All posts by Hutch Morzaria

I am an ITIL Expert and extremely passionate about customer service, customer experience, best practices and process improvement. I have led support, service, help desk and IT teams as well as quality and call center teams in Canada and the UK. I know how to motivate my teams to ensure that they are putting the customer first.

MANAGEMENT TRAINING AND SELF IMPROVEMENT

As a manager, it is a key requirement to ensure that your team is appropriately trained on the minutiae of the job. How to find customer information, how to respond to customers, dealing with Irate customers and troubleshooting issues are obviously all things that you would ensure that your team receives. However, how important is it to you to ensure that YOU are receiving the appropriate training and improving your skills?
It almost goes without saying that the only constant in our world today is that “change is inevitable”. If you understand this fact then dealing with the constant pace of it is something that is fairly easy to take in stride.

From year to year, and inside each subject itself, what is taught at school and the way it is taught itself changes.  This is natural – new things are being researched all the time and what was considered FACT one day is quite often flipped on its head the next.  With the constant growth and change that we experience every day of our lives dealing with the pace is an issue in and of itself as more often than not, the greatest discovery of the day is just a piece in the puzzle to something much larger.
Now while you could afford to just “coast” along in school as you were being rated and graded against others being taught exactly the same material, in the “real world” this mentatility just doesn’t work.  Your competitors in business and in your own workplace are constantly advancing their skills in an effort to be more efficient and provide an even better product or service at a lower price all the time – after all we live in a capitalist society and thats the hallmark of it isn’t it?  The customers determine the leader and if you want to be part of that crowd you cannot afford to neglect your personal developement.
While its clear that this is a message that has been learned at the Senior Level, most employees don’t realize this and think that Senior Management just decide which way to steer the ship and then step back and let it go on its way.  If you really look at it though, the readjustments and refining of technique are something that Senior Managers do all the time and they base this new direction on what they are learning from other companies and even their competition!
The transition from an average Manager to a top tier Manager is gradual, but knowing the latest trends and information definitely play a factor in this. This is obviously NOT just a matter of being able to spout the latest and greatest “buzz word” that is currently in vogue. The only way to truly advance is to actually understand what you are talking about and to believe in its value and potential. Being ISO certified is easy – understanding that ISO is NOT just paper-pushing which is the common misconception is something else altogether.

For those at the starting point of their management career the focus should be on Soft Skills. Things like Team Work, Leadership, Dealing with Change, Time Management are all crucial skills that are useful for the young Manager and also show a demonstrable return for the company. 

 With this knowledge in place (and keep in mind, retraining is key as if you don’t use it … you lose it!) the focus should be shifted towards industry and technology specific disciplines. You should aim for courses that not only provide you with an improvement but that can demonstrate an obvious return on investment to your company. 
Things like Process Improvement and Cost Minimization are both emphasized in ITIL and Six Sigma certifications. Ensure that you are keeping abreast of the latest trends in your industry – read trade publications and technical journals, network with your peers in similar positions … SPEAK TO YOUR CUSTOMERS! … find out what they are interested in and what they would like to see your company provide to them. 
While Managers today have less time then in days past – if training if structured correctly it can be useful and relevant and should be able to show an immediate impact to the organization. It is key to remember to that training cannot be a single event and should be considered a constant – just like change – as that is the only way to stay in the race and eventually – WIN IT!!

TO SOURCE, OR OUTSOURCE … THAT IS THE QUESTION!

Continuing our discussion about ITIL Service Strategy, lets start talking about Sourcing.  Sourcing is about analysing how to most effectively source and deploy the resources and capabilities required to deliver outcomes to customers. A sourcing decision is key in determining the best combination of suppliers (internal vs. external) to provide the most cost effective and efficient delivery of services.

Outsourcing

I’ve spoken about outsourcing at some length in the past (here, here and here), but those posts were focused more on whether or not you should outsource.  Lets talk here about what outsourcing is and why some businesses utilize it.
In a nutshell Outsourcing is using another company/organization to perform services on your behalf for your customers.  Now you could outsource lots of different things – HR Functions for your own internal team, IT Support for your customers etc… – what makes the decision on whether or not you should outsource is the question of value.  Are you able to provide more value to your customers and shareholders by outsourcing vs. doing the activity in house?  Generally speaking this question of value has been driven by financial considerations, unfortunately, most financial analyses do not include all the costs related to sourcing options, leading to difficult relationships with service providers, involving unexpected costs and service issues.  

What should you outsource?

Generally speaking you should outsource anything that is non-critical to your business.  By focusing on your core strengths you can be more successful and removing tasks that are only peripherally related (if that) to your business will allow your organization to focus even more on the things that make you successful.
Once candidates for sourcing are identified, the following questions can be used to clarify matters: 
  • Do the candidate services improve the business’s resources and capabilities? 
  • How closely are the candidate services connected to the business’s competitive and strategic resources and capabilities?
  • Do the candidate services require extensive interactions between the service providers and the business’s competitive and strategic resources and capabilities?

Dependent upon the answers to those questions a decision needs to be made on whether or not to outsource some or all of a service.  If the responses uncover minimal dependencies and infrequent interactions between the sourced services and the business’s competitive and strategic positioning, then the candidates are strong contenders – conversely however if the answers show a strong relationship with the business’ competitive or strategic position, then care must be taken.

Sourcing vulnerabilities

When outsourcing – especially in the instances where outsourcing a key service, care must be taken to ensure that businesses do not get impacted negatively.  Some of the key vulnerabilities that might be experienced are:
  • Substitution:  ‘Why do I need the service provider when its supplier can offer the same services?’ The sourced vendor develops competing capabilities and replaces the sourcing organization
  • Disruption:  The sourced vendor has a direct impact on quality or reputation of the sourcing organization.  This is of significant concern for those organizations that have outsourced their support or engineering and design organizations.
  • Distinctiveness:  The sourced vendor is the source of distinctiveness for the sourcing organization. The sourcing organization then becomes particularly dependent on the continued development and success of the second organization  

One key concern/issue with outsourcing is responsibility.  Outsourcing does not mean that a service or its performance are no longer important. In most cases, it often means that the service is so important that it should be provided by a service provider that can do a better (or more cost-effective) job. Just because a service has been outsourced does not remove the responsibility from the vendor. While a 3rd party could be providing technical support on a product or service, the customer always has recourse to organization that they purchased the original product/service from..

Other types of Sourcing

While most people consider Outsourcing (& Insourcing) as the only two options, there are in actuality a variety of different ways that services can be sourced.
  • Insourcing – internal parts of the organization do the work.  Clearly defined departments with specific responsibilities.
  • Outsourcing – a 3rd party that specializes in a specific role, provides that service to an organization through a well defined plan with specific deliverable’s, KPIs and SLAs.
  • Partnership – a formal arrangement between 2 or more parties to work together on a specific role or responsibility.  The focus here tends to be on strategic partnerships that leverage critical expertise or market opportunities.
  • Co-sourcing or multi-sourcing – a mix of insourcing and outsourcing where a number of external organizations work together to design, develop, transition, maintain, operate and/or support a portion of a service.
  • Business process outsourcing (BPO) – a growing trend (especially among the larger multinationals) where an entire business function (customer service, technical support, accounting, HR etc…) is provided by a 3rd party.
There are a host of other common (Application Services, Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO), Cloud etc…) and uncommon ways of sourcing services, in fact the only real distinction is that businesses will do what makes sense for the business!

SERVICE PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT


The Service Portfolio describes the commitments and investments made by a service provider to its customers across all market spaces.  In a nutshell, it states what the company is able to do and how it will do it while also accounting for previously agreed upon commitments.  The Service Portfolio also talks about new products and services as well as ongoing service improvement projects and other third-party services which are utilized by the business in providing their service.  The Service Portfolio is the defacto guide to what the business can and cannot do.


Ensuring that the Service Portfolio is accurate is one of the important roles of Service Portfolio Management (SPM).  This role ensures that new services are added only after funding has been approved an appropriate financial plan is in place for recovering costs and/or showing a profit.  This is sometimes called a rally point process or other similar names but in essence its a way of ensuring that the business always has a pipeline of new products and services available to meet current and future demand.  The service portfolio should have the right mix of services in the pipeline and catalog to secure the financial viability of the service provider since the service catalog is the only part of the portfolio that lists services that recover costs or earn profits.  You can find a lot more detail on Service Catalogs at either of the links provided below.

The service pipeline, similar to a sales pipeline, list perspective, and future projects and services – i.e. those products that are currently being considered or thought about, but are not yet available to the consumer.  The service pipeline is a future looking document that provides guidance to senior leaders and while elements of this might be made available to the customer (for future prospects generally), it is not normally published as that tends to give the competition too much of an insight into the organization’s future plans and strategies.

The service catalog, however, is different … this document is generally published (& publicized) quite widely as it is the single place where all information about products, prices, ordering and request processes are documented.  It defines and communicates the policies, guidelines, and accountability required for the service provider to deliver and support services to its customers. The service catalog details each service and shows the service components that make up each one. It also provides an overview of the assets, processes, and systems involved in each service.

While you might consider the service catalog to be just that … a catalog of services, it can also be used to identify gaps in services and linkages between services.  This information can be used to realize new services and products for future exploration and exploitation by the business.

Retiring Services

While the common thought is that the latest and greatest is always the best (look at the mobile phone market if you don’t believe me or understand what I’m saying) the service catalog should maintain a place for retired services also.  These are services that while no longer as “popular” (in call center and tech support worlds that would translate to “getting fewer calls”) still have value to the business for a variety of different reasons including:
  • The replacement service might not meet all requirements, and it is important to be able to fall back to the previous service 
  • There is a significant portion of the market made up of the planned to retire service which will still need future support and/or maintenance
  • When defining a new service, service portfolio management might discover that some functionality is available from a retired service. This might result in the service being reinstated as part of a new service 
  • There might be regulatory requirements to maintain archived data that can only be accessed using the previous service, in which case information is exported to a read-only database for future use
It is the job of Service Portfolio management to determine how long a service should remain in the Service portfolio – and while this is often determined based on time, in many cases other reasons are utilized to make this decision.

Service Portfolio Launch

Service portfolio management is guided from strategy management for IT services via strategic plans which provide details of new business opportunities and which services are required to fulfill those opportunities.  SPM is responsible for reviewing each opportunity and determining the required investment level and also whether or not the opportunity is achievable (regardless of the potential profit that “might” be realized).

