Category Archives: Learning & Development

How are your Employees Representing your Company Values?

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Are your employees representing your company values?In business, company values are everything. They can make or break the way you operate; they can guide your strategy, and can often determine how loyal your customers are. But do you carry your company values with you at all times? And more importantly, should you?

As someone who has worked in a customer facing retail environment, I can understand the need to live and breathe company values. The front line employee, after all, is often the first thing a customer sees as they walk into a store, and possibly the last thing they see before they leave. So you dress the part, and smile, and serve the customer to the best of your ability. You are, in essence, the brand. 

But when it’s harder to define who could be a potential customer, is it too much to ask employees to have this dedication to their brand values?  For me, the values should be there at all times. A “customer-centric” company should mean “customer-centric” employees, regardless the nature of customer interactions. 

But I’m not sure this sentiment is shared by everyone. After all, bad customer service experiences are often be attributed to employees rather than the brand itself (my colleague wrote about her own bad experiences in a previous blog). So does the blame lie with the employees themselves? Should they be trying harder to carry their employer’s values?  Or should the company be trying harder to instil their values on those they employ?

Innovation: But not as we know it!

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Innovation: But not as we know it!Innovation is the word on everyone’s lips.  We all, it seems, want to be innovative, to reinvent the wheel when and wherever possible.  It worked well for Apple, after all (Steve Jobs admitted that their strategy was to innovate their way out of trouble).  And a few months ago a colleague of mine wrote about the importance of a culture of innovation in the workplace. But can innovation ever be considered a bad thing? Can companies do more harm than good when they innovate?

Last week’s Glasgow for Business “28 days to be a more innovative company” event opened with a brainstorming session on barriers to innovation.  Responses ranged from “risk averse” to “lack of finances” and “lack of collaborative culture”.  But no-one mentioned the dreaded D word – damage.  Innovation has the potential to be damaging.  From a customer loyalty perspective, this is understandable. After all, if my customers enjoy my product and continue to buy it, will changing the product make them change their minds about buying? 

Perhaps subtle innovation is the answer here. Take Heinz Baked Beans as an example.  They started in 1886, and have maintained the same recipe to the present day. No changes, no innovating. And their customers continue to buy in their millions. But the company have been innovating. The subtle innovations lie in the branding and marketing of the product, not the product itself.  Big changes for the company, but small changes for the customer. 

So what can we learn from this? Subtle innovation might be the way forward. Apple, after all, made very few changes to the iPhone 5 when it was released earlier this month.  Once again; a small change for the customer, a large step for the company. 

The question now is, how far can subtle innovation go? Can companies get by on making small, subtle changes, or will they always feel the need to reinvent the wheel?

 

Communication: Everyone’s Talking About It

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How do consumers communicate with an organisation? How do organisations communicate with consumers?

Today, consumers can talk to a brand representative over the phone, through email, and online through social networks.  But amidst all the discussions over “multi channel” customer service, whatever happened to good old fashioned face-to-face?

A large utilities firm is putting faith back in this method –equipping call centre staff with video links to create more face-to-face contact with customers – as they believe it has the power to encourage current customers to stay and lost customers to return.

But should we all be including face-to-face in our “multi channe” strategies, if it has the power to increase customer loyalty?

Perhaps examples from other industries can demonstrate the true potential of face-to-face communication, like o2.

Last Thursday, the Percepta UK marketing team attended Dunning Design’s monthly “Communications Breakfast”, hosted by o2.  They presented “o2 Ville”, a collection of innovations designed to help consumers cope with all their communication demands.  o2 Money senior partner Martyn Wallace opened the presentation with a demonstration of how many of us could begin paying for products or services using an internet enabled mobile device, rather than with a debit or credit card.  And even as one audience member questioned the speaker on the problems o2 may encounter with the battery life of such devices, most attendees seemed taken by the idea.  Tim Craven of o2 Wifi then took over the floor to explain how the organisation plans to provide dedicated nationwide Wifi hotspots, providing internet access for consumers, whatever they are doing, wherever they are.  Moreover, this would be available for everyone, regardless of your mobile network.   

