Tag Archives: Satisfaction

Why Do We Keep Trying to Grow? Three Thoughts

Situation: A CEO is looking at the strategic plan of her company. They are planning for growth but a question arises – what is the balance between work for the sake of the work and work for the reward that it brings? What are the thoughts of the other CEOs around the table? Why do we keep trying to grow?
Advice from the CEOs:
• Step back and ask – what do I seek? Do the same with the members of the leadership team – what do we seek?
• Define what you want and what enough is. There is always the question of whether when reaching the goal will it be enough? Work with your team to discuss and seek a consensus on what their objectives are both for themselves and the company. You may be surprised at what this discussion yields. Two books may help you to deal with this question: The Gap by Dan Sullivan which deals with growth, motivation and satisfaction and Small Giants by Bo Burlingame of Inc Magazine which tells the story of a number of companies that decided that growth is defined by the impact that they have on their employees and communities as opposed to growth in revenue or profits.
• Repeat this discussion with the team at least annually. Expectations develop and change over time. An annual review of plans and opportunities empowers the team to make interesting and valuable contributions.

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How Do You Use Focus and Communication to Strengthen Your Leadership? Three Points

Situation: A CEO is curious about how others have strengthened their leadership skills over time. From discussions with other CEOs she has gathered that focus and communication are important strengths to build. How do you use focus and communication to strengthen your leadership?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Often the process is more important than the actual decision because the process frames how the decision is made.
    • If the process is open to new ideas and approaches, and these are welcomed in the discussion, this can generate both more creative decisions as well as increased buy-in to the ultimate decision being made.
  • One CEO finds that his company is always focused on the outcome. However, he has grown to understand that it is important to frame the decision-making process around your values.
    • Value-based decisions not only generate increased buy-in by all involved, but they strengthen the sense of company culture and values.
  • Another CEO was faced with a personnel issue. She found that by analyzing past decision-making processes company leadership was able to identify a previously unrecognized factors and processes that fed the personnel issue.
    • By addressing the process, the company was able to resolve the issue to the satisfaction of all.

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Customer Service and Customer Satisfaction: What’s the Difference? Two Points

Situation: A CEO and his team have been having a debate about the difference between customer service and customer satisfaction. How do others work with their teams to improve both customer service and customer satisfaction? Is there a difference between the two and, if so, what is it?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Customer service has to be clearly defined.
    • The objective of customer service is for the customer to have a positive experience.
    • Customer service is addressing the needs and concerns of your customers in a timely fashion to create a competitive advantage and higher perceived value for a company’s products or services.
    • Customer service is a process that can be taught and trained.
  • Customer satisfaction has to be measurable.
    • Customer satisfaction is listening to what the customer has to say, addressing their issues, and providing a resolution that meets their needs and expectations.
    • It is a measure of comfort, confidence and trust.
    • There is a difference between being proactive and being reactive – work with each to assure that the customer is pleased with their experience, product and/or service.
    • To test this, record and analyze responses to the question “How did we serve you?”

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How Do You Raise the Bar on Personal Performance? Five Suggestions

Situation: A CEO is constantly striving to increase her skills, both personal and professional. She has sought and participated in a number of workshops to facilitate ongoing improvement. Some have been helpful but others less so. What have others done to sharpen their professional skills? What about their personal skills – the human side? How do you raise the bar on personal performance?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Focus on improving and sharpening your strengths, not on overcoming or improving areas that are not so strong. Look for ways that existing strengths complement each other and build on these combinations. This will naturally yield two benefits: raising performance and bringing greater satisfaction.
  • Create personal objectives that will help to sharpen existing strengths.
  • Conversely, develop workarounds for those areas which are not as strong. Look for talents among the others within the company that address the areas which are not as strong. Have them assist in work pertaining to these areas. They will enjoy this work because it complements their strengths, and you and the company will gain the desired results.
  • Take time to reflect and to recharge the batteries. Check current objectives and assure that these objectives compliment your long-term goals. Assure that you are focusing on the right priorities for YOU.
  • Find a mentor – in or outside of your industry. This will be an individual with experience who can provide you with guidance and clarity as you address both day-to-day and long-term challenges.

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How Do You Improve Communications and Quality? Five Points

Situation: A company has a good team to support its projects. They work together well and demonstrate good work habits. However, communication between team members, and between certain team members and management is challenging, particularly when performance issues are involved. How do you improve communications and quality?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • What has been tried?
    • Once a month, The CEO plans an outside event for the team, for example a long dinner in a nice location.
    • During the latest event, the team members started opening up to one-another and to the CEO. They were much more open than they are at work.
  • Are the concerns about communication within teams, between teams, or between teams and management?
    • Several team members are relatively new. A few others are long-term and often fail to perform to standards. This group frequently has issues and it takes their foreman’s time to address these. This frustrates the foreman.
  • How should the CEO deal with this situation?
    • The foreman is a long-term employee who reports directly to the CEO. It is the responsibility of the CEO to develop a solution that serves the interests of the company.
    • For example: the company lives and breathes on customer satisfaction. Any worker with a pattern of substandard work negatively impacts both the image and value of the company.
    • Further, distracting the foreman from his primary responsibilities impacts his ability to complete other work demands.
  • Try the following solution:
    • Explain the problem and the negative impact that this has on the company.
    • Establish a policy that workers are responsible for assuring that work meets standards before completing a job.
    • Establish a list of specific standards for work and checklists to assure that the work is complete and meets standards.
    • Establish and publish a policy that if a Foreman or supervisor finds work performed below standard this will result in a warning to the worker. Continued performance of substandard work becomes grounds for termination. Misrepresentation of work quality is grounds for immediate termination.
    • Ask key managers, supervisors and foremen for input on the policy.
    • Once the policy is finalized, post it, provide all employees with a copy of the policy, and make sure that it is openly communicated to them both verbally and in writing.
  • If any worker currently presenting problems persists in this behavior, the company will have established a policy and procedure for disciplinary action and, if necessary, termination.

