Contemporary business leaders embrace the mantra of continually doing more with less. Each and every day, managers and employees are challenged to produce ever-increasing quantities of goods and services at higher and higher quality levels. All other things remaining equal, there are limits to what any individual or workgroup can do. Beyond these limits, output declines and quality suffers.
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Nathan Ives is a StrategyDriven Principal and Host of the StrategyDriven Podcast. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.
https://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/TooManyInitiatives.jpg288416Nathan Iveshttps://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDELogo5-300x70-300x70.pngNathan Ives2013-03-05 06:01:232018-09-30 15:01:49Alternative Selection Warning Flag 1 – Too Many Initiatives
QUESTION: Why does lousy service occur?
ANSWER: Lousy service happens because (big) companies don’t understand people OR training.
I am amazed at how many times someone in a service environment delivers lousy service. And it’s often not just lousy – add rude, offensive, abrasive, defensive, maddening, and most of all disappointing.
GREAT NEWS: It doesn’t have to be like that.
If I take the time to complain, which I rarely do anymore, the manager will always ask, “Did you get the name of the person?” Somehow getting the name of the person is important to the manager. But it is unimportant to me. I never get their name.
The manager is looking to blame someone. I’m looking for someone to accept responsibility. The manager is NEVER the one who takes it.
I have found poor service is a reflection of the company and its leaders, not just the person who delivered it.
MY REALITY: When a manager asks me for the person’s name who delivered lousy service, I reply, “Don’t yell at the person who gave me lousy service. Yell at the person who trained them.” The person delivering poor service is most likely to have been poorly trained or ill trained, or both. They’re doing what they were trained to do, and say what they were trained to say.
Or the employee will ‘modify training’ and make statements based on their ‘at the moment’ feelings:
Sorry about that…
That’s our policy…
I’m just doing my job…
They don’t pay me to think…
I’m just a peon…
Or worse, they become defensive, even rude, when a customer expresses frustration or anger as a reaction to what happened. Employees do that because someone TAUGHT THEM they don’t have to take gruff from a customer. (REALITY: The customer provides the money for their paycheck).
Ever get poor service at an airline? Of course you have, EVERYONE HAS. It happens because the people who work at the airlines are undertrained, poorly managed, feel put upon by their management and their leadership, underpaid, rarely if ever praised, and are exposed to constant customer complaints. They don’t like their job, they don’t like or respect their leader, they don’t like their company, and they don’t like the people they serve. Not good.
Now granted, this is a generalization, but I’m in the air enough to make the comment based on 20 years of flying experience. I get an occasional nice person. I have an occasional pleasant experience. But they are so rare that I actually go up to the person and thank them for being nice, for being happy, and for being friendly.
So let’s get back to the question at hand. Why does lousy service exist?
Who is responsible to make great service possible?
Who is responsible to make great service happen?
I always ask people in service positions, “How’s it going?” Most people respond in some negative fashion. Statements like, “Well, tomorrow is Friday!” or “I’ll let you know in two hours when I get off.” or “You’re kidding, right?”
These are losing, self-defeating statements. Statements made by people who fail to understand that doing their best, having a great attitude, and having a high sense of personal pride have nothing to do with the job. They have everything to do with who you are as a person.
Most of the front-line servers are in low-paying positions. When you combine that with our “feeling of entitlement” workforce and with training that’s all about the company, with a smattering of, “smile, greet the customer, thank the customer,” you have a perfect setting for mediocre or lousy service to occur most of the time.
About now, you want answers to this dilemma. I have them. They revolve around four words you already know: positive attitude and personal pride. But there is way more to these four words than your known definition.
Positive attitude and personal pride hold the key to your success, and they will be discussed in-depth next week.
Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.
About the Author
Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].
https://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/JeffreyGitomer.jpg218156StrategyDrivenhttps://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDELogo5-300x70-300x70.pngStrategyDriven2013-03-04 06:50:512016-08-07 22:22:56The Secret of Lousy Service and Why it Happens
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About the Author
Ed Reilly is the 17th President and CEO of the American Management Association International. Prior to joining AMA in 2001, he was Presidetn and CEO of Big Flower Holdings, Inc., a leading provider of integrated marketing and advertising services. He also served as President of the McGraw-Hill Broadcasting Company, among various executive positions during his more than 25 years with The McGraw-Hill Companies. To read Ed’s complete biography, click here.
