2014 Session Topics

Jay Daughtry is available to facilitate staff retreats and team-building exercises in 2014. Exercises that focus on customer service, communication, storytelling, collaboration, innovation, and related topics include but are not limited to:

• Five Objects
• The Tattoo Question
• The Lemonade Stand
• The Novel
• Organization Idol
• Birthday Party DJ
• Undercover Boss
• The Lineup
• Bicycle Inc.
• Cartoon Characters
• Writing Your Story
• Best Places to Work
• Secret Millionaire

Similarly, ChatterBachs is now booking webinars, seminars, conference sessions, and keynote presentations on the following topics:

• Engage Like the Big Boys
• The Rise of Visual Social Media
• Connect Like You’re Getting Points for Prizes
• Communicate Like You’re Life Depended on It
• Collaborate for a Win-Win-Win
• Content Marketing Lessons from Major Brands
• Workplace Innovation Trends
• Customer Service- What Wows You
• Team-Building from Real Teams
• Innovate Like Silicon Valley

Sessions can be combined or customized for a given audience, and new topics will be developed upon request.

The first 25 session commitments for 2014 received prior to December 31, 2013 will receive a 10% discount off standard rates.

Please contact Jay Daughtry at jay@chatterbachs.com or 703.430.6411 with questions and for availability.

What’s the one area where you want to see improvement in 2014?

What’s the one area where you want to see your team/staff/organization improve over the coming year? Weigh in on the poll below:

 

Putting It All Together (originally appeared on Kathy Robinson’s Blog: http://www.kathyrobinsonsblog.com/what-does-teamwork-mean-to-you/)

Sorry, Verizon, this is not warm and fuzzy customer service

Sorry, Verizon, this is not warm and fuzzy customer service. In fact, this is not good customer service at all.

What do you see wrong here? Is this the type of impression your organization is giving its customers, donors, members, community, and/or employees? What customer service lessons can be learned from this example?

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People People

Yes, you read that correctly. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People People.

With a nod to Stephen Covey who passed away earlier this week, I decided to come up with my own list.

Why People People? As I thought through different circles of professionals I’m privileged to come into contact with, a common denominator is this notion of people people. According to Dictionary.com, a people person is “an outgoing, gregarious person with good communication skills.” Every profession has them, but I would contend that people people are found more among those who work with membership and customer service, events and meetings, travel and tourism, and education.

So what makes for highly effective people people?

Habit 1: Listening  To solve a problem or provide assistance, a highly effective people person will listen. They ask insightful questions and gather information so they understand your request or need fully. They are resourceful and know how to connect you to people, ideas, and/or guidance. They don’t have to have all the answers and will tap into knowledge that they do not possess. Listening is a critical component to effective communications skills and an essential building block to both writing and speaking.

Habit 2: Engagement  Just as listening uncovers real needs and hopes, engagement is what enables a people person to pull disparate ideas and people together. An effective people person is engaged with you in a conversation as if you’re the only one in the world (we all know a few). They are fully engaged. When they leave the conversation with you, they are fully engaged elsewhere. These moments of complete engagement provide illumination for the other moments, and in time, concepts and people are pulled together. The people person is quick to make introductions at a party or a conference, not just to be polite, but because they see the potential impact of dynamic, new connections.

Habit 3: Service  Highly effective people people are more likely to volunteer or serve in some capacity. Maybe it’s the additional opportunities to connect with their peers or perhaps it’s the sense of continual learning. It could be a sense of gratitude or indebtedness. The common thread though is that of connecting people and ideas and resources.

Habit 4: Ownership  Highly effective people people see problems and seek resolution. While perfectly fine to delegate or seek assistance, the people person will follow up to ensure that the request or need was satisfied, either internally or with the customer, client, or member. They see their responsibility beyond the scope of their daily tasks or job description and will want to know that its conclusion was beneficial to the individual and to the organization.

Habit 5:  Responsiveness  The first step in ownership is responsiveness. People people are not satisfied with just meeting the minimum requirements. Let’s say the company policy is to respond to an inquiry within four hours. Where possible they are responding within 20 minutes because they know how vital this is to a customer service relationship. They are motivated by their own frustrations at a lack of service or a bad experience elsewhere. Because people people are highly social and communicative, they know that people talk. The people person wants to make sure that what is being said about them, their department, and their organization is positive.

