Customer Driven Management

CRM- You see this term everywhere. It stands for Customer Relationship Management. It often means technology, process and measurement. The process of "relating" to Customers. Kind of simple and maybe even woefully inadequate as a definition but for this blog, let's go with it. We "relate" with customers using technology to help be efficient and effective with those precious customer relationships. The technology helps our employees have the right information, tools, and answers for the customers. The customer wins because they get better service, product and support. The company wins because they deliver products and services by maximizing their resources (people, process and goods) and hopefully increasing profits and revenues. The term is well known, the industry has accepted it and most companies are either "doing it" or considering "doing it". As with most technologies some do it very well and others not so well. Some are "all-in" and some are just getting started. This blog segment is intended to introduce a new term. This term is called Customer Driven Management.

CDM changes the relationship between your customers and your companies more specifically between your customers and your employees. The "relationship" as we know it; changes dramatically. The customers drive your employees, coach your employees, encourage your employees, train your employees, help you with their year end reviews and simply help you; help them get better at their job. The company gets passionate, credible, reliable, cost effective and in some cases infinite resources to help them coach and improve their employees. Customers get the opportunity to enhance and improve the very service and support they depend on to meet the needs of the products or services they buy. The relationship as we know it is "driven" to new areas. It enhances CRM by bringing customers closer to your company and your process.

We are not talking about being a "customer driven company". That means we listen to our customers and try to react and respond to their needs and wants. This customer driven management is just that; customers "managing" employees. Customers working directly with our employees to make them better.

The result? Higher profit, higher quality, lower cost, lower turnover, higher customer satisfaction and experience; you get the picture. In the coming blogs we will pursue each one of these above and see how your customers can impact your organization.

Coaching Employees

Tonight the world series begins, Yankees vs. Phillies. I grew up a Yankee fan and I confess I also am an Arod fan as well. I like excellence. I like watching the best in the world and like even more watching the potential "best of all time". Like Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning, AROD just might end up being the greatest that ever played.

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.

Next up: Using your customers as coaches.

Emotional Perspective

Over the past year, I have become actively involved with my family in a business that serves the wedding and events industry www.piazzainthevillage.com. The business services families that have a wedding and reception along with business meetings, training, parties etc. We built a 15,000 square foot facility that has a wedding chapel, courtyard and an events/ballroom center for the wedding reception and business event.

The business is fascinating on many levels. For this corporate perspective, I wanted to focus on the "emotional decision" that a bride and her family goes through. This "emotional decision" happens a lot in business but my guess is that we miss it. We miss the emotional decisions made by employees, customers, board members, vendors and even the ones we make ourselves. We shouldn't miss them anymore.

A bride and her family comes to make a decision on where they are going to have the most important day of their life. The bride has been thinking about it since she was a very little girl. The mom has been thinking about it longer than the bride existed. Sometimes she has thought about it since the very day she chose to make her future daughters wedding day different than her own. The father has either been trying to figure out how he would pay for it (weddings are the second largest savings for a daughter after college), wondered about who the guy would be or how he was going to hold it together walking down the aisle. For now we will just leave out of the equation: the grandparents, siblings, groom, grooms parents, etc.

The decisions to be made are multiple (location, photographer, flowers, date, video, dress, tux, gifts, hotels, honeymoon, etc., etc.)and they need to be made far in advance. What makes these decisions even more complex is how much emotion is tied to them. Everyone is emotional and not always completely rational. Everyone has a different reason and a different perspective. Sometimes the smallest thing sets off behavior or reactions that just were not expected or planned for. With all this pressure and stress they still find a way to make it happen, make it turn out how they had "dreamed" and have their perfect day even with all the emotion.

Brides make it happen with the emotion because they have the following:

1, Brides have vision- They know what they want. They have "seen it" over and over again in their heads.
2. Brides work hard (mothers included here...)- Brides get engaged and they get focused. They have lists, expectations and plans. They are purposed and they get to it.
3. Brides seek out experts and references- Brides look to other brides, professionals and all resources that help them find the right solution. They use other peoples expeience to help them.
4. Brides follow their heart- When all is said and done (yes, they must be able to afford it.) a bride just knows that it is the right fit for her, groom and family. She knows it because she has lived and breathed it for so long; she just knows this is her selection.

Our employees make decisions every day about how they are going to work and support our companies and our customers. Front-line management makes decisions every day on leading their teams and their response to customers and upper management. Everyone at every level is making decisions. The reality is that far more of these decisions are wrought with emotion that we fail to see or we were not able to see. It might be problems at home (divorce, sick kids or parents, etc.), politics at work, health issues, past employment experiences, the economy, fear of layoffs, fear of failure to just name a few.

While we might expect an emotional bride; we are often blindsided by an emotional employee or what seems like a irrational decision. The next time it just does not look "right" to you; take a closer look at the emotion surrounding the decisions or behavior. For many unions do not seem remotely rational. Nor do some of the behaviors or decisions made. Maybe is is simply the "emotion" getting in the way.

