As managers and field service professionals, we are often in a position to arrange meetings with customers and co-workers.  Using meeting requests are an excellent way to get the meeting synchronized in everyone’s calendar.  However, meeting requests often lack key information and this can cause extra work for all participants.

It doesn’t have to be this way.  We can borrow from the SMART Email concept and write meeting requests that save time and add value.

SMART Emails

Several months ago, I wrote a blog on SMART emails.  You may recall that SMART is an acronym intended to help us to write emails that stand out and that communicate professionalism and value.

S = Subject Line
M = Message
A = Action
R = Response
T = Timeline

You Can Use the SMART approach for Meeting Requests

We can use the same approach to create meeting requests that communicate relevant meeting information and help attendees come prepared.  This will also reflect positively on our professionalism and competence.

Sample Scenario

Let’s assume that we have arranged to have a conference call with a customer next month to review an upcoming project.  Specifically, the call is to discuss the site preparations needed to employ a large crane to lift a piece of equipment (let’s call it a “widget”) onto the roof of the customer’s building.  There are to be three participants in the meeting, namely the customer (Mary Smith), the representative from the crane rental company (John Doe) and ourselves.  A conference number and password has been arranged.

In a situation like this, it is not unusual to receive a meeting request like the one below:

When Mary and John accept the invitation, their calendars are populated with the above information.  Five weeks from now when they see that they have a conference call on their calendar, there is very little information that will assist them.  As a result, they may have to spend time and energy just to understand the exact purpose of the meeting.  Chances are they will likely not attend the meeting fully prepared and valuable time will be wasted.

Applying the SMART Approach

Now let’s consider what we can do to apply the SMART email approach to this meeting request.

Revised Meeting Request Using the SMART Approach

Let’s consider rewriting the meeting that we are organizing with Mary Smith and John Doe using the SMART approach.  The meeting request might look like this:

A meeting request of this nature provides all attendees with the information they need to be prepared and productive participants to the meeting.  Notice some actions that can be taken to make the meeting request more valuable:

• Our Events Summary makes a reference to the notes below.
• We have included a reminder seven days prior to the event. This can remind us to send a confirming SMART email to the meeting participants and follow up on any actions not yet completed.
• Although we did not use this feature, in most if not all calendar programs, meeting requests can also include attachments that may be referred to in the meeting. If this is the case, refer to the attachment in the notes so that they do not get overlooked.

SMART meeting requests provide us with the opportunity to stand out from the crowd and convey our professionalism and competency.  It may take a little more time to set up, but it will save everyone time in the end.

As always, I welcome your comments and questions. You can connect with me via telephone or email or leave a comment right here on the site. And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim Baston

“When you go to meetings or auditions and you fail to prepare, prepare to fail.”

– Paula Abdul

The post SMART Meeting Requests appeared first on jimbaston.com.

If you are engaging your field service team in business development efforts, you will be aware of the importance of having a robust and failsafe opportunity management process.  Poor processes drop opportunities, fail to keep everyone informed and generally defeat your efforts to get everyone enthusiastically involved.

In this blog, I thought it would be helpful to consider the Six Key Components of a Robust and Failsafe Opportunity Management Process for your team.

1. Clearly identify what you want your technicians to do

The process starts with having a clear understanding of what you want your technicians to do if they do find an opportunity to help.  For example, do you want them to:

• Simply pass the opportunity over to sales (or other) for follow-up?
• Review their ideas with the customer and get their permission for a salesperson (or other) to call?
• Review their ideas with the customer, provide pricing, and seek the customer’s agreement to proceed?
• Other?

2. Provide clear expectations on how you want technician to be involved in the solution

Options can include:

• None – they leave it up to the sales team
• Some – they provide input then back out of the process
• Most – they work closely with the sales team (or others) to determine the final solution
• All – they determine the final solution, price it, and present it to the customer

3. Build in flexibility to accommodate different situations

Be clear on how you want the technician (and sales team) to act as circumstances change.  Do your expectations of your field service team change depending upon the nature of the opportunity?  For example, will their actions change depending upon the:

• Size of the opportunity?
• Products and/or service contemplated?
• Nature of the customer?
• Other?

