Here we are, heading into the holidays and after 2 weeks of enjoying ourselves, come the morning of January 2^nd, everyone will utter the same phrase “I have to cut back”

From drinking, to eating, sleeping, (or not) and of course, exercising, everyone is reviewing his or her budgets and time allocations and making changes

This affects businesses as well. Tis the season where CFOs and GMs look over the end of year numbers and it is very easy to feel the pressure and begin cutting back on items. [read more...]

As we approach this time of year, many of us tend to get our pads and paper out to create those dreaded lists.

Food for holidays lists, Gifts for family, gifts for co-workers and the biggest list for most people, the New Year’s resolution list.

What many individuals or businesses will labor over are the 10 things that they would like to change this next year. I applaud the effort. Performance Management change is good BUT when you create this list, you need to remember a few things:

1.     Be honest with yourself. Look at what you did or did not accomplish.

2.     Don’t play the blame game.  It is not about why it did not happen.

3.     Be specific with what you want to happen.

And lastly:

4.     You will never change everything on your list.

It won’t happen. It sounds great to have these things to talk about, or show others in staff meetings but in reality we never change multiple things. Time is too tight and it is too hard. Change takes effort.

You need to focus on the ONE thing you want to change. Ask yourself as you look over the list, “What is the one thing I or my business cannot spend another year dealing with?”
If you could change that one thing, how good will you feel? How will that impact the rest of your life? Or your business?

Do you see how changing this ONE thing will build momentum and demonstrate to yourself and others that you can make changes and commit? Leading you to change other things on the list?

So how can you make that performance management process happen?

1.     Be specific on what results you want to change. No wiggle room, no miss-understandings. Give it a numerical value if possible. That focuses everyone.

• I want to lose 10 lbs.
• We want to increase website traffic by 10%.
• I want to read 15 books this year.
• We want to cut expenses by 15%.

2.     Give yourself a specific time-line. Lasting change does not happen in a short period of time. Is it 3 months? 6 months? A year?

3.    Map it out. Write down short-term checkpoints of where you want to be each month. I heard an interesting breakdown of how a marathon runner looks at the race. In their mind it is a series of 26 one-mile races, not one 26-mile race.

4.     Action Items. Each day, ask yourself, “What is the one thing I/we can do today to move me/us along the path”. Focusing on one task is simple; trying to do every task at once is overwhelming.

5.     Track your results. When you write things down, or are responsible to demonstrate results to others, it forces you to make sure you are doing what you have committed to.

6.     Adjust where needed. Change takes time so don’t get swayed one way or the other with initial results but make sure to allow yourself the ability to change things if they are not working.

This process will allow you to be one of the few who achieve your goal instead of taking on too much, burning out and then revisiting the same list of things to change at the end of 2011.

Remember that the journey is the most important part of the change. You will learn a great deal about yourself or your team during this effort. You will be surprised how addicting the new behavior can be, once you get past the initial discomfort of breaking old habits.

Embrace change but be smart and patient.

Oil Change Service

I want to share something that happened the other day to demonstrate how even the most simple activity can be delivered in a very impressive way and in turn help your Online Reputation Management [read more...]

My last post discussed how your reputation online, begins onsite. I mentioned that I would discuss things that your could focus on that would immediately impact your customer’s experience.

Here is one of the most overlooked employees in most businesses today.

The receptionist.

[read more...]

I had a discussion the other day with a potential client and it made me realize that many customers think that Internet Reputation Management (IRM) is just about getting negative reviews off Google Page One.

This comment reinforced my belief that unless a company is committed to having a good internet reputation and willing to work on-site to improve, there will always be something to push off Google Page One.

A GM at a dealership where I was delivering a customer service seminar, stated that sales people will never ask for people to post a review. My response was, “Are you afraid of feedback from customers? Why would you not want to hear what they say so that you can make adjustments?”

I brought this up during the training session to the sales team and asked, “Why would you NOT want to get you name out there? If I as a customer read review of your dealership and saw that John was mentioned in 8 reviews as giving great service, I would go in and ask for John.”

They all looked at me with skepticism and one salesperson actually said that the customers couldn’t be trusted to write something nice.

WOW. So your poor online reputation is their fault?

Getting feedback is not the enemy. It is your company’s best friend. It may hurt initially. It may mean you have to go to some of your top sales and service people to work on their people skills, but in the long run, companies who treat customers correctly will win out.

Do not focus on the minority. What I mean is you will never please everyone. There will always be that customer who is never satisfied. Focus on the majority.  If the majority of your customers feel that you are listening to them and exceeding their expectations, you will dominate your competition. If service is great, they will feel more compelled to post something positive online.

Remember, every transaction gives customers a reason to post. Give them a reason to go out and let others know your place is customer friendly. Don’t give them a reason to go online to “warn” others about your business.

Next post I will give you three things you can do to make sure your staff is delivering excellent customer service that will help your online reputation.

Let me know your thoughts.

Glenn Pasch is the new COO for PCG Digital Marketing as well as a personal business coach with Improved Performance Solutions.