Lastly, o2 Health associate Julian Rolfe introduced “Side by Side”, an innovative scheme which allows clinicians to speak to their patients hundreds of miles away, and share medical information such as MRI scans and x-rays with other medical professionals.  o2 suggests that the technology can save on unnecessary and often time consuming travel.  A pilot “Side by Side” scheme was rolled out by o2 and NHS Western Isles in 2011, and immediately made an impact to the lives of both patients and clinicians in this remote area.  Some statistics to highlight this impact include:

  • 67% of clinicians said that their ability to diagnose patients had increased
  • 80% of clinicians said that they were able to see patients sooner and with greater ease
  • Travel was reduced by 9 hours for some patients
  • Around £6500 was saved on travel throughout the trial period – and was put toward other resources
  • Patients’ satisfaction scores recorded over the pilot scheme was higher

Overall, NHS Western Isles found that service capacity had improved greatly over the trial period. 

As we left the presentation, I began thinking about how this technology could service other sectors as well as health. 

For NHS Western isles, the need for face to face communication over any other form was clear, but could it be used alongside other methods?  Could businesses begin to use such technology to reach out to their customers, and create a stronger bond? Communication, after all, is the key….let me know your thoughts on this.

Hello, Do You Know I’m here?

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I was recently enlisted by a friend of my father’s into helping him buy a new car. With 12 years in the automotive industry, and considering myself a bit of a petrol head, I was only too happy to help, and thought that it would be a piece of cake (and a lot of fun helping someone else spend their hard earned money). Having known him for 20 years, I knew that he have a great idea about what he wanted the car to do, he’d have researched the alternatives thoroughly and to be honest I thought my role would be to give him a seal of approval for his choice, or to make sure he wasn’t paying over the odds.

Sure enough he’d done the leg work – visited almost all the garages in his local area, and had brochures, prices lists and options lists coming out of his ears, but he was lost. Somewhere in all the information thrust upon him by the eager salespeople at the dealerships, they’d forgotten to ask him what it was he used the car for. Everything had become too complicated for him – he had been given too much choice. And he wasn’t enjoying his experience.

When I asked, he simply said he needed it to get into town to shop and pick his daughter up from the station. He wanted to do that as cheaply and safely as possible, and with the least chance of breaking down. And if it did – he wanted the dealer to look after him properly.

He didn’t care about sat nav as he knew where he was going (and happens to collect maps), he didn’t need parking sensors as he didn’t trust them, the thought of cruise control scared him half to death, and the 20 speaker stereo system wasn’t really needed for Test Match Special. He had no idea what DAB was. He wasn’t that interested in the intricacies of the finance deals, or the time it takes for a convertible roof to fully open. To make matters worse, having left the dealerships without the information he actually wanted, the days that followed brought with them postal surveys, even more brochures and business cards from the sales staff.

It struck me that perhaps the simplest concept of customer service had been ignored. Listening.

Not one of the sales staff had sat down and taken the time to find out why this gentleman was sat in front of them. What did he actually need? Not what did they think he wanted, but what did he need? They had forgotten who the most important person in that room was, and had potentially alienated him for good.

Over the next few days, he began to notice letter after letter from the various dealerships. Customer Satisfaction Surveys, even more brochures, even more special deals that didn’t interest him.

Now today’s world thrives on information. We all know that and it’s nothing new. It’s not the future – it is the now. But what of those who aren’t quite ready for it? Those who don’t want a mobile or don’t understand why they need the choice of contact by text, e-mail, twitter or Facebook? Should we abandon those who don’t want to take that route?

It seems to me that this highlights the one thing that those sales staff forgot. That the customer gets to choose how, when and where they interact with a business, and it’s up to the business to make sure it’s flexible enough to react.

