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Customer Service Leadership – unexpected and inspiring LITER-ship

January 10, 2018 by Heidi Frye

I walk into Rishi’s International Beverage to purchase my annual “alcohol inspired” client gifts. Within seconds of walking in the door, the owner Rishi, who is finishing up with another customer, locks eyes with me, comes over and gives me a hearty hug and a warm hello! He knows exactly who I am, yet I only visit his store once a year for approximately 10 minutes (admittedly, I do spend hundreds of dollars in that span of time :)). He springs into action – knowing my intention for locating specialty, high-end, totally indulgent selections. He escorts me around the store, inquiring about my executive clients, one by one. “So tell me about this guy – what’s he like, what’s his personality, what’s your price point, what type of alcohol?” Trusting him implicitly with the task of making the perfect selection (he hasn’t failed me yet!), I respond, “Well…he’s grounded, salt-of-the-earth, classy, manscaped (yes, I actually said that), he likes to drink X, and I want to spend about….” “I have just the perfect thing.” Done. He gives me a brief description and rationale about the choice – we’re on to the next one. One of my responses sends him into the back room to grab a special one-of-ten-from-the-private-inventory bottles of Bourbon. Buying from Rishi is fun. Plain and simple. This is not a liquor store, it is an Alcohol Emporium! He leads by example – his team is engaged, conversational, and professional. As I was paying, I thought, Hmmm…who would have thought, inspiring leadership at a liquor store…no, correction, inspiring LITER-SHIP at a liquor store! Ha!!

In Inc. Magazine’s article, “10 Things Every Customer Wants” author Geoffrey James, teases the reader with the the tagline: “Surprisingly, the best price and best value is at the bottom of the customer’s priority list.” The Top 10:

  1. Bring New Perspectives and Ideas (help the customer come up with workable solutions)
  2. Be Willing to Collaborate (customers do not want to be sold, they want you to work with them!)
  3. Have Confidence in Your Ability to Achieve Results (your confidence is contagious and knowledge in your product greatly impacts the customers’ belief in your solution)
  4. Listen, Really Listen, to the Customer (It’s about the customer not you – as much as you want to interject with the perceived product offering, let them finish)
  5. Understand ALL the Customer’s Needs (how will buying from you satisfy their product needs AND their personal needs?)
  6. Help the Customer Avoid Potential Pitfalls (customers what your help minimizing risk with the purchase…they are relying on you to help them)
  7. Craft a Compelling Solution (customers expect solution selling – defining and promoting a workable solution)
  8. Communicate the Purchasing Process (the expectation is no surprises, no last minute up-selling, plain and simple language about price)
  9. Connect Personally With the Customer (“ultimately every selling situation involves making a connection between two individuals who like and trust each other”)
  10. Provide Value that’s Superior to Other Options (#10, the first time price is mentioned…if you can’t meet the above 9, and the price is lower somewhere else, your customers should go buy from someone else!)

Amazingly, I could check of every one of these Top 10 in my 10-15 minute encounter with Rishi! It is no wonder he’s growing!

In the Harvard Business Review article “The State of Customer Service Leadership”, Leonard A. Schlesinger states,

Many of the essential skills that great service leaders must have are similar to those that are important for all general managers—effective communication, the analytic ability to size up a situation quickly, skills of reflection and concentration, and the ability to inspire others//The basic relationships between employees, customers, and financial results, in that order, that we set forth in the original service profit chain formulation still hold true. But a great deal of research over the past 20 years or so have put a lot of meat on those bones. As one example, we’ve come to learn more about creating the high-trust environment that leads to engaged employees who provide exceptional service that makes customers coming back for more—a combination that results in higher revenues and profits.

When I dropped off one of those special bottles of Bourbon to a CEO client, he said, “Oh wow, I can’t wait to try this, I’m going to enjoy this!” I assured him, “I’m sure you will too, Rishi always takes care of me!”. His eye got wide, his head tilted to one side, and he said “That’s funny, somebody else said the exact same thing just the other day!”

A reputation for LITER-ship! Cheers!!

Filed Under: Communication, Culture, Leadership, Life, Personality, Teamwork Tagged With: 10 Things Every Customer Wants, customer service, engagement, lead by example, leaders, leadership, liter-ship, reputation, Rishi's International Beverage, team, The State of Customer Service Leadership

Work Hard, Play Hard

May 31, 2017 by Heidi Frye

Back in the day, when I was cutting my sales teeth at Xerox Corp, my 1st job out of college, we 100% lived the phrase “Work Hard, Play Hard”. We threw ourselves into our jobs during daylight hours – heads down, relentlessly charging forward, driving for results. And after-hours, equally focused on camaraderie, socializing, happy hours, and maximizing fun. Despite the stress and accountability, we loved our jobs, our teams, and our lives. We were living large.

