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5 questions to create a customer service mindset in your people
If you want to drive great external customer service start by providing great internal customer service.
Last week, I was invited to Orlando to deliver a speech at one of the Disney resorts. I had been working and traveling all week and showed up at 11:00 p.m. I was greeted at the car by Loren, a uniformed man with a welcoming smile and a genuine interest in how long and how far I had traveled to arrive at their establishment.
Loren passed me to a gentleman with an electronic tablet, Tom, who walked me to reception (probably so I wouldn’t get lost) and introduced me to a desk clerk named Jenna. She gave me my room key, directions for the quarter-mile walk to my room, and a schedule of nearby events that would be taking place during my stay.
Upon completion of her tasks, Jenna called over a bellman, Travis, and asked if he could show me to my room since it was so late. Not only did Travis walk me there, he found out what I was doing at the resort, chatted about my speech and, upon learning that I had forgotten to make some copies, offered to get them made for me and leave them at the front desk. He absolutely radiated care and concern.
What did all of these interactions have in common? Service providers who:
- were genuine;
- desired to help me;
- had the ability to act on what they knew to be true;
- knew what their job was and how well they were doing; and
- were confident in their ability to make a difference.
We need to ask ourselves five questions to effectively serve our internal customers (our people) so they can deliver on the promise we share with our external customers:
- Am I genuine with my people?
- Do I clarify my expectations about how to serve customers?
- Do I build competence by sharing information and teaching skills for success?
- Do I value the unique contributions made by each person?
- When people are competent in a task, do I build confidence by asking them for their ideas before sharing mine?
Customer service is an inside-out issue. Wowing external customers begins by wowing internal customers. What can you do to build competence, confidence, and energy in your people? Model the behavior you want to see to create a positive work environment that drives praise from customers like me, who so appreciated the kindness and care I was shown.
About the author:
Vicki Halsey is a senior consulting partner with The Ken Blanchard Companies. You can read Vicki’s posts as a part of our customer service series which appears on the first and third Thursday of each month.
Give the Gift of PEACE: A 5-step reminder for the holiday season!
Are you working to create lasting memories this holiday season? Stop and think for a minute, how are YOU feeling right now? Stressed? Anxious? Happy? Sad? How are other people around you feeling? What does the average customer feel like now?
Typically this time of year people are feeling more emotional than usual. This is an opportunity for us to bring a little peace to people that we care about and help them relax and enjoy the holiday season versus being overwhelmed by it. It is important to know that the emotion zone in the brain is the same as the memory zone. You can leverage emotions to create lasting memories.
So, how do you bring a little peace?
P stands for Prioritize and focus. Help people (including yourself) prioritize and focus on the tasks and goals that are truly important. When people are overwhelmed they are usually taking on unnecessary tasks, producing worry that keeps their brain on spin. Creating laser-like focus reduces stress.
E stands for Energize to act. Help those around you with the one or two steps that they need to take in order to get started on their task or goal. Getting started is half the battle and task completion will increase as people just take that first step.
A stands for Acknowledge emotion. What happens when we don’t acknowledge emotions? They can get bigger and bigger and less manageable. Sometimes just the mere acknowledgement of someone else’s emotion, or even your own, can provide relief and support. Remember the last time someone did this for you and you said, “Phew, so glad to get that off my chest!”
C stands for Cherish Successes. Try to notice where others are doing things right and call it out. Listen to people and really make them feel special for who they are and what they have achieved. Cherishing success can be a wonderful gift that you can give to those around you this holiday season.
E stands for Enjoy the holidays. Don’t forget to stop and enjoy the moments and the people that matter. Be grateful for all that you are blessed with by doing random acts of kindness. Sometimes it’s the little things we can do for people that really make a difference.
So give the gift of peace! Happy Holidays!
About the author:
Vicki Halsey is a senior consulting partner with The Ken Blanchard Companies. You can read Vicki’s posts as a part of our customer service series which appears on the first and third Thursday of each month.
Leverage the Gift of Diversity–4 ways to be a learner with everyone you meet
Trying to keep your internal (employees) and external customers coming back? Maybe it’s time to engage diversity, embrace new and innovative ideas from all of your customers, and be a learner with everyone you meet.
