Monthly Archives: April 2019

I am the client who doesn’ t come back…

A few years ago Sam Walton, founder of the biggest retailer in the world, opened a new training programme for Walmart employees. Here is what is reported how he opened his speech:

I’m the kind of person who goes to a restaurant, sits at the table and patiently waits, whilst the waiter does everything but taking my order.
I’m the kind of person who goes to a shop and waits in silence, whilst the employee behind the counter finishes the private conversation with the colleague, before taking my payment.
I’m the kind of person who goes to a gas station and never buzzes, but waits patiently whilst the employee finishes his newspaper read.
I’m the kind of person who explains to a supplier his urgency on getting a specific product, and does not complain after receiving it 3 weeks later.
I’m really the kind of person who enters any commercial establishment and seems to be begging for attention, for a smile, for the employee to do me a favour.
And now you must be thinking that I’m just a nice, calm, relaxed, quiet, patient kind of person. But you are wrong!
You know who I am? I’m the customer who will never come back.
And then I have fun. Watching these companies spend millions of dollars, in marketing and advertisement, in order to make me come back to them. When actually I was there already, and all they had to do was a simple, cheap and easy thing: treat me with a little courtesy.
There is only on boss: THE CLIENT. And he can fire everyone in the company. From the employee to the Chief Executive, simply by taking his money somewhere else

Reading this talk from Sam Walton again, I felt remembered that, while we can develop and implement the best strategies ever, this topic of the customer experience can rob your sleep. We need as leaders to relentless bring this top of the agenda and keep on asking: ” is our face to the customers at the excellence level it needs to be ? “ and be uncompromising when it’s not. Leaders, walk your talk.

A fresh view

Sometimes a break such as Easter break enables us to see issues differently or to see issues arising which we may have ignored or neglected.

If you experienced this : what will you try differently to deal with these issues and raise your level of satisfaction ?

Make your meeting a safe and focused place

My understanding of my role as facilitator and executive coach is to support the leadership Teams I work with to have the conversations they wouldn’t have otherwise, starting by creating a safe place for them. This article gives you some tips on how you can do this when your facilitator /team coach isn’t there.

How do you think your next Leadership Team meeting would go if you also include the following questions:

What do you think I need to know?

– Where are you struggling?

– What are you proud of?

Enjoy the safe place!

https://hbr.org/2019/04/make-your-meetings-a-safe-space-for-honest-conversation

Hold better meetings: Connect purpose to agenda items

What if agenda topics were listed as questions the team needs to answer?

TIP: The idea behind is that you become clearer on the purpose of each agenda item.

Example: instead of writing “Programme Plenary session National sales Convention” you could write as agenda item: “What topics will ensure full engagement during the plenary session?” (if the item is about selecting topics and the goal is to have people engaged) Ask me, an experienced facilitator to shadow one of your meetings to offer feedforward and share best practices!