Take a "bridal view" as shown above. Get vision, Get focused, Get professional help, Get right with your "gut or heat".

If brides can make their perfect day through the emotion; your business can as well.

Nike was wrong

Times are tough. Does not take a rocket scientist to figure that out. When times are tough we have a tendency to cut corners. We need to cut costs, utilize our employees to their fullest yet we always need to do it "right".

Here is an exerpt from The Four Minute Customer:

Truth 10: Nike Was Wrong: Losers “Just Do It” Winners “Do It Right.”

Who am I to argue with a 100 million dollar advertising campaign? They’re Nike; after all!

In sales and service, there is a tendency to participate or survive rather than pursue excellence and flourish. Doing it right may sound obvious but we often miss it. Many organizations have a “just do it” kind of attitude. This does not mean they are careless, lack focus or are not professional. It means that they are surviving (see earlier chapter) vs. trying to pursue excellence. Doing it right in sales and service means having a clear plan or strategy, installing an operating system, pursuing excellence, measuring the results, making changes and starting the process all over again. The pursuit of excellence sounds like a sports slogan. “Natural” service and sales people who were born to be great can often overtake this part of our business. They see a situation and they react. While it is wonderful to have these people, we must be able to build an organization of people that can respond professionally to customer situations whether sales or service.

How to measure?

1. Is my organization on purpose about achieving excellence not simply results? (In other words, how we do it not just did we succeed?)
2. Do we measure the accomplishments that lead to the results (i.e., the number of cold calls made in a sales environment rather than just the end sales numbers.)
3. Do we have a plan and an operating system for customers and employees? Is it in writing?
4. Are we serious about competing for employees?
5. Do we pursue customer experience and synchronize that with our services and sales offerings?
6. Do we invest in our front-line management team?

You need lots of yes’s in order to be going in the right direction. Any no’s and there is work to be done.

Do it right and you will not only survive but you will prosper as well.

Perspective

This past week I had the privilege to participate in a group of meetings focused on the newspaper industry. If you have not read the "papers"-no pun intended- the newspaper business is in a state of turmoil. Readership is down, large papers are going out of business and as you would expect much of the decline is the result of the internet.

The group was friendly and professional. You could feel the malaise that was surrounding their industry and business. I kept wondering who their real competition was. Almost all of them were one paper towns, no competitor doing what they did. They were all active on the web as well. It leads to a discussion of competing. One of my favorite subjects.

When you compete; you need to have a game plan and execute it. If you listen to a newspaper talk it is confusing to figure out who their real competition is. Who do they compete against? Who is the "bad guy" in their scenario. If you are not careful you might pick the "internet" as their competitor. That would be a mistake. You can't compete with something that has no real owner nor can you compete with something that is so big you could not possibly come up with a strategy to overcome it an finally each one of them is already invested in the internet as well.

You need to know who your competition is and what your plan is. Maybe its a union when it comes to the EFCA. Maybe it is your congressman that is voting for it. Maybe it is a call center down the street that is stealing your people. Maybe it is a couple of employees that are steering the rest of your employees to be organized.

Do you have a list of who you compete against? You compete for your employees everyday. You compete against advertisements in the very newspapers we are talking about here. You compete for their focus with texting, emails, web browsing, etc. You compete for your customers everyday with the other companies they connect with by phone, web, in person each day. Don't think that your customers are comparing you against other firms like you. They compare you against the bank, the cable company, the retailer or whoever they do business with that day, week or month. Don't miss this. You are not competing only against the company you think you are.

Being able to know who your competitor is helps you to focus and make a plan. Without one you will fail.

Stop here if you could care less about newspapers.

So who does the newspaper industry compete with? In my humble opinino it is the following;
1. The truth- The internet is "great" yet we have no idea whether any of it is true at all. Newspapers have built a history of telling the truth. One of the reasons that they are slow is because they get it right. I would be pitching;" News you can depend on to be right and researched."Make your business and personal decisions based on what we tell you; you can count on it."
2. Speed of information- News has turned into a speed deal. Who can report it first becomes more important than what is reported. Headlines of newspapers should shift from being about what happened last night and more about what is important to people for a longer period of time.
3. Personalities and familiarity counts- Individual make a difference on the web and they do in newspapers as well. Columnists often make news. Columnists in your paper should have less access on the web. At worst case, slow down access. In Texas, I will read Randy Galloway a sports reporter for the Fort Worth Star telegram. Today, I can read him on the web at the same time I can read him in the newspaper. If it took a day to read him on line, I might be more pre-disposed to read him in the paper first. Speed can work against you as well. Newspapers will never be faster than the web but they can be faster with their own information.
4. Local is okay. The web has driven us to get as much access as we can as quick as we can. In other words what we say locally can effectively be broadcast to the world almost immediately. Who cares? If we have local information that is valuable locally. Hold onto it. Make it come out when you are ready after you have gained value from it. Then release it. In reality who cares if the rest of the world knows anyway.
5. Change the name,- Just the fact that it says news-paper is bad enough. On my Kindle, I can get the Austin American statesman. Very cool.

