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4 Pillars to Customer Service Strategy to Deliver Extraordinary Customer Service (Part 1)

Keeping customers happy is a top priority for businesses across the board in this highly competitive market. An unhappy customer or a customer who has been unable to get the information, resolution or help they need will almost always find another business that does exactly the same thing as yours, only with better customer service. So, what is the secret recipe for delivering extraordinary customers service that will encourage loyalty, not to mention increase conversion rates? Here are 4 pillars of customer service strategy that can boost CSAT levels in an effective manner. 1. Overcoming Customer Objections There is truly no way to meet customer needs if you cannot figure out what those needs are. Gaining an understanding of each customer goes far beyond a lengthy probing phone conversation. Instead, contact center agents must find a way to help customers have an effortless customer experience. Engaging frequently with customers is one way to more fully understand their needs, challenges and pain points. This is especially important at the beginning of the customer relationship before they feel any loyalty. Blog-call surveys asking for customer opinions, concrete examples and based on the customer’s true feelings about their experience can be invaluable in figuring out how to overcome objections. 2. Gathering Operational Insights Another way to enhance the customer experience is by gathering operational insights. Before technology was quite so advanced, managing contact center agents tried to listen in the background of a percentage of calls and figure out what could be done better. Today, this can be achieved with a reliable analytics program gathering information in the background of each phone call. This information can then be compiled, analyzed and provided to contact center management as actionable data points. 3. Applying Improved Soft Skills Soft skills are frequently referred to as interpersonal skills. In a contact center, these are skills that, if used correctly, will help agents to build rapport with the customer through a personal connection. Some of these soft skills include: Reflective listening Positive communication Friendly assertiveness Self-awareness and control Empathy Contact resolution Communicating clearly and positively with customers helps them to feel more positive about the interaction resulting in increased customer loyalty. 4. Knowing Competitive Insights In a great customer experience, contact center agents must be able to gain the trust of each individual calling in or starting a chat. This trust must include the customer’s faith that the person helping them knows not only about the products or services their company offers, but also knows what the competition offers in the same industry. This type of competitive insight can be used to build better relationships with customers as agents are able to more easily anticipate needs and increase conversion rates. A good customer experience is simply not enough anymore, as customers can leave a call or a chat with the simple click of a button. Instead, businesses must find ways to help customers have experiences that border on the extraordinary. Let Etech Global show you how to track down the data that will help you with each of these pillars so that your customer service can deliver superior results This blog was first published on LinkedIn

Combining AI and Human Intelligence Can Lead to a Seamless Customer Experience

Ongoing developments in technology have resulted in artificial intelligence that is capable of mimicking many human behaviors and responses. This increasing capability has been much appreciated by those who manage overloaded call centers. This is not to say that AI is set to take over the call center industry, only that it has been proven to be increasingly beneficial on many levels. The human touch will always be required to keep customers completely satisfied. Call centers must, in essence, use the right blend of human emotion and automation to fully benefit from these recent technological innovations. The Unintended Cold Response Though automated systems in call center environments have become more common, many situations still call for the ever-important human touch. This touch must be professional, proficient and empathetic to the customer’s needs. Call centers that rely too heavily on colder automated intelligence in order to cut costs or attain desired results frequently find that the loss of the competent, warm human touch leads to growing customer attrition rates. Customers may also perceive a cold response in relation to a phone interaction when an AI program becomes outdated. All too frequently, customers become stuck in a loop of repeating responses to an AI system that simply cannot process the information correctly. And a dissatisfied customer today is a lost customer, as there are plenty of options from which they can choose. Evaluating the proper role of AI in a call center environment as well as the need to update and review the effectiveness of such software is a must in an era where customer satisfaction rates mean everything. The Best Balance Of paramount importance is the ability of an AI program to recognize the point in a call indicating that a customer should immediately be transferred from an automated system to a live agent. The more quickly and easily this task can be completed matters as this tends to be the point at which customers begin to be dissatisfied with the level of automated service. Interaction with an empathetic agent is often just the right move. In order to determine the correct balance between artificial and human intelligence, companies must start with analytics. An automated call center program should be capable of listening to agent interactions, caller queues and gathering additional information. This information, when presented correctly to call center managers, can show where changes in policy, format or wording need to be made. The right balance means that customers are happy because they feel their needs were truly met. Past information is Critical for Future Success Data that is gathered in the background of each and every call can provide invaluable information. With such data, call center managers can figure out what irritates callers, makes them happy, soothes them or drives them completely away. Managers can use this critical data to change automated responses, increase or decrease the number of options available to each caller or even give customers the ability to skip all automation and work solely with a live agent. As AI increases in intelligence, it can also offer invaluable insights, such as suggestions on which department might be best able to assist customers based on specific indicators. Going even further, some AI technology is advanced enough that it can pair customers with specific needs to the agent who will be most able to assist with each specific issue. Such beneficial use of data only works to increase overall customer satisfaction rates. The Combination of AI and HI Can Still be Personal The end goal for every customer interaction in a call center environment should be great customer service, whether the customer is interacting with a human agent or with an automated program. By considering the ways that customer experiences might be personalized, contact center managers often come up with innovative ideas. For example, a system that is able to link a customer phone number to a name and basic information leaves many customers feeling relieved that they were not required to waste time providing information the company already had. Introduce Human Intelligence to its Artificial Counterpart While some call center agents might consider AI as an inconvenient eavesdropper listening in the background of every call, others realize just how many benefits are derived from the data gathered. Not only can this data make callers happier, it can also make the workload a little lighter for agents. Managers that take time to educate call center employees about the benefits and end-results of artificial intelligence have found that agents appreciate and tend to work more willingly with this amazing technology instead of considering it the enemy. Whether these benefits include decreased talk time, an easing of calls during the busiest times of day or automated suggestions about which department might be the most beneficial for each caller, it is certain that both agents and customers can grow to love the AI + HI combination. As humanity continues to realize the benefits gained from technology, it is becoming easier to appreciate the seamless results derived from the interplay of artificial intelligence and human intelligence, especially when it means better customer service. This blog was first published on LinkedIn

Why Live Chat is Imperative and Here to Stay!

