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Posts from the ‘Customer Satisfaction’ Category

Apr 5

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Perception is Reality, Roger Ebert and Politics

I’m running for elected office in my town, and am therefore frequently reminded these days that people’s perception of the truth is what governs their decisions.  Today’s monthly job report indicates that 88,000 new jobs were created in March and that US unemployment has decreased to 7.6%.   Moving in the right direction, but more slowly than we’d like.  Outcome? Stock prices and futures are declining as the week draws to a close, due to lower investor confidence in economic recovery.  Is the value of those companies really less today than it was on Monday at the opening bell? Probably not.  But company valuations can be driven as much by perception as by their financial fundamentals.  (CMGI, anyone?)

Organizations,  just like political candidates,  have to get in front of as many people as they can to tell their story and earn the trust of their customers and investors – which in turn fuels their perceived value.   Their competitors are going to do everything they can to challenge your story.  The best defense is having a track record of doing right by your stakeholders and keeping your promises.

Long time film critic for the Chicago Sun-Time, Ebert died this week after a long battle with cancer.  He built his career around critiquing others’ storytelling skills.    Two days before he died this week, he wrote his last blog post titled “A Leave of Presence” announcing that he’d be slowing down his prodigious output, but also launching new ventures.  He died less than two days later.    I love this quote of his that sums up my theme for the day.  Perception may equal reality in the eye of the beholder, but integrity goes a long way to bringing the two together.

“Kindness’ covers all of my political beliefs. No need to spell them out. I believe that if, at the end, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn’t always know this and am happy I lived long enough to find it out.”  [Salon]

Goodbye, Roger.  We’ll miss you at the movies.

Articles of Interest This Week:

Job Seekers: Show You Are Trustworthy [video] – Ask @hrbartender ow.ly/jCHRz

Is Wellness a Healthy Way to Curb Healthcare Costs? ow.ly/jCImw via @HRExecMag

What Your Employees Are Doing When You Think They’re Working ow.ly/jCIR9 via @Inc

Flexible Workspaces: Another Workplace Perk or a Must-Have To Attract Top Talent? ow.ly/jCNuZ via @Forbes

Google’s Secrets Of Innovation: Empowering Its Employees ow.ly/jCNJN via @Forbes

Digital Natives: Is Your Company a Go-To Place For Gen Y Workers? ow.ly/jF37K via @TLNT_com

Are You Happy? Finding Your Rainbow ow.ly/jF3qV via @Ray_anne @blogging4jobs

RT @williamtincup: RT Working Through Issues By Writing ow.ly/jM8FB @TrishMcFarlane

What’s Behind the Momentum for Paid Sick Days? ow.ly/jHwFM via @HuffPostBiz

Workplace Wellness Takes the Lead for Stress Awareness Month ow.ly/jHxhO via @Forbes

In 42% of Companies, The Best Workers Are The Least Engaged ow.ly/jHBNR via @Forbes

Employees Don’t Have Time For Wellness Initiatives – REPORT ow.ly/jHxYQ via @Forbes

Attitide is Everything! ow.ly/jJQ9H via @blogging4jobs

Kronites are writing about:

New Time Well Spent #Cartoon: ow.ly/jCHLO #aprilfools #scheduling

RT @SmarterCafe: Andragogy helps you scratch the itch for learning. ow.ly/1UlwjJ #prank #Kronos #training

@hrbartender’s 5 considerations for a #mobile device policy ow.ly/jF2Ne via @WF_Institute

RT @SmarterCafe: Here’s an opportunity to help kids this summer… ow.ly/jF7GV #Kronos #giveback @UnitedWay

RT @SmarterCafe: In any language, you can say “#Kronos means workforce management.” ow.ly/jI6jL

@williamtincup on the value of great customers ow.ly/jM8e9 via @WF_Institute

RT @SmarterCafe: You can #Workinspired at #Kronos, even if you have a mullet. ow.ly/jKdGH #Jobs

Live Demo: Workforce Ready Time & Attendance ow.ly/jCI3b Tuesdays 1-2pm ET. #SMB

Pay or Play: Determining Your Company’s Best Solution to the #AffordableCareAct. Listen to the replay: ow.ly/jF3i3