Last week I was with a client teaching a session on the topic of Legendary Service. There were people in the room from six different countries and we were beaming out to three more. The participants represented a rich blend of values, generations, depth of knowledge of technology, and history with customer service content. It was an amazing opportunity to see what service looks and feels like given different life views. The dialogue was frequent, fiery, and focused. Below are a few pearls of wisdom I captured from the group’s spontaneous suggestions—with important morals for interacting with anyone.
- Some of the women felt that a mentality exists that women are not as technologically savvy as men. These very smart women feel talked down to when a product or process is being explained to them. They are left feeling insulted, irritated, and humiliated rather than cared for. Moral: When explaining a new product or process, treat every customer as if they were the smartest person you know who is simply learning something new.
- Some of the men felt that women take too long to get to the point when sharing their thoughts. These men want to know up front what women want—their specific, targeted needs or ideas—as opposed to spending time reflecting on whys, hows, and back stories. This reminded me of a football metaphor regarding the difference in men’s and women’s communication styles. Picture the players on the line of scrimmage: “64, 56, 72, HIKE!” Like football players, these men are eagerly waiting to get the ball and run with it. Moral: Do your work ahead of time so you can speed up the focus and desired actions from conversations.
- From an international participant: People don’t seem to listen anymore. Most attendees agreed that people have lost the talent of listening. Many act as if they have heard every question a thousand times. They don’t focus on finding out specific details, but rush to generalize the question and dive into their prepared spiel. We had a rich discussion on the cost of NOT listening to people—it causes rework, doesn’t solve the problem, and leaves the other person feeling uncared for. Moral: Give people the gift of listening. Listen to learn. See each interaction as the first you’ve had with that person and clarify what you heard before you share your thoughts.
- From a brilliant Latin American woman: Many people think they are being efficient with others’ time by diving right into the task—but they forget that some people need to know that there is deep appreciation for their time, ideas, and culture before they can truly listen. Others in the room agreed that in many Latin, Middle Eastern, and Asian countries it is crucial to build a relationship BEFORE transacting business. Moral: Build the relationship and show respect before addressing the task.
It’s exciting to live in a generation where we can learn so much about the different ways people solve problems, leverage their history, and stay energized. Customers expect us to know their needs. We can learn about and leverage the rich diversity of their values, ages, and ethnicities and their competence at using our products, services and processes. Let’s deliver value to all customers by listening to their voice and communicating with them in a way that ensures they feel heard.
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About the author:
Vicki Halsey is one of the principal authors—together with Kathy Cuff—of The Ken Blanchard Companies’ Legendary Service training program. Their “others-focused” posts appear on the first and third Thursday of each month.
3 ways to put some FUN into your customer interactions
Last weekend, my mom and I went shopping for her upcoming cruise. We went to lots of stores and encountered many levels of service providers. From the very cranky at being alive to the “I live to serve” type—we got ‘em all. But a young woman in the shoe department at Macy’s stood out from the rest.
It was their once-yearly, twenty-five-percent-off-anything-if-you-donated-five-dollars-to-charity day, and by the time we got to the shoe part of mom’s outfit it was late in the day. The place looked like it had rained shoes. Shoes and stacks of shoeboxes were everywhere. A long line of customers waited outside the mysterious “back room” for a salesperson to come out and help them find the right size. Unfortunately, even after viewing this scene with the knowledge that getting someone to help would be a long shot, mom found the perfect shoes and wasn’t leaving until she got to try them on.
I found her a place to sit and dove into the fray. First of all, even though there were at least seven people working in the department, no one could get anywhere near them. With chins down and arms piled high with boxes, each of them had a purposeful desire to avoid eye contact and keep moving. Just when I thought, This is SOOO not happening, a young woman popped out from behind a huge pile of shoeboxes, looked me in the eye, gave me a megawatt smile, and said, “Just one minute and I’ll be right with you—it’s kind of a zoo today!” She zipped off to deliver the boxes to an elderly woman sitting near my mom, taking a moment to open the first box of shoes and say to the customer, “These are a half size larger than you wanted, but they were the only pair and run small so I brought them to you, too.”
She turned and smiled at my mom, looked at the shoe she was holding, shared that those were her favorite shoes in the store, and asked what size she needed. She then said, “I’ll get them as soon as I can—we have only three people finding shoes in the back, two on the floor, and two at the cash register, so it might be a few minutes.” WOW! What a way to inform and delight a customer! She looked like she was having fun, delivered personal service, and proactively soothed a frustrated customer who had to wait.