The digital age has brought today’s customers into an era of immediacy. Have a question? Simply ask a question about the AI device in your home or car, and it will be happy to look up the answer for you. Just remembered you need to call your mom. No need to stop what you are doing, simply tell your phone to dial mom. Oh, and what about that milk you forgot to pick up on the way home? Many are now able to order milk online and have it delivered within an hour’s time. This immediacy is one of the reasons that live chat is so very important, and why it is here to stay. In this era of “right now”, customers are losing patience with the dated ways of reaching out to a business for assistance, to place an order or to ask a question. Calls that have too many options for customers to select from are often ended before they ever reach the intended destination. And let’s not even talk about being placed on hold. Today’s customers want action and resolution almost as quickly as a thought pops into their minds. Live Chat is Convenient A 2016 report on the mobile habits of customers found that over half expect to be able to get customer service around the clock. And while staffing a contact center all hours of the day and night is possible, a live chat that is always available on your website can vastly reduce the number of employees who need to try and sound wide awake at 3 am. Through a live chat feature, customers can have questions answered, get assistance with ordering and even get a phone number for further assistance if needed. Not only do customers benefit from 24/7 availability, but more than 90% of customers report that they are satisfied after a live chat interaction. For this “now generation”, convenience is key to customer retention. Live Chat Can Cut Costs Though customer satisfaction rates are key for a successful contact center, the cost of those rates must be constantly evaluated to make sure the benefits are still worth the ongoing effort. Live chat has been found to be very successful at helping a contact center remain effective while cutting costs. This is due, in part, to the fact that one chat agent can successfully help more than one customer at a time. Telephone agents who tried juggling a few customers at a time by putting each on hold between responses would certainly not garner the same customer satisfaction rates. The fact that chat agents are linked digitally to chat customers is even more beneficial as they are able to send over pdf files or links as needed during the conversation instead of the less cost-effective process of a telephone agent trying to explain to a customer exactly how and where to find the correct information. Chat Increases Sales Historically, customers who wanted to purchase an item would stroll into a retail location and engage with an employee to find out more about the item. A website without chat today is much like a retail location without helpful employees. In fact, it is almost like a store with one stodgy employee who refuses to leave the cashier stand to offer help. Studies show that between 10 and 50 percent of those who visit a retail website use the chat feature. This interaction is what seems to drive conversions and dramatically improved sales. Chat Helps in Monitoring Customer Pain Points With the right chat support software, configured and installed for your specific company, live chat can be a place that also monitors customer pain points in an effort to eliminate them altogether. Chat software from Etech Global has been proven to not only monitor pain points but increase CSAT rates and lower costs as well. Take time to make sure the employees in your contact center have the ability to meet the needs of this generation, which often means immediately.

Can Hybrid Intelligence help Artificial Intelligence and Human Intelligence Coexist?

The days of mentioning artificial intelligence only in the realms of science fiction are long gone. Today, AI is all around us, though many do not even realize it is there. Still, some think that AI is going to take over in our workplaces, in our cars and in our homes. And the thought of being completely replaced by such technology is enough to make some people resistant to any new technology. In truth, artificial intelligence can and does coexist with human intelligence each and every day, and the world is a better place because of this compatibility. Such compatibility in a work environment can be called a hybrid workforce or hybrid intelligence. In such a group, both parties work toward common, superior results which can be accomplished more easily than if each group was working on its own. Peaceful Coexistence is Already Here One example of just such a multiplicity or hybrid workforce can be seen in industry giants such as Facebook and Google. In each of these companies, technologies that are driven by AI recommendations combine with human input, typically generated when human device users click, like or conduct frequent searches. The result of the combined information is the ability to predict what consumers would like to see or purchase next. In the future, AI is predicted to evolve and become less dependent on human intelligence, though there will always be a need for some level of interaction. Another entity benefiting from the combined efforts of AI and HI is Amazon Go. In this instance, the human input includes what would seem to be a very normal day in the grocery store. However, each time a customer picks up an item from the shelf and puts it in the cart, an AI system keeps track in a virtual cart. Because all items have been accounted for and tallied while the customer shops, there is no need for a stop at a cashier’s desk. Instead, customers simply walk out of the store with their selected items. AI takes care of the rest as a credit card linked to the customer’s Amazon account is charged and a receipt is sent. Changing the Workplace Hybrid workforces are already changing other types of work, typically done only by humans, is completed as well. For instance, one artificial intelligence system powered by IBM Watson analytics was given the challenge of being an online teaching assistant for a professor. The professor estimated that in only a year, the AI system could answer 40% of the questions students asked which allowed the human assistants to engage in other, more complex tasks. Again, nobody in this department expects that AI will begin to answer 100% of the questions and begin teaching the online course, removing the need for humans completely. Instead, they are able to see the harmonious existence and make good use of the time the AI system has managed to free up. Benefits of AI Some who are still resistant to the increasing use of AI ask the age old question “but do we really need it”. The answer becomes clear as benefits are discovered. Because AI is machine learning, the chance of making errors is very small. The came simply cannot be said with human counterparts. And most business owners know that human error and sometimes system error can result in a loss of capital almost every time. This is where AI can be beneficial. One new type of AI system has been installed above cashier stands in retail locations. Though it is almost unnoticeable, the system scans each transaction and sends an alert if an item fails to scan or if a cashier fails to scan something. Again, the human is necessary in this instance, the AI system stands as the failsafe for the company’s best financial interest. Benefits of Etech Insights Etech Global services understands that customers are the most important asset to every company and as such has committed to using all types of intelligence in the quest to improve the customer experience. One such solution, powered by AI and carried out by HI is known as Etech Insights. This innovative system provides actionable date that helps contact centers succeed by: Improving the customer experience Boost agent performance Increase profitability Increase span of influence Contact centers using this system benefit from massive quantities of data gathered and analyzed in the background by the AI engine. Once performance enhancing behaviors and voice-of-customer insights are presented, contact center managers can work with agents to improve even the seemingly insignificant parts of a call routine. Quality monitoring, Customer satisfaction rates and benchmarking all become one step easier with the acceptance and use of Hybrid intelligence. This blog was first published on LinkedIn

