STOP. REWIND.SWITCH.RESTART

Success is the sum of details- Harvey Firestone.

But wait, no one tells you the details. 

Most part of life lessons are transmitted in short telegram length headlines. So are career lessons. But it is the detail that matters. Just like the DIY kits. Which part goes where, where to plug –in, weld-in and join-in or step-away.

Thankfully I have had shot at a crash course in the 7 steps of detail which more or less are the sum parts of the total= Life lessons= Career Lessons=Success Lessons. 

The course is called Corporate Service Corps Assignment (CSC) and it is changing my life exactly as all my seniors said it would. 

Of every work assignment I have been to, we are mostly way too engaged in chasing deadlines, cramming up 12/14 hour-days, double-hatting for time zones and focusing on the project requirements/trainings.
Let me offer a crash course of my crash course on Life lessons in 7 steps :) and some great pictures.

But CSC is way different. It reminds you that all work is eventually done by people and deals with people and hence has a larger meaning in life than merely meeting deadlines.

1. Travel: The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes- Marcel Proust

You travels to a foreign land not to see the land in a different preservative. You travel to a foreign land to come and back see your own land from a foreign perspective.
As the laws of physics hold true, sometimes, merely extracting oneself from the existing surrounding and tele-porting to an unfamiliar, unknown country makes one think from ground zero. A familiar surrounding wires the brain to resort to predictable patterns of thinking and work in preconceived limitations and thus restrict problem solving.

CSC plucks you out of your comfort zone and places you in a corner of the world that you perhaps would never have visited on your own- the idea is to precisely let one shut off from familiar predictable ways of thinking and discover parts of their mind hitherto unknown.

Wroclaw: Sheer Beauty beyond the bars. What do you see?

2. Open your mind.

When does the average adult mind stop growing?

Psychcentral says “The prefrontal cortex, which helps with impulse control and organization, is not fully developed until the mid-point of a person's 20s. It is theorized that this incomplete development leads to greater risk-taking among adolescents and young adults. Although brain development ends at around 25 years of age, neural changes can occur for many years beyond that point. PsychCentral states that some areas of the brain have shown the capability to make new connections well into adulthood proper.”

What this essentially means is one uses 25 years of rapid learning for 35 remaining years of your career and perhaps 20 years post that. I guess fashion trends and mobile models change sooner than that.
How does one counter this extremely imbalanced learning proposition? By helping the mind to speed up its learning- by providing help. One of the ways is to add names, faces and experiences to data. And that helps one open minds.
If everyone got a chance to live in different country, experience kindness, hospitality, love, and shockingly beautiful random acts of kindness, they will tend to fall in love with it like their own. And they would never ever judge the country by tabloid, media or mere statistics-because now they have a personal bond with that country.

Welcome Doughnuts Special Polish ones ( without a hole!) with Orange and cream fills during first Warsaw, city history walk from Program co-ordinator Ewa, Pyxera Global.

3. 80:20

One of the most beautiful revelations to me is the true meaning of 80-20 rule. In a typical assignment tremendous importance is given to truly understand the culture, history, sentiments and context of the country and clients we work with. Though it should be obvious, it never fails to amaze me as to how much the finer aspects make the whole process of understanding the project background much easier. Our consistent project discussions, reviews emphasize on the “context” of our clients, the cities, and cultural expectation – sometimes the context drastically influences the statement and scope of work and sometimes, it helps us quickly solve issues while steering towards a solution. But the “Context” is really the king.

Painting depicting Coal mine as key driver of economic employment @ Silesian Museum, Katowice

4. Somersault: an acrobatic movement in which a person turns head over heels in the air or on the ground and lands or finishes on their feet.

That is the physical definition. In order to explain the mental somersault let me get back to brain facts. The brain is most active in the parts one uses most. And yet we use only 10-20% of it. The way to trigger the other parts is by jogging our mind do the unfamiliar. Like learn a new language, read a technical journal of an unfamiliar area ( Marine, Aviation Engineering for example). And strangely these skills seem to drive you closer to problem solving than hours of reading on your area of specialization.

No wonder CSC helps us achieve most of these.

History of Polish Aviation and supremacy in Gliders: Museum of Aviation, Krakow

5. Being Present

Enough has been said about living in the moment, being truly present in what we do at any point of time.

 Little has been done to make it possible. 

CSC makes it possible. 

