| Motivational Corner from Petra Marquart |
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Motivational Speaker Corner
Leading a Service-based Organization Petra Marquart Over the past 25 years, billions of training dollars have been spent by American companies to bolster the quality of their customer service. Yet, a research project recently revealed that service in this country needs to improve by almost 300% to be considered satisfactory. How did this happen? John Goodman, head of Technical Assistance Research Programs (TARP) of Arlington, Virginia wanted the answer to that question, as well. Incredibly, his group found that 75 percent of the organizations that had invested in service training had failed to bring service to life, and the reason for this was that people on the frontline weren’t ‘buying in.’ When frontline employees were asked why, their response was unanimous: “Why should we buy in when our managers treat us exactly as they have in the past?” In other words, why should we change when everything around us stays the same? Managers and leaders of organizations have failed to realize that excellent customer service starts with them. Providing customer service to their staff is the most important aspect of building a service-focused foundation. It is the trickle-down theory at its best. How the manager treats his or her staff is often how the staff treats the customer. No longer can managers and leaders of companies send frontline people off to be fixed. They must assume their role in the successful integration of service into standard operating procedures. Leaders of teams, divisions, departments or organizations must be committed to supporting their staff’s efforts, creating a service-driven vision, and operating from service-based values. Whenever we present our customer service training programs Service: The Gold Standard and Service the Gold Standard in Manufacturing and Technology, we dedicate as much time as possible to preparing managers and leaders for the necessary culture changes long before training for staff begins. Kristin Anderson, from Performance Research Associates, Inc., writes in her book, Knock Your Socks off Service, that in order for leaders and managers to contribute to dazzling service, they need to integrate the following into their leadership practices: Leaders play an enormous part in setting the service model for their organizations. How does dazzling service become part of an organization’s culture? Leaders model the behavior all of the time. Employees may listen to what leaders say, but they’ll believe only what they do. We rarely question our leader’s talents or skills. Instead, people question their leader’s motivation, trustworthiness and ability to inspire. Quality service can’t be bought, demanded, imposed or extracted. It only can be modeled and passed on from one person to another. PAST ARTICLES:
Value Beats Price Any Day
No matter what business you’re in, at one time or another one of your customers has probably complained about price. And yet for most buyers, price is not always the defining factor. Imagine for a minute going out to dinner and spending a hundred dollars. Spending a hundred dollars for dinner seems quite extravagant but if the food is wonderful, the service impeccable and the ambiance delightful, we might think of that dining experience as pricey but well worth it. But, if we spend a hundred dollars for dinner and the food and service are poor, we’re probably trying to figure out whose dumb idea it was to go there. In reality, it is often not what we pay for something, but instead what we perceive we get in exchange. For us to be satisfied, it must be perceived as an even exchange. We need to believe we got a hundred dollars worth of something at that restaurant or we will not be happy. Consequently, when customers complain about prices, on some level, they don’t believe there was a fair exchange between the product or service and what they paid for it. But do we really want our customers to be simply satisfied. If they only get what they paid for - the exchange is even - they will be satisfied but there is only a 50/50 chance that they’ll return. Satisfaction only equals maybe. Maybe they’ll come back; maybe they won’t. If your customers perceive they got more than they paid for – they got a deal – you will have a marketing department that doesn’t cost a dime – thrilled customers tell everyone. But if your customers perceive they got less than they paid for – they got taken – take cover because they’re out to get even! Dick Schaaf, who with the late Ron Zemke wrote The Service Edge, cautioned service providers that along with exceeding their service expectations, “customers also want to get the biggest bang for their buck. They want to be treated well, get their money’s worth and find real value in their trading. The people who will say, “Yes, I still shop at this hardware store even though the people are rude or indifferent, simply because of the price,” will almost always leave if they ever have a chance to go where they can get both good value and be treated well.” “Why would I buy from your organization instead of one of your competitors? In order for me or anyone else to choose your organization over another, we need to see the difference between you and your competitors. If we don’t, the only way you can compete is through price.” Ron Zemke Because performance and products so often work and look alike, the defining factor ends up being service. Service – treating people well - adds actual value to the products and services we provide. And the really great news is, it doesn’t cost a dime. Petra Marquart Petra has influenced the service of thousands of people through her powerful and entertaining presentations. She is an inspirational speaker who has ignited the spirit of service in many professionals. As one manager stated, "Customer service is our future and Petra is our Oz." On a monthly basis Petra shares her motivational thoughts on customer service, management and its impact in the workplace. Some of the topics that Petra will cover include: |
Topics include: Customer Service, Leadership, Culture, Change, Empowerment, Reward, Conflict Management, Self Esteem. |