It won’t be easy staying that flexible. I’m sure we all know the power of social media and modern technology. Opinions are formed, shared and reformed at a rate never before experienced. And that’s great – if you’re doing things right. If you’re not then where do you start?

The answer? Well, if I could answer that in a short blog then I’d be making millions from it – but it strikes me that there is an excellent and incredibly simply starting point.

Listen. Listen to what the customer wants from you. Listen to when they want it. Listen to how they want it. Not rocket science, but definitely effective.

What challenges have you come across (on either end) of service where you’ve either not listened/haven’t been listened to?

Launching the Intern Scheme

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After many moon’s worth of deliberation, debate and deferment, Q4 2010 saw the arrival of our first ever company internship scheme.

The programme was ushered in, without any great fanfare or trumpet-blast, rather quietly under cover of darkness – something that we do not lack in the long winter months on our island.  I wonder if, at least in part, the low-key introduction was due to the element of uncertainty that accompanies any new venture or initiative, especially one in which we have no historical track record or experience to draw upon.

Given that the first cycle of the project is still ongoing and the available scope for discussion is wide-ranging, I have decided not to attempt to cover all aspects of the subject today, but rather make a start, and where better to start, than at the beginning? – That is to say, with the recruitment and selection…

The candidate CVs had been pooled, it was time to prep and conduct the interviews.  Given that we had no specific in-house materials, I turned to the web, admittedly finding only a relative paucity of helpful online resources compared to standard interview guidance materials and templates.

The format and the structure were a concern; it would be perhaps unfair to impose a full-blown competency-based interview or technical assessment on the candidates given their lack of professional experience and I wasn’t convinced that this rather starchy format would give them the best opportunity to showcase their talents either.  We therefore developed a fairly loose format which was a hybrid of competency-based, conversational, subject-related and off-the-wall questions.

The interviews

We spent an entire day interviewing for the two vacancies – namely social media analyst and junior consultant/ researcher.  The profile of the candidates was exclusively post-graduate and my initial fears around the appropriateness of the interview methodology were dispelled.  In the main, the semi casual interview format seemed to work and both the interviewers and interviewees were able to get a feel for each other.  The candidates were of a very high calibre and indeed we could have filled each post twice or three times over.  When it came down to brass tacks, no different from any other interview, it was a combination of the fundamentals and the little differences (or ‘magic touches’ as we call them) that decided the successful candidates for us: 

  • Results-focused
  • Initiative, attitude and creativity
  • Personality ‘fit’ – could we see them working in our professional services office?
  • Applicable skill and degree subject – were they able to communicate a passion for what they did?

Surprisingly, one of the biggest differentiators was in the area of corporate research – the question centred around how much had they researched us and to what extent were they conversant with our web-site, blog, goals, vision, values and client base?  Four to six years in academia is indeed impressive, but if the sum total of research given to winning a prospective role is a five minute skim read, then perhaps not every lesson has been learned?

I would really like to hear from you on any similar initiatives that you’ve been involved with and what your experience was.

Kenny

From Audacity to Zoho, is there a place for Social Media in Learning and Development?

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Social Media is a huge subject at the moment. More and more social networking sites pop up weekly along with new and improved ways to communicate with your “friends” by tweeting, microblogging or by simply posting on their wall for all to see.  And its not only in the personal world. Social Media has crept its way into the business world too, proving to be a hugely plausible marketing tool, ferrying companies; including Percepta, right into 21st Century technology.

Last year, I had my first real taste of genuinely how far and wide Social Media really is.  I was sat in a coffee shop with my sister, who was a bit distracted by something on her iPhone. I asked her what she was waiting for….. Did you know that University lecturers no longer call or even email to cancel classes, they tweet their instructions @ their students? No, nor did I. In fact the majority of her contact with University, aside from actual lectures, was through Social Media of some sort, whether it be essay titles and deadlines posted on the University E-room board or Lecture podcasts posted onto their RRS feed site.