4. Define how progress on each opportunity will be communicated

Typically opportunities take time to address.  Customer visits are required, a solution must be developed and priced, customers need time to evaluate the solution, etc.  To keep the field service team engaged and enthusiastic, it is critical to keep them informed of the progress that is being made.

This also allows the technician to respond professionally in the event the customer asks a question about progress on the solution.  Having a technician respond with a flippant “I don’t know.  Those guys in the office never tell us anything”, is not helpful and certainly not professional.

5. Make it clear on who will follow up and how the follow up will take place

It is logical to place responsibility for follow up on the sales team or the person who presented the customer with the final proposal.  But, if the opportunity was quoted through sales or through another department, can the technicians play a role here?

Would it make sense to provide them with a list of outstanding proposals for each customer that they visit so that they can ask if the customer has come to some decision and perhaps provide supporting information?

I recognize that each company and each opportunity is different so this approach may not work in all cases.  However, letting a proposal to replace an old piece of equipment before it fails fall through the cracks does not help the customer if the equipment fails because they forgot about the issue.

6. Actively work to keep things on track

No system is truly failsafe for every circumstance.  Despite your best efforts, things will go wrong.  When they do, we can show leadership by addressing the underlying issues and getting things back on track quickly.

We can also address those that don’t follow the process and ensure that they understand the importance of doing so.  Failure to address problems quickly and consistently will tell everyone that the process really isn’t all that important after all.

Our technicians provide a valuable service when they take proactive actions to make recommendations that help our customers to be better off.  We can help them and help our business by ensuring that the processes we have in place work consistently and correctly.

As always, I welcome your comments and questions. You can connect with me via telephone or email or leave a comment right here on the site. And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim Baston

If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing.

– W. Edwards Deming

The post Six Components of a Robust and Failsafe Opportunity Management Process appeared first on jimbaston.com.

Like us, our customers are in competitive industries and are struggling for a business edge. They want more than just good customer service that makes them feel good. They want GREAT customer service that also helps them gain a competitive advantage. The tale of 2 auto mechanics below, is indicative of the choice we have as service providers. Which one would you prefer?

Our technicians play a major role here. Their value comes from going beyond doing great work. They must also understand the goals their customers have and the challenges that they face and make recommendations based on their knowledge and expertise that will help the customer succeed. Those companies that don’t engage their technicians in this way are at risk of losing business in the future.

Imagine two scenarios. In both scenarios your car needs an oil change and you also ask the mechanic to check a noise that you hear each time you depress the brakes. The mechanic in scenario A is friendly and competent. The waiting room is comfortable and has free coffee and WiFi so you decide to hang out there while the oil is changed and the inspection carried out. You’re delighted that the mechanic returns 30 minutes later to report that your car is ready. He assures you that the noise from the brakes was caused by normal corrosion and he cleaned things up and has eliminated the noise. He recommends that you get a full service on the brakes the next time they need changing. 40% wear remains. There is a small charge for the brake inspection that you gladly pay along with the fee for the oil change. As you leave, you think about why you patronize this garage. It is because of the fact that this mechanic is reasonable, thorough and friendly.

In scenario number two, the technician is also friendly and confident. He too invites you to use the waiting room, which has both free coffee and WiFi and is as comfortable as in the first scenario. Thirty minutes later, the mechanic returns and provides the same explanation for the noisy brakes and the same recommendations for the brake service for next time. Like the mechanic in the first scenario, he points out that there is 40% wear left on the pads. He then provides some additional information. He explains that there is a new brake pad available that is made up of a composite of materials. It offers the same braking performance as conventional pads. It costs about 20% more but wears much more slowly. In fact, studies have demonstrated between a 70% and 100% improvement in pad life. He leaves you with a brochure on the new product and suggests that you keep it in mind for when your brakes need replacing. You pay the bill – which is comparable to the bill in scenario one, and head out. As you leave, you think about why you patronize this garage. You recognize that not only is the mechanic reasonable, thorough and friendly, but he is very much in tune with what is going on in the industry and uses that knowledge to make recommendations to enhance your driving experience. He has often brought several new ideas to your attention – many of which you have taken advantage of.