How did she do this—and how can you do this with both internal and external customers to make them feel valued? By putting the FUN into customer service:
F: Focus your attention: Step one is to focus your attention. Look up and see who is there. Acknowledge their existence. Describe three things about them in your head so when you open your mouth to speak, you are all about THEM. Be sure to notice the small details.
U: Understand their world: Step two is to understand their needs. Do a little detective work. Check in—ask them what they are looking for. If you are not exactly clear what they want, double-check by reflecting back what you heard or add value by suggesting something they may have not thought about. Sometimes a person’s needs are very subtle and if you capture them accurately, you will have a customer for life.
N: Nurture them: Step three is to nurture—to celebrate who they are, respond to what you now know they need, and let them know you care. It is sharing—either overtly or covertly—that they have value and are important, and that you want to improve the quality of their life for the time you are together.
So put the FUN back into serving and create lasting memories! Now more than ever, people need reminders about why to show up wholeheartedly, believe in themselves, and enjoy their lives. Take pride in the small things can you do to get big responses out of people. Make every moment magical by realizing that every day you have the power to create smiles and touch lives.
PS: And yes, my mom did get the shoes!
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About the author:
Vicki Halsey is one of the principal authors—together with Kathy Cuff—of The Ken Blanchard Companies’ Legendary Service training program. Their other-focused posts appear on the first and third Thursday of each month.
How would your direct reports rate you as a leader?
Are you familiar with “secret shoppers?” Organizations ask people to secretly “shop” their establishment, pretending to be customers, and report back the good, the bad, and the ugly. Wouldn’t that be fun to do?
What would happen if your direct reports “secretly shopped” you as a leader? What would they report back? Here’s an exercise to help you find out. You are going to “meta-cognate” or watch yourself by designing a personal secret shopper scorecard.
Identify your ideal self
First, take a few minutes and think of your vision of yourself as a leader. On your best day—the one you would like to be recorded for the nightly news as a model for leaders everywhere—what do you see yourself doing? In interactions, are you focused on the other person? Are you listening to their world and trying to help them succeed in the important work they are doing? Do you recognize their effort and courage? Do you help your people gain clarity around their purpose and goals? What exactly is your vision of YOU at your best?
Create your secret shopper questions
Second, reframe a few of your observations (no more than three) into your own secret shopper questions, such as:
- To what degree did the leader use the word you versus the word I?
- Were listening strategies used to enhance communication?
- Was specific praise or recognition used to build the relationship?
- Did the leader make the individual feel important?
- Did the individual leave the interaction ready to act?
Create your scorecard
Third, create a small, written assessment that you can use to remind and assess how close you are behaving to your ideal self in your interactions with people. This self-assessment should include four items—the top three things you intend to do, your self-assessment of your success, the level of care the individual felt as a result, and the chances that they will come back again for a similar experience. Here’s mine so you can see an example:
My Secret Shopper Leadership Scorecard
Upcoming interaction: Discussing goals with Lisa
Three things I want to observe myself doing:
- Taking some time at the beginning of the meeting to reconnect
- Keeping the conversation focused on goals, tasks, and the work we need to accomplish
- Reviewing agreements and letting Lisa know that I am available for direction and support
Self assessment of this interaction: (on a scale of 1 to 10)
Level of CARE the individual felt: (on a scale of 1 to 10)
Chance s/he will want to come back for a similar experience: (on a scale of 1 to 10)
Being your own secret shopper is a great way to begin the task of creating and becoming the leader you want to be. Use this scorecard to purposely plan and notice yourself in action. Self-reflect on each interaction with an employee. Ask yourself the questions you generated and strive toward higher and higher ratings. With a little bit of practice, you’ll soon notice the impact that being “customer focused” can have on your performance as a serving leader.
About the author:
Vicki Halsey is one of the principal authors—together with Kathy Cuff—of The Ken Blanchard Companies’ Legendary Service training program. Their other-focused posts appear on the first and third Thursday of each month.
“Be the change” you want to see in your customer service people: 5 ways to get started
In a recent Legendary Service course, one of my participants—we’ll call him Chad—wondered aloud if leaders ever adhered to the same standards they continually ask of their service providers.
When asked for an example of what he meant by this, he said, “Well … we are asked to acknowledge the customer, get details about the situation, listen, ensure relationship building occurs, and exceed the customer’s expectations. But when I call my manager with a question, he just gives me an answer. For example, I needed to know if we could redo one of our customer policies given some new circumstances. My manager didn’t clarify, listen, or anything. He just said, ‘Follow the policy.’”