It got us thinking. If there are social media tools that are useful for business operations, and if Education functions are already using social media in one form or another then surely there must be tools that would work for Learning and Development functions too. Right?

After a few clicks and a Google search or two it became clear that from the simple for example social bookmarking sites, like Delicious – where you can set up group favorites pages so that everyone has access and links to the correct and same information, to the more involved i.e. social networking sites, like Facebook - used in a way for people to share best practice, there are a multitude of ways to use social media to reach your audience on an entirely different level.

And the best thing about all of these sites? By and large they are FREE! Access to course authoring tools (Udutu), social communities, blogging, file sharing, video sharing, RSS feeds, is just a click away. There is an absolute wealth of tools that until recently I had truly never heard of. Social Media where have you been all my life?

In all seriousness though, social media has been on the periphery of business and more specifically Learning and Development for a while now:

“We are moving towards a knowledge-era model of education with large scale social networks involving complex communities and individual identity construction” Wenger 2004

Not only is it a fun and exciting new way to do blended learning, but it is an absolute necessity. For the “Net Gen” or Millennial Generation social media is their bread and butter. Chuck a folder with induction information in front of them, cue dramatic sigh and vacant stare, however sit them in front of a computer, with a blog of live experiences, a Wiki page for warranty and a Podcast on the very same induction material and you have found the key to switching them on.

So for the team in Learning and Development the door has been opened to a whole new world of tools to reach our delegates and we have already begun our exploration into how we can make this work for us.

What does the future hold? Who knows, maybe the next training session you attend will be held over your iPhone, or the next product update will be found on Facebook. One thing’s for sure, paper is a thing of the past and iPads are the future.

Roadmap For Intercultural Customer Service Management

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In today’s business world, almost every management expert knows the phrase “Think globally, act locally.” The more important questions are ‘How exactly do you behave according to that phrase in an international environment?’ ‘How are you acting locally while managing an international team including a number of nations and an even higher number of languages serving different countries, without forgetting the global aspect behind it?’ In business life, another hurdle appears when different individual cultures clash with the corporate culture of the existing team.

Those and other questions came to my mind when we took over the Belgium market. Since then, the team I am operationally responsible for in Germany consists of 55 employees, three brands, two locations, five different nations including six different languages.

So, in order to drive that piece of business into a success, I started to draft a Roadmap for Intercultural Customer Service Management which mainly consists of the following steps:

Cultural Awareness

The basis of intercultural management is awareness. Before creating an international team, you have to be absolutely aware of the fact that there might be different cultural attitudes beside the personality and human nature of each of the team members. Moreover, the target market for which you provide your service might be very specific according to its customer base or other geographical, historical, political or other environmental challenges. Try to know and understand them before you create your strategy for that market.

Cultural Management

Influenced by different cultures, the expectation of different team members of how the team should be managed might vary. American and German team members might evaluate management capabilities on the basis of brilliant results and French team members could lay higher emphasis on the efficient use of resources*. Depending on the mixture of the team, you have to learn the best way of management without forgetting that culture is just one aspect beside the personality and human nature of your team members. However, the possible different expectations of how the team managed also include presentation style or different understanding of visuals.

Culture versus Processes

If you design the right processes for each market, be aware that processes that have been developed as best practice in other markets might not work in another. This is dependent on the different type of customer culture as well as on the culture of the team. If the process doesn’t feel right for your new team and thus it does not work, you have to find the reasons and either develop your team or the original process into a new one to generate success.

Motivation, Reward and Recognition

If you want to motivate the team, but also reward and recognise them for their success, you have to act carefully according to the cultural environment. Overall, there are too many specifics for all countries to mention. However, some key aspects you should recognise are the differences in long-term orientation, power distance, individualism and uncertainty avoidance between different nations and cultures e.g. you will not motivate somebody with a low individualism by giving them feedback in public, even if it’s good feedback. Moreover, you will not easily suggest a team to take over responsibility and case management for their customers if they have very high uncertainty avoidance.

