it’s a no-brainer.  And how lucky for the folks in HR and Marketing (not to mention everyone else) who work there!

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Customer service Musings

Go Figure!

OK, so it’s not a perfect world. Even in successful, customer-centric organizations there are still pockets of staff who don’t recognize or respect their internal customers.  It’s hard to believe, though, how certain areas can get away with this.

One of my colleagues works for a company that is part of a larger organization.  When we met recently, she shared her frustration about a particular (more like peculiar) department in the parent company. In dealing with some of the staff there, her requests for assistance are typically met with one of three responses.  “Sometimes we’re mildly ignored, ” she told me, “and other times we’re barely tolerated or just dismissed.”

We pondered this situation over lunch, including various efforts to bring it to management’s attention at the parent company (to no avail).  And we concluded that it’s just one of corporate life’s little mysteries.

The good news is the rest of the organization is genuinely committed to customer satisfaction.  And the even better news is my colleague and her associates don’t let this one department affect how they treat their own internal (& external) customers.  Way to go!

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Engagement Marketing

Internal Marketing & Unemployment (or Buddy, Can You Spare a Job?)

Continuing the HR theme of my recent posts, I have several HR books in my library on employee recruitment & retention:

These were written just a few years ago (2000-2002) for a tight labor market when companies were scrambling to find & keep good employees (aka “talent”).  And internal marketing went hand-in-hand as a strategic tool for employee retention.

But what about now?

With today’s high unemployment, many firms are back to viewing employees as commodities … the attitude is “We don’t care as much about keeping you happy since you’re lucky to have a job!”  So is internal marketing still relevant?

Absolutely!  In our current economy, even though they’re not “competing” for employees, managers still need to be concerned with their care.  Why?  Because unemployment means reduced consumer spending — when fewer people are working, they spend less — which also means companies have to work harder to compete for customers.  And to attract and retain customers, you need trained & motivated staff (hello internal marketing!)

Internal marketing is more than just making employees feel appreciated … it’s also about making customers feel appreciated.  And no manager can afford to take that for granted, regardless of the labor market situation.

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Engagement Marketing

Human Resources Takes a Hit

“Why We Hate HR” is the cover story of this month’s Fast Company, and it’s brutal.  To all those in HR, I feel your pain.

In all honesty, some of the criticisms sound familiar: not having a strategic seat at the table, having your budget be among the first to get cut, and at-risk for being outsourced because you can’t easily demonstrate your function’s value or ROI, etc.  I’ve heard this before at numerous conferences for professionals in market research and marketing.  So I empathize.

Why Marketing Had to Step In

At the same time, I have to admit that one of the reasons I became involved with internal marketing was because of HR’s lack of effectiveness.  I learned to apply marketing to proactively communicate with, educate, and motivate employees to take care of customers (in more of a management strategy than a pure marketing function).

“What about HR?” people would ask me.  “Aren’t you superseding your authority by getting involved with employees?”

In my experience in banking (earlier in my career), as mergers proliferated I saw HR downsized (along with the rest of us in “staff” functions) to become a hiring/firing, payroll/benefits shop.  In the process many employees were alienated, yet still expected to provide high levels of customer satisfaction.

I saw this trend in the erosion of HR’s employee-relations function happen in other industries.  So I continued to advocate for internal marketing with its focus on the value of employees and the customers they serve.

Employees as “Assets” … Reality or Lip-Service?

To be fair, the situation isn’t always HR’s fault.  It all comes down to leadership and the culture it creates.  Where leadership is lacking, those responsible for internal marketing need to involve HR, Operations, Administration, IT, and other internal allies.

Employee relations, like customer service, shouldn’t be limited to one department or function … It’s every manager’s responsibility.

Categories
Customer service Engagement Marketing

Organizational Culture: Internal Customers (Part 3)

As mentioned in my last post, overall job satisfaction is affected by an employee’s relationships with managers & co-workers. And the quality of these relationships trickles down to the bottom line – you can’t build strong external (customer) relationships without strong internal (customer) relationships.

That’s why internal marketing considers employees “internal customers.” When employees take care of each others’ business service needs, they tend to do even better for customers.  In other words, internal customer service drives external customer services.

Who’s your customer?

Too often, customer relations training is focused only on staff with direct customer contact. But it applies to everyone – Purchasing has its internal customers; so does Human Resources, Information Systems, Operations, etc.

Think of it this way: if you’re not serving the ultimate customer (those who purchase your firm’s offerings), you’re serving someone who is … for example, the sales staff, customer service rep, call center staff, delivery person, store manager, etc.

To what extent does your organization acknowledge and serve its “internal customers?”

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Engagement Marketing

Organizational Culture: Assessment (Part 2)

My last post dealt with workplace courtesy and respect as part of organizational culture.

It reminds me of the time when I was fairly new to the working world. I remember hearing whispered references about certain managers and the sympathy given to new staff assigned to them:  “Too bad you have to work for that caustic s-o-b.”

This was the guy who would walk into the department without acknowledging anyone – no smile, no greeting – sharing only a scowl. Didn’t matter whether he passed one of his staff members, or a co-worker, or higher-up in the hallway (at least he was an equal opportunity s-o-b).

Maybe you’ve had the unfortunate experience to work with such a person, or know someone who has. So it should come as no surprise that research shows relationships with managers & co-workers impact overall job satisfaction.

The magic question

To assess the quality of your organization’s culture, all you need to do is ask one simple question: Would you refer a friend to work here?  It’s a loaded question, to be sure, but one whose answer will give you incredible insight into your firm’s culture.

More coming up in my next post …