Coaching Employees

I love the game of baseball. National pastime and all, it is my favorite sport. To completely confess, I am also a New York Yankees fan. Growing up in Connecticut you have a choice: The Red Sox (Satan's demons...) or the Yankees. It was an easy choice.

My baseball diversion was to make note of the fact that in baseball the lead guy is called a manager. In other sports such as basketball and football, they are a coach. In business virtually everyone is called a manager. Very rarely is a leader defined as a coach and if the term is used it is often the front line manager or "lead" that is called a coach. Why the distinction? Who knows? Business needs far more coaches than they do managers. Let me rephrase; they need far more "coaching" than "managing". Leaving baseball behind ( I know the manager "coaches". ), let's focus on the difference between these two terms in a business environment.

1. Coaches make employees better- A coach helps an employee get better and thus helps to increase their performance. At least that is what a good coach does. Coaching is really needed to make one thing happen; change behavior. That is what a great coach does. They help employees change their behavior. That could be an increase in use of skills, attitude, attendance, or simply anything that gets an employee to change a behavior for the better of the employee and betterment of the company. Some coaches do this with high energy, high expectations or simply high involvement. They are active in the process. When employees change behavior in areas that are beneficial to a company you get better productivity, quality and most likely profitability. The more employees impacted by a single coach or a group of coaches that can truly change behavior the better the results. You already know your good coaches. They are easy to pick out and you see the results.

2. Managers "manage"- Yes, this is going to be negative. Managers move resources around. Resources can be people, things, ideas. Unfortunately a bad manager can make a person feel like a thing. Managers by nature do more watching and telling than actual coaching. They often manage problems and reports. As a result they get movement but it is often not sustainable or worse in the wrong direction. When you manage vs. coach you have a tendency to be at the beginning of a process or performance or at the end; you rarely are a participant. As a result most work (sometimes harm) at the front or back of an event or process. Behavior is rarely changed because the manager is not involved with the work product. We are not saying that all leaders need to be actively involved in every step of their employees, simply that if you want behavior change it must be done through coaching and not managing.

Are your supervisors and managers more like the coach above or the manager? If they are like coaches the sky is the limit for you. If you are doing well; keep going. If you need to make changes; no problem. Coaches can change behavior. If on the other hand, they seem more like managers, then if your doing well your managers will be able to tell you. If you are doing poorly, you are at risk because while they can tell you how poorly they are doing, they can rarely help you fix it. Why? Because with employees it is very hard to manage your way to changes in behavior. You need a coach.

Trust

It never ceases to amaze how large a role trust plays in an organization. We have written about it before in this blog yet it will never be enough. As we move our way through any discussion in business, most every catalyst for change is related to a lack of trust. That lack of trust is either implied by outside parties or earned buy those inside the organization. Who do you trust in your organization? Who don't you trust? For those you do not trust, hopefully you are already taking action. For those you do, maybe it is time you checked in and verified your perception.

Recently we did some work for a client with particular focus on improving performance significantly in an area of their business. As the client moved through the process, he came to find out that the "workers" (people on he "trusted" were simply not doing what they were supposed to be doing. That in itself would be troubling however even worse they were lying about what they were doing. The leader was taking the time and energy to follow-up with the employees, ask for updates, encourage changes and actions, etc. The problem was that the employees were flat out lying about what they had been doing. You can imagine the impact of this.

1. It brought into question, the performance of the employee.

2. It brought into question not only this one issue but every other issue that this employee said they had completed, accomplished or were "planning to do".

3. The lies impacted other departments.

4. It now requires a whole new layer of auditing to verify work has been done.

5. It drives you to re-validate if anyone else is lying to you as well.

No manager can spend all their time verifying and validating every move an employee makes. Yes, you need to measure and monitor. This goes without question. Yet you can't watch everyone. Some you have to trust more than others. Otherwise you spend all your time "watching" and never using your leadership to move people forward.

This recognition rocked this managers world. Not because they were unable to make decisions and change, they moved quickly here. What rocked their world was that it made them questions virtually every thing that had been said and reported to them. Was any of it true? Could they ever trust this employee again. It was like entering a different reality.