Interactive eBook: Labor strategies for the New Normal ow.ly/jFXQG

Experience Workforce Innovation That Works at #KronosLive 2013 ow.ly/jHBWI

#kronos corp comm team is enjoying @TCI_Boston’s luncheon with keynote speaker @sherylsandberg. ow.ly/i/1P2Uy

RT @WF_Institute: Workforce Institute flu survey data in USA Today ow.ly/i/1OBfd

Apr 4

William Tincup on the value of great customers

Today’s guest post comes from our board member, William Tincup.  William is a champion for customer-centricity in the human capital software space.  He challenges vendors like us to do well by doing better for customers.  At Kronos, we make significant investments in building solid products and providing the right services to help customers deploy and use those products. More importantly, we ask all of our employees to put customers at the center of their efforts.  We listen and learn from our customers every day – and we grow better as a result.

To William’s point, what our customers say about us in the market is far more important that what we say about ourselves – as many businesses have learned the hard way on opinion sites like Yelp, Consumer reports, Angie’s List, etc.  What are some of your vendor relationship highs and lows?

They say that the three prongs to building a sustainable business are: (1) repeatable processes; (2) recurring revenue; and (3) referenceable customers. These are affectionately known as the three R’s.

  1. Is obvious to most operations folks
  2. Is obvious to most financial folks
  3. Should be obvious to everyone but in actuality it isn’t

Great customers should fit you like a glove. Like any relationship where things are just natural. They don’t look for ways to make your life harder and you don’t look for ways to bilk them. Great customers should push you… and you should push them back.  The relationship you have with great customers is one built on the pillars of: communication, trust and respect. Without these three things you don’t have a great customer relationship. It might be good… but it isn’t great. Hell, it might even be terrible.

So how do we work with only great customers? Easy. We need to know the difference between a loving relationship and one that is devoid of love. We need NOT take on business that is outside our core values or worse… business that is in direct conflict with the pillars stated above.

What I’m asking you to do is simple: Say “no” more often. Say “no” to prospects that exhibit behaviors that are inconsistent with how you aspire to be treated. Don’t rush to get in bed with someone who will eventually rip your heart out and/or create cancer within your company.

When you find a customer who has the potential to be a great customer, go deep. Be vulnerable. Be more transparent. Stop looking at the proposal and/or contract and really listen to their needs. Then, under-promise and over-deliver.  Keenly manage expectations – always.  And, focus them and yourself on relentless and clear communication, and bulletproof trust and respect at all times and in all ways.

Also, more often than not we tend to over-emphasize planning. Truth is… things happen. And that is life in the big city. What we should focus on is how we respond when things happen rather than focusing on 9000 potential ways that things could happen.  Character is born out of how you respond to adversity.  True in life, true when building great customer relationships.

Lastly, businesses fail for a number of reasons, but I believe more than any other single reason businesses fail because they are doing business with people who pay them BUT don’t love them. Money in this instance is just a sad veneer. The good stuff is on the inside: customer love, where you love them and they love you right back.

Mar 5

The Forecast is Cloudy per Sue Meisinger and Bob Clements

If you follow this blog, you know we’re investing heavily in moving our customers to the Cloud at Kronos.  And not just Cloud, but smartphones, tablets and snazzy time clocks that take advantage of the growing consumer preference for always on information technology and connectedness.

That transformation from product provider to service provider is huge – moving from intermittent contact with your customers to an always on service delivery machine requires changes in every aspect of our business.  We need to anticipate and head off problems that might interrupt customer service.  And we’re connecting a lot more of our employees more directly to our customers’ experience as we create new jobs to support this transformation.

I spoke to a group of leaders last week about how to think about changes we’re driving with a customer-first point of view.  These are all senior leaders with plenty of technology development and delivery experience.  And all agree that the Cloud is different and drives us to up our game.

Recently, I spoke with our board members Sue Meisinger and Bob Clements to discuss the growing importance of the cloud in human resources.  Among other topics we discussed:

  • How the proliferation of mobile devices will impact cloud adoption;
  • A cloud-only versus blended cloud and on-premise approach for vendors;
  • Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) implications of cloud versus on-premise; and
  • How to evaluate how cloud fits into an organization’s existing business strategy.

You can listen to a podcast of our conversation here: Bob Clements and Sue Meisinger Discuss Cloud Strategy for HR Leaders.

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