3D Coaching

3D Juggling 499: Who comes first?

Jane writes:  "It's been another week of cuts and we still haven't reached the Spending Review in the UK.  There is an increasingly limited amount of funding available to support any kind of coaching and training in organisations.  How can limited resources be used to have maximum impact on organisational effectiveness?

Customers and volunteers respond to many things, including products, prices, location, and advertising. They also respond to their experience of people.  Maya Angelou, an American poet, said “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

One way of increasing effectiveness is to reduce the amount of time spent in responding to complaints and concerns raised by customers, volunteers and other stakeholders. Feedback from customers, whether they are collecting mail from a Royal Mail delivery office, receiving treatment at a hospital, or trying to return a faulty item to a store, is often related to the attitude and behaviour of staff. And the attitude and behaviour staff is likely to be influenced by the way that they are treated by their managers and colleagues.

From my experience of working in organisations I formed the view that the people who really need to be put first are employees and volunteers. If you get it right for them they will get it right for your customers.

It can take a long time to develop loyalty in a customer or volunteer - and just seconds to lose it. How do your employees, colleagues, or volunteers make customers/clients/visitors feel? Do they know? Are they interested? They should be."

Talk to us about how we can help you to develop a culture where staff feel valued, engaged and empowered, and where customers experience positive attitudes and behaviours.

See People Management from 12 August 2010 to read how an IT company with 60,000 staff implemented a management approach that put employees first and customers second.  It achieved dramatic improvements in performance underpinned by a 70% increase in employee satisfaction. During a recession.

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