It is highly recommended and even mandatory to an extent to shut off from he day job completely in order devote 120% of time an attention to living in the country as a local, eating, travelling, knowing, socializing, learning and getting into the skin of the place where one stays.

Into the true heart of the country with the people/ No business travel can provide this experience and perspective.

Living and loving as a vegetarian in Poland ( wait for my blog on food posts)

6. Reconsider

Imagine you were on motorcycle speeding away on a straight long road. Maybe some bumps in between. Maybe the destination is unknown and even direction if changing.. but you are on gear and you speeding up fast , as fast as life is happening. And suddenly you are thrown into changing gear and taking a flip turn. Into an unknown road. What do you do? You discover a new landscape. If you had never taken the diversion, you would never have known what existed there.

CSC is diversion in the predictable career path. It exposes you to what you can do with yourself and for others if given an opportunity. Perhaps try a different career move- consulting, corporate citizenship. Perhaps a more meaningful contribution to the society- volunteer with Non-profits. Perhaps work in a different country. But the perhaps would never happen, had you not served in the assignment in the first place.

I will make efforts to grow flowers in my house- awe-inspired by the sheer breathtaking beauty of flowers every where in Poland.

7.Form Friendships

Someone in our team said yesterday. “Though we are serving in Poland, we are getting a deep-dive on cultures and friendships in India, China, Egypt, Taiwan, US, Japan and Brazil” . Global perspective is incomplete without having a personal bond with the globe. CSC has given us friends in each of these countries. 

The best geography lesson in a friend from that country.And each them leaves a part of themselves with you- intangible experience and tangible gifts !

These seven details are really the sum of my 2 weeks experience so far. I am sure I will add many more as my WhatsApp, email, facebook are buzzing as I write this blog . But I am sure that my life lessons and career lessons shall be looked at with different colored lens henceforth.

Being Social is not JUST posting on Facebook? Digital marketing is not JUST a Banner Ad? Then what exactly is Digital and Social Marketing?

Arun is an outstanding marketer in a top IT firm. Being 42 years old and having come from a media background, he is absolutely the Media guru in his team!

Shilpa is brilliant digital marketer. She reports to Arun. Coming from an agency background, she knows everything about email campaigns, running banner ads and promoting a facebook page.

Arun and Shilpa have put in 12-14 hours of long and hard working hours every single day for the last one quarter. They were leading a new product launch. Their plan was perfect!! Arun led the print Ads and TV commercials. Shilpa ran a facebook campaign and gained multiple twitter followers for their organizational product brand.

However, 3 months down the line, Arun and Shilpa are sitting in the executive office with the CMO and Sales Leader. The Product launch was termed "COLD". But the team had covered it all?

WHAT WENT WRONG?

Marketing has changed in the last 5 years much more than the last 50. While the Aruns of the world have seen a fundamental shift in the way we go to market in the course of their career, the Shilpas of the world are the vibrant youngsters full of Social media knowledge. But is marketing all about these stand-alone pieces? Who stitches the story together? What should be a marketer's strategy in this digital world?

MEET KAVISH GOEL, an Indian top B-school alumnus, Marketing Leader and Social Media guru working with one the fortune top ten companies.

In this ten minute podcast, Kavish has helped clear fundamental doubts about the approach to embrace social media marketing and what should be the right mindset!

HEAR ON if you want to know how the digital gurus are approaching the marketing challenge..

Podcast Link - Here

Getting to Yes: BUT First YOU need to OPEN your mouth! in 50 seconds

I am running a FREE 30 minutes WEBCAST ON HOW TO MAKE AN ELEVATOR PITCH IN 50 SECONDS on April 15th 11:30 am IST- REGISTER NOW. 

AND HERE is why you should attend it!!

Few months ago I had a massive argument with my Mom. The scene went like this.

Mom: I bought a new string of sapphires.

Me: why, mom isn't I it an invalid expense?

Mom: How can you judge me and choice of expenses? How can you say I am spending on Jewelry? Is this what kids teach you when you are grown up?

After 1 hour of frustrated argumentation. I asked her?

Me: What did I say which made you angry?

Mom: You questioned my choice of spending? You disapproved ME. You must have thought I can spend on gold instead. You must have assumed gold appreciates more. And by the way I don’t even have much Jewelry or care for it or wear it. One purchase which I share with daughter has to bring much comments. Anyway I am retired, how can I afford expensive metals hence I need to settle for beads. I know you will only advise me to save and not think of what I want. You don’t even know how much or how often I spend.