Artificial Intelligence: A Product of Human intelligence

Before current contact center technology was widely available, there were very few effective ways for contact center management to increase metrics such as call times, customer satisfaction rates and increased revenue. Gathering information was often done by managers as they listened in personally to as many phone interactions as they had time for. Following the time spent listening, managers then spent time reviewing any notes they had taken, trying desperately to find problems, indicators and patterns that might show them where improvement could be made. Contact center agents focused on working to resolve customer issues and answer questions with occasional suggestions from team leaders or managers about how they might be able to improve. The Fears about AI Today, technology has managed to surpass what fiction writers could only dream of years ago as artificial intelligence now exists in four basic types. These include: Reactive – Given a situation, this type of machine has the ability only to react. Limited Memory Theory of Mind Self-Awareness The world has been exposed for years to stories about artificial intelligence and robots taking over the world. These science fiction stories have managed to leave most people with a healthy dose of fear when it comes to artificial intelligence. The main difference between fictitious AI and AI systems that are in use today is called “sentience” or “self-awareness”. It may have been simple for a script writer to write about a system that is aware and is suddenly able to take over and get rid of humans. However, in reality, AI systems are not self-aware. They are machines that can gather, calculate and compile unbelievable amounts of information for human benefit. Some may complain that humans no longer have to think and calculate as they once did. Others worry that basic math and computation skills are at risk of extinction due to the unique abilities of artificial intelligence. No matter what the fears are about AI, it is here to stay and benefits the general population in ways that we hardly ever think about. Benefits of AI Most, if not all, fears about AI are completely unfounded. Even better, there are many benefits to AI systems, and the number keeps growing. AI is used in the background of many businesses so that work is completed more easily and with fewer mistakes. The large percentage of people who use computers as a vital part of their jobs benefit from AI as it makes tasks such as banking, accounting and bill paying much easier. This means employees can then dedicate their efforts to other ways of helping their company succeed. AI has also helped to improve worldwide communications making it possible for many companies to do business across the globe. This new and improved style of communications also enables the almost instant transmission of news across the globe which is a great benefit to individuals, communities and countries as well. In essence, old fears about AI seem to be slowing as many realize just how many parts of their daily lives are improved by the massive data analysis going on in almost every public and private space today. Hybrid AI – The Best of Both Worlds So, what happens when humans stop being afraid of artificial intelligence and begin to look at ways it can be beneficial? When both begin to work together, the result is called Hybrid Intelligence. The result is that both AI and HI can take time to the things they do best. This complementary relationship typically means that machines work in the background gathering, compiling and making vast amounts of data understandable. Humans are then able to take the information and make necessary changes accordingly. One example of a successful hybrid intelligence situation is in the contact center. Though machines do not have the emotional intelligence needed to interact on a competent basis with customers, they can gather data from each and every call that comes through the contact center. Some of the information that is gathered might include: What questions customers are really asking What causes higher levels of frustration in customers What phrases tend to put customers at ease The call script with the highest customer satisfaction outcome rates Pinpointing specific words that may mean a customer is getting upset Once contact center managers receive actionable data from the AI system, they have the ability to make sound decisions that benefit contact center agents, management and customers alike. Such a partnership can help many types of businesses reach their full potential. In a call center, the fact that AI is able to convert every conversation into measurable, actionable insights only benefits the human side of the equation. When AI helps a call center to identify successful agent behaviors, reduce operating costs, lower customer effort and heighten the customer experience, a business can grow in ways that may not have been possible before.

Artificial Intelligence Benefits in Call Centers Worldwide

Many of today’s adults remember a time when artificial intelligence was something mentioned only in relation to science fiction. Such mentions frequently involved futuristic self-driving vehicles, computers capable of taking over the world or robots that became so proficient, there was no real meaning in life for humans. Today, many of those adults could pause and take a look around and see that there is truly artificial intelligence everywhere. From the automated systems that run stop lights to cars that really are capable of being self-driving, it would seem that yesterday’s science fiction has become today’s reality. Humans are learning each day just how beneficial this type of intelligence can be. Artificial intelligence is not only changing traffic lights, commuting and homes worldwide, it is also changing the way companies do business. Systems that are automated have recently been shown to boost call center performance statistics and capabilities. In fact, a recent Gartner presentation predicted that by the year 2020, non-voice interactions in call centers will have risen to an unbelievable 85%. Those contact centers that recognize how beneficial artificial intelligence can be lead the industry in both customer and agent satisfaction rates. Those that are still leery of technology and classify AI as something that should still belong in a science fiction movie often spend more on agent training and retention. They are also known for having a more volatile customer base as they are less able to meet the needs of their customers quickly or accurately enough. Today’s consumers have learned just how quickly they can accomplish things when they are allowed to do it themselves. Contact centers that understand the need for both artificial and human intelligence frequently offer easy-to-navigate self-service options combined with available live customer service agents. Such digital solutions can predict and recognize what customers need which creates a seamless experience. Understanding that artificial intelligence will never make the human element obsolete can help more call centers to implement this crucial technology. Effortless Customer Experience Driven by AI and HI Today’s customer is one that is willing to share details about their experiences with a company, whether they were good or bad. Perhaps this is why more than 70% of businesses say that their top priority is improving customer experience rates. This is most likely due to the fact that US companies today are said to lose over $60 billion every year due to subpar customer service. Companies benefiting from AI can dramatically improve customer satisfaction rates in the call center environment. Some of the ways include: Increased operational excellence Increased flexibility and versatility Improved business agility Human-centric interaction with machine-centric intelligence Ability to predict customer behavior 24/7 ability to meet customer needs Reduce operating costs Automation of calls coming into a contact center, when done correctly, can handle a large percentage of the incoming customer needs. Increased efficiency and other systems, such as speech recognition systems, also help to lighten the burden for call center management and staff. AI systems that are capable of speech recognition are frequently put into place today and can help relieve high call volume. Customers who call after normal business hours often benefit from this type of system. Though full call center capabilities may not be available, many customers find answers they need through an automated system. Even more advanced interactive voice response systems (IVR) help customers to get through menu options by using their voice instead of punching the right numbers repeatedly. Additional options that benefit from speech recognition technology include call routing, speech-to-text, and voice dialing. When used effectively, a blend of automation, artificial intelligence, and empathetic human agents can be the perfect solution for any call center environment. Many customers prefer being in control of system navigation while knowing that there is always a reliable agent available should the need arise. Such solutions help call centers to cut costs, improve overall customer experiences and increase efficiency rates. The Human Touch Will Always Make the Difference While there are call centers that have chosen to rely completely on artificial intelligence and technology and save money by hiring very few live agents, this is typically not a combination that builds customer loyalty. Instead, disenchanted customers work to find a company that they feel values their business. The human element in a call center lends reality, compassion and out-of-the-box solutions to a call center environment. None of which can be replicated by programs or machines. Conversely, AI systems are able to compile massive amounts of data, are not influenced by a customer’s emotion, and are not prone to glitches or mistakes. In order to provide customers with the best experience, companies must be willing to invest in the right combination of human and artificial intelligence. By moving technology and artificial intelligence from the realm of science fiction to the reality of today’s business world, call centers and customers alike will benefit greatly. This blog was first published on LinkedIn

