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.
Job Search

Conducting an effective Job Search

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It’s easy to make a mistake when searching for a job, unfortunately, by doing so you are adversely impacting your ability to find that role of your dreams and case should be taken to minimize this as much as possible. In this difficult job climate, care must be taken with even the smallest detail and your review should include your resume and cover letter as well as your own references!

Paperwork –

Your Resume/CV and Cover Letter are generally your first introduction to the company. You can never make a first impression again so it pays to ensure that the information you are providing to the prospective employer is accurate, factual and well presented. Use good quality paper if sending out or providing hard copies and ensure that it is readable. Try not to exceed 2 pages by formatting and if necessary deleting or editing out previous roles to ensure that it fits.

More Details –

Cover Letters are your ticket to selling yourself. While a CV/Resume is by its very nature a dry and factual document, a cover letter speaks to your passions and ambitions and you should utilize it fully to draw the reader’s attention to the parts of your background that are most applicable to the specific job.

Customization –

It is essential that you customize your resume & cover letter to the job that you are applying for. Having a “master” version of your CV that is available to you is a good first step and then depending on the role that you are applying for and what they are looking for you can and should tailor your CV (resume) and Cover Letter appropriately.

Networking –

If you only depend upon the job boards for roles, you are missing a vital clue. Make sure that you network (use LinkedIn for example) and speak to your friends and family. Get involved in some “after school” activities and clubs and meet other people in your community and in any professional associations. Some studies have shown that almost 60% (or higher) of roles are filled in this manner and it is significantly more effective than mass applications!

Please & Thank You –

Being polite never hurts and you will find that it pays even greater dividends in the job search! A professional “Thank you for the time” after an interview is absolutely essential. In addition, it helps to bring your name back to the forefront after they have seen a raft of other applicants and also demonstrates your interest in the company and position.

The Boy Scout Code – “Be Prepared”.

Make sure you know your resume and are comfortable with all the details included in it. Make sure that you carry extra copies of your resume to your interview with you. If you have written references take them, if you have demonstrative project work … bring it!! More than likely you will not need all of this, but you are guaranteed to need it if you don’t have it with you!

Do your Homework –

It is 110%(!!!!) essential that you know the details of the company that you are interviewing with! What do they do? What products do they sell? Who is their biggest competition? What is their revenue? Are they public or private?? Not doing your homework on the company shows a distinct lack of interest and regardless of how well you interview the hiring manager is going to think … “if you’re not interested in me, why should I be interested in you??”
Customer Experience

Do you know what they are thinking?

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Ensuring that you measure your customers expectations of your business as well as acting to meet and exceed those expectations is a key step in ensuring that you are running a successful and profitable business.  Gaining valuable insightful customer feedback is key to ensuring that your business continues to address consumers’ needs.

Current data shows that over 80% of businesses currently make this effort, however that same research shows that the quality of these surveys and the data gathered from them was poor, with a significant percentage of people surveyed admitting that they had never undertaken the exercise at all!

However on the positive side, some companies that utilized automated technologies to assist them in their surveying had shown a significant increase in Customer Satisfaction and Revenue and a decrease in overall customer churn.  By utilizing these sorts of tools and conducting a thorough analysis of the results provided, companies have been able to utilize the 80/20 methodology to assist them in targeting the pressure points that are most painful to their customers and removing them!

The key point to take from this is that the best person to determine what is and isn’t working with your company is your customer and the only way that they will tell you what’s wrong is if you ask them!

Business Planning, Customer Satisfaction

The Fallacy of Price

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A common misconception is that if you lower the price you will get more customers.  This is not always the case by anymeans and there are some significant downsides to playing the price card which you should consider.

Now, you might not really have an option – if your competition has cut their price to some extent you will be forced to match this to ensure that you are not priced “out of the market” – however if this is not the situation and you are choosing to cut your price without any prompting from competitors or customers, there are reasons for and against this action.

Companies that pursue this strategy do so for a variety of reasons including the idea  that lowering prices will revive their customers’ wavering devotion and ultimately make the company better off. To defend the cuts, they cite changes in the competitive landscape, the convictions of upper management, a willingness to share cost savings and productivity improvements with customers, and the mistaken belief that lower prices equates to higher volumes. Because price cuts seem to offer the easiest way to lavish special treatment on customers, companies find the temptation hard to resist.

Now while some of these actions might be true there is significant justification in resisting the temptation.  Proactive price cuts don’t make you different, nor do they make you better off. They make you poorer, unless you have the evidence, the data, and the math to prove otherwise.

Lets look at a simple example:

Price of your widget = $10
Volume sold = 100

Revenue = $1000

New price of your widget = $8 (reduction of 50%)
Volume sold = 150 (increase of 50%)

Revenue = $750 … you would need to sell twice as many units … an increase of 100% to achieve the same revenue you enjoyed before the price cut!

This holds true regardless of how you cut prices. You can cut them through outright price reductions, by offering coupons or cash-back incentives, and by heaping services upon your customers in order to clinch a deal or cling to an existing customer relationship.  Remember that in an established industry there can only be one cost leader … in a mature industry in which competitors offer similar products based on similar technology and inputs, it may even be impossible for any company to achieve more than a slight cost advantage.

The key thing to remember is that you are in a business to make money AND deliver a service.  Your customer wants to pay fair value for the services rendered and they realize that if you went out of business they would need to go elsewhere. 

Tools

Using an IVR effectively

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First – what is an IVR? 
Some people also call it an ACD but whatever you call it, an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) or Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) system is used to get your customers to the right people to answer their questions or provide them with the right information.
 
When used effectively it can be great for your customers – they get their calls answered by knowledgeable people in a timely manner and for the companies its great too … by knowing who your customer is calling and about what you can ensure that you have the right people in place at the right time and you are able to pull the appropriate information from the system to ensure that this practice continues.
 
However, when an IVR is not working the right way, you are putting your customers in what is known as “IVR hell” – basically your clients are talking to the machine more than to your staff and are in a loop, just going around in circles getting madder and madder. This is one of the best ways to lose business!
 
How do you fix it you may ask? 
Well sometimes the issue or problem might actually be related to the technology itself but more often than not it’s the fact that you are offering too many options to the customer or when they actually do reach a representative that is supposed to be knowledgeable in the area that they are concerned about to hear the response that they are unable to help without additional information – which is more than frustrating!
 
You need to manage the caller’s expectations and to do this right; you need to ensure that your customers know what information is required BEFORE they speak to your representative – mention it at the start of your IVR and at every hold interval that you need to put in. Make sure that the IVR is actually working – try it yourself … REGULARLY … and try it from a customers point of view not with your inside knowledge of who to speak to … get people from other departments to call in if necessary. If you are able to integrate your IVR into your CRM solution do so – having all of the customers information available including past issues reported is extremely important and useful. Finally and perhaps most IMPORTANT … ensure that your staff on the other end of the line are able to solve the problem! Finally reaching a live body only to be told that they will need to call back does not help your customer’s mood.

Job Search, Networking

Using LinkedIn to find a job

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I’ve mentioned a couple of times now (see this post and this one) and its a really great tool not only to keep in touch with old work colleagues and keep apprised of whats going on in your industry but also to find a job.  LinkedIn’s job search should complement whatever you are currently doing to find a role via other online tools.

The greatest advantage and feature of LinkedIn (aside from the fact that some hiring managers use it exclusively so this is the only place you would be able to find that specific job) is the fact that you can get your existing colleagues and friends to act as your references and based on your “links” to the job/company in question there is quite a good chance that you can be recommended for the role by someone already working in the company.

In the current market, any advertised job posting can generate hundreds (if not thousands) of applications from potential candidates.  By using LinkedIn however you are able to get a referral from someone that already works in the company and this could possibly make a huge difference to your chances.  LinkedIn takes the traditional formula of networking and modernizes it in a perfect manner.  Keep in mind that studies have shown that 60-80% of all jobs are sourced purely through word of mouth – with that being said, having a way to make yourself visible to a larger market is bound to improve your hiring potential.

Step by Step –
  • Log in to LinkedIn and create an account.  Upload your CV/Resume and indicate all the companies and roles you’ve had in the past.  Find all the contacts in your previous roles and add them to your network (sorry, went through this really fast, but I will go through this in greater detail in future posts).
  • Now that you have a network in place, you can start searching for jobs that are close to you.
  1. Click on Jobs -> Find Jobs
  2. Click on Advanced search (under the Search Button)
  3. Fill in the fields on the next screen but make sure that you sort by Relationship
  4. On the next screen, you will be presented with a list of relevant jobs based on the criteria you have selected previously.  Underneath each role, however, is the phrase “See people in your network who can help you get this job”.  Click on this link and you will see people that are currently in the company that is hiring for that role.  Each layer of your network is given a number so if you see a “1” for any of these names then that means this is someone you know and have in your direct network.  A “2” would be someone that knows someone that you know – that is, you share a common contact.  Each subsequent number indicates a person that is that much further away from you.  Remember, with the LinkedIn search you can actually search for a specific company or a specific region to narrow down your search even further and you can even filter by the relationship.
  5. Once you have found someone that can help you, the next step is initiating contact.  If they are in your direct network that’s fairly easy as its a simple email from within LinkedIn.  If however they are removed from your direct network by one or two steps, you would need to get a referral from someone that you know.  LinkedIn

makes this easy also however as they give you a list of people in common that you share and you simply have to ask someone you know to refer your application onwards.