Me: I only said isn't this an invalid expense. You did not allow me to finish.

Mom: You never MEANT all that?

Me: NO!! I will say something If I want to, why will I suggest it?

Mom: But I thought you meant……….

"But I thought you meant.." How familiar does the last statement sound; with spouse, in offices, in business conferences, with children?

I still remember when my mentor asked me to define the word communication.

I said- telling someone to do something.

He stopped me short and said NO, Telling someone what you want them to do and getting a YES in return.

Communication is a  2 way process- not just imparting information. However wonderful YOU are or YOUR products are it just stays in the BOX unless you know how to communicate.

But the FIRST STEP in Communication is TO MAKE a MOVE. TO SPEAK.

But most people don’t know WHAT and HOW TO speak?

Did you know it takes roughly 50 seconds to make a first impression? And roughly 60% more impact depending whether you open your mouth or not in the first meeting?

BUT HOW to say something relevant on the spot? Don’t you go blank? Tongue-tied? A sudden question shot at you in a business conference. A sudden presentation in front of 50 people. A sudden hello to a good-looking guy in a lift? Or explain yourselves when attacked with statements and finding yourselves tongue-tied  in family arguments? Or simply to present yourself against bull dozing team members in group presentation? Do the Talkers take away the mantle when you are a doer?

It is time to change it. I am running a FREE WEBCAST to help you SPEAK UP in 50 seconds- Click here to REGISTER!!

WHY YOUR OWN MIND IS DECEIVING YOUR REALITY!

Friends, I received wonderful response comments from all of you for the post “Managing others perceptions to create your reality”. In fact it has triggered many debates about what is ABSOLUTE reality. While some of my friends spoke about taking FAITH - here. Some spoke of IDENTITY here. What was most amusing was how differently we all perceived the post about perception.

The most interesting comment I received though was that “How others view us or how we view others are all filtered through a set of cognitive biases that invariably deviate quite a bit from rationality and good judgement. “

Wikipedia says, Cognitive bias is a pattern of deviation in judgment, whereby inferences about other people and situations may be drawn in an illogical fashion.

And so in this post I will delve a little deeper into exploring how cognitive bias works for a layman quoting an example from Malcolm Gladwell.

Let us get into a mini exercise.

This was pretty quick and easy. Did your results look like this?

 Let us see what is happening here. When the mind is under time pressure, we BLINK not think. That means we make flash judgement. However in the backdrop of this judgement occurs a data processing within your mind. When you see John, your mind fetches all the instances in which you have comes across the word John. In this case it happens to have been men named John and hence it categorizes John as Male. The categorization happens very fast since there is precise information. When it sees the word kitchen it fetches all instances in which kitchen has been seen, heard, or accessed and in MOST of such instances have been associated with females. Hence it associates the word with FEMALE.  

Now let us make a few changes to this test and try again.

Did you take longer to do this one than the previous test?

Why?

The mind’s data processing has just been introduced to a conflict. Historical data calls John male. But most Johns had never been seen in the kitchen. And so the mind needs to THINK and rationalize. I took 7 seconds to complete this test and this is how my results look like.

These two tests are variations of the Implicit Association Test. In simple terms it means, we have different kinds of biases based on information stored in our brain. These can be more than 100 types of biases. However the specific bias referred here is Stereo type bias, where the mind tends to make decisions based on the stereo type information fed into it.

However what does our experience with two tests tell us?

1. Our perceptions are formed by the volume of information available to our brains over a period of time.
2. Perceptions can be broken if we STOP the process of concluding results from the volume of information available. We CAN introduce new ideas to the brain and FORCE it THINK rationally.

Our brain can be forced to think differently fighting past information. It is up to us to enable our minds to think so. And before expecting others to think so, we need to do that ourselves.

A notable point here is that our own minds are susceptible to fall prey to implicit biases. For example: when I took the first test, in spite of me being a working woman who goes to office, I grouped the word “kitchen” under female. WHY? My brain merely processed the massive volume of information fed into it by new channels and historical data. Now in the second test, I stopped myself from auto-grouping “Kettle” under “Female & Office” and FORCED myself to think why can’t a spoon be categorized under Male. Why not desk under female? That is when my mind started changing perceptions and tried to think RATINOALLY.