Which of the two mechanics would you rather deal with? If you said scenario number 2, you would not be alone. Like most of our customers, you see value in the mechanic using their knowledge and expertise to bring to your attention information on products and services that might benefit you. You might even feel that, in the competitive world of car maintenance, the mechanic in the first scenario will have a difficult time differentiating his business and, in the long term, may lose business to the more proactively focused competitors.

To deliver GREAT service, our challenge as managers will be to create scenario number 2 – to enthusiastically engage our technicians in helping our customers to be better off by becoming trusted advisors. We must set an environment where this activity is encouraged and supported. We must ensure that every one of our technicians recognizes their proactive efforts as a critical component of the service that we provide. We must communicate this to our customers and use our approach to differentiate us from the rest of the pack.

How do your service techs stack up? To get greater insight into where you are strong and to identify possible opportunities for improvement, download our “How Proactive is Your Service Team” self evaluation worksheet. Any questions? Just contact me. I would be delighted to hear from you.

As always I welcome your questions and your feedback. You can connect with me via telephone or email or leave a comment right here on the site. And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim Baston

“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.”

– Albert Einstein

The post A Tale of 2 Auto Mechanics – Which One Would you Prefer? appeared first on jimbaston.com.

click image to enlarge

Through the years working with Service providers across several industries, I have found that there are 5 common mistakes that service companies make when asking technicians to promote their services. These mistakes can cost the service company in lost revenues, reduced customer retention and higher technician turnover.

Engaging technicians in promoting services is a focus of many service organizations today – and for good reason. A program of this nature can be a significant differentiator in a highly competitive environment. Technicians who use their expertise and knowledge to recommend products and services that help their customers achieve their goals provide tremendous value. They help their customers recognize that they are better off for having known them. And, a customer who recognizes this value in the relationship is very unlikely to take their business elsewhere.

However rewarding providing this type of service might be, even with the best of intentions, engaging technicians in this manner is not easy to achieve. Here are the 5 most common mistakes I have found that service managers make that prevent them from realizing the full potential of this initiative.

Mistake # 1: Language tends to focus on the sale and not the service. Identifying ways a customer can make improvements that will help their business is a critical part of the service that we provide. When technicians recognize this, they are more likely to engage in conversations with the customer to promote services that will benefit them, even though it may be a bit uncomfortable at first. However, our language may suggest that what we are asking them to do is sell. (For example: “Next time you conduct a service, have a look around to see what other services we can sell them.”) When technicians perceive we are asking them to sell, they will be more reluctant to engage in this type of customer conversation.

Mistake # 2: Failure to follow up in a timely fashion. I am surprised by the number of service companies that tell me that they are embarrassed to admit that they do not follow up on all opportunities in a timely way. In fact, sometimes they fail to follow up at all. When an opportunity is brought forward, it is critical that it is addressed immediately. When we fail to do so, we are really just telling our technicians that we were “only kidding” when we said this was an important part of the service.

Mistake # 3: Providing no feedback to the tech. This mistake is related to Mistake # 2. During our workshops it is not unusual to hear techs comment that they rarely get an update on what is going on once they refer an opportunity to the office for follow-up. They often find out the status from the customer themselves. And, when a sale is made, many will lament, the salesperson takes all the credit. This Mistake #3 negatively impacts our efforts in two ways. The first is that lack of feedback can discourage the technicians from speaking with their customers. The second is that we miss an opportunity to shine in front of the customer. If a technician is apprised of what is going on, they can discuss the opportunity positively with the customer and explain what is taking place in order to put the proposal together. Contrast that with a technician who is not kept up to speed with the progress of the opportunity. How do they respond when the customer asks them how the proposal is progressing? What does it say about our internal communications?