Clark Kent would be proud.

You get what you pay for

The second "truth" of sales and service is "You only get what you pay for". See the "trust" truth in an earlier blog. Simply put we reap what we sow. In the ever present shadow of the Employee Free Choice Act is the issue of wages and their impact on an organized drive within your company. What ever your position as an organization what you pay people has an impact on the performance of your organization and on the attitudes and direction of your employees. Let me be clear; I live by the motto for companies to""Provide the highest quality of sales and service for the least amount that is profitable to the client and profitable to the company. This means companies should pursue every competitive advantage possible to compete. This includes paying wages that are responsible. Just beware of what you choose.

Here is the 2nd truth:

"Truth 2: You Only Get What You Pay For

Yes, I inserted the word “only.” The reason? Most people still don’t get it. You can’t pay dirt, invest no money in training, recognition, supervisors, quality, workforce management, administrative support, treat everyone lousy and expect great customer experience. A better perspective might be that when you don’t invest in sales and service appropriately you get even less than what you pay for. Performance is even poorer.
We have a conundrum in that many entry-level jobs have such high turnover that companies are afraid to invest (tools, training, etc.) in a job that has a high turnover rate. The result is a self-fulfilling prophecy that we cannot invest if they leave; yet we are unhappy while they are with us because they don’t do a good job.

One of our challenges is that we are equally reticent to invest one level up at the frontline manager. The majority of these folks are our “star front-liners” promoted. We need to invest in making these people successful right from the start. If we don’t teach them what to do the results will be unfortunate. The reason is prior to this move they were only responsible for themselves. Now they are responsible for a team of people.

Let me be clear; money does not solve all problems. Some of the worst organizations we have seen overpay their people. Steven Covey, in his book “The Eighth Habit” states that organizations consider land, material and technology assets yet “they?” consider people liabilities.

If you are reticent to invest in people then invest in the process and operating system that these people use. Install the “right way” to lead, coach, run meetings, measure performance metrics, build winning culture and then no matter who comes in or out you are guaranteed to get quality results.
Companies that don’t invest in their people (both the value-side and the able-side) lose every time."

Choice

On Monday, Citicorp made a "choice" to downgrade the stock price of Walmart with the expectation that the Employee Free Choice Act would harm their profitability. Read it for yourself.
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/citigroup-downgrades-wal-mart-hold-unionization/story.aspx?guid=%7BF079F734-3FA2-4F34-A910-D1579223B32F%7D&dist=msr_1

The other side is fighting as well:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/03/10/the_employee_free_choice_bill.html?hpid=topnews

This bill is all about "choice". For this blog I would like to shift from looking at the employees "choice" in the future and the ramifications of that in this bill to the choice they make each day today in working for you. Each day that they make these choices; it affects your profitability today and potentially "organized labor" tomorrow.

How are you doing with these employee choices?

1. The choice to trust your organization and more specifically their manager.
We have discussed the impact the front line manager makes on your organization. The employee is asking; "Does this person have my best interests in mind?" Are they looking out for me? Are they treating me fairly? If they trust the manager, you have a much better (but not certain) chance they will trust the company. Do you trust your managers?

2. The choice to contribute and be part of the team or create problems.
Most simply contribute but some have more activity planned. In every organization you have trouble makers. What happens to them? Are they punished fairly? Do they get away with it? Is one manager easier than the other? Bad folks corrupt good character. It always starts somewhere. Passed over for a raise, faulted for something they did not do, penalized as a group for something management should have controlled, troubles outside that they are allowed to bring inside.
3. Similarly, the choice to be part of the solution or part of the problem.
Once problems exist, employees choose to help out or let it ride. Some even make it worse. If being a part of the solution is not rewarded, recognized (most important) or simply encouraged then it makes it easy to just be a part of the problem. You pick it: quality, tardiness, calling in sick, gossip, lack of respect, complaining, whining; you get the idea.
4.The choice to be pro-company.
If there is an environment where it is 'cool" to be pro-company then your job is easier. Being a company "lifer", cheerleader, encourager, waste finder, new employee finder are all examples of creating the kind of culture you want. If these folks are rewarded and recognized they will be followed.
5. The choice to seek employment elsewhere.
Nothing helps you measure your success with employees better than your turnover rate and how big the line is to get into your company. Are you a place people are breaking down the doors to get in; or busting down the doors to get out? If you can not hold onto your roses (your best employees) you will be stuck with weeds. Weeds are not good for profitability!