Fast forward to today. How the phrase plays out (as I’ve matured – lol) has changed, but the concept remains as relevant as ever. Every one of my client companies is pushing the boundaries. Workload, goals, expectations. That’s all fine. IF balanced. In my role, I see/hear/feel employee frustration, disengagement, and burnout, firsthand. In one form or another, they are looking for the release valve. One form of release? Quite literally…quitting! Other high-ranking side-effects…poor work product, attitude, conflict, inefficiency, stress, strained relationships.

An across-the-board game changer for high-performing cultures is “fun”! Intentional fun. Team fun. Creating balance, camaraderie, connection, and engagement!

One of my clients, Kevin Toler of Kevin Toler & Associates, is a hard-working-intense-go-go-go kind of guy, and has created a many-plates-spinning-while-serving-the-client sort of culture in his super successful business. As a big believer in “people” and team development, I was hired to focus on continuous improvement, corporate culture, and raising “the organizational bar” while positively impacting the client experience.

One of the things we have done is to balance “Work Hard” with “Play Hard”. After tweaking some internal processes, Kevin immediately got on board, signed off on monthly events (in and out of the office), team building exercises, a formal meeting schedule, and deliberately scheduled fun! Given my love of delicious food, I was excited to attend the May event – a Friday evening cooking event – “Cooking with Beer!” at the Downtown Market Test Kitchen. Team members brought spouses, teamed up (Kevin and I were partnered), grabbed a cocktail, and proceeded to have a blast preparing an amazing meal, all recipes including some form of beer!  By the time we sat down, we were pretty hungry, and consequently, absolutely devoured our meal. The menu consisted of Beer Braised Pork; Beer BBQ Sauce, Apple Slaw, and Cilantro Beer Rice, topped off with a deliciously rich Chocolate Stout Cake (my personal favorite)…YUM! After the meal, the team headed out the door, chanting “Work Hard, Play Hard” in pursuit of more spontaneous fun!

Filed Under: Culture, Leadership, Life, Motivation, Teamwork Tagged With: balance, continuous improvement, corporate culture, culture, disengagement, Downtown Market, employee burnout, engagement, fun, high-performing culture, Kevin Toler, play hard, work hard

A Leadership Analogy + A Leadership Challenge

March 29, 2017 by Heidi Frye

side mirrors in a car

As a leader drives the car of leadership, each individual on his/her leadership team acts as a mirror, reflecting what is happening in their segment of the business. Each team member contributes a unique perspective – their view of the surroundings, blindspots, and the vehicle itself. Each of these perspectives contributes to the overall success and safety of the journey. The rearview mirror might be the CFO. The side mirror, Operations. Sitting in the passenger seat might be Sales & Marketing…not exactly a mirror but certainly a unique perspective, with a single-minded focus on the future and the upcoming landscape. A successful trip involves access to, and reliance on, all of a leaders’ mirrors.

Yet, I often find leaders who feel the pressure to drive alone. Not relying on their mirrors. Expecting themselves to have the total view. It’s pressure they put on themselves. Silly, isn’t it…the idea of getting into a car and driving without the use of your mirrors?

Leadership Challenge: Gather your team and head out to your corporate parking lot. Cover all of the mirrors in your car. Drive (slowly!) and attempt to navigate the parking lot…nearly impossible! You’ll find you won’t get too far. It’s too risky. Not safe. Reflect on how many times you instinctively turned to look at your mirrors! Then, roll down your windows – have your team outside the car, walking alongside, providing direction. Let them guide you…as a team. Not one single team member has the total view. It is a combined effort. Trust them to see things you don’t see. Trust them to highlight potential dangers. Trust them to help you navigate.

Trust them to help you drive.

Filed Under: Communication, Leadership, Teamwork Tagged With: car, CEO, CFO, executive, go-it-alone, leaders, leadership, mirrors, Operations, perspective, President, pressure, reflecting, reflection, teams, teamwork

Leveraging Teams

January 27, 2017 by Heidi Frye

team development program

I am a first-generation American, and grateful to have “inherited” some wonderfully noteworthy instilled traditional traits from my really fantastic German parents…hard-work ethic, integrity, courage, forthrightness, quality, and…well…self-reliance. I hesitate. This last trait/mindset has mostly worked in my favor…mostly. In my family “pot-luck” was a dirty word…”Heidi, you don’t invite people into your home and then have them bring their own food!”. In theory Mom was right. What was intended as “serving others” (literally!) for me, turned into a “do it on your own” message…equating self-reliance with capability, service, pride, stamina, and even worthiness (ugh!).

