How well does your organization treat clients or customers?

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EKG Pulse Graph with Glowing Blue Line

Our reader poll today asks: How well does your organization treat clients or customers?

– Extremely well — we take great care of them: 35.17%
– Very well — we treat them better than most other companies: 34.88%
– Well — we do a decent job but could improve a bit: 25%
– Not well — we could treat them much better: 3.49%
– Poorly — I’m surprised we even still have customers: 1.45%

Treat them well or someone else will. It doesn’t take much to lose a customer and we all know how hard it is to acquire them. If your organization isn’t in the top two categories in this poll, you’re creating a large risk to your business. As leaders, we’re responsible for identifying where we’re coming up short in our treatment of customers and quickly fixing those issues. Client service can be very simple to understand but difficult to execute. It all boils down to defining client service principles you should never violate. Make sure you do both as you set the tone for your team to care for one of your most valuable assets.

Do you agree with these poll results? Let us know in the comments below!

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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3 Common – and Dangerous – Myths About Business Plans

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Business PlanBusiness plans aren’t only for entrepreneurs. Any new venture requires thorough planning before you launch it if you want a reasonable chance of success. There are a lot of myths about business plans out there. Today I’d like to debunk three of the biggest ones.

It’s exciting launching a new business. Whether you’re building a new venture from scratch or creating something new within a large corporation, remember the old adage that “only fools rush in.”

One of the biggest mistakes you can make during an exciting launch is saying, “I’m too busy to write a business plan.” More often than not, that lack of planning will come back to haunt you.

There are three common myths about writing a business plan—and buying into them can signal the beginning of the end for your venture.

Myth 1: Business plans are only for new startups seeking funding

“I don’t have to write a business plan! I’m not launching some brand new startup.”

Notice it’s called a “business plan”—not a “startup plan.” If you’re going to invest in building a business venture, you need to think things through. You’ll be risking money, time, energy, and effort in the hopes of building something great. Isn’t that investment worth a little planning?

A good business plan will help you think through how you’re going to spend those investments wisely. It’ll also point out where your biggest risks are and provide direction on how you can mitigate them.

If you are launching a startup, you absolutely need a business plan even if you’re not seeking outside funding. You’ll be investing your own personal time, energy, and funds and those investments come with a true opportunity cost as well.

But business plans for existing organizations looking to expand or build new divisions are even more critical than business plans for startups. The stakes are much higher for larger businesses simply because the investments are larger and a failure of the new venture can also harm the existing business.

Myth 2: Writing a business plan is a huge ordeal

“Business plans take forever! I don’t have time for that! I need to be working on launching the business!”

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11 Business Lessons You Can’t Survive Without

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Birthday Cake with 11 CandlesRunning a business is an exercise in fear, excitement, fear, elation, fear, hard work, and fear. Did I mention fear? In the 11 years I’ve been running my firm, I’ve learned a few indispensable lessons that apply no only to entrepreneurs but to business folks in all walks of life.

Yesterday was our 11th birthday.  11.  thoughtLEADERS, LLC turned 11 yesterday.  I’m still in shock over the milestone.

“Why are you in shock, Mike? Don’t you believe in yourself and your business?”

Absofrickinlutely. That’s the only reason it’s survived 11 years. I believe in it more than you can imagine.

During that time, I’ve learned a great deal and I’ve grown as a businessman every single day. Every setback was a learning opportunity. Every success has pushed me closer to the next chasm to jump.  What I’d like to do today is share 11 pieces of advice that can hopefully help you be more successful in your work (and life) as well.  This guidance doesn’t only apply to entrepreneurs. It’s for business people in all walks of life. I hope you find them helpful.

1. Your business will change. Either you can change it or the market will change it for you. Change is the constant. It’s easy to get locked in on a model that works to the exclusion of other opportunities or ideas. For the longest time I railed against putting our content in video form. “You can’t learn our stuff from online videos.” It took me a while to come around and only once I met the amazing folks at lynda.com did I warm to the idea. My fear was putting our stuff on video would cannibalize our core in-person training. Instead, it’s reinforced that training and has given us broader visibility to new customers. So far I’ve put a bunch of our courses online and more will follow. I’m thrilled with the results. Be open to changing your business. When the market makes changes for you, it usually sucks.

