Would You Like Fries With That?

What has happened to customer service today?

• In the old days: “Hi, what can I get for you today?” & “Thank you, please come again!”
• Now: A blank stare as the counter person puts down their phone and seems annoyed you interrupted their Tweeting.

Today’s transactions at stores vary so much from a few years ago. ”Back in my day”, we were polite and courteous to our customers. Now it appears that buying something at a store is bothering the staff working. “I'm sorry, did I interrupt your text?”

I worked at McDonalds as a teenager. The training we received was surprisingly well thought out and could be applied at all my future jobs. We were trained to greet the customer, look them in the eye and ask them how we could help them. We took their order and asked “would you like fries with that?”.  When we were finished their order, we presented their bag of food in a certain manner and said “thank you, please come again!” We even had contests for how fast we could serve our customers!

The customer experience today is so very different. The cashier typically looks at me and grunts “uh-huh” after *I* say thank you!  What has happened to customer service today?

I recently spent time out of the country and was amazed at the different level of customer service. I felt special when the person who was serving me and genuinely cared if I was happy with their product or service.

What has happened to customer service today?

Many of us don’t believe we work in retail or service oriented industries, but really, don’t we all? We all work. We all create a product or create a service that someone else uses.

A nurse sets your cast. A claims processor processes your dental claim. An IT person implements a new system for farmers to maximize their yield. A financial advisor provides advice to their customers for their retirement. A network technician maintains a telephone network. An entrepreneur creates a new virtual reality educational training product. A mother makes lunch for her children.

We all have customers for what we do. You take something from someone, add value to it and provide it to the next person or customer.

Have you thanked your customers lately? Have you said “thank you for the business”?

It doesn't have to mean that you take them to a hockey game. It doesn't mean you take them golfing or to lunch. Although it could! Sometimes just a simple hand shake, a smile and an honest “thanks for the business” can mean a lot.

In this day and age of to do lists and multi-tasking, take the time to go back to what customer service really means. Remember what your mother taught you, say thank you to show your appreciation.

And….

By the way…

Thanks so much taking time out of your busy day to read my blog. I really appreciate it! Do you have a blog? I’d love to read what’s on your mind!

Have a nice day.

How Can the Singer Pitbull Help Your Consulting Business?

As I spend my summer driving around my kids to this practice or that practice or this or that mall to “hang out” with their friends, my radio is always commandeered and I seem to hear the same songs over and over.

Last year I wrote about Carly Rae Jepson’s song of the summer “Call Me Maybe” and I drew a parallel with the importance of including your corporate help desk in large scale roll out of new solutions.

This year, one of the songs of the summer is by Pitbull “Feel This Moment” with Christina Aguilera. It takes about two beats of the song and one of my children crank up the volume. I’ve heard the first two lines many many times, and I had an a-ha moment! All professional consultants could take advice from Pitbull! We know that providing advice is the first rule for any good consultant. The second, third and fourth rules, are always business development!

Many consultants find that no matter how efficient they are at business development, in the end, it is about advice they provide and that the vast majority of their business is derived from connections and reputation.

In Pitbull’s song “Feel This Moment”, the first two lines are very prophetic. I’ll paraphrase them a bit to make my point,

Ask for money, and get advice
Give advice, get money twice

As I sit, reporting from my comfortable home in Winnipeg, I see the parallels of those lines to our business. Many times, we participate in meet and greet events where we frequently stand around stating “nice to meet you”, but at times many of us may think that time is money and we need to get on with more profitable activities. But really, you should stop time and enjoy the moments meeting with your colleagues.

Think about those first two lines again. We've all seen the consultants out there “working the crowd”. They are out there asking for work (ask for money). They work the crowd going from group to group to find the one or two prospects that might have an opportunity. Over the course of the night, they collect 10-20 new business cards. But as they move around, you end up seeing them flame out and only getting advice from these encounters (get advice). Usually that advice is to talk to someone else or another company, and that indirectly gets them away from the person providing the advice! -> “Ask for money, and get advice”

There seems to be a blurred line between the first and second line of the song that many consultants have yet to realize.

You then see another group of consultants that are more mature, not in age, but in understanding of our business. They are the ones that enjoy the social interactions at these meet and greets and speak more of non-work activities and opportunities. They are the ones that are truly interested in your summer vacation plans or your daughter’s soccer triumphs or son’s basketball championship. They are the consultants who frequently provide free advice to customers and non-customers (give advice).  But it’s those social interactions that remain in our potential customer’s mind. When you are at top of mind, business opportunities will come. -> “Give advice, get money twice.

My company (PCGI Consulting Services) has a large annual customer appreciation event. Our informal rule for staff is to avoid work conversations, we are there to thank our clients and enjoy the moment. We find that after this event, our phone is frequently ringing off the hook. Our client’s remember our appreciation of their past business and are more willing to provide us future business.

