Face to Face

I recently found that an old acquaintance had found a new job in a company which is setting up a location in Krakow. We met to discuss training needs for the company, and she told me all about her new job. She explained to me that the top management of the company flew in almost weekly to meet the new hires and see how the team were progressing with the new office. Each time they arrived in Krakow, they met everybody who had started work since they had last been in town, and got to know them. They were able to have regular progress meetings with their managers in person while they were in Krakow, too, and were on site to give advice, support, or help adjust targets when needed.

This reminded me of a contrasting e-mail I once received from a friend of mine who works in a Shared Services Centre in Dublin. She said that she didn't know if she was doing a good job, as she hadn't seen her direct supervisor in weeks, but because of that, she presumed her work was satisfactory. In the same conversation., she told me she was looking for a new job. She didn't say if the two facts were connected, but I am pretty sure they are.

Human beings are social animals. We need to interact (despite what we might tell others!). Besides, there is so much more that we can convey with a facial expression, tone of voice, a light gesture of the hand, that it's no surprise that we generally prefer to talk to people face-to-face than on the phone or by e-mail.

If you have a message to give, try to consider delivering it face-to-face, in person, wherever possible. I like talking to people. I'm sure you do, too, and so probably do your colleagues!

What Employees Really Want!

A few months ago I was present at a talk given by the Centre Manager of a Shared Services Centre based in Krakow. The Centre employed 350 people at the time, and had plans to employ a further 150 or 200. During the talk, the Centre Manager was boasting about the Centre's reputation as a good employer, and shared with us the results of the Centre's last employee satisfaction survey.

As you could guess, a lot of people mentioned bonus schemes and salaries, but although the Centre pays average or higher for the industry, this seems to be an easy area to complain about.

Apart from the subjects relating directly to money, the most important factor in employment satisfaction was communication. This was ahead of facilities, working hours, atmosphere, even development opportunities.

The Manager explained that almost every employee mentioned that they wanted to have more information, sooner, from their managers. They weren't only referring to information immediately relevant to them, either! Communication is vital for so many different reasons, and not just for the ones mentioned in leadership meetings.

Of course, there is a certain size where an organisation must divide itself into departments, projects or teams, in order to survive with some kind of structure. However, in accordance with the rule of 'divide and conquer', one of the effects of this division is that the people in one department no longer really know what's going on in any of the other departments. Of course, it isn't necessary for the Accounts Payable Team to know what the Accounts Receiveable Team are doing, but it helps us feel more like we're part of the big picture if we are aware that there is a big picture!

There is a story of a TV production company who was experiencing reasonable success, and so decided to build their own offices instead of renting. When the architect asked them about designing a kitchen, the directors saw this as a great opportunity, and ordered that no kitchen was to be built. With no other opportunity but to eat lunch at their desks, they reasoned, productivity would rocket.

In fact, after the company moved into its purpose-built headquarters, productivity dropped by 50%! The reason was the exact same one -there was no canteen. People were no longer able to mingle between departments, chatting and gossiping while waiting for the kettle to boil, or the microwave to ping, or while eating their pizza. And so, the television production company -a company very much in a creative industry- had made it almost impossible for staff to be creative at work! No longer would people overhear a problem, and remark that their colleague had had a similar problem, but found a solution. Gone were the days when people would call out "does anybody know how to fix this?" and expect an answer, or at least sympathy!

Human beings are social animals, and despite people complaining about financial gains, deep down, all we want, any of us, is to be loved. Give your staff the opportunity to systematically chat, gossip, ask for advice, offer advice etc., and they will feel much more comfortable. And despite our pride of living in the 21st Century, we are still much more fond of using prehistoric methods -the office intranet is not an outlet for social communication! Make sure your staff is happy to chat. Just make sure they don't suddenly go quiet when the boss walks in!

Main points: communication weak. (Dress code, pay also)

The Customer is (f**)King (stupid!)

