A Person Who Feels Appreciated Will Always Do More Than Is Expected
We all like to feel appreciated
- it’s one of the basic needs that Abraham Maslow identified in his “Hierarchy
of Needs”. This is more difficult than
it seems as often, corporate life militates against this.
Maslow identified the five basic human needs (biological and
physiological, safety, belonging and love, esteem, self-actualisation).
Interestingly, “belonging and love” are third - right in the middle before progressing on to esteem and
self-actualisation. In other words, you
won’t get that “extra” out of people if the appreciation is missing and they
will simply do the minimum needed to “get by” as long as their basic needs of
being paid are met. One result is that this spills over into
customer service.
I’ve watched a number of clients in their day-to-day
dealings with staff and realised just how often we miss opportunities (myself included)
to show appreciation. It’s not until you
do this that you see where you can improve.
I’m not advocating that we should be praising people to the skies just
for turning up on time, but there are a number of ways that we can show
appreciation that can be used any time, anywhere at no cost.
We also need to remember that different people see appreciation
in different ways. Gary Chapman in his
book defined five “Languages of Love”:
- Words of affirmation
- Acts of service
- Receiving gifts
- Quality time
- Physical touch
We all have one or two languages that work better on us, and
the skill lies in working out what works in each case. Remember, all can be interpreted in a wide
variety of ways: “physical touch” need not be a full-body hug, but just a
simple handshake or pat on the back.
Words of affirmation might be a simple “Nice to see you” or praise in
the company newsletter. I observed one
manager who clearly disliked one of his direct reports. Every day when he arrived, he would say “Good
morning” to that report’s deputy, but never to the report. This was unprofessional and rude, and
everyone saw it.
Just because one person’s love language is “words of
affirmation” doesn't mean that they won't respond to others, it just means that
affirmations work well on them. Most of us like receiving gifts (particularly
unexpected, well-chosen ones) and “acts of service” could be just offering to help a colleague carry
something or opening a door for them if their arms are full.
Equally, introverts may not respond well to you trying to
spend “quality time” with them unless they need to see you about something
important. Others may not be comfortable with too much
back-patting or what they perceive as too-close contact.
There are any number of small ways which, when added up,
show that you appreciate your family, friends, colleagues and staff. What do you think would work for you and them?
I have spent more than half my life
delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to
“emerging” economies. With more than 20 years in international financial
services around the world running different
operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to offer
solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses,
charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An
international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email . My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of
services. For strategic questions that
you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.
Labels: Career, Customer Care, Leadership, Teamwork
The Many Levels of "Marketing"
In this post I’m using
the word “Marketing” in the sense of “selling”.
Most large businesses have “Marketing” departments whose job is to
understand consumer trends, the business’ customers and products and come up
with ways of selling. In a small
business, this function usually falls under the owner.
Whatever the case, some people may not appreciate the
different foci of “marketing”. Much time
is spent on the consumer, i.e. the
person or people who buy that business’ products or services. More enlightened businesses have also begun
to realise that they need to “market” themselves to potential employees (some
are highly successful at this).
After this, it’s a different story. “Stakeholder Management” is now a key issue
and businesses have a much more complicated life. To help, I suggest to my clients that they
look at “internal” and “external” stakeholders.
“Internal stakeholders” include:
- All staff and their
families
- Management
- Board of Directors
“External” stakeholders could be:
- Customers and customer groups
- Suppliers/contractors
- Regulators
- Banks
- Government
- Tax authorities
- Law enforcement authorities
- Emergency services
- The local and/or international community
- Media
- Freight forwarders
- The environment
… anyone else who is impacted directly or indirectly by the
business and its actions.
The list can grow fairly long with little effort, especially
as regulation becomes a more dominant part of life.
When discussing this list with clients, they’re usually surprised
by the number of different “touch points” that they have. The next stage is to identify how best to
manage those stakeholders and allocate responsibilities. Small businesses will naturally be limited by
resources, but not the larger ones. As
the use of social media now gives anyone and everyone the ability to vent their
feelings, it’s all-too easy to find your business in the spotlight for the
wrong reasons…
Have you identified your different stakeholders and decided
how you're going to work with them?
I have spent more than half my life
delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to
“emerging” economies. With more than 20 years in international financial
services around the world running
different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to
offer solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses,
charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An
international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email . My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of
services. For strategic questions that
you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.
Labels: Customer Care, Leadership, Selling, Strategy
It's The Little Things That Count
In our quest for
profitability, we often risk losing sight of the fact that goodwill can cost
very little, but brings huge rewards in terms of repeat business, customer
willingness to overlook mistakes, or to make allowances in other matters.
I was recently a guest speaker at a 3-day event for an
institution where I delivered workshops on three different subjects. These seemed to go down well, judging from
the audience participation, questions and comments during and after the
workshops.
As I left on the final day, I saw some of the institution’s
golf umbrellas and asked if I could have one.
I was told certainly - provided you pay…
The price wasn’t high, and normally I wouldn't have minded, but I had just given
this institution 1-½ days of my time free of charge and they wouldn't give me a
cheap golf umbrella as a thank-you? What
they were selling them for was probably more than what they’d paid for them, so
it wouldn't have been a huge dent in their budget.
This isn't a major issue in the grand scheme of things, but
it showed that the person to whom I spoke didn't seem to appreciate the difference
that it would make in terms of goodwill (I had shown goodwill by giving my time
free of charge on this occasion as part of a larger contract).
Some will be saying that I got upset over nothing, but
that’s often the way goodwill or customer experience work. What may seem to be trivial to you may mean a
lot to the other side, and the skill is in understanding that. That’s what skilful negotiators understand. They know what they can give way on without
causing massive harm to their own cause.
To make things more interesting, the institution concerned
were late in paying for previous work done and came up with a number of bureaucratic
excuses based on requirements that were never communicated in the first place
(despite my asking for them).
In all, I learnt several valuable lessons:
- Take nothing for granted;
- Clarify, clarify, and clarify again;
- Make sure you understand how your payer works;
- Little details matter (on both sides).
It’s the little things that count. That extra bit of service may mean that, when
you make a huge mistake, the customer is till willing to forgive you.
I have spent more than half my life
delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to
“emerging” economies. With more than 20 years in international financial
services around the world running
different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to
offer solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses,
charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An
international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email . My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of
services. For strategic questions that
you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.Labels: Customer Care, Selling, Strategy