2. A deal’s not a deal until it’s a deal. I’m an excitable guy. If I had a nickel for every deal I thought would go through that subsequently fell through for some reason, I’d be retired by now. Early on, I placed a lot of value in those “tentative but definitely coming through” deals and I planned for that. When they didn’t materialize, fear and panic ensued. Since then I’ve learned to temper my enthusiasm. In my eyes, it’s not a deal until I’m stepping onto the podium. Be sure you balance your expectations with reality and have contingency plans for when things don’t go as expected.

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7 Tips for Dealing With Irate Customers

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Salesman Yelling into PhoneDealing with angry customers can be one of the greatest challenges you face.  Here are 7 tips for dealing with those difficult situations gracefully and effectively.

Today’s post is by Mark Goulston, author of Just Listen: Discover the Secret to Getting Through to Absolutely Anyone (CLICK HERE to get your copy).

One of the things that all irate customers have in common is that they have an attitude that says “I rate better service than this and now that I have you on the phone, you’re going to pay for it!” And one of the other things about them that gets to you is you feel unjustly accused of having done this to them and that can make it difficult to remain calm.

That is why the first three tips are about ways to remain or regain your calm and the final four about what to do next.

1. 3 Strikes and You’re Calm – 1. Think of the first thing you want to say or do in response to an irate customer (which is about defending or protecting yourself). Don’t do it, take a breath and exhale. 2. Then think of the second thing you want to say or do (which is about retaliating). Don’t do that, take a breath and exhale. 3. And finally think of the third thing you want to do (which is about finding a solution) and do that.

2. Assume innocence – Unless you are dealing with a truly evil person, assume that nothing is going right in the person’s life and they have chosen this interaction with you to displace all their frustration as a way of not taking it personally when it is meant for your company or product and not you.

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6 Questions You MUST Ask to Prevent Bad Customer Service

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Bad customer service has an incalculable cost and long-lasting repercussions.  Here are 6 questions you can ask to prevent those issues from happening in the first place.

Today’s post is by Angie Morgan, author of Leading from the Front (CLICK HERE to get your copy).

It was 1984.

A colleague of mine had an unpleasant exchange with a ticket agent who was rescheduling his flight. The agent made a snarky remark, further frustrating the process, and my colleague said, “I’m done with this airline.”

Fast forward 31 years. My friend still hasn’t flown on the offending airline, but he has accumulated 3,000,000 miles on others. He’s now a senior leader at a Fortune 50 firm and recently held a national conference and made a request to his team not to fly on this airline either.

Now, my friend’s boycott seems extreme. But is it, really? You’ve likely taken similar stands when you’ve received bad customer service. Maybe you made a silent protest, vowing never to visit a business again. Or you’ve publicized your displeasure by telling your network or writing an online review.

Whenever bad service happens, there’s a cost. It could be a damaged relationship, a missed opportunity, or a dropped account. It can even result in millions of dollars of lost revenue.

If you’re a manager reading this, you understand the potential impact your client-facing team has on the business.   But when was the last time you challenged yourself to see if you’re doing everything you can to prevent poor customer service from happening?

Ask yourself:

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A Tale of Two Retailers and Trust

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Trust Written Across a Brick ArchwayLeaders who empower their team members get better results.  They make faster decisions, have the ability to act, and create dramatically better experiences for customers.  Here’s how you can empower your teams.

Today’s post is by Dianna Booher, author of What MORE Can I Say? (CLICK HERE to get your copy).

“Happy families are all alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way,” observed the Russian philosopher and novelist Leo Tolstoy. The same might be said of large retailers. Successful retailers operate on the same principles to achieve happy customers. Struggling retailers fail for different reasons.

Recently, I had to replace two major household items in the same week: a clothes washer and a TV console. The experience at Retailer A to buy the washer proved a disaster. For starters, we asked the salesperson several questions before making our final decision: 1) Is the advertised in-store sales prices the same as the online price? 2) Can we get next-day delivery? 3) Are both colors available now? 4) Are the “pedestal” drawers deep enough to store typical detergent containers? She answered yes to all four questions.