Recently, I decided to buy hiking boots for my wife, as we were going on holiday to the mountains, and she had earlier said that she would like a new pair. I went to a local shoe shop, and asked for a pair in my wife's size. The lady behind the counter showed me the choices, and between us, we selected boots which I thought my wife would like, and which she thought were of good quality. I bought them, and noticed that the receipt stated that the shop did not offer refunds.
Later, my wife tried on the boots, and found that, not only were they too large, but there was a tear in the side of one of them. I went back to the shop, and explained the story to the lady. She said she was very sorry to hear about the problem, and looked for a pair without a tear, and in a smaller size. There were none. I explained that my wife had really liked the pattern, adn I was afraid of choosing a different pair. Without saying another word, she took the boots and receipt from me, and gave me back the money. She said that she was very sorry she couldn't give me the boots I had wanted, but that if I came back and tried later that month, she might have more of the same kind.
Before I went to the shop, I had expected to argue that the shop had no right to refuse refunds, and had prepared myself for the usual blank refusal from the shopkeeper. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the shop assistant actually cared for me, and wanted me to be satisfied with my purchase. While she was busy cancelling the sale and finding the money, I looked at the selection of men's shoes available, and decided that the next pair I bought would be from there.
It's amazing, but people often forget about Customer Service when they talk about sales skills, yet the sales assistant's readiness to break the shop's regulations to make me happy meant that, although no sale was made, a sale (or sales) would be made in the future. In my company, we are always looking for ways to satisfy clients' needs, even before the clients themselves are aware of them. Once, a client sent us notification of termination of their contract. Our Client Manager immediately arranged a face-to-face meeting to discuss the reasons for their termination of the contract. During this meeting, it came out that, while they were more than happy with the service we provided, they felt thay could not afford it -we were too expensive, in other words. The end result was that they continued with a more economic, streamlined service, and as soon as their business picked up, they returned to their previous plan.
This can be put into contrast with a company which used to look after our internet marketing. We were very unhappy with their sales service, and with the fact that they only contacted us to remind us to pay invoices. We decided we wanted to renegotiate our contract (in effect, change the plan), but at the same time test how they saw us as a client. We sent them two months' notice of termination of the contract. A week later, we received a phone call from the company, warning us that we were making a big mistake, and reminding us that we would still get two more invoices. That was enough of an answer!
Your clients become your clients because they need your goods or services. But there are hundreds (or thousands) of competitors offering the same, so you have to make sure that your clients need you. I can buy boots from anyone, so I may as well buy boots from somebody I like. And I will like somebody if I think they understand me.
My advice is this: talk to your customers. Then, listen to them. They'll be surprised, and you will too.

Michael Jackson's Death: A Historic Event -in Communication

Michael Jackson passed away, and for about three days, this was the ost important event in the world. At least it was the most important event in the news. Of course, in this day and age, the media are less concerned with politics, and more concerned with celebrities. Recently, 100 years of a national newspaper have been made available online, and the early editions have whole transcripts of debates from the House of Commons. Of course, people are still interested in the workings of government and the national and intenational economy, but if one compares the content of a newspaper today with the contect of a newspaper of the early 20th century, it is difficult to find so much gossip and descriptions of new celebrity couples from the earlier paper. What has changed in society? Well, society has changed. A wider demographic can read now, and they also have the money and time to buy material to read. The press must cater to wider tastes.
A bigger sign of social behaviour for me can be seen in how society reacted to the death of Michael Jackson. When Lady Diana (Queen of Hearts) died, thousands of people collected around Buckingham Palace to leave flowers and console each other over the passing of their icon. Within hours of Jackson's death, hundreds of facebook groups had been started to commemorate the King of Pop and to share the grief. Now, setting up a group on a social website is the equivalent of taking time off work and travelling to a focal grieving point to lay a wreath (I'm sure somebody has written a 'lay flowers on MJ's tomb' application for facebook already!) . Facebook and other similar social networking sites are not so much a sign of the times, more a sign of the people. This is what people want to do in their free time. We have alread had people meeting and marrying over the internet. People grieve through the internet. Although the Catholic Church officially opposes it, people with guilty consciences can confess online, too. It seems there is nothing we don't prefer to do online. If this is just another sign of the death of face-to-face contact between real, living people, then I'll meet you in the online grieving site.