by Elizabeth Hines | Sep 14, 2016 | Blog, Strategy, Supply Chain
If your customer experiences a break in service due to your company’s mistake, use this three-step approach to help save the relationship.
It can happen to good companies: Your organization makes a “relationship-defining” mistake with a new customer or, even worse, one of your best customers. How do you handle it?
On a recent client engagement where we were retained to increase sales force effectiveness, we got to see firsthand our client’s company reaction to an operational mistake in one of their aftermarket spare-parts service engagements. It wasn’t pretty.
Once the service break came to light, their first reaction was to go into “denial mode,” as they disputed the customer claim. After that didn’t work, they moved on to “shirk mode,” where they cited other factors that may have caused them to miss their service obligations. Lastly they entered “apology mode,” where they went overboard apologizing profusely instead of solving the problem in the first place. At that point, it got pretty ugly with their longstanding client.
What could they have done differently to remedy the situation and save the customer relationship? This is the advice I give my clients. It’s a pretty simple three-step formula that everyone in your organization should follow when there is a service disconnect of any proportion.
1) Get to the heart of the matter immediately.
Don’t look for back doors or contributors to help share the blame. If you make a mistake, own it outright and clearly. Don’t be wishy-washy. Be strong in your admission and stronger in your statements of reparation.
2) Contain and problem-solve.
Put your company’s energy here instead of trying to distance yourself from the problem. It will show your customer that your organization has core values and that your intent is to limit their exposure. Then fix the service break. You don’t need to be superheroes here. Be focused, listen, and act decisively.
3) Map the path to long-term resolution.
After the smoke has cleared and tempers have subsided, reaffirm your company’s commitment to your customer. Reiterate the steps you took to solve the problem — both the short-term fixes, as well as how you’ll ensure that the issue will not reoccur in the future. Very important: do it in writing. Conversations fade, as well as memories. Everyone will remember the pain of the service issue — make sure they remember the short-term and longer-term solution. One note of caution here: This is not the time to be patting yourself on the back. You screwed up, but you made it right. That’s why your customer chose you in the first place.
Customers don’t like mistakes, and they have a bigger dislike for mistakes that come with a lack of ownership and path to resolution. Follow these simple steps above to keep more customers for the long term.
Related posts:
by Elizabeth Hines | Sep 13, 2016 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing
Considering outsourcing some or all of your content marketing? Check out these statistics.
Companies turn to content marketing to build brand awareness, generate leads, and drive sales. But the constant creation and distribution of original content can drain an organization’s resources. That’s why many choose to outsource all or some of their content marketing efforts to content partners or marketing firms.
If your business is exploring outsourcing as an option, here are some statistics that you might find interesting.
13 stats about outsourcing content marketing
51% of B2B marketers list lack of time/bandwidth to create content as one of their top content marketing challenges, and 50% list producing enough content variety/volume as well. (LinkedIn Technology Marketing Community)
30% of B2B marketers say an external agency/consultant is one of the top resources for content creation for their organizations. (LinkedIn Technology Marketing Community)
The two most outsourced content marketing activities:
- Writing (44%)
- Design (41%)
(LinkedIn Technology Marketing Community)
Marketers are outsourcing 18% of their content, with the remaining content being created in-house, curated or syndicated. (Curata)
Only 25% of marketers don’t outsource any content creation. (LinkedIn Technology Marketing Community)
About two-thirds of marketers outsource less than one-third of their content creation. (LinkedIn Technology Marketing Community)
Business bloggers outsource 14% of their blog posts. The best practitioners outsource 24%. (Curata)
What are the most effective resources for video marketing content creation?
- Combination of outsourced and in-house resources (70%)
- Outsource to a specialist (22%)
- In-house resources only (8%)
(Ascend2 2015 Study)
Related posts:
by Elizabeth Hines | Sep 12, 2016 | Blog, Logistics, Strategy, Supply Chain, Talent
Today’s hiring managers in the supply chain face a number of challenges, so making the right hire is more difficult, and more important, than ever.
Finding the right person for a job opening is essential. Hiring the wrong candidate can be costly, not only in terms of team morale and productivity, but financially as well. The U.S. Department of Labor estimates the average cost of a bad hiring decision to be as much as 30% of an individual’s first-year potential earnings. That means a single bad hire with an annual income of $50,000 can equal a potential $15,000 loss for a company.
Given the demand for supply chain talent, the dearth of experienced talent, and an increasing number of newly graduated talent entering the job market, how do you make sure you extend an offer to the right person? Here are a few tips on hiring the right supply chain employee.
Look within the company
Is there someone within your organization who would thrive in a new role — even if the role is outside of their current field?
Look across the industry
Look at your competitors’ employees and identify individuals who are a good match to your company and the role.
Look outside the industry
A talented professional from outside the industry could provide fresh ideas and insight that would greatly benefit your company. Look for someone with transferrable skills and a willingness to learn a new industry.
Work with colleges and universities
Develop a relationship with colleges and universities. Work with the schools to identify upcoming or recent graduates who are/were stars. Another option is to establish an internship program with a school.
Work with a strategic advisory firm
Working with a strategic advisory firm is an option, as well. This type of partnership, such as the ones I build with our clients, can make identifying the right talent for the right position easier. An advisory firm often has the pulse on where the most talented people are in the supply chain and logistics industries. The firm can launch a successful candidate-search process, get new hires up and running, and help retain talent for the long run.
Be creative and have vision
Throughout the hiring process remember that creativity and vision are key.
Offer an out
Zappos pays new employees to quit. You read that right: The company pays new employees to quit their jobs. Once new employees have completed a 4-week training program, they can choose to remain with the company or quit. If they choose the latter, they walk out the door with a $4,000 bonus. Offering such an out may seem crazy. But the reality is that when unhappy employees leave the company within their first four weeks of employment, the financial implications are much, much lower than the cost of unhappy employees who are likely to be uninspired at work and quit in less than a year.
