A Recent Example That Proves The Point
Kathy Aguglia and Francine Neilson, Customer Service Managers for Ivoclar North America, are two great examples of the five percent who "do it" — walk the talk.
They asked me to conduct a one day workshop on customer treatment for their Customer Service Representatives. To customize the workshop for their specific needs I requested background data on their company, products, customers, and people. Kathy asked "how much information do you want?" My reply was "everything."
Within a week I received a two inch file containing "everything": Company history, product line, customer profile, call handling stats, detailed job descriptions, plus a handwritten review of each employee. As we developed the workshop objectives, outline, and materials Kathy and Francine asked their people for particular customer call situations they found especially challenging.
The result was an outstanding workshop.
Why was it outstanding? I’ve designed and conducted such workshops for over a hundred organizations over a 25 year period. The core materials and presentation has evolved to the point that this customer treatment workshop is always extremely well received. What notched this workshop up to outstanding was Kathy’s and Francine’s behaviors.
Kathy’s and Francine’s behaviors demonstrated to me and the CSRs that they expected a results producing learning experience. These Managers involved their people in the design which heightened their expectations that real issues were going to be discussed and resolved. They provided me with every possible tool to focus the time we had on meaningful issues. The extra effort on their part motivated me to arrive a day early so that I could meet their people in their work environment.
I have never been better prepared when I began the workshop on Saturday morning. The time flew, participant energy soared as options and communication tools for handling real Ivoclar work situations were discussed and practiced. Each participant left at 4:45 with a personal contract for three measurable actions they committed to applying.
As Betsy Sanders observed: "Employees pay scant attention to what you say and keen attention to what you do." The employees did. So did the consultant. It’s a pleasure to work with managers who demonstrate their caring.
[Kathy is willing to share the details of the Ultimate Customer Treatment workshop. She asked that you contact her through me so that she is not overwhelmed with calls. The Power Point slides are viewable on our website at http://www.growthassociates.org Presentations, Ultimate Customer Treatment]