As it turned out, Retailer A could not deliver our color choice for a month. We opted for second choice. When they delivered the washer, it was badly damaged. The optional purchase “pedestal” drawers were not deep enough to store even the shortest detergent containers. When we called to get the damaged machine replaced, the contractor who delivered it confirmed that Retailer A had a backlog of “at least” another month before they could replace it with another machine. And it took more than an hour on the phone with two levels of management in three different departments (warehouse, scheduling, credit) to get the paperwork handled and the replacement machine rescheduled for delivery.

But by comparison, the tale at Retailer B put Retailer A to shame.

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To Supercharge Innovation, Map your Customer’s Processes

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Today’s post is by David Hamme, author of Customer Focused Process Innovation (CLICK HERE to get your copy).

Remember when you had to purchase your music via CDs, records, or cassettes at brick and mortar record stores? Prior to the iPod’s arrival, there was always a delay between the intent to purchase the songs we wanted and the time when we could actually enjoy them. The delay was either the travel time to and from a store to buy the album or the time waiting for an order placed online to arrive from the post office. There definitely wasn’t instant gratification in the process.

The purchasing channels were rigid – requiring us to buy in increments of albums instead of choosing the exact songs we wanted. But there wasn’t an outcry from consumers. We learned to live with the shortcomings of the process.

But then came revolutionary change. Apple uniquely understood the customer inconveniences better than anyone else and developed a digital music library (iTunes) and a physical device (the iPod) to eliminate the delay in the customer’s receipt of music and that allowed the consumer to purchase exactly the songs they wanted. iPods were a huge improvement over the status quo and the customer responded enthusiastically. In effect, Apple reengineered the customer’s processes and by doing so redefined the music industry.

Innovators like Apple find and exploit game changing opportunities at a more rapid pace than their competition. The question is how to systematically identify those opportunities that move the market without relying on pure genius or an extraordinary leader – because Steve Jobs type geniuses are in short supply.

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Setting Team Standards with a Simple Phrase

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Two Call Center AssociatesAs you lead your team and set direction, you have to first set standards. Let people know these are the expectations that you have of them for how they’re going to perform, especially when you’re not around.

These standards will typically take one of two forms. First, there are context-specific standards. Those relate to the role that you’re in and the role your team is operating in. The second type of standard is more behavioral standards that you’ll carry with you across roles. I’d like to focus on the context-specific standards today because those can rapidly improve and standardize the performance of your associates.

Allow me to offer an example of a context-specific standard. A long time ago, I ran in a large customer service organization and our associates were talking to customers by phone on a daily basis. I couldn’t be there to supervise them to listen in on every single call, nor could their managers.

We had two choices – either we could give our call center associates a long laundry list of “here are all the talk-offs that you should have for a specific customer and the situation they have” or we could have given them some rules for how we wanted them to behave. That rule was a leadership maxim (a principle or rule of conduct). The maxim I used was, “Is this right for the customer?” It was a very simple question.

We had it printed on mouse pads so it was right in front of that associate all the time. When they were on the phone with a customer, they could ask themselves “Is what I’m about to do right for the customer?” If the answer was yes, we wanted them to do that. If the answer was no, they needed to think of a different solution they could offer the customer that would satisfy the customer’s need.

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11 Commandments of Outstanding Client Service

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Moses and the Ten CommandmentsIf you’re looking to run a successful business that takes great care of its clients, you’d do well to read the following commandments of client service.

These are values, beliefs, and rules I’ve picked up in over a decade of running a client-facing organization.  And I serve some pretty outstanding (and demanding) clients!

Lately I’ve had a lot of friends and colleagues ask for advice on things they should do or think of as they get ready to strike out on their own and start their own businesses.  Since I’m getting tired of saying the same thing on the phone every single time, I figure I’ll get efficient, write it here once, then refer anyone else who asks to this blog post.  Being an entrepreneur is all about being efficient.

1. Never keep a client waiting.  Honestly, if you show up late, don’t expect them to stay a client very long.  Sure this means spending a lot of time in waiting areas because you got somewhere early.  Bring a book.  Read a blog.  Collect your thoughts before the meeting.  Heck – I actually started writing this very blog post while I sat waiting for a client to arrive.  Just do not be late.  Ever.  You would be shocked and appalled at how many people violate this all the time.  No.  It’s not all right to do so.

