Just-in-Time Management Advice
Join Jed and Bob as they discuss the good and bad practices for customer service that apply in all industries. A focus on service is not merely the concern of those in retail.
Watch the ‘Great Customer Service’ Video (16 mins 16 sec):
Join Jed and Bob as they explore how to use a RACI Chart in any organization.
Watch the ‘RACI Analysis’ Video (17 mins 26 sec):
Why don’t your people do things the way they’re supposed to?!? It may be because you didn’t set clear expectations in the first place. Learn how to set expectations that are crystal clear, and use them as a tool to manage performance. Become a Wily Manager member today and get the full story from Bob and Jed. Is that clear?
Many managers having uttered the words, “I told that guys that!”, become truly amazed when people don’t live up to their expectations. There are hundreds of reasons why leaders end up being disappointed when their expectations aren’t met, but here’s our list of the top five:
Thinking you can tell people something once. You may have “told that guy”, but if you haven’t done it multiple times, by multiple media, your job isn’t yet done. Much like teaching your children new habits, it takes time and effort to integrate new expectations into consistent behaviors.
Thinking that expectations last forever. You also need to periodically remind people about expectations. I once worked for client that had very specific expectations for travel expenses. As months and years passed without any consistent reminders or reinforcement of those expectations, people deviated substantially from the policy. When a new manager came in and called people on their expenses, he had an uphill battle. For years people had done what they wanted, and now this new guy was trying to hold them to account for expectations that were set long ago.
Acting Inconsistently. “Do as I say, not as I do…” doesn’t work. A former client made the decision to move to an open office concept from enclosed offices because they wanted to set an expectation of an open, accessible corporate culture. It all went horribly wrong as soon as the senior leaders locked themselves behind closed doors, after creating the expectation that everyone should embrace the idea of the open concept. There is also no faster way to eliminate any credibility you have as a leader than to say one thing, and do another.
Having a laundry list. If you hand people a list of expectations that numbers in the hundreds, you are asking (if not begging) to be let down. Public sector organizations are famous for this. Due to their risk aversion, they want to cover off any and all contingencies, so they create expectations for things that could not be more impossible. Keep your expectations clear and manageable – and never hand your people a laundry list.
Assuming people understand. Sometimes people say they understand when they don’t. Much like the English-speaking tourist in a foreign country who simply yells louder at the nodding cab driver, you’re still not going to get what you want if the other person doesn’t understand. Part of setting expectations is to ask clarifying and confirming questions to ensure the other fully understands.
If you are regularly disappointed when people don’t perform according to your expectations, perhaps you aren making one or more of these common mistakes. Avoid this unnecessary frustration – watch this week’s video about Setting Expectations.
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Setting Expectations is a key leadership skill that is often executed poorly. Below we talk about the following aspects of how to Set Expectations:
Why Leaders Need to Set Clear Expectations
Different Media to Set Expectations
There are many ways that managers Set Expectations with their people. Some of those methods are:
The Do’s of Setting Expectations
The Don’ts of Setting Expectations
3 Things to Remember About How to Set Expectations:
Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about Setting Expectations (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):
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Providing great customer service is important even if you’re not in a retail industry. Become a Wily Manager member and you’ll get instant access to Bob and Jed’s discussion about good and bad customer service practices you can apply to any business.
Recently there was a story in the news about two women who were arrested in the UK for allegedly trying to get a dead person aboard a plane. The deceased was propped up in a wheelchair with sunglasses on, and passed off as “sleeping”. Of course, this is both hilarious and troubling on a variety of levels.
One of the questions few seem to be asking about this bizarre case is, “what would compel someone to attempt such an outlandish feat?” My own theory is that they needed the departed’s mortal remains to be somewhere else, and the red tape and bureaucracy involved in making the transfer was only slightly less complicated than bringing back the dead to make the move, and then returning him to the hereafter.
This case was both amusing and personal for me as I dealt with a death in my own family. My dad was a client of a mobile phone carrier that shall remain nameless (Bell Mobility). About a month after his passing, I called to cancel his mobile telephone. I can only conclude that my father was the first one of Bell’s customers ever to have died. Perhaps we should all be advised to become a Bell customer to enjoy the benefits of immortality.
The condensed version of the story is that after four calls to their call center (each lasting over 30 minutes each), and five requests from the agents to speak with the account holder (apparently the off-shore call centre folks had never heard the English words “dead”, “deceased”, “expired”, or “passed away”), I was given a fax number to put my request in writing, along with a Death Certificate to have the phone discontinued. Of course, the fax number was wrong.