Operating in this customer centric manner is not something that is done in the moment, we call it is a life long business mantra. To paraphrase even more lines from the song;

One day when your opportunity is glowing (when you are busy and in customer demand)
You too can be sitting in your castle golden (you can enjoy the fruits of a successful practice)
But until those gates open (but until your practice takes off)
Just feel the moment, feel the moment, feel the moment (continue developing those personal relationships)

And in the end you will move from the first line to of the song, to the second; 

Ask for money, and get advice

Give advice, get money twice

The “Right” Professional Development is Crucial for the Development of Every Professional

Continual professional development is crucial to ensure the successful development of every professional. Graduation from your post-secondary school does not signify the end of your education!

In every career choice, training is required. Upon completion of the training, you received your own proverbial toolbox that contained the training you received. At your first position, you began to practice what you had learned, but you quickly learned that there are multiple ways to achieve the end state of tasks and that your toolbox has room for new skills. At this point, you embarked upon looking to enhance your skills and fill that toolbox to keep up with changes in approach and practices in your industry.

 

As a professional services firm, PCGI Consulting Services recruit resources that help our customers get the most from their investments in business processes and information technology. To meet our vision of being the premier supplier of the most trusted consulting professionals to our customers, our resources and their toolboxes are our strongest asset.

 

When reviewing applications for employment, professional development after a candidate’s formal education demonstrates their commitment to continuous learning and the improvement of the contents of their toolbox. Your work experience, positions held, projects participated on and the role you played in them are very important. But so is that section at the bottom of your resume outlining additional professional development and designations earned. This simple section demonstrates all the tools you have placed in your toolbox.

 

While all professional development is good, not all of it provides value. While training for your career, you had many options. You specifically chose courses to help your career. Do the same with professional development. You understood exactly what you needed to graduate school to receive your diploma or degree. Now look to the next level, concentrate your professional development with a goal to achieve industry and customer recognized designations. These designations provide instant credibility to customers and competitors.

 

Professional designations such as Certified BusinessAnalysis Professional (CBAP), Certification of Competency in Business Analysis(CCBA) or other designations such as the Project Management Professional (PMP) and the Certified Management Consultant (CMC) require a certain amount professional development, a demonstration of practical experience followed by an examination in some manner testing those skills. Following the award of these designations, to maintain the designation, you must also maintain a continuation of association approved professional development.

 

Understanding the requirements of these designations when choosing your professional development allow you to both advance your career AND earn a professional designation.

 

At PCGI Consulting Services, we value professional development and we encourage our staff to continually earn additional designations through the creation and review of all of their annual professional development plans all with the goal to improve the contents of their toolbox and ultimately their value to our clients.

Ken Howell is an Executive Partner with PCGI Consulting Services in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He is a lifelong learner as evidenced by his numerous certificates, designations or diplomas received during his ongoing professional development. For more information about Ken Howell, he can be found on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

This blog was originally published in the October 2012 International Institute of Business Analysts newsletter which can be found here.

Are You Going For A Gold Medal At Work?

As the media is aglow with the London 2012 Olympics, it made me wonder, what if there were an Olympic event on my day job? I imagined myself going up against the Russian Federation or the all powerful US team. I’d be proudly wearing my Canadian made suit, lining up for my turn in the corporate boardroom to go up against my competitors.

But in reality, aren’t we doing it already?

The Olympic motto, in use since 1924, is “Faster, Higher, Stronger”. For 17 days, you will hear, and due to the TV time delay, see repeatedly, athletes trying to go faster, stronger or higher. Today, I watched Om Yul Chol from North Korea lift 3 times his body weight. He set a new personal best. This new personal best also was better than everyone else for this event and he won the Gold Medal.

I also watched Tera Van Beilen from Oakville, Ontario. She made it into the Women’s 100 metre semi-finals to compete against 15 other competitors where only the top 8 go to the finals. In something you don’t see very often, she had to swim an extra race as she was tied for the eighth and final spot in the finals. In watching her being interviewed after she found out she had to race again, the joy and excitement was incredibly infectious. She couldn’t wait to race again. In the swim-off, she did not advance, but we should not look at it that she lost and failed to advance to the finals.

I prefer to look at it that she won the right to represent Canada at the Olympics and that she ended up with a personal best of ninth in the world! We seem to focus on gold, silver and bronze, but forget to celebrate every single person is a winner as they are representing their country on an international stage.

Today, Van Beilen, didn’t take a long lunch, she didn’t take a day off, she didn’t call in sick. Today was the result of many hours in the pool training and the result was a personal best.

Are you competing at your day job as if it was the Olympics?

