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Editor: Dr. Wolf J. Rinke **** Feel free to forward this eNewsletter to others. **** IN THIS ISSUE 1. NEWS YOU CAN USE 2. PIZZA IN THE SKY: LESSONS LEARNED FROM SERVICE FAILURES 3. HOW TO GET YOUR PROBLEMS SOLVED 4. WINNING ACTION STEPS 5. FREE STUFF AND SPECIAL OF THE MONTH 6. HUMOR BREAK 7. CONTACT AND SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION ======================================================== REALITY CHECK The world is not run by those who are right. It is run by those who can convince others that they are right. - Jamshid Gharajedaghi (Courtesy of Jeff Levin, an avid reader) ======================================================== 1. NEWS YOU CAN USE ======================================================== MORE CEO'S DOUBT THEIR OWN ABILITY TO MANAGE A study of 441 chief executives of the fastest-growing US product and service companies revealed that 32% felt that "their own ability to manage or reorganize their business could be 'an impediment to growth' during the next 12 months. That is up from 10% seven years ago. CEOs that were the most apprehensive were those who were managing technology and global companies. SOLUTION: Take advantage of the services of an executive coach or advisory board. They can help you manage more effectively, improve your leadership skills and grow your business faster. Source: Wall Street Journal, 9/5/2000 p. B2. LEADERSHIP STYLES IMPACT ON EMPLOYEE CREATIVITY Employees who have high innovative cognitive styles and intrinsic motivation produce more innovative results, as measured by three independent ratings, when they are in a positive leader-employee relationship. That increase in creative performance is maximized when employees who have high intrinsic motivation report to a leader who has similar characteristics. Conversely that productivity is decreased when employees with low motivation are matched with highly motivated leaders. The researchers suggest that highly motivated leaders may further energize motivated employees while they intimidate employees with low motivation. SOLUTION: As a general rule, select employees and leaders for internal motivation and positive attitude first and skills second. If high levels of creativity and innovation are important to your organization, make sure that employees also have high innovative cognitive styles and pair them with like leaders. Source: Tierney, p. et al. 1999. An examination of leadership and employee creativity. Personnel Psychology, 52: 591-620. STOP THE E-MAIL MADNESS The typical corporate e-mail user receives an average of 30 e-mails a day and spends more than two hours attending to them. This is up 50% from a year ago. Furthermore companies project a 35 to 50% increase in e-mail traffic over the next year. That means by 2002 the average employee will be spending about a half of their workday attending to e-mails. By the way a significant amount of e-mail traffic is between people who are within walking or even speaking distance. SOLUTION: 1. Don't e-mail if a phone call is faster. 2. Don't e-mail anything that is subject to interpretation or of a personal nature. (There is no privacy in cyberspace.) 3. Practice more Management by Walking Around (MBWA). 4. Be concise. 5. Only use CC and blind copies if there is a real need to know. 6. Don't use attachments unless absolutely necessary. 7. Make liberal use of the delete key. 8. Handle each message only once. 9. Avoid unnecessary back and forth such as "Thanks" or "OK." 10. Avoid e-mail for decision making or scheduling (takes too many back and forth). Source: Wall Street Journal, 9/26/2000, p. B1. ======================================================= 2. PIZZA IN THE SKY: LESSONS LEARNED FROM SERVICE FAILURES by Wolf J. Rinke, PhD, CSP ======================================================= I couldn't believe it! I was being put on my flight back home early! But wait I'm getting ahead of myself. I had had a demanding but gratifying day. I delivered a motivational opening session in Rochester, NY, followed by an intensive sales seminar after lunch. And the day went GRRREAT! For both programs I received a standing ovation. So I was absolutely stunned when I arrived at the Rochester airport at about 4:30 pm and was told by the agent: "Dr. Rinke we can put you on a flight right now. It will get you to Washington/Dulles 30 minutes early." So I grabbed my McDonald's bag, and jumped aboard. Just before take off, the door was re-opened and we were told: "We have bad news for you. We've just been locked out from Dulles. Please go back into the terminal until at least 6:00 pm." I took this in strides. It gave me an opportunity to eat my cold McDonald's "unhappy" meal. However, several of the passengers were distraught. The reason, flight UA7578 had a scheduled departure time of 3:30 pm. At about 