employee loyalty « Fired Up!

Posts Tagged ‘employee loyalty’

Would You Recommend Us to Your Friends?

Sunday, November 14th, 2010

One of the great things about today’s intellectual economy is the questions you need to ask customers are the same as the questions you must ask your employees. Both the service event and the workplace now are “human-based” – these events are personal and emotional – both benefit from questions that ask about our humanity, our sense of belonging, and whether we feel important.

Consider asking these questions of both customers and employees to assess and ultimately activate their emotional connection. Emotional connection inspires loyalty.

1. Would you recommend us to a friend? To a customer, is your service so exceptional you would put your reputation on the line to recommend the company? To an employee – is the workplace dynamic, engaging and personalized enough to suggest your friends work there as well?
2. What is the best thing we do for you? For both, knowing this allows the organization to repeat successful behaviors.
3. What is not working for you right now? For both, inviting the discussion to share negative things that may not be addressed without the prompting.
4. At our company, we focus on making others feel like family; how have we made you feel like our family? For both, activating the sense of connection to family and belonging is key to creating personal relationships and activating loyalty. Behaviors identified in the responses can be repeated.
5. What information do you hear from your social networks and do you see in the world around you that would help us be a better company? Customers and employees are the eyes and ears of all great companies. Loyal employees and customers openly share what they hear, think, value and see. Organizations dramatically expand their connection to their world by using engaged and loyal customers to observe and assess their worlds. This keeps companies informed, current and aware of what is truly important.

Customers and employees both require a personal and emotional relationship to activate their best performance and loyalty. The more connected management is to employees, and employees are to customers, the more important and valued both feel.

In a service workplace, success is built through relationships. Valued employees create valued customers. Disconnect from employees and customer and performance, innovation and loyalty suffers. Develop a culture that constantly asks great questions of each, and uses the information to improve, engage and activate loyalty.

Please forward this to someone who can benefit from it and contact me to help you build a workplace that inspires both customer and employee loyalty. It will show in your bottom line. More information at www.LiveFiredUp.com.

Tags: ask questions, customer loyalty, customer survey, emotional connection, employee loyalty, employee survey, great service
Posted in For Managers | No Comments »

What Do You Inspire?

Monday, October 4th, 2010

Is your workplace committed to extraordinary…to greatness? Or does it accept average, bland and boring performance? What do you inspire?

An organization takes its lead from its leaders and managers. Consider these questions as you assess your role as company “inspirer:”

1. How compelling and clear is your vision and mission? Does it attract people who believe what you believe about service, value and performance?
2. What is the organization’s perspective of customers? Are customers critical to the success of the organization and deserve consistently extraordinary service? Does the organization consistently pull out the stops to do stand-out and exceptional things for customers as the only way of conducting business?
3. What is leadership’s and management’s perspective of employees? Are they viewed as assets to invest in or expenses to manage? Are they well chosen, well supported and well developed? Are employees valued as the means to create customer loyalty, which drives the bottom line?

The best organizations are those whose leaders have created a powerful employee-focused workplace culture that treasures its employees and holds them completely accountable for creating a consistently strong customer-focused organization. They inspire the best from each employee by hiring them into roles that play to their talents, strengths and passions; they share critical information; they establish clear performance expectations; they believe in their people and expect them to do what is right.

We are in a service economy. Success in this kind of economy is created in the quality of relationships we establish (and inspire) – employee/customer, employee/employee, employee/leader, employee/manager. Inspiring employees to play to their greatness helps employees not only develop the skills and confidence to do great things for customers, it also earns the manager and leader great employee loyalty.

We always watch others to learn how to approach the changes that happen in our days. Customers watch employees. Employees watch managers. Managers watch leaders. Everyone is watching…what do you inspire?

Please share this with someone who can benefit from it and contact me to learn how to be your company “inspirer” by learning how to attract, hire and retain today’s best employees.

Tags: customer loyalty, employee loyalty, employee relationships, inspire, mission statement, vision statement
Posted in For Managers | No Comments »

How To Get Your New Hires To Stay

Saturday, August 21st, 2010

So, you want your new hires to stay. Most don’t last very long. And the greatest reason cited is that how the job is explained to the candidate is not what they find when they start working.

