Training – Page 22 – thoughtLEADERS, LLC: Leadership Training for the Real World

$325 Equals $210? The Math of Customer Hostile Policies

March 25, 2008/5 Comments/in Customer Service, Training /by Mike Figliuolo

So I bought a plane ticket. It cost me $325. My plans changed and I now had a credit with one of the major air carriers. No problem. I know I’ll have to pay a change fee at a later date (usually $100) but not a huge deal. “At least I’ll be able to use the credit” I thought to myself.

I had occasion to travel again so I called said airline and told them I wanted to book my flight to Chicago for my presentation at the Leadership Excellence 2008 Conference. The new ticket was going to be $210. “Cool! I can use my full credit and even simply pay the change fee out of what I already paid” I naively mused. Then the ugly spectre of customer-hostile policies reared its head. It went a little something like this:

“Yes sir. The flight is $210 round trip.”

“Great. I’d like to use a credit I have with you folks. The old confirmation number is RIPOFF325.”

“Yes sir. I have that credit here. How would you like to pay the balance due today?”

“Huh? Balance due?”

“Yes sir. There’s a $100 change fee for using the old ticket.”

“Yeah. I know. Just use the credit for the $325 ticket toward the $210 ticket plus the $100 change fee and I should still have a credit of $15 with you guys, right?” I mean, I did pass arithmetic in 2nd grade. Here’s where things start going south…

Epitaph For The 3(0) Year Career – Talkin’ Bout My Generation

February 21, 2008/1 Comment/in Career, Training /by Mike Figliuolo

This ain’t your daddy’s or mommy’s business world anymore. I’m sure you’ve figured that out already. First of all, people use cell phones. This is a fact I’m constantly reminding my father of…

“Dad, turn on your cell phone when you’re not home.”

“Why? Then it will ring. I’m retired and I don’t want to be bothered by everyone.”

“Dad, the only people who have your number are me, Mom, and my sister…” He still doesn’t get it…

The career world he lived in has changed as well. Dad had a first career for 17 years at a large company that rhymes with AT&T (which makes his aversion to phones even more bizarre). After those wonderfully predictable pension-based years, it was a series of smaller “careers” – 6 years, 6 years, 3 years, 5 years, retirement. For him, it was no big deal. 5-6 years is plenty of time to get settled in a home and community. It’s not a huge issue to demonstrate progression in a “career” at a company in 5-6 years and to move after that. But the world continues to change. For those of us in the workplace, we’re part of a new dynamic.

Let’s spend a little time with Roger Daltrey “talkin’ bout my generation.”

Compassionate Leadership: Cleaning Up A Mess

February 14, 2008/0 Comments/in Career, Leadership, Training /by Mike Figliuolo

Have you ever made a hiring mistake? The candidate looked brilliant on paper. They blew everyone away in the interviews. They were local so there as no relo cost involved. They even took your first salary offer without negotiating (danger Will Robinson!). And then they showed up for work… And all went well for the first month. Everyone loved him. He was gregarious and got to know everyone in the organization. And one day you woke up and realized he hadn’t done anything yet. Not one iota of impact. And you started to wonder…

Time went on. Less and less got done. Others in the organization began to notice and even grumble that the rock star you hired was not a real rock star but was actually a used up member of Poison from the ’80s (appropriate because this guy seems to be looking for “Nothin’ but a good time!”). It became abundantly clear to everyone you had made a hiring mistake. It’s okay. It happens to all of us.

There’s nothing wrong with making hiring mistakes. It’s forgivable. What’s unforgivable is not doing something about it (remember You see it, you own it?). The best leaders I’ve seen quickly try to address performance (or lack thereof) with the individual. They set near term, measurable improvement goals. And if, unfortunately, the individual fails to meet them, they are moved on to another opportunity (either inside the company or outside of it). But doing this takes a degree of intestinal fortitude that is difficult for many of us to summon. Such actions require us to first admit we made a mistake (admission is the first step to remission…).