  • Once you have established contact with the person inside the company that has the job, its a simple matter to get additional details of the role, the name of the hiring manager, details about the company etc… With this information in hand, you can then personalize an application for the role and either have your internal contact forward it on for you or have it delivered directly to the hiring manager.  Aside from the fact that your application has been delivered from or via an internal resource, the personalization itself will make your application stand out even more!
Whether or not you are invited to interview for the suitable positions you’ll apply for using this process; your response rate should be higher than if you just apply blindly to a job. Best of luck on your job hunt!
Job Search, LinkedIn

Using LinkedIn effectively

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I’ve already spoken previously about the power of LinkedIn and how useful a tool and site it is. However, it definitely bears repeating as if you are not using LinkedIn properly you are missing one of the sharpest quivers in your bow when searching for a job or networking in general! If you do not know about LinkedIn at all – make sure you visit the site immediately and input as much information as possible to build a complete and accurate profile.

Here are some of the most common mistakes that people make with LinkedIn – check your account and ensure that you are not making one of these!

Personalize your profile

Add a photo. People prefer photo’s and images and generally, if a photo accompanies your profile, it will receive a higher level of attention. Make sure that people can find you by using your real name. The default setup of LinkedIn has a bunch of letters and numbers which means that people will only find you by searching for skills and location, not your name. In addition, LinkedIn allows you to have 3 additional sites that you can refer interested parties to. Use these to reference your blog, your company’s website or even your Twitter Feed. 

Recommendations

One of LinkedIn’s greatest strengths is its recommendations feature. Quite a few companies that utilize LinkedIn for their hiring will not even look at candidates without recommendations so make sure that you have as many as possible from your work history. You definitely want to get supervisory recommendations, but you should also aim to get peer recommendations to. 

Making it stand out

Use keywords and descriptive words throughout. While you do not want to have something that is 10 pages long, at the same time you are not restricted to 2 pages like most CVs and resumes so you have an opportunity on LinkedIn to actually explain what you’ve done throughout your career and how your achievements have helped in each of your previous roles. In addition, you want to expound on the actual “bottom line” – what did the company you worked for “get out of it” and why was it a benefit to them.

Errors and Proofreading

Perhaps something that doesn’t need repeating, but silly typo’s and grammar issues are one of the worst things that you could do. It immediately shows a prospective employer that you are NOT detail oriented and that you DO NOT make the appropriate effort in your work.

Updating and Groups

Another big no-no is inputting your information and forgetting about it. LinkedIn like lots of other sites thrives on content so if you’re not updating your information or participating in discussions and groups you are losing a whole new avenue to keep your name “out there”. Ensure that any new posts you make on blogs or other sites are advertised in the “What are you working on?” box and that you’ve linked your Twitter account so that it automatically updates for you.

KPI

Choosing What to Measure

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An old business axiom says:

You can’t control what you don’t measure

As a result, nearly everything in business is measured, tracked, monitored, analyzed, and benchmarked.  To flip this on its head a little bit though … should you measure what you can control or rather what is outside of your control?  While it is easy to put a number to things that you have complete control over wouldn’t there be a greater impact to your bottom line and the business if you started measuring things that impacted your customers but that you didn’t have complete control over?

You’ll find that you will see a far greater improvement as well as improved education for your teams and progression towards your goals if you start measuring the things that you can influence and not just the things that you control. 

Any color as long as its black

Probably one of the greatest quotes that never was is a perfect example of this point.  While you can definitely control the color of your product by offering only one choice to your customers you are definitely not going to have satisfied or happy customers if you do not give them a choice. 

Total control does not make for happy customers and in a similar manner,  what you can completely control is trivial.  The important stuff is important because it’s outside our circle of control.  Revenue and profit are obviously essential to any business.  Monitoring your bottom line is only one part of the formula.  It’s essential that you are measuring the factors that actually are critical to your company.  Here are some guidelines on helping you develop a plan to do this.

  1. Goals – what are you trying to accomplish?  What is it that your business does and build your goals around that.  Make the goals a stretch but achievable. Determine your measures for success. Make your goals challenging, but achievable. Your goals can be fairly large in scope – decrease customer churn, launch into a new market etc… however while your overall goal is broad in scope, you will need to break it down into specific and achievable objectives that are measurable and achievable.
  2. Company Performance – how does your company compare against the industry at large?  What percentage of your industry/market does your company control or have an influence on?  What turnover does your company have and how does that compare to the industry at large?
  3. Strengths and Weaknesses – be honest with yourself but ensure that you are accurate.  Where are you strong and where are you weak?  What can be done in each area to enhance your company further and give you an increased advantage on your competition?
  4. Customer Retention – one of your main goals should always be customer retention as getting a new customer is five times more expensive than retaining a current one.  Work on issues that increase and improve customer and brand loyalty.  Ensure that your teams are trained on customer service and that a helpful attitude greases more wheels!
  5. Advertising and Marketing – ensure that you are measuring the outcome of any advertising campaigns and marketing activities that your company does.  Your marketing results may be measured in sales (dollars or units), market share or a variety of other factors.  The goal should obviously be the number of new customers your advertising dollars earn.
  6. Employee Performance and Churn – track your employees and their performance.  Top employees are crucial to your companies success and you need to ensure that you are hiring top quality and retaining top quality.
Uncategorized

Rewarding Attendance

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This is actually quite an interesting topic – should you hand out an additional reward to someone for coming into work?  Basically give them a reward for just doing their job – something that they are getting paid for anyways?

Well to answer the question I’m afraid this time I’m going to have be a bit ambivalent so … Yes and No … or it depends would be my answer.  Allow me to explain.

What is the structure of your company?  Do you have a forward thinking organization that allows remote working or does everyone have to be “in the office” everyday?  If you do allow remote working, then lets be honest – what possible reason is there for someone being late?  They need to roll out of bed and sit down at a computer!  There should not be any tolerance for people taking advantage in this situation.  If however you do have an office based culture you are going to have to take into account weather and other travel disruptions – while all of your staff should be expected to be in the office 10-15min before the start of their shift (after all they will need time to grab that first coffee or smoke and get their computer setup prior to getting started with their job) there are sometimes issues that are outside of your employees control that will impact them.  Make sure that you are able to track these instances and also allow/disallow based on the circumstances appropriately.


 
Sickness and Absenteeism – well people get sick … you should really not be considering this as a measurement UNLESS you see a definite pattern – for example the employee is ALWAYS sick on Mondays or Fridays OR they are sick for a couple of days just before they go on holiday.  If this happens it must be dealt with and immediately.  Otherwise follow your standard guidelines – probably something like 3days+ of sick in a row require a Doctor’s note etc…  One important point – if someone is sick and you do offer remote work as an option … they should not choose to work from home (if they are scheduled to be in the office) and claim that they were sick.  If they are truly sick they should not be working.  If they are not sick – they should be in the office!

Now hopefully you are capturing lateness and absenteeism as part of schedule adherence and rewarding it appropriately in your end of your reviews or something similar.  However there is no harm in having an employee rewarded for good behaviour and something small that is made public to the rest of the team is a great incentive.  Heck even a gift certificate to Amazon or the equivalent for a not too large sum is something that people will strive for.  A friend mentioned in passing that he had heard of one company that had problems with absenteeism introduced a free lottery for staff – however tickets were only provided to employees that made it into work on Fridays – if you think about it … this is more of a carrot than a stick and as they say “you’ll catch more flys with honey than … “
Job Search

Treat Your Job Search – Like a Job!

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How do you ensure that your CV does not just disappear into the void and that recruiting managers remember your name when the role that you are suited for finally comes available?

