April 10th, 2010 @
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In the latter part of the 20th century, “Team Building” became recognized by many companies as an important factor in providing a quality service and remaining competitive. Yet as we stride into the 21st century, the term “team building” can still sometimes seem rather nebulous – people often know that they need it, but aren’t quite sure what it is. As a result, team building is used in all sorts of contexts, even when it is not appropriate.
Some people define a team as being “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”. But this isn’t the right definition; it is a feature of good teams. ‘Whole > sum’ shows that they are working well together – but there are some teams whose collective performance falls short of what you might expect given the quality of individuals. The Apollo Syndrome is a good example of this – where highly intelligent people often perform worse than teams made of up ‘less-able’ members.
Some people define a team as being the people who report to the same boss. This can be misleading. In a well-designed organizational structure, people reporting to one boss do often form ‘teams’. But when designing organizational hierarchies there are often compromises made because of pay structures or the need to have traditional reporting lines.
Whilst a team is a group of people, a group is not necessarily a team. Rather, a team is a group of people working together towards a common goal. .
If a team is a group of people working towards a common goal, ‘team building’ is the process of enabling that group of people to reach their goal. It is therefore a management issue, and the most effective form of team building is that undertaken as a form of management consultancy, rather than as pure training (though there is a role for training within an overall program).
In its simplest terms, the stages involved in team building are:
- To clarify the collective goals
- To identify those inhibitors that prevent them from reaching their goals and remove them
- To put in place enablers that assist them
- To measure and monitor progress, to ensure the goals are achieved
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August 22nd, 2009 @
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Customer Service
No matter what type of business you’re in, you have customers. Whether you’re a small business or a department within a large company, customer service counts
. Have you asked your customers what they think of your service lately? Remember that negative comments spread much faster than positive comments. Good customer service requires some basic action on your part.
1. Answer Your Business Phone With Your Name
This can be your business name, your name, or both. If you are in a position where the person on the other end of the phone will carry on a discussion with you, make sure you include your name. Don’t make them ask.
2. Say Please And Thank You
We all learned this when we were young. How many times did your Mom or Dad ask you, “…and what do you say?” Carry what you learned in your younger years into your work.
3. Smile When Appropriate
When talking to customers face-to-face, smile when appropriate. It makes you and your business more personal. If most of your business is conducted on the telephone, smiles can help here too. Your voice will sound different when you are smiling. (If you need help with this, position a small mirror by your phone and practice, practice, practice!) Think about your own reactions when someone smiles at you. Convey these positive feelings to your customers.
4. Be Empathetic
Empathy doesn’t mean you agree with the person’s feelings, but it does indicate you acknowledge them. It will take you a long way in turning a dissatisfied customer into a satisfied one. You can say something like, “I understand how upsetting that might be…”
5. Take Responsibility
Don’t pass the buck. Whether you’re the owner or an employee of a business, you represent that business with your presence. So maybe it’s not your “specific” job to handle the customer’s request or complaint. If you can’t personally handle it, make sure that you hand the customer off gracefully. Make sure the other person is there before you let the customer go or if necessary ensure that a message has been handled.
6. Make Commitments
Commitments guarantee that something will get done. It’s also a way to manage the customer’s expectations. A commitment is not, “We’ll get back to you in a couple of days.” A commitment is, “We’ll get back to you by 5:00 pm tomorrow.” This assures the customer that some action will be taken within a specific time frame.
7. Meet Commitments
Don’t make a commitment just to get rid of a customer. Make a commitment you can keep. A kept commitment builds trust. A missed commitment destroys trust. And once trust is broken, it takes much longer to rebuild.
You might be saying, “Well, these tips are just common sense. My employees and I practice these every single day.” Do you really? Have you asked your customers lately? A real simple gauge of your customer service is a follow up phone call with a few focused questions. Or, if you want to be more formal, a written survey mailed to the customer (with a self-addressed, stamped return envelope) also works great.
It takes these simple steps to provide basic customer service. Don’t allow your customers to say, “What ever happened to customer service?,” about your company!
Fresha Agency organizes regular workshops and consulting for companies who are interested in training their employees and managers in Customer service. We also provide a large area of expertise on a number of topics. Contact us for more information on info@freshaevents.com
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August 22nd, 2009 @
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Fresha Events workshop programs
Workshops combine training, development, team-building, communications, motivation and planning. Participation and involvement of staff increases the sense of ownership and empowerment, and facilitates the development of organizations and individuals.
Workshops are effective in managing change and achieving improvement, and particularly the creation of initiatives, plans, process and actions to achieve particular business and organizational aims.
Workshops are also great for breaking down barriers, improving communications inside and outside of departments, and integrating staff after acquisition or merger.
Workshops are particularly effective for (CRM) customer relationship management development. The best and most constructive motivational team-building format is a workshop, or better still series of workshops, focusing on the people’s key priorities and personal responsibilities/interest areas, which hopefully will strongly overlap with business and departmental aims too.
Workshops can be integrated within regular monthly team meetings – an amazing amount of motivation progress and productivity can be accomplished with just a 90 mins workshop per month.
Workshop facilitation by a team leader or manager develops leadership, and workshops achieve strong focus on business aims among team members.
Workshops are very effective for training too – workshops encourage buy-in and involvement more than conventional training courses because they are necessarily participative, and the content and output are created by the delegates. Also, the relationship between workshop facilitator or workshop presenter and delegates is participative, whereas a ‘trainer’ is often perceived as detached, and the training material ‘not invented here’.
There are many workshop format variations – here’s a basic workshop format:
- Prior to workshop session identify and agree via consultation with the team the aim/opportunity area to be addressed.
- It’s also important to decide workshop objectives in relation to the team’s ‘maturity’, experience and development
- Set suitable date and venue for meeting and issue agenda, with verbal explanation/reassurance if necessary.
- At start of workshop, introduce aim and process – agree expectations – answer queries. (5 mins)
- Brainstorm the ideas and an opportunity with the whole group – flip chart is best. (10-20 mins)
- Split the group into pairs or threes (more usually creates passengers) and ask them to come up with outline actions/initiatives/plans to achieve agreed purpose/aim. (20-30 mins)
- Have groups present back their ideas – review and praise positives aspects in each, and gently agree areas which would benefit from improvement/refining. (max 5 mins per group)
- Then task and agree for groups or individuals to refine outline plans into clear objectives during the workshop, or afterwards to be fed back to manager, which can then be followed up and coached during implementation.
Follow up, coach, encourage, support and invite ideas for future workshop items and process improvements.
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