customer service

Managing Strengths and not Standards

April 27, 2011 by Rosa Say

I hate job descriptions. What we need instead, are strength descriptions.

Here’s what I mean, using my own story as an example.

One way I’ll surprise people, is with my honest self-assessment in regard to customer service; I’m strong as a customer service trainer, particularly in Ho‘okipa (the value of generous hospitality), but I’m not skilled in serving customers myself. I can teach those skills, and even coach people in using them, far, far better than I can do them myself. Yet I was able to forge a very successful career in the ‘Hawai‘i hospitality business’ where the expectation is that “first and foremost: we serve customers.”

That’s not to say I have a different philosophy personally, or that I’m being hypocritical or duplicitous in any other way. I knew the actual delivery of good customer service was a personal weakness for me, so I compensated for that, by working in other areas of service where my strengths were actively in play.

My strengths were in working with employees, peers, and other managers, and not in serving customers. The personal service I excel with as Mea Ho‘okipa, a customer service provider, is given to others in contextual relationships specific to co-working — to internal customers rather than external ones. I will never, ever be a sales person, unless I’m ‘selling’ someone on the fit of a good job for them within my Ho‘ohana coaching.

My story is not an unusual one. In his book, Go Put Your Strengths to Work, Marcus Buckingham tells us about Christine, a trainer in southern California:

“Like each of us, Christine has a number of distinct strengths. One of them is that she is invigorated by training trainers to be better. She loves nearly every aspect of the teaching process. She loves seeing the satisfaction a trainer feels when his students excel and the growth in his own confidence as he becomes more comfortable with his material. She has a third eye for fine distinctions, for the subtleties in how a trainer presents information and why those nuances make a big difference in turning students’ confusion into understanding.”

“Interestingly, she’s not particularly adept at doing what she’s training her trainers to do. Sit her down in a room with five senior trainers who want to dive into the details of program design, and she excels. But increase those numbers to twenty-five, turn the trainers into students, and tell Christine to hold their attention for a full day’s training, and she’s mediocre.”

“She’s not invariably a great teacher, yet she’s a great teacher of teachers. It may seem a bit strange, but most of us, when you look closely, have a combination of strengths and weaknesses that is not entirely predictable.”

“Strange or not, the challenge for Christine and her manager, is to figure out how to exploit this great strength for the benefit of the company. They have a lot to talk about.”

Those are the kinds of conversations we don’t have often enough in the workplace. One problem is the on-going challenge of making time for them — it’s the problem we try to solve in part, with the Daily Five Minutes, converting found opportunities into more productive ones.

However there’s a deeper problem in play; and that’s the expectation of managers. It’s an expectation which puts blinders on us. We’ll often expect employees to conform to standardized expectations (i.e. Job Descriptions) instead of personalized ones — the Ho‘ohana work which suits their spirit, innate talents, and strengths.

The expectation of conformity is as foolish as watering a seed and expecting it to bloom into an animal or piece of machinery.

We fail to have conversations about what people are strong at, and about the proficiencies they’ll truly shine at when we figure out how to stage them, because we spend way too much time talking about OUR standards for their performance instead. We work at fitting employees into our molds for them, and into our preconceived views of what the world of work should look like — even when we’ve begun to realize how dysfunctional that picture has become.

I was far happier, and far more productive for my employer, when my manager didn’t force me into the customer service roles I wasn’t suited for, whether to pay my dues, prove to the rest of the team that I could do it, or some other misguided reason. It wasn’t that I didn’t like customers, or felt that the work was below me. I wasn’t intimidated by it, and didn’t need to learn more. It just didn’t motivate me or reward me as much as other work did. I could go through the motions, choosing the all the right motions, but calling upon deeper passions with them was like trying to squeeze water from a sponge that is completely dry.

Customers could tell too. They never had a complaint about my customer service, but I didn’t routinely knock their socks off with it either. Not good enough for them, and not good enough for me.

However here is where I was extremely lucky: My bosses were not stubborn and unreasonable. When I showed them what I could do, doing it better, and in a way that filled another need of the business, they turned me loose and let me go for it.

And this is an important point: They did not have to create a new gig for me. All they had to do was not hold me back, and support me in figuring it out for myself, so I could find my own answers.

So, Mr. and Ms. Manager, what are the expectations you honestly have of your own staff? How can you honor their strengths, and share your savvy with workplace design by compensating for their weaknesses in smarter, and more respectful ways?

