Rosanne D’Ausilio, PhD, Customer Service Expert

Dear Subscriber,

Over-confidence, over-comparing, and over-focus. Are you ready to be so over it all?

Does the following remind you of anyone?

“Most people want to behave in ways that are consistent with their self-image as competent, effective, and honest human beings,” Francesca Gino tells Forbes. “Yet, even when they are fully committed to acting according to their best intentions, they often reach outcomes that bear little resemblance to their initial goals.”

Gino, a Harvard Business School professor, studies the gab between intentions and actions. Her Sidetracked is a book-length investigation of the behavioral disconnects that its title implies. She’s been doing a round of publicity interviews following the book’s release–let’s go through a few of them to better understand why we get so, well, sidetracked.

“our views of how capable and competent we are as individuals are often overly positive.”

Strangely, it seems that we humans are both under-confident and over-confident. As we discussed last week, people are more racist, plenty popular]less popular, and worse at multitasking than they think.

Because of this, Gino tells Forbes, people rely too heavily on their own information and too little on others’ opinions and perspectives. You can prevent that myopia by being more mindful of the information you’re acting on–like by meditating, perhaps.

“On a wide range of dimensions, from how trustworthy we are to how good looking others find us to be, we often compare ourselves to our peers to evaluate where we stand.”

When we make decisions, Gino says, we’re driven “by the bitter feelings resulting from where we stand in comparisons to others.” This leads to irrational behavior, she tells Scientific American: like you might be against hiring somebody that has a skillset similar to your own because you find her threatening, or you don’t take a job because people there would be making more money than you. Like a good reptile, you want those resources for yourself.

“We often focus too narrowly on the decision at hand and our own views about it.”

This, Gino tells Forbes, is a myopia that blinds us to the full context of the decisions, especially other people’s roles in it. She uses the example of negotiating a deal on a deadline: your plan is to get a good deal, that’s for sure, but if that’s your only focus, you might hide the information about your time constraints.

“In your own eyes,” Gino says, “it is a weakness, so why would you tell about it to the other side?” Because, she explains, the deadline is a shared constraint. If you tell the other guy about the deadline, that could lead to quicker concessions–and a better deal. To sidestep that habit, Gino says you should zoom out: taken in the full context of the players and the factors for any decision, rather than just your goals. In this way, you can train your empathy skills–and find the co-investment in the decision.

Regards,

Rosanne D’Ausilio, Ph.D.
Consultant, Master Trainer, Best Selling Author
Human Technologies Global, Inc.
www.human-technologies.com
3405 Morgan Drive – Carmel, NY 10512
845/520 6432- fax 928/223-6165
“champions for the human”

*http://www.fastcompany.com/3009880/3-reasons-you-dont-realize-youre-getting-sidetracked-when-you-are?partner=newsletter

Dear Subscriber,

Interesting article.  #4 and #9 are my favorites.

When choosing one brand over another, consumers are not focused on some of the obvious deal breakers you might think they are, according to a recently published study by The Rain Group looking at more than 700 business-to-business purchasing transactions. The study found that more than seeking out the best price or the greatest bang for their buck, consumers are looking for a more authentic, personal connection to the product and the vendor selling it.

Geoffery James of INC. recounts ten qualities that the consumer is searching for when making critical decisions with their hard-earned cash:

1. Bring New Perspectives and Ideas

If customers could diagnose their own problems and come up with workable solutions on their own, they would do so. The reason that they’re turning to you and your firm is that they’re stuck and need your help. Therefore, you must be able to bring something new to the table.

2. Be Willing to Collaborate

Customers absolutely do NOT want you to sell them something, even something that’s wonderful. They want you to work with them to achieve a mutual goal, by being responsive to the customer’s concerns and ways of doing business. Ideally, customers want you to become integral to their success.

3. Have Confidence In Your Ability to Achieve Results

Customers will not buy from you if you can’t persuade them that you, your firm, and your firms offerings will truly achieve the promised results. It is nearly impossible to persuade a customer to believe in these things unless you yourself believe in them. You must make your confidence contagious.

4. Listen, Really Listen, to the Customer

When they’re describing themselves and their needs, customers sense immediately when somebody is just waiting for a break in the conversation in order to launch into a sales pitch. In order to really listen, you must suppress your own inner-voice and forget your goals. It’s about the customer, not about you.

5. Understand ALL the Customer’s Needs

It’s not enough to “connect the dots” between customer needs and your company’s offering. You must also connect with the individuals who will be affected by your offering, and understand how buying from you will satisfy their personal needs, like career advancement and job security.

6. Help the Customer Avoid Potential Pitfalls

Here’s where many sellers fall flat. Customers know that every business decision entails risk but they also want your help to minimize that risk. They want to know what couldgo wrong and what has gone wrong in similar situations, and what steps you’re taking to make sure these problems won’t recur.

7. Craft a Compelling Solution

Solution selling is definitely not dead. Customers want and expect you to have the basic selling skill of defining and proposing a workable solution. What’s different now though is that the ability to do this is the “price of entry” and not enough, by itself, to win in a competitive sales situation.