  1. Well firstly – ensure that you are applying for those roles that you are actually suited for and that your CV and resume shows how your skills suit the position.  If you are trying to get into a new industry – expect to start at a more junior position and ensure that you highlight why you are suitable in your covering letter (you were going to send a covering letter weren’t you?)
  2. Ensure that your CV/Resume and Cover Letter (remember the cover letter always … its extremely important and gives you a great area to highlight your skills outside of the 2 page CV/Resume format) include the key-words that the job specification indicates are necessary for the role.  However do not just fill your CV up with key words – no one will be fooled – ensure that you job experience matches the role (see point 1 above) and that you are able to speak to this skill in an interview.
  3. Formatting, formatting, formatting.  Presentation is key here – you want to ensure that you’ve minimized any spelling or grammar errors and also that your CV stands out (by that I DO NOT mean print it on fluorescent pink paper!) from the crowd.  Ensure that your name and contact details are clear and use legible font that can be decreased in size without losing clarity throughout your document – I would suggest Tahoma/Arial/Verdana as they are all very clear even down to Font Size 6 allowing you to get a lot of information on the page.  However – try to ensure that there is enough white space on the page as too much text is just going to kill the reviewer and they will not bother reading the whole document.
  4. Structure – in addition to the overall look and feel of your document you need to ensure that you are emphasizing your achievements (not your job duties … people know what a Customer Service Representative does, but they don’t know that you’ve sourced and built the ticketing system that the company is using for example!).  The top of your CV should have a couple of sentences speaking about what you are looking for and why you would be a good fit for the role. 
  5. Network – 60-70% or more of jobs are never advertised – well, not in the public domain anyways.  They come about through word of mouth and the jobs are sourced and filled by people that other people know!  You should always ensure that you have your name on others lips and keep yourself active on sites like LinkedIn and even Facebook for that matter!
  6. If you’ve been lucky enough to secure an interview – make sure that you’ve done your homework on the company!  Come dressed to impress at the interview and ensure that you send a follow up email or letter after the interview thanking them for their time.  Remember they might be seeing 10 or 100’s of people for the role and if you are one of the early people you want to get them to remember you again when they are closer to making the decision.
  7. Treat your job search like a job!  That means that you need to maintain a list of contacts (recruiters) and websites that you have advertised yourself on and you should spend 2-3 hours a day looking for new opportunities and following up on previous ones.  Do NOT just send an email with your CV and expect that you will get the job immediately thereafter.  To get the right role takes motivation and effort and you shouldn’t give up after 1 or 2 strike outs. 

So to reiterate – 

  • Apply only to jobs where you are most suited 
  • Format your CV and cover letter to include the key words that they are looking for 
  • Check your CV for spelling/grammar errors 
  • Ensure your CV is structured correctly 
  • Network 
  • Follow Up 
  • Treat it like a job!- During a recession it often takes 17+ interviews to get a job so keep your chin up.

 You may find these related posts of interest:

Finding a Job Through Networking
The Job Search
Job Search, Hiring & Firing

Customer Satisfaction

Happy Customers vs. Satisfied Customers

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Choosing your customer – if you had a choice, would you pick a satisfied customer or a happy customer?  Well, first you need to understand the difference between these.  Neither of them are unhappy with you, your product or service so what differentiates them?

What is a satisfied customer?

You could say that they that felt OK after dealing with us. Their needs were met. The service was OK. The experience was OK. They are satisfied (even happy) with their “purchase”. They may or may not talk about their experience with others. They may or may not refer someone to us. Their overall feeling is between neutral and positive and their experiences with us have not been negative or disappointing. As we can see this is good but NOT great. This customer can also be satisfied with our competitors.

What is a happy customer?  

This type of customer feels GREAT about dealing with us.  Their needs were met and/or exceeded. The service delivery was GREAT. The experience was GREAT. They will talk about their experience. They will proactively refer someone to us. Their overall feeling about us is wonderful and their experiences have been memorable. 
Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends … Pete Blackshaw 

Now I think if I was to ask you that question again, the answer would be fairly obvious – but the question that still remains is why is the happy customer better for us and our business? The satisfied one isn’t going anywhere after all?

The simple answer is referrals and word of mouth.  Happy and loyal customers are the ones that think of us first when they have a need that must be met and perhaps of even more importance – they tell their contacts about how great we are also!  Studies have shown that for businesses with a focus on Customer Service, new business through referrals amount to 20% of all new business generated!
While the saying goes “there is no such thing as bad advertising”, obviously good (& free) advertising from loyal customers and advocates is better.
Leadership, Management, People Management

Leadership on the Front Line

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OK – its great to have friends at work.  In fact I think its a necessity – there are very few of us who would do this (or any) job for no pay and as such work is just that … its work.  If it was easy and always fun it would be called PLAY.  So with that being said, having someone to talk to at the water cooler is a good idea … however … there is a difference when you are a manager!  There is a line that shouldn’t and mustn’t be crossed and that is the line of professionalism.  So how do you lead these people without seeming like an unapproachable monster?  Well here are some hints and ideas for you:

  • Be honest – there are obviously things that you can and cannot share with your employees – terminations and reviews to mind! – but as long as you make it clear to your staff that there are some things that you cannot answer that should suffice.  Let them know that in whatever you are telling them you are being as honest and as candid as you possibly can be.  Remember if you get caught in a lie, it’s not only going to impact the employee that you lied but everyone else also once they hear about it … after all if you could lie to one of their peers about something, whats to tell them that you’re not lying to them also?
  • Communicate ALWAYS – talk to your team. Constant and continual feedback on performance is imperative.  They need to know how they stand in the company and in their team, what they can do to improve and if they’ve done something wrong this is even more important.  Most employees are in the job to do the best that they can do – there have been very few instances in my career that an employee just didn’t care and actively campaigned to get terminated (that’s a story for another day!) – and its up to you to tell them how to do this.  In addition to keeping your staff informed and motivated however this has a direct impact on you – do you remember my previous post about Performance Appraisals (if not, click here) – trying to do a year end performance appraisal without giving the employee feedback throughout the year is going to be extremely difficult unless you’ve decided to grade them at the highest possible level.  If you’ve not been telling them what they can do to improve and trying to help them to do this they have every right to rip you apart in the review meeting!

Now where do you go to blow of steam?  Lets be honest (which I always encourage – see point 1!) managing is a hard job.  If you’re in a difficult situation with your company or a member of your team you sometimes need to be able to say things that are outside the scope.  This is where your manager comes in and if you have a large enough and established enough company – your peers – come in.  They will be able to assist you in your decision making process and give you clear unbiased opinions on any decisions that you are concerned about.  If you’re not comfortable utilizing that framework – heck ask me!  I’ll give you a completely unbiased opinion and off course there are also tons of networking related groups available online that you can frequent that will be able to provide you guidance in your field too.

Leadership and management isn’t easy … well managing badly can be very easy … its becoming a great manager that takes work.  I hope you choose to make the effort.

Uncategorized

Time Management 101

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Time Management is generally assumed to refer to the development of processes and tools that increase productivity and efficiency. However, this does not always have to be the case. Good time management is about knowing what to do and when.

The first step in this process is determining what your end goal is – what is it that you are trying to accomplish and what is the shortest path for you in reaching that goal? Once you know this then you can plan the steps appropriately that are achievable and realistic to realize this objective in a timely and efficient manner. Along the way the things that are taking you away from this achievement should be removed or reprioritized so that they do not impact your target negatively.

In addition it is extremely important that one of your goals includes focusing on your personal life. Having huge business objectives and targets is all well and good, but without an equal amount of focus on the people that care and nurture you, the real underlying reason for your business goals just does not make sense.

A good post on Time Management unrelated to business but still applicable is available here.

Remember – the only thing that you cannot get back again is time. Once it’s gone, it’s gone so make sure that you are using it wisely and well.

KPI

Measuring Performance

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Why do you measure performance?  Well probably the simplest and most common phrase (that I have mangled, but) that you might have already heard is “you can’t fix what you don’t know” or “you can’t manage what you don’t measure” or even “what you measure gets done“.  While these are all true in their own way, the real reason that you should be thinking of measuring performance is from a proactive standpoint and not a reactive one which is what these all are.

You want to measure so that you know what is GOING to happen – which is extremely difficult but also extremely necessary.  By ensuring that your resources are in place and trained BEFORE the customer knows that’s what they want is only going to make your company shine that much brighter!  Put another way – “you measure to ensure you have enough time to adjust”.

Measuring a project (or for that matter your teams individual (see my post on Annual Performance Reviews) performance) at the end, is often too late.  Constant and continuous measurement and feedback are needed throughout the course of the objective to ensure that you are able to appropriately adjust to any deviations and make the appropriate modifications necessary.  By determining that a project has failed to meet the objectives only at the end of the project you are missing a key step. 

KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) are a way for you to organize these measurements on a frequent basis and it is key that you share this performance with the staff/teams impacted.  By only reporting UP in the chain of command with regards to KPIs and performance the people actually impacted are unable to adjust their performance appropriately.