In most cases, there are not any competitions that we can compete against one another to see who will place first. Every day we should be focusing on a personal best; a personal best in the report that you are delivering, a personal best in the presentation you are giving, a personal best in the interview you are about to perform.

While at work today, did you achieve a personal best?

Call Me Maybe - The Importance of Involving Your Help Desk in Project Planning

CarlyRae Jepson might sing a new hot song now “Call Me Maybe”, but in the project world, you need to ensure that your help desk is ready to tell their customers, call me really!

In the heat of readying your widget for implementation; whether your widget is a service, a piece of hardware, a marketing campaign or a new product, the importance of your own Help Desk is sometimes forgotten. It’s easy to get caught up in the planning and getting ready to for Go Live that the operationalization of what you are implementing is overlooked.

During original project planning, we plan for both the capital and operational costs of the project. Capital costs are the easy part; what do we need on a one time basis to implement your widget.  Once these funds are in place, you begin working through the stages of implementation using the standard approach your organization approves; requirements, design, build, etc. The operational costs (the costs to keep your widget in service) are more difficult.

A Help Desk may have many names such as a Service Desk, Contact Centre or Call Centre but is just as important as all other players in your project and need to be included right beside, or better yet embedded within your project team. The users of your product are definitely being involved to help determine the end product. Why not involve the group that will be the primary point of contact when you do launch your widget?

Gathering the Help Desk requirements are crucial in the development of any successful widget. During development, it is easier to embed the needs of your Help Desk instead of near your widget launch. Your Help Desk will usually have a long history of similar widgets that can be referenced to improve your project. How many times have we seen one project make the same mistake as another? Being able to leverage existing support processes may enable you to provide enhanced post launch support than originally planned. My experiences to date have demonstrated that Help Desk staff are very willing to participate where possible. They are an inquisitive bunch wanting to know more about your widget than you might expect. They will be able to be able to set up their call tracking solution to be able to categorize all post Go Live calls for further analysis and correction. It is much easier to build in a requirement during the design than after the build where it is much costlier.

Alternatively, you can leave the contact with the Help Desk until the end when you are ready to launch.

You will receive another line from Carly Rae something like, “hey, I just met you and this is crazy”. Your Help Desk require information that enable them to support the types of questions that will be received; process flow, call scripts, common answers, general widget knowledge, etc. Answering a query at the first line of support within 5 minutes is by far less costly than having to escalate the call to someone else.

Waiting until near launch may elicit another lyrical line, “you took your time with the call” and now go away! The Help Desk may in fact hold enough organizational power or influence to delay your launch until their requirements are met.

Doing anything right, the first time is much easier. Involve your Help Desk! By asking for their input, you will find their involvement and level of commitment will grow exponentially. It’s not only the project team that want success, but it is your Help Desk as well.

They will be glad to be waiting on the other end of the phone saying, “call me maybe”.

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Solving a Rubik’s Cube Can Improve Healthcare Implementations

On a recent excursion to a Rubik's Cube Convention with my son, one of the events specifically validated the importance of planning for all healthcare implementations. One of competitors solved a standard 3x3 Rubik’s cube in 3 minutes 32 seconds, all while blindfolded!!!

First, I didn’t know that these conventions existed! Secondly, we are all familiar with a standard Rubik’s cube; a 3x3 cube consisting of six different colours. Did you know that there are 4x4, 5x5, 2x2 cubes plus a multitude of other designs?

So how does solving a Rubik’s Cube blindfolded help improve healthcare implementations? And how is it possible to solve any Rubik’s Cube blind folded (other than a 1x1!)?

The participants at this event, many of them teenagers, unbeknownst to them, were following the tried and true technic of project planning. The approach to solving a Rubik’s Cube blindfolded involves spending most of the actual time planning your “solve”. The competitors would spend a significant amount of time (sometimes more than half the time) analyzing the patterns of colours on the cube and then spend time planning their moves. The competitors would, based on their memory planning their attack, attempt to solve the cube with their blindfold on.

Project planning in healthcare projects involves a similar approach. A significant amount of time needs to be invested in each project prior to engaging. Understanding the environment, carefully analyzing the circumstances of the project, reviewing patterns of prior projects and interviewing the clinic or hospital staff for their input are crucial for success. The actual execution time may be less than the planning and analysis stage of the project.

Leaving the competition, these teenagers validated that planning is a very important part of every project. I’m also incredibly happy that our clients prefer we do not execute our projects blindfolded!

The Musings of a Healthcare Management Consultant

Welcome! In the journey through my life, I am seeing how some of my experiences in my personal life are helping to shape my professional career and help define who I am.

I plan to share some of my thoughts and experiences in this blog. I consider it to be….

The Musings of a Healthcare Management Consultant.