Chad’s observation intrigued me, as it made me realize that we forget sometimes how closely our people are watching us. I love the question: “What are people saying about YOU at the dinner table?” As service champions, to properly support our frontline service providers we must model the service we expect others to do—we must CRAFT a vision of collegiality.
C – Connect: Our role is to build relationships of care with the people who will be serving our customers. One of the kindest ways to bring people together is to acknowledge the importance of their position and note that they have the power to change problems they discover. “Thanks for bringing this to my attention. We want to ensure our policies and procedures serve the customers at the highest level. Let’s follow the policy today, but let’s bring this up at our weekly meeting to see if others have similar issues. Maybe we’ll come up with a great idea to solve the problem.”
R – Recognize: We need to recognize the good others are doing. Praise individuals to the whole team—send an email specifying what someone did, how it made you feel, and its importance to the organization. For example, let’s say the manager addresses the aforementioned issue at the weekly staff meeting. She could say, “I would like to take a minute to thank Chad for bringing up an issue that was driving a customer away and for providing his insights. It helped us to clarify our policy and exceed this customer’s expectations while creating a new policy to serve future customers at the highest level.”
A – Analyze: Consistently analyze information regarding customer issues so that you can see and share trends while proactively problem solving. At weekly meetings, be a catalyst for innovative change by having people share their issues, examine the causes and impact of those situations, and then brainstorm best possible solutions. Creating communities of practice increases motivation to act and serve.
F – Follow up: Check back in to be sure customer situations were resolved properly, and to draw out ideas that could be utilized in the future to build organizational intelligence. A few days after resolving the situation above regarding the flawed policy, the manager might call Chad and say, “I want to thank you again for bringing up that issue regarding the policy change. Did it feel to you like our solution was a success? Do you have any other thoughts?”
T – Talk: Ask open-ended questions, listen, and acknowledge emotion while connecting to the heart of the situation. In the example above when Chad called his manager, the manager might have asked, “Is there anything else you’d like to share so I am sure I understand the situation correctly?”
By collaborating with your service providers and unleashing their best thoughts, you are modeling the service you would like them to provide for their customers. As leader and service champion, you need to CRAFT, then showcase, the behaviors that will create the devoted customers who will become your #1 sales force.
About the author:
Vicki Halsey is one of the principal authors—together with Kathy Cuff—of The Ken Blanchard Companies’ Legendary Service training program. Their other-focused posts appear on the first and third Thursday of each month.
How to change when you don’t want to—3 tips for leaders
Have you ever found it hard to change your behavior—even when you knew it was exactly what people wanted you to do?
See if this sounds familiar. Our family is going out to dinner. My husband is driving. We pull into the parking lot and I see a fabulous parking place right in front. (I love to find great parking places and I think everyone else should also.)
So I start to share my expert-parking-place-finding-radar-response and guess what happens next? He is NOT interested and says, “Don’t even think about it!”
Why the quick response? Because he and I have been over this ground many times before and I know I am not to speak during parking lot time unless we are going to die. But changing behavior is an ongoing challenge and just because we know what people want us to do, that doesn’t make it any easier.
3 ways to help yourself change
Still, my experience working with many different leaders over the years has convinced me that we can change anything we want if we put our mind to it. Here are three tips if you are committed to changing some hard-wired behaviors.
- Focus on the other person’s wishes—be clear not only on what the other person wants, but why he or she wants this. In my example above, after realizing this situation had come up numerous times before, I decided to find out why my significant other wasn’t interested in my brilliance. He said it distracts his driving when he has to look where I want him to look. (Well that was informative. And to be honest, I actually would rather be safe than have the closest parking place also.)
- Practice what you want to replace your usual behavior with by rehearsing what you are going to do in a similar situation the next time. For me, rehearsal meant chanting, “Never miss an opportunity to exercise,” as I practiced parking as far away as possible while my hard-wired brain kept pointing out, “There’s one, there’s another one, and oh look, still another one.” (I also kept reminding myself of why my husband doesn’t share my passion for prime parking spots—his value of family safety is more important than that front row space.)
