Filed under: Uncategorized
Questar has joined Twitter! We plan to use the account as a source for industry news and a format to connect with customers and prospects on the topics of customer experience management, employee engagement, and leadership.
Feel free to follow us: http://twitter.com/QuestarResearch
Filed under: Employee Development, Employee Engagement, Employee Retention, Work Life Balance
Today Anna Erickson’s article “Are Employers Facing a Deficit of Trust?” was featured in the Good Company Blog. If you have a few minutes you should check it out http://www.phwa.org/resources/goodcompany/blog/2010/06/are-employers-facing-a-deficit.php
While waiting in the airport recently, I noticed that the guy sitting next to me had taped paper over the webcam at the top of his laptop. I chuckled to myself at first at his apparent paranoia. Then I thought about that kid in Philadelphia who sued his school for taking photos of him on his laptop without his knowledge. So who could blame this young professional at the airport for being cautious? It is more than a little creepy thinking that your boss might be watching you in your hotel room on a business trip. Which got me thinking about trust.
Trust is lacking in many workplaces today. Employers don’t trust employees. Employees don’t trust employers. We see it in the survey business all the time. Clients hire my firm to conduct their employee surveys in part to ensure anonymity of respondents and confidentiality of results. And yet no matter how it’s communicated some employees will never believe their survey responses are anonymous. And so, with the fear of big brother looking over their shoulders, many employees miss the opportunity to provide honest feedback that might improve their workplace….(more)
Here I am, Tuesday night at a major retailer. I’ll be in and out in a jiffy, I tell myself—just need one thing, that’s all.
“Can I help you find anything, sir?” a young employee asks me as I enter the store.
“Nope. I’m good. Thanks.”
“Can I help you find anything?” another employee asks me twenty seconds later.
“Nope. I’m good. Thanks.”
“Can I help you find anything?” Another employee.
“Nope. I’m good. Thanks.”
It was at that moment—thirty seconds before another “Can I help you find anything?”— that I asked myself “can there really be too much of a good thing when it comes to customer service?” I think, the managers at this retailer and this particular location must take a lot of pride in servicing customers well. They definitely understand the importance of the customer experience and employee accessibility and attentiveness. They’ve trained the staff well…and the staff is following through. I should be proud. This validates the work we do every day at Questar.
And yet my answer to that question “can there really be too much of a good thing when it comes to customer service?” A resounding yes!
Filed under: Employee Communication, Employee Development, Employee Engagement, Employee Retention, Executive Leadership, Uncategorized
New jobs require new skills. And it’s through new challenges that we build those skills. So it should come as no surprise that the way most leaders learn to lead is by jumping in the deep end.
One of my stories related to this is from a client I worked with years ago. The main character in this story is an up and coming young executive – we’ll call her Sarah (not her real name). Sarah was a go getter, recognized by corporate leadership for her achievements, her performance and her potential. She was just 33 years old when she got her first chance to truly lead. She was named president of a small division within the large global corporation for which she worked. And boy was she ready – this was her chance to really prove herself.
This part of the business was new to her. But Sarah was a quick study and knew just what to do. She wasted no time evaluating the competitive landscape and identified some “quick hits” to gain market share. She worked hard developing plans, securing resources, contacting clients, and informing key stakeholders. She found places to cut costs, introduced efficiencies, and pushed ahead with some innovative product development. (more…)
The year was 1935. Two brothers – aged 10 and 8 – walked along the road to town. It was the height of the depression, so these kids didn’t have any money to spend once they got to town. But they picked up bottles in the ditch and by the time they got there they had enough to buy a couple of small packaged pies at the local café.
In 1935 packaged foods did not print the “sell by” date that we’re so accustomed to seeing today. It wasn’t until he bit into his pie that Kenneth, the younger of the two brothers, noticed that his pie was moldy. The kids tried to return it, but the café refused. “All sales are final” – the kids were out of luck. (more…)
Customer satisfaction survey results are often a key component of a multi-unit organization’s corporate bonus structure. Such programs ensure that customer satisfaction remains top of mind for managers at all levels within a company. While the decision to link survey results and employee rewards must ultimately be made by each individual organization, it is certainly worth investigating. If your company decides that such a bonus program is right for you, it is important to give serious consideration to the approach you will take and to be mindful of the possible risks and complications.
What Works
Quarterly bonus payments work well for many organizations. They offer a nice compromise in that they occur often enough to maintain interest but are spaced far enough apart to give managers an opportunity to impact their scores. Compensation plans with a tiered pay out are often very effective. With a tiered pay out, most participants can achieve the lowest level of compensation, while the very highest level of compensation is reserved for only the best performers. These payments work well when they are based on two criteria:
1. Progress towards a corporate goal- Managers at or above their goal should be motivated to stay at that level. It’s easy for customer satisfaction to slip without continuous effort.