Here’s more from the story in Buckingham’s book: As he explains, Christine actually IS director of program development at a training company. Her job is to design the training programs, and then, once they have been sold to a company, to deliver them:

“They have a lot to talk about. Together, Christine and her manager have to figure out how to design a train-the-trainer product based on her strengths, how to market it, price it, and select a specific group of clients on which to focus it. They have to decide what kinds of materials are necessary and whether Christine is the right person to create them. They have to decide the optimal number of trainees Christine is capable of working with and how frequently she should check back in with them to assess their competence.”

“These are the kind of details that will determine just how productive Christine’s strengths are at work. Given how critical her performance is to the entire company, she and her manager should be talking about them all the time.”

You have heard my story, and Christine’s. Now think of someone you are managing. What are the strengths they bring to the job, and what are the specific details your conversations can address? What are their needs, in having you coach and support them?

Do this assessment for each and every one of the direct reports you have, and do it consistently. Don’t you dare give them a performance appraisal on the wrong expectations.

These are not difficult questions. Managers know the answers in the context of their workplace. The bigger question is if they are focused on them, and on the right expectations to begin with.

~ Some Archive Aloha which might help ~
But please; do answer the question before you move on to more reading.
Make this coaching relevant to you!

Curiosity tears down walls

February 24, 2011 by Rosa Say

Curiosity is such a strong and compelling force.

I snapped the photo above while walking through this construction tunnel. As you can see, there was no great mystery to what was on the other side of the tunnel, erected as a safety barrier, and yet someone had to have this mid-tunnel window, breaking through the wall best they could, and just enough to get a peek through to the other side.

Ironically, they are building another wall, an even higher one.

People love windows

We love windows in the way they let light shine in, both literally and metaphorically.

For instance, we love to look into the inner workings of a company. We feel privileged when given that look inside, and will applaud their transparency.

What can you show us where you work?

Conversely, is there anything you’re conscious of hiding from our view? What are your reasons? Would it be better to simply clean up whatever mess could potentially embarrass you?

A window with a guide is even better

Earlier this week, I made a call to American Express about a charge which shouldn’t have been on my credit card statement, and was pleasantly surprised with how the woman I spoke with turned the call into a great customer service experience.

Once the reason for my call was settled, she asked me if I’d like to take the time to review my account in other ways, including a request that I never be put through the automated voice mail system again while calling, and go straight through to a representative. She ended up tweaking my account in 5 different ways, each of them delighting me.

This was my window: she never put me on hold as many do because their computer system needs time to do its magic, and they don’t know what to say to you. Usually the silence is too uncomfortable, and they rather run the risk (which all customers hate) that we’ll get disconnected. Not this time: She had the same waits to fill, so she made the silence comfortable for both of us by talking me through the steps she was taking, sprinkled with statements about how much she loved her job. What an ambassador for American Express!

I’ve become someone who only uses my credit card when I have to. I much prefer paying in cash as a habit which makes me think twice before buying and keeps me out of debt. (Cash also helps the vendors I eagerly support, for they won’t have to pay any credit card merchant fees either.) However there are times cash won’t do, especially with all the travel I do, so I have two credit cards I’ll use when the need arises. I’ve kept both as my choices because the companies give me customer service windows that strip away any mystery of uncertainty (the other card is issued by USAA, one of the best-run businesses I have ever had the pleasure of working with).

This definitely fits into Managing with Aloha. Curiosity, windows in, and the light of Mālamalama (enlightenment.) A good way to revisit my own business models and improve them too: Model Me This.

Archive Aloha: Another story about customer service desks: Put that thing down!

Willing and Able to be Human

May 6, 2010 by Rosa Say for Say “Alaka‘i”

What if your work computer had a major meltdown?
Could you keep your customer happy, and handle their every need?

Could you hold onto your own sanity, and remain stress-free in the process?

Way back when, in our time of the dinosaur when automated voice mail started putting telephone operators out of work (believe it or not, only the late 1970s), a lot of us wondered if voicemail would prove to be a good or bad harbinger of the future. How else would technology, marvel that it is, put a stop to the work we all did?

A mere thirty years or so later, turns out technology has changed an awful lot, way more than we could have imagined it would.

Sadly, technology has also thrown a whole lot of common sense out the window too. One way Alaka‘i managers can make a notable difference is to reel it back in.

