Transforming Your Front-Line Employees Into
Transforming Your Front-Line Employees Into
In the current economic climate, it is imperative that companies concentrate on building a lasting and secure bridge between its marketing function’s vision for the future and the service delivery offered by front-line and leadership teams. This will enable an organisation’s engagement to match or exceed the customer’s expectation from the brand and to transform employees into Living Brand Champions.
The media turned its attention to the economy and people became more aware and interested in the financial situations around them. The media turned its focus to the government and now the attention has been turned to politics. As part of the media generation, we are all driven by this powerful information source and it is this same force and mindset that drives our customer’s expectation of brand service delivery. Brands enter our worlds through various mediums and marketing initiatives and we tend to, like the media, have an unwavering belief in them. Brands are a contract of assurance and are living and breathing through the actions of our front-line teams. It has never been more important to ensure that this direct channel to your customer is sending out a broadcast that represents your brand promise in a language of strength, confidence and unity. Customers are more astute than ever before; however, in the current economic climate, they are also seeking safety and security wherever they can find it. This unconscious and basic need for safety is driving up their demand for exceptional customer service and, more importantly, the service that the marketing team set as a promise at purchase. If organisations manage the customer experience with professionalism and service excellence today, it can be an opportunity to create customer advocacy that will last long beyond this or any recession. Most analysts agree that tough times make people think more and, when people think more, they re-assess their behaviour. Those companies who’ve confused customer habit with customer loyalty quickly discover that they’re not the same thing. The single biggest risk that organisations have in a recession is also the same risk that companies have when they go through a fast and successful growth period. They are in danger of losing touch with the one key component that holds that brand in contact with its customers – its front-line people. As companies go through an intense growth spurt, they can get so focussed on chasing the wealth that time pressures in doing so puts people development on the back burner. As in times of recessions, organisations can get so focussed on cost cutting and battening down the hatches that they forget the importance of the very same thing – people development. Training of your front-line in brand management and service excellence in difficult times should not be seen as a cost but a necessary investment in the future of the business. With the recent economic downturn and the continuous negative messages of uncertainty that are hitting both our customers and teams, it is crucial to concentrate on our service delivery. Closing down and reflecting on 2008 was both bitter and sweet as we were all introduced to a new vocabulary that incorporated words such as credit crunch and right sizing. However, it is also an opportunity to concentrate on the good work that we accomplished in a diverse and an unprecedented market. If we have learned anything from previous economic slows it is that it is not a time to turn our backs on people development but to face it straight on and prepare our people to excel at service. 2009 has brought with it a new set of challenges and, if managed correctly, will see the true winners back on top again. The motivation and commitment of our people - and ultimately the way in which they engage - will make or break an already fragile customer confidence. We are beginning to see the cracks of confidence stem from our front-line people and the demands that are being put on them can have irreversible effects if not kept in check.
It is imperative that people development continues in the current market yet, without question, it should be better monitored and managed. The struggle between the negative balance sheet today and a positive one in a year’s time sits with the direct channel to your customer – your people. In such uncertain times, people development must be engaging to the audience - it must instil pride in the organisation and belief that the front-line does make a real impact on the financial security of the business. I am a big advocate of accelerated learning techniques, and offering people the opportunity to learn in an environment that is both fun and educational, allowing the brain to absorb information in a unique way. I am always surprised that so many organisations still opt for classroom only training or what I like to call the ‘tell zone’. If this is what your brand represents then fine; however, if not, then your people development should represent your brand vision and values. It was this need for more interactive and value-based learning that gave Bridge the impetus to put into place the Living Brand® concept and embark on a mission to introduce customer centric organisations to its Brand2Life programme. Great customer service is at the forefront of most reputable brands and, with the winds of economic change affecting most marketing and training departments, it is more important than ever to ensure that our front-line people are best equipped to retain our existing customers. Over the years I have heard the term ‘first time resolution’ commands emanate from Team Leaders and Contact Centre Managers, see it appear in mission statements and even have board members the world over boast that it is their company’s way forward. First time resolution is a dream that all companies may wish for, however, few are coming close to reaching this desired state. If keeping cost low in the current climate is important, then this can - and will - be achieved through a better connected front-line and a better connected front-line can - and will - be achieved from brand value-based learning. With customer confidence already in a fuelled emotional state, it is imperative that our front-line be better equipped to achieve this than ever before. With even a fractional increase towards this benchmark, the money spent on development will soon pay for itself and hence should be seen as an investment and never a cost. However, let’s look to the organisations that are reaching their goals and understand what clear guidance can be learned from them and how to best achieve exceptional customer and staff satisfaction levels. This is where the Bridge Brand2Life process ensures that training is consistent across all tiers of the organisation. It ensures that all levels of an organisation are learning and representing the brand in an appropriate manner. It is our recommendation that all organisations develop strong branded programmes for their core training modules and then use this theme to create a Brand2Life series for its additional modules. All themes are a direct derivative of the core values of the organisation and hence create a seamless link between the marketing department’s view of brand and that of the front-line. A Brand2Life programme will allow a vast amount of cost saving on future programmes as they will continue to run with one core direction. This will enable organisations to build a lasting and secure bridge between its marketing function, its vision for the future and its frontline and leadership teams.