Remember, its a continuous feedback loop just like any other Quality initiative and one of the key pieces of continuous feedback is that failures are fed back into the process as a step in the chain for improvements.
Customer Experience

The “Right” Customer

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Lets assume that you have the perfect product. One that everyone needs. You’ve priced it right and everyone in the world can afford it. It works without errors and flaws and doesn’t break and is extremely simple to use (while a smartphone is simple to use – its not necessarily cheap so finding that magic “widget” is probably a dream that will never come true!).
How much would you like to bet that you would still have customers complaining about it? Hard is it might be to believe the phrase –

“you can please most of the people some of the time and some of the people most of the time, but you can NEVER please all of the people all of the time!”

– is unfortunately way too accurate.

What you will see and notice however is that the 80/20 rule (remember that? I mentioned it earlier here) applies in this like it does in most things. If you haven’t read my post, allow me to paraphrase – the 80/20 rule (also known as the Pareto Principle) states that 80% of “x” comes from 20% of “y”. You could state it like 80% of your customer interactions come from 20% of your issues. Or perhaps another way – 80% of your sales come from 20% of your clients.
Now obviously the percentages might not always line up to exactly 80/20 but you will find that this is accurate and close more often than not.
So how does this apply to you and the miracle product? Well it might not , to be honest – not if you have one single price point across the board. However if you’ve priced it based on income, you might potentially be charging more for this product in some regions than in others. The 80/20 rule would tell you to concentrate on the 20 sectors that are actually generating the most revenue for you – if you do the math, you’ll see that the other sectors don’t amount to the same value and your efforts are best spent where they are most fruitful.

So if we take our example of the miracle product you might find that the following applies –

  • Region 1 (Affluent and Developed Economies) – product priced at $100/unit 
  • Region 2 (Developing and Growing Economies) – product priced at $50/unit 
  • Region 3 (Growing and Restructuring Economies) – product priced at $10/unit 

Region 1 will probably account for the highest percentage of your sales and also the lowest cost with regards to support as they have the infrastructure in place to utilize the product fully and also to understand what it can and cannot do.

Region 2 & 3 will together account for a significant portion of your revenue but will also have the largest volume of support issues as they do not have the understanding of the products limitations and while this is a “miracle” product unfortunately it cannot in itself do miracles!

The unfortunate fact of human nature is that generally the lower paying clients have a much higher level of demand to those at a higher price point.

From a real world perspective I previously had a job at a large Internet company that was experiencing severe growing pains (to put it mildly!) and as the Manager I was frequently on the short end of the stick. More often than not, during the course of an outage I would be speaking to businesses with 5-10 impacted users on a conference call and have to explain what we were doing to everyone in the company … by contrast I would have an hourly update call with the Senior Network Analyst at a business that was on a similar service but that had thousands of customers impacted!

I’m sure you’ve all heard the story about the contractor charging $100/day for a job and not getting any business but that same contractor choosing to charge $200/day getting inundated with work. The perception in the market place is that the person charging more is also WORTH MORE. Be careful with this though as if you cannot “back up” your requested salary with a corresponding skill-set, you are not going to get far at all!
Now please do not take this post to imply in any way that the customer isn’t right. That Region 3 customer buying your $10/unit product could eventually turn into your monster customer that IS your business. If you are able to “upsell” your customers from one product to another, based on value and worth it is easily done. 

It is always worth the effort to nurture your customers as the hardest part of growing any business is getting new customers in the door. However you do need to do some careful analysis and tracking to ensure that the revenue you are earning from your customers is not actually COSTING you more in the long run – and remember – if you do not have that miracle product, you can only imagine that your complaints are going to be higher!

Morale

Dealing with Low Performers & Performance Issues

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Why do we measure organizational performance? The first answers that pop into your head might be:

  • You can’t manage what you don’t measure
  • What you measure gets done
  • We have to be accountable
  • They have to be held accountable
  • They told us to (I always like that one!)   
Now what do you do if/when you have someone that is not meeting or achieving these standards while everyone else in your team is?

The first thing that must be realized is that as a manager the buck stops with you.  Its up to you transform these people and lead them in the right direction.  You cannot let low performers dictate the outcome of the team as a whole and as such the bar must remain at the level you have set.

It would be a big mistake to lower the bar in the interests of morale while sacrificing the requirements of the company.  By lowering the bar, you are only appealing to the elements of your team that are hopefully a minority.  Remember – you should always be aiming to reinforce positive behavior v.s. penalizing the negative.

You are the leader, whether you are a good one or not doesn’t really matter at this point.  You are the one that success hinges around and are in the position of leadership for a specific reason. Your team needs you to communicate a vision. You need to ensure that you are communicating with all of them (not just the weaker ones) on a frequent basis and directing them appropriately and your team as a whole needs to know that you are committed to them and their success.

Ensure that you are communicating the goals and objectives frequently and that the targets are achievable.  You will always have a bell curve with people on the low end and people on the high end with the majority in the middle – your focus should be to shift the bell so that it is skewed towards the higher end at all times.

It is key to remember that these people are all there to do a job and to do it well.  You’ve hired for their skills and expertise and you need to ensure that non-performance is something that will be addressed swiftly and conclusively.  Not doing so is something that will definitely impact the morale of your team.  If you need some suggestions on how to go about this – read my post on PIPs (Personal Improvement Plans) – for an idea.  Remember, that you are doing the job you are doing to serve the business and its customers – friendships in the workplace are nice but there should ALWAYS be a line in the sand between Management and Staff.

One final point – I’ve mentioned that you are a leader already?  So LEAD!  You need to ensure that the example you are setting to your team is the right one and you should always be aiming for the stars!   

Your team will follow where you go.

Job Search

Getting the job

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OK, alot of my previous posts have stressed the importance of networking and CV reviews with regards to getting that next role.  What lots of candidates fail to account for is the actual importance of the interview itself assuming that their CV will “sell them” to the prospective employer.  It cannot be stressed enough that while your CV will get you into the door, it is only through an exceptional job interview that you will get hired!
You may find these related posts of interest:

Finding a Job Through Networking
The Job Search
Job Search, Hiring & Firing

With the current ratio of interviews to hires during this recession time, Employers can afford to be picky with the candidates that are walking through the door.  There are always more people looking for a job and most employers want to ensure that they are getting the best value for their money.  Generally in recessions, the ratio of job interviews to job offers is as high as 17-to-1 (this drops to 6-to-1 during the “good times”) so nailing that first impression is paramount.

Some common assumptions that candidates make about the interview process are:

  • I am good communicator – while this is obviously important (confidence at the interview stage is key) you need to remember that communicating in the workplace is different to an interview.  Quite often you are going to be interviewed by people that are not skilled in the role that you are trying to fill and they will not understand the jargon that someone who does the job you do would.  Also there is the potential that you will have group interviews where you will be cross examined by multiple parties simultaneously – remember that focus your attention on the person asking the question, but you need to be cognizant of the body language of the rest of the panel also.
  • I can do the job – while this might be absolutely true, it really has no bearing on the interview itself!  As I’ve already mentioned, if you’re being interviewed by someone who doesn’t understand Routers, talking about the TCP/IP stack is not going to get you anywhere!!
  • I am (was) a Manager and have interviewed people before – there is a big difference between interviewing and being the interviewee.  Once you’re on the other side of that table you need to ensure that the answers you are providing are relevant to the questions being asked.  You need to show enthusiasm for the role and do not be afraid to show some ambition when asked the question – “What are your plans for the future?”  If you’re able to answer truthfully that you want to get back into Management and would like to eventually be sitting on the other side of the chair again yourself that would probably not be misconstrued – however do NOT be arrogant and assume that you can do the job of the person that you are speaking to tomorrow.  Just as in your previous role, this one is no different – its not just the technology that you need to learn but also the people and he has that knowledge whereas you will need to learn it again.
  • I know all about the business/sector – while you might have worked in this sector before, you actually DO NOT know it all.  Eat a little humble pie here.  The key thing that you should do though is ensure that you know EXACTLY what the company is looking for and also as much information about the company as possible.  It is more than frustrating for an interviewer to ask the candidate what do they know about the company they are interviewing with and then have the candidate waffle on.  In today’s world, there is really no excuse not to know as much as possible about the role and the company – BE PREPARED!

Now while this is by no means an exhaustive list, it definitely covers the main things that I’ve had experience with from both sides of the chair.  Practice doing interviews in front of a mirror, make notes about how your strengths line up with what the company is looking for, BE CONFIDENT and ensure that you project that image of yourself.

Practice, Practice, PRACTICE!!!!

Remember that that the job search is a job itself and should be treated as such. Your resume and CV opens doors, your personality will get you the job!  Best of luck.

Customer Experience, KPI

The 80/20 Rule

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If you’ve been in Tech Support or Help Desks for any length of time – especially from a management perspective you’ll be extremely familiar with something called the 80/20 rule.  
 