I see this trait show up in my leadership clients, so I know I’m not the only one! Maybe you? Are you overboard on “self-reliance”? How are you at delegation? Do you feel some moral code to “do it all yourself”? Delegation is definitely multi-layered (distrust, wanting it done a certain way, losing control, feeling guilty, etc. etc.), so let’s focus on the I-can-do-it-better-on-my-own-loner part of self-reliance. When Mom chose to forego help  in favor of making the entire elaborate spread on her own, yes, everything was delicious and fantastic but at what cost? Exhausted hostess, and an aversion to big family gatherings. It was just too much. Not sustainable. Last night I had an experience that showed me how non-leverage-able and non-greatness-oriented this mindset has been. It was an excellent lesson in how to harness the power of many.

I joined 100+ women in a charitable-giving effort called 100 Women Who Care.  (btw, there are chapters popping up all over the place, this one was here in MI). Simple concept with a BIG impact and built on not doing it on your own! Imagine the (minimal) impact of your many random $50 donations. THEN imagine the impact of 100+ women simultaneously writing $100 checks for the same charity!!! Voila, $10,000! It’s a quarterly effort of two hours (minimal effort), and $100 individually to raise $10,000+/quarter! Genius, right? Now that is leverage!

It might seem like a stretch but I can’t help but apply this concept to leadership. Essentially we are asking our teams to do the same thing…to leverage the team vs. the individual performances. Subtle but different. Leading your team members to plug into the bigger overarching goal and collecting as a team to make big things happen versus handing in individual performances that hopefully connect at the top is an art. Coming together emotionally and driving toward the bigger goal. Connect as a team first, then connect to the bigger goal. Whatever is preventing you/your team from truly leveraging the team dynamic, inspire around it. Get emotionally rallied. Aristotle’s famous words “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” has taken on a whole new meaning.

Filed Under: Leadership, Motivation, Teamwork Tagged With: 100 Women Who Care, charitable Giving, charity, leverage, leveraging teams, self-reliance, teams, teamwork

Unexpected Leadership [Canoe Leadership Series – #3 of 3]

November 29, 2016 by Heidi Frye

notion-picture-10-2015

Unexpected Leadership #3 of 3  (Part #1: Serving Others over Individual Motivation; Part #2: Empathy in leadership is a big deal)

We witnessed fantastic displays of leadership during our Canoe Leadership Event. Leaders stepped up in a variety of ways, ways I had not anticipated! One of the elements built into the event was “leadership points”, to be awarded to individual contributors during the debrief.  Our winner was a very unlikely recipient….

One of the “canoers” (btw, auto-correct does not like any form of this word!) who had been in a near-drowning accident as a child was deathly afraid of water, but because the river was so shallow (and everyone promised “good behavior”!) the participant relented and joined in after all. Having no experience in a canoe, not surprisingly, this particular canoer arrived at the first stopping point, dead last. Undeterred, they paddled on. Then the fatal moment…the canoe caught on a branch and tipped over (!!!) – October 2nd – in the chilly Michigan river…YIKES!  Unfortunately, the river had gotten the best of this afraid-of-water-never-been-in-a-canoe canoer. Given the temp and soaking wet clothes, the logical choice was to call the canoe livery staff for a mid-trip pick-up. 🙁

After changing into dry clothing, the canoer became visibly upset at the idea of facing the rest of the team…”I’m so embarrassed because I’m the only one who couldn’t/didn’t finish”. Finally, after some coaxing, the canoer did in fact join the group.

It was time to assign leadership points. The only direction I gave was to “assign your points to the person (other than yourself) who displayed leadership (of any kind) most impressive/impactful to you individually“. We heard everything from “…pulled my canoe in so I could stay dry” to “…started out with a fantastic attitude that was contagious” to “…was patient and instructed me on steering the canoe”. I asked the high-scorers to stand in the front of the room. We had a great group before us! In an attempt to identify the winner (they were all winners, right?), I asked leaders with lower scores to take their seats. One by one, the leaders sat down. The last person standing (who earned the most peer-assigned leadership points) was the person mentioned above, the one who had not finished the trek! This was a loud-and-clear testament to the significance of this unexpected leadership trait!! People were most impressed by this canoer’s courage – the courage to take part in the event and push past an overwhelming fear; the courage to come back after tipping (!); and the courage to stand before peers after perceived “poor performance”. Well done.

Unexpected leadership….on the river, in a canoe.

Filed Under: Communication, Leadership, Life, Teamwork, Uncategorized Tagged With: leadership; canoe event; Raw Leadership; courage; leadership trait; leaders; teamwork

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