The role of Improvement in determining a Portfolio

Continual Service Improvement (CSI) has some input into SPM also, specifically:


  • Opportunities to improve the performance or service level achievements of services in the portfolio
  • New opportunities within the current strategy, or gaps in the current portfolio of services
  • Opportunities for overall improvements in cost, mitigation of risks etc.  
By taking into account perceived deficiencies in the Service Portfolio, CSI is able to make recommendations for improvement, however, it is still the responsibility of SPM to evaluate these suggestions and determine whether or not the potential improvement warrants the investment.

Define 

The creation of a Service Portfolio follows several clearly defined (no pun intended) steps as shown in the diagram to the right.  The Define step talks about desired business outcomes and opportunities as well as what services are needed to realize these opportunities and the investment required.

Any new strategy or change to an existing strategy should be submitted to Service Portfolio Management. This will be in the form of strategic plans, identified market spaces and outcomes, priorities and policies. These will be used to identify specific service opportunities and the stakeholders that will be consulted in defining the services.

The role of SPM at this stage is to define the service based on the information provided:

  • The purpose of the service (what it must achieve)
  • The customers and consumers of the service
  • The major inputs and outputs of the service
  • High-level performance requirements (for example, when it needs to be available)
  • What business activity will it support, and is that activity stable or dynamic?
  • Does the service need to comply with (or enable the business to comply with) any regulatory or legal requirements?
  • Are there any standards that need to be applied to the service?
  • What are the actual business outcomes that the service will be supporting, and who is responsible for these outcomes?  
  • Are there any other stakeholders that need to be involved in defining and evaluating this service? 
  • The anticipated level of investments and returns. Although these will not be known, the customer will know what type of return they need, and how much they are prepared to spend to achieve it 
  • Are there any constraints that need to be considered (e.g. budget, resources)?
The role of SPM is to understand how all of the different components fit together and complement each other and also to define the boundaries of the service as well as the technical stakeholders.  Based on this analysis, the impact on the Service Portfolio can be determined and this will provide information on the following areas:

  • The current business outcomes 
  • Investment levels 
  • Service Level Agreements and contractual obligations 
  • Warranty levels 
  • Existing required Utility (for example, changing an existing service may benefit one customer, but it might negatively impact another) 
  • Is there another existing service that can be combined with this service to deliver the required Utility or Warranty? 
  • Patterns of business activity, and levels of demand on the service

Analysis

The analysis of each service moving through the Service Portfolio Management process is performed by linking each one to the Service Strategy. For external service providers, this will be a linkage to the organization’s overall strategy. For internal service providers, it will mean linking to the IT strategy and the strategies of the other business units.

8 RULES OF GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE & 8 STEPS TO DEFINE A SERVICE


In a similar fashion to interviewing and hiring people – the hardest and most expensive exercise is getting the right employee – getting people back into the door is exactly the same.  You want that repeat custom as that is what will save you money in your marketing and advertising.  One of the key components to this in addition to the quality of the product itself is the customer service that you provide to the customer in their purchasing and ordering decisions.  You can offer promotions and slash prices to bring in as many new customers as you want, but unless you can get some of those customers to come back, your business won’t be profitable for long. Good customer service is all about bringing customers back. And about sending them away happy – happy enough to pass positive feedback about your business along to others, who may then try the product or service you offer for themselves and in their turn become repeat customers. 

Good customer service should be thought of as relationship building and networking.  It’s easy to think of a good salesperson as being the driver of a business, but in reality, anyone can sell something – once – its the way in which something is sold and the service you provide after its sold that will help you build that relationship.

“You will be judged by what you do, not what you say.” 

If you truly want to have good customer service, all you have to do is ensure that your business consistently does these things: 

  1. Answer your phone. If you don’t speak to your customers, you won’t know what problems they are having and you won’t be able to help them fix them.  Hire the right people that have the right knowledge and make sure you have enough of them as keeping your customer on hold is NOT good customer service.
  2. Keep your commitments.  If you tell someone you will find out the answer or will call them back, make sure you find out the answer and you call them back! Reliability is one of the keys to any good relationship, and good customer service is no exception. Think before you give any promise – because nothing annoys customers more than a broken one. 
  3. Listen. I’ve spoken about this before in previous posts (here) but one of the most frustrating things – especially for customers not happy with you – is forcing them to repeat themselves.  Irate customers especially can become infuriated when they find themselves transferred from person to person constantly having to explain the same issue over and over.  It is imperative to use active listening skills and show your customer that you are paying attention by making the appropriate responses at the right times.
  4. Complaints – no one likes complaints.  After all, most people are already trying to do their best and don’t like being told that it isn’t meeting the objectives they set out to address.  However, customer complaints are an opportunity to hear not only about what you might have done wrong now but rather an opportunity to learn what you might do right in the future!   Many of us have developed a reflex shrug, saying, “You can’t please all the people all the time”. Maybe not, but if you give the complaint your attention, you may be able to please this one person this one time – and position your business to reap the benefits of good customer service. 
  5. Help out – sometimes it really is the little things that make a difference.  Providing directions or parts at a nominal charge might not earn you revenue now, but it could help make that customer someone that will come back in the future when they know that you have the knowledge and skills for their problem.
  6. TrainingWhile having the phone answered on the first ring is a laudable objective if the person on the end of the line has no knowledge of your product or service it doesn’t really accomplish your objective.  You need to train your team in your products and services as well as the value of good customer service. Most importantly, give every member of your staff enough information and power to make those small customer-pleasing decisions, so he never has to say, “I don’t know, but so-and-so will be back at…” 
  7. Give them the pickle – sorry I know that’s a bit of strange turn of speech, but in some customer service training I once took its something that was taught and it stuck with me.  Giving them the pickle means going that extra mile… for example if someone asks where something in the store is – don’t just point them to the aisle … take them there and show them the item they are looking for + other alternatives that might be better! 
  8. Give them more than they are asking for – if you want them to come back, give them a reason to come back.  It can be a small coupon, it can be something that will help with whatever they’ve just purchased.  It doesn’t have to be expensive or large, but it should be useful.

If you apply these eight simple rules consistently, your business will become known for its good customer service. And the best part? The irony of good customer service is that over time it will bring in more new customers than promotions and price slashing ever did!

Defining a Service

Now I started this post talking all about good Customer Service, however, something that isn’t often discussed is how you define a service (product) in the first place.  Its all well and good to have good customer service, but if you’re selling something that the market isn’t interested in, you won’t have any customers TO service!  If you’re a reader of this blog, you’ll know that I’m a huge fan of ITIL and its methodologies … fortunately, ITIL can help here too and by a happy coincidence, it also has an 8 step plan!


      1. Define The Market & Identify Customers – who is your target market & demographic (i.e. who would be interested in your product or service and who do you want to sell to)? By identifying the market it will simplify the decision about the products or services of interest and will help you identify the customers that would be interested in your product. Markets can be defined by industry, geography, demographics or a host of other factors.
      2. Understand the Customer – knowing what your customer wants is essential to providing him with a solution to his demands.  For Type I and II organizations providing service to internal clients, this means understanding what the business is trying to accomplish, what the overall business goals of that business are and how these outcomes can be achieved.  Type III (external) service providers need to understand why they are purchasing that service and what products or services are key in achieving the objectives.  Understanding the customer involves understanding what they want to do, what their constraints are, how will they know that it has been successful etc…
      3. Quantify The Outcomes – I’ve spoken at length of the importance of measurement.  This is absolutely essential if you are providing a service to someone or purchasing a service from someone as the only way you will know whether a service meets desired outcomes is by knowing in advance what your targets are and by measuring, how close you are to reaching those targets and objectives. Defining outcomes is an important part of defining services, but customers often take it for granted that everyone understands their particular outcomes because they work on them as a matter of routine. It is therefore important that the service provider works with the customer to quantify each outcome, and document it as part of the service description that will be entered into the service pipeline.  As mentioned earlier in this post, complaints (not achieving outcomes) are not only a way for the customer to blow off steam, but are also a way for the provider of that service to improve in clearly defined ways so that they are better able to provide that service to the complaining customer and also to other customers!  Therefore it is important to review the achievement of outcomes regularly, both to ensure that the service provider is not missing an opportunity, and also to ensure that current outcomes are being delivered.
      4. Classify the Service – this could be somewhat confusing in ITIL terms as they talk about service archetypes and service utility etc… To put it into somewhat simpler English, think of this as defining a subset of resources that will meet a specific customer demand.  By combining a specific resource with a specific demand, you’ve built a specific service which you can then market and sell.  In this way, not only will you know what the service is but you will know who your customer is and also what internal resources you will need to devote to them.  This type of mapping is extremely useful as it will enable you to service not only your current customers but also through some simple analysis, future markets, and customers also!
      5. Understand the Market – OK you should by this point, have a good idea of your customer as well as what they want and how you are going to give it to them.  You’ve basically already completed this step, but by taking it just that little bit further you can define the market space in general vs. just the one specific customer.  Each customer has a number of requirements, and each service provider has a number of competencies. These intersections between the service provider’s competencies and the customer’s requirements are called market spaces.  More formally, market spaces are the opportunities that a service provider could exploit to meet the business needs of customers. 
      6. Define Services Based On Outcomes – Perhaps somewhat self-fulfilling, but a service should be defined upon what you can provide and what the customer wants.  Having the customer want a rocketship and you providing a go-cart will not be successful and to be honest, offering a rocketship when they only want to pay for a go-cart will probably not work either!  Services need to be cost-effective solutions to problems and need to address the needs of both sides.  See my previous post where I talk about Value and Utility and Warranty as that will really help you understand this concept.
      7. Build a Service model – another place where ITIL perhaps over complicates things (IMHO) in their description, a service model can be used as a template or blueprint for multiple services’.
      8. Define Service Packages and Units – Services may be as simple as allowing a user to complete a single transaction, but most services are complex. They consist of a range of deliverables and functionality. If each individual aspect of these complex services were defined independently, the service provider would soon find it impossible to track and record all services.  When a single service is delivered to a customer it is viewed by the service provider as a service. When two or more services are bundled and sold or delivered together they are viewed by the service provider as a service package.  Service Packages can be defined as core, enabling or enhancing – see my post for further details on this.

      OK lots of information on this one, so apologies if it’s a bit too wordy but it seemed to be the best option in terms of knowledge transfer.  As always, feel free to ask questions in the comments.