means of media or directly from named representatives, then you are a brand. The supply chain of brand delivery begins in the creative minds of our advertising, marketing and brand teams and from there, passed to the customers in a neatly packaged promise. The true delivery of this brand is alive – it is breathing, it feels and it thinks and more importantly it needs to be connected to the end-to-end process. In today’s busy brand environment, what separates the winners from the mediocre is a question that needs addressing if we are going to use this status in building key relationships between your organisation and your people. It is with this information that we can begin to develop frontline customer management training that will deliver the service that can be enjoyed by both the delivery team and the customer. Hence, your first port of call for any front-line training should begin with the team that sets the expectation line for your customer – the same team that brings your values alive in the world of marketing. It is imperative to see the brand as they see it – as this will be a closer view of how your customers see, hear and feel your organisation. Wikipedia defines brands as labels of ownership: name, term, design, and symbol. To me, that sounds like your own personal business card and somewhat too simplistic for such a huge unconscious environment. It is this missing link that needs to be explored with our people at point of first meet, recruitment, induction and all the way through to the promotion and advancement process. It is what sits behind the logo, colours and billboards and what sits at the heart of the organisation – its true values and what it honestly represents.
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Initially, many front-line customer service people receive their induction training, their welcome pack to their new organisation, get dropped into the basic skills requirement training and then left to brand manage customers day in day out. All this until the dreaded burnout takes effect and the treadmill moves them on to the next of many brands. We must address the sheer importance of great front-line customer service people and truly look at the role, not only from service, but from a brand management perspective. This movement from immediate service to proactive brand champions will allow organisations to truly make a difference in the delivery channel to customers. The economy will improve and recruitment of new people will be back on the agenda – so use this time to ensure that the induction of new people is not based on numbers but seeking out those people that will easily move from employees to Living Brand® champions. Building the bridge between your marketing department and your Living Brand® ambassadors is a must if you are to succeed in the increased expectation lines of your customers. Customers are demanding better service, increased compensation and a service delivery team that matches their promise of brand at time of purchase. In the competitive race of marketing, we are offering more by way of sensory stimulation, more hits from media and more desire to have our brands ‘do what they say on the tin’. However, if we can begin to separate and clearly understand the power that brands have over our society, and learn from this power when making our own Living Brand®, then real success is waiting around the corner. From local authorities to the big banks – if your customers have been made a promise by
It ensures that all levels of an organisation are learning and representing the brand in an appropriate manner.