Mistake # 4: Assuming the technician knows what you do. This is an understandable mistake. We are often so immersed in our company and our services that we assume that our people will also know about all of our services and be comfortable talking about them to customers. The reality is that our technicians rarely know enough about all of our service to be comfortable about bringing it up to a customer. And, when they don’t, they won’t.

Mistake # 5: Failure to reinforce and encourage behaviour change. Coaching and supporting new behaviors plays a critical role in new skills adoption. For some, taking a more proactive approach to discussing opportunities with customers is a challenging task. It takes time and practice to become comfortable. Without coaching and reinforcement, our technicians will simply revert back to their old ways and our efforts will be lost. Think of coaching as a form of maintenance. You would never expect a piece of equipment to run very long or very well without maintenance so why would you expect your service team to perform well and consistently at new skills without coaching?

For more suggestions and ideas on successfully engaging your techs in promoting your services, check out my book or some of the articles on my website.

I’d love your feedback! And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”

– Albert Einstein

The post 5 Mistakes Service Companies Make Asking Technicians to Promote Services appeared first on jimbaston.com.

1. “Do our technicians bring you ideas that help you operate more effectively?”
2. “Do you feel that you are better off for having known us?”

If you are interested in tracking your progress over time or compare branch operations for these questions, for example, I would like to suggest a scoring key that will help you. In his article in the Harvard Business Review, “The One Number You Need to Grow”¹ , Frederick Reichheld introduces us to his research into the one question that he found was a good predictor of customer loyalty and growth. The question was “How likely would you recommend [company X] to a friend or colleague?”  He introduces a scoring key that provides a “net promoter” score.   The “net promoter” component comes from the fact that Reichheld’s scoring key considers not only the percentage of responders who rated the company highly (promoters) and who would likely promote the company (i.e. recommend to friends and colleagues), but also the percentage of responders who would rate the company poorly and likely speak negatively about their experience (detractors). By subtracting the percentage of “detractors” from the percentage of “promoters”, Reichheld ends up with a “net promoter score” that can be compared from branch to branch, period to period, etc.

The scoring key works like this. Respondents apply the score that best represents their view of the service provided on a rating scale of 1 to 10 (with “10” being high). Scores of “9” or “10” are considered “promoters”. Scores of “6” or lower are considered “detractors”. Reichheld subtracts the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters. (Note that those respondents that score a “7” or “8” are not included in the calculation since it is believed that they do not have strong enough feelings to either promote or detract).

Here is an example of how to calculate the net promoter score:

• Percentage of respondents who gave scores of “9” or “10” = 45%
• Percentage of respondents who gave scores of “6” or less = 20%
• Net promoter score = 45% – 20% = 25%.

You can improve your score by increasing the percentage of respondents with “9” or “10”, decreasing the percentage of respondents with “6” or less or a combination of both. It is this “net promoter score” that can then be used to measure how the business is performing at a specific point in time and enable you to compare the score to other time periods or other branches, etc.

My point here is that this scoring key can be useful to apply to these two questions about the quality of the Proactive Service® experience you are providing. It will clearly identify the percentage of respondents who will speak positively about you and potentially become “ambassadors” for your company as well as the percentage of those who will speak negatively about you. This helps you focus on both ends of the satisfaction spectrum and focus on minimizing the percentage of “detractors” while maximizing the percentage of “promoters”.

You may also want to check out Reichheld’s article and include his question in your customer satisfaction surveys.

I’d love your feedback! And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim

“Measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so.”

– Galileo Galilei

________________________

¹“The One Number You Need to Grow”, Frederick F. Reichheld, Harvard Business Review, December 2003.