      MINDMAPPING – DESCRIPTION & TOOLS

      What is MindMapping?

      Stated simply, mindmapping is a technique that uses graphics and text tied together in an effort to increase improve your retention and idea generating capabilities.  I know – it sounds like a really “big ask” but bizarrely enough it works!

      Brainstorming & Studies

      An extremely useful tool from a brainstorming perspective, having a mind map on the board and multiple parties “throwing” ideas to link to/from that map makes for a very interactive and useful exercise.
      Having a simple picture with all the different links to and from it makes it really easy to see some relationships that you wouldn’t have guessed at also to see some extra links that can take you in many different directions.

      While the research is still out on its actual impact with regards to study notes, there have been studies that demonstrate a significant impact on memory recall.  As with most forms of studying, the act of writing things down improves retention vs. just listening.  If you follow all of the mindmapping guidelines and use images to represent ideas with colour also, this is only further enhanced.

      History

      While ancient in scope and concept (Aristotle for example used them!) they were reinvented in their modern form by British psychology auther – Tony Buzan.

      Format

      A mind map is often created around a single word or text, placed in the center, to which associated ideas, words and concepts are added.  Linked to this are other tasks or items that are related to the previous item in a hierarchical fashion.  By arranging the elements intuitively according to their relative importance it is easy to quickly branch out from the initial (main) point into lots of previously unexplored and unexpected avenues.

      Tools

      Visio (owned by Microsoft) has a good mind mapping module built in.
      MindManager by Mindjet is another commercial application that is extremely powerful.
      FreeMind is a free downloadable Mind Mapping Software program. As the name implies this is a free application and one that is extremely user friendly and intuitive.
      Bubbl.us – If your company restricts access to downloadable applications, I would suggest you try a program called bubbl.us – available for use and access online, it is not as pretty as FreeMind, however the fact that you can access it anywhere you can access the Internet is a plus in itself. Currently in beta it is also a free program. You can access it here.

      TYPE I, II AND III PROVIDERS

      Service Provider Types 

      Although most aspects of service management apply for all types, it is important to differentiate between them. The domains of customers, contracts, competition, market, income, and strategy have a slightly different meaning for the different types.

      Type I- Internal Service Provider : 

      Type I is a service provider that is embedded within a business unit and provides IT service exclusively for a specific business unit.  They are often considered a cost center and are an integral part of the business’s operation.  They are dedicated to specific business units and as such, they are required to have an in-depth knowledge of the business and its goals, plans, and operations. They are usually highly specialized, often focusing on designing, customizing and supporting specific applications, or on supporting a specific type of business process.

      Type II – Shared Service Unit : 

      Type II is an internal service provider that provides shared IT services to more than one business unit.  A good example of this would be IT in fact.  In most businesses, IT provides services to many other parts of the organization (sales, operations, marketing etc…) and this is considered an SSU (Shared Service Unit).

      Type II can offer lower prices compared to external service providers by leveraging corporate advantage, internal agreements, and accounting policies. They can standardize their service offerings across business units and use market-based pricing to influence demand patterns.

      Type III – External service provider : 

      Type III is a service provider that provides IT services to external customers.  A good example of this is B2B Technical Support … most companies that are selling a product or service manufactured by a 3rd party, will require support on that product if/when they run into any issues.  While they may develop some capabilities in-house, they will definitely need more advanced support for difficult or complex installations and in those instances, they might need to access the support operations from the manufacturer directly.  The motivation may be access to knowledge, experience, scale, scope, capabilities, and resources that are either beyond the reach of the organization or outside the scope of a carefully considered investment portfolio.

      Choosing the Right Type of Provider

      Each provider type has benefits and drawbacks. Services, infrastructure, applications etc. may be sourced from each type of service provider with decisions based on possible transition costs (costs of migrating from one operating mode to another, or between service providers), and transaction costs (costs of finding a suitable provider, negotiating, defining requirements, agreements, relationship management, changes, disputes, etc.).



      Whether customers keep a business activity in-house (aggregate), separate it out for dedicated management (disaggregate) or source it from outside (outsource) depends on answers to the following questions:

      • Are highly specialized assets required? 
        • Are those assets going to be idle after the required activity is done?
          • If yes – it’s recommended to outsource it. 
        • Are those assets going be obsolete, or lose a significant proportion of the value over time?
          • If yes – it’s recommended to outsource it. 
      • Is the activity required performed sporadically?
        • If yes – it’s recommended to outsource it. 
      • Is the activity simple enough without any major changes within the activity over time? 
        • If yes – it’s recommended to outsource it. 
      • Can you define good and satisfactory performance? 
        • If no – it’s recommended to keep it in-house. 
      • Can you measure what constitutes good performance? 
        • If no – it’s recommended to keep it in-house. 
      • Is the activity tightly connected with other activities and processes, where in case of separation a new layer of complexity would be added? 
        • If yes – it’s recommended to keep it in-house. 

      Customers can decide to switch between types of service providers based on the answers to those simple questions. Of course, the answers to the questions themselves may change over time, depending on new economic conditions, regulations, and technological innovation – with the latest being inevitable. 

      Types of Services 

      I’ve covered this already in a previous post, but it bears repeating as it definitely applies in the context of the conversation we’re having here.

      Core Services : 

      Core Services are services that deliver the basic outcomes desired by one or more customers. Core services anchor the value proposition for the customers and provide the basis for their continued utilization and satisfaction as they represent the value that the customers want and for which they are willing to pay. 

      Enabling Services: 

      Enabling services are services that are needed in order to deliver a core service. Enabling services may or may not be visible to the customer, but the customer does not perceive them as services in their own right. 

      Enhancing Services: 

      Enhancing services are services that are added to a core service to make it more exciting or alluring to the customer. They are not essential to the delivery of a core service and are added to a core service as ‘excitement’ factors, which will encourage customers to use the core service more.

      THE 4 P’S OF SERVICE STRATEGY

      Competition is extremely fierce in the world of business, only a handful survive, and some can barely keep up with the demands of the times. That’s why it is necessary to have an idea of what it takes to be successful and an integrated strategy to help maintain excellent service results.

      ITIL discusses at length the four “Ps” of strategy– perspective, position, plan, and pattern, each of which represents a different way to approach your service strategy. Brief summaries are provided here:

      • Perspective – This is basically the vision statement of an organization.  Why is it in business, why is it doing what it is doing?  What are the plans and ideas for the future and how does the organization interact with its customers?  A perspective cements a service provider’s distinctiveness in the minds of the employees and customers
      • Positions – What is the competitive landscape and how will the organization compete with other similar providers?  What is the key distinction between them and other businesses in the marketplace and what are the capabilities that set them apart?  Positions are not just a description of different processes and resources … it could be as simple as cost.
      • Plans – This is the big one … it takes into account the vision and the current position and talks about the future.  How will the provider move from one space to a future space?  What activities need to be done and how will they be done?
      • Patterns – Hum, drum day-to-day … what does the organization or business do, how does it do it and what will it continue to do to be successful?  This is the housekeeping stuff that needs to be completed correctly for an organization to meet its strategic objectives.
      The thing that I’ve always liked about ITIL is that it isn’t esoteric or anything like that.  It is simple common sense and the 4 P’s are a perfect example of this

      Measuring Performance

      “Measurement is the first step that leads to control and eventually to improvement. If you can’t measure something, you can’t understand it. If you can’t understand it, you can’t control it. If you can’t control it, you can’t improve it.”– H. James Harrington



      Performance management is all about measurement. This means knowing where you came from, where you are and where you want to be in the future. It is only when you know those key elements will you be able to plan a path appropriately.

      Remember always that measuring performance is something that you need to be doing all the time – good times and bad – and it should be proactive and not reactive.

      Knowing what is broken when it is broken is not nearly as useful as knowing what will break before it breaks! Knowing what is going to happen while difficult is absolutely necessary for ensuring that you have the time to take the relevant steps to avoid it – while it might not be as glamorous for your career to be the person to avoid problems, from a companies perspective not having to fight fires constantly is a definite plus.

      Measuring what is important to your business is actually not that hard, the hard thing is being consistent at it, as simply defining something as important is great but only measuring it for one month and then choosing an action based on the results in that period is less than useful. To really utilize KPIs in the correct way it is imperative that you measure your main issues for several months looking for specific trends and patterns – it is only after you have done this for a while will you be able to make a reasoned and rational plan to address the issue discovered.

      When defining the KPI’s that you intend to use you need to keep in mind that KPIs are measurements designed to assess performance. Your choice of KPI needs to be based on your target market/audience and your intention with regards to their purpose. For example, what is the problem that you are trying to measure and what would be the ideal outcome if that problem didn’t exist? Once you have defined that then you can get around to building your plan for measuring it.

      In addition to the problem avoidance points about measurement and performance, the other key point is that it is only through measurement that you can know whether or not a specific project or task has been successful.

      Measuring a project only at the end, however, is not appropriate – with projects specifically there are “gates” that must be passed and at each gate, it is key that you review whether or not you are on track for delivery or whether you need to make adjustments.

      CALL CENTER KPI’S

      The Call Center (Help Desk, Tech Support Team, Contact Center etc…) – it does not really matter what you call it, they all serve the same function which is dealing with customers on an individual basis in an effort to solve their problems and concerns – is a great place for KPI’s and in fact there are many KPI’s that have been built specifically for this group in an effort to ensure that customers are always receiving the best level of service possible. Some of the common KPI’s in use in this team are:



      Constant and regular feedback to all the relevant teams and parties involved is necessary to ensure that you are able to adjust to any deviations and make the appropriate modifications necessary.

      As a final point – measuring performance is necessary to ensure that you know the right things – you need to know what is and is not working and why you are having the problems you are.

      If you want and expect your business to grow, you need to look for more efficient ways to do things as while throwing resources at a problem – be they people or equipment – can work some of the time, it is not the final solution and is definitely not the most scalable or cost-effective solution.

      By measuring where you are having problems, what the bottlenecks are and planning appropriately for future problems, you can not only avoid the problems you are currently experiencing but build a plan to avoid future problems also!

