JJ's (Oct '11) Tips in this issue: 1. Boo! Who Are You Fooling? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Use the following tips as training tools. Present this situation to your group and brainstorm solutions together, or submit your own situation question to be answered in an upcoming newsletter. ------------------------------------- Are you tricking or treating others? Are you giving lip service to supporting people who depend on you? --------------------- Halloween is a time for wearing costumes and fooling people. You are either tricking or treating people and having fun in the process. In the work place or at home, it's a time you can pretend to be someone else and make people scream, laugh or play a role with you for the moment. In fact you play a role with everyone in your life every day. Whatever your title, past history or circumstances are with a person, you play a particular role with them. During interactions with teammates, customers, relatives and friends, a certain expectation exists. They want and need your support to keep the relationship going and growing. They know when you whole heartedly support them and their activities. They also know when you are only giving lip service to supporting them and ultimately are disappointed in you. Taking the idea to the work place, this is what I observed in a store last week. A customer hurried in to purchase a product and the customer service rep was busy talking on the phone to her girlfriend. It was obvious by the conversation that it was not a work-related matter that was being discussed so the customer tried repeatedly to get the rep's attention. She continued to ignore him so he looked for someone else to wait on him and finally found the manager to complain to and make his purchase. It was not a pretty sight. The customer's expectation of timely support was missing. The customer service rep was reprimanded and the manager was fearful he could be losing customers because of her conduct. It was a downer all the way around. It was actually a domino effect starting with the person who managed the manager. They should have been supporting the manager with training on how to hire well and empower frontline staff to support their customers regardless of circumstances occurring in their personal lives. The customer service rep should not have been in a support position if she didn't genuinely care about the customer's experience. Taking responsibility for the customer's experience was her main job and she obviously didn't even know it. Giving support applies to how you handle invitations you receive from relatives, friends and work family too. They expect and trust you will support them through the event or situation if you can. It shows you care about them. When you get the signal that someone needs your help or support, act on it. Put yourself out for them! In the end, everyone gets treated instead of tricked, including you! If you are already stretched to the limit and can't take on anything else, let the person know you have to say no this time. Make suggestions on who might be able to help them or reprioritize your time to support them in a small way. Then don't lay a guilt trip on yourself because learning to say no and taking care of yourself is a big part of being a good support to others. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "The price of greatness is responsibility." "If you want children to keep their feet on the ground, put some responsibility on their shoulders." "We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DO YOU WANT TO IMPROVE in an area? Service? Sales? EVALUATION OF YOUR ENVIRONMENT Have you had an Evaluation of Your Environment lately so you could receive suggestions on improving it? (It's like the doctor's check up, you often don't know you need it, until after you've had it.) http://www.jjlauderbaugh.com/about.html **************************************** JJ Lauderbaugh, CMC JJ works with companies that want to give exceptional customer service to increase sales,
and with Directors and Call Center/Help Desk Managers who want to improve human
performance. ---------------------------------------------------------- jj@jjlauderbaugh.com REFERRALS Requested: Please pass this newsletter on to friends and colleagues who would
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