Put simply it implies that 80% of your calls/contacts are generated from 20% of your issues.  If you are able to focus efforts on clearing up some of that 20% you would have a significant impact on the overall volume that is coming into your center (note, once you’ve fixed the 1st 20% – then you can do a similar analysis on the next batch and so on!).  
 
Now, while this is true from an “on the floor” perspective there has actually been a study done on this and this “rule” is actually known as the Pareto principle (sometimes also called the “law of the vital few” or the “principle of factor sparsity ).  While these names all sound really fancy – I think the 80/20 Rule is most descriptive of what it is.
 
The principle was actually suggested by Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto.  Vilfredo observed that in 1906, 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population.  Surprisingly for Vilfredo Pareto, he observed a similar distribution among other countries and as such developed this guideline.
  • More recently, this was seen in a 1992 UN Report that showed that 20% of the world’s population actually controlled 82.7% of the world’s income!
  • Microsoft also noted that by fixing the top 20% of the most reported bugs, 80% of the errors and crashes would be eliminated.
  • The Pareto principle was a prominent part of the 2007 bestseller The 4 Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss which I have mentioned in a previous post As Tim Ferriss recommended, by focusing your attention on those (20%) factors that have the greatest impact to your income (80%) you will obtain and receive a greater “bang for your buck!”
So as you can see, some significant analysis has gone into determining whether or not this “rule of thumb” actually applies and while it’s not always 80% on the dot, it is close enough for you to use in determining what you should be looking at from a management perspective.

 You can really think about the 80/20 rule from two different directions. 
  1. What are the negative impacts that you need to address?  As I’ve mentioned earlier, 20% of your issues are probably causing close to 80% of your interactions with your customers.
  2. 20% of your customers are also probably spending the most (80%) with you!  
  3. 20% of your employees are also probably the most (80%) productive! etc…

Dealing with the first option is reasonably easy – hopefully, you can categorize your interactions with your clients utilizing any halfway decent CRM system like Freshdesk for example. 
Once you know why you are being contacted, sort it out to see how many of each type (you should be doing this anyway!) and start with the top 20 types of problems.  
Measuring & Dealing with the second should be even easier … if you do not know who your top 20 biggest customers are … SHAME ON YOU! … they are your bread and butter and you should ensure that you are on extremely good terms with them.  

 The same applies to your #3 of course – your staff themselves.  Reward your high performers with raises/bonuses and other perks.  These are the people that keep the ball rolling and I’ve mentioned previously the impact of losing highly trained staff have on a business.

 Best of luck using the 80/20 rule in your business … it’s a good one – keep it close to heart!

Continue reading The 80/20 Rule →

Training

The Importance of Training (Part II) – Management Skills

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How important is it to ensure that your skills are up to date?  Assuming that you received your certification or degree several years ago, has the technology you are supporting changed?  Are the teams you are managing still using the same tools and resources they used to in the past?  
The one thing that is constant in this world of ours is that change is inevitable and universal.  This very much means that what you knew last week and last year is now obsolete. Just as it is important to ensure that your team is appropriately trained to support your customers and products, it is also essential that you are trained on the latest and greatest.
The Importance of Training
Think about it like this – in school a syllabus would change from year to year.  Regardless of the subject being taught, neearch and knowledge constantly advanced and grew and what the next batch of students were taught differed in a lesser or greater degree.  Now, it was fine in school as you were with your peers and everyone was being tested against the same standard – however in the real world, this just doesn’t work.  Your peers are also your competition and whether they are inside your company or part of another company it is crucial that you maintain a current and relevant base of knowledge with regards to your companies products and services and how to best support them.  There is a constant need to get yourself trained and to upgrade your skills irrespective of your position in the company.

What most employees tend to forget is that while Senior Management are key instruments in providing direction and support to the entire company, they have not forgotten the importance of ongoing training and learning and this lesson needs to be realized at the middle Management level also.  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.

Someone just starting out on the Management track however needs to focus 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.  Once this base is in place additional training which is focused on industry and technology trends should be looked at and into with the focus being on advancing the Manager and department that he is responsible for.  

As you gradually work your way up the ladder, this training becomes more theoretical in basis, however it will have an increased value to the organization as the scope of your responsibilities continue to increase.

A Manager at any level is well advised to keep abreast of the latest trends and information affecting his industry through the use of technical journals, trade publications, networking and even the Internet as a whole.  By speaking to customers and other managers in the industry further training and planning can be determined and while Managers today have less time then yesterday, the training if structured correctly 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 running.

Staff, Teams, Training

Managing Technical Teams

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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 Managment “oversight” as a hinderance 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.  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!

Training

The Importance of Training

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How do you treat your new starters?  Do they get thrown in at the deep end – after all, they were hired for the skills you need, they should be able to just “pick it up” – right??  How did that go for you?  Were they your high performers?  No, starting to wonder why?
Hard to believe as it might be, companies did this!  They left their new staff alone to “find their feet” and pick things up on their own.  However, fortunately most companies now provide some sort of introductory training or orientation for most of their new employees. The better companies have a dedicated training department that helps to integrate all new employees and following this some sort of mentoring from another more senior employee in a similar role or position.

Now, the initial training – if done correctly – is actually a staged approach.  Generally HR would be responsible for showing the employee around the company, giving a little bit of detail with regards to the kitchen and all the details about time off etc… The training team or department would cover off the products and services that the new employee would be responsible for selling/servicing or supporting – in reality this should be a 2-3 week process at a minimum … think about it like this, unless your company is brand new, the complexities of your product or service are something that has grown over time.  Ensuring that your employee is able to answer questions about it properly using the correct tools is not something that can be picked up in a day.  If you are offering a proper training program – spend the time and do it right.  This should be followed by “on the job” training and again … spend the time to do it right.  One additional point?
Do not restrict this to your staff at entry level positions.  Ensure that staff in management positions also receive the same or similar training.  This is beneficial for a couple of reasons – (a) it ensures you have a extra staff – your management team- available to “jump in” in case of emergency; (b) it gives your management team an insight into the work your staff do on a daily basis and as such a better understanding of your staff and their challenges and (c) your management team NEEDS to know how to use your tools!!!  I cannot emphasize this enough – you do not need managers able to program routers, but you do need those managers to understand some of the alerts that your monitoring system provides to you.  This team determines what issues get escalated and to whom and as such they need to have the appropriate tools available to them to make that right decision.
Now so far I have only been speaking about training new staff.  The technology in the workplace is changing very rapidly and companies that can’t keep up will drop out of competition. It is definitely worth stating that you must ensure current and up to date internal and external training is available to your existing staff.  I will cover that in more detail in some later posts though.
Is Training Worth it?
Surveys have determined that approximately 60% of companies are planning on offering some level of training to existing staff.  Some of the reasons provided are the introduction of new technology into the work environment requiring staff retraining, improving employee performance and employee retentionin.  The current $ value assigned to these initiatives?  About $2000/employee of which the largest portion was spent on technology and process related training initiatives.  A paltry 2-3% was spent on New Employee orientation.
Now, I am not trying to dismiss the amount spent – even at $2000/employee it is still a significant  cost and in industries with high employee churn – a major expense!
Flip it on its Head
Think about it another way though …
  • Its not a cost if you take into account the amount of time its taken you to find that employee in the first place.
  • Its not a cost if you take into account the inherent knowledge that senior employee has obtained while working for your company.
  • Its not a cost if you can get these new (& old) employees being your advocate OUTSIDE of the workplace.
  • Its not a cost if you want to provide valued and useful and timely service to your customers!!!
Although mentioned last think about the last point I’ve said.  Which type of employee is going to be able to provide better service to your customer?  One that doesn’t understand your company, its culture, products and services or one that does?  In the end that is really THE MOST IMPORTANT thing to consider.  The only reason you are in business is the customers that you have and the best way to keep them is by ensuring that you provide an unparalleled level of service to them.
Make sure that training becomes part and parcel of your company and its culture.  You want to get the right people in the door and integrate them into your teams as quickly and seamlessly as possible.  You also want to keep the people you have and ensure that you recognize that the training and development knowledge, attitude and skills of the employees you have are fundamental to your companies efficient and profitable performance.  Training should be so much a part of your culture that it is considered a benefit at the interview stage – you would be surprised at the number of people clamouring for this and the quality of these people!
blurbs, Service, Staff, Training

Work Ethic and Today

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A famous quote from Thomas Edison reads – 

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.

Thomas Edison
Now how often have you been the one to procrastinate or put something off till later?  How often have you not studied for that big test or perhaps not got onto that train because the weather was a little bit bad or you felt a little bit under the weather?
The unfortunate truth is that with the prevalence of modern conveniences that we now have available to us, people have gotten lazy.  It is easy to forget that a requirement for success is dedication and hard work.  This doesn’t mean that you stop using the tools available to you … what it does mean though is that you need to learn how to use them correctly.