3 Principles of Quality Monitoring

In the competitive marketplace today, your business is exactly what your customers say it is. The internet, and social media in particular, give voice to every customer, whether that voice is pleased, angry or somewhere in between. The interaction between your customers and your contact center employees may be the one interaction that customers take away with them. The one interaction they tell others about. Being willing to regularly review the principles that your contact center operates on, making changes where needed is of utmost importance as businesses work to increase customer satisfaction levels. Quality Must Be Based on Customer Needs and Expectations A company that fails to take customer needs and expectations into account may well be a company that fails. Conversely, companies that understand what their customers want and expect in a contact center interaction have made the first real step toward providing great customer service. In most situations, customers first desire is to interact with a real live agent instead of with an automated system. Second, customers expect to have a speedy resolution, no matter why they are calling. Thirdly, customers want to feel as if they have been assisted by an agent who knows the ins and outs of the business, can communicate quickly and effectively and has authority to either resolve the problem or quickly transfer the customer to someone who can. When human intelligence is combined with artificial intelligence, the result is almost always a higher percentage of contact center agents who meet or exceed customer expectations. This is because the AI system can monitor the effectiveness of each customer interaction which produces valuable data. A total quality monitoring solution not only keeps track of call trends, it can also track related customer feedback. Some systems can even take a few weeks of call history and analyze all the compiled data to see if current call center practices have been helping to meet customer expectations. High-Quality service Means Proportionally Lower Costs. Poor Quality is Expensive According to some recent studies, the cost of attracting a new customer is as much as 5-7 times more than the cost of keeping someone who is already a customer. This explains why high-quality service in the contact center is a must, as happy customers remain loyal customers. Customers who have consistently positive experiences when interacting with agents in your call center often become long-term valuable customers. Achieving and maintaining high quality service in the contact center is not something that can be done once and then dismissed. Instead, there must be a near constant review of calls to determine what is working and what may need to be changed. This is where AI comes in to play. A fully customizable AI solution paired with the human intelligence can be set up to enhance current call quality standards. The desired result is that when contact center employees learn and benefit from data gathered by implementing changes to positively change behaviors to reduce effort and drive customer experience. Quality and Service Level (Accessibility) Complement Each Other By using the right kind of quality monitoring system, contact centers are able to improve overall customer experience, meet compliance requirements and better sales results overall. Not only can AI gather information from each call, some programs can also engage in speech analysis, optimization and predictive analysis. Each of these tasks preformed by AI can provide valuable information for improving your contact center. For instance, when speech recognition software compiles data, the invaluable results can be used to teach reps how to improve the handling of each and every call. It may also be beneficial in running trial phone call scripts past customers and reviewing which is most effective. Call quality can be enhanced even more with AI tools such as the ability to listen to the Voice of Customers (VoC). Not only does this software help identify issues, it also helps point out sales opportunities. In essence, contact centers that use artificial intelligence in an effort to listen to customers, analyze data gained and adjust contact center policies accordingly have a higher level of both accessibility and quality. Etech Insights Because meeting and exceeding customer expectations should be a top priority in every contact center, Etech has created a software solution, Etech Insights, meant to work as an AI+HI solution. By synchronizing human intelligence with the data gained from artificial intelligence, Etech Insights can help call centers identify behaviors that will enhance performance. This solution will also help businesses to connect with what customers really want. Learn how to make use of 100% of interaction data while understanding insights that are sure to improve and enhance every part of the contact center with Etech Insights. If you would like to learn more about Etech, please contact us at info@etechgs.com. This blog was first published on LinkedIn

Every Person Matters, Every Heart Matters…YOUR Heart Matters!

Growing up the daughter of a farmer/rancher, I’ve always been familiar with the term head count, as it signified the size of my father’s herd. He took great pride in this number, in fact I remember each of the milestones he celebrated, 25…50…75…100…200. All are comparatively small by today’s standards, but to my Dad those latter numbers were a symbol of his success…his KPI so to speak. Perhaps for this reason, I’ve always found the term head count or heads out of place when referring to people. I recently read a book by Simon Sinek titled, “Leaders Eat Last” where Simon shares the story of Bob Chapman, the CEO of a $2B US manufacturing company who was pressured by his board to lay-off 10% of his workers during a downturn in 2008. Chapman refused and rallied his team, “It’s better that we should all have to suffer a little, than a few of us suffer a lot”. As a result, a 4 week unpaid furlough for all employees was crafted that could be taken at any time throughout the year in various increments. The focus on ‘heart count’ within his company was born. Sound familiar? US Leaders at Etech with more than 8 years of tenure …remember a similar time. Etech, like many businesses had suffered a downturn. Our team came together with an eerily parallel tactic which resulted in a 10% cut in all onshore leadership compensation. As a sign of good faith, leaders were encouraged to take a day off, every other week, to compensate for the reduction in pay. The irony is – most people did not take that time, in fact most doubled down on both their time and effort to build our business back up…and so it was. Today, although not without opportunities to improve, we are stronger than ever before, with our best days still ahead of us. As we continue to work on improving retention in our industry, my call to action for anyone reading this article is to focus not on head counts, but on heart counts. Not on numbers and %’s but on making meaningful connections, building relationships, and growing and developing all those hearts & minds that are a part of your team! Every person matters, every heart matters…YOUR heart matters! Wishing you the best in your journey as a servant leader today and every day!

VISION: What is it? Why does it matter?

#6 in the Character Commitment Series VISION: WHAT IS IT? Besides the obvious as it pertains to our ability to see with our eyes; what exactly is Vision? Well, here’s a definition of Vision: The act or power of anticipating that which will or may come to be….Prophetic vision; the vision of an entrepreneur. Hmmmm………OK. That narrows it down a bit; it certainly takes it beyond the realm of physical sight to more of seeing with the “mind’s eye.” But when we hear the word “Vision” thrown around the corporate world, what exactly does that mean? Well, that’s a great question! Although I’ve been involved with developing “vision” for Etech and felt that I had a good working knowledge and understanding of vision, sitting down to write about it proved to be a bit of a challenge. To help me “sort through” it all, I relied on my usual research methods which are to look up the definition (see above) and to find some relevant articles on the subject. One of the articles I came across was a blog titled: Leadership Freak. This particular blog entry focused on Vision and provided some excellent quotes that really define what vision is. “Vision always centers on people never projects, programs, properties or profits.” This quote spoke to me because it clearly defines what the focus of Vision needs to be, and that’s people. Not that goals and profits are bad, but those should never be what drives us, not as individuals or as a business. “Vision answers the question: How will we make the world better for others?” I loved this one! If our company vision statement doesn’t answer this question, (Etech’s does!), we need a new vision. “Vision makes work meaningful.” Jesse Stoner. “Vision Points”. I think these two quotes were my favorites: Vision is the compass for our direction and that direction should always be filled with purpose. I appreciated the insights provided from this blog, because they so clearly define what vision is and what it “looks like” in action. WHY DOES IT MATTER? That’s another good question. Why does having Vision matter? The first answer that came to my mind was this: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Proverbs 29:18. It matters because it literally gives LIFE to a person or an organization. There has to be a Vision provided or we’ll go nowhere and eventually dry up. We all need purpose and a reason for doing what we do, otherwise, there’s really no point is there? As I wrote this blog, it got me thinking about our company, Etech Global Services and our corporate vision. Etech’s Vision is “to make a remarkable difference for our customers, our people and within our communities.” Every one of our employees can tell you our corporate vision and every employee is committed to this vision. Not only that, but we esteem vision so highly we’ve included it in the Twelve Character Commitments that are the foundation of the culture of our company. I’m proud to be part of an organization that believes in and understands the importance of Vision. As I look back over the life of this corporation, I can see how Vision has allowed us to make a “remarkable difference” and continues to give life to our company. This blog entry was written by Matt Rocco, President and General Manager of Etech Global Services. If you would like to learn more about Etech and contact center technology and service solutions, please contact us at info@etechgs.com.