If you think it is a good "choice", please send this link to someone that might like to read it or learn more. Thanks. http://tamerpartners.blogspot.com/

Time to start preparing

Biden supports bill to make unionizing easier
By KELLI KENNEDY – 22 hours ago
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Vice President Joe Biden pressed the White House's agenda for a new labor bill Thursday before the nation's largest union.
The AFL-CIO "brought me to the dance a long time ago. And it's time we start dancing, man," he told the group, one of his biggest supporters during the election.
Biden spoke warmly during the nearly hourlong speech in Miami Beach, addressing many members by name and offering support for the Employee Free Choice Act, which would give workers the option of unionizing by signing cards or petitions instead of holding secret ballot elections.
On Tuesday, President Barack Obama offered some of his most supportive comments for the Act since he took office, telling AFL-CIO members in a videotaped message that he will work to pass the bill.
Biden's speech was the latest signal of the new administration's pro-union tilt, including the appointment of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, the daughter of union members. She was also in Miami this week drumming up support for the bill.
Before the inauguration, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said he'd been to the White House only once in the past eight years. Now he visits at least once a week.
"He gave a strong statement of support for workers, their wages ... collective bargaining and the Employee Free Choice Ace," Sweeney said.
Biden echoed the Obama administration's platform during the campaign saying they were committed to raising the standard of living for the middle class, the spine of the economy.
"For too long the middle class has been dealt out. I'm here to tell you in this administration it is dealt in. It is the first card on the table," he said.
Obama's first bill was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, an equal-pay bill that is popular with labor and women's groups. It's expected to make it easier for workers to sue for decades-old discrimination.
Labor officials say the Employee Free Choice Act could rebuild dwindling membership; one in eight workers today is a member of a union, down from about one in five 25 years ago.
Business groups vehemently oppose the legislation and claim passage will put many of their members out of business.
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Gaining momentum

You just don't have to work very hard to really make a point when there are so many others that will do it for you:

http://blog.aflcio.org/2009/03/03/solis-meets-with-workers-in-first-public-appearance/


The most important line of this whole article is the very last one where it talks about the next meetings for our new secretary of Labor and the gentleman that will follow her in the meetings. The next gentleman is Vice President, Joe Biden.


As stated earlier, Washington is in a feeding frenzy right now. Never has the opportunity to spend money been so high and so prevelant. As a result, all politicians are focused on spending money. This is a unique set of circumstances we are in and there may never be another time in history when spending will be this high and this easy. Washington will stay focused as long as the times are this good for them.


Once this passes, however, the next natural step is payback for the past election. Number one on the list in the Employee Free Choice Act. It has to be. Too much money was given, too much support provided by unions to not deliver back. Maybe the legislation will be watered down but my guess is that there is no reason to water it down. They have the votes and they have a President that will sign it.


This blog is a call to action. Not a call to action for legislative lobbying but a call to get your business in order so you have some sort of control over your employee base. The call to action is so that you can compete for your employees against organized labor. If you have been reading you already know that we believe the same actions you take to protect your employee base are also the same actions to make you a more competitive organization. You compete by having a workforce that delivers more productivity and customer satisfaction because they work for a company that brings out their best. When this happens; everyone wins. The client gets a superior product and service, the company gets profitability by lower costs and higher revenue and the employee gets to work in a environment where they can do their very best.


And yes, it is pretty hard for organized labor to gain any sort of a foothold in that type of company

Respect

Emerson Eggerich has written a book called "Love and Respect". It is a relationship book for couples. (Note; It is a great book!) The premise is pretty simple. Men and women were wired differently by God. Women seek love and men seek respect in relationships. One of the more fasinating statements he makes is that in a poll they asked a rather provocative question to men. " If you had to choose that your wife could either love you or respect you (you can only have one or the other...) which would you choose? Over 80% of the men chose that they would rather be respected then loved.



In business the 'relationship" between an employee and the employer is all about respect. There is probably nothing that brings outside forces into your company faster than conflict over one simple word; "respect". It has become the "ender" and sometimes the best barometer that describes relationships that cannot be fixed or are irrevocably broken. "They don't respect us, we don't get the respect we deserve, i am tired of being dis-respected, our working conditions show no respect, how can i respect my manager when they do xxxx"; are all comments that you hear in organizations that have relationship trouble.

The thing about respect in business is that no matter how you want to look at it; just like relationships; respect is earned.

Respect is not given.
Hostile compliance is given.
"Going along to get along" is given.

Respect is earned.

Companies that have the respect of their employees got it because they earned it.

They earned it by being fair, successful, opportunistic and yes even tough. Respect is earned from employees where you create an environment where people can be successful at their jobs. Respect is earned when employees are acknowledged for their efforts, lauded for their sacrifice, encouraged when they make mistakes.

Respect is also earned when employees are held accountable for their actions, fired when they act and do things that are grounds for termination and yes even when employees have to be laid off because the business can not support their position or group. A business that makes the right choices, even the tough ones, are respected by employees.

When you have an employees (workforce)respect you can do most anything. You can compete in tough economic times, you can take risks in new markets and in todays times you can fight off outside forces that seek to change your relationship with your employees.

Too often we find ourselves looking for love from our employees when respect is what they want. In these challenging times find ways to build respect in your employee base.

Employee Free Choice Act??? The "Whopper" of all business legislation

Just in today...
http://www.seiu.org/change-that-works/burger-king/

Yes, this is from the Service Employees International Union site. Burger King has had a history of fighting unions. In the past couple of years they have spent money lobbying against unions. This recent story says they are "backing off". Who knows whether they really are or not.