Work smarter – not harder … use your email client to track issues that you need to stay on top off – most clients have a “flag” option and any good email client will actually thread conversations together so that you do not need to read every individual message.  Use tasks and task management … if your email client doesn’t support this, use one of the free ones on the net – a great one that I use that is extremely customizable is called “Remember The Milk”.  Make sure that you have access to all the people and resources you need to instantly by keeping your address book synchronized through tools like Plaxo.  If you have a PDA (Blackberry, Palm or equivalent smartphone) make sure that your email client is integrated appropriately so that you can take it with you.  
Remember however that you need to “clock off”!!  Do NOT work to the exclusion of your family.  You need to remember that the only reason you are there is to support your family and it should NEVER be the other way around.  

Use appropriate and useful project management tools  – if you do not have access to Microsoft Project there are several free alternative Project Management sites that you can get access to – check out Zoho Doc for a good option.

Think about MindMapping software – Freemind is a great application if you can download and use it on your desktop.  However, if your IT department has restricted your access you can use – bubbl.us – this is a free and fairly easy to use application.
Hiring, Job Boards, Job Search, Networking, Recruiters, Websites

The Job Search

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OK, unfortunately, its that time of year again and you need to get your name out there and start looking for another job.  Now, this might be for any of a variety of reasons and we’re really not going to worry about that here.  What we are going to discuss however is some good tools that you can and should be using to ensure that you are promoting yourself correctly and that you are looking in the right places for your new role.

First Question – what do you do now and are you happy?  

Sorry, I know it seems a little bit redundant, but you need to ask this one as so many people just go from job to job without doing what they enjoy.  Considering you are spending 8+ hours a day there and over 40 hours a week – it really makes sense for you to seriously think this one through.

If you are not happy with your current career – perhaps it is time for a change?  Think about schooling options and time away from the workforce in relation to your bills.  Assuming that you can afford to do it, get the relevant training you need so that you can progress forward in your new chosen career.  Remember for a lot of us, our job is just something we “fell into” after school – more often than not, it has no relation to what you studied, so this is your chance to do it right from an adult point of view!

One thing you should obviously consider is that whatever new career you start, you will be starting at the bottom.  Just keep it in mind and don’t expect to immediately be at the same level you were previously.

Hows your CV/Resume?


Make sure you have a professional looking version of your CV available.  There are many free templates available on the Microsoft Website itself that are a good starting point if you have not built anything at all yet.  Here are some links to some good ones – but check the site itself for even more:
Now if you recall in a previous post, I mentioned the fact that when first creating your resume do not worry about page length.  The most important thing is content and information.  You want to think about having a “master” version of your CV that you can tailor specifically for the job that you are applying for.  So your master version could be 10 pages in length, but the tailored version once you’ve gotten rid of the jobs/roles that are not relevant and shrunk down the wording and font would be 2 (or 3) pages.


Advertise yourself – 

OK, so assuming you’re happy with your chosen career and you have an appropriately formatted CV to show the world, you need to get your name out there.  There are probably three main ways to do this and to be honest they are all somewhat interrelated.
Job Search, Hiring & Firing


Networking

Even though job search networking is one of the most successful ways to find a new job, it can sound intimidating and sometimes seems a little bit scary. It doesn’t have to be.  At least 60% – some report even higher statistics – of all jobs are found by networking.

The thing you have to keep uppermost in your mind is that your Job Search IS a job!!  You need to treat it as such and ensure that you assign some time to do it right.


Develop contacts – friends, family, neighbors, college alumni, people in associations – anyone who might help generate information and job leads – although you are not selling a product, you are selling yourself and that’s how you should think about it..  Contact everyone you know. You may be surprised by the people they know.   Make yourself pick up the phone and call.  Networking isn’t a process of making cold-calls to people you don’t know. It’s talking to people you do know or asking them to introduce you to others.

Email is a perfectly acceptable way to network as well.  Keep your message brief and to the point and be sure to check your spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

Formal networking works too – try going to a business social or an association meeting or event.  You’ll find that many of the participants have the same goals you do and will be glad to exchange business cards.


 Job Board

Now there are lots of different Job Boards that you can find and use.  One of the most popular ones of course if Monster.  In addition to Monster, you will find many that are specific to your country or region and I will try to cover most of the bigger ones for the US/UK and Canada over the coming months and years.  However, another International tool that is definitely worth looking into – especially as it ties into the Networking topic mentioned above is called LinkedIn.


This site is different as it is very similar to social networking sites like Facebook and others, but it is professional in nature.  Your work friends and colleagues will be your networking contacts here and these are also the same people that through their own network will assist in getting you a new job.
The main reason that companies are using LinkedIn is to find passive job candidates. Another reason why companies are using LinkedIn, is because referrals from their employees are highly valued because they typically have a higher success rate (hence the popular “employee referral bonuses”). LinkedIn helps companies leverage the networks of their employees.

 

It’s also important to note that LinkedIn has reached a point where it’s almost unprofessional not to be on LinkedIn. There are members from all 500 of the Fortune 500 companies. LinkedIn members comprise 130 different industries and include 130,000 recruiters.

Recruiters

Your third option in your Job Search is Recruitment firms … now, don’t think of this as your last option as they should not be … they are simply another arrow in your quiver and should be used in conjunction with the other two methods already mentioned.


Try to ensure that you target recruitment firms in your chosen sector vs. general recruiters as the specialists are most likely to have an opening in an area that you are interested in.  I’ll try to cover some of the better/bigger ones in the next little while, however finding a recruitment firm is probably best done through Google and other search engines.
forum posts, general, Planning, Tools

What is the hardest thing about running a call center?

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I was recently asked this question in one of the forums that I am active on and its actually a surprisingly difficult question to answer.  Here’s what I said to the Questionaire … if you have a similar question, take a read through the points below but pay special attention to the extra info section.


***********


What is the hardest thing about running a call center?


Well, I guess this answer varies depending on if you’re running a Customer Service Call Center or if you’re running a Help Desk/Support Call Center. However, in either case, probably your first challenge would be determining the appropriate KPI’s that need to be measured.

You need to know what services are important to your customers and ensure that your teams are in the right place with the right knowledge to provide those answers to your customers to minimize any service disruptions or service impacts.

Then you need to be hiring and sourcing the right candidates – local or external – to ensure that your customers are getting the information they need. Once you’ve found the bodies, you’re going to be looking at initial and ongoing training.

Appropriate teams and methodologies need to be in place to ensure that information flow and tools are available to your front line staff so that customers get the appropriate answer as quickly as possible – things like FAQs and Knowledgebases are great, but they need to be kept up to date. You must also ensure that you have a robust and effective system to track customer interactions.

Given you quite a bit of building and running a call center … your question though … the hardest thing … really depends on what step of the process you’re in. If just starting out, then getting the right people is probably going to be your biggest challenge – as a hint, hire for Customer Service skills and experience vs. Technical … its easy to train/teach technical skills but a lot harder to do the same for Customer Service.

If your service is already well established you probably want to look at your KPI’s and metrics as well as training and tools to ensure that your customers are getting the best answer possible. 


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Extra Information – 

As you can see, as much as I would have liked to, I was unable to give a complete answer to this question as it is a bit too vague.  I would have liked to have known the following for a starting point to get into more depth.
  • Service Provided
  • Size of Company/Team
  • Size of Customer Base
  • Customer Service Call Center or Technical Call Center
  • Volume of Contacts
  • Current Customer Satisfaction Level & KPI’s in place
  • Current Knowledgebase
  • Current Toolset
  • Insourced or Outsourced Customer Service
    Customer Complaints, Quality, SLA

    What do you do when your Company is constantly having Outages?

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    Its been a while for me, but there was a period of my life where I was working for a company that was in a constant state of outage.  They had a mix of services, and over the course of 2 years, I was flown across the country and around the world apologizing for the (lack) of services that my company provided.  While I love traveling and accumulating Air Miles, this was not my idea of a trip as you can imagine.

    So what did I do right and wrong?  Well, I got very good at apologizing and groveling and it helped me write my policy on dealing with Irate Customers.  While not exactly ideal I definitely learned a lot from this experience and I definitely made a positive impact on my companies bottom line.  How?

    Well, simply put, the Customers stayed! As you can well imagine, when a business and its service is being impacted by a 3rd party the natural inclination of anyone is to pull the service and move to another vendor.  When SLAs are constantly being missed and month on month, services are not improving this is even more likely.

    Now – it’s easy to say that I “saved” the customers … but how?