Serving Customers is Easy – Just LISTEN

February 11, 2008/1 Comment/in Business Toolkit, Communications, Customer Service, Training /by Mike Figliuolo

You’ve already been exposed to a few of my customer service diatribes and bad customer service experiences in Customer Disservice. You’ve also seen how little things make a huge difference in my post on Customer Service Without Boundaries. What’s the difference? Two little awkwardly shaped pieces of cartilage covered with skin (and in my case a few errant black hairs that I occasionally have to pluck so I don’t look like Ernest Borgnine). Figure it out? EARS!

Listening makes all the difference. Whether or not your front-line employee (or even you for that matter) takes that moment to genuinely not just hear, but absorb and appreciate the concern of your customer is the determinant of which way the interaction will go. Use your ears and everything will be okay. Fail to do so and you could potentially create a blogger who has no problem whatsoever berating your or your company in front of millions (I’m a nice guy though – I don’t name names…).

“Thanks Mike. Helpful advice. ‘Listen.’ Gee whiz… you’re like the Yoda of customer service. You’ve given me nothing helpful or practical in this post. You must have been a consultant at some point in your career…” You must be a new reader (welcome to the blog by the way!). Regular readers of these posts know the drill. I tee up an issue, highlight why it’s important, tell a story or two, occasionally soliloquize, then give you one or two real-world tools to try out in your business. Strap in. Here we go.

Customer Service Without Boundaries

February 7, 2008/4 Comments/in Customer Service, Training /by Mike Figliuolo

Every once in a while I have the pleasure of interacting with a service provider who goes above and beyond. They redefine boundaries and set new bars for what the expectation of customer service should be. While they’re rare gems, you can find them if you look hard enough. I’d like to explore a couple of such experiences and deconstruct what made these experiences so great.

It was the morning of Christmas Eve and all through the house, no one was sleeping including my wife, my mom, my dad, my sister, my brother-in-law, the dogs or my kids… The holidays at my house tend to be a bit chaotic. With a mix of excitement and dread, I prepared for my annual sojourn to the fish counter. I needed to buy the traditional seven fish for the Christmas Eve dinner (I’m Italian. It’s what we do. No one can tell you why exactly – there are about ten different explanations for the tradition. All I know is I’m not tempting bad ancestral juju by breaking with the ancient ways).

I ended up at Whole Foods because they have incredibly high quality fresh catches. They’re also one of the few places where you can buy smelts in central Ohio (it’s another Italian thing…). I bought my seven fish and headed to the register. As the cashier was ringing up my final items, I realized I had forgotten the eggs to bread the fish. Under my breath I said “Shoot. Eggs.” Now in 95% of the rest of the grocery stores in America, this comment would have gone nowhere (which is what I intended). Not here. This young woman (let’s call her “Julie”) heard my comment, stopped what she was doing and asked “Did you forget your eggs sir?”

Team Building: Buying Damaged Goods

January 18, 2008/5 Comments/in Career, Leadership, Training /by Mike Figliuolo

For those of you who have built and led teams, I’m sure you can remember a time you’ve pursued a “rock star” from somewhere within your organization for an open position on your team. And why not? The person is proven. They’ve delivered results. They clearly know how to navigate the organization. It completely makes sense to try to convince them to join your team, right?

Here’s the problem – every other hiring manager in your organization who has a spot to fill is thinking the same thing. All of you are pursuing the same rock star. This dynamic decreases your chances of landing this individual and therefore the expected value of your time spent recruiting them diminishes with every incremental manager who’s seeking out the rock star. The problem gets compounded by the fact that you will probably get somewhat myopic in your pursuit of this individual because of course they’re going to take your role, right? And if they’re going to do that, you’ll extend the offer so why spend any time screening other candidates? Yeah. And then the rock star spurns you and you’ve lost 2-4 weeks of valuable recruiting time.

“But Mike, if I land the rock star, it makes it all worthwhile.” Really? Here’s something to consider – how easy will it be to keep that rock star challenged and more importantly, how will you fend off the hordes of other managers who will try to hire the rock star away from you? And if you’re not challenging the rock star, the likelihood of you losing them to a competitive offer goes up.

So what’s a hiring manager to do?

Hands-On Customer Service Training

January 6, 2008/2 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Customer Service, Training /by Mike Figliuolo

It’s all well and good to pontificate about “the customer comes first” or “deliver outstanding service” but oftentimes it’s hard for your team to wrap their heads around what that really means. You can say these things until your jaw muscles are sore and post all the “customer service rules” you want on their cubicle walls but only a small percentage of the teachings will stick.