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How Do You Motivate the Team to Act Proactively? Four Thoughts

Situation: A company has developed a good team to support its projects. They work together well and demonstrate good work habits. However, the CEO wants to improve communications between team members, and also between herself and team members. When challenges arise, she wants to hear about them proactively, on a timely basis and with recommended solutions. How do you motivate the team to act proactively?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Is this just a question of communication within the team, or is there also concern with communication beyond the team?
    • There are two long-term employees who consistently demonstrate a poor work ethic; however, due their seniority and relationships with the Foreman, this is tolerated.
  • What steps should be taken to deal with this situation?
    • The Foreman reports directly to the CEO. The proper way to deal with this is to develop a solution that serves the interests of the company.
    • The company lives and breathes on customer satisfaction. If any worker shows a pattern of substandard work, this negatively impacts both the image and the value of the company.
  • Clear and fair standards and expectations are critical:
    • Establish a policy that workers are responsible for assuring that work meets standards before completing a job.
    • Establish a list of specific standards for work, and job checklists to assure that work is complete and meets standards. Spot check to assure that the work and checklists meet standards.
    • If a supervisor finds work performed below standard this will result in a warning to the worker. If the worker continues to perform substandard work, this becomes grounds for termination.
    • If a worker misrepresents the quality of work performed on a final project checklist, this is grounds for immediate termination.
    • Ask key managers and supervisors for input on the policy. This is not a democratic process, but others should be given an opportunity for input.
    • Post the policy and provide all employees with a copy. Communicate the policy openly both verbally and in writing.
  • Meet informally and frequently with the team to deepen relationships with them and between each other.

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Is It Time To Change Horses? Four Suggestions

Situation: A company has a business relationship with another firm. The relationship involves co-development of technology as well as marketing and other support. Portions of the relationship have worked, however, the other firm has not kept its part of the bargain in terms of marketing and support promised. What is the best way to approach the other firm to resolve this situation? Is it time to change horses?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Have you have clearly communicated to the firm both what you are pleased with about the relationship as well as your level of dissatisfaction regarding lack of marketing and other support promise? To whom has this been communicated? Are you sure that your message has gone all of the way to the top?
  • Do a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis on the current arrangement and alternatives available to you to support your trade-off analysis before taking action.
  • Present a marketing option that will address the situation and ask whether the firm will support it as previously agreed.
    • If they say yes, have a contract ready for them to sign.
    • Negotiate other key items at same time.
    • Be sure to involve all parties on your side in the preparation, including the individual(s) who made the introductions that led to the relationship. Additional heads can bring more insight into the options that the firm and relationship offers. Bring the key parties involved to the negotiation, and be sure to prep them in advance.
  • Business relationships should be based on clearly stated deliverables and timelines. If deliverables are missed then it is time to make a business decision – either repair the situation or part ways.

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Can Bonus Plans Differ Between Departments? Four Thoughts

Situation: A CEO wants to build a new bonus program for the company’s professional services team. He wants to include a customer satisfaction component, because the group is historically weak in this area. Does it make sense to have a different bonus plan for professional services personnel and managers than for product development personnel and managers? Can bonus plans differ between departments?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Many companies have different bonus structures for different departments. This is natural because different departments have different functions. For example, Sales may evaluated for bonuses based on a combination of revenue and gross margin achievement, while Finance is evaluated on profitability and Product Development is evaluated on hitting product launch schedules and new product sales.
  • Changing bonus structures can be a sensitive matter. If the team impacted is not included in the process of drafting the new plan, changes may be perceived as negative. If this is the case, it’s better to frame the new program so that you limit your commitment to it to just one year, and let the team know that this may change this next year.
  • How do you go about including customer satisfaction surveys as a component of bonus calculation?
    • If you want to use customer satisfaction as part of the plan, benchmark customer service satisfaction before you launch the plan. If you don’t benchmark, how do you know whether performance improves?
    • Survey response rates will be an issue – you won’t get 100% and may get a survey response rate of 10% or worse. Be prepared for this and make sure that data with a low response rate will support your objectives.
    • A survey is a lagging metric. If you can find a measurable leading metric to use as well this is better.
    • Be careful of how the survey is drafted and who conducts it. Both can bias results.
  • As an alternative to making customer satisfaction part of a bonus plan, consider starting a customer satisfaction or loyalty program. The most important question to ask will be: would you recommend us to your peers?  Any low response guarantees a follow-up call from the company.

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