Our point is that this legislation is coming. This is not a political blog. We think it is crazy to have a union in your business. If you want this bill or you look forward to having a union in your business then let's just disagree on that one. If you don't the time to act and protect your business is now.

Our point is that this legislation is going to change the rules on how a union can get into your business. It could get much, MUCH easier for them to become a part of your everyday life. Once in, they get to stay for two years and there is nothing you can do about it. Never heard of a card check? You need to go back and read some of the earlier blogs.

Our point is that if they vote the union in then you have to bargain for their employment package immediately and if you can't reach an agreement an arbitrator will be assigned and they will make the decision. The NLRB is slowly filling up with pro-union players.

Our point is legislation or not, unions feed off employees that perceive they are not treated fairly, that there is more of the "business pie" that they deserve and can get through a union, that there best hope for their careers and livelihood is not with the management of the company but with an outside organization they are willing to pay $300 to $600 a year to represent them.

Our point is that prior to a union "organizing" your employees; you need to be "organized" on how to keep control of your business, your workforce so that you get to keep making the decisions rather than someone else.

The decision to pass this legislation is already out of your hands. However you voted in the past election, the American people installed an administration that campaigned to pass this bill. A large if not the largest contributions to this campaign came from unions and union members. They have one key legislation and this is it. Right now the country has some much larger issues to deal with but this is coming and probably by this summer. Politicians love to spend money and right now the opportunity to spend money is much brighter than it has ever been. Like a feeding frenzy, Washington will take this opportunity while it is hot. Once this has passed the "payback" for the election must come and this legislation is at the top of the list.

You have time to prepare, protect and yes even be more profitable. Rarely do all of these converge. Our past blogs tell you how to start. Our future ones will tell you more. Thank you for reading.

Let's get started; employee free choice act or not

Activity everywhere. Rallies in Chicago, webinars with 1000's of attendees, AFL-CIO advertising, article after article all talking about the Employee Free Choice Act. Go ahead; google it and see what you get.

The time to prepare for this potential new business climate is right now. While we are giving you different factors to look for; the best and most solid defense is a business environment that would not want or need a union. That means employees that trust your company and feel they are valued and receiving value for their work. If you could pick one area where you could have the greatest impact on your business it would be the front line manager/supervisor. This is the person that can make the most mistakes but can also help cover and make-up for mistakes in the business.

No other team of poeple within your company can have a bigger short term or long term impact.

Obviously with great opportunity comes great risk. You are at more risk in this area than any other as well. What these folks do affect your profitablity in both the short and long term. One bad apple can spoil the whole bunch.

Step One: Assess your front line management team.

Who are they?
Which ones are Roses (great)? Which ones are Daisies (Middle of the pack)? Which ones are weeds(no explanation needed)?
How many people are your weeds responsible for?
Are the weeds people that have shown a propensity to change or are they un-changeable?
Are your Roses really any good or just better than a poor pool to choose from?
What is your investment in this group?
Have you tried to make them better?
Are you capable of making them better? Can they learn?
What does your next level of management that runs this group look like?
Are they capable of instituting change?

If your front-line management is a strong group you are at an advantage and you are in good shape to compete for your employees if you are ever challenged by a union. Yes, I said compete. That is what you are going to end up doing. You will compete for your employees.

If this is a weak group, the cost to fix it is much less than the cost of working with a union. Assess your team today.

What to look for...

The Employee Free Choice Act may or may not ever come into existence. We believe it will however that plus $4.17 will get you a Grande Decaf Java Chip Frappucino from Starbucks and nothing else today. While we watch and wait, companies are still at risk.

Companies today are always susceptible to union overtures. Every situation is different and no environment is ever the same. There are trends and "hints" that your organization may be moving in that direction. Don't get paranoid. Not every single one of these means you have a one way ticket to a union. They can be a direction or at the very least a small warning. Here they are. They are not in any sort of order...

1. People you don't know or have never seen before start showing up in your offices and property.
2. Employees from multiple areas start having "out of the way" meetings.
3. Secrets...(like when your kids were young and stopped talking when you came around)
4. Union literature... (yes, that is obvious!)
5. The types and nature of employee complaints change and grow in volume.
6. The best and most loyal employees are not popular anymore.
7. Quality of work of your best employees starts to taper off.
8. Your worst employees start performing better.
9. A "whiner/complainer" becomes much more popular.
10. Worker "conditions, rights, fair share, equitable, tenure, grievance, agreement, labor" become newly used words

We did not list that your folks start meeting with labor, cards get passed out, and a union holds an off-site picnic. We don't want to insult your intelligence. Hopefully you will have seen some of the above prior.

Any change in your culture that you did not direct, encourage or plan is a high level alarm that your way of doing business is at risk. If an employee or employees can change your culture on their own then you should begin immediately to build a culture that will not allow that to happen.