Live Chat Best Practices to Deliver Superior Customer Service

With the Internet being the primary source of shopping and finding information before making a purchase, offering a customer-friendly browsing experience is paramount for any business website. A common feature on websites today is the live chat service. Live chat service gives customers the opportunity to ask questions before making a purchase and address concerns efficiently. From a business standpoint, chat support service allows you to strike while the iron is hot and encourage visitors to make a purchase immediately. If you don’t already have an online chat support service, check out this blog post about the best live chat software. If you already have live chat services in place, here are some of the best practices for delivering superior customer service. Breathe and Smile Before Chatting Regardless of if a person can see you or not, your tone can become abrupt or ambiguous during text conversations; if you are feeling frustrated or stressed. The simple act of taking a deep breath and smiling before beginning a conversation can help you transition into customer service mode If the conversation becomes difficult or the customer is disgruntled, feel free to take five seconds to breathe and reset again before typing. Being in live chat customer service can be challenging, but the last thing you want is to display your frustration to the customer. Even worse, you might carry those feelings over to your next conversation. Take a Moment to Proofread Before Hitting Send You may feel rushed as you try to assist a customer. This can result in misunderstanding the issue at hand or making unnecessary grammatical errors. Many people experience the frustration of noticing a mistake immediately after hitting send. Take a moment to scan your words and even read them aloud to yourself before sending. This will ensure that you appear competent and thoughtful. Keep the Customer Informed and Be Courteous Solving a problem can sometimes be a timely, arduous process. If you know that something will take ten minutes, let the customer know. Thank them for their patience and apologize for the inconvenience. Repeatedly validating the importance of their time and reiterating your appreciation of them as a customer can help keep their morale up during the call. Think of it from their perspective. If a potential customer is asking questions about a product, they will be more likely to make a purchase if they feel that their business is appreciated. If the customer is experiencing a problem, knowing that you are working to correct the mistake will make them more likely to buy from you again, despite the issue. Be Human Your advantage over an automated program is that you have the ability to make a human connection. Take this opportunity to build a rapport. If a potential customer is wondering if an item will be a good gift for her daughter’s fifth birthday, don’t just say yes or no; comment on how exciting that experience will be for her! Alternatively, if you have someone who is worried the item they purchased won’t arrive before they need it, empathize with them. Let them know that you understand their frustration and do everything in your power to rectify the situation. Making a human connection in a technology-dominate world is immensely powerful and memorable. To deliver superior customer service via live chat service, it is important to remember that your job is to help the person on the other end of the chatbox to the best of your ability. This blog was first published on LinkedIn

Why Reducing Customer Effort Is Important in Your Customer Experience Strategy

As the public becomes more comfortable using technology to make buying decisions, your business must adapt constantly to remain competitive. A customer experience strategy aims at reducing customer effort and improves your sales by making your products and services more attractive. High Customer Effort Means High Costs The price of your products represents only some of the costs your customers pay. Transactional costs also add up. Limiting customer effort reduces those costs and incentivizes more purchases: Omnichannel sales give buyers more convenient ways to complete transactions. Simple pricing strategies make it easy for customers to estimate your product’s value. Good information educates buyers about your brand and offerings. A solid infrastructure supports through the entire product lifecycle. Providing a complete experience is a big task, and your customers are more than willing to give your competitors a chance should you fail. The Insights You Need Data analytical tools help you find your path. Customer Effort Scores (CES) are an increasingly popular metric that describes the overall experience you deliver with your product. ETECH insights provides an advanced set of data capture software that gathers information from customer interactions and evaluates your business’s performance. Analyzing your results often reveals insights about everyday issues. Identifying patterns and problems highlights areas you can change to improve customer experience. Example One: Emotional Intelligence Buyers are emotional creatures. They make their purchasing decisions based on how they feel though many will argue otherwise. Negative reviews from unreasonable people do just as much damage to your reputation as legitimate gripes. Your customer service representatives need to know what indicators to look for and follow procedures when faced with an overly emotional customer. Data captured in calls guides your agents and identifies emotional customers. Example Two: Self-Help Tech-savvy customers are adept at solving their own problems. Use data to predict their behavior and meet expectations: Providing manuals on troubleshooting guides online. Facilitating group discussions about your products or services. Automating returns and exchange processes. Self-help tools relieve the pressures on your customer services representatives and reduce the time your buyers spend frustrated with your product. Example Three: Empower Your Team Your team deals with the public regularly. Staff members already know what the typical concerns are and usually have ideas about how to address them. Data clarifies multiple opinions by providing objective facts. Your staff can get frustrated too. When your reps can’t work, it makes it difficult for them to resolve concerns while your customers wait. As a manager, you need efficient processes in place. Good information provides you the freedom and clarity to: Train and educate your team as experts in your products, business, and processes. Provide the tools they need to engage with customers in an omnichannel sales strategy. Trust staff to handle concerns without management approval. When your team can respond to all but the most extreme complaints, you reduce the time your customer spend waiting on the phone or transferring back and forth between representatives. Concluding remark Reducing effort is the fastest way to improve your customer experience scores and keep your business competitive. Identify the areas you need to work on the most with intuitive analytics from ETECH. Our software pairs data with your customer service personnel to produce a comprehensive analytics tool. This blog was first published on LinkedIn

Training: Where Are You Going?