The post How is Your Business Really Doing? – Part 2 appeared first on jimbaston.com.

On a trip to western Canada, I had the dubious pleasure of having my email hacked by someone who gets their kicks out of making the lives of others miserable.  It started about 6 AM with a couple of “Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender…” email messages and suddenly it turned into a torrent.  My smart phone would not stop vibrating as message after messaged jammed my inbox.  And then, after about 10 minutes, it stopped.  Phew, I thought.  That must have been a glitch somewhere.  Just as my blood pressure was returning to normal, it started again and this time it did not stop.

I should point out that I am not very savvy when it comes to high tech.  I called my service provider and the kind person on the other end of the line walked me through various steps to try to stop the vicious emails.  We spent over two hours on the phone.  Nothing seemed to work and, in the process, we found that my outgoing email was not working either.

I had to terminate the call so I could get to an important appointment, so the service provider gave me a ticket number and told me to check back later.  By this time I had over 3000 emails and counting in my inbox and I was a nervous wreck.  I turned off the vibration feature to reduce the stress, but I watched as the emails kept piling up – faster than I could delete them.

Thank goodness my phone still worked.  On my way to the appointment I called the person who set up the service for me and who manages my social media needs.  She knows that I am not up to speed when it comes to this type of technology and she could tell that I was under a great deal of stress.  She intuitively knew that the stress I was feeling was largely because the situation was completely outside of my control and I felt helpless to do anything about it.  She immediately took steps to reduce the stress in the situation and give me some semblance of control.

She explained to me what was likely happening here and that the first thing to do was to change my email access password.  She would do that for me.  She then volunteered to call my service provider and discuss the situation and get a “read” on what was going on from their end.  She pointed out that this was not an uncommon problem and that it would be solved – it was just a matter of time.  I was going into a meeting and we agreed that she would be standing by for my call when the appointment was over to bring me up to speed on what was going on.

That simple act made all of the difference for me.  Through her actions, she was able to give me the sense that I did after all have some control over the situation.  She didn’t fix the problem per se, she simply gave me the information and, after her conversation with the technical person at my service provider, was able to put me at ease by assuring me that everything was being done that could be.

The problem was finally resolved late that evening and I was able to breathe a sigh of relief.  However, it made me think.  The technical person at the service provider was very helpful and I am sure that he was doing all that could be done.  However, I did not feel reassured at the time that everything was being done that could be done or that if we were even on the right track.  As a result, my stress levels did not subside and, if anything, kept rising as we seemed to be no nearer to a solution.  If only he had taken a moment to explain what was behind what I was experiencing, and reassure me by explaining the steps they would take to pinpoint the cause and get me back in business, it would have given me more confidence in his actions and greatly reduced my stress levels from the start.

How about your service techs?  Do they initially focus on the problem or the customer?  Do they take a moment to reassure the customer through their words and their actions to reduce the stress the customer is feeling?

I’d love your feedback on this. And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim

“In times of stress, the best thing we can do for each other is to listen with our ears and our hearts and to be assured that our questions are just as important as our answers.”

– Fred Rogers

The post Taking the Stress out of Challenging Situations appeared first on jimbaston.com.

Steve, who is a key part of a large, national service firm suggested, “Actually Jim, I agree with you but I think you need to be more specific.  When engaging our service technicians in speaking to customers about the other things we can do to assist them, we need to ensure that they use their hearts as well as their heads.”  Steve went on to relate a story that a service manager told him.  It seems that they had a technician on staff who took promoting services to a new high.  He would promote anything and everything to anybody that would listen.  As a result, this service manager was getting complaints from several customers.  They didn’t appreciate being “sold” when the technician was really there to service their equipment.  Steve went on, “This technician wasn’t really acting on behalf of the customer, he was acting for himself and the benefits that he would get if the customer bought the product or service he was offering.  His heart was not in the right place and the customers could spot it a mile away.”