Like any business competitive environment, if you leave a space or an opening; someone will fill it.

A winning employee work 'life" environment

The Employee Free Choice act is coming to a local congressman near you sometime in this calendar year. Judging by the amount of press it is receiving the time for movement on the bill maybe sooner rather than later. Unemployment numbers continue to rise as companies slash payroll because inventories are up (not selling enough) and as a result manufacturing or the production of services is slowing down. With this rising number combined with the "greed on wall street and in the executive offices" the message switches to protection of the worker. That naturally leads to unions and how much protection and support the worker of today needs in these troubled times.

Remember it only takes two people to start a union. Imagine that just two people. That means this whole thing is very personal. It is as much about how they feel as what you or they can measure. That's right I said "feel". This means we need to look at not only the reality but also the perception of workers. Let's face it many times perception is far more important than reality anyway. Unions feed on the quality of work "life" at your business. (Note: The truth is that everyday your employees measure their work"life"at your business. They don't need a union to tell them that. How you treat them affects their productivity, quality of work and your profit.) While watching this legislation, here is one positive perspective surrounding "work life" you can be taking to either reduce your risk for a union at your facility or simply just to make your business better.

Help your employees be truly valuable to your business.

We hear it so often that you would almost think that it is universally accepted and practiced in every corner of the world. The words are not exactly the same but the message intended is consistent.

“Our employees are valuable.”

Dictionary.com says the definition of valuable is:

1: having great material or monetary value especially for use or exchange; "another human being equally valuable in the sight of God"; "a valuable diamond" [ant: worthless]
2: having worth or merit or value; "a valuable friend"; "a good and worthful man" [syn: worthful]
3: of great importance or use or service; "useful information"; "valuable advice" [syn: useful, of value] n : something of value; "all our valuables were stolen"

We throw the term “valuable employee” around quite a bit in the business world. The frequency in sales and service is equal to or better than most other areas of the enterprise.

Why?

It sounds good. It sounds reassuring, progressive and empowering. Not everyone is insincere. Many companies actually do feel their employees are valuable and they say it. We think there is another prevailing perspective is that most organizations know how to say it but many less actually know how to “do it.” “Valuable employees” is not something great organizations simply own or declare; for great companies it is something they practice and improve day-in and day-out.

From our perspective, in order to “do it” we first need to break down the word “Value-Able”. Recognize them as different and distinct in our day-to-day operations and with this as our baseline compete with the rest of the world with our Value-Able employees.

First, we need to “Value” our employees. We need our employees to feel important. We need our employees to feel significant.We need our employees to understand what their individual roles are, and why they are important.We need our employees to connect their responsibilities with their teams and the product or service we deliver to our customers.

We can’t stop there however. We also need to make them “Able.” We need to give them the skills and tools to do their jobs. We need to give them timely and accurate training and re-training to perform their role for the company. We need to give them the right technology and business tools to perform the job with excellence.We need to provide them the relationship skills and models to deal both internally and externally with the people that they interact with on a day-in and day-out basis.

When we help our employees feel valued and provide them with the “Able” to do a great job, then they are Value-Able both to our customers and to our company.

What is really cool about this philosophy is that it works at home for every parent as well.
We want our kids to feel valued. We want them to know they are loved, that they are precious in God’s sight, and that they are significant. However, let’s face it, we also want them to LEAVE some day as well. We need to make them “Able” to go out into the world. We want to help them not to be a menace or danger to society! Seriously, we need to help them as they are growing up, so we send them to school, spend decades teaching lessons and wisdom so they can go out into the world and be successful. We need them to feel both valued and able to give them the best opportunity to succeed.

Many companies often say they do both and yet many often lean very distinctly towards one or the other. One can often find a company more “Value” driven and less “Able” or vice-versa. If you have ever had your sales or service group referred to either internally or externally as a “sweat shop” most likely you are “Able” tilted. Equally, if the organization has poor process, weak technology, yet lots of potluck dinners and brown bag lunch meetings you are probably more “Value” tilted. In difficult situations, they do neither very well. Both “Value” and “Able” require constant re-enforcement and practice to be done right.

Are your employees “valued” by you and your organization?
Do your employees feel valued?
Do they understand their role, and how they fit in to the larger picture?
Do you give them the tools to be “able” for you and your organization?
Do your employees feel that you have invested in the skills and tools they need to be able?

If you don't know these answers, we can help. http://www.tamerpartners.com/

Great organizations understand that employees need to feel valued and given an opportunity to be able to get the job done. When done together you produce team members that can deliver intergalactic sales and service. When walked rather than just talked, you produce profits, growth and superior customer experience and maybe, just maybe no unions.

It is usually a trust problem...

A short while ago, we released a book called "The Four Minute Customer". It was intended to share insight on how to better service and sell customers. One of the chapters was entitled the " Ten Truths of Sales & Service". If you read this blog long enough, you will get to see or hear all of them.

Here are ten truths of sales and service.