As woman I want others to view me as a forthright and independent minded person. YET- I realise I have implicit biases within myself. And I sometimes subject myself to fall prey to them. I need to change how I THINK about myself and only then can I change what others think of me. And thus I need to create my own reality and then enable others to see it.

So, what reality are you going to create for yourself today?

References: You can go take the IAT on the internet, read more about it here or refer to the book Blink. 

Can you manage perception to create your reality?

“Perception is reality-Unfortunately our perception is your reality”- said a client director to my sales leader recently in a business discussion.

In a business scenario, our clients hold the purse strings. We need to add value to him/her woo them, please them enough to be convinced to change their perceptions about our products, our business and our brand in order to be associated with us.

But in a personal scenario, do we still do the same? Every single day that we come to work we carry a personal brand. We need to add value to the people we talk to, colleagues, clients, partners, something to take away. If it is a person in higher management or a client, we woo them, sell our image and create our perception in way we want it to be.

In an ideal world, our perception of ourselves should be our reality. But it is not. Usually our reality becomes what others perceive of us irrespective of what we believe in. Ex: Say, I have been working out for 3 months and feel really fit and trim. But when I run into a colleague who says, “Hey long time, looks like you have gained some holiday weight!” AND… blooop… there goes my confidence down the drain.

IT should not.

But it does.

And then we spend time for damage repair and convincing ourselves that what the others thought of us was not real.

Strangely this necessity to want to be perfect to the world shows up differently in different genders. While women show a larger inclination towards being perfect in their looks and also in multitasking (balancing home and work), men seem to show a higher tendency towards being viewed confident and as someone who is in charge of situations.

It is partly true that physical appearance as such plays an important role in image perception. Malcolm Gladwell in this article particularly speaks of why tall men are perceived to be leaders and 58% of CEOs in Fortune 500 companies are taller than 6 feet.

Yet, judgment about appearance has larger impact on female self-esteem than male. Many social experiments have particularly proved that beauty in other women or praise for other women sparks an instant threat in a woman. This is partly genetic and partly deep-rooted in the way women have been perceived time immemorial.

Similarly, the man has been the Alpha provider in tribes right since we evolved from Apes. While the purpose of the female has been to nurture, the man has been to provide and protect. This is again as deep rooted as is the female insecurity for physical appearance.

But why is any of this relevant to personal branding or building our perception? Because in order to build a brand for the world it is important to build a brand for oneself. What we are, we believe becomes our second nature and our reality and thus our perception.

How can then, either gender deal with this insecurity from affecting how they view their own personal image?

Recognize: Awareness and acknowledgement is the first step to action. It is important to recognize that feeling judged for physical appearance is in the genes and second nature of women. It also is an important part of self- identity. This acceptance saves many women the trouble to disprove it, fight and to keep re-defining their image based on what other think. Ex: A few days ago a male friend suggested that my profile picture on facebook looked boring. Ideally I should not be bothered. I actually thought it was very pretty and professional picture in a saree. Neither am I young teenager to feel flustered the moment I am not judged fashionable enough. And also I am as such not very dressy girl. Yet, it bothered me. The fact that a younger woman’s picture was stated as an example bothered me somewhere deep down inside. WHAT bothered me was not the comment but the fact that I was jealous. After deeply pondering over this thought, I have come to acknowledge that this is my nature. I am supposed to feel threatened deep down inside and that it is OK. I do not have necessity to prove that I don’t care, neither do I have a necessity to compete. I feel judged and that is ok. Whew!

For men, acceptance that their female family members would take more than “five minutes” to get dressed even when it is a pointless occasion would help their relationship greatly. Accept, she feels judged. It is in her genes.

Acceptance of ourselves or our partner’s second nature enables us to understand what the person is capable of. And then one can start constructing the reality around it. While it is imperative that our perception to the world needs to be associated with our actions, our work and what we can do, it is more important for us to know who we are. To accept ourselves, love ourselves, preen over the mirror, take pride in our physical appearance whatever it may be, at every stage and age of life. 

Because when we love ourselves and perceive ourselves to be loveable- our perception becomes our and others’ reality.

Why We Love Humanizing Marketing (And You Should, Too!)

When was the last time someone held out the door for you in a restaurant? Or someone addressed you by your first name while taking your order?

What made you feel nice about it was not just the personal attention but the HUMAN attention. World would have been much simpler had we been marketing Pedigree biscuits to enthusiastic puppies. Unfortunately the puppies do not have money to buy. It is the humans who own their purse. Behind every organization, designation, customer, buyer there sits a human being- thinking feeling and making decisions. And this human being’s decisions are never rational. They are emotional.