      Interviewing Over the Telephone

      Businesses are busy and unfortunately, that means that amongst other things they don’t have the time to meet all applicants for a job any longer.  They need to pre-screen them (often via the internal HR group) and only those candidates shortlisted will be selected for that all important face-to-face interview where you can hopefully impress them enough to either get that job or get a callback for a further interview. 
      Unfortunately, the job market is tight, there really isn’t any getting around that, so here are some good tips and hints to at least get your foot in the door.  The first key point being preparation … a telephone interview is still an opportunity for you to sell yourself so you need to ensure that you are prepared.  You need to know what the business does, who you are going to be speaking to (do some research on them on LinkedIn), the specifics about the role & your suitability to fulfill those specifics.  You must also be able to speak intelligently about your own past history – specifically any gaps in your resume.

      Some Key Hints

      • Time – it is key that you ensure that you are ready and available at the scheduled time for your call and that you allow yourself enough time to complete the interview.  Do not get caught commuting, or walking outside – the person you are speaking to need to be able to ask questions that are understood by you and you need to ensure that your answers are being just as clearly understood.  Try to find a quiet, out of the way place for the conversation and as mentioned earlier, ensure that you are not feeling rushed by making other arrangements.  
      • Know who you are speaking to – I’ve already mentioned it, but this bears repeating … know your interviewer if at all possible. Ensure that you have their name clearly memorized and have some basic questions to ask them in return depending on their role in the company (if nothing else, asking about next steps shows them you’re interested).
      • Know the job – again another one that must be repeated – being on the other side of the chair, I’ve often found myself amazed that the person I’m interviewing doesn’t know anything about the company, their locations, their products or services.  I’ve even interviewed people who don’t know what they are being interviewed for! – DO NOT be that person!  With the tools available to anyone in today’s market, some simple basic research just using Google will give you a good head start.
      • Use a Landline if possible – while cellular technology has definitely improved, landlines are still more reliable and you want to ensure that your conversation is as clear as possible.  As mentioned previously finding a quiet space along with using a landline will guarantee that while you might not always give the right answer, you will at least be able to understand the question!
      • Dress for the interview and pretend it’s face-to-face – it’s easy to think you can do an interview in your pajamas but let’s be honest … if you dress appropriately and act appropriately (speak with a smile) it will come across in the tone of your conversation.  Phone interviews are always more difficult than face-to-face ones.  It’s very difficult to understand body language when you are not able to see the other person, however, if you have a good telephone manner and speak as if the person is there, you will be more successful.
      • Be prepared – sorry for repeating myself once again, but these are the key ones.  You need to know your own resume inside and out.  Prepare ‘SAR stories’: describe the Situation, the Action taken and the Results achieved. Keep these stories to 1 minute long, and be concise and succinct.  Talk about successes AND failures.  Interviewers want to know not just how good you are at your job, but also how you’d deal with adversity.
      • Repetition – well as you can see from the above, I’m not afraid to repeat some things that are important and that’s exactly what you should be doing in the interview.  Practice active listening and demonstrate you are engaged and interested in referencing points made earlier in the conversation. Ask questions related to topics that have been discussed.
      • Closing – make sure that you let the interviewer know that you are interested – it’s potentially the last thing they will remember about you and you need to ensure that you thank them and press upon them your excitement for the role and position.

      DETERMINING THE VALUE OF A SERVICE

      English: A business ideally is continually seeking feedback from customers: are the products helpful? are their needs being met? Constructive criticism helps marketers adjust offerings to meet customer needs. Source of diagram: here (see public domain declaration at top). Questions: write me at my Wikipedia talk page (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
      Once again like in most things, ITIL helps to explain the common sense.  In this case it is the definition of “value” – basically while their definition is somewhat wordy, it gets the point across that Value is defined by the consumer.  What you might consider to be valuable, actually might not be … the person purchasing it from you will actually make that decision and will base it on whether or not the service meets their demands at the price they are willing to pay for it.

      ITIL however does go on to define value a bit further instead of just leaving it up to the customers decision.  They have indicated that value consists of two basic elements:

      • Utility – what does the product or service do?  Does it meet the needs of the customer?
      • Warranty – does the product or service meet the agreed upon requirements, specifically in regards to availability, capacity, continuity and security.  Warranty reduces fluctuations in the service and can to some extent be considered in the light of SLA conversations.
      Both elements – Utility and Warranty – are imperative and have to be taken into account and ensured to equal extent when designing and providing a service.  Remember:
      Utility = what the service does

      Warranty = how is that service delivered

      By working with other parts of the organization to improve the utility of a service, businesses are able to improve the functionality of service and what it is able to do for a customer.  However it bears pointing out that improving the Utility of a service does not have an automatic improvement on its Warranty – in fact, care must be taken to ensure that slippages do not occur in this area to the detriment of the service overall!
      Improving the warranty of a service however has a very powerful effect allowing you to do the same things (the Utility) but more reliably, faster, cheaper and with a decreased risk to the customer that they will suffer losses due to variations in service performance.
      By increasing both Utility and Warranty, organizations are able to do more and do it better.

      ITIL DEFINITION OF SERVICES

      I think you all know that I’m a big fan of ITIL but sometimes I think it does get overly complicated (despite what I’ve said in previous posts).  Take the definition of services for example:

      Internal vs. External

      OK now, I know its not rocket science by any means, but Internal services are those delivered within a business (for example IT services to a specific business unit) whereas External services are those delivered to external organizations (hence the name) … I’m assuming you’re with me so far, as this is not the overly complicated part (although it is important to recognize that internal services have to be linked to external services before their contribution to business outcomes can be understood and measured).
      Where I think it goes into too much detail is in its definition of Core, Enabling and Enhancing services.
      ITIL’s definition of each is as follows:
      • Core Services – deliver basic outcomes that represent something a customer is willing to pay for (basically the bread and butter of the service).
      • Enabling Services – these are the nuts and bolts that let you deliver the core service (support, administration, operations etc…)
      • Enhancing Services –  not needed to deliver the core service … this is something that can give the core service a “wow” factor but is not necessary.  The problem with enhancing services however is that over time they become core and/or enabling services as they become the expected norm.
      Now I don’t necessarily have a problem with how they’ve defined each of these … in itself they each make sense … my question however is more couldn’t you combine enabling and core?  Enabling by itself simply doesn’t do anything as there is no service for it to enable and core by itself similarly cannot be successful as it needs the other groups/services for it to actually work.  Personally I think Enabling Services ARE Core Services and should be included in the same list.  If they were – IT services might be looked at differently from a budgeting perspective that’s for sure!

      Service Definition Process

      Continuing this discussion, the next step is determining how you define a service.  There are five key questions that you can use to help you with this:

      1. What is the service, and how do I get it? (Service Description) 
      2. How do I get help? How do I use the service? (Help and Self-Service) 
      3. What Does It Cost? (Service Cost and Pricing) 
      4. How is the service supported? (Service Support) 
      5. How is the service delivered? (Service Delivery)

      The role of the Service Owner

      One thing that I do 100% agree with however is the definition of a Service Owner.  I have seen too often businesses role out fabulous new ideas and plans, and not have any idea who is actually responsible for ensuring that it is done correctly and responsibly.
      The Service Owner is responsible for the service REGARDLESS of where the underpinning technology components, processes or professional capabilities reside.  Basically the Service Owner is the SPOC (Single Point of Contact) for that Service and owns it.  The Service Owner is responsible to the customer for the initiation, transition and ongoing maintenance and support of a particular service and accountable to the IT director or service management director for the delivery of the service.

      SERVICE STRATEGY – AN INTRODUCTION

      Perhaps somewhat self-explanatory, but Service Strategy is the strategy used by a business to execute its business objectives and meet the customer’s requirements.  Utilizing Service Strategy within a business ensures that the business is able to create value for its customers and shareholders by contributing to the value and not just the costs of the organization.  Service Strategy ensures that organizations are able to organize themselves in an appropriate manner to deliver and support services that will enable a customers’ success and will help to achieve a positive ROI in services.  Through a variety of different tools (service catalog and Service Portfolio Management for example), Service Strategy is able to ensure a consistent understanding of what is required by a business and ensures that these services are provided in an efficient and effective manner. Get a free ITIL Service Strategy Financial Management Assessment here.

      This is a document that we use to assess process maturity, tools usage, and organizational structure in managing IT Financials. This questionnaire will allow for an assessment to be performed using a hybrid of the Capability Maturity Model for Service Management and the ITIL Best Practices for Service Support and Service Delivery. The overall structure of the effort will come from the ITIL best practices of the IT Service Management definition. Rankings within each area will conform to a modified version of the CMM scoring. This modified version will provide a greater degree of granularity in evaluating the various factors involved in each service area, and has its basis in the ITIL standard. The objectives of Service Strategy include providing:

      • A clear identification of corporate objectives and the products and services available as well as the requirements of the customers that use them.
      • The ability to define how value is created and delivered as well as the ability to prioritize projects and opportunities based on their value to the business.
      • A means to identify opportunities to provide services and how to exploit them as well as the ability to develop market spaces and drive the implementation of strategy through the service lifecycle.
      • A clear service provision model, that articulates how services will be delivered and funded, and to whom they will be delivered and for what purpose 
      • The means to understand the organizational capability required to deliver the strategy 
      • Documentation and coordination of how service assets are used to deliver services, and how to optimize their performance
      • Processes that define the strategy of the organization, which services will achieve the strategy, what level of investment will be required, at what levels of demand, and the means to ensure a working relationship exists between the customer and service provider.

      Other components of the Service Lifecycle are also involved and at a high level here are there responsibilities:

      • Service Design
        • Turns a Service Strategy into a plan for delivering the business objectives
        • Covers design principles and methods for converting strategic objectives into portfolios of services and service assets
      • Service Transition
        • Ensures that the value(s) identified in the Service Strategy, and encoded in Service Design, are effectively transitioned so that they can be realized in Service Operation 
      • Service Operation
        • Strategic objectives are ultimately realized through Service Operation, therefore making it a critical capability
      • Continual Service Improvement
        • Provides guidance on creating and maintaining value for customers through better strategy, design, transition and operation of services 
        • Describes best practice for ensuring that the service portfolio continues to be aligned to business needs
        • Provides guidance for linking improvement efforts and outcomes with Service Strategy, design, transition and operation 

      Service Strategy is responsible for meeting customer business objectives while ensuring that their own organizational goals and plans are not negatively impacted.  They are responsible for ensuring that these objectives are met in an increasingly competitive world and they must understand the trade-offs involved in making those strategic decisions.

      The goal of a Service Strategy can be summed up very simply:

      superior performance versus competing alternatives.