Related posts:
by Elizabeth Hines | Sep 8, 2016 | Blog, Leadership, Strategy
Stop wasting your team’s time by implementing these tips for running more effective meetings.
Let’s face it: Meetings can suck. A poorly planned and executed meeting is a waste of time and money, and it can be demoralizing. Meetings shouldn’t be like this. Here are nine tips on how to plan and how to run an effective meeting.
1. Define purpose
Every meeting should have a purpose. Meetings are often set up to happen on a recurring basis. The reality is that many times these meetings take place solely because they are in our calendars. If there is no reason to hold the weekly meeting this Wednesday, cancel it.
2. Focus
Have a clearly defined, singular focus. This keeps the meeting on track. If a meeting has more than one focus, it is likely that one issue will be covered in far greater detail than the other, that the meeting will get off track, and/or none of the issues will be adequately addressed.
3. Prepare
Do your homework. Prior to every meeting, make sure you have read anything you should have read, and that you have completed any tasks that you should have completed. Additionally, know the lay of the land. For example, if the meeting is about the company budget and your employees are anxious over budget cuts, be prepared to address your employees’ anxieties.
4. Invite
It sounds simple but bears repeating: Invite those who should attend, and do not invite people who should not be there. For example, if the focus of the meeting is sales, make sure you invite the sales team. Or, if the focus of the meeting is the performance of your HR team, don’t invite your research and development team.
5. Leverage technology
Technology abounds, and you should utilize it. Getting everyone in the same room is no longer necessary. Take advantage of technology such as Speek, Skype, and GoToMeeting.
6. Communicate
An effective meeting is not a place for you to download or transfer information. If you present information in a manner that speaks to attendees, you will motivate your employees and create buy-in. (The Heart of Change, by Jon Kotter and Dan Cohen, is a great resource on effective communication.)
7. Time management
Create an agenda and stick to it. Start the meeting on time, and end the meeting on time. A meeting that is scheduled for 10:00-11:00 should not run from 10:15 to 11:15. Furthermore, if a meeting is scheduled for 1 hour, the meeting should last one hour or less. There is no need to try and fill the last 15 minutes if the agenda has been covered.
8. Facilitate
A meeting needs a leader. If it is your meeting, lead it. Leading does not mean speaking at people for an hour; instead it means facilitating the agenda. If an important but off-topic issue is raised during the meeting, don’t allow the meeting to go off on a tangent. Instead, acknowledge the importance of the issue and establish a time to address the particular issue. Handled correctly, your employees will not view this as blowing off their input, but rather they will value the fact that you will allot the necessary time to the issue.
Facilitating the meeting also means not allowing one person to monopolize the meeting. Give everyone the opportunity to provide input, and speak up if the agenda is being hijacked.
9. Action
At the end of the meeting review the action items. Make sure the right people are in charge of each item, that they know what they need to do, and that they know when the task needs to be completed.
Related posts:
by Elizabeth Hines | Sep 7, 2016 | Big Data, Blog, Data/Analytics, Logistics, Strategy, Supply Chain
While the temptation to invest in big data may be strong, small and mid-sized companies might be better off starting with small, more manageable analytics.
Big data has become a big business. A 2016 Forrester report forecasts that the big-data management business will grow by 12.8% by 2021. It’s easy to see why, with the prevalence of stories from brands like Wamart and Rolls Royce that have perfected the science of capitalizing on detailed insights about customer behavior.
But many organizations — particularly small to mid-sized companies — are learning that big data does not always equate to big payoffs. In fact, many organizations have sunk millions of dollars into sophisticated data-analytics software only to realize they don’t have the capabilities to interpret the new insights nor the expertise to turn them into a competitive advantage.
Big data and the supply chain
Companies within the logistics and supply chain industries aren’t immune to this trend. An Accenture survey of more than 1,000 supply chain executives found that 84% have already employed big-data analytics or are in the latter stages of planning to do so. Respondents reported:
- 17% have implemented analytics in one or more supply chain functions.
- Three out of 10 have an active initiative to implement analytics in 6-12 months.
- More than one-third (37%) were engaged in serious conversations about implementation.
The promising applications of big data and how it might “revolutionize” the supply chain are hard to ignore. Increased efficiency across the supply chain, improved forecasting, better cost control, more accurate inventory planning: the list of benefits go on and on. These could lead to a significant advantage for companies with the expertise, structure, and knowledge to collect, analyze, and draw strategy cues from large sets of raw data.
But, again, small and mid-sized companies usually aren’t well positioned to do so, unfortunately.
Instead, start small
Supply chain and logistics organizations that don’t have such capabilities — or the capital to invest in technology that can do it for them — should start small instead. Even if you eventually want to implement a big-data strategy, there is a long-term benefit to gleaning insight from small data sets in the interim.
Here are some steps for getting started:
1) Determine your goals
Consider your business objectives and how you can leverage data to further your goals. Focus on just one or two areas for improvement, and clearly articulate what kinds of data you want to collect as they relate to those objectives.
2) Identify your sources
From where will you collect your data? Analyzing numerous data sets from a variety of sources will leave your head spinning and you none the wiser. Also determine which metrics will be most helpful to you, and which you can set aside.
3) Pick your people
If your company doesn’t have in-house analytics expertise, work to attract the appropriate talent. Regardless, integration and structuring of analytic personnel positions will be a more significant factor in your success than your use of even the most advanced statistical software program.
4) Master reporting
Finally, spend some time determining how your findings should be presented. You’ll want them to be formatted in a clear, digestible manner with a clear application for how they will improve your business.
Related posts:
