by Jim Cathcart
“Dad, I love my company!” That’s how my son opened the phone call when he contacted me shortly after the stock market took its first big dive in the Fall of 2008. I asked him to repeat it and inquired why he felt that way. (He works in Human Resources for a leading luxury hotel company.)
He said, “Today we had a company-wide managers meeting to discuss how we would deal with the economic crisis. Here’s what they told us; we now have four priorities above everything else. 1. Enhance the guest’s experience. 2. Protect jobs. 3. Increase sales efforts. 4. Reduce expenses. In that order!” Then he repeated, “That’s why I love my company. When everyone else is simply cutting overhead and pushing harder for sales, we are making it better to be our customer or coworker.”
I’d have to agree with his point of view. Most companies react to a crisis by building defenses instead of improving relationships. That is the difference between “most” companies and those who practice “Relationship Intelligence ™.”
The news right now is telling us the current state of affairs, but the truth is bigger than that. Our current situation is never our lasting situation. Everything is changing, all the time. So let’s look beyond the current reality to the future that we can create. What we do today will determine how we experience the next stages of “reality.”
Will your customers and coworkers want to stay connected with you or will they find others more appealing? The answer is in your hands.
Will your 2009 be a year of improvement or 12 months of running from one shelter to another? The answer is in your thinking.
Will you be one of those who comes through the financial crunch as a victor or as a victim? Great successes always occur when circumstances are the most challenging. Your decisions will determine how you emerge from this, on top or lost in the crowd.
Here is my advice for you and your team:
1. UpServe Your Customers. Look for ways that you can improve their experiences with you and your products without necessarily costing you more. Seek every form of Service that you can and distinguish yourself as one of the most desirable business sources in the market. Be their friend while others are abandoning them. Find a way.
2. Protect Your People. When everyone is afraid of losing their job, their benefits and their connections, make sure that you are on their side. Understand their fears, show them how to serve the customers (both internal and external ones) better than ever before. In doing so you will increase the likelihood of business continuity. Remind them of your allegiance to them and give them a reason to want to do their best for you.
3. Increase Sales Efforts. Every person in every role and every department is involved in encouraging or discouraging sales. Make sure nobody is acting as a “sales prevention department” by ignoring the wants, feelings and needs of the customers. Get everyone to offer ideas and test new methods for UpServing existing customers and finding new ones. None of us is as smart as all of us, so let’s work together across roles and titles, just be a family of coworkers serving the customer well.
4. Reduce Expenses Carefully. Cut what doesn’t contribute to the three items above. Eliminate temporarily any expenses that don’t advance one or more of these priorities. Preserve quality and integrity while eliminating excess and waste. Start your productive work earlier each day. Keep accurate numbers on what is paying off and what isn’t. Don’t cut the items that bring people to your door. (One coffee shop I know once discontinued offering flavored coffees because they didn’t sell as much as the other ones. In doing so they lost my business and the business of a group of twenty people that I brought with me twice a week for breakfast.) Some items are “loss leaders” that get people in the door to do even more spending.”
My New Year’s Wish for you is that your entire workforce will be calling their families to say, “I love my company!” The choice to make that happen is completely within your control.
Now go serve your customers better than ever. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
For information on Cathcart Institute’s “Intelligent Motivation System” give us a call or drop an email.
800-222-4883 or info@cathcart.com