      When people talk about Project Management, their first thought is often Microsoft Project.  In a similar manner when considering Service Strategy people often think of Strategic plans.  However just like Project is not the whole answer, so to, a strategic plan doesn’t really get you where you need to go.  Service Strategy is forward-looking but with the increasing pace of change in the world today (especially in IT services), a Strategic Plan is often obsolete before it’s been published!

      A Service Strategy resolves big issues so that staff can get on with the small details – how best to provide services, for example, rather than debating what services to offer. But focusing on a strategic plan impedes the organization’s ability to respond to changing conditions.

      THE UPS AND DOWNS OF PERFORMANCE MANAGMENT – USING A BELL CURVE

      Management of teams in a call center environment is never easy. Depending on your industry and your hours of operation not only do you often have to provide services and support during holiday periods, you often have to do it with a skeleton staff.  If those employees are on the bottom end of your performance bell curve – well let’s just say, you might not have a good holiday season!

      With any business, not only do you need to ensure that you have the appropriate number of agents to deal with the incoming issues, but you also need to ensure that these agents have the right skills and abilities to handle the volume that they get. You are forced to juggle resources based on the type of issues you might get – based on your historical trends – but you also need to always keep in mind the SLA you are offering to your customers and partners.

      Phone calls & online chat need a significantly higher response rate than emails and the volume of issues while it can be planned for, can never account for emergencies and issues outside of your control (this is why they are called emergencies!)

      One tool that you can use to help you ensure that you have the right number and type of resources is the Bell Curve.  Utilizing this tool along with other KPIs that you have in place will help you in your planning and assist you in ensuring that you have the right people available to answer the customer’s query at the right time.

      How to Create Performance Bell Curves

      Bell curve graphs are called histograms. By reviewing individual performance (let’s take output as an example) and grouping it together across your team you will have a simple scale that graphed out shows a distribution. A normal distribution will have equal numbers on either side with the bulk of your team grouped in the middle.

      Importantly, the bell curve (like any statistical distribution) describes a large number (or population) of individual things. The horizontal dimension (X-Axis) of the curve describes a range of values. The vertical dimension (Y-Axis) describes the incidences of “N” occurring. If we stick to our example of output, we would have a count of the number of emails responded to (for example) on the Y-Axis with a corresponding group of employees on the X-Axis. By determining where your employees fall in the distribution you will see where they stand in the distribution.

      Now this can be done for quite a few of your KPIs (calls handled, average talk time, speed to answer etc…) and the more data of this nature that you add to your employee scorecard the better as graphical representations are extremely powerful and can tell you at a glance how an employee is “doing” in comparison to his peers.  

      What gets measured?

      You will need a reasonable sample size to create an accurate assessment – do not judge your teams performance on one months data, but gather several months and ensure that your measurements are accurate by taking account of time away from the job (supervisors and other special projects that would impact their output and performance) and averaging your output over the course of the period in question.
      In addition, you really need a sample size of at least 20+ agents to get a proper distribution – it’s even better when you get into multiples of that! As a rule, the more data you have the better your analysis will be.
      You would take that data on a weekly/monthly basis and average it out over a specific period for all of your CSRs comparing their performance against your target goal. For example, if the output is to be 40 emails/day your distribution would have staff spread around that number in a fairly equal proportion (based on the size of your sample of course). Statistically speaking, the bell curve is defined entirely by its mean (average) and its standard deviation. But for our purposes, we need to know only that its shape can tell us a lot about agent group performance.

      Understanding Bell Curves

      As you can see in the graphic above, the peak is where the majority of your employees are in relation to output. You have some staff on the high side and some on the low side. You will see that the majority of employees are at the average with others above and below that average. By reviewing what the above average performers are doing in relation to the below average performers you will be able to compare and contrast behaviors and determine what actions you can best make to improve your lower performers. (NOTE: if you have a “double hump” curve that’s something I will look at in future posts so don’t think that you’ve done something wrong – double and triple humps happen … a key case in point is called volumes by time of day where you will have several different peaks).

      Remember if your skew is towards the lower end of the scale you have a problem that you need to address immediately! Depending on your customer base and type of business this might be fine for you – those on the low side could be your slower performers with regards to output, but conversely, your higher performers in relation to customer retention just because they spend more time with each customer. However assuming that this is NOT the case and that all you are interested in is output, your goal is to “skew” your employee’s output towards the higher end of the scale.  This can be accomplished through training – both technical, and product – as well as feedback from other more senior staff.

      How does the Bell Curve impact staffing?

      At its simplest, it doesn’t … however what you need to take into account when scheduling that coverage on a holiday or even earlies and lates, is the quality of the team doing the work.  The Bell curve analysis helps you put that into a very clear picture and by combining multiple different curves on a single graph it is sometimes very obvious who your lower performers are.

      GOAL SETTING AND MANAGEMENT


      Goals are useful tools for channeling behavior and helping to target objectives that businesses’ are interested in, however to be effective – goals need to be clearly stated and well defined.  

      When explained properly and tracked appropriately, goals help to increase motivation and performance and help to define job expectations.  SMART goals are excellent tools for building an effective Performance Appraisal System and for defining measurements for your employees.

      Clearly stated – difficult goals – have a much greater impact than simply and easy goals that are not well explained and some of the best goals are SMART.

      What are SMART Goals?

      SMART goals are:
      • Specific

      • Measureable

      • Actionable/Achievable

      • Realistic

      • Time Based
      Goals defined using the SMART mindset allow employees to have a better idea of what they are being measured on and what the expectations of management are for them in terms of performance.  Employees are better able to align their work to their rewards which increases motivation.

      Now many organizations define these goals from a top down perspective but it is actually a better idea to involve the employee in the process.  This improves employee buy-in and and also ensures that the goals are actually realistic to the work being performed.  This is called MBO (Management By Objective) and is both a strategy and a tactic to help drive performance.  MBO needs to remain flexible, because the MBO process will require adjustment over time.

      When goals are SMART and the rewards for successful achievement specified there is generally a higher level of commitment and acceptance with a correspondingly higher success rate.

      Goal Feedback

      One of the worst things that managers can do is not communicate with their staff and a critical area of communication is their goals.  Managers should have regular (weekly/bi-weekly/monthly) meetings with all of their direct reports and a discussion about goals should occur at least once a quarter. Measuring someone on their performance only at through a performance appraisal is criminal and completely unfair as if you only discuss goals annually there is no opportunity to improve.
      To ensure that goals are on-track, it is good to provide feedback to the employee.  Companies should ensure that they incorporate feedback into all of their processes and well timed formal and informal feedback on goals helps both parties determine their progress.

      Theory Y principles discuss empowering the employee and one key way is through this MBO feedback.  Completed rigorously and often it allows employees to grow and exceed their goals while ensuring that company objectives are met and surpassed.

        QUALITY AND CUSTOMER SERVICE


        Quality measurements in manufacturing teams are actually somewhat easy to do – simply determine the number of parts that fail in a specific and measurable manner and review those failures against the successes or targets that have been set. 

        Implementation of Self Directed Teams with appropriate Scanlon or Ruckerplans are great ways of having the teams doing the work, self police themselves in fact which makes it an even more cost effective solution and helps those companies that make the effort truly stand out from their competition! 

        Customer service (template and administrative) teams too are not too difficult to measure – here a quality team would be ensuring that a representative provides appropriate information based on company direction and that they do not deviate from a set script that has been assigned to them. 

        In technical teams however, measuring quality is not a simple thing to do. Standard KPIs are almost always based around Quantity (for example, number of calls handled, average speed of answer etc…) whereas quality based KPIs are focused more on customer satisfaction which by definition is often a subjective measurement and more often than not based on a customers’ “perception” of the service which is often colored by previous interactions. 

        However regardless of the difficulty there is absolutely still a solid and worthy reason to measure this as it ensures that your staff are being polite and empathetic to the customer and their problems. Perhaps even more importantly though, technical teams should have the technical skills that they need to solve the problem at hand – quality measurements are the perfect place to ensure that those skills are present and that the team answering the question on the phone or via email is giving the customer the right answer the first time. 

        Quality measurements tied to performance appraisals are a key tool in developing staff and by having unbiased analysis conducted through an external team (or even another geographically separate team doing the same job) it is possible to incentivise teams appropriately and also determine what training opportunities or gaps exist so that the overall service provided to customers is improved. Future posts will discuss measurement tools and KPIs that are appropriate to quality in significantly greater depth – stay tuned!

        MOTIVATION AND THEORIES OF MOTIVATION


        Motivating staff for the best performance possible is a matter of finding the right drivers that interest them and reinforcing those drivers while providing negative reinforcement on other, unwanted behaviors.  There are two main types of theories to motivate employees – the content theory (motivation is internally based on employee needs and wants) and process theory (external factors that can be used to influence employee behavior).

        Two of the most famous content theories are Maslow’s hierarchy (as shown above) and Herzberg’s two-factor theory.  Maslow’s theory proposes that lower order (physiological) needs must be satisfied before higher order (psychological) needs can be considered.  Herzberg’s theory falls in between Maslow’s and other process theories and states that one set of factors causes motivation and satisfaction (content factors) and another set is responsible for dissatisfaction and low motivation (hygiene factors).

        Process theories of motivation are primarily split up into Expectancy and Equity theories.  Expectancy theory focuses on the relationship between effort, performance, and rewards and as the name states, rests on expectations, instrumentality, and valence.  Equity theory is very much a match to the name – with equity theory, the employee is basically comparing themselves against others and depending upon that comparison choosing to be motivated or demotivated.


        Behavior modification (BMod) specifies the crucial role of the environment in shaping behavior and states that behavior is a function of its consequences.  With BMod positive and negative reinforcement strengthen behavior, and punishment and extinction weaken behavior.  Reinforcers can be either fixed or variable and the delivery can be either at a fixed interval or at some defined ratio. Partial reinforcement schedules have powerful effects on behavior.  By changing the ratio‘s of reinforcement, positive behaviors can be strengthened.  This is known as behavioral shaping and is a very powerful tool.

        STRESS AND BURNOUT

        The General Adaptation Syndrome has three key area’s:
        1. Alarm – is the ‘fight-or-flight response’ that mobilizes the body and mind to defend against physical and psychological threat.
        2. Resistance 
        3. Exhaustion
        Employees suffering negative stress related symptoms (Alarm/Resistance phases) generally demonstrate specific behaviors or patterns in lowered on the job performance – inattentiveness and carelessness are two prime examples.  As stress continues to build  and the cumulative effects get felt, an employee’s ability to cope tends to get exhausted (Exhaustion phase – physical and mental shutdown) and they experience job burnout (a prolonged period of psychological withdrawal from work). Note however that positive stress (eustress in contrast to distress) exists also and while eustress can lead to increase effort and performance (challenges to the employee) … too much of this too can eventually lead to exhaustion.