6:50 pm everyone was asked to get back aboard for an "immediate departure." You guessed it. Immediate was not so immediate, because at 7:00 pm the pilot advised us that we had to wait a "bit longer." Continued thunderstorms were delaying all flights into Washington/Dulles. Finally at 7:25 pm we started our short 65 minute flight. After we had been in the air for about 90 minutes John, the pilot, advised us that we had been placed in a holding pattern. What was unusual, was that John was very empathetic and "told us more than we wanted to know." He truly seemed sorry that this was such a fiasco. Also unusual was Amy, the young flight attendant, who was extremely cheerful and helpful throughout. Being responsive to every passenger who had a question, she was able to defuse a lot of apprehension and somehow made the flight not nearly as bad as it really was. She even began to serve free beer and wine. After circling the "friendly sky" for about two and a half hours, John told us that he was getting low on fuel and that we needed to land in Charlottesville, VA to refuel. Once again, at 10:30 pm, we were asked to get off the plane. Sounded great, except the little Charlottesville, VA airport had been virtually closed for the night, except a small boarding area. After about 50 minutes we were asked to get back aboard. No sooner had everyone fastened their seat belt the pilot told us that we had lost our "slot." And would we please get off the plane again. By then it was just about midnight and several passengers had been traveling for 18 hours. So we went back to the waiting area hoping for a miracle. And it came when Amy cheerfully announced that she had ordered pizza and soft-drinks for everyone. That seemed to cheer everyone up. Just as the pizza arrived some 35 minutes later, Amy told us that we had been given the go ahead. So Amy grabbed all the pizza boxes and soft drinks and told us: "No problem, I'll get this served in route." After we finally took off for the 15 minute flight, Amy served us our preference of Pizza. In spite of the late hour she was very pleasant and cheerful. Actually it felt more like we were at a ball game than in the air. When we finally landed at Washington/Dulles shortly after 1:00 am everyone thanked Amy and John for a job well done. Mind you, for most passengers the approximate 1 hour flight had taken 91/2 hours! Here is what can we learn from this: Don't fret about service failures! It's not the failure that will cause you to lose customers. It's how front line service providers respond that will make or break your business. Research tells us that unsatisfied tell an average of 12 others about their unsatisfactory service experience. Unfortunately thatŐs a very costly proposition since it literally destroys positive word-of-mouth, the only advertising that really works. It is also extremely costly since it costs roughly five times as much to attract a new customer compared to retaining a current customer. And you can increase profits by 25-95% by merely retaining 5% more of your current customers. Here is what the crew did that is worth replicating: EXPRESS EMPATHY Both Amy and John came across as really sorry. APOLOGIZE The crew apologized repeatedly. TAKE OWNERSHIP They took ownership by not blaming anyone else for the problems. FIX IT. WHEN YOU CAN'T, MAKE IT AS PLEASANT AS POSSIBLE They served free wine, beer and even Pizza. OVER-COMMUNICATE At every opportunity the captain gave us detailed updates. TELL THE TRUTH. They answered every question patiently and candidly. MINIMIZE STRESS. Withholding important information causes dysfunctional stress and contributes to customers going "ballistic." What to do even better? "PLUS UP" All of us were inconvenienced in a big way. Serving Pizza may have gotten us "minimally satisfied" but certainly will not generate positive word of mouth for United Airlines. However, if you "plus up" wronged customers, by, for example, giving customers a cash coupon, service providers can actually generate a greater level of positive word of mouth, than if it had been done right in the first place. (Research tells us that a satisfied customer will tell about 3 others, but a recovered customer will tell about 5 others). The reason is that services that exceed customers expectations are much more memorable than those that meet expectations. This causes more customers to come back and bring you more business. -------------------------------------------------------- *** NEW ** NEW ** WEB BASED TRAINING ** NEW ** NEW *** Now you and your employees can receive training the convenient and inexpensive way by enrolling on-line in a wide variety of courses. From management development to sexual harassment. All training can be tracked. Try it out for FREE today! You won't believe how easy and effective it is. Simply click on http://www.WolfRinke.com/mgttraining.html
