5-Star employees - Part 1

Jul 22, 09 By Bryan K. Williams

One of my previous articles was about "5-star leaders", and those types of leaders are committed to only one standard: Excellence. They expect nothing less from themselves or from their team. While it is important to describe excellent leadership, it is also important to describe another key piece of the service excellence puzzle...the "5-star employee". 5-star employees are equally passionate with excellence and take great pride in engaging their customers with purpose-driven service. I can still remember the exact moment when I realized that there was a difference between an employee and a 5-star employee. At the time, I was a banquet server in a luxury hotel and was given a tray of hors d'oeuvres to serve the guests. The chef stopped me before I served the first guest. He asked if I knew what the hors d'oeuvres were and how they were prepared. It became immediately clear that I only had a vague idea of how to describe the items. The chef then looked at me directly in the eyes and said, "You are NOT a professional". Those words forever changed how I viewed service delivery. After that one-sentence from the chef, I went back to the kitchen and thoroughly acquainted myself with each hors d'oeuvres' name, ingredients, and preparation. When I returned to the banquet function, I saw the chef, pulled him to the side and thoroughly explained each hors d'oeuvres. He then said "Now, you are a professional". Being well prepared is the first step to serving with excellence. 5-star employees are consistently well-prepared, purpose-driven and passionate about their work. In fact, over the past several years I've had the good fortune of serving in various capacities and have focused on eight very specific service commitments. Collectively, they are called "commitment to engage my customers", and are now available on a pocket card exclusively on www.engagemenow.com Here are the first four commitments:

Five Star Employee Part 2

Aug 24, 09 By Bryan K. Williams

Recently, I called a well-known hotel and asked for the concierge desk. Although I was not a guest at the time, I previously stayed at this particular hotel chain several times prior and considered myself to be a loyal customer. The reason I called was to merely get some quick restaurant recommendations. The concierge advised me that since I was not a guest, she could not assist. Even after I advised her that I am a loyal guest that has stayed at the company's hotels several times before, she repeated her stance. Sure she may have been doing what she was told to do by her supervisor, or perhaps she was unaware of how easy it would have been to make some recommendations (after all, she could have also recommended the restaurant in her own hotel). Maybe she just didn't care. That same concierge could have said she would be happy to assist and inquired if I was celebrating a special occasion. Then, she could have made a few recommendations and offered to give me the phone number of the restaurants. The latter approach would have reinforced my expectations of the hotel chain and created more opportunities for me to refer others. In 5-Star Employees Part 1, I wrote about four commitments that world-class service employees share. Here is the fifth commitment: Commitment 5: I will make you feel special, included, valued, and appreciated The concierge that I wrote about did not understand that EVERY customer is priceless. The provision of engaging service should be inclusive and be just as important for those who are "potential" customers. Commitment 5 means that 5-star employees must look for every single opportunity to win the hearts of current AND potential customers. Any customer who is in the vicinity of a 5-star employee should feel his or her passion to serve. Let's assume that I go to a shopping mall and walk into a retail store. I then ask the store employee for directions to the food court. The eagerness of that employee to assist may cause me to return to that store to shop and possibly refer it to others in the future.

DONALD TRUMP - PENSAR EN GRANDE (VIDEO)

Five Strategies for Selling During a Recession

by Christina Salerno

During an economic slump, it’s tough for even the best sales professals to close deals. Downturns prompt executives to slash discretionary spending as companies face intense pressure to show quick returns on investment and once-loyal customers eye cheaper competitors. But some companies still manage to close deals — or at least tee up for renewed sales in the inevitable rebound. Drawing on the successes of IBM and others, Howard Stevens, chairman and CEO of the HR Chally Group, and John Asher, chairman and CEO of sales training firm Asher, offer these five ways to make your sales organization a winner during a recession. 1. Don’t Devalue Your Product During the 1973 recession, as competitors panicked, IBM made an unusual move: It raised prices. Big Blue took this step after embracing the marketing catchphrase “Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM.” “Most people think in tough times you have to give a special offer or cut prices,” Stevens says. But that ends up devaluing the product — and the salesperson’s reputation. When prices fall dramatically, Stevens says, customers start to believe they were overpaying at the regular price or that the product is so cheap because there’s something wrong with it. Instead of slashing prices, consider offering additional services — such as longer guarantees or additional tech support — to make buyers feel like they’re getting more value for their money. 2. Stay Calm and Focus on Solutions One of the worst mistakes a sales professional can make during a recession is to panic, says Stevens. Sales reps who act too aggressive or too hungry to make a sale will scare off potential customers, who are already worried about the fate of their own companies — and their jobs. Instead of hysteria, offer calm, focused solutions.

5 Personal Core Competencies for the 21st Century

By Sean Silverthorne August 13th, 2009 @ 5:32 am

Every epoch requires people and organizations to develop core competencies or skills needed to be successful. In the time of Henry VIII (yes, I am watching The Tudors), key competencies to master probably included fealty to a powerful lord and skill with a rapier. Not so much in demand today, however. What are the core competencies needed in this century? Harvard Graduate School of Education professor Helen Haste has identified five that we should begin teaching our students. We business managers should also consider how to bring these skills to our companies and careers. Managing Ambiguity. “Managing ambiguity is that tension between rushing to the clear, the concrete, and managing this ambiguous fuzzy area in the middle. And managing ambiguity is something we have to teach. Because we have to counter the story of a single linear solution.” Agency and Responsibility. “We have to be able to take responsibility and know what that means. Being an effective agent means being able to approach one’s environment, social or physical, with a confidence that one actually will be able to deal with it.” Finding and Sustaining Community. “Managing community is partly about that multitasking of connecting and interacting. It’s also, of course, about maintaining community, about maintaining links with people, making sure you do remember your best friend’s birthday, that you don’t forget that your grandmother is by herself this weekend, and of course recognizing also that one is part of a larger community, not just one’s own private little world.” Managing Emotion. “Really it’s about getting away from the idea that emotion and reason are separate… Teaching young people to manage reason and emotion and not to flip to one or the other is an important part of our education process.” Managing Technological Change. “When we have a new tool, we first use it for what we are already doing, just doing it a bit better. But gradually, the new tool changes the way we do things. It changes our social practices.”