Steve was right.  Technicians have to engage the customer in these kinds of discussions for the right reasons.  They have to believe that the customer will be better off by taking their recommendations.  If they don’t believe that the recommended action is in the interest of the customer, then they should not be suggesting the service at all.  That is one of the reasons I don’t think that “commissions” or “bonuses” should be paid for services sold by the technician.  It encourages the behaviour but for the wrong reasons.

I encourage you to look closely at your own programs for promoting services through your technicians.  Are your technicians empowered to give your customers their hearts as well as their hands?  Do your support systems (like bonuses or commissions) reinforce this approach or do they encourage them to leave their hearts in the truck?  Have you made it clear that you want them to use good judgement before making recommendations and be certain, in their own minds, that the recommendation is truly in the interests of the customer?

I’d love your feedback on this. And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

Jim

“A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.”

– Nelson Mandela

The post Proactive Service® – Giving Customers your Hearts & your Heads appeared first on jimbaston.com.

Voices.  Hang on.  They are still there! Someone – a man – is in the hall shouting something.  I hear a female voice make some kind of reply – further away.  Bang!   I look at the clock.  Still not quite five!  Voices again. Bang!!

I paddle over to the door and peak out the peephole.  There is a bag trolley in the hall.  The door across the hall has the security bar closed so the door won’t close completely.  Suddenly the door opens and a man, in mid conversation, emerges with a bag.  He is having an argument over his shoulder with a woman in the room… seems that she can’t find something and is complaining to the man.  Unfortunately the man is in a hurry to get away and he is not too shy of sharing this fact with the entire hotel. Bang!  The door slams against the security bar.  He puts the bag on the trolley and re-enters the suite.  Bang goes the door behind him.

I can’t believe that someone could be so insensitive to the other guests at this time in the morning.  Then I hear a child’s voice.  Turns out she is not happy either.  From what I can gather, she wants to go to the fast food restaurant for breakfast but the man reminds her – and the rest of the hotel – that they don’t have time.  The man re-enters the room.  Bang goes the door.

I return to bed.  The noise continues for a couple of minutes until the commotion moves down the hall leaving an eerie silence.  I think about what I have just seen and heard and I still can’t believe how people can demonstrate such bad manners.  Worse still, this couple were teaching the little one the acceptability of being selfish and rude. Did this couple really want to burden their child with rude manners that could negatively impact her for the rest of her life?  I am sure that if they thought about it they would rather provide lessons on how to get along with – and be appreciated  by – others.  Yet, there it was – How to be Obnoxious 101.  It couldn’t have been a clearer or more comprehensive lesson if they had tried.

In a funny way, this rude awakening proved to be a valuable reminder for me.  Sometimes, through our actions or words, we are teaching our teams to behave in ways which are polar opposites to the desired behaviour.  We forget sometimes that as managers we are in a fish bowl and everything we do or say is analyzed by our team for consistency and often used as a model for their own behaviour.  We have to become more conscious of our actions and words and constantly ask ourselves, “What are we teaching our staff through our actions right now?”  It reminded me of a meeting I had with a client recently.  We were talking about the important role that personal presentation has on the customer’s perception of service quality.  We both seemed to agree that it was critical that our teams represent our companies in the most positive light and one critical aspect was their grooming and attire.  I mentioned that I had been speaking with one of the technicians in the parking lot and that he had not shaved in a few days and was looking a little “rough”.  I commented that this fellow was not the only one I had observed with a few days growth.  The client looked at me sheepishly and said, “I guess that I don’t often shave every day either.”

What are we and/or our management teams teaching our staff members?  As the ambassadors of our business, they deserve the best from us so they can perform their best for us.

I’d love your feedback! And as always, please feel free to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one via the commentluv feature here on the site. If you are reading this blog post via email, you will need to locate this post on my website by clicking here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will find the comment section.

“Action will delineate and define you.”

– Thomas Jefferson

The post Rude Awakening to a Valuable Reminder appeared first on jimbaston.com.