- Recognize when you do it right by celebrating when all goes well. Embed your new skill into your brain by creating a pattern for your new behavior so next time it won’t take as much energy. Even though your new behavior may leave you feeling somewhat dissatisfied—or underutilized in my case—take your attention off of yourself and celebrate how you made the other person feel. Mentally go over what you did, why you did it, and what the fabulous results were. (This actually creates a stronger neural connection to the behavior that makes it easier to access next time.)
It takes practice and time
Figuring out what others want and acting on that knowledge is a rare, but powerful, way to build lasting relationships—at work and at home. It takes focus, practice, and a recognition of results. Everyone likes to be treated in the way they like to be treated. Our challenge as leaders is to flex what we want to do to meet the needs of others.
About the author:
Vicki Halsey is one of the principal authors—together with Kathy Cuff—of The Ken Blanchard Companies’ Legendary Service training program. Their other-focused posts appear on the first and third Thursday of each month.
If customer service is so easy, why doesn’t everyone do it like THIS?
Last week I had the privilege of staying at the Hyatt in Denver for the ASTD International Convention. I was a bit tired upon arrival as I had just flown in from a speech in Edmonton, Canada.
My first realization that this was not a “business as usual” situation was encountering Troy at the front desk. He immediately welcomed me to the Hyatt, shared his name, and told me to remember it in case I needed anything while I was visiting.
While checking me in, he asked the purpose of my visit to Denver and when I said it was to speak at ASTD, he said, “Then we must get you a quiet room.” He listened to a special additional request I had and immediately took care of getting my friend a room a few doors away from mine which made my trip incredibly meaningful. In addition, he made sure that I knew where I was going, had instructions for the elevator (it required a room key to access the floor I was on—did he know how many times I have exhaustedly stood in the elevator waiting for it to go to my floor and after five minutes or so realizing it hadn’t moved?) Lastly, he asked if I needed a wake-up call (I said I would call down later) and said he would take care of my friend when she was due to arrive in an hour.
Just the start of a Legendary Service experience
Troy was just the start of an amazing visit to the Hyatt. Here are a few other highlights.
When I called for a wake-up call, the lovely person on the line asked me if I would like to order breakfast, schedule a massage, or if she could help me in any way. WOW—instead of feeling a bit like a pain for asking for help, I was treated like royalty. I left a note for the housekeeper to leave a few extra decaffeinated green tea bags and she had them arranged in a cup like a flower for me when I got back to my room.
My wake-up call the following morning was a gentle woman who shared it was time to rise and shine and the weather was 57 degrees and she was sure I was going to have a wonderful day. Within a few minutes, Bob, a young, friendly in-room dining staff member brought me my breakfast and inquired about my day. He carefully set up the tray and inquired if there was anything else I might need. He had a vibrant personality that started my day out with hope.
My last interaction was leaving my suitcase with the bellman downstairs. He exclaimed, “What?? You have to go so soon? We will miss you but we’ll take good care of your bag until you come back later for it.” To my amazement, he even remembered which bag was mine when I came back to retrieve it!
A clear sign of great leadership
Being next door to the convention center, this hotel is probably always packed with people, which could cause many employees to become tired and frustrated. Instead, they demonstrated an ownership and pride as they served each and every customer at the highest level. They were personable, friendly, interested, and did things for me that I could have done for myself, but gladly, let someone else do.
To me, this is a sign of excellent leadership at the top of the organization in training employees how to treat their customer and make them feel welcomed. Great leaders recognize the importance of getting all employees trained on the company’s standards of what excellent service is and then (hopefully) praising the employees’ great efforts!
I know that I felt loved and cared for during my stay at this hotel, and would gladly stay there again and recommend it to others. That is a sign of Legendary Service—when the service is so good, that your customers are doing the selling for you!
About the author:
Vicki Halsey is one of the principal authors—together with Kathy Cuff—of The Ken Blanchard Companies’ Legendary Service training program. Their other-focused posts appear on the first and third Thursday of each month.
Who is this conversation about—me or you? Four ways to tell
Ok. Picture this. Someone runs into your office and says, “I need help on ….”
What are you probably thinking while they are talking?
A. What you were doing before the person ran in, even though it means only half-listening to their story?
B. Internal brainstorming on how you would handle X?
C. Preparing to respond with all the things others have done in a similar situation so you can share them as soon as the person is done talking?
D. Carefully listening to the situation to be sure this person gets the help he or she needs on X?
Answers A, B, and C are SELF-focused, and answer D is OTHER-focused.