When I was much younger my dad would take our family on road trips that didn’t always have a finite location or a destination. Often, it was about the journey and not going somewhere specific. What made the road trips memorable were the traditions that were sure to accompany each expedition. For example, we would seek out the best “hole in the wall” restaurant, or my personal favorite, the mouth-watering pursuit for the gas stations that served the “best in the world” bacon cheeseburgers. As trainers, it is important to know that the training and development of individuals is a journey. We, as trainers, need to ensure that we are stopping along the way to allow the learning transfer to occur. I have outlined 7 training and development principles to help showcase some stops along the way that we should be making. The mnemonic ROAD MAP will help us remember these key stops. Rule of 3 We tend to remember in threes. Steve Jobs from Apple is king of this concept. What they need to know the most, first. What they need to know secondary is last. Everything else is in the middle. Keep It Super Simple. Observe, observe, observe Trainers should constantly and consistently evaluate what is happening in the training room. Observation allows you to know whether an introvert is accumulating knowledge or not. Observation during activities ensures that everyone is on the right page. Apply the concept First, tell participants how it is done. Second, show participants how it is done. Third, do it together individually. And lastly, participants should teach someone else how to do it. Desire to know the “Why?” Trainees want to know why this module is important to them. A great introduction will have a hook that captures you and somehow shares why you are participating in the learning process. Multiple Learning Styles Utilized 3 commonly used learning styles are Auditory, Visual and Kinesthetic. These are not the only learning styles, but provide a solid base to work from. Most of us use more than one style in any given circumstance. Actively engage Adult learning is about engaging those in the classroom. Our trainees bring experience and knowledge that we sought out in the hiring process. Why would we stifle them in training then? Allow them to participate. Engage the learner through activities that utilize techniques geared towards adult learning. Reward good classroom behaviors, like participation, and the class will repeat the behavior. Please repeat (okay, I reached a little on this one) The foundation of learning is built with learning blocks of repetition. The more you hear, see, and actively participate in doing a task, the more likely you are to learn it, remember it, and apply it. These 7 principles are not everything that we need to follow to be successful as a trainer. These basic concepts are the foundation that you can build upon to ensure you are facilitating a class and allowing the learning transfer to occur. So enjoy the journey! You never know, you may just find that “best in the world” bacon cheeseburger!

Do You Need a Customer Experience Strategy or Not?

You don’t need an elaborate strategy to survive the day, but neither do vegetables. Are you a vegetable? Set some broccoli on a plate in your call center and see what happens. Now let’s get serious. You need a customer experience strategy. When market competition heats up, your company must have an edge. A good customer experience strategy is the tool you use to distinguish your brand and carve out your niche. What Is Customer Experience? Customer experience is the complete interaction your buyers have with your company. It includes more than just product or service they buy It is any of the following: Searching for information on your website The quality of your goods over time How a buyer’s peers might comment on your product Your process for resolving complaints Anything that distracts from the enjoyment of your product or service damages the customer experience. While you can’t account for every contingency, you need to take control of as many factors as possible. Functions of a Customer Experience Strategy Your customer experience strategy can’t be just a few gimmicky marketing tools thrown together. A strategy has critical functionality that impacts your entire business: It defines a model for employee conduct and responses to everyday situations Identifies an ideal customer experience as a goal for your staff to work towards Focuses different departments by providing an overarching outcome for your company Good strategies remove unnecessary costs and make your business competitive in an increasingly technology-driven market. Creating a Great Customer Experience Strategy The goal is to create a positive impression with your business and goods. The human mind builds associations, and habits form over time. Use this psychology to establish a powerful connection between your brand and the buyer. Information – Freely educate your customers Easy Transactions – Make it simple to buy your product Fast Response Times – Resolve complaints as soon as possible Humanize – Treat your customers like people Customers want to make their purchases and go about their business. Simplify the things that waste time but do so in such a way that keeps human interactions the focus. Implementing Your Customer Experience Plan After you draft a strategy, you need to implement it. There are some common problems areas where might want to focus: Training – Your staff requires knowledge about your products and policies. Technology – Upgrade your call centers and integrate all sales channels. Trust – Empower your agents to take charge and proactively resolve customer concerns. A plan cannot succeed without clear processes in place. Make sure you have a strategy for each contingency and avoid forcing staff to rely too heavily on manager approvals. Benefiting from Your Customer Experience Strategy If you’ve done the job right, you should see some of these outcomes develop: Long-term relationships with your customers secure a base for your business. Integrated departments unify your company and drive toward a single outcome. Your business keeps pace with technological innovations in a changing market. Customer service representatives become innovative and solve problems organically. The key benefit is the realignment of the focus of your company. The customer’s experience becomes the end goal for your entire staff. So, how’s the broccoli doing? ETECH Insights provides the data you need to define your strategy. Capture live customer service feedback and identify key metrics. Predict customer behavior. Make intelligent decisions. Deliver superior results. This blog was first published on LinkedIn

Why Reducing Customer Effort Is Important in Your Customer Experience Strategy

Protect Your Contact Center Team from a Space Shuttle Columbia Like Disaster

In 2003, the space shuttle, Columbia, disintegrated over East Texas and Louisiana, when it attempted to reenter the Earth’s atmosphere. Sadly, all seven astronauts aboard died. The control room crew in Cape Canaveral was responsible to guide the shuttle safely home. Instead, they like us watched the streaking remains on a cable news broadcast. NASA is a paragon of science and engineering. Safety is a priority, and this sort of thing isn’t supposed to happen. Worse, this disaster was preventable. Following this disaster, it was discovered that managers systemically ignored warnings from engineers and pushed forward with the mission, resulting in an unthinkable tragedy that will not soon be forgotten. The situation in your call center isn’t quite that dramatic, but similarities can be drawn. Most conflicts are subtly destructive and happen in almost every organization. Personal desires compete against company interests which left unchecked can breed complacency, impatience, and frustration. By taking time to learn from and apply some of the hard lessons of the Columbia disaster to your management team, you can prevent such conflict from negatively impacting your team and business. Lessons in Burnout Early in the shuttle program’s history, engineers warned a design flaw might lead to damage of the heat shielding. The foam insulating the rocket might break in flight and strike the shuttle, but managers ignored this concern. After years of successful flights, it became normal to keep overlooking this potential risk. Your call center staff may also face a real problem with burnout, and it’s easy for managers to get sucked into this trap as well. Some common contributors to burnout include: High Volume : Employees become stressed when overworked. Lack of Support : Employees cannot always handle customer concerns efficiently. Unachievable Goals : Benchmarks set too high discourage performance. When the job becomes a grind, many employees are tempted to simply cut a corner. Unfortunately, the consequences eventually catch up. Combat complacency and burnout by rotating staff, retraining, and updating processes to better support your team. Consider any feedback your staff provides and empower them to bring concerns directly to you and ultimately solutions as well. Those closest to the opportunity are best equipped to identify what is needed. Lessons in Rushing The Flight Manager responsible for the Columbia mission was reported to have been in a hurry to complete the landing and move on to the next launch. The International Space Station was behind schedule, and another delay was unacceptable. Managers discounted precautions. Your call center is also under pressure to perform quickly and efficiently. Fast Calls : Your customers want to get through their calls rapidly, after all time is money. Poor Listening : The first convenient answer to a concern is not always the right answer. Cutting Corners : Agents might ignore essential details in your procedures to speed the process. Your staff needs to avoid the temptation to overlook procedures. Help them remain focused on each call and update processes to eliminate redundancy and waste without sacrificing quality. Lessons in Frustration Although the damage done to the heat shielding was thorough, the investigating committee found that a rescue mission, should it have been done in time, was possible. The flight managers did not act in time favoring a wait-and-see approach. The crew on board was not even aware of the potential risk before attempting reentry. The management destroyed all credibility and trust along with the shuttle and crew. Managers need staff to trust their judgment. Frustrating the efforts of your agents damages the future of your department. Avoid this conflict by: Empowering : Give your staff the tools, processes, and authority to respond to customers. Validating : Reward performance but also reward consistency. Responding : Listen to feedback from your team and balance input against other objectives. This is a valuable lesson from history that is relevant within many businesses today, especially within the contact center. By protecting your team from burnout, preventing shortcuts, and minimizing frustration you and your team will be better equipped to handle today’s busy contact center transactions successfully. This blog was first published on LinkedIn