Do you trust your employees? Go back over them one by one. Yes, use your gut feel along with real and actionable data.

Have you gone back and re-checked even those you would say you trust and consider reputable employees?

If am employee has lied to you on one thing; odds are they will do it again or have in the past.

Most of our discussions have been built around having great employee relationships. When you build them your company will excel. One of the ways you build a great company is to verify on a consistent basis who is "rowing in the same direction you are". Maybe you already know or maybe you need to just re-check to make sure that you really can trust the people you think you can trust.

One at a time...

Face it we are all a little selfish. Unfortunately it all too often starts first with me, myself and I and then we go from there. That singular focus on "ourselves" despite how hard we try to focus on others can be a strength in business. Our success can be changed by the individual actions and changes we make. Whether part of a small team or a large team our individual contributions make a difference. How well we do individually contributes to the team and the larger goals of our organization. Focusing on ourselves and our individual contribution in business is good for everyone.

Ironically when we lead a customer service or sales organization it is one of the first things we forget. We get wrapped up in dashboards, charts, scores and the "big picture". Nothing wrong with that. If you are a leader it is required. What is also required is that we recognize that the "big picture" is made up of "tens-hundreds- thousands" of individuals. Each one can make or break your day. Each one connecting with "tens-hundreds-thousands" of the most valuable asset your company has; your customers. If you run a call center then you live each day knowing that your very worst employee will most likely talk to more customers today, this week and this month than the very best, "top", high "fallutin" sales or marketing person in your company will talk to in a year.

How well prepared are we to deal with the individuals in the organization that make up the "big picture"? We must not only have a strategy and plan. Our ability to "scale" and deal with each individual can be the difference between success and failure.

Your customers can help. Put them to work for you.

Your call will NOT be monitored for quality assurance....

It is a simple change:
Today: Your call may be monitored for quality and training purposes.
Tomorrow: Your call will not be monitored for quality assurance; your opinion and advice is much more valuable than ours.

Let's face it. It is true. We spend our own money, use our own resources and evaluate our own performance knowing full well that there is someone else more credible, reliable and affordable; our customer. We know this yet for many we do nothing about it. We miss one very key component about this "obvious" perspective. What we miss is that our employees believe it as well.

What works better? Advice and direction (especially critique and request for change) from our managers and QA that we pay for or advice and direction from our customer. Not on a report or chart but real feedback and direction from our customers. It's okay; you can admit it because it is not even close. 10 times more valuable; 20 times? Do we hear 50? Our customers are more credible to us and more importantly our front-line employees.

Are you bold enough to change your announcement?

Salesforce figured it out...

A belated update to my salesforce problem. When the account was set up for my upgrade the wrong platform was inserted. As a result, when upgraded it would not take on the attributes required. In other words a very small mistake very early in the process caused the issue.

Once they figured it out, they fixed it right away. They also called me and told me it was fixed (Good job salesforce...)

Recently I contacted Salesforce with a question regarding my account. I own two "group edition" platforms for two separate business's. With that platform comes a standard set of reporting and dashboards. You get the dashboards that are pre-set only. If you want to customize dashboards you must move to a higher offering etc.

Salesforce lists this feature as one of it's key benefits for the platform.
One of my accounts was not showing the dashboards at all. The page that accesses the dashboard was showing a dead page.

I first chose the "chat" service for help. In the chat I stated:" My account does not have a dashboard. I own two accounts that are the same services. One has a dashboard and the other does not. We need help."

There was not chat person available. It kept telling me someone was coming soon. After 40 minutes, I went on to something else. When I returned, there was a " This is John how can I help you (type message) and then a sign off and recommendation to re-engage for help.