I come from the school of learning by doing. When you see something first-hand or participate in the activity, retention of such information is exponentially higher. Training your people this way provides them a situational context to refer back to. They can articulate and remember the concepts and precepts you’re teaching much better than if you talked their ears off in a classroom. If you want them to retain the information, let them live the lessons. It’s sort of like telling a kid the stove is hot. They kind of understand the concept “hot” but don’t have context around that. Let them touch it and they’ll never forget the definition of “hot” let alone the event.

I was helping an organization move from mediocre service levels to trying to provide outstanding, individualized service to over 400,000 customers. We’d bring our managers in for training and talk AT them all day. Some of the information stuck. A lot bounced off and fell on the floor.

I wanted them to truly understand what “customer-focused” means. I had a choice – I could either talk AT them first thing in the morning in a classroom or I could show them and have them live it. I obviously chose the latter. Read more

Delivering Customer Service vs. Customer Disservice

January 3, 2008/1 Comment/in Communications, Customer Service, Training /by Mike Figliuolo

“Thank you for calling XXXXXXX customer service. How may I provide you with excellent customer service today?”

I cringe when I hear those words. Especially before I’ve had my second cup of coffee (that’s the rule – no one is allowed to talk to me until I’ve finished that second cup. It’s ugly if that rule gets broken).

So here’s the situation: I opened a new credit card account because the card had some wonderful product features. As soon as I received the card, I went online to the card issuer’s website and set up for automatic payments so I wouldn’t ever be late and trigger penalties and repricing of the account to an exorbitant rate. Their website confirmed I was set up for autopay with due dates of the 30th of each month.

So I look at my account today to find a $39.00 late fee. Ouch. I figure it’s not possible given I signed up for autopay, right? I promptly made a payment online (minimum payment plus the late fee) then I called customer service and was greeted with the above (the issuer’s name has been hidden to protect the less-than-innocent). I explained the situation. The customer disservice rep said “I’m sorry sir. When you set up online payments, it takes two billing cycles for that to take effect. Your account has been repriced to 24.97% (double ouch).”

“Ummmm yeah. Your site says nothing about a delay of two billing cycles before payment posts. I’d like the fee waived and the original interest rate reinstated.” I said this in my nicest, semi-frustrated customer voice.

“I can’t do that sir until you make your payment.” Read more

Walking the Talk in Training

December 4, 2007/0 Comments/in Training /by Mike Figliuolo

The twenty-something trainer with the exuberant and bubbly personality bounces at the podium. He is spouting the latest framework and management buzzwords to a rapt audience. The materials are flawless and the theory makes a ton of sense. From the back of the room comes the killer question: “So I get the framework, but how does it actually apply to the work I do every day?”

The trainer struggles to articulate a single instance of how he’s used the framework in day to day work environments. Why? Because he never has—his entire career to date has been spent behind that podium.

Enter “The Practitioner”

There is a rare breed of instructor out there known as “the practitioner.” She has been classically trained on fundamental frameworks, methodologies, theories and tools. She’s applied those concepts and tools in real world business situations. Her resume is a testaments to the impact she’s had: bottom line savings; reorganizations; strategic plans and step-change business improvement.

She drives change in her companies. She is so valuable to the team she leads that she spends her career moving into positions of increasing responsibility. Unfortunately, she is one of a just a few who are given a chance to train the next generation of leaders because the rest of the practitioners are too busy “doing their day jobs.”

One organization that clearly “gets it” when it comes to using practitioners as trainers is the U.S. Army. Almost every Army service school is staffed by experienced soldiers who not only know the theory but have applied it in actual field situations. They can vividly articulate how theory applies to the real world, which aids student comprehension and retention of the materials (not to mention making it more interesting to listen to in class).

Practitioners exist in business as well. Arguably, these individuals are the best source of training cadre a company could ask for. Their combination of deep understanding of frameworks, practices and theories and how they apply in the real world is an untapped resource that many companies fail to utilize. The challenge is how to free them up from their daily responsibilities to enable them to train people. This leaves companies with three options: Read more