Nathan Ives is a StrategyDriven Principal, and Host of the StrategyDriven Podcast. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.
https://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDELogo5-300x70-300x70.png00Nathan Iveshttps://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDELogo5-300x70-300x70.pngNathan Ives2013-02-28 06:01:152015-10-08 00:23:01StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 65 – An Interview with Ed Reilly, editor of AMA Business Boot Camp
Most leaders monitor the performance of their various divisions, departments, and work groups using a system of organizational performance measures. These measures monitor the efficiency and effectiveness of that organization’s functions – a reflection of the responsible manager’s performance.
Hi there! Gain access to this article with a StrategyDriven Insights Library – Total Access subscription or buy access to the article itself.
Subscribe to the StrategyDriven Insights Library
Sign-up now for your StrategyDriven Insights Library – Total Access subscription for as low as $15 / month (paid annually).
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Nathan Ives is a StrategyDriven Principal and Host of the StrategyDriven Podcast. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.
https://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/TeamworkGoal.jpg265452Nathan Iveshttps://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDELogo5-300x70-300x70.pngNathan Ives2013-02-26 06:32:402020-10-24 15:47:34The Difference Between Personal Goals and Organizational Performance Measures
At the moment I’m sitting outside on a sunny day overlooking the Pacific Ocean on the Oregon Coast. The venue is called Lighthouse Beach because the Cape Arago Lighthouse is the prime visual attraction. Or is it?
Actually, the ocean waves are pounding against the beach and the rocks creating majestic waterspray vistas that are indescribable. You gotta be here. You gotta see it.
I spent my first 10 minutes in awe of the sight.
After that, I began to gather thoughts. Thoughts of other beautiful places I’ve been. Thoughts of undone things I gotta do. Goals and dreams. And of course just reveling in the moment.
As a writer this would be termed a ‘fantasy venue.’ As a thinker there could be no better place to conjure up all sorts and new thoughts.
REALITY: In the big picture of things, I am one grain of sand in the beach of life. Yet I’m here today basking in its glory. I’m grateful.
The ocean’s relentless waves roll in whether I am here are not. Today is a rather calm day, but I’ve seen the ocean so violent here that it defies description. Wind, rain, waves crashing against rocks – almost like the ocean is a cauldron with a one million degree fire.
“So what?” you’re probably saying. “You’re on the beach watching the waves, and I’m here in my office working my ass off, or making cold calls, or out here sweating on a sales appointment, or following up with some guy that won’t return my call, or (worse) being beaten by price.”
Those are your issues, but in the heat of your mess, we do have something in common. It’s time for reflection. Not the one you see in the mirror in the morning. I’m talking about a way bigger reflection than that. It’s a reflection about time, accomplishment, achievement, and fulfillment. Life reflection.
When I was cold calling in New York City, often making sales, but more often getting my head handed to me, waves crashing on the beach never entered my mind. The ocean never entered my mind. I was caught in the spiral of the process, failing to reflect on it and see what else could have been done, or how much smarter I could have (should have) been. How many more chances should I have taken?
What do you reflect on right now? And how are those reflections impacting your actions? Your achievements? Your success? Reflections are not just about sales, they’re an important part of life. Your life.
Beyond sales, reflections are about people and moments and books that have impacted you. The lessons you have learned along the way. Things completed and things left undone. Your bucket list and the next thing to cross off. And, of course, your present situation and how you got there.
While it’s a little easier for me to reflect right now, at some point in your life reflection will begin as well. I don’t know the day, and neither do you. But I promise you it will happen. And when it does, it will mark the beginning of a new era. A big picture era that no longer focuses on quota. Rather, it allows you to take a hard look at life. When that transition begins to happen your sales will double.
You’ll no longer be fretting about the subject line in an email. Instead, you’ll be taking actions to build your personal reputation, your personal brand, and your stature in your marketplace.
The transition will help you evolve from salesperson to sales leader. Not manager, leader. You lead your own charge, you lead your own way, you lead your own plan to build your own reputation through the leadership you created with customers.
The way people speak about you.
The way to refer to you.
The way they refer other people to you.
The way that they reward you, not just with sales, but with referrals and accolades.
And hopefully those accolades will show up someplace in your social media profiles or on their blog or their website, and most certainly on Google.
For some of you right now this makes no sense. Reason? Simple, you haven’t begun the reflection process. Save this piece. Your day will come. And as I’ve said many times before, when you get what you want you better be ready.
During this coastal visit, I’m writing about the Unbreakable Law of Selling, a forthcoming book that will help hundreds of thousands of people understand sales better, execute their sales process better, and make more sales to more people. The inspiration I feel right now will directly impact those words.