It is what brands do for people that matters much more, how they reflect and engage them, how they define their aspirations and enable them to do more. Powerful brands can drive success in competitive markets, and indeed become the organisation’s most valuable assets. Harnessing this unconscious power, applying and incorporating it to our customer service people training and development will allow them the simple pleasure of understanding that brands are alive. They are created to exist in the hearts and minds of their users and, in so, have penetrated the two most valuable assets needed to assist in their growth. For brands to grow and remain successful, they must have a team that understands and believes that The Living Brand® holds more power than ever before. It is also imperative that in such uncertain times we create this connection bridge between our people and the organisations that they represent. As mentioned, we are all part of the media generation – so never forget that our people too are being hit daily with doom and gloom stories that is guaranteed to affect their performance. Whether these stories are in the morning news or gleaned from internal gossip, they will all affect motivation and performance if left unmanaged. This decrease in performance will ultimately affect both the customer and the bottom line. The idea behind value-based learning is to enable your people to feel better connected to their environment. It offers them a level of security both within their teams and within the organisation as a whole. As a people, we gravitate to others that share a similar value system to our own – it is this gravitational pull that will bond us together with close friends and family for life. We may not always be in their present company, yet we will defend that relationship with all our standing. It is this bond that organisations should be seeking to create. Forget the quest for first time resolution and begin the process of creating true, honest and connected Living Brands® and leave the first time resolution up to them. Organisations inherently - through their systems, values, training and rules - try to suppress creativity, yet the implications of the need for self-actualisation is that they need their creative and free thinkers. For this to happen they must create an environment where free expression is encouraged and creative genius stimulated. The managerial fear here is that anarchy may ensue; however, to encourage innovation rules must be questioned and occasionally bent. It is easy to play it safe and happily glide under the radar with skills training but for many years we have experienced that if the attitude and motivation of the person is not correct then all the skills in the world will never manifest a continuous brand loyal experience. In my experience, the contact centre, customer service management and frontline sales industry houses some of the brightest, most talented people in business. I have often stated that if I
was to organise a back-to-work programme I would put participants into a contact centre for one year, in order that they could obtain the experience in communication, managing emotions, positive and negative people, problem solving and remaining engaged during repetitive tasks. I fully support training that enables delegates with the opportunity to engage in best practice in the required skills, however, it cannot continue to be delivered in a way that says ‘this is what you must do’. The retention of this style of training is low, the delegate engagement level is poor and the ROI received from organisations is not a valued investment. People need to be engaged, they need to understand human behaviour and, above all, allow the respect and opportunity to play their role in brand management. There is also fairly good neuroscientific evidence suggesting that curiosity can be considered as an intrinsic motivational drive. Accordingly, novelty in the learning environment is an important element in motivation as novelty awakens curiosity. Interestingly, detection of novelty is associated with the methods in which we teach our people as it is an important structure in memory encoding and memory consolidation. In simple terms, when people are in an environment that is new and different, this stimulates a chemical in the brain that is also used for memory retention. If the purpose of training and developing our people is to have the information retained and utilised once back in the workplace, then the methods and styles in which the information is transmitted is key. Hence, it is important to understand what drives your people’s behaviours. Once this information is obtained, it can help guide the appropriate l e a r n i n g interactions and ensure you are focusing on the right things with each and every person on your team. Learning should be fun and stimulating and done in a manner that ensures people feel “invested in” as opposed to “dictated to”. This is where understanding what style of development event will assist your organisation and drive employee motivation and their will to perform once back in the workplace is imperative. Firstly, if genuine commitment is to be achieved amongst front-line people, the brand ideology must touch the core of why people work for the organisation. It is not something that can necessarily be crafted; rather, it is something that has to be discovered. Second, the views of managers may not be an accurate reflection of the organisation and with this disconnect we start to see the breaks in what should be a positive initiative. The style that one manager may respect as an effective learning environment may not be the same that is valued by the organisation’s people, hence will never have the desired effect. The goal should be to engage front-line people and all employees as much as possible on the journey of self discovery, both themselves as individuals and as brand representatives. The importance of truly understanding the upward motives of the front-line
Brand words without connected front-line actions are meaningless