It is key for organizations to cater to the emotional needs of customer to build superior experience. The rest follows much like the chicken and egg story but here the egg came first. And so indeed marketeers need to make the first move to establish the emotional connect.

It has been proved by MRI neuro-imagery that consumers, while evaluating brands, primarily use emotions (personal feelings and experiences) rather than information (brand attributes, features, and facts).

Advertising research reveals that emotional response to an ad has far greater influence on a consumer’s reported intent to buy a product than does the ad’s content – by a factor of 3-to-1 for television commercials and 2-to-1 for print ads.

However, building the HUMANIZING experience goes beyond that. Humanized marketing relies on two basic factors

• Emotional awareness in how you treat your customers

• Emotional intelligence in how your brand communicates to your customers

I explored part 1 in my previous post here how organizations can encourage the culture of treating their customers well.

Part 2 is much more relevant in today’s virtual world. The role of marketing in organizations is fundamentally changing. This is age of “the customer comes to you”, 53% of decisions and impressions are already made up in the customer’s mind before the first interaction point with your brand. Starting then roughly THREE SECONDS is what you get before you get to make you first impression and emotional connect with the customer.

How then, can we rely on content marketing to build human and emotional connect and what we say and how we say it?

TELL A STORY.

Stories are about characters like your customers and their experiences. They instantly relate to the buyers’ need, desire and wants- it is all about them. No one cares about what you offer unless it is a part of their story, their journey.

KNOWLEDGE MARKETING

In one word- Don’t sell products. Sell information. Educate and inspire. Teach them HOW you THINK and thus help them understand your products. Ex: Don’t sell me a camera. Teach me how to take a great picture.

Goldman Sachs launched a Progress video campaign in which it profiled the companies in which it has invested, and the positive changes those companies made in the world.

HELP THEM CONNECT

n this shrinking digital world, Systems of engagement are the next big thing. They bridge the gap between traditional knowledge residing in one place and the users in another. People like to connect and share with likeminded people. Help build those communities-provide an active engagement platform to build loyalty. Support them by crowdsharing and tweetchats.

When building your content strategy:

LISTEN: building communities also enables to view them as collective group. What do they want? What is on their mind?

ASPIRE: not for yourself but for your buyer. Help them talk about their aspirational journey. What they want and need for themselves- you exist to help.

Example British Airways campaign enables a couple to afford their DREAM Honeymoon. Every airline takes you to a destination. But BA helped them dream and live it. This emotional connect stays long with the brand.

Remember the science of buying is not RATIONAL but EMOTIONAL. So your content and messaging needs to cater to the influential emotion helping making the buying decision. AND positive emotions toward a brand have far greater influence on consumer loyalty than trust.

This post is third in series emotional connect for building superior client experience. Watch out for part 4 on building customer relationship value coming on March 30th. You may like to read on part 1- Acquiring the customer and part 2- retaining the customer.

How ONE salesman cost McDonald’s a media outrage

On Jan 10th, 2015, IBNlive reported the news of a young destitute boy ill-treated in McDonald’s Pune outlet spurring media outrage. What followed was an angry debate of how sales executives in retail outlets must be trained to treat every customer with respect and empathy. What McDonald’s had spent millions of dollars and many painstaking years to build was questioned and tarnished due to one employee’s behavior. We are speaking of the premium brand, goodwill and TRUST that I, as a customer, feel when I enter the outlet. But now every time I go I may look at how the executives treat me and the people around me with microscopic judgment. If I get annoyed by one of them I may feel irritated enough not to go back and tell 5 of my friends that perhaps, the shutting down of the Pune outlet was treatment well deserved. I will add fuel to the fire. How does McDonald’s and any other retail outlet including your Kirana store round the corner, ensure that the lowest rung of its field salesmen- GET this point?

I initially started this discussion here in part 1 of this blog where we spoke of how 1) Making your customer “feel” important and valued, erasers barriers and helps you relate to their needs better.

2) We also spoke of the ability of customer to spend on single transaction is less important than his/her Lifetime value and ability to spend cumulatively.

3) And we thus saw how a customer can help grow your business by positive word of mouth and how you in turn can help grow him by building an aspirational journey, and then him/her achieve it along with revenue for your business.