Now, ask yourself, “Which one do you think will best meet the needs of this person, over time? Which one might make them a ‘customer’ who feels cared for?”
Yes, answer D.
Changing your focus
To improve your ability to focus on the needs of others instead of your own, here are four questions to consider when someone comes to you with an issue or situation.
- What is the issue/focus for this person?
- What is their understanding of the situation? Who, what , when, where, how, etc..
- What does he or she think should be done—or what is the help he or she needs?
- How can you help them follow through with their solution, or deliver what is needed?
Let’s replay the scenario and see how this works in practice. Once again, someone runs into your office (or calls on the phone) and says, “I need help with X.”
Step 1: Understand the Focus—You immediately stop what you are doing, becoming present and focused on that person. Then, as the person is sharing, you are listening carefully to ensure that you understand what the issue is. When he or she is done talking, you say, ”Ok. Your situation/issue is….”
Step 2: Get Information—Before generating a list of what to do, the next step to empowering this person over time is to get him or her to share the background or other pertinent information about the situation so all are clear. Before jumping in with your solutions ask what he or she thinks is the best possible outcome for the situation. (This is not as easy as it seems!) Reflect back what you hear.
Step 3: Identify Options—To get the best possible outcome, now you ask what options can be considered. What does the person think or feel should be done? What does he or she need to do that? What learning is necessary? Who could help? By when could it be done? What else?
Step 4: Follow up—Your final job is to follow-up to help the person deliver the solution that’s been generated. Your follow-up is to ensure that he or she acts on his or her best intentions. Checking in within 24 hours to see how it is going is an uncommon practice that will generate a lifetime of gratitude.
First, you engender collegiality. Second, you act as a catalyst to help the person move on his or her idea—or revisit the situation, in case the person needs additional help to move forward. The important thing to remember is, it’s all about them.
In these days of rapid communication and overload of tasks, it is easy to forget that people like to be smart, and they like to know that others trust them to do their best work. By being a sounding board, instead of a solution board, you inspire others to feel powerful and claim their greatness.
About the author:
Vicki Halsey is one of the principal authors—together with Kathy Cuff—of The Ken Blanchard Companies’ Legendary Service training program. Their other-focused posts appear on the first and third Thursday of each month.
Are you setting your customers up for success?
As a customer I am often frustrated when someone either over or under-supervises me and I get told stuff I already know, or can’t seem to get the information I actually need. Might this be happening with your customers?
I want to quickly demonstrate the use of Blanchard’s Situational Leadership® II model to showcase a way to look at your customers with new eyes. Not only will you save time with this approach, you will also give customers exactly what they need to succeed with your product and thus develop greater respect, memories of care, and referrals.
By teaching customers how to rapidly gain competence with your product they can more quickly feel like champions as they share their brilliance with you and others.
How this works
To begin with, think of something you sell that people are excited to have, but initially don’t know how to use. This first stage of learning we call an Enthusiastic Beginner. What do they need at this stage? They need direction—very specific guidelines, examples, and to be taught and shown how to use the product.
Like any learning curve, there is a next stage. Disillusioned Learner is when the task becomes a bit more difficult and frustrating. Discouragement often sets in when customers find doing the task is much more difficult alone than when they were with you. Now, they need encouragement, a reminder of why what they are doing is important and how to fine tune their abilities so as to mediate their concerns and ratchet up success.
Soon, they will be Capable, but Cautious Performers, who are using their new products, but cautiously and probably with less speed than someone who has been using it for years. They need to practice, share their thoughts, and hear their ideas, to be able to talk with you about what they are doing well and what they would like to do better. Since they are capable at this time, they really need air time to build their confidence in their competence.
With care, customers progress to a final development level as Self-Reliant Achievers. At this level they are highly competent and highly committed. This is your opportunity to really engender customer devotion by weaving their genius into the mix and having them participate on expert teams. By asking them to teach others and share ideas you are really helping them to feel smart and recognize their brilliance.
Develop your customers
Situationally developing your customers is a great way to expand your use of the Situational Leadership® II model. In the same way that it works for developing employees it can help you set up customers for rapid success and long term relationships where people feel valued, cared for and positioned to shine.
About the author:
Vicki Halsey is one of the principal authors—together with Kathy Cuff—of The Ken Blanchard Companies’ Legendary Service training program. Their customer service focused posts appear on the first and third Thursday of each month.