To put it in a nutshell, there is no clear or strict rule on how to manage an intercultural team in Customer Service. The basis for your progress should be awareness as it helps you to understand and base your management upon that. Using a very strong corporate culture, that is the basis of all we do at Percepta, so we have managed to create an international work environment that combines several European cultures from Germany and has been honoured with each of those services being among the best premium providers within Europe for our customers and clients.

I would love to hear from anyone who can share their own experiences of managing many cultures so please feel free to leave a comment below.

*Garatt-Gnamm, N. et. al., Efficient Managers in Cruzéby et al., Images, Cultures and Communication, SIETAR 1997, p. 118

Making Training Work For You

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In the week that new rights for employees come into force, allowing flexible working options for training, I thought it topical to talk a bit about training and learning in the workplace – and share some of my views on why it can work so well.  And, importantly, why we believe our team shouldn’t want or have to go elsewhere to learn!

If you have been exposed to planning workplace learning at any level, you are likely aware of the many debates over how to measure a return for what you invest, how to make sure that the learning is effective and how it can make a difference to the day to day running of the business.  Many L&D Managers up and down the country spend much of their time balancing these elements as if a fine art, with some proclaiming it is not entirely possible, and others believing they have cracked it – with still more to do.

I have to admit, over six years in L&D with Percepta, barely a week went by without these points cropping up, on top of the usual design and delivery method discussions; and dealing with the one or two managers who demanded training “to make things better” without really knowing what the issues were, and then having that winge when things didn’t quite turn out as they hoped.  Training isn’t the answer to everything, but it can certainly make the difference.

We have spent a good number of years refining our business, with training at the heart of our message.  We really believed from the start that good investment in training was worth it – and (as we love to say from time to time) we were right!  Percepta had created – with plenty of thought and effort, trials and workshops – a really effective training system that worked at every level.

So how did we do it?

  • We talked – to every Manager, at every level to really understand their objectives and what a good business ‘looked like’. We also facilitated focus groups covering all employees across our business to understand what they wanted to learn, what they needed to do their job well, how they liked to learn and when they would like to do it.
  • We planned – for many days (and nights), discussing and creating a matrix of skills & competencies, roles and performance measures. We mapped each of our existing course objectives to these elements to build a portfolio of learning tools and identified where we had gaps i.e. where there were skills that were not covered in our training.
  • We sold – our plans to our customers for input.  And importantly, we gained their buy-in for our learning service.
  • We developed – every one of our programmes to meet objectives, for a variety of learning styles and each with a varying priority (based on the needs of the business and the people).
  • We delivered – not just our training, but we were able to show the improved performance as a result of our well-rounded training programmes.  Each programme measured with pre and post performance reviews and manager feedback.

You know, it did take us a long time to get this system working effectively.  And I have summarised quite simply the steps we took above.  But overall, it was worth it.  For me, as the Lead for L&D, I was able to show the business how we contributed to our collective success. Importantly, I was also able to show our excellent L&D team the difference they made each time they took our work to the customer.   For our customers, they received targeted training that would help with skills and performance and could see the difference in the people and in their results.

Our principles remain with us today, ten years later (to the very week as it happens – I can’t make a contribution this week without saying Happy 10th Birthday to Percepta). So much so, that we now take this training excellence to our partners.  It would be selfish not to.

Many businesses will likely experience a number of flexible work requests for learning.  I happen to think that much of the training, certainly where related to personal and business skills, could be offered and fulfilled in-house, or at least coordinated by the employer.  If not, then it is really important that the business understands why employees are going elsewhere.  There is nothing wrong with learning from external expertise, just so long as your employee doesn’t have to go elsewhere, to learn about someone else’s business, because you haven’t thought about it.

I could go on, as my colleagues will tell you.  But I will hand over to you and look forward to hearing and reading your views!

Take care

Alan