        Environmental stress factors originate from economic, political or technological uncertainty and induce alarm reaction and cause the employee’s performance to decline.  Organisational stress factors increase in number and intensity in firms that are contemplating downsizing or outsourcing to revitalise a flagging business model (deteriorating competitive advantage).

        GET MORE DETAILED INFORMATION AT THE LINKS BELOW:

          Type A personalities are generally considered very competitive and action oriented.  They show little patience and in extreme circumstances can become hostile.  Certain Type A’s exhibit Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED) where their reactions are completely out of context to the situation.  Type B’s by contrast are more “normal” and generally better able to handle stress and stressful situations.

          STRESS AND WELLBEING

          Stress on the job is an unfortunate fact of life and probably something that is here to stay until the inevitable robot uprising (probably another cause for stress to be honest) but controlling our reactions to the stress we experience on the job is a crucial component of work–life satisfaction. Some common strategies for reducing stress are as follows:
          1. Exercise – notwithstanding the obvious weight loss and health implications, moderate, regular exercise is strongly correlated with personal well-being (peace of mind), rising levels of ‘good’ cholesterol and falling levels of bad cholesterol and reduction in other health risk factors.  Exercise also helps to reduce stress and can mitigate intermittent explosive disorder (IED) symptoms as discussed in further detail here.
          2. Relaxation – while exercise gets the heart pumping, relaxation in contrast does the exact opposite, but it too has a positive effect on stress reduction and overall well being.  There have been many studies conducted that positively demonstrate this behavior – in Western culture, the relaxation response is triggered through prayer, whereas in Eastern culture it is activated by meditation.  One fact to be considered though – one easy way of reducing stress is through the avoidance of and distancing of stressful situations in the first place – while not the easiest thing to do at work, its definitely something to be considered!
          3. Diet – A simple but basic concept that is popular with computer programmers is called GIGO.  This acronym stands for Garbage In, Garbage Out and it really speaks to the role of diet in stress management.  We are what we eat. Diet plays a significant, indirect role in stress management. While you might only correlate fatty foods with weight gain, the body too has stress symptoms that are triggered when “bad” foods are introduced.  These symptoms are shown by elevating bad cholesterol, lowering good cholesterol and dumping large quantities of glycogen (basic sugar) and sodium into the blood stream.  Unfortunately like everything else in life, the best strategy with diet is moderation.
          4. Guilt & shame. The key thing to establish here is that they are NOT the same thing!  Everyone makes mistakes in their life and guilt is a useful emotion when we resolve to make amends, however you are who you are and should never feel ashamed of that fact.  People who experience guilt will alleviate it by becoming more empathetic and working harder to resolve conflicts. Individuals who feel shame isolate themselves (I’m a bad person), become depressed (I’m worthless) and alienate others (It’s their fault).
          5. Build up your stress resistance. Like most things in life, “practice makes perfect” and while continuous and ongoing stress is not good for you – small doses can actually make you a better and more effective employee.The key principle is learning to handle more stress while you resolve to experience less of it. 

          Wellness and Job Stress Management

          Corporate stress-management programmes have two main goals and while an employee might think their objectives are 100% benevolent  the fact is that both goals are focused on getting the most that they possibly can from their employee. 
          1. Improve overall job satisfaction and employee performance
          2. Improve the overall effectiveness of the company

          Some common features of stress management programs are:


          • Theory and information about stress, its physical effects and the psychological and behavioral problems caused.
          • Tools and resources to allow an employee to determine their level of stress and have an ongoing way of measuring it.
          • Details of some relaxation and coping techniques as discussed earlier and  if a specific stressor has been identified – more specific information on how to deal with that also.

          Theory Y organizations (as discussed in further detail here and here) tend to make these commitments for more positive reasons – namely the knowledge that investing in their employees pays significant future dividends from a loyalty and commitment perspective in the future.  Theory Y organizations generally exhibit 3 key preconditions for success:


          1. Rewarding performance vs. “facetime”
          2. Focusing on living and working by values
          3. Respect for the individual

          A Fact of Life

          One of the biggest stressors in today’s world is the threat of redundancy and job loss.  Unfortunately a significant driving factor in job loss, is the trend to outsource jobs (service and manufacturing) to developing countries.  Dealing with employees – the survivors – in industries experiencing downsizing is never easy or fun. Some of the facts of life now are:
          • Domestic competition isn’t – with access to the Internet and global markets, its now extremely easy for even the smallest entrepreneur to offer their products or services in any size market.  Larger organizations are also taking advantage of these trends.
          • Big companies are getting bigger – mergers and acquisitions are a continuous and ongoing trend and most often, the managers and employees who work for the loser become the next ones to be unemployed: ‘To the winner go the spoils!’ Unfortunately while not an ideal growth choice, it is often the only way for some companies to grow in saturated markets.
          • Contractors and Temporary staff – Theory X companies especially practice this strategy and employee many contract and temporary staff due to the lower costs to the business.  Loyalty in temporary staff is not a driving factor and unfortunately due to the economic situations, there is never a lack of resources to fill the role!  Additional pressure is applied in public companies for this very same reason as the outsourcing of non-core business functions (even through the loss of skilled staff) raises profits by lowering costs.

          ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO MANAGEMENT



          In contrast to the hard sciences like Physics and Chemistry, Organizational Behavior (OB) is a Social or soft science that is specifically focused on people and processes at work.  OB studies the relationships between operational effectiveness and employee needs and how differing factors like job satisfaction, organizational commitment and job involvement relate.

          Management while a key component of the study of Organizational Behavior does not in and of itself comprise the whole of OB.  Management in fact deals with achieving the goals of OB through the people and resources of the organization.  Manager`s jobs in the 21st century have changed from what they were previously (& the rate of change is increasing significantly with Generation Y) however and have taken on more of a focus towards coaching, mentoring and conflict resolution.

          Values are enduring beliefs that a person has and they help drive their behavior and actions.  Values are considered either Instrumental or Terminal.

          • Instrumental Values – how do you achieve the goals in your life?
          • Terminal Values – what are your life goals?


          Read a detailed description of the information presented at the links below:

          Locus of Control
          • Internal Locus of Control – personal behavior drives specific behaviors and they are responsible for their own life.
          • External Locus of Control – environment controls behaviors and outcomes are driven by forces beyond their control.
          Employee behaviors are shaped by – 
          1. Achievement – people high in this area tend to go into business for themselves if not properly motivated.
          2. Affiliation – people high in this area tend to like groups and greater involvement.
          3. Power – generally of two types (1) personalized and (2) socialized.  Socialized is the better of the two as it can help energize a team and organization.  A “bad” example of personalized is a Machiavellianism personality.  This type of person has the urge to control, manipulate or influence others to achieve one’s personal ends. The high-Mach individual thrives and embraces fluid, unstructured organisational circumstances.

          Job Satisfaction

          Composed of various different factors, job satisfaction is not directly related to performance but rather has a complex relationship which is determined by the availability of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards.

          Read a detailed description of the information presented at the links below:



          Organizational Commitment and Job Involvement

          How hard will someone work on the behalf of their company?  This is a description of Organizational commitment.  This doesn’t happen as quickly as Job Satisfaction, but it lasts longer once formed – although it can be impacted by economic situations (job losses and redundancies in the firm).

          While organizational commitment is a positive, an employee that does not show this behavior can still have job involvement and as such will not be as negatively impacted by redundancies.

          The Difference Between Incident Managment and Problem Management

          Incident Management and Problem Management are both key components of the ITIL service model and have been defined and created in an effort to provide a better and more streamlined service to consumers.

          ITIL itself stands for the – Information Technology Infrastructure Library – and comprises of the following books:

          • ITIL Service Strategy 
          • ITIL Service Design 
          • ITIL Service Transition 
          • ITIL Service Operation 
          • ITIL Continual Service Improvement
          Incident Management and Problem Management are both elements of the fourth volume – ITIL Service Operation, which tries to define the best practice for dealing with interruptions to a customers service.

          What is an Incident?

          An incident is a single – unique – issue impacting one specific customer and their service. While there can be many similar incidents impacting multiple customers, each of them are in their fashion unique and need to be logged and treated as such.

          An example of an incident is you losing your home Internet connection. While the underlying root cause could be related to a fiber cut impacting hundreds of houses, your individual issue is one specific incident as it is unique to you. 

          What is the objective of the Incident Management team?

          The Incident Management team is the group responsible for dealing with your issue. Now they could be called by a variety of different names – Helpdesk, Service Desk, Technical Support Team etc… – their primary role is to get your service restored in as timely a manner as possible. They are basically there to put a “band-aid” on your problem and not necessarily resolve the root cause.

          How are Incidents Tracked?

          Incidents are tracked and responded to through a variety of different automated and manual tools. The ideal function of the Incident Management team is to resolve the issue before it has an impact on your business/life and they track these issues through a variety of different alarms and monitoring tools.

          The worst type of reporting is one in which a manual report is needed. If a customer has been impacted, then in some fashion they have already failed in one of their primary roles!

          What is a problem?

          In the context of Incident Management, a Problem is one that comprises multiple incidents. If you take into account my previous example of an Internet failure at your home, the problem, in this case, would be the actual fiber cut which is the root cause of the issue.

          As such, this “problem” would have multiple incidents attached to it.

          What is Problem Management?

          In contrast to Incident Management, Problem Management is a lot more than just slapping a band-aid on an Incident. With Problem Management the underlying root cause of an issue must be discovered and steps are taken to ensure that similar issues do not occur in the future. Problem Management is a significantly more involved process and takes quite a bit more time and resources to achieve correctly.

          Technical Support and Tiered Support Levels

          In Customer Service and Technical Support it is all about getting that client issue to the right person (based on skills and language) as quickly as possible and ensuring that you meet or exceed your SLA. Now this can be accomplished through a variety of different methods and depending upon the size of your contact center, you should ensure that you explore some or all of them.