Today I have clarity – ultimate clarity and understanding of what it took to make my sales (the reflection), and what it will take for you to increase your sales to a point where you can begin to reflect and bask in your own sunlight, at your own ocean, with your own waves pounding against the shore.
Pick a time, pick a place, and go.
Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.
About the Author
Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].
https://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/JeffreyGitomer.jpg218156StrategyDrivenhttps://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDELogo5-300x70-300x70.pngStrategyDriven2013-02-25 06:56:552016-08-07 22:01:35At Lighthouse Beach, looking at my reflection in a different way.
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Alternative Selection Warning Flag 1 – Too Many Initiatives
/in Alternative Selection, Premium/by Nathan IvesHi there! Gain access to this article with a StrategyDriven Insights Library – Total Access subscription or buy access to the article itself.
Sign-up now for your StrategyDriven Insights Library – Total Access subscription for as low as $15 / month (paid annually).
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About the Author
The Secret of Lousy Service and Why it Happens
/in Marketing & Sales/by Jeffrey GitomerQUESTION: Why does lousy service occur?
ANSWER: Lousy service happens because (big) companies don’t understand people OR training.
I am amazed at how many times someone in a service environment delivers lousy service. And it’s often not just lousy – add rude, offensive, abrasive, defensive, maddening, and most of all disappointing.
GREAT NEWS: It doesn’t have to be like that.
If I take the time to complain, which I rarely do anymore, the manager will always ask, “Did you get the name of the person?” Somehow getting the name of the person is important to the manager. But it is unimportant to me. I never get their name.
The manager is looking to blame someone. I’m looking for someone to accept responsibility. The manager is NEVER the one who takes it.
I have found poor service is a reflection of the company and its leaders, not just the person who delivered it.
MY REALITY: When a manager asks me for the person’s name who delivered lousy service, I reply, “Don’t yell at the person who gave me lousy service. Yell at the person who trained them.” The person delivering poor service is most likely to have been poorly trained or ill trained, or both. They’re doing what they were trained to do, and say what they were trained to say.
Or the employee will ‘modify training’ and make statements based on their ‘at the moment’ feelings:
Or worse, they become defensive, even rude, when a customer expresses frustration or anger as a reaction to what happened. Employees do that because someone TAUGHT THEM they don’t have to take gruff from a customer. (REALITY: The customer provides the money for their paycheck).
Ever get poor service at an airline? Of course you have, EVERYONE HAS. It happens because the people who work at the airlines are undertrained, poorly managed, feel put upon by their management and their leadership, underpaid, rarely if ever praised, and are exposed to constant customer complaints. They don’t like their job, they don’t like or respect their leader, they don’t like their company, and they don’t like the people they serve. Not good.
Now granted, this is a generalization, but I’m in the air enough to make the comment based on 20 years of flying experience. I get an occasional nice person. I have an occasional pleasant experience. But they are so rare that I actually go up to the person and thank them for being nice, for being happy, and for being friendly.
So let’s get back to the question at hand. Why does lousy service exist?
Who is responsible to make great service possible?
Who is responsible to make great service happen?
I always ask people in service positions, “How’s it going?” Most people respond in some negative fashion. Statements like, “Well, tomorrow is Friday!” or “I’ll let you know in two hours when I get off.” or “You’re kidding, right?”
These are losing, self-defeating statements. Statements made by people who fail to understand that doing their best, having a great attitude, and having a high sense of personal pride have nothing to do with the job. They have everything to do with who you are as a person.
Most of the front-line servers are in low-paying positions. When you combine that with our “feeling of entitlement” workforce and with training that’s all about the company, with a smattering of, “smile, greet the customer, thank the customer,” you have a perfect setting for mediocre or lousy service to occur most of the time.
About now, you want answers to this dilemma. I have them. They revolve around four words you already know: positive attitude and personal pride. But there is way more to these four words than your known definition.
Positive attitude and personal pride hold the key to your success, and they will be discussed in-depth next week.
Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.
About the Author
StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 65 – An Interview with Ed Reilly, editor of AMA Business Boot Camp
/in Management & Leadership, StrategyDriven Podcast/by Ed Reilly and Nathan IvesSpecial Edition 65 – An Interview with Ed Reilly, editor of AMA Business Boot Camp explores today’s management and leadership challenges and the fundamentals that will help those in these senior positions achieve ongoing career success. During our discussion, Ed Reilly, editor of AMA Business Boot Camp: Management and Leadership Fundamentals That Will See You Successfully Through Your Career
, shares with us his insights and experiences regarding the:
Additional Information
In addition to the outstanding insights Ed shares in AMA Business Boot Camp
and this special edition podcast are the resources accessible from his website, www.amanet.org and playbook.amanet.org. Ed’s book, AMA Business Boot Camp
, can be purchased by clicking here
.