Understanding How Servant Leadership Improves Employee Engagement

Even though it’s important that leaders exemplify the traits a good leader needs to be effective and guide employees to success, leaders should also be seen as servants and helpers to their teams. Servant leadership is a concept that can improve how leaders connect with their employees and how their employees perform. Learn more about the idea and how it should be implemented to its full capacity. Bridging the Gap Leaders should not only be found at the head of the pack, but within the pack as well. What this means is that leaders should be wherever they’re needed, whether it’s front and center or in the middle of the battlefield providing troops with aid. Before taking care of their own needs, leaders first take care of the needs of others, recognizing that doing so benefits the unit as a whole. Fostering Trust No matter how much experience a leader has, team members are more likely to trust and follow a leader if he or she embodies characteristics and qualities that promote a sense of trust. Such qualities include being authentic, relatable and free of ego. Once the seed of trust has been planted, practicing these qualities and characteristics is the water that helps the seed to grow into a stable and healthy tree of trust that’s sure to last for years to come. Listening More Than Speaking Employee engagement is also improved when a leader listens more than she or he speaks. Listening helps leaders to better understand just what it is the team wants to accomplish in order that their objectives can help support that desire. Leaders should also take out time to truly study and reflect on what they hear so they can become the leaders their teams need rather than the leaders they want to be, which may be at odds with what’s best for the team. Self-Care Leaders should be servants to themselves as well as their employees and teams. What this means is that leaders should take out time to take care of themselves outside of the workplace. Self-care allows leaders to operate at peak efficiency, and it also makes for a better work-life balance. Matters outside of the workplace that are neglected often have a way of encroaching on work performance, which can trickle down into team performance. Creating Something Sustainable When a leader starts to embrace the servant aspect of her or his role, it sets the stage for building something that’s sustainable and will remain with the company long after the leader and team move on. The company will become one known for its fair and impartial leaders, ones who are willing to help employees just as much as they are willing to lead them in the right direction. This can be a key factor in bringing in new employees, ones who can help build a company and make it better than ever before. If you are a leader or are thinking about taking up a leadership position in your place of employment, be sure you embrace the core concepts of servant leadership. Doing so is sure to make you more of an asset and a better leader than you ever imagined yourself to be.

Implementing A Customer Effort Strategy Effectively

An effective customer effort strategy makes your products and services more attractive to buyers by simplifying offers and increasing customer support. Basically, customers who can spend less effort toward the same end are happier customers. More and more, the markets reward firms who take the time to implement new strategies aimed at reducing customer effort. Not all techniques are the same, and good data analytics is the key to your company’s future success. The Customer Effort Challenge It isn’t enough to just produce a product and plop it down on the store shelves. You might sell a few units that way, but if you expect to stay competitive you must support your customers throughout the entire exchange. From the moment you first make contact until after the product’s life comes to an end, you are there to provide the customer with an exceptional overall experience: Information – Educate your customers on your brand and the benefits of your products. Easy Transactions – Make it simple to buy through multiple channels. Service and Support – Streamline complaint resolution and product returns. Follow Up – Encourage repeat business with rewards programs and special discounts. Customer effort is the most important variable and customers consider the amount of time they waste when evaluating their experiences with your company. If disappointed, they may not buy from you again. Reducing customer effort often comes down to eliminating lost time, but the customer also expects humanized interactions: Accessible – Make your products, website, and call center available to your customers. Accurate – Information needs to be consistent, current, and relevant. Expertise – Your agents must answer questions about products and processes with authority. To make things more challenging, most customers also expect personalized service. They want to feel a connection with someone who understands what they need without being told the same information repeatedly. Data Collection with Technology You need useful information to build and coordinate your strategy. Most companies rely on customer feedback metrics to tell them how their service representatives are performing. CSAT surveys and Net Promoter Scores are proper information tools for sampling specific interactions, but they both have a limited scope over a limited range. ETECH Insights puts a robust AI to work gathering data and supporting your agents. Software listens in on conversations and makes decisions about which inputs are the most important. That data identifies customer preferences and compares them to agent behaviors. Analysis of this information highlights patterns and predicts behaviors. This helps management to organize better responses reduce your customer’s effort. Streamline Customer Experience Once armed with better information, your business processes can focus in on the most common points of interest for your customers. It’s hard to implement these solutions without good data: Develop procedures to standardize responses to customer concerns across departments. Train agents to respond to common challenging situations. Empower customer self-help by supplying demanded information and features on your website. Customize experiences by predicting customer desires and behaviors. Automate follow up with customers to encourage repeat business. Customers typically reward businesses able to keep up with the rapidly changing market. Lowering their effort incentivizes more purchases and leads to higher revenues. Technology and AI driven data collection help you develop the efficient customer effort strategy that your buyer’s demand. It combines the best information with a human responder to deliver superior results.