versus the downward requirements of the management team is one that often gets talk about, however not always put into application. To adopt a bottom-up process, that allows employees from all parts of the organisation to take part in discussion groups and think tanks, will revolutionise the output of your training initiatives. In the long run, it will also be a cost saving to the overall business as the wastage of development and culture change programmes is minimised. The B to C marketplace is constantly being put under the microscope to ensure that they are living up to their brand expectation. Great brands, like successful leaders, are playing to win and they are using this downturn as an opportunity to invest in the future connection of the Living Brands®. They have a clearly defined plan of words and actions required to achieve their goal. Their success lies in their delivery and ensuring that you as a consumer are getting what you have come to expect. If you have ever been disappointed, dismayed or even disgusted with one of your respected brands then you may have found yourself saying, ‘I would have expected more from brand x’. This is the dangerous side of brand development for if you set the expectation line too high, the further you may fall if you are unable to maintain it. In the current market, it is this heightened level of expectation that has pushed customer confidence even lower as this loss of respect can far outweigh any gains that the success of the brand may have accomplished. This is the testament to why your Living Brand® people must be truly connected to all brand promises and linked to the true expectation line created by our marketing and media departments. This is their opportunity to step up and be counted as a brand champion and, in some cases, brand saviour. As customer buying patterns change, so does the need for a united and motivated front-line. Quality staff training, retention and customer satisfaction should be of the utmost importance to all organisations in the current economic climate. If they are to ensure continued success in a competitive market, organisations must engage in team training that encourages individuals to connect to and become the Living Brand® for both their internal people and external customers. The Living Brand® experience looks inside the mind and behaviour patterns of front-line people and answers the question of how to turn even the most cynical of team members into a true Living Brand® Champion. This is a perfect opportunity to share experiences with like-minded individuals in an environment that has been carefully orchestrated to embrace free thinking, meet business objectives and assist in personal development and growth. The underlining theme of the Living Brand® concept is to turn words into actions. The days of talking about it are over – those that will succeed are those that put the marketing promise into action through its front-line people. To begin the movement of your people from employees into Living Brands® you must first take them on a journey of brand development and personal growth that will create an intricate web of Belief, Attitudes and Skills. 2009 can be seen as a starting point to get things back on track and get things moving again in the right direction. Developing a Living Brand® culture starts with Stage One: ‘Preparing Your Brand’. Like every great brand development, if you want to grow your Living Brand, you must first decide the ‘key defining words’ that you would want to have attributed to your organisation and the ones to be delivered through
your people. Many organisations will start with professional, innovative, intelligent, talented, humorous, unique, and motivated etc. In this stage try to be creative, engage the experience of your in-house marketing and media team and ensure that all the words can be manifested to life. This list will be the foundation for your Living Brand® – remember, it is just a list and it must be in line with your current market condition or developing brand. Utilise your think tanks and working groups at this stage – as it will be this population that will later bring them to life. I can never repeat this enough – ‘words and actions are two very different things and company mission statements are just words’. See this exercise as less of a training initiative and more of a learning experience. As your people development moves forward, you can now move ahead to Stage Two: ‘Becoming The Brand’. It is in this area of your learning experience that an organisation’s team learns how to move words into actions. We are an action-based species and so, if you want something you must do something, and more importantly if you want something different, then you will need to do something differently. It is important at this stage of your Living Brand® culture that you put manageable and achievable actions against the words that you have established as your Living Brand® guidelines. Motivation, behavioural science and sensory stimulation are a must at this stage to allow delegates the experience of bringing brands alive. Training must be challenging, different, stimulating and fun and without this combination your risk of misalignment between your brand and your Living Brand® will start here. It is also a great opportunity to start incorporating some basic skills training for individual pockets of people that require development in specific areas. By threading this training into your learning experience, you will receive less kickback from those cynics who do not believe they need training. Remember that all our great and good, our local and global, our best of the best brands have not been built overnight. They take time to cultivate their environment; they market research and test their ideas, look and feel before moving full steam ahead. More importantly, they ensure that once they have set the expectation lines of its customers they will deliver time and time again. In the development of your Living Brand® learning experience programme, your customers are your front-line people and therefore, it is important to ask them what they want. Although children are taught from a very early age to sit still and listen, things that they ought to learn are not really put in a practical context. In this sense, cognitive neuroscience could be used to focus on the way people learn. As people get older the information we retain needs to be delivered in a more implied and practical manner. The great thing about building your Living Brand® programme is that it can start today and with a little work you can leave some of the negative past behind you. Make it different; make it fun and most important make it relevant to both the audience and the business. Stage Three: ‘Own The Brand’ ensures true commitment from your team whilst cementing the learning and creating a unified people culture. Following adequate assessment of your soon-to-be Living Brands, it is at this stage that tailormade skills programmes are developed. This does not need to be a costly exercise and the time spent grouping your people into skill set requirements and identifying internal coaches will be a huge cost saving later on. True Living