DO YOU HAVE A QUESTION, SUGGESTION OR A MANAGEMENT SUCCESS STORY? We are getting some great success stories from our subscribers, and would like to hear yours. Every story we use receives a FREE gift. Mailto:WolfRinke@aol.com. ======================================================= 3. HOW TO GET YOUR PROBLEMS SOLVED ======================================================= High employee turnover? **** Low customer satisfaction? Unproductive employees? ** Low morale? ** Lack of trust? **** Resistance to change **** Poor communication? **** Our high impact consulting services and customized management and personal development training will solve these and other "people" problems! Call us at 800-828-9653 or mailto:WolfRinke@aol.com to
********* Tired of the same boring meetings? ********* Would you like your next meeting, retreat or conference to be a "howling success"? Contact us. Dr. Rinke is a highly effective motivational and management keynote speaker and seminar leader who delivers customized presentations that combine story telling, humor and motivation with specific "how to" action strategies that participants can apply immediately to improve the quality of their personal and professional lives. Call him at 800-828-9653 or mailto:WolfRinke@aol.com ======================================================== 4. WINNING ACTION STEPS ======================================================== GET RID OF CONFLICT ONCE AND FOR ALL Whenever you are in a situation that seems to be moving in the direction of conflict, simply and sincerely say: "You are right about that." The primary reason that we have a "need" to be right is to feed our ego, and feeding your ego takes disempowers you. (For the why see the REALITY CHECK above.) To insure that you are not sounding like a parrot, use these derivations: "That's an interesting perspective." "I have never thought of it that way." "I see what you mean." etc. PRACTICE WINNING MANAGEMENT Autocratic managers believe that they: - are in charge - tell people what to do - have the answers "Winning" managers believe that they: - set the direction - tell people the constraints - give people freedom to operate within the constraints. Adopt the Winning Management paradigm and act accordingly. TREAT EVERY EMPLOYEE AS IF HE/SHE IS A VOLUNTEER Stop and think, what would you say to your team members if they were volunteers? How about: Could you do me a favor? Please. Thank you! Can I count on you? I need your help. I really appreciate what you've done. Thanks for being on my team! Now stand back and watch you and your team members succeed faster! ======================================================== 5. FREE STUFF AND SPECIAL OF THE MONTH ======================================================== ### SPECIAL OF THE MONTH ### ONLY FOR SUBSCRIBERS ### Super high quality six-tape audio album: Winning Management: 6 Fail-Safe Strategies for Building High-Performance Organizations, by W. J. Rinke. Price: $59.95. ONLY $49.95 Plus FREE shipping (US only). $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ SAVE $17.00!!! $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ ###### You must mention this offer when you order!! ###### ***** 100% UNCONDITIONAL MONEY BACK GUARANTEE. ***** Order NOW! Offer expires 11/15/2000. Call 800-828-9653 or http://www.WolfRinke.com/WMprod.html
For FREE articles, inspirational messages and other money saving offers on books, audio and video tapes that will help you and your company succeed FASTER visit our website: http://www.WolfRinke.com ======================================================== 6. HUMOR BREAK ======================================================== STRANGE BUT TRUE WARNINGS: On a bag of Fritos: YOU COULD BE A WINNER! NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. DETAILS INSIDE. (The shoplifter special!) On a packet of nuts: INSTRUCTIONS: OPEN PACKET, EAT NUTS. (I'm glad they cleared that up.) On helmet mounted mirrors used by cyclists: REMEMBER, OBJECTS IN THE MIRROR ARE ACTUALLY BEHIND YOU. (Could have fooled me) ======================================================== 7. CONTACT AND SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION ======================================================== Dr. Wolf J. Rinke, CSP President Wolf Rinke Associates, Inc. P.O. Box 350 Clarksville, MD 21029-0350 USA (410) 531-9280, Fax (410) 531-9282 For orders in the US (800) 828-WOLF (9653) Email: Mailto:WolfRinke@aol.com Website: http://www.WolfRinke.com If this was forwarded to you and you would like to receive your own FREE subscription mailto:WolfRinke@aol.com and type the word SUBSCRIBE in the subject box. To remove yourself from this mailing list, please type the word UNSUBSCRIBE WM in the subject box. PRIVACY STATEMENT: We will not make your name available to anyone. Period!
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