          Training 

          Probably the most important criteria is training. You need to ensure that you have explored the requirements and needs of your customers fully and that based on these needs, the majority of your agents have the requisite skills to resolve their issues and assist them. Determining Their Needs 

          If you do not know what your clients need then this is absolutely the first area of concern. You need to conduct surveys and do analysis of your past and historical incidents and contacts and determine from that what they are going to be asking. You will find that there is a significant amount of repetition with regards to client inquiries and if you are in a business with a growing customer base you will see this repetition play out most frequently with new accounts. Once you know what they are going to be asking, then you can put a training plan into place to ensure that you plug those holes. The quicker and sooner you are able to do this, the more satisfied your customers will be. 

          Tiered Support Model 

          As important as training is, you are not going to be able to have all of your staff at the same level. This is actually not a bad thing as the questions and queries that you will be receiving will also be at differing levels of complexity. By putting in place a plan that allows you to tier your teams based on their skills not only are you being more efficient with your resources, but you are also building an escalation model and a promotion path into your support organization. 

          Erlang ‘C’ & Scheduling for Call Centres 

          Tiered Support ensures that your training dollars are best spent where they are most useful and also allows you to offer your customers an increased level of service in various different fashions. 

          Tier’ing Your Customers 

          As you might recall from my previous posts on the 80/20 rule (here and here), you are best served by distributing your clients based on their “value” to your business. As much as you might like to treat all clients the same, the unfortunate fact is that they are not! You will often find that 20% of your customers are responsible for 80% of your issues and also (and perhaps more importantly!) 20% of your clients are responsible for 80% of your revenue. Unfortunately also, these two different “circles” do not always overlap and it is absolutely key that you determine which of your clients fit into which circle. 
          Once you have made that determination however, things become much clearer and easier to handle. By putting your customers into tiers, you are able to offer the ones with higher value to your business a different path to the support that they need in contrast to your other customers.

          What is PRINCE2

          PRINCE2 stands for PRojects IN Controlled Environments and is a very popular method for effective Project Management. 

          PROJECT MANAGEMENT 

          While PRINCE2 is one way of managing Projects, it is worthwhile defining what exactly a project is and why it needs management in the first place! 


          A project is specific task/role that needs to be completed to meet certain objectives. In a managed project, you would have a defined beginning and end and certain “check points” throughout the process itself to ensure that you were on target to meet your overall objectives.


          These checkpoints are referred to as “gates” and at each gate, you would have certain deliverable and targets to check your progress against. By managing a project in this fashion, you are able to ensure that you stay on track and that any issues or concerns are identified and dealt with at an early stage of the process versus waiting till the end.

          The defined “end” to a project is necessary as it creates a clear distinction between business as usual and the new objective that you are trying to accomplish.

          WHERE DID PRINCE2 COME FROM?

          PRINCE2 is the standard that is used extensively throughout the UK government and by millions of organizations world wide. PRINCE was established in 1989 and was superseded by PRINCE2 in 1996. Similar to ITIL, PRINCE2 provides Project Managers – regardless of the industry or sector – with a common language and terminology. It also provides a “best practices” framework for project management and ensures that – if done correctly – all relevant parties are kept informed and appraised of the progress of a project from start to finish. A few of the key features of PRINCE2 are:
          • A defined structure for the Project Management Team
          • Product based planning with a clear focus on Business and Customer needs
          • A staged process allowing the project to be divided into manageable chunks

          QUALIFYING AS A PRINCE2 PROJECT MANAGER

          There are two primary levels to the qualifications available for PRINCE2.
          • PRINCE2 Foundation – The first level of qualification, the Foundation, provides the basics and terminology used in PRINCE2. Foundation training is appropriate for those looking to make a start in Project Management or working towards a supporting role in Project Management.
          • PRINCE2 Practitioner – Unlike some other technical certifications, PRINCE2 only has the 2 levels instead of a whole tree. The Practitioner level is the highest qualification and is appropriate to those looking to manage Projects in a PRINCE2 environment.

          Why Is Training Important?

          There are several key reasons to ensure that your staff are appropriate trained and skilled.  Perhaps the most important is that it ensures your team is better able to provide a response to your customer that is appropriate to their issue or problem.   In addition, by ensuring that your staff have the right skills, your company is better prepared for the future and will be significantly more efficient and productive.

          Reasons for Employee Training

          Some of the most common reasons for training and development include the following:
          • Based on a performance appraisal and issues identified
          • To improve a companies performance and efficiency
          • To improve an employees future job prospects within the company
          • To help a company deal with a new technology or tool
          • To help a company obtain a specialized certification

          Training Types

          Generally training is split into two main categories (although these can also be combined in some fashion):
          • Internal Training – Provided by the company directly, this is most common with call centers and technical support teams.  Internal training provides information about the specific company and is extremely useful to new employees trying to learn the essentials of what the business does, what products the company provides and what types of customers are serviced by the business.  Internal Training is generally provided by internal resources that have the relevant skills and this type of training can be both structured and unstructured.  Often internal training is conducted for external 3rd parties also to ensure that prospective customers understand the underlying structure of a business and what its products are able to do (and more importantly perhaps, what they cannot do!).
          • External Training – External training is somewhat more structured and is generally provided by a 3rd party business or company.  This training is skill specific and is often provided if and when a business does not have the relevant skills in house.  A good example of External Training are certifications – either technical or quality related.

          Training Benefits

          Training has significant benefits to businesses in several different areas, most notably however with regards to employee motivation and retention.  Training is generally considered a “benefit” and those companies that provide this to their staff on a regular basis have an increased level of staff satisfaction.  Also – those businesses that provide this to their staff have a better trained and skilled workforce which translates directly into an improved level of Customer Satisfaction.

          Some Resume Essentials

          Your CV and Resume is your primary tool in finding a new role.  Without having a properly formatted and targeted resume, you are not presenting yourself in the best light possible and you will lose out to others.  Spending the time now is a wise investment not only in your future but also in your career as it can set you apart from your competition and maximize the interview opportunities you will receive.
          Formatting

          It is essential that you format your resume to the role that you are looking for.  Management jobs should clearly be emphasized if you are applying for a management role, and similarly if you are applying for a sales executive position, you need to show and demonstrate your sales skills including revenue generation and territory growth.

          Do not forget to emphasize your Customer Service and Client Management skills as most roles – regardless of the title – will be looking for these.

          What Can You Do?

          It is absolutely essential that you provide your readers with an idea of the skills and capabilities that you possess.  This should be a very high level statement but quite explanatory and anyone reading it should understand at a glance what you are capable of and what you bring to the table.
          Please note that this statement should NOT be your personal objectives.  You should actually avoid including these in your resume entirely as those statements are what you want and not what you can DO.  The company hiring you wants to know what your skills are and how they can benefit them – not why you want the job!
          Give Them Real Numbers
          This is one of the most important components to your resume. You need to communicate in your resume not just what you do, but what HAPPENS when you do what you do! This technique also helps employers envision you working with them, helping them with similar challenges and issues.
          Use The Right Words
          Key words organized in a group called something like “core competencies” for instance, will do two things for you. It serves to potentially qualify you for more interviews, assuming those companies you are submitting your resume to use key word scanners. Second, key words. i.e., your strengths that stand alone allow the reader to view your competencies independent of any past company associated with it. This has a positive psychological effect as again, it enhances the reader’s ability to picture YOU in the position they are working to fill.

          Managing in a Matrix Structure

          Matrix management is somewhat different to the standard way of managing people and processes; however for a Project Manager, this is generally the only way of getting things done. Most projects operate in some kind of a matrix environment where resources to actually get the job done are acquired and released from other teams. In this fashion, the Project Manager is able to call upon the skills and excellence of staff throughout the organization to assist him in accomplishing his project, without having to build a huge and immense team internally.

          What is Matrix Management?

          Matrix Management is sometimes referred to as “dotted line” management and is fundamentally different to standard line management. With matrix management, you are responsible for some elements of that person’s role, but only in how it applies to your overall project. The day to day management of that employee including salary reviews, performance and so on, still remain the responsibility of their overall line manager.

          Pluses and Minuses of Matrix Management

          One of the biggest pluses of Matrix management is that you are not responsible for the tedious tasks of managing people and teams. Your responsibility is to the overall project and that person is simply a resource that you are utilizing to get the job done. However this comes with a downside – as you are not their day-to-day manager and do not have any overall influence on them from a managerial perspective, there are limits to what you can get them to do.

          Pluses –

          • No need for line management tasks like pay reviews and disciplinary meetings.
          • Clearly defined objectives (project goals) are provided with a defined completion timetable
          • Your job description and focus is well defined, as is that of each of the team members
          • You are able to “poach” the best and most suitable resources from other parts of the company to accomplish your objectives versus having to make do with the staff in your team

          Minuses –

          • Who do they listen to? Unless its very well defined, your new resource can be pulled in too many directions between the requirements of your role and the work they were doing for their manager.
          • Projects have a well defined timeline and due to these time constraints there are often issues with allowing staff to have time away from the job for personal development.

          Myers-Briggs Preferences

          Your type does not determine your behavior. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is simply a categorization of how you “prefer” to behave and even this is to some extent situation dependent as while someone might be a “E” type personality (i.e. Extraversian), after a full day at work and meeting/greeting/interacting with people – their inclination at the end of the day might be towards the “I” spectrum (Intraversian).
          People generally have both competing types inside them at all times – the MBTI however simply describes which type is more likely during normal circumstances and which type you have a preference towards.
           
          Read more here.