I tried a retail location for Bell, but was told that it was their job to sell the phones and the plans, and for all other “services”, I needed to contact the call center.
This a great example of how many companies conduct their customer “service”. I know that if Bell can’t get this right, that I could never trust them to do anything complicated.
Organizations end up in this unfortunate space because they are not willing to hire or develop employees capable of consistently making good decisions. Instead, they have thousands of rules and regulations that they think will protect the company from losses, when in fact they make those losses worse.
I have no doubt that the decision makers in this organization will point to how much money they save by off-shoring their call centers, and how they monitor calls to ensure quality.
I hope they’re saving a whole lot of money – they’re going to need it.
Providing great customer service is important even if you’re not in a retail industry. Become a Wily Manager member and you’ll get instant access to Bob and Jed’s discussion about good and bad customer service practices you can apply to any business.
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Below, we talk about the following aspects of providing Great Customer Service:
What is Great Customer Service?
“When the service delivered exceeds the customers’ expectations.”
| A 2012 JZ Analytics survey of over 1500 companies based in the United States produced this list of great customer service experiences and poor customer service experiences. Note that the same industries are represented on both lists, reinforcing the viewpoint that customer service is more a function of the management of a business rather than the conditions or environment a business finds itself in. | |
The Good
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The Bad
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Good Customer Service Practices
Customer service is highly situational, but there are some practices that transcend industry and geography:
Bad Customer Service Practices
3 Things to Remember About Providing Great Customer Service
Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about providing Great Customer Service (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):
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Like many people, I seem to have two often competing, and sometimes complimentary hemispheres to my brain. When I did my undergraduate degree, I had the rather strange combination of a major in Business Administration, with a minor in English Literature. This typically meant I annoyed my Business Student peers by pointing out their dangling modifiers; and annoyed my Liberal Arts peers by continually questioning the economic utility of the arts.
Overall, it meant I was generally someone to avoided at cocktail parties.
Once I entered the work world, the correlation between the disciplines of Business and Liberal Arts became much more tangible. There are many business people who have had their careers derailed by not being able to construct a coherent sentence, or by being too linear in their thinking. Likewise, those who fail to move past “art for art’s sake” usually condemn themselves to a career of leaning out a drive-through window, wearing polyester work clothes with a bright nametag, and asking their clients if they’d “like fries with that”.
So with that preamble, I going to attempt to demonstrate a key business problem by using art as an example.
Imagine yourself spending thousands of dollars to go to London or New York to take in major theatre production. When you get in the venue and seated, you notice there are no sets, props, or costumes – just an empty stage. The actors are sent on stage not knowing anything about the story they are trying to tell. There are no writers to give them any lines.
Being an optimist, you may think this in an improvised production, but the performers don’t do anything – they just stare blankly at each other. Eventually, you feel confused and cheated, and you just give up and leave the theatre.
This is the equivalent to what many organizations do when it comes to role clarity. They spend thousands of dollars to hire and onboard talent. They then send them to the stage (in this case to an office or workplace) without any idea what the story is about. People are not told about the vision, mission or values of the organization, and how that might guide their work on a daily basis.
There are non-existent, or poorly written job descriptions and other feedback mechanisms that help people refine what they do. This is the business equivalent of not having any written lines.
There are no training or developmental opportunities that will help sharpen the skills to better perform in their roles – a parallel to no sets, costumes or props.
In such organizations, shareholders feel confused and cheated, and abandon the production, much like the theatre patron above would. One of the simplest things we can do to help people be successful is to help them define and refine their roles – yet it is often left undone.
Creating a RACI Responsibility Chart is one simple but effective way to clarify workplace roles. There’s no confusion when everyone is clear about their responsibilities. The ‘RACI Analysis’ Video and Cheat Sheet was just added to the membership area. Become a member and get instant access– it’s truly risk-free.
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A RACI Chart is simply a way of documenting responsibilities. This can be for a specific project, or for ongoing roles within an organization. We discuss the following aspects of the RACI Chart below:
Definitions for a RACI Chart
RACI is an acronym that stands for:
R – “The Doer”: Position working on activity
A – “The Buck Stops Here”: Position with yes/no authority.