2. The client is always right unless they’re wrong.  Clients aren’t always right.  Many times they are.  Sometimes you’re both right.  Ask yourself if it’s worth falling on your sword to be right.  If not, shut up.  But if they are wrong and being wrong is going to be harmful to them, see the next commandment.  Don’t always tell the client what they want to hear.  Tell them what they need to hear.

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How to Avoid the Transparency Trap

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Woman Looking Through a TransparencyToday’s post is by Victor Prince, one of our thoughtLEADERS instructors.

“Transparency” has become a hot buzzword over the last several years among business leaders and consultants. We have all probably heard something like this from someone with a big job title – “We have got to be more transparent!” Fast forward through a ton of meetings, reams of slide decks and maybe even some significant consulting fees that ensue and what do you have to show for your efforts? If all you can point to is a bunch of shiny new pretty pictures and paragraphs about your business on your website but no meaningful business results, you have probably been the victim of the Transparency Trap.

The Transparency Trap is what happens when you do transparency for transparency’s sake, not for your customers’ stake. You talk about what you want to talk about instead of answering the questions your customers care about.

As the big transparency initiative rolls down through your organization, employees will translate it into a “let me show you how complex and hard it is to do my job so you are impressed.” You end up putting up a cloud of information that is interesting to your staff but irrelevant to your customers. Your website is now stuffed with lots of nice pictures and profiles of your people – that nobody outside your walls ever clicks on.

Best case, you have burned a lot of organizational calories without any benefit. Worst case, you have frustrated your customers who cannot find the answers to the few key pieces of information they need. They just wanted to know what they would get, when they would get it, and how much it would cost them. You couldn’t tell them that, but somehow you had time to make a snazzy video of your production line. If they wanted that, they would have asked for a tour. It makes your organization seem like an out of touch narcissist with too much time on its hands.

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Is your business ready to expand overseas?

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GlobeToday’s post is by Sloan McKinney who has a passion for helping companies expand their global footprint.

Introducing a business to a new country is very much like starting from scratch with a brand new company. Though a company may have experienced wild success on a much smaller level, the array of factors that could make – or break – an expansion make the process far more daunting than many are comfortable admitting.

Taking time to contemplate the advantages and disadvantages of expanding is easy. Contemplating the logistics of expansion are a different matter entirely.

Before you take the plunge and decide to establish an international presence, it’s vital to consider every possible expense and to create contingency plans that can account for anything that goes wrong. Deciding if you expand to reach new markets is a process in and of itself. When a business expands to cover new markets, a great deal of stress is put on the company.

Where is the highest demand for my product?

If that isn’t abundantly clear, then consider where the demand can be highest. Check out competitors and their respective products in the areas, and compare it to what your company has to offer.

Consider the average income of citizens in the targeted country. Can the citizens in the target country afford to purchase what you have to offer? Understanding the structure of the community, and the targeted audience in the country you are bringing your product are crucial aspects of the planning process.

Can your company adapt its product to the particular wants and needs in the targeted country?

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Building Successful Brands: Real Purpose Isn’t Built in a Day

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Customer CEOToday’s post is by Chuck Wall, author of Customer CEO: How to Profit from the Power of Your Customers (CLICK HERE to get your copy).  Here’s Chuck…

Tired of hearing brands blather on about how much they really care about their customers?  Wouldn’t it be a lot more honest if they would just admit their real passion is to separate people from as much of their money as possible for stuff they don’t really need?

Maybe that’s a bridge too far, but there’s clearly something different happening in this social era.  In Customer CEO: How to Profit from the Power of Your Customers, I write about what I call the Power of Purpose.  This customer power confronts every business leader with a new reality; that today’s customer is thirsting to do business with brands they can really believe and believe in.

In my customer research work over the years, I have heard people say “Just do the right thing” more times than I can count. What customers are saying is they want to share values with the companies they do business with. These values have nothing to do with price.  They are talking about being honest, showing integrity, providing fair treatment, demonstrating a caring attitude, being loyal, and doing it consistently.

Let’s be frank: for many companies facing the complexities of modern business, it is too much work to create, teach, and live values. They often cut corners and look the other way.  Leadership either refuses to lead with values or tolerates poor values in their management ranks. Many customer-facing employees are left in their jobs far too long. The customer experience becomes a bad joke.  This is why there is such a huge disconnect between the flawed advertising spewing forth from these brands; it hardly resembles the reality the customer encounters on a daily basis. Read more

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