          Six Sigma and Process Improvement

          Once upon a time some very smart and intelligent people looked at the world around them and realized that the way things are working now is not the only way in which things can work.  These people realized that the businesses exist to service a need and the need they are fulfilling is what people are willing to pay for.  At the same time they also saw that by giving customers a more valuable and quality focused product they would be able to ensure that those customers would continue to come back.  Some of these extremely smart people were W. Edwards Deming, Michael Hammer and Joseph Juran and they focused on a a very fundamental truth: The main source of waste and inefficiencies are problems in the process.
          After careful analysis and much further work by other visionaries over the years Six Sigma was born.  What is Six Sigma you may ask?  At its simplest you could say that 99% quality is One Sigma.  Businesses that state they function at this level seem laudable until you do some more digging though –

          99% “good quality” means:

          Unsafe drinking water almost 15 minutes each day.
          5,000 incorrect surgical operations per week.
          Two airplane accidents at most U.S. major airports each day.
          200,000 wrong drug prescriptions each year.
          No electricity for almost 7 hours each month.
          Conversely Six Sigma is a striving for 99.9999% quality.  As you can well imagine reaching this lofty goal is NOT an easy matter and takes significant effort and focus.  Not just in the initial stages but on an ongoing basis.  However those companies that are able to reach this goal are some of the best run and most profitable in the world.  Their clients are the happiest and most loyal and the products that they sell some of the most ubiquitous ones out there.
          One of the ways in which Six Sigma is achieved is through analysis of existing processes (A process is a repeatable sequence of operations, organized to produce a set of desired outcomes) in a search for things that are going wrong and don’t make sense.  Interestingly, when organizations first analyze their critical processes they are usually struck by how complex they are.  Many processes that are absolutely central to the success of an organization were not designed; they just evolved. They consist of activities passed on from one generation of managers and workers to the next.
          By analyzing the process and removing some the complexity an immediate impact can be made and this is where the different tools of Six Sigma come into play – things like the Spaghetti Tree and Kaizan events and others.  Once you know what isn’t working and WHY you can take the necessary next steps to resolve them.  However the thing that should be kept upermost in your thoughts at all times is that Six Sigma is a quality improvement and the person who determines the final quality of your product is your customer!
          If quality or expected performance is below expectations when people do their jobs as designed, then asking them to “do better” is managerial nonsense. The process must be significantly improved or redesigned. Doing the job right when saddled with a flawed process inevitably results in sub-standard performance.  The only way to improve performance is to understand and correct the process that generates problems. Fix the process, and the problems will vanish.

          The Voice of the Customer

          There are many ways of learning what is essential in your business.  However probably the most powerful and least practiced is that of Customer Feedback.  Having the greatest widget in the world is useless if your customers don’t want to buy it and if it doesn’t resolve a perceived need.  Getting that information from your customers can be accomplished in a variety of ways though and it pays to ensure that you are doing as many of them as possible.  (One point to note – conducting a survey is important, but if you don’t actually do anything with those results, then you shouldn’t have wasted the time or the money in gathering that information!)

          Customer Feedback Is Critical

          In order to drive continual customer service improvements, companies need to focus on obtaining the information from their clients, analyzing that information and acting on that information.  Remember, as stated earlier … if no action is taken – don’t bother!

          Capturing Customer F

          Capturing what your customers want can be done via a variety of different means now a days.  Web and surveys are common as are physical surveys that are mailed out to customers.  Depending on the size of your business and your customer base, there are many large organizations that can assist in gathering, collating and analyzing this information for you, but if you are just starting out a simple spreadsheet with the feedback that you’ve received from your customers is a great starting point! 

          Listen to them NOT just in your surveys but also in your daily interactions with them via your support and customer service teams.

          Another great way to get information from customers is via focus groups.  Often used at the beginning of a product stage to determine WHAT customers want, it is just as effective afterwards to determine HOW you are performing and if you are meeting or exceeding expectations.

          Another point to note – DO NOT over survey your customers.  It is quite common for different parts of the same company to send out different surveys to the SAME customer.  While it is obviously important to that division, the information that is returned will not be as useful as the customer will NOT be providing an unbiased response. 

          It is best if all survey’s are done via a centralized team or department and then the results of that survey shared among the company as a whole. Customer feedback collected through surveys, e-mails, phone calls, online chat and other channels can be combined into a single instance, integrating both structured and unstructured data into a central platform and enabling companies to extract maximum insight from the information collected in a cost-effective and timely manner.

          Analyzing the Data

          Customer feedback is subjective.  It always will be and this needs to be understood by the group running the survey and appropriate steps taken.  Another very significant point is that when survey’s are sent out it, it is essential that steps are taken to “tie” the response to a specific issue so that you are able to make the most use of this information.  In addition, decisions via survey should never be taken unless the sample size is large enough.

          Solving the Issues

          Once you’ve determined what your customers want, prioritize those issues based on the 80/20 rule (Pareto principle) and let your clients know what you are doing to resolve the issues.  What your plan is, how soon you expect to have the issue resolved and what the benefits to them would be.  There is no harm in sharing a commonly perceived error with your existing users … THEY ALREADY KNOW IT’S THERE! … and if they see that you are going to take steps to resolve the problems they will understand that their best interests are in remaining with you.  Remember that these are already your customers – you just want to treat them the right way and sharing information with them is a simple and effective way of doing this.

          Managing Technical Teams

          Managing technical staff is becoming more of a challenge daily. Even more so, when your staff are MORE technical than you are – which to some extent is expected … you are a manager and responsible for multiple area’s of the company, they are specialists and able to focus on their area to the exclusion of everything else.
          In most cases technical staff are those who prefer to perform their work with little or no supervision and they often view Management “oversight” as a hindrance to their – getting the job done. They also quite often forget that at the other end of the phone line, there is a customer (or customers) that has been impacted and regardless of the fact that they “think” they can resolve the problem, there are timelines and SLAs in place to ensure that issues get escalated. Now, while “techs” are members of the team that managers depend upon heavily to resolve the problem, it is the managers responsibility to understand the “big picture” and also the challenges faced by these key members at a non-technical level.
          The manager is responsible for balancing the needs of the company against the needs of these key resources and obviously directing technical staff can be a challenge. It is made even more of one, by those managers that are unable to step back and release control (or delegating). The understanding between a manager and his team must be such that trust exists at either level. You trust them to get the job done in a timely manner and escalate those problems that they are unable to handle & they trust you to keep their best interests in mind, work with them to get more training (which is something a “true” techie will never have enough of), ensure that they have the resources and training to resolve the problems that you are assigning to them and in those instances where its necessary … pull them back and away from a problem so that they do not get defeated. This mutual respect MUST be in place if the team and organization is expected to be effective.
           
          The manager of a technically oriented department MUST have a reasonable grasp of the technologies and issues that his staff will face. They should be able to understand it at a “high” level, but it is OK to let your staff know that they are smarter than you! Remember they are skilled in their unique discipline and while you could not do their job, they are not managers and could not do your job either. It is far more important for the manager to be able to direct the staff to the right resources, tools or training when working issues. If the employee cannot perform the task with his current level of knowledge, it is incumbent on the manager and the company to ensure that appropriate and relevant training is available in a timely (& frequent) manner. Technical skills “rust” when not used and with the plethora of new technologies constantly being developed and launched it is very difficult to always be current with the newest while maintaining a grip on legacy tools/applications and knowledge.
          Managers are constantly expected to do more, with less resources, regardless of the economy (think about it – in good times, the number of customers you have are increasing whereas your resources won’t (at least not at a comparative rate) as the company is in business to make a profit … in bad time, you lose staff and have to service what customers you have left with fewer and fewer resources) and unfortunately is probably one of the few constants in our world! Now, not only do you always have to do more with less, but you need to also ensure that the staff you have you KEEP! The cost of hiring/training and integrating new staff and making them useful is a topic for another day, but suffice it to say, if you have a “good ‘un”, you want to keep him! Its a fine line between customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction and its a tightrope you’ll be walking every day. I generally tend to err on the side of employee satisfaction – if you have good staff, doing a good job who are happy doing that job … customer satisfaction just comes naturally!

          Why Do Customers Matter?

          Perhaps this is stating the obvious, but we want a large base of loyal customers as they are  a lot more profitable than just “happy/satisfied” customers. They consistently do business with us and on top of that they give free advertising to others to do business with us.
          Besides that, we already know that is ten times easier to keep a customer happy than to gain a new one, so based on this, it sounds like a pretty good deal to just give customers the GREAT/MEMORABLE service they are expecting and keep their business coming “home”.
          The question of course is – What is Memorable and What do customers want from us?
          First we need to understand that customers these days are smarter, more demanding, less forgiving, harder to satisfy and most of all approached by competitors on a daily basis, therefore the extra mile we used to walk has now become “The Expected”.
          In order to gain Customer Loyalty we need to show them:
          • The value of our service. Let them know that they are dealing with  professionals that are willing to understand and help them. “We are here to help you”.
          • How assertive we are. We will provide the correct information exactly when they need it and in the way they need it. “We are here to inform you”.
          • The best attitude. Regardless of how you communicate with your customers be that email, voice or chat it is essential that your willingness to help is transmitted through the conversation.  “We are glad to help you”.
           Now like I said earlier – these three things are no longer going above and beyond but are rather the expectation, so if you do them the only thing you are guaranteed to have is satisfied customers.  To get to the next level you will need to demonstrate:
          • Reliability, as there is nothing better for a customer than to know what service to expect and always get it, over and over again, if you don’t believe me then take a look at how McD’s is doing regardless of the market.
          • Timing, because customers want it now, the faster the better. However, worse than late is wrong. If you ordered a pepperoni pizza, a potato salad and light coke delivered to your door three minutes after hanging up the phone would probably not improve your loyalty.
          Now I don’t think anyone would disagree that by providing these elements of service to your customer you are going to have a significantly happier customer out there.  However its really easy to say that you need to do it … doing it is another question.  Here are some tips!
          1. Every time you start working on an issue ask yourself the following questions in this order: How any issues is the customer bringing to my attention? Is it clear to me what the problem(s)  is(are)? What information do I need to solve the problem? What information do I have at this  moment? How can I get what I am missing? By doing this, you will improve your accuracy in  solving the customer’s issues, you will start to work smarter instead of harder as you will focus  your efforts and time on solving the problem.
          2. Let the customers know what you have understood, what information you are giving them and in which order. This will tell the customers that you are taking their concerns seriously and that you will address all their questions. Remember there is nothing worse than being ignored and  when you address two out of three questions you are basically telling the customer “your third  request is not important to me”.
          3. Get training on the things you find difficult to solve, the more you know, the easier your work will be, and the easier your work is, the faster you can provide the right answer to the customer.  It is like body building, the more you know the stronger you get. The difficult part of putting this advice in practice is to recognize what we don’t know and even harder to be humble and ask for help. In my experience every time I have asked someone to teach me, they have felt proud of passing their knowledge to anybody who approaches them with respect,  paradoxically this does not always work with teachers but has worked perfectly with  colleagues.
          4. I don’t have specific advice on improving your attitude, there is no method or technique to follow that guarantees an improvement in this area, however, I suggest you start doing some exercises, drink two more glasses of water every day, reduce caffeine, eat chocolate and most of all worry only about the things you can control, like your reaction to every day events.

          Customers are human beings, as demanding and difficult to please as you and me. Think about the restaurants, pubs, stores, online sites, etc that keep you going back and spending your money there,  what have those places done to earn your loyalty and then think about what else can we do to keep  earning your customers loyalty.