2. Demonstrated improvement over last quarter- This is also a good time to identify strong performers and set them up as mentors for those who missed the mark.
Inherent Risks
While data integrity is always of great importance in any research effort, the connection of compensation to customer satisfaction survey results on this sort of program heightens the potential for fraudulent activity. However, there are ways to establish customer feedback systems that reduce the risk of this occurring.
Take, for instance, the data integrity associated with using Interactive Voice Response (IVR) as a means of collecting customer feedback. This is a commonly used method for collecting feedback among organizations with multiple locations. Customers call a toll-free number and use their telephone keypad to input answers to questions about their experience with a product or service. Unfair survey practices using IVR data collection are noticeable in some fairly common ways:
Filed under: Employee Engagement, Executive Leadership, Leadership Development
According to research just released from the Pew Research Center, trust in the US government is at an all time low. In fact, just 22% of study participants said that they “trust the government in Washington almost always or most of the time.” With mid-term elections just a few months away, this news is creating quite a buzz.
To say I’m a political junky would be an exaggeration. But I do find the tracking of political opinions fascinating. Our public leaders live in a fish bowl. So many things within and outside of their control impact public support and their “job approval ratings.” And that support in turn impacts their political clout and their ability to get things done. At the end of the day, this lack of trust could cost elected officials their jobs. And so the panic begins. (more…)
Filed under: Customer Experience
Every encounter with a customer – whether it is face-to-face, over the phone, through the mail, in email, etc. – is an opportunity to build company credibility and put to rest any post-sale jitters that sometimes come with making a large purchase.
I recently bought a new vehicle. Putting on my customer experience management hat and reflecting on what I encountered, there were soooooo many missed opportunities to positively engage me as a customer. The whole experience turns out to be a great case study in how NOT to cultivate a positive relationship with a new customer and gain their loyalty for the long haul.
I know that for some of you, car shopping is a fun, energizing undertaking. For others – like me – it’s a dreaded, torturous necessity of life. While I was looking forward to downsizing to a smaller vehicle and improving on fuel efficiency, parting with my mini-van after seven years was a bittersweet thing. With all the fond memories associated with it, it was sort of like saying good-bye for the last time to an old friend. (more…)
Filed under: Employee Engagement
While talking with my friend the other day (for the ease of story telling I will call him John), he began to tell me that his boss had given him a report card to fill out. Everything sounded pretty normal up to this point, a lot of companies give their employees self-evaluations to fill out before their performance reviews. But this was not the situation John was in. John went on to explain that this was a report card he was to fill out about his boss. Sounds pretty noble of the boss, right? John then gave me more details about the situation. He went on to say that this was not going to be an anonymous process; John was supposed to put his name on the form he handed in. Not only that but he was to meet with his boss to discuss his answers, essentially he was going to have to give his boss a performance review.
I immediately got a knot in my stomach putting myself in that situation. I like to think that my boss and I have open and honest communication but the thought of grading him on a five point scale on his leadership skills is enough to make me queasy. I really don’t think John’s boss had any malicious intent, I think he really wanted honest feedback and then wanted to discuss how he could improve with his employees. But is this really the best way to go about doing that? I decided to ask an expert. I took my question to our very own Dr. Anna Erickson to get her thoughts on the situation. (more…)
Filed under: Customer Experience
A few weeks back, Joe Stanton wrote a blog entitled “Return…I Don’t Think So.” He told us two stories of recent shopping experiences, one he had while returning a stuffed toy and one his friend “Mike” had while returning a blue ray player. Both returns were done at different national retailers. Mike had an awful experience with his return while Joe had a great experience. Would they shop at these stores again? Mike claimed he would never shop at the store where he had the poor return policy experience. Joe, on the other hand, said he would definitely shop at his retailer again.
How would other shoppers react? Well, 56 of you shared your opinion via the poll on our website. And the results were….….(Drum roll, please)………
Do return policies at stores affect where you shop?
Yes – 46%
No – 29%
Sometimes – 25%
So what can we learn from both the experiences of Joe and Mike and our small poll? It seems that for most of you return policies play a role in where you shop. In fact, over 70% of those who responded, “sometimes” take into account what the return policy of the store is before they shop there. In times like these, where every customer counts, it might not be a bad idea for retailers to take look at their return policies to make sure they aren’t losing customers before they’ve even stepped into the store.
– Beth Holine | Strategic Communications & Marketing Coordinator