Final Request…
Thank you again for listening to the StrategyDriven Podcast!
About the Author
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 30:00 — 41.2MB)
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The Difference Between Personal Goals and Organizational Performance Measures
/in Organizational Performance Measures, Premium, Talent Management/by Nathan IvesHi there! Gain access to this article with a StrategyDriven Insights Library – Total Access subscription or buy access to the article itself.
Sign-up now for your StrategyDriven Insights Library – Total Access subscription for as low as $15 / month (paid annually).
Not sure? Click here to learn more.
Don’t need a subscription? Buy access to Talent Management – The Difference Between Personal Goals and Organizational Performance Measures for just $2!
About the Author
At Lighthouse Beach, looking at my reflection in a different way.
/in Practices for Professionals/by Jeffrey GitomerHow do you define the word ‘reflection?’
At the moment I’m sitting outside on a sunny day overlooking the Pacific Ocean on the Oregon Coast. The venue is called Lighthouse Beach because the Cape Arago Lighthouse is the prime visual attraction. Or is it?
Actually, the ocean waves are pounding against the beach and the rocks creating majestic waterspray vistas that are indescribable. You gotta be here. You gotta see it.
I spent my first 10 minutes in awe of the sight.
After that, I began to gather thoughts. Thoughts of other beautiful places I’ve been. Thoughts of undone things I gotta do. Goals and dreams. And of course just reveling in the moment.
As a writer this would be termed a ‘fantasy venue.’ As a thinker there could be no better place to conjure up all sorts and new thoughts.
REALITY: In the big picture of things, I am one grain of sand in the beach of life. Yet I’m here today basking in its glory. I’m grateful.
The ocean’s relentless waves roll in whether I am here are not. Today is a rather calm day, but I’ve seen the ocean so violent here that it defies description. Wind, rain, waves crashing against rocks – almost like the ocean is a cauldron with a one million degree fire.
“So what?” you’re probably saying. “You’re on the beach watching the waves, and I’m here in my office working my ass off, or making cold calls, or out here sweating on a sales appointment, or following up with some guy that won’t return my call, or (worse) being beaten by price.”
Those are your issues, but in the heat of your mess, we do have something in common. It’s time for reflection. Not the one you see in the mirror in the morning. I’m talking about a way bigger reflection than that. It’s a reflection about time, accomplishment, achievement, and fulfillment. Life reflection.
When I was cold calling in New York City, often making sales, but more often getting my head handed to me, waves crashing on the beach never entered my mind. The ocean never entered my mind. I was caught in the spiral of the process, failing to reflect on it and see what else could have been done, or how much smarter I could have (should have) been. How many more chances should I have taken?
What do you reflect on right now? And how are those reflections impacting your actions? Your achievements? Your success? Reflections are not just about sales, they’re an important part of life. Your life.
Beyond sales, reflections are about people and moments and books that have impacted you. The lessons you have learned along the way. Things completed and things left undone. Your bucket list and the next thing to cross off. And, of course, your present situation and how you got there.
While it’s a little easier for me to reflect right now, at some point in your life reflection will begin as well. I don’t know the day, and neither do you. But I promise you it will happen. And when it does, it will mark the beginning of a new era. A big picture era that no longer focuses on quota. Rather, it allows you to take a hard look at life. When that transition begins to happen your sales will double.
You’ll no longer be fretting about the subject line in an email. Instead, you’ll be taking actions to build your personal reputation, your personal brand, and your stature in your marketplace.
The transition will help you evolve from salesperson to sales leader. Not manager, leader. You lead your own charge, you lead your own way, you lead your own plan to build your own reputation through the leadership you created with customers.
And hopefully those accolades will show up someplace in your social media profiles or on their blog or their website, and most certainly on Google.
For some of you right now this makes no sense. Reason? Simple, you haven’t begun the reflection process. Save this piece. Your day will come. And as I’ve said many times before, when you get what you want you better be ready.
During this coastal visit, I’m writing about the Unbreakable Law of Selling, a forthcoming book that will help hundreds of thousands of people understand sales better, execute their sales process better, and make more sales to more people. The inspiration I feel right now will directly impact those words.
Today I have clarity – ultimate clarity and understanding of what it took to make my sales (the reflection), and what it will take for you to increase your sales to a point where you can begin to reflect and bask in your own sunlight, at your own ocean, with your own waves pounding against the shore.
Pick a time, pick a place, and go.
Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.
About the Author