    Communication 

    Its easier to say than to do – especially when you don’t have any news or even worse when you have bad news (you expected it to be fixed in 1 day and it’s going to take 1 week!).  As I mentioned earlier, I quickly became skilled at speaking to Customer’s face-to-face which happened with quite a few of our Tier1 customers.  I also became skilled at sending out mass emails, posts on message boards and forums and phone calls.  Setting a timeline for an update by any/all of these methods and then ensuring that I met that criteria were key.

    Now communication is actually a two-way thing.  Speaking to the customers is great, but what if you don’t have anything to tell them?  Support and Helpdesk teams and Management are frequently on the “short end” of the stick without any updates from Engineering and Programming teams.  More often than not, these internal teams have no concept of the impact that the service interruption are causing to the customers.  It’s your job to persuade them that the customers MATTER and the reason you & they are in a job – working for your company is the money that your customers are paying!!  They will take their business away eventually if you don’t tell them what is going on.
    OK, assuming that you’re talking to your customers and your other internal teams are talking to you … what’s next?  Well, you need to ensure that your company is actually doing something to fix the problem!!  The company that I mentioned with constant outages?  Well, they were all with different services … each time one thing was fixed another in a different product was impacted.

    From my point of view, it was 2 years of hell, but no one single customer was impacted for that total amount of time.  How do you fix this though, because it is extremely draining on your staff regardless … well, Quality Control is useful.  Make sure that any new product launches are properly tested and tested and tested again before being released into a live environment.  Try to get your staff to break it if possible while it’s in the testing phase.  Make sure your documentation, release notes, and training material are complete and accurate.

    Ensure that Senior Management gets involved at the appropriate intervals based on your Escalation Matrix so that they are aware of the impact to the Customers … DO NOT be afraid of escalating.  If you are ON CALL 24/7 so are they!  The money will be released when the phone rings at 2am!

    Funny, Hiring, Performance Appraisal

    Active Listening

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    I recently took some training on Interview techniques and Active Listening.  It was an eye-opener, to say the least!!


    The difference it makes when someone is really listening and paying attention vs that same person doing something else while you are speaking makes an amazing difference to the speaker.  Much more than I thought – if you don’t believe me try this little exercise with someone yourself.
    1. Write down two different topics.  The first one should be one that you are passionate about and could speak about for hours if given the chance.  For the second topic, choose something that you really don’t care about and/or have no interest in.
    2. Get a little timer (60seconds should do) and have someone sit close to you.
    3. You are first going to speak about the topic that interests you … however the person you are speaking to should not be paying attention to you … they can doodle on a piece of paper, answer their phone, check emails and speak to someone else.  See how long you last and can keep on speaking about your chosen topic before you completely lose your train of thought and start to wonder yourself … I doubt you’ll make it to the 60second mark if the other person is ignoring you properly!
    4. Now choose the topic that doesn’t interest you.  The person you are speaking to should actively listen, however … they will be questioning you and showing a keen interest in what you are saying.  I bet that you’ll find you have a lot more to say about this second topic than you thought you did and that it will be a lot more enjoyable!
    This is a small example of the power that another person has.  Remember it when you are interviewing other people when you are giving your staff an appraisal or doing a 1-1 with them.  You need to be paying full attention and not letting distractions get in your way as you will be doing yourself and the person you are speaking to a severe disservice.
    Money, Morale

    Money and Your Team

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    As much as you’d like your team to work for free and to have the highest quality staff at the lowest possible prices … it will never happen.  You might tell yourself that you’re doing what you’re doing because you love the job and the company that you work for and that your staff and employees should feel the same – but – let’s be honest … you and your team are doing it for the money.  You probably have a family that you are looking after, and if not, you’re doing this because you have your own personal interests that you wish to pursue.

    Now with that being said … the one fact of life that we can never get away from is tax.  Unless you live in a part of the world that provides tax-free income, you are just like the rest of us giving away 30% – 50% (or even more!) of everything you earn to the Government. 
    Remember the famous phrase from Benjamin Franklin in his letter to Jean-Baptiste Leroy, 1789, which was reprinted in The Works of Benjamin Franklin, 1817:

    “‘In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”

    Despite the frustration, you might feel about this, there really isn’t too much you can do to resolve this situation.  All you can do is hope to continually grow your gross income so that the tiny amount you get to pay all your bills with at the end of the month increases by another small fraction.
    Well, guess what … the British Government has now introduced a new tax on phone lines.  This tax is designed to fund the expansion of broadband services across the country and improve the overall infrastructure of next-generation services.  At first glance, this small extra tax (at £6/year – approx US$10 per year) does not seem like such a big deal and makes sense as you need a phone line to have Internet services – right????
    Actually WRONG!!!  The stupid thing that has obviously not been considered and thought through properly is the fact that a large proportion of current Broadband Internet AND Telephone users in Britain utilize a Cable service … so in essence, the people using the greatest amount of service and access are the ones that WON’T have to pay for it!!  In addition, there are millions of Britain’s that don’t even have a computer yet and they will still have to pay for this tax also! 

    Now, there is obviously not too much you can do to change the overall taxation system of the country that you work with/in (although it is definitely true that even a small voice speaking loudly and with conviction makes a difference) … you can, however, ensure that the way your staff are treated and compensated is in their best interests and works to their favor.  Make sure that if they work out of hours they get paid for it.  If they do extra work for the company they get the appropriate compensation and if they are entitled to a holiday – they take it!  You need to look out for your team and if you do it right and do it regularly they will look out for you too!

    Customer Complaints, Service

    When does Customer Service End?

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    Have you ever noticed that the small entrepreneur will go that extra mile, while the big businesses don’t bother?  I guess the easiest explanation for this is that these smaller business people are actually closer to their customers and are able to realize the importance and value of customer service in driving back repeat business.  A good read I found that demonstrates this is here.


    The question is though … why don’t the big boys?

    The easy answer is that they are too far removed, but that is not really getting to the heart of the issue … more and more often you see businesses and senior staff that think they are where they are forever and that nothing is going to change.  However, the one good thing that came out of this recent recession is the realization that this is just not the case.  If you don’t care about your customers and have a good business model to boot … you won’t be in business for long!  I know that’s a bit harsh and a lot of innocent people suffered but maybe the realization that growth is not the final objective is a lesson worth learning.

    It is essential that all businesses provide an appropriate level of after-sales SERVICE to their customers.  This should be more than just a phrase, but something that should actually deliver VALUE.  

    The easiest way to measure this is to ask your customers!  Don’t be afraid to send out surveys and questionnaires… but make sure that you pay attention to the responses and that you do something about the issues your customers are telling you they don’t like.
    Tools

    Mind Mapping

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    What is Mind Mapping?  In its simplest form, it is a technique whereby you use a diagram to represent words and ideas.  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.  

    Letting your mind “wander” in this fashion is extremely useful from a brainstorming” point of view and the creation and use of mind maps have been shown to be useful in the study, problem-solving and decision-making processes.   Free downloadable Mind Mapping Software includes a program called FreeMind.  As the name implies this is a free application and one that is extremely user-friendly and intuitive.    

    FreeMind is a premier free mind-mapping software written in Java. The recent development has hopefully turned it into productivity tool. We are proud that the operation and navigation of FreeMind faster than that of MindManager because of one-click “fold / unfold” and “follow link” operations.

        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.

    Morale, SLA, Staff

    The Curse of the “berry”

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    Are you invaluable?  How about irreplaceable?  Will the world stop turning if you don’t pick up the phone or answer that email? No?

    OK, so why are you ignoring your family (or friends or yourself??) to pick up the phone?  It’s very easy for companies to take advantage of employees & even more so managers who feel a personal responsibility for the performance of the team and department.  Now I’m not talking about those of you who get paid for being “on call” – unfortunately, I’ve found that Managers rarely get compensated for this – but rather the ones who don’t. 

    Companies need to understand and realize that employees lives and health are at stake and for some of you (you know who you are) … their family lives also.  Staff needs time away from work and away from the stresses of the job if for no other reason than to recharge their batteries for the next day.  In addition, if staff members are constantly contacted outside of regular business hours than their staffing and hiring needs to be looked at and examined.  

    Management needs to create and have in place a proper escalation plan for customers of course and a Manager should be included in there at the appropriate level.  However a Manager should not be the FINAL point of escalation and if Customers matter (which all companies state, but few actual shows), Senior Management should also form part of that plan and in addition, perhaps appropriate out of hours coverage should be put into place!

    Customer Complaints, Staff, Training

    Irate Customers

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    The unfortunate fact of the matter is that you will receive complaints from customers.  Sometimes these are warranted and sometimes not.  Having the skill and patience to deal with these types of issues is what makes (or breaks) an excellent service & help-desk team.