Habit 6: Timeliness  While very similar in some regards to responsiveness, timeliness is different. Responsiveness says, “I see your need. I acknowledge your pain.” Timeliness seeks the full resolution of the need or the request. Responsiveness is what happens in the first moments. Timeliness is ongoing with various checkpoints. Think about it from the perspective of a medical emergency. Responsiveness is being first on the scene. Timeliness is getting the proper care in the hours and days afterward. The highly effective people person (as mentioned in Ownership) wants to see the resolution to its conclusion. It’s not enough to place the immediate call in response, customer loyalty is won or lost on the timeliness of the entire process.

Habit 7: Transparency  Highly effective people people live in a world where they believe most eyes are on them. While it has the downside of being a bit egotistical, its positive spin is that (as mentioned in Responsiveness), it brings an inherent accountability. The people person knows that people talk. These people may not talk to the people person’s boss, but they’re talking- in coffee shops, on golf courses, while shopping. They’re talking on email and Skype and Facebook and Twitter. The people person understands the connectedness of the world today and the rapidity with which ideas are shared. They know that things come to light with smartphones, cameras, and recording devices. Highly effective people people operate within this and want what is being said to be positive (Again, see Responsiveness).

What 8th habit or other habits do you see in highly effective people people? What other professions or industries benefit from having highly effective people people? Who are the most highly effective people people you know?

What do Greg Jennings and Kahlua cheesecake have to do with good Customer Service and Social Media?

I’ve been giving some thought to what people expect regarding customer service on social media.

They want their voices to be acknowledged, their experiences validated, and their concerns addressed. In short, customers want to know that they’ve been heard.

Recently, I’ve had some very positive experiences on social media with brands, and I’ve had some that left me wanting.

For this post, let’s start with the positive. Let me say that if I mention a positive interaction with a brand on social media, I like getting an acknowledgment. If I don’t get an acknowledgment, does it make me think less of the brand? Not really. But if a brand is listening and validates my experience, does that make me think even more positively about them? It certainly does.

Two recent examples come to mind. With the start of the new year, we had our sons switch rooms (since one room is significantly larger than the other it seemed only fair that after nearly 6 years they should switch). My wife offered redecorating as part of the switch. My older son is a huge Packers fan so we surprised him with a Greg Jennings Fathead. My son came home from school to find it on his wall. I captured his excited expression moments later beside the Fathead with my Droid and posted the photo to my Twitter account using Twitpic.  Here’s the response I received from Fathead:

Fathead: @ChatterBachs Strong visual proof that Greg Jennings is much, much larger than your son. Hope he loved it!

Last week was the 6th celebration of my 39th birthday. My wife and I went to The Cheesecake Factory for my birthday lunch.  I posted my plans to my Twitter account.  The Cheesecake Factory responded that afternoon with this:

Cheesecake: @ChatterBachs Happy Birthday! Thx for celebrating with us! 🙂

I then replied that I had enjoyed the mushroom burger & Kahlua cheesecake, to which they responded:

Cheesecake:  Gr8 choices! 🙂 RT @ChatterBachs: Thank u! Enjoyed the mushroom burger & Kahlua chzcake. @Cheesecake Happy Birthday! Thx4 celebrating w/us!

Now… do either of these interactions mean I’ll never choose their competitors? No.  But do they make me think even more positively about what was already a positive experience? In the words of former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, “You betcha.”  Next time I’m looking to decorate a wall or celebrate a birthday, will I give Fathead and The Cheesecake Factory extra consideration? Definitely.

I’m surprised more organizations aren’t doing this.  It just takes someone devoted to listening to and joining these conversations.  Social media engagement creates a competitive advantage for those organizations willing to invest the time and resources. So, way to go, Fathead and The Cheesecake Factory! You are two companies that are doing social media the right way.

It should be noted that I have in no way been compensated by Fathead or The Cheesecake Factory for my remarks… that doesn’t mean that I would be opposed to a free Clay Matthews Fathead or free White Chocolate Caramel Macadamia Nut Cheesecake. 🙂  Hey… anybody listening?