Thursday, May 26, 2011

Four Steps to Improving Customer Service

by Chris Domergue
Director of Client Services


Many of Sinclair Advisory Group’s current customers are Federal agencies, or those who work closely with the Federal government.  On April 27, 2011, President Obama issued an executive order that will have a profound effect on the operations of all Federal agencies—and on the American people who interact with them.

The President’s executive order, titled “Streamlining Service Delivery and Improving Customer Service,” requires agencies to come up with ways to use technology to improve customer service—within six months.  You can read it here.  The executive order cited previous attempts by other administrations to provide the public with competent, efficient, and responsive service.

“However,” it continues, “with advances in technology and service delivery systems in other sectors, the public’s expectation of the Government have continued to rise.  The Government must keep pace with and even exceed those expectations… Government managers must learn from what is working in the private sector and apply these best practices to deliver services better, faster, and at lower cost.”

In an interview with The Hill newspaper, Federal Chief Performance Officer Jeffrey Zients said, “The President has made clear that now more than ever, we need to make every taxpayer dollar count. He’s also been clear that agencies cannot fall into the trap of viewing decreased funding levels as an excuse for the status quo or for accepting diminished service levels.”

Federal agencies were given 180 days to develop plans to show how they will streamline service delivery and improve the experiences of their customers. It’s a tight deadline, but it can be met if the correct steps are followed. 

As someone who has spent his entire career advising government and private organizations in defining customer relationship management strategies and in delivering related solutions, I suggest a plan built around four key principles  whether you are a Federal agency meeting the mandate or a business just looking to improve your customer service. The four key principles to a successful customer service strategy are the following:

·      Define the Customer Experience: Know your customers, and how, when, and why they interact with your agency.  Understand where they have problems dealing with your organization and how you can optimize their experience
·      Focus on Consistent Information: Make sure all of the “channels” of information you provide, such as your web site, emails and chat, phone systems and customer service agents, smartphone applications, and social media outlets are offering the same information to all customers who use your services
·      Leverage Today’s Technology and Data: The multi-channel, virtual, and ‘cloud’ based technologies now available to managers make it much easier to see a complete picture of their enterprise—and to make smarter and more customer-focused decisions.
·      Make Customer Experience One of Your Core Functions: Consider creating a Customer Experience or Marketing Officer at the Executive Level to emphasize the importance of the voice of the customer.  This can not only improve performance, but reduce operating costs as well!

In future posts, I’ll elaborate on each of these four principles, and how to accomplish them successfully.  In the meantime, whether you represent a giant government department or run your own small business, why not contact us here at Sinclair Advisory Group to see what we can do to improve your customers’ experience and interactions with you.  Our team of experienced Associates and Consultants will be happy to help!
 

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Praise Works Wonders


by Everett A. Chasen, Associate

Last week, Seth wrote about the difficult decision President Obama was required to make before he sent troops in to capture or kill Obama bin Laden.  In the aftermath of the successful mission, I was personally struck by one aspect of the follow-up activities: the President’s trip to Fort Campbell, Kentucky to personally thank those who took part in the attack, and to collectively award them a Presidential Unit Citation.

There is no question that those who took part in the raid are heroes—and that, if their names were known, none of them would ever have to purchase a drink in any bar in America for the rest of their lives.  Fear of retaliation against them or their families however, makes public acknowledgment of their names and activities impossible—so the President met with them privately, without any photographs or media, to express his appreciation for their service to our nation.

In doing so, the President demonstrated one of the most important aspects of successful leadership: the ability to provide positive reinforcement to those whom you are asked to lead.  Few if any behaviors motivate employees to maintain high performance levels more than positive reinforcement and praise.  Positive reinforcement should be given often: when individuals, such as those involved in this mission, have taken actions that are above and beyond the call of duty; when employees have significantly improved their levels of performance; and when people have met your expectations over a long period of time.

Recognition is more powerful when it is provided—as the President did—as soon as possible after the event takes place; It’s much more powerful that way.  It should be focused on specific individuals or teams (“Good job, everybody” is not much of a motivator), and should be as specific, descriptive, and precise as possible.  If people know why they’re being praised, they’re much more likely to do what they did again.

One management analyst believes that good employees should be praised “twenty to thirty times” for every time they are corrected.  He also says that the fear some managers have that too much praise will give employees swelled heads is completely unwarranted.  Instead, continual praise builds employee loyalty and a reluctance to let their boss and their organization down.

In our strategic alignment work, Sinclair helps organizations to align their goals with the goals of its employees.  We make the goals of the organization; its departments; and its employees as clear as possible so that employees know what the organization is asking of them.  Then we help employers reinforce the kind of performance that helps those goals to be realized, and enable employees to understand how their performance helps the organization succeed.   It’s a formula that works.  Call us if you’d like to learn more!

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

How Leaders Make Decisions

by Seth Sinclair, Member


As the world knows, on May 2, 2011 a team of courageous and dedicated U.S. Navy Seals captured and killed the man who, before his death, personified America’s greatest enemy and threat: Osama bin Laden.  While the Seals were accomplishing their difficult feat, the President of the United States watched and waited.  He, too, had accomplished a difficult task—one familiar to anyone who has ever had leadership responsibilities: deciding on a course of action when your subordinates have made conflicting recommendations as to what that course of action should be.