Brands respond to training that will enable them to deliver their in-brand style of great customer service. Break the curse of off-the-shelf, conveyer belt training programmes and truly invest in the future of your people and your customers. All customers come to an organisation with an expectation of service and by giving your team the Living Brand® skills and autonomy to deliver them will guarantee your brand promise is met. Your Living Brand® training does not need to be complex, however, it must be able to give your team the motivation and satisfaction required to continue to the final stage. The world of both branding and people development is awash with models and theories. However, the fundamental and common challenge with most models is that they tend to be too academic and overly complex, both in terms of structure and language. The real value of a model ought to be in the simplicity and usability of it and how it can easily be translated into practical actions. In the world of academia, this does not need to be the case as it is being dealt with in a hypothetical manner – this is not so on the shop floor. An organisation’s development structure should be clear and easy for all to identify with and understand. Ultimately, no matter what a person’s role is within an organisation, employees should be able to understand and use the brand created in your learning experience – otherwise, how can they be expected to live it? In short, keep it real, keep it engaging and most of all keep it relevant to your audience. Once you have your clear Living Brand® values, your achievable plan of those words that will be manifested through your team’s actions and more importantly their commitment to deliver the Living Brand®, remember, you must ensure that it is defined over all tiers within the organisation. This Brand2Life process must be tailored to
match the learning styles and particular action outcome for each of the following levels: • Induction training • Key customer contact (touch point) staff • Middle managers and brand coaches • Leadership team and brand ambassadors One final question and the thread that will hold your Living Brand® culture together in a competitive business is: ‘What makes our organisation different and what is at the real core of how we want to be remembered by our customers?’ With this final question answered and actions applied, you are now ready to launch your Living Brand® into the market. As with all brands, never lose sight of your core values and the actions that your people must manifest in order to show your customers that your people are truly connected to the organisation they represent. Just saying the words without deliverable actions is the main difference separating the winners from the mediocre. Saying it and living it are two very different sides of your Living Brand® and the service that you offer to your customers. If first time resolution was the goal then I guarantee that you are much closer at this stage than ever before. Your people always held the power to achieve first time resolution – the question is: Did you give them the belief and empowerment to execute this privilege? The final stage is ‘Keeping The Living Brand Alive’ and this key stage is all about implementation and how to ensure that your Living Brand®s are equipped and motivated to maintain the brand management status that they have reached. Do not fall into the band-aid training trap – once it is fixed, it is gone forever. People development is about growth, nurturing, caring, respect and engagement
and most of all it needs to be maintained, monitored and managed. Again, just more words – it is in the actions that sit behind the words that you will find true success. So often, organisations will run training programmes as a reaction to the latest negative customer service results or with a change of management comes a change of direction. Living Brand®s need consistency, commitment and connection from all levels of the organisation and feel that their involvement in brand development is as important, if not the most important, part of the process. In the true nature of brands, it is a must to promote your Living Brand® programme from Day One – give it a name, logo and identity. This will allow you the opportunity to better manage the Living Brand® experience in the final stage. Creating a Living Brand® culture is an organisation’s opportunity to be more creative in their incentive and rewards for staff, linking them to brand delivery, great customer experience and not just stats, numbers and call ratios. If AHT is the most important number in your organisation, then you are probably missing out on the warmth and customer experience that is needed. This is not to say that these stats are not important – however, a true living brand will manage this with the best possible outcome for both the customer experience and the business. Once again, the tell zone in this environment will often have the complete opposite effect. The ‘Keeping the Living Brand Alive’ stage needs to involve, take ideas from and encourage your Living Brand®s to keep the momentum alive and growing internally. In the CCA membership poll 2008 – only 49% agreed that they appropriately reward the best team leaders – with only 54% agreeing that team leaders have valuable training away from the contact centre. If managed correctly through a detailed plan, continuous
inspiration and future development, then your Living Brand® experience will last far beyond the training room and develop a culture and identity all of its own. The words may look great on paper, however, the actions and the desire to deliver the brand promise is what makes truly exceptional customer service and moves organisations one step closer to their first time resolution goal. The people that an organisation employs and the degree to which their personal values match are essential elements within the overall customer experience process. Brands have great attitude and this attitude will only be delivered through the actions of your front-line Living Brands®. One final thought in our quest for true service excellence is: words without achievable actions are meaningless and true Living Brands® thrive achieving these actions.
Dale Smith
Managing Director Bridge Training and Events Ltd. dale@insidebridge.com
www.insidebridge.com