3 Reasons Servant Leadership Increases Call Center Customer Satisfaction Rates

Today’s consumers have many more options for interacting with businesses than they did in years past, thanks to technological advances. They can chat in real time with a company, shop online, and easily leave business and product reviews on many platforms. With consumer voices louder than ever, its not a surprise that some even refer to this modern marketplace as the age of the customer. In the face of so many changes, leaders in call centers must also be flexible and willing to change. They should focus on providing outstanding customer service and fostering positive interactions between companies and clients. Servant leadership, a management style first proposed in the 1970s, helps businesses improve customer satisfaction rates in multiple ways; from reduced hold times to more satisfied, better-trained agents. This concept calls for managers to serve first and then lead, often resulting in happier employees —and customers. Here are three reasons why: Employees are Prouder and More Confident In a servant leadership culture, leaders stop focusing on being “The Manager” and instead consider how they, and every employee, are a vital part of one team with the same goal—providing excellent customer service to ensure long-term business success. When leaders work alongside other team members, serving them, coaching them and offering sincere praise and encouragement, team members responded by working harder to meet and exceed expectations, both from the leaders as well as the customers. Employees Raise their Standards When leaders model the “servant first” behavior their employees will follow. While communicating clear expectations and standards is important for team leaders, setting a good example is even more vital to success. When leaders serve, care, celebrate, engage, listen … their team members will begin to emulate this behavior. When this happens, results begin to rise and are sustained. Employees Meet and Exceed Customer Needs By improving and sustaining results, team members will quickly experience the effect on the customers. They will notice what pleases callers, as well as what dissatisfies them. The will share best demonstrated practices. Ideas will flow bottom up. Team members will feel and become empowered to delight their customers. Service at Every Level When service becomes a way of doing business for everyone on the team, starting with the manager, call centers can start to see improved customer satisfaction rates. When call center employees feel empowered and prepare, they will respond to customer inquiries, requests, and complaints in efficient and effective ways. They will learn from each experience, sharing their lessons with other team members so that the entire operation can evolve. Higher-functioning call center representatives, led by a leader dedicated to serving them, will promote business success now and in the future. Until next time, make you make a difference in the lives of those you serve. God bless.

Why Your Customer’s Experience Is Important

Your customers do more than just buy your products or use your services. They experience your brand. Good experiences lead to higher revenues. Deliver a lousy experience, and you may end up lining the pockets of your competitors. Customer experiences are the interactions your company has with the buyers you depend on for revenue. It encompasses more than just call center responses. It’s how your website works, the warranty you offer, and your public image. It’s every possible factor that might influence the way your customers interact with your brand. The Emphasis Shift to Customer Experience A competitive market becomes more intense for suppliers as buyers start refining their demands. Product offerings start to become less and less distinguishable, and your customers begin to take more notice of your service habits. Market research confirms the following insights: Customers make their buying decisions based primarily on how they feel. Most consumers report being willing to pay more for a better experience. Customer experience will replace price as a critical predictor of consumer behavior by 2020. Your customers will throw their support behind companies able to deliver higher quality interactions. The demand signal from the market shows that the experiences you provide matters. Now, most companies report that improving customer experience is a top priority, but few leading firms really know how to go about achieving such a lofty goal. The Current Demands of Buyers Customer service is just a small part of the overall experience. The way your business advertises and follow up with potential buyers is also essential. Businesses need to adjust their habits to take advantage of the market’s new demand for complete experiential treatment. Here are some common points of failure in the business/customer relationship: Making customers repeat themselves when attempting to get concerns resolved Forcing customers to wait more than five minutes for assistance Leaving questions unanswered Failing to disclose pricing information Customers are twice as likely to report a bad experience to their friends than share a positive one. To make matters worse, it requires more than ten times the effort to overcome a negative experience and rebuild lost trust. Customers are willing to give your competitors a chance and often abandon transactions entirely. Poor customer experience accounts for higher rates of customer churn. Omnichannel Product Delivery Technology drives the market by opening new channels to distribute goods. In addition to store fronts, businesses must also be ready to sell products through online markets, web pages, and cell phone apps. Customers demand consistent positive experiences across platforms, but many companies are not keeping pace: Failure to integrate data gathered through different sales channels Customer service agents unable to resolve complaints from multiple media sources Unprepared to address customers using multiple channels at the same time Those firms able to coordinate their different channels and provide a consistently positive experience have the best chance of retaining the most business. Customers demand quick answers and consistent responses regardless of how they try to purchase your products. Many buyers in stores carry mobile devices and price check your goods before heading to the checkout counter. Gathering Customer Experience Data Knowledge is the key to developing a successful customer experience strategy. ETECH Insights helps you gather the data on your operations you need to make better decisions. This blog was first published on LinkedIn

3 Things to Know While Leading Change Management

Change is always difficult; people are by nature creatures of habit. If you are in a leadership position and it’s up to you to communicate the executive management vision during a shift in your company’s plans, here are 3 steps that can help you manage change with minimum friction. Change Doesn’t Have to Be Scary People tend to be skeptical of upper management when it comes to big changes. Remember though, your executive staff has the big picture, and what doesn’t make sense at the lower levels is simply a lack of this wider perspective. You can make up for this by communicating regularly with your workers about the values and mission of the company and how that applies to these new changes. The message must be clear and consistent; this is one of your best leadership opportunities to steer a new course. When employees understand the underlying reasons and purpose for change, they will be willing to accept the momentary inconveniences. Get Everyone on Board at the Beginning What you need to explain must be done right at the start of the change; don’t wait for trouble and then try to react to it. You need to have the courage to reveal information that may ruffle some feathers, because this will build trust and respect in your leadership. If you don’t want nay-sayers and negative attitudes, which are contagious, to spread through the ranks, you need to get all your employees to accept the new direction at the outset. Do whatever it takes to be sure the message is thoroughly communicated and understood, or you will be redirecting a lot of your resources during the change process to quelling mini-rebellions and it will take you longer to get where you want to go. An email memo won’t do the job; depending on the size of your company, you should consider table-top discussions and workshops to give everyone a chance to voice their opinions, be heard, receive feedback, and have the changes explained so that the reasons behind them are fully understood. The Importance of Company Values If your mission statement is just a plaque on a wall, your company will lack cohesion and focus. Values are not just sales gimmicks; they are the foundation of a well-run organization. Your company’s values not only should be well-known to your employees, but mentioned often and most importantly, put into practice regularly by your managers. Team members must see values in action, or they will drift away from these norms and work according to their own ideas and standards, and unity will be lost. Some of the great ways you can emphasize values are: Give awards to employees who shown exemplary adherence to them Use social media to broadcast in real time the application of values in projects and among workers Dedicate a section of the company newsletter to highlight how company values are put into practice Just a few straightforward actions can make change management less of a hurdle, and save you a lot of strife and confusion.

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