Before we can discuss this, I need to ask, why do you pay your employees?

Most say, “to do the job,” “to make a difference,” some even say “because the law says I have to.” These all do not reflect the true nature of the employer-employee relationship. Instead, think “return.”

For your investment in your employee, you expect a return. You pay your employees to create that return, and that is not by only doing the listed components of a job description – the world changes to quickly to live to rigid steps. The real reason why you pay your employees is to create the most efficient, effective and profitable response in each situation they encounter in their jobs. Employees have to think; they have to be emotionally connected to what they do – this is how they add value. And if they see that the job is not as you described it, they disconnect. They feel betrayed. They stop performing.

In your interview process, get good at sharing an honest representation of what a day in the life of the employee in the job is like. Consider the following:

1. Create “A day in the life of” videos for each job in the organization, and host the video on the employment section of your website.
2. Have others who will work with the employee spend time with the serious interview candidates to share their comments about the company and the job.
3. Include a walk-through of where the employee will be working to familiarize the employee with the environment, the people, the attitude, the energy and the personality of the workplace.

What is missing in most employer-employee relationships is trust and honesty. Organizations represent the jobs, potential and workplaces as something different than they are. Candidates represent themselves as being more capable than they are. Then both sides are disappointed in the new arrangement.

Remember that each side must wisely invest in the other. Companies invest in their people. Employees invest in the visions, purpose, opportunities and products of their companies. Knowing the facts about the workplace prepares the job candidate to be well informed in the decision-making process. How can you expect an employee to commit to exceptional performance and loyalty if you are not honest with what the candidate will encounter in your workplace? And when they leave, in a connected world, they tell their friends.

Start a high trust relationship with your employees right from the interview process. This leads to better hiring, more significant performance and more loyal employees.

Please pass this one to someone who can benefit from it and contact me to help you learn how to use talent-based interviewing to hire the right person.

Tags: employee engagement, employee loyalty, employee retention, exceptional performance, job interview, new hire
Posted in For Managers | No Comments »

You Are Not The Only Game In Town

Saturday, August 14th, 2010

Remember the soup nazi in the Jerry Seinfeld television series? His soups were so good that he could dictate who he would serve and who he would send away. He owned that market. He didn’t have to listen to what his customers said – they bought what he sold.

Fast forward to 2008. General Motors, Ford, Chrysler were making cars that few were buying. An economic recession reminded them that the products they make must meet the needs, values and interests of those they hope to sell to. So if you don’t want to make a car that gets exceptional gas mileage, includes the extra safety features important to your customers, or carries a cost that is prohibitive, then customers will go elsewhere. And they did.

In the August 13, 2010 New York Times article, “Detroit Goes From Gloom to Economic Bright Spot,” writer Bill Vlasic stated, “Detroit has vowed to change before, slimming down when sales slumped or pouring resources into vehicle quality to catch up to foreign competitors. Many auto analysts say the current makeover has a more permanent feel, largely learned from the near-death experience of last year’s bankruptcies at G.M. and Chrysler.”

This is just one industry where customer disconnect and management hubris sent the large players falling. What matters most are the lessons learned; here are several of the most important:

1. In a connected world, you are never the only game in town.
2. Always know your customers – what they want, need and value.
3. You earn the privilege of serving your customers by knowing them well, responding in an exceptional way, and by standing behind your product or service.
4. To be retained, employees must add value and make a difference; there is no right to employment – it must be earned.
5. Strip the excesses from the business – run lean, efficient and effectively.
6. Develop a “here today, here tomorrow” mentality; be strategic.

In today’s world, a company must stay connected its employees and customers, and all products or services must be responsive and responsible. We are rarely the only game in town. That is okay – it forces us to improve our game and constantly focus on greatness.

Please forward this to someone who can benefit from it and contact me to help you activate your employees to create sustainable value for your customers and organization.

Tags: auto industry, business failure, business strategy, Chrysler, customer loyalty, employee loyalty, employee motivation, Ford, G.M., management, recession, survive the recession
Posted in For Managers | No Comments »