    People working the Customer Service and Helpdesk fields are often at the sharp end of having to deal with angry customers.  One the one hand, some of these customers are just looking for fault or being extremely picky or even those (shudder, dread) chronic complainers who just like to hear their own voice.  I’m not going to discuss those types of people in this post, as although they exist, generally, people who complain about a product or service are ones that have NOT received what they have paid for.  Most people don’t enjoy complaining and find it a difficult (and to be avoided) process, so keep this in mind when you are speaking to them.  They are NOT trying to just make your life difficult – they DO have a genuine issue that should be looked into and hopefully addressed.

    Difficult customers

    Come in several varieties including (but not limited to) the following: Angry, Impatient, Intimidating, Talkative, Demanding, Indecisive etc… and any (all) combinations you could think of.  Dealing with these extremes is not easy and shouldn’t be considered such, but the key is that they must be dealt with and must be dealt with in a Professional Manner! Just like you cannot change someone else, you cannot control someone else’s behavior  You have control only over yourself and your own actions. You can, however, influence how customers respond to you though, and I hope that my suggestions below give you some ideas.

    Realizing the Issue

    Remember that the majority of customers in the world are reasonable people. They may get “difficult” from time to time if they feel they’ve been let down. It’s how you handle them that’ll determine if they continue to be a problem or if you can turn them around. Difficult customers and situations usually occur because something has gone wrong.  It’s what happens then that’ll decide whether they deal with us again or bad mouth us to other people.  As I’ve mentioned in previous (& will be mentioned again in future) posts, is that the problem you are facing is not the one individual on the phone complaining about their problem.  It is the 10 or more customers that have left without speaking to you because they are dissatisfied!  A very good phrase you see advertised frequently – which you should always keep in mind – goes something like this:

    If you are happy with our service, please tell your friends.  If you are unhappy with our service – please tell us!

    This should be more than just a trite phrase that gets thrown around.  Companies need to actually believe, understand and live this statement.  The only way you are going to ensure that your customers are happy is by talking to them.  While a customer may be berating you, you still have an opportunity to win them over.  I cannot count the number of times that I have been able to do this and not only keep them with my company but transform them into my biggest advocates.  Research indicates that customers who complain are likely to continue doing business with your company if they feel that they were treated properly. It’s estimated that as many as 90% of customers who perceive themselves as having been wronged never complain, they just take their business elsewhere. So, angry, complaining customers care enough to talk to you and have not yet decided to take their business to the competition. They are customers worth saving.

    Turning Them Around

    OK, if I’ve not scared you away already, here’s what you need to do.  The steps below are laid out in a fairly logical fashion (and you will see that some of them overlap in terms of how they work) and is illustrative of most of the cases and situations you will come across.
    1. Control Yourself
    2. Listen
    3. Empathy
    4. Identify the Problem/Issue
    5. Don’t Blame Someone Else!
    6. Resolve the Issue
    Let’s explore each of these in a bit greater depth below.
    • CONTROL – The easiest way to do this is to remember that it’s not YOU!!  When a person complains about something, it’s important to remember that they’re not attacking you personally. It’s the problem they’ve encountered which is causing the irritation.  This correspondingly maps quite closely to the feedback you should be providing to your staff when they are not performing well and as mentioned in my review of the One Minute Manager.  Never argue with customers when they are angry, displeased or complaining. If you allow a customer to push your buttons and lose control of yourself, you’ve lost control of the situation. You can lose a good customer if you show boredom, irritation, disdain or displeasure. Remember if a customer is being abusive and difficult, it’s NOT YOU!!  If you can keep this in mind, dealing with them will be significantly easier … it’s crucial you maintain a respect for the person even if you don’t respect their behavior towards you.  Remember and repeat … they are NOT mad at YOU!!!  Apologies for the repetition, but this fact is extremely important and more than one Help Desk Manager has gotten flummoxed by the fact that they are taking the issue personally.
    • LISTENING – If an angry customer is explaining the situation to you … let THEM talk.  Do NOT interrupt them mid-flow to argue a point.  This sounds easier than it actually is as everyone wants to justify themselves or bring up some rationale for a fault … don’t do it!  Once you’ve asked the person to explain their problem or issue to you, it’s then crucial that you simply listen without any kind of interruption whatsoever until they’ve finished. This is the only way that you will get a full picture of the issue from the customers’ point of view.  Remember they are upset and in their eye’s justifiable!  You cannot take that away from them – regardless of what you say.  It’s your actions after that will determine how they feel at the end.  More often than not, once the customer has had an initial chance to vent his rage, it’s going to die down a little, and that’s your opportunity to step in.

    Say, “I can tell you’re upset…” or, “It sounds like you’re angry…” then connect to the customer by apologizing, or empathizing. When you say something like “I’m sorry that happened. If I were you, I’d be frustrated, too.” It’s amazing how much of a calming effect that can have. 

    • EMPATHY– OK, we’ve already touched upon this a little bit above, but let’s explore this in a bit more depth here.  Put yourself in the customer’s shoes, and try to see the situation from his/her perspective. Don’t try and cut him off, don’t urge him to calm down. Instead, listen carefully. If someone is angry or upset, it is because that person feels injured in some way. Your job is to let the customer vent and to listen attentively in order to understand the source of that frustration. When you do that, you send a powerful unspoken message that you care about him and his situation.  Often, as the customer comes to realize that you really do care and that you are going to attempt to help him resolve the problem, the customer will calm down on his own, and begin to interact with you in a positive way.   Once they’ve finished their diatribe, it’s important that you try to look at the situation from their perspective. Having not interrupted their flow and by listening intently, it’s already sent a signal to the person that you have listened and that you care about them and the situation they’re facing.
    • IDENTIFICATION – Sometimes while the angry customer is venting, you’ll be able to latch right on to the problem because it’s clear-cut. Something is broken. Or late. Or he thinks a promise has been broken.  Once you have identified what the problem is, it’s important that you reiterate it to the customer so that they are sure that you have heard them correctly. If you’ve assumed correctly, the customer will say ‘yes’ and then you can move on. If not, this is a good place for some specific questions. Ask the customer to give you some details. “What day did he order it, when exactly was it promised. What is his situation at the moment?” These kinds of questions force the customer to think about facts instead of his/her feelings about those facts. So, you interject a more rational kind of conversation.  Eventually, you will get to the heart of the matter and at that point, you should reiterate to them to ensure you’ve got it right and then you can move on to the next stage.  However … remember this … you MUST apologize for the problem caused by the customer and the impact that he has felt.  This is NOT an acknowledgment of fault or wrongdoing, simply another part of empathizing with your customer.
    • BLAME GAME – I don’t know how else to say it but to be frank.  This is NOT the customer’s fault.  NEVER blame them for coming to you with a complaint.  You should be thanking them for giving you an opportunity to excel! This might also not be your companies fault either, but it is still proper and correct for you to apologize. 
    • RESOLUTION – Now it’s time to try to resolve the situation. There is never going to be a successful outcome every time here and what may be a satisfactory resolution for one customer may not appease another but what is important is to go about trying to resolve the problem in the correct manner.   You won’t always be able to fix the problem perfectly. And you may need more time than a single phone call. But it’s critical to leave the irate customer with the understanding that your goal is to resolve the problem. You may need to say, “I’m going to need to make some phone calls.” If you do, give the customer an idea of when you’ll get back to him: “Later this afternoon.” Or “First thing in the morning.”
    Then do it. Whatever your commitment has been to the customer it is IMPERATIVE that you keep it.  If you do not, you will have them angry at YOU for not fulfilling your promise and this time they would be justified!   Even if you don’t have all the information you need, call when you said you would and at least let him know what you’ve done, what you’re working on and what your next step will be. Let the customer know that he and his business are important to you, that you understand his frustration, and that you’re working hard to get things fixed.
    If you are not going to be able to resolve the situation to the customers’ satisfaction – as them how they would like it resolved!  There is no harm in asking that simple question, and even if their response is not something you can do, perhaps it is something that could be done at a higher level of the organization. By taking all of these steps, you’ll have done your job to the best of your ability and in a manner which is likely to resolve most issues.

    You have the Power!

    It is important that you remain calm in the face of your customer’s anger.  This will allow you to think rationally and eventually win the customer around.  The moment you start reacting to them is the moment you’ve lost the plot and the control of the situation.  You will not succeed in your intent if you do this.
    The more you encounter difficult customers, the easier it becomes to deal with them and the more you’ll experience satisfactory outcomes. As long as you adopt an approach similar to that above, you’ll win more than you’ll lose.
    Nevertheless, always bear in mind that you’re never going to win them all.  Don’t get disheartened … if you have treated them with respect they will REMEMBER and chances are good when you competition causes them grief, they will be back!