C – “In The Loop”: Position involved prior to a decision or action
I – “Keep In The Picture”: Position that needs to know of decision or action
What is a RACI Chart, and Why it is Important:
The RACI Chart serves a variety of functions:
Benefits of a RACI Chart
Guidelines for Building a RACI Chart:
Rules of Engagement
How a RACI Chart Works:
There are two primary perspectives or uses of a RACI Chart:
RACI Chart Horizontal and Vertical Analysis:
A larger RACI Chart process
A simple RACI has been described here. A few other considerations for the use of the RACI Chart:
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Sometimes you have the luxury of taking a long time to gather information to make quality decisions. Other times Good Decision Making needs to happen fast. Below we talk about how to overcome seven of the pitfalls of quick decision making:
Good Decision Making Pitfall: Ignoring the Decision
It is true that if you want long enough, some decisions will go away, but do you really want them to? Here are some of the possible outcomes of putting off decision:
Good Decision Making Pitfall: Going with Your Gut
Your intuition is a powerful tool, but if you overestimate its worth, there are several potential consequences:
Good Decision Making Pitfall: Involving too many people
Sometimes it makes a lot of sense to involve many people in a decision making process, and to gain consensus. However, sometimes there are drawbacks to such an approach:
Good Decision Making Pitfall: Not Involving Others
Conversely, some decisions do require the involvement of others, and sometimes leaving people out of decisions is at your peril:
Carefully consider the appropriate number of people that should be involved in the decision. The appropriate number is normally determined by:
a) How quickly you need to execute the decision.
b) How much buy-in you need from others, and how difficult that buy-in will be to achieve in your situation.
Good Decision Making Pitfall: Analysis Paralysis
Some data and analysis often serves you well. However, waiting for perfect information, or dissecting the information in infinite ways may unnecessarily delay a decision. Some consequences of over-analyzing decisions:
To avoid Analysis Paralysis, remember:
Good Decision Making Pitfall: Falling prey to the far-fetched or untested
Under pressure, sometimes fantastic and far-fetched options can be considered. While nothing should be immediately ruled out, you need to ground your options in reality. The risks of not being grounded in reality are several:
Good Decision Making Pitfall: Making decisions in haste
There is a difference between making a quality quick decision, and making a decision in haste. Here are some pitfalls of making decisions in haste:
Three Things to Remember about Making Quality Quick Decisions:
Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about Good Decision Making (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):
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Back a few years ago, I was on the road more than twenty days per month.
In an effort to instill some element of normalcy to my life, I decided that every Thursday, no matter where I was, would be ‘movie night’. As a result, I saw some truly awful movies.
I remember one summer evening in particular, standing in the lobby of a movie megaplex in Warrenville, Illinois, staring up at the marquis trying to make a decision about which movie sucked the least. I selected “Planet of the Apes”, and quickly realized I’d made a horrible decision.
This is a parable for two lessons that have been instructional to me as a manager:
1. Sometimes, you don’t always get to pick the best alternative, but you need to choose the one that sucks the least. A case in point: voting. For most of the Wily Manager audience, voting rates are less than 50%, and with due respect to the Australians – yours would be lower too, if voting weren’t required by law. People need to stop looking for the best alternative, and vote for the one that sucks the least. It’s a primary requirement for democracy: reel in your expectations!
2. Delaying a decision often doesn’t improve the quality of the outcome. If I had agonized over the “Planet of the Apes” decision, and sent it to committee, and then deferred it until better information was available, I still would have ended up seeing a crappy movie – it might have just been with different actors.
Of course, the other obvious element to this story is that the movie actually didn’t matter all that much. It was incredibly minor, and the net outcome of going to a movie, or not (or how bad that movie was) matters very little. Yet, in organizations, we see minor decisions agonized over all the time. People end up spending more time debating where to hold an offsite meeting than they would spend talking with a friend contemplating suicide.
New Rule (with full credit to Bill Maher): If you’re going to spend more than one minute on inconsequential decisions, flip a coin. If you end up being wrong, you can correct course quickly.
In my case, I could have left the movie, and gone for a walk along the river in Naperville. But then, I never would have seen Charlton Heston dressed up as a filthy, stinking ape.
Often you’re forced to make quick management decisions that are more consequential than which movie sucks the least. You’ll need to do more than flip a coin, because making quick decisions can be dangerous. If you’re not careful, it’s easy to step right into one of the common pitfalls, like ‘Going With Your Gut’ (which can make you appear reckless).
The Good Decision Making Video and Cheat Sheet combo were just added to the Wily Manager membership area, and it’s one of over 90 topics available now. In it, we show you how to avoid 7 common ‘quick decision pitfalls’, and make quality decisions when you don’t have the luxury of taking a long time to gather information.
Become a member and get 8 free bonus gifts worth $187, plus instant access to all the existing tools and advice already available in the members-only area. It’s jam-packed with Videos, Cheat Sheets, and other tools…and new content is added each and every week.
Next week we’ll be talking about Influencing Your Boss – you’ll learn how to get your boss to do what YOU want, without being a manipulator. You won’t want to miss out – become a Wily Manager Member today.
