Blog Archives
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Service Story: Profile of Excellence
By ServiceElements, Christine Hill - Wednesday May 15, 2013A co-worker recently discovered an article (Molloy Associates, 1988) written about her brother-in-law on his Commitment to Excellence for outstanding contributions to the Commercial Finance and Leasing Industry. He commented that his commitment to excellence goes back to his origins. His father, a former Southwestern Bell telephone lineman, provided the necessary focus by teaching his son that "whatever you do, just be the best". From those lessons, whether it was a game of golf, a $5,000 transaction or a $5 million transaction, he approached it with his best effort. People who worked with her brother-in-law over the years saw that more could be accomplished out of what seemed like less by "good old-fashioned hard work". In addition, he... -
Soft Skills Have Hard Value
By ServiceElements, Christine Hill - Wednesday May 8, 2013Body builders and professional trainers understand the importance of and spend a lot of time building “core strength”. “Core” Training with regard to getting in shape is the balanced development of the deep and superficial muscles that stabilize, align, and move the trunk of the body, especially the abdominals and muscles of the back. It is now common understanding among many of these physical fitness professionals that without core training, optimum development will not be reached. The same is true in training for business and professional development. What has traditionally been referred to as “soft skills” training and includes proficiencies such as communication skills, conflict resolution and negotiation, personal... -
L.I.D. Template for Meetings
By ServiceElements, Christine Hill - Wednesday May 1, 2013Too often, management meetings tilt too far in one area – for example the ‘information dump’. Many meeting audits show senior managers spending up to 80% of meeting time listening to presentations, with little time left for real dialogue and sometimes even less for new learning. A format that could be useful for regular management meetings is LID: L – Learning I – Information D- Dialogue To gain a more balanced agenda for meetings, 1/3 of the meeting should be set aside for each of the above objectives: 1/3 for Learning; 1/3 for information; and 1/3 for dialogue. The discipline of the three equal parts ensures that planning is a broad participatory process, not driven solely by individual agendas. Participatory... -
How to Make A Company Great!
By ServiceElements, Christine Hill - Wednesday April 24, 2013What does it take to be a truly GREAT Company? In a recent article in Harvard Business Review, researchers presented their findings for a two year study that identified top-performing companies*. Their data came from 25,000 companies that have traded on U.S. exchanges anytime from 1966 to 2010. They not only identified top performers, but tried to find common reasons why these companies held their status for so long. The top companies were put into three categories: Miracle Worker , Long Runner and Average Joe according to their competitive positioning. There were a total of 174 Miracle Workers . Miracle Workers were companies that fell in the top 10% of ROA (return on assets) for a significant amount of time. Long Runners... -
Givers and Takers: Part II
By ServiceElements, Christine Hill - Wednesday April 17, 2013Last week’s article expressed the importance of recognizing that every organization’s success depends on the generosity of its employees. Every organization has employees that make decisions every day about whether to be givers or takers. To continue this topic, we return to the study done by Stanford University on givers and takers in organizations. The least productive workers in this study were givers —workers who had done many more favors for others than they had received. But when Flynn turned his spotlight on the top-producing workers, he found that they, too, were givers who did more favors than they received. Those in the middle were the takers . The successful givers produced 50% more annual revenue, on... -
Givers & Takers
By ServiceElements, Christine Hill - Wednesday April 10, 2013Every organization’s success depends on the generosity of its employees. Every organization has employees that make decisions every day about whether to be givers or takers. When employees act as givers , they contribute to others without seeking anything in return. This contribution may be offering assistance, sharing knowledge or making valuable introductions. When employees act as takers , they carefully guard their own time and expertise while trying to get others to serve their ends. Organizations will benefit from fostering giving behavior because this willingness to help others benefits more effective collaboration, service excellence, quality improvement and innovation. The benefits are exponential to the organization... -
Being a Good Customer
By ServiceElements, Christine Hill - Wednesday March 27, 2013What does it take to be a good customer? Take a moment now to think about your best customers and write down some words or phrases that describe them. Here is a common list people come up with in this exercise: They communicate their expectations very clearly When things change, they tell us—they give us a heads up whenever possible Honest, polite Friendly Patient They do not make assumptions Interestingly enough, all of these qualities are the same ones that describe good customer service delivery. While good customer service delivery is a product of many factors, it is reasonable to suggest that customers who exhibit the qualities above will likely receive excellent service in return. Such customers realize... -
ServiceElements: Customer Service Tip of the Week
By ServiceElements, Christine Hill - Wednesday March 20, 2013
Promoted to Supervisor from the Floor or Frontline – What Do I Do Now? By Christine Hill Management Scenario: Mike has been a maintenance technician at XYZ Aviation for 18 years. He is the most knowledgeable and dependable maintenance professional on his team. Jerry, his supervisor, recently retired after 35 years on the job. Mike was promoted to Maintenance Supervisor because of his experience and commitment to the company. Mike was of course thrilled with the promotion, but he has had some challenges. The guys on the floor are all his buddies, so it has been a tough transition from “buddy” to supervisor. It has also been difficult for Mike because he has never had any formal management training with tips on how to be a... -
Consider Yourself an Underdog
By ServiceElements, Christine Hill - Wednesday March 13, 2013
When an organization or a department or an individual is trying to deliver the best service, it is important to constantly ask the question, “What can we/I do better?” Great organizations, departments and individuals who excel at what they do---the ones that are listed as the best of the best---never rest on their laurels. They always look for ways to improve, even if their service is the best. They never say, “I am No. 1 and I am happy.” In our customer service workshops at ServiceElements, we have service professionals who feel they give the best service already and see no reason to change or no room to improve the service the offer. There are also service professionals who are continually driven to look for ways to get... -
Customer Service Tip
By ServiceElements, Christine Hill - Wednesday March 6, 2013Customer Service is an abstract term. This is a real challenge for today’s organizations in creating customer service standards that are genuine for their customers. For managers and leaders who want to improve the service delivery of their organization, it is imperative to define the service expectations in concrete terms. Utilize real life scenarios as examples of what actions constitute good service and what actions would be bad service.
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