8. Communicate the Purchasing Process

Customers hate it when sellers dance around issues like price, discounts, availability, total cost, add-on options, and so forth. They want you to be able to tell them, in plain and simple language, what’s involved in a purchase and how that purchase will take place. No surprises. No last minute upsells.

9. Connect Personally With the Customer

Ultimately, every selling situation involves making a connection between two individuals who like and trust each other. As a great sales guru once said: “All things being equal, most people would rather buy from somebody they like… and that’s true even when all things aren’t equal.”

10. Provide Value That’s Superior to Other Options

And here, finally, at the No. 10 spot (below everything else) comes the price and how that price compares to similar offerings. Unless you can prove that buying from you is the right business decision for the customer, the customer can and should buy elsewhere.

Regards,

Rosanne D’Ausilio, Ph.D.
Consultant, Master Trainer, Best Selling Author
Human Technologies Global, Inc.
www.human-technologies.com
845/520 6432- fax 928/223-6165

“champions for the human”

Hot off the press Kindle edition of Customer Service Tips: How to Improve Customer Service at http://tinyurl.com/dyd5oqt

*http://business.transworld.net/129489/news/ten-things-every-customer-wants/

Dear Subscriber,

The following article by Jack and Suzy Welch hits the nail on the head for me.  Read on.

The modern marketplace demands that people possess a wide range of skills. But what core qualities are truly essential to career advancement, regardless of industry or job?

The answer could fill a book and it has, thousands of times, if not more. Myriad experts claim that career advancement is a function of everything from extreme self-confidence to extreme humility (or both at once). Still others make the case that big-time professional success derives from more sinister behaviors, such as callous ambition or unfettered narcissism. And then there is the whole “positive thinking” bandwagon, which claims that getting ahead is primarily a function of believing you can. In sum, there’s so much contradictory advice out there about the core components of success that it’s enough to reduce you to a weary sigh of: “Whatever.”

Which is just fine. Because we’d suggest that you can’t really manipulate yourself into success with personality tweaks or even major overhauls. In fact, we’d say just the opposite. The most powerful thing you can do is, well, be real. As in not phony. As in grappling, sweating, laughing, and caring. As in authentic.

Yes, yes, we know the upper echelon of the corporate world has its share of slick super achievers who appear simultaneously all-knowing and unknowable. They’re cool, poised, almost digitally enhanced in their affect. But such bloodless executives, even the most technically skilled ones, rarely reach the highest heights. They’re just too remote to move people. They can manage, but they can’t motivate.

Now, we’re not saying that authenticity is the only quality you need for professional advancement. Everyone knows that to succeed in today’s competitive global marketplace, you also have to be smart, curious, and highly collaborative. You have to be able to work with diverse teams and ignite them as a manager to excel together. You need heaps of positive energy, the guts to make tough yes-or-no decisions, and the endurance to execute—get the job done. And, indeed, you do have to possess self-confidence and humility at the same time. That combination is called maturity.

We would also add two other qualities to the must-have list. One is heavy-duty resilience, a requirement because anyone who is really in the game messes up at some point. You’re not playing hard enough if you don’t! But when your turn comes, don’t make the all-too-human mistake of thinking getting ahead is about minimizing what happened. The most successful people in any new job always own their failures, learn from them, regroup, and then start again with renewed speed, vigor, and conviction.

The other quality we’d mention is really special but quite rare: the ability to see around corners, to anticipate the radically unexpected. Now, practically no one starts their career with a sixth sense for market changes. It takes time to get a feel for what competitors are thinking and what product or service customers will eventually want – once they know it exists. But the bottom line is, the sooner you develop this acumen, and the more you hone it, the farther you will go.

But not if you’re not real, too. Think of authenticity as your foundation, your center, and don’t let any organization try to wring it out of you, subtly or otherwise. That happens. Companies have a way of tamping people down, particularly early on. Not that it happens with any kind of conscious planning, of course. But too many organizations manage to surreptitiously nudge people toward a generic type who keeps it all pretty well tucked in.

Meanwhile, if you put your whole self out there, bosses can complain that you act too emotional or get too close to teammates or become too worked up in meetings. Your performance reviews will note: “Tom has some potential, but he just doesn’t fit in.” Or “Sally has some rough edges, but with coaching, her intensity might even out.”

In time though, if you have everything else you need in terms of talent and skill, your humanity will come to be your most appealing virtue to an organization. Your team and your bosses will know who you are in your soul, what kind of people you attract, and what kind of performance you want from everyone. Your realness will make you accessible; you will connect and you will inspire. You will lead.

So, getting back to the original question of this missive: Yes, the modern marketplace does demand that people possess a wide range of skills to achieve success. Most of them you have to acquire, develop, and refine. But one of them – the most important one – is already inside you, ready to be let out. Don’t get in its way.

Regards,

Rosanne D’Ausilio, Ph.D.
President – Human Technologies Global Inc
3405 Morgan