focus on the fundamentals vtg

Focus on the Fundamentals

During the past 21 years…

CEO of two large companies

Owned four small businesses

Read a minimum of 100 business books a year,

every single year!

For the past 16 years…

What does this mean to me?

How can I use this idea?

What can I do right away?

The Four – I’s

• Ignorance

• Inflexibility

• Indifference

• Inconsistency

How to avoid the Four I’s

• Aggressive external market focus.• Aggressive customer focus.

• Keep the “Main Things” the main things.• Bullish on knowledge sharing and learning.• Passion and commitment at all levels.• Foster a healthy paranoia.• Revel in change.

– be agile, adaptive, and anticipatory.

T + C x ECF = Success

Anne MulcahyCEO of Xerox and the third most powerful woman in the world!

1. Build a network of great relationships with people who want to see you succeed.

2. You don’t have all of the answers, so ask for help and advice from the smartest people you can find.

3. Learn to be a learner.

4. Listen intently to your employees and to your customers.

Some really great advice…

What does it take to be a valued member of a team?

Develops and display competence.

Follows through on commitments.

Delivers required results.

100% integrity / honesty.

Enjoyable to work with – positive attitude.

Passionate about their work and those they serve.

Communicates and keeps everyone informed.

Helps the other members of the team.

Is proactive – looks for responsibility.

Creative and innovative.

Share ideas, information and credit.

Hold themselves 100% accountable.

Team Leaders are:Rigorous… but not ruthless

• Lack of TRUST• Lack of candor• Lack of commitment• Lack of accountability• Lack of results

Competence

RespectDistrust

Affection TRUST

HIGH

LOW

LOW HIGH

Concern

The 4 C’s of Trust

John Spence High-Performance Team Model

• D• M• C• C• M• D

irection – vivid, clear, inspiring --- shared

easurements – specific, observable, focused

ompetence – very good at what they do

ommunication – open, honest, courageous

utual Accountability – all team members

iscipline – do this every day

4-Level Decision Making

1. You own it.

2. Ask for input… you own it.

3. Team decision… I own it.

4. My call… I own it.

Empowerment + Accountability

The 4 Pieces of Paper

11 Key Team Competencies:

1. Setting clear, specific and measurable goals.

2. Making assignments extremely clear and ensuring required competence.

3. Using effective decision making processes within the team.

4. Establishing accountability for high performance across the entire team.

5. Running effective team meetings.

6. Building strong levels of trust.

7. Establishing open, honest and frank communications.

8. Managing conflict effectively.

9. Creating mutual respect and collaboration.

10. Encouraging risk-taking and innovation.

11. Engaging in ongoing team building activities.

1 - 10

T + C x ECF = Success

74%23,000,000

88%

What they look for in a leader…

Credibility

1.Honest2.Forward-looking3.Competent4.Inspiring

The key elements of a winning culture: Employees

• Fun• Family• Friends• Fair• Freedom• Pride• Praise• Meaning• Accomplishment

• Ownership Mentality• Sense of Urgency• Disciplined Execution• Accountability• Continuous Innovation• Customer Focus

The key elements of a winning culture: Company

T + C x ECF = Success

A few good quotes…

• “We are not in the coffee business serving people… we are in the people business serving coffee.” Howard Schultz, CEO – Starbucks

• “We took our eye off the ball and it damn near put us out of business. We forgot that the customer pays ALL the bills. We are here to serve them, help them, support them. Not keeping that at the front of our minds almost cost us everything.” Lou Gerstner, CEO - IBM

• “The very future of our company hinges on our ability to understand and serve our customers better than any other firm. It is all about customer service, the products are actually secondary.” Jeff Immelt, CEO – GE

• “The only critic whose opinion counts, is the customer” – Mark Twain

Let’s look at your market: The bad news…

• Strong competition

• Difficult to differentiate

• Highly informed consumers

• Exceedingly high expectations

• Cost of acquisition of a targeted customer is high

• Cost to satisfy is higher

• Cost to replace is 5x higher

Good News: Value of a delighted customer… priceless!