In some ways, as with automated voicemail, we customers have lowered our expectations universally. It’s a very pleasant surprise when you call a mid to larger size company and a real person answers the phone.

However no matter how slick and how fast computers become, and how much we love them, there are several things we customers will never understand. They all fall into the category of things human beings are still expected to know how to do when computers fail, or when the power goes out, or just because you need a common sense default or back-up plan. Computers can’t work for everything. Sometimes only a human will do.

And what’s wrong with wanting a human instead? Can’t we give each other that option? That one shift alone, being willing to be human instead of automated, no matter how cutting-edge slick the technology, could revitalize the customer service standard of your company. Make the shift, and I’d bet you’d have more customers than you could handle —a good thing!

Short story…

I was in the bank the other day when I overheard a gentleman say in frustration to a teller, “Please ma’am, I don’t want a computer to do this for me, I want you to do it for me.”

Instead of handling his request for him, she’d been trying to give him an online banking tutorial, telling him that he could handle it very quickly on his own the next time he logged in. My goodness, why not do it for him right there and then?

She didn’t even bother asking him if he already did online banking, but it gets worse: When he said he doesn’t use computers for his banking by choice and wasn’t about to start using them, she said, “Well I’m sorry, but that’s the only answer I can give you. We just don’t do those things manually anymore as tellers, and I don’t have access to that part of the computer system. Maybe my bank manager can help you; if you wait a moment I’ll go get him.”

The computer preferences and technical literacy of your customers should be irrelevant to the delivery of your customer service — even if they’ve come to you to buy one! (Having a bit of a flashback here, to an Apple ‘genius’ asking me, “You’re a mac virgin, aren’t you.”)

Beyond the willingness to do everything for your customer though, is the foundational ability to do so, and fact is that many “customer service representatives” no longer know how to do much of the work computers now do for them. They lack the skill set, and because the skill set is no longer required of them, the common sense decision-making which once accompanied it has disappeared from their service as well.

As far as most customers are concerned, and I daresay that the most computer savvy among us would agree, computer systems are simply electronic calculators: They process information that some human had to input into them either as raw data or some programming snippet of code. Therefore, it stands to reason that human ability still exists, and can be taught to another human being in a form that doesn’t require a computer at all. At minimum that ability exists as a back-up plan. Far, far better if it exists, no, thrives as an “enhanced service plan” that will dazzle and delight your customers.

The techies of the world cannot insist that customers get with the program, for that’s simply not what customer service is all about. Computers will always be cold transactional machines. People will always provide warmer interaction, and when it comes to customer service warmth trumps cold every day of the week.

We who are Alaka‘i managers must be the ones who are ever on the look-out for these situations of customer frustration. Asking yourself, “What can our computers do, that my people cannot?” is a good place to start. Throw that switch on your breaker box and see what happens — I dare you.

If you want to dazzle your customer, give them an unexpected and delightful human interaction which has “Can do!” all over it. Train, coach, and mentor your people so they are both willing and able. They shouldn’t have to “get my manager” for anything.

Archive Aloha along this train of thought:

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My mana‘o [The Backstory of this posting]
Each Thursday I write a management posting for Say “Alaka‘i” at Hawai‘i’s newspaper The Honolulu Advertiser. If this is the first you have caught sight of my Say “Alaka‘i” tagline, you can learn more on this Talking Story page: About Say “Alaka‘i”. There are some differences in this Talking Story version, most notably that all links will keep you here on this blog.

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Are we seeking Hospitalitarians?

April 29, 2010 by Rosa Say for Say “Alaka‘i”

That word is a mouthful. I think I like our Hawaiian words for host and hostess better: Are we seeking Mea ho‘okipa?

As a leading business owner, are you creating work opportunity for our Mea ho‘okipa?

We’re in a time where so many business rules are changing: Jobs of the future are being newly explored and created. While I’ll be quick to jump on the innovation bandwagon too (and I have), I’d suggest to everyone showing so much interest in the idea, that we can stage the comeback of some timelessly crucial roles in business. We needn’t newly create as much as newly invest in what we already know to be good and true, and highly desirable. One such role is that of the Mea ho‘okipa.