I then called and got a service representative on the phone. He had an "accent" so I am not sure if it was this shore or some other shore. I explained my problem. He repeated it and then asked for access to my salesforce live account.  I gave it to him. He verified that we did not have dashboards. He then asked if he could see my other account to see what "that one had set up since it had dashboards..." I informed him that this was a feature that Salesforce had listed as a top benefit of their service offering. This could not be unique. He insisted on seeing the "other account". After opening the other account, he verified that I did in fact have a dashboard ( I told him I did...). He then put me on hold. After three minutes ( we have now been at this 45 minutes...) he came on and told me he talked to his supervisor and although what I was asking for was not supported, he would help me. He then led me into their APPE exchange and found two vendor solutions and neither worked. ( Why Salesforce has a feature offered as a key component and they do not own it or load it ahead of time is another issue here...) I then asked for someone else to help and he told me that he had escalated the problem and someone would call me back in 24 to 48 hours.

After hanging up I sent an email to my sales person. Within 30 minutes my sales person sent me an email telling me that they were no longer my sales person and gave me the new name ( copied her as well). In the letter he stated that because of "growth" I had changed.

30 minutes later my "sales person" sent me a note and told me they were no longer my sales person, due to growth it  was now a new person.  About five hours later, sales person number "two" verified that I was indeed the being supported by sales person number "three" and they would be getting in touch with me.

No response from either the escalation or the "third" sales person.

Some thoughts:
1. It is blatantly obvious when you get someone on the phone for support that does not know what they are doing. He had no clue how to verify the problem let alone fix it. What was so painful was that this is a key feature of the program and he had no clue what it was. Recognizing that every call center has to have new people which means a learning curve there must be a standard to "get on the phone". New and "learning" is okay. Customers are patient and recognize that people can be new at something. In the right situation a new person can build loyalty by trying to solve the problem. In this situation a quick escalation is needed to not lose the customers support.  New and "clueless" is unacceptable. Having to prove they offered the feature was craziness.
2. For the consumer- I stayed on the phone with the guy way too long. My gut told me he did not know what he was doing. I hate to ask for a supervisor/second level too early. Some people just ask immediately, I don't. At the same time, I waited too long and slowly started to get mad at myself for investing my time. (Thus the long blog...)
3. There is a reason that call centers measure first resolution. It makes a difference. When a customer calls with a problem and hangs up with the same problem you have serious dissatisfaction and a loss of confidence. Not getting the answer or outcome they wanted is a different experience then not accomplishing anything. I have the lowest service level at Salesforce so they delay of 24-48 hours can easily be solved by me paying more money for quicker support. No problem there except my"problem" is a standard everyday feature that should not have to wait two days to fix. Hopefully you see the difference. Service people must have the ability ( companies need to have the process) to escalate or "transcend" the standard support terms when the problem is so basic to operations. In other words, they should have escalated me anyway right at that moment with or without a "premier contract".
4. On the selling side, there is just no excuse. I appreciate the "second salesperson" following up however I am still waiting on the 3rd....

I would tell you how it all ended but I still do not have a "dashboard" so the results are still pending....

Say what?

My mortgage is with Litton Loans. I ran into a problem the other day. I needed a statement of my activity. Figured I could get it online and created an online account. I could not figure out how to print a report so I sent the following:

"I have opened an online account and I want to print off my statement. When I click on view my statement, nothing comes up... What do I do?"



This was the first response I received: 


Dear Michael Tamer :

Thank you for your recent inquiry regarding your mortgage loan.  You are a valued customer and we hope to assist you as soon as possible.  Please allow 60 business days for a Customer Service Specialist to properly research and respond to your inquiry.  It is important that you continue making your monthly payments according to your loan agreement.

We appreciate your consideration in this matter.  If we can be of further assistance, please contact our Customer Service Department at 1-800-247-9727.

Sincerely,

Litton Loan Servicing LP


They are going to "assist me as soon as possible" but I should allow 60 days? 
What possible strategy would they have for putting 60 days?
What is crazy is that they sent me an email the very next day and answered my question:


Dear Michael Tamer :

In regards to the inquiry you posted to our website on 26-MAY-11 :

The response to your inquiry is:

Our records reflect your loan is set up on automatic payments.  Therefore Billing Statements are not generated.  A copy of the Detail Transaction History ("History") will be mailed to you under separate cover.  This History documents the transaction dates with an effective backdate, if applicable, brief descriptions, next due date, principal balance, and how the funds were applied.