1. Companies rot from the top down
2. You only get what you pay for
3. The key to sales & service is communication, communication & communication.
4. There are two new hire classes in every organization. The one you pay for and the one employee’s give each other.
5. It’s usually a trust problem
6. Bad sales and service habits on the outside are learned on the inside
7. Customers are like elephants, they don’t forget.
8. In sales it is not why you lost that counts the most, it’s when.
9. If you leave a “space”; someone or something will fill it.
10. Nike was wrong: Losers “just do it”; winners “Do it right.”


Our focus today is on number 5. "It's usually a trust problem"


The Four Minute Customer:

"It was very hard not to write that it is always a trust problem! Time and time again, we find that the root cause of most problems in a sales and service organization revolves around trust. Trust permeates every area:
Do they have my back if I get in trouble with a customer?
Is the technology going to fail me again?
Is the sales compensation plan fair or set up to make us fail?
Does my manager have my best interests in mind?
Is all this technology designed to find me doing something right or something wrong?
Which one of my peers can I trust to not stab me in my back?
Those are simply a few of the questions being asked right now within your team. We build trust through almost every contact and relationship we have; manager and employee, C-level and front-line supervisor, customer and employee, technology and employee, company and company, workforce management and employee/manager, just to name a few. Our challenge is that we have to do ALL of them right in order to be successful.
Your direct manager is very important to the process. We all know that “if you don’t trust me; I sure won’t trust you.” An environment of mistrust is bad on many levels. The worst part is that we spend time and energy protecting against ourselves, competing against each other, and always looking inside. When we turn our attention inside; we lose focus on our customers and prospects.
I “trust” that you will take this seriously within your team or organization."


When you look at the potential of the Employee Free Choice Act affecting your business you can assess your risk right from the start on the level of trust you have in your organization. Please don't just look at it from your perspective or your department. If you have just one area where there is a high level of distrust you are at risk. Look through out your organization and not just in sales and service. This risk is not simply for unions. It can be a risk to the very viability of your company. It is hard enough to compete in the market without also having to fight a trust problem within your company.


For starters; "Do I trust my direct manager?" If you are a leader, "do I trust the people I have in management? When the answer is no to either question; you have a problem. If the answer is "multiple no's" as in we have a bunch of managers that fit in this category you are at serious risk. There are only two ways to deal with a manager that has "trust issues" that go up or down in an organization. One remove the manager either from the position or company. Second you train, mentor or "encourage" the manager to change their ways. Our challenge is that it is easier to get into trouble with a trust problem than it is to get out of it. Time if of the essence. I implore you to pick one direction immediately and be on purpose about taking action.


Nothing will derail a department from making their goals like trust issues. Nothing will kill a company faster than a trust issue.

Less education: More short term action

This is a big subject. There are many things to consider: how you treat your employees, measuring their "temperature"; how to create an ongoing high performance sales and service area that thrives and is not susceptable to this type of intervention; are just a few.

While you get up to speed here are some very quick hits that you should consider.

1. Make sure you have a no solicitation/distribution rule within your organization. Don't let people bring in and leave materials in your work place. This includes internal people and external people. It needs to be the same rules for everyone. Yes this will effect the girl scouts and all the "nice"programs.

2. At worst don't allow solicitation in your workplace and if you just cannot resist keep it restricted to lunch rooms only. Don't allow employees to pass out personal material at desks at any time.(Re-read number one and do that one...)

3. Have a no-access rule for outsiders. Don't let anyone in your company that does not belong there.

4. Don't allow employees in the building that are not working on that day. Employees that are not working do not need to be at your facility.

5. Make sure that you protect and control employee information such as names, numbers and addresses.

6. Don't let employees work other places if you can avoid it. Many companies have restrictions on employees working at other places. The more places they work the more new ideas and challenges they may bring.

7. Be very aware of who you hire. You should do this anyway. Obviously do not discriminate and follow all your rules. We are just suggesting that before you hire a former union steward from the call center down the street you simply consider the new world we may be entering. Make sure you know who you are hiring and do very thorough reference checks.

8. Begin to take a serious and professional look at how you treat your employees, the quality of your supervisors and simply the kind of environment you have in your company.

We can help with this last one. This blog will be a great place to hear how to protect your company and how too make it better.

Here is a little taste of the news today:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/02/04/union-activists-rally-support-pro-labor/
http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/14398/

A little bit more on Card check

The reason for the controversy is pretty clear to organizations that have ever dealt with the spector of having a union in their facility. A little deeper dive can help you to understand why this bill is so significant and why it could go from not even a consideration in your business to a reality in a nano-second.

Today the NLRB (National Labor Relation Board) requires 30% signed union authorization cards as showing interest for secret ballot elections. The employer can then say "great" let's have a union or call for a secret ballot.

The reality is that in most instances where companies battle unions, the union needs about 60% plus to have any shot of getting a union secret ballot vote. The reason is that getting an employee to sign a card is pretty easy. Assuming they do not intimidate anyone, there is no downside to signing. Someone shows up at a picnic at your house and asks you to sign a card, no harm done. Maybe you sign just to get back to grilling. The announcment of a ballot allows the company to present their side of things as well. The secret ballot avoids any sort of "go along" momentum if people really don't want a union.