Ho‘okipa, our Hawaiian value of hospitality, is a part of our shout-out for more Aloha in every effort we make in 2010:
— Aloha… We need a comeback of better service, person to person, with human graciousness experienced in every single encounter we have with each other. They are encounters where Ho‘okipa (unconditional hospitality), Lokomaika‘i (generosity of good heart) and Aloha (as an expectation of good spirit, even in strangers) combine, mix virtuously and nourish us.
— from the Archives: For 2010, with Aloha

Politicians running for office right now might want to give this some thought too, for the character of mea ho‘okipa as the true hospitalitarians they are, can lend much richness to leadership. Mea ho‘okipa are tireless advocates of their guests and visitors (they hesitate to call them clients or customers). Mea ho‘okipa are exceptional civic and social builders of community (think constituency, and here’s an idea: serving them versus serving one’s agenda or platform.) Mea ho‘okipa advocate and build, as they complete a “selfish act.”

You read that right. Selfish, not selfless.

Mohammed with his wonderful fruit juices, the best in the world, by Charles Fred on Flickr

I hold Mea Ho‘okipa in very high esteem, for I greatly admire their capacity palena ‘ole (capacity without limits) in giving ”“ in LIVING ”“ the art of hospitality. I wish I could be more like them.

I believe that Mea Ho‘okipa are born that way;

Personally, I do not believe that you can teach someone to be Mea Ho‘okipa: Either they are or they aren’t. You can’t fake a genuine sincerity for giving that you simply don’t have in you. The good news is that many people have it.

Learn to interview in a way that reveals those naturally born Mea Ho‘okipa. Hire them on the spot. You can then better devote your time toward creating the best possible environment for them to deliver their art of Ho‘okipa without shackles, boundaries, or inhibitions. You discard any rules that get in the way of them doing what they feel the guest needs—not always what that customer may think they want, but what they really need to be satisfied. When it comes to their guest—your customer—Mea Ho‘okipa are extremely intuitive: They inherently possess the instinct to know the difference and they proceed accordingly, giving them perfect delivery of service. Mea Ho‘okipa are dripping with caring, that marvelous ability to instinctively know what their guest needs to be happy; they can feel it.
~ from Managing with Aloha, page 82

The good news? We have Mea Ho‘okipa is abundance here in our Hawai‘i nei: You have them wherever you are too, I guarantee it! All we need to do is create a great place for them to work: Share your Sense of [Work] Place.

Are you Mea Ho‘okipa? Do you have that instinct that I believe to be “extremely intuitive?”

I was skimming through another book recently, one I have now referred to several times. It’s one which should be required reading for anyone who aspires to have a winning business or servant leadership style, for it certainly is a primer on ho‘okipa and hospitality. The book is Danny Meyer’s Setting the Table, The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business.

Meyer is the one who calls our Mea Ho‘okipa hospitalitarians. However whether you call them Mea Ho‘okipa or hospitalitarian, Meyer and I agree about how special a person this is.

“It may seem implicit in the philosophy of enlightened hospitality that the employee is constantly setting aside personal needs and selflessly taking care of others. But the real secret of its success is to hire people to whom caring for others is, in fact, a selfish act. I call these people hospitalitarians. A special type of personality thrives on providing hospitality, and it’s crucial to our success that we attract people who possess it. Their source of energy is rarely depleted. In fact, the more opportunities hospitalitarians have to care for other people, the better they feel.”
~ Danny Meyer, in Setting the Table (page 146 if you have it)

[An FYI: I notice the book is only $8.24 on Amazon.com as of this writing (link to get to my store)…the publisher must be having some sort of stockroom fire sale.]

Yes indeed. Being selfish can be a good thing, one where you and your customer come together at last to the great delight of a prospective employer. You feed off each other’s Aloha in an exchange of human energy, creating a source that is “rarely depleted.” But this is quite different than the way we conventionally think of selfishness. The difference is the presence of giving as the taking.

The play on words might be a stretch, and selflessness is a great word to keep within our understanding, for it means much the same thing: “being one who is concerned more with the needs and wishes of others than with one’s own needs.”

Mea ho‘okipa do not experience their inner peace and joy unless they have given to another person. Their spirit is conveyed through the equation of warm and beneficial human interaction. To a customer, Ho‘okipa is unparalleled service —it is the epitome of service! —for it was given to them completely unconditionally, something that is exceptionally rare. What they are actually feeling, and experiencing, is ho‘okipa, the art of hospitality in the good hands of a master at providing it.

As said so succinctly in one of my all-time favorite quotes, “One of life’s greatest laws is that you cannot hold a torch to light another’s path without brightening your own as well.”

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Archive Aloha along this train of thought:

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