Should you have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact our office. You may call our Customer Service Department at 800-247-9727 or the Default Counseling area at 800-999-8501. If you wish to respond via email, please access our website at http://www.LittonLoan.com and forward a new inquiry through the 'Contact Us' page.

Sincerely,

Litton Loan Servicing LP


I have heard of setting "low expectations" and then exceeding them but this is taking things a little too far.


Some thoughts:


1. Set a target for response that you can meet on a professional and regular basis. I recognize the value in "over-peforming" however this time period is way too long.  When you set such a long period you can expect to immediately get a phone call.
2. Recommended target should be next business day at the latest. 
3. Do not use terms like : "We hope to assist you." This implies that you might not be capable of assisting (as in competent) or maybe even in worse; " we are not sure we have enough people".  


I appreciate the next day response. 

Customers at work....

One of our clients, recently asked a question of their customer in response to a customer service interaction they had just completed. The question was; "What should "Tom" be proud of from your conversation?" Here is what that customer wrote:

"His attitude. He even answered the phone like he liked his job. How someone says hello to me seems to really affect how I feel for the rest of my dealings with that person. It is amazing how problems get solved quicker and more efficiently when you are dealing with someone like him."


How many times do we tell our employees that the tone of their voice matters?
How often do we express that how you start a call goes a long way to how well you finish?
How can we keep an employee focused on the fact that for the customer this is their most important issue and not simply one of "50" we will deal with today?

This customer communicated this information to "Tom" directly and with passion.  Tom's behavior will be affected by this comment.  Tom will remember this comment.

Will you?

www.tamerpartners.com

A Belated Happy New Year & Year End Reviews

Only nine days behind schedule on wishing you a Happy New Year. "Having done that...". let's talk about 2011 and the opportunity in front of us.

At the end of December I had the privilege to watch one of our clients working through reviews. A laborious task for the Supervisor and really nerve wracking for the employee that receives it. What was fascinating is that the manager was doing a whole bunch of cutting and pasting of direct customer comments in to each review question. The supervisor had figured out that the employees were much more receptive to comments from customers than they were from the supervisor throughout the year. The year end review was not going to be any different. On average over 50% of the supervisors comments about the employees performance were directly from the customers.

Even more impressive was that when the supervisor directed the employees to areas of improvement for the coming year, they also targeted the customers to "watch and coach these areas". It sounded something like this.

"George it is clear from this past year that your biggest area of improvement needs to be improving your empathy with your customers- Customer One: George did a good job but I did not feel he really cared about me or my problem. He helped me but it did not seem like he really wanted to help. Customer Two: I had to repeat myself three times. Don't get me wrong, he heard me; I could just never get him to see my problem...

In 2011, George we are going to instruct the customers to look specifically for you to show empathy and express care and concern for their problems. We will also provide you with a review of material....

Customers actively involved in finding the problems, verifying the behavior and then part of changing the behavior. One more thing, the customers were not paid for this direct involvement. They did it because they care.

Almost like empathy....
www.tamerpartners.com

Words vs. Numbers

Here is the test. Which would you rather have for customer experience feedback?

A. On a scale of 1 to 5 how would you rate our customer service? Score: 4.7

B. Customer response:" I like your company and you did a great job with our service. Your service representative George took some extra time and fixed my information so it would be easier to purchase again.

Most people would choose B.

How about this one?

A. On a scale of 1 to 5 how would you rate our customer service? ( 5,000 responses) Score: 4.7

B. Customer Response (1): Your representative George did a good job. He was typing while I was talking so I had to repeat myself a couple of times. Your competitor ABC Corporation is now offering a change in their services for a much shorter delivery time. I wish you folks would offer that.

Now which one would you pick? Which one is best for George?

Words as you know are powerful. Most executives want numbers. They "role up" much better than customer comments and words. For your front-line representatives, they want words. Words truly change behavior. Numbers are valuable but there are too many for a front-line representative. If you want behavior change, look for words from your customers.

www.tamerpartners.com