Customer Satisfaction drives Customer Loyalty… and Customer Loyalty drives Profitability

100%

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

Extremely Dissatisfie

d

SomewhatDissatisfie

d

SlightlyDissatisfie

dSatisfied

Very Satisfied

Zone of Defection

Zone of Indifferenc

e

Zone of Affection

Loyalt

y

Customer Satisfaction

Terrorist

Evangelist

A 5% increase in loyalty among your best customers…

Can produce a profit increase of 25% – 85%I hate you

I don’t care about you

I love you

Key Drivers of Customer LoyaltyFinancial

Performance

Quality P&S&

Customer Relationship

EmployeeSatisfaction

Empowerment High Standards

Long-termOrientation

Enthusiasm, Commitment,

Respect

Training &Development

Fair Compensatio

n

CR=104.12

CR= .404

CR=.334

CR=.277

CR=.275CR=.249

CR=.280 Coaching

CR=.285

CR=.371

CR=.365

CR=.191

CR=.247

TolerateNothing

Less

From: Practice What You Preach by Maister

Global study:16 countries29 companies139 offices5,589 respondents

The Five Levels of Customer Service

I don’t really care

Why try harder

Good enough is good enough

That’s nice

Wow – you guys are awesome

To have an effective Customer Relations program, these three statements MUST be true for your organization:

1. Customer satisfaction is a philosophy and a commitment by

top management.

2. Customer satisfaction is an attitude and atmosphere that

prevails throughout the entire organization.

3. Customer satisfaction is a program of ACTION within the

organization.

1 -10

Fundamental Customer Expectations

• Reliability: The ability to provide what was promised, on time, dependably and accurately. (Honesty)

• Assurance: The knowledge and courtesy of employees, and their ability to convey trust and confidence. (Competence)

• Empathy: The degree of caring and individual attention provided to customers. (Concern)

• Responsiveness: The willingness to help customers and provide prompt service. (Attitude)

• Tangibles: The physical facilities, equipment, and appearance of the personnel. (Professionalism)

1 -10

How do the Best Companies Deliver Superior Customer Service?

• From a study of more than 3,000 companies — narrowed down to the top 101 companies that profit from customer care — here are the top five factors that were the fundament tactics used to build and manage extraordinary levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty.

1 -10

They listen to, understand, and respond (often in unique and creative ways) to the evolving needs and constantly shifting expectations of their customers. (VOC)

Extreme Customer Focus

They establish a clear vision of what superior service is, communicate that vision to employees at all levels, and ensure that service quality is personally and positively important to everyone in the organization..

Shared Customer Service Credo

They establish concrete standards of service quality and regularly measure themselves against those standards, guarding against the “acceptable error” mindset by establishing as their goal 100% customer satisfaction performance.

Clear Standards + Accountability

Create A Dashboard of Key Indicators

MPS Margin Per Sale

Talent Level

Service Level

They hire the best people, train them carefully and extensively so they have the knowledge and skills to achieve the service standards, then empower them to work on behalf of the customers, whether inside or outside the organization.

Customer Focused Employees

They recognize and reward service accomplishments, sometimes individually, sometimes as a group effort, in particular celebrating the success of employees who go “one step beyond” for their customers.

Deal decisively with mediocrity

Reward and Celebrate Success…

Understanding the Customer-driven Company

• Create a customer-focused Vision• Flood the organization with VOC• Become an expert on delivering

superior customer service• Turn your employees into customer

service champions• Destroy any barriers to superior

service performance• Measure, measure, measure• Walk the talk

Focus on the Fundamentals: SUMMARY

• Customer service is the only defendable differentiator.• Only engaged and satisfied employees deliver can

deliver consistently superior customer service.• Consistently superior customer service can lead to as

much as a 104% increase in profits.• The success of your business is directly tied to the quality

of your people.• Demand excellence – refuse to tolerate mediocrity.• Teamwork is mandatory – not optional.• Culture counts.

THANK YOU

If you have any questions at all please do not hesitate to send a note or call. My email address is: john@johnspence.com

Also, you might find value in the ideas I share in my blog. You can sign up for it at:www.johnspence.com/blog