Skip to main content

Your face; our face | company perception is a narrow view


Top promoter score, my ass proclaimed Anal Arnold;  explain to me why Chaotic Chris, who basically looks like an adult version of Pig Pen, consistently gets the highest overall scores where as Kempt Ken gets mediocre scores from his clients.  Admittedly, while Chris looks like he just took a bath in bong water, his customers absolutely love him.  Ken on the other hand, is a bit of an arrogant ass and turns off even the most accepting of customers. 

Legendary Lee had always rambled on about how your company is always only as good as the employee which touches the customer.  Think about the bank teller, many financial institutions are similar; however, most people will go to banks where they like the tellers (your face, our face).  As organizations get larger and workers are spread far and wide, the influence we have on our key "money makers" dwindles.  "That is all good and well" said Arnold, but each individual is different and they own their attitudes.   You are partially correct Arnold responded Lee, we can help pave the road to a good experience for the field worker.  Sincere efforts need to be implemented by many within the organization focusing on:

  • Choice. how choice empowers people to make the right decisions and generates the proper attitude
  • Control, when the technician is in control of their own schedule in the field, magical things can happen. Is the business willing to relinquish this past tradition
  • Convergence, do they have the information when they arrive at site, idiosyncrasies and how to get to equipment. Nothing worse than putting the field worker in a no-win situation

Certainly these are logical, yet in some situations not very practical, stated Arnold.  Consider the all-paper company who really does not have the insights to allow them to push more decisions to the field.  How do they know that the worker is always making decisions for the company and not themselves.  Techno Tim, who had been listening all along, offered a slightly different perspective.  While in agreement; Tim suggested that choice, control and convergence are feasible when technology provides the transparency required to insure everyone is in cadence with one another.  Choice without boundaries can create its' own type of chaos.  Control devoid of performance measurement will likely result in individual priorities over organizational priority.  Convergence of knowledge is next to impossible without some form of digital transformation.

The tool, while important, is not the critical path.  You must re-imagine your organization and put the tools in place to make sure that the individuals touching your clients are always compelled to put their best foot forward.  If you believe that the customer experience takes a back seat to performance, than I encourage you to ask yourself how Apple, which has only incrementally improved their product since the passing of Steve Jobs, still finds themselves in a successful position.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

suggesting is NOT selling

People and companies want to buy from people that they trust.   The individual which possesses the broadest set of knowledge will gain the most credibility and as a result yield high levels of trust.   When I was in the field I definitely had the ear of the customer and for the most part discussed areas that needed improvement or replacement. At no moment was I ever, at least in my mind, selling. Instead, as I think back on those days, I believe I was simply "suggesting". Take an immediate need, add in a trusted advisor and a credible suggestion, you will most likely get a sale. However, this is not selling. From my non-salesman perspective I would sum up the following related to the sales process; sales is not a single event but instead a sequence of connection points which create a positive experience that leads to a purchase . Over the years I've been fortunate to have known many different types of salespeople in different industries and I believe that they a...
Post a Comment
Read more

In$pired

As the steam from Avid Andy's coffee fogged his glasses on this crisp January morning, he reflected on last year and thought enthusiastically about the year ahead.   Sometimes the noise of business is deafening, we rarely take the time to contemplate our moves, instead are often thrown one direction or another.   Hey, face it, if you are reading posts to gain perspective you fall in the group of folks who pride themselves as obsequious hoop-jumpers.   We live to help others and expect that all of those around us feel the same way.   I just love Influential Irene.   Okay, it is out in the open, she is an inspiration for me and so many others.   Irene reminds folks every year, without fail, these three statements which she fondly refers to as "the punchline" (although this is no joke).   Businesses, of any size, will be successful if they remember that it is people that make a company.   Put this advice into practice, today: Sincerity |...
Post a Comment
Read more

focus on your annuity base, come on man..

Stick with what you know and repeat often. When I think about maintenance, regardless of type of contract, I think about consistency, consistency, consistency. The motivation behind writing this post is to encourage you to either build or bolster your existing maintenance base, here are some things to consider: most maintenance contracts should yield between 5% and 7% additional revenue above and beyond the contract value.   Building trust between you and your clients organization will result in additional service activity. Full risk contracts, or those where you were charging one flat amount and taking all of the financial risk, can be profitable.   Watch out for the age of the equipment, service call track record, and customer disposition pull-through opportunities can be constrained with full risk contracts unless the scope of work is very specific. This can be a bit of a slippery slope. The perception of a...
Post a Comment
Read more