Under this bill all they need is 50.1% of cards signed and the union exists for two years. Once signed that means you have to start negotiating a collective bargaining agreement and you have no choice. If you can't negotiate one you are forced to accept what an arbitrator decides.

You can imagine how drastic a change this is for a company. If you are not even on the radar today, with this bill you might be.

Employee Free Choice Act-Background

You should know about this. If you don't, here are the basics:

Definition: The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) is legislation proposed to amend the National Labor Relations Act to establish an easier system to enable employees to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to provide for mandatory injunctions for unfair labor practices during organizing efforts, and for other purposes.It is often called the card check legislation because the card check is the key change.

Today if you seek to form a union within a business, the final decision is based on a private vote. In this new legislation, the final decision on the declaration of a union is based on collection of at least 50% of the employees cards. This legislation had a lot of support in 2007 in both congress and the Senate. One of its c0-sponsors was Senator Obama. Another c0-sponsor is now the recommended choice for Secretary of Labor, Hildy Solis.

Other unique aspects of this bill. Once your employees have signed the "cards". Here is what happens:

1. Bargaining for an initial contract with your new union begins within 10 days.
2. Requires mediation by the FMCS if the employer and the union can't come to agreement in 90 days.
3. If you can't agree 30 days later then an arbitrator makes the decisions for you.
4. Increased penalties to employers for Unfair labor practices, etc.
5. Guaranteed union for two years with no challenge to remove union.

Google the Employee Free Choice Act. It has momentum. It has potential. It can become a reality.

Don't care about a union in your sales and service environment, stop reading. Still interested, here is some more for you:

1. Number of employees required to start a union-2
2. Today unions are establishing workplace activists or unpaid work site volunteers
3. Lots of mobilization to move this legislation
4. The new President who said in the campaign he would sign the bill is talking about "negotiation" and that something needs to be done.

Why am I writing about this? What could we possibly have of value in this discussion? The reasons people start unions are as follows:

1. Poor communications and no forum to "complain"
2. Failure to be fair and even handed (Most often from front-line management)
3. Unkept promises
4. Perception of a lack of respect
5. Wages and benefits grossly out of line
6. Lots of people doing the exact same perceived lower paying jobs

We get this.

Maybe you have none of the problems above. Perhaps a union has never entered your minds and there is zero activity you are aware of within your business. This legislation-the mere discussion and negotiation of it will change your world. Get prepared.

The Problem

We (http://www.tamerpartners.com/) have spent the last seven years working with organizations to help them better service and sell to their customers. We are really good at what we do. People that hire us end up with a better customer experience, better employee experience and the most important result: higher profit. When you are on purpose about doing customer experience right you follow this mantra: "We provide the highest quality of service and sales at the least amount of cost that is profitable to our clients and profitable to our company. "

After seven years, we have had more companies not select our products and services than have joined our client base. For the sake of argument, we recognize there are other companies we compete with in the market, companies can and do excel without consulting and software companies assistance, and yes, we may be completely nuts and just not very good and that is why people did not work with us. Having acknowledged that there may be another answer, the clear reality is that we are very good at what we do, the results are incredible and companies that do work with us receive great value and would not hesitate to recommend us.

The reason that more companies did not work with us has more to do with the culture and perspective of the companies and how they relate to 'what we do" to achieve higher profitability. Our focus in achieving our goals has always centered on the synchronization of the customer, company and the employee. Valued and satisfied employees sell and service customers effectively and efficiently. Satisfied customers are only satisfied when their product or service works, they receive value and if or when they have a problem they are treated professionally. Satisfied and happy customers make for profitable companies.

This synchronization on paper makes sense. Companies buy into satisfied customers and obviously a desire to be a "profitable" company. Where the disconnect occurs is with the valued and satisfied employees. Many companies just don't value their sales and service employees. They would never admit it. They may "like them" but they don't respect them and they certainly don't value them as a competitive advantage. Most of our days are taken up with sales and service people that communicate with customers over the phone, web, or in a retail or public environment. This group quite often gets the short end of the stick and in many instances there is rarely a "carrot".

We often find that even companies that pride themselves on employee experience, may even win awards as a company may have a different approach and a gap in their sales and service areas. The ones that don't have this type of reputation can oftentreat everyone the same: as simply a number passing "through" or at worst; poorly.

Today the free market provides you with all the feedback and direction you need. For some there is no penalty. Profits are up, employees are plentiful. Business is good; no need to change. For the ones that struggle, they have sought other solutions besides employee empowerment, increasing customer satisfaction to increase sales and decrease costs. The free market keeps score.

The 'free market" may not be the only "free" a business owner/board of directors needs to focus on. A new world is emerging. There is a new "free" in town: The Employee Free choice act. Are you familiar with it? You should be.

This new 'free" is not free at all.