I received some great insights from my blog readers. The most intriguing summary of all of them put together was that the organizational management is to blame for Salesmen not understanding the value of how to treat their customers. The root causes are

• The way organizations train and evaluate their salesmen

• The way they measure and commission their salesmen

Let me address part 1 of the problem in this blog.

On what skills are organizations training their sales people?

The WRONG WAY to train

It was Jan 2013, when we stepped into a Subway outlet in Noida. I must now clarify that I am loyal Subway fan and had survived on only sub sandwiches for 3 months in row in 2006 and then again in 2009 and that too with only vegetarian options. When I go to the store, I feel a sense of familiarity that I “know” their products and I know exactly how “MY” sub should be like. On that day, we asked the executive to put extra “Olives” in my salad. My request had been refused in any other outlet prior to this. Subway was second home. But that day the person behind the counter made faces and added two pieces of broken olives reluctantly. My cousin immediately got irked and asked him to add a few more.

To that, the executive, said, he had been strictly instructed to add ONLY “TEN” olives per order. “Is this what he is really being trained for or he said it out of the blue?”

My cousin got angry. It was not the olives, honestly if he had told me politely that it was charged beyond a quantity, I would have paid. It was the sensitivity of the executive. FOOD is highly personal business; especially when it is charged at a premium. Any sense of hostility, judgement, a smirk or reluctance from the person serving you immediately touches a raw spot. It makes you feel that you are “BEGGING” the guy when in actuality you are PAYING a Premium.

When you train the executives to stick to ten olives, also teach them HOW to handle exceptional requests for more. Just 2 more olives would have made a subway loyalist happy.

Long story short, we got into an argument which neither the executive nor the store manager could resolve. Not even the Facebook India page. I refuse to step into that Subway store till date.

THE RIGHT WAY

Jan 2015, Subway outlet, Connaught Place, New Delhi. I step into the store on working day, hungry and tired. An employee surprisingly held out the door for me and the entire staff behind the counter shouted “Welcome to Subway Ma’am”. I was pleasantly intrigued. While I sat down with my Sub, I heard the lady behind the cash counter consistently greet every single customer with an upbeat tone, genuine enthusiasm and question or two about how their day was. When I was leaving, I went and made it point to appreciate her and Thank her personally. That is when she fished out a book and requested me to “write down” my feedback.

I saw from the corner of my eye, it was the store manager encouraging these employees to measure themselves through this demeanor. They were specially appreciated for these efforts. And they felt genuine enthusiasm.

I have a colleague in IBM Retail marketing who was a McDonald’s store manager prior to his MBA. Nihit Sharda shares his surprise when he looks at the McDonald Pune’s story. He shares his experience of how he shared burgers, multiple times with destitute kids and sometimes even at half price and then ended up paying the remaining amount from his salary.

He encouraged every employee of his store to be kind to every single customer.

We may have conscientious managers like Nihit or smart franchise owners like the manager of the enthusiastic Subway store. But this should not be left to matter of chance. Retailers need to set systems in place to make it happen. Retailers like Mcdonald’s appreciate their employees in multiple ways such as Wall of fame visible in their stores. However information says parameters of evaluation are speed of service within 2-3 minutes and quality. But it is evident that while sellers maybe driven by commissions for number of sales closed, they also respond to verbal appreciation for good behaviour with customers.

Like the customer’s immediate value is not evident to the salesman and the organization, the value of good behaviour is not evident to the salesmen. If treated well customers buy more in the long run.

If they genuinely develop relationships, sales people make 35% more and easier revenue from existing clients and repeat sales than acquiring new customers.

So as a manager or a person running an organization it would be good to ensure

1) Consistent training and communication to your sales people to “Treat” customers well, they statistically make more money, repeat and volume sales and longer relationships.

2) Create an ecosystem of recognition and appreciation for their good behaviour NOT just highest SALES.

3) Recognize employees on titles such as “Most kind executive”, “Most liked executive” or “Most friendly executive” based on customer feedback and measurement.

As Bob Phibb says in the Retail doctor’s blog here that “if the conversation stays focused on price, it’s nearly impossible to upsell or suggest useful add-ons. As long as the customer is focused on cost, they can’t see value”.

It is one part to get your employees to treat your customers well, it is another part to help them understand the next step if this journey- to empathize and humanize the conversation to realise the life time value of the customer. 

This post is second in series emotional connect for building superior client experience. You may like to read on part 1- Acquiring the customer and part 3- on building the personalized client experience