Improve My Business

I recently gave a presentation at a well-known conference in my industry - something that I enjoy doing.  I get to share new ideas (or ideas combined in a different way), interact with folks, and get a conversation going.  Most gratifying to me was to hear a colleague whose opinion I admire and respect say, “Mary gave me such food for thought - I had never thought to combine these two techniques before, and she not only showed us how she did it, but gave us some ideas of how we can do it ‘back at the ranch’ “…

The presentation went well according to feedback (did it have anything to do with the fact that the presentation included lunch?), and I’ve been able to hear some interesting talks on diverse topics, as well as meet some great new business contacts.

What are YOU doing to improve your skills/business? Please comment on how you ensure that you’re staying on top of your particular market… is it

- reading trade journals?

- attending seminars? conferences?

- in-house training?

- online webinars? teleseminars?

- etc.

Do tell - I’d love to hear how you’re staying on top of your game!

And, if you’re not doing anything right now - take a minute to search online for some form of professional development; type some keywords into a search engine and read some relevant articles; find and bookmark / RSS some key websites or blogs and set aside 30 mins every week to read (may I suggest improveyourbusinessnow.com, blog.efficiencydr.com, or blog.sustainabilitydr.com ?)

Technorati Tags: Add new tag, Business, communication, mcdonald consulting group, preparation, training

Many folks are concerned about the state of the economy - locally, nationally, and internationally.  I see the same worries in some of my clients, but not in others; I’ve taken a closer look at these two groups of companies, and this is what I’m seeing (unscientific, but interesting nonetheless):

Worried companies — I’m defining worried companies as the ones who are not in good shape from a Quality standpoint.  Oh, their final product quality is fine; it’s the processes that could use some sprucing up.  Not sure if this sounds like your company or not:

• Your final quality product or service is fine; customers are overall happy.
• however, your company often is jumping through hoops to make this happen.  It sometimes takes extraordinary effort to deliver on time — overtime, extra work being done, or even hand-carrying the order through the line.

• When a change comes through, it requires a lot of special attention to be done ‘right’.  It’s not a normal occurrence, and really puts a strain on your organization.

• When a key person is absent (vacation or sick), the organization has trouble delivering with the same efficiency.

• Everyone spends time and energy determining who made the mistake, before asking why the mistake was made, or how to fix the mistake

By contrast, un-worried companies have a noticeably different set of situations:

• Your final quality product or service is fine; customers are overall happy.
• It’s no problem for your company to deliver top quality products and services; it’s routine for your organization.

• When overtime is needed, it’s done with the understanding that this is a temporary situation, and everyone pitches in.

• Absences, both planned and unplanned, barely cause a ripple in the smooth operations of the organization, as all critical work is documented, cross-trained, and backed up as appropriate.

• The organization is more concerned about fixing the problem than fixing the blame.

So, what are the steps that companies can take?

1. They can document the nebulous processes, review the existing processes, and ensure that critical steps in a process are documented and are correct.  (Documenting and leaving on a shelf to get dusty is a common, and useless, situation I see in some areas…sigh…)
2. They can use this time to tighten up their internal overall process flow once step #1 has been done — analyzing it for redundancies, streamlining, and ways to make it more efficient.  Do multiple areas in your organization do almost the same thing?  Are there more than one ‘right’ ways to do a certain process?  Can it be streamlined to deliver the output in less steps, or with lower defects?
3. They can spend this time to do training - formal training to bring up their employees’ skills; cross-training to ensure that absences are easier to handle; corporate knowledge transfer so when the guru goes on vacation or (gasp!) retires, the knowledge doesn’t walk out the door with him; management training to spruce up your managers’ interpersonal skills so they can handle the questions from nervous employees better; teamwork and teambuilding to let employees know that they are valued, and that working as a team is the best chance you have of staying in business; and a host of other training that I’m sure you can name immediately.

Interestingly, the client who are calling us are the ones that fall into the second group - they continue to focus on “business as usual”, streamlining, becoming more efficient, requesting training, delivering higher quality both internally and externally, etc.  The worriers?  Well, let’s just hope that they don’t lose my phone number as they run around with worried looks on their faces and gloom and doom in their hearts.

Technorati Tags: downturn, economics, efficiency, quality, Streamlining, training

Here’s a true story to help you understand my rationale for the title of the post:

I own two timeshares - one in Hawaii, and one in Orlando. We are using the timeshare in Hawaii this year (we’ll rent out the one in Orlando - and then next year flip-flop it and go to Orlando, renting out Hawaii); I called to make my reservation for our chosen vacation dates in August. I had already booked the airfare, which is more more complicated to get the flights and prices we wanted; then called for what I [mistakenly] assumed was a straightforward booking. I was told that the 11 days I wanted (August 2 through 13) wasn’t available; however, August 1 - 13 was. When I explained that I didn’t need 8/1, only 8/2 onward, I was told by the reservation agent that it was not available (they rent week-to-week, starting on a Fri, Sat, or Sun and she couldn’t cobble a full week and a half week together starting on a Saturday, only on a Friday). I had a choice - book an extra day and ‘burn’ that day to get the dates I wanted, or start all over again with the airlines (which had taken me about 3 hours to get set up JUST the way we wanted — no thank you!]

I booked an extra day just to get the villa reservation, then started calling back to [now] modify the reservation for one less day. I called a total of four times and was told that 8/2 week was booked, and they couldn’t adjust it for me; to add fuel to the fire, I couldn’t get on the WAITING LIST for that week because that was already full also! So, I’m thinking, I’m holding a confirmed reservation for these dates, which obviously are in demand because there’s already a waiting list; and I can’t give back one night so someone else can use it?

Finally, someone noticed that I own more than one property [which makes me elite, apparently] and I was transferred to the elite reservation / customer service line. Lo and behold! Kelly at the elite line can ’shave off’ one day from the reservation, refunding me that day into my points bank, and providing me with exactly the dates I need. The villa now has an additional day to sell to make someone else happy (who now can extend their stay an extra night) and I am only ‘paying’ for the nights I am going to use.

My question: Why did I have to be transferred to the ‘elite’ line to get a [to me, at least] simple request granted? I already HAD 8/2 - 8/13 as part of my 8/1 - 8/13 reservation… I didn’t need a new reservation, or to go on a waiting list; I just needed one less day on an existing reservation… but only Kelly could understand this request and adjust the reservation accordingly [in about 10 mins, to boot!]

I can certainly see an opportunity here to make non-elite customers happy and to streamline their process (because I talked to four folks, that was three times that I ‘wasted’ their call center resources getting something resolved…)

Moral of the story for Customer Call Centers:

My tip to corporate call centers — train, train, train. Gather requests like this from the files and walk the employees through the request - including how to hand the ‘non-usual’ requests - then provide written scripts that they can follow (in the form of FAQ’s, etc. that are searchable). Spend a little more time on training, which will enable the employees to answer common questions, and then go the extra mile to throw in one or more ‘non-usual’ requests… the customers calling in will be happier, and the employees will get the satisfaction of knowing they’ve handled a ’slightly left of center’ request. Sounds like a win-win to me!

Technorati Tags: customer service, training