Once bin Laden’s hiding place was discovered, no one questioned that the United States would have to do something about it.  As some commentators have pointed out, the question was not whether America would try to kill or capture him; the question the President faced was how the deed would best be done.  According to news reports, his advisors were split into three different camps: to work with the Pakistani government to arrange for bin Laden to be taken prisoner (because, after all, Pakistan is a sovereign nation, and an American ally); to use targeted missiles to destroy bin Laden’s hideout; or to send American troops in to overpower the hideout and remove bin Laden, alive or dead.

All three options had advantages and disadvantages.  Working with an ally meant troops familiar with the area would be part of the raid and no danger of outside interference, but significantly raised the possibility that secrecy could not be maintained: a missile strike would put no troops at risk, but would have led to uncertainty whether, in fact, bin Laden had truly been killed; and sending in commandos meant that the world would immediately know the outcome—but the possibility of interception and failure was highest (the Washington Post wrote that the President believed the chances were only 55/45 in favor of success.)  Each course of action, it appears from news accounts, had strong supporters, and passionate opponents.  In the end, the President sent in the Seals, and it appears, from the outcome, he made the right decision.

What should a leader do when faced with a difficult decision and a lack of unanimity on what path to take?  The most important thing, I believe, for a leader to keep in mind is to get as many outside perspectives as possible before making a decision—and to not tip his or her hand which way he or she is leaning.   (Obviously, the President was limited in the number of people he could consult with because of the extreme need for secrecy in bin Laden’s case; most of us, however, are not so constrained.) 

Genuinely asking for input gives a manager the opportunity to understand and explore different perspectives than his or her own, and may lead to valuable insights the manager would not otherwise have gotten.  Very few employees are upset if their recommendations are not followed—if they are sure their viewpoints were heard, and seriously considered.    Managers must not indicate which way they are leaning because employees are attuned to their biases, and most will shape their responses, consciously or unconsciously, to reflect what their boss wants to hear, and then the boss will not be getting the best advice possible.

Every leader, of course, has a decision making style that’s his or her own.  Newer leaders should invest some time in understanding and learning their own personal leadership and decision making styles in order to increase their self awareness.  This will help them improve their ability to ask for input, and help them build confidence in their unique style.  In Sinclair’s leadership development training programs, we help to facilitate this introspective process.

Once a decision is made, a leader must take responsibility for decisions and for communicating that decision to those who need to know what the decision was.  He or she must also decide who is to be accountable to carry the decision out; provide a deadline for accomplishing the tasks that are required; make sure all appropriate approvals are given, and those who must be notified in advance are told.   And, of course, he or she must keep from interfering too much with those whose job it is to implement the decision.

There’s lots more to the subject of executive decision making, of course, and in coming months, we’ll spend more time on the subject here on this blog.  However, if you or members of your staff need immediate help in this area or other areas of executive development and training, why not give us a call here at Sinclair Advisory Group?  Our leadership development programs are among the best in the business, taught by successful executives who have made tough decisions throughout their careers—and, like the President, made them work!

Thursday, May 5, 2011

When to train employees--and why


by Stan Sinclair, Managing Member

The famed motivational speaker Zig Ziglar once said: “The only thing worse than training employees and losing them is not training employees and keeping them.”  He was referring to a fear that is apparently widespread among employers: that if they offer too much training to their employees, they’ll leave and go somewhere else with the skills they’ve developed.

In nearly every case, however, the opposite is true; people who’ve received significant training opportunities are grateful to the organizations who have provided them with the chance to improve their skills and abilities.  Whether you provide in house training by fellow employees or by organizations like ours, send people to local seminars, give them time to participate in “webinars,” or offer them the opportunity to pursue degree opportunities at local institutions of higher learning, you’ll soon find that training is a great employee benefit that helps you keep good employees and make them more productive.

There are any number of areas in which employee training makes good sense.  Most employers, however, offer training for one of four reasons:

·      When an employee is not doing well, and an improvement in his or her performance is needed. (Many Federal agencies make training an important part of Performance Improvement Plans.)
·      To teach employees about specific topics, such as communication, customer service, computer security, ethics, human relations, quality and safety.
·      As part of succession planning, to help employees be ready to assume new duties in their organization.
·      As part of overall professional development programs for employees.

I was very proud to have been appointed Dean of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Learning University (VALU.)  As an “in-house university,” and as a catalyst for Department-wide learning initiatives and strategies that develop and sustain a high performing workforce, VALU demonstrates VA’s commitment to continuous learning programs for all its employees. 

At VALU, we knew that employee training was not something nice for us to do for our employees; it was a necessity if we were going to have a Department that could meet the needs of America’s veterans in the 21st century.  I’m proud of what we accomplished in the development of VA’s future leaders at VALU, and what the organization continues to accomplish today under the leadership of those who have succeeded me.

If your organization or company wants to remain competitive in today’s environment (and tomorrow’s) you need a solid training program.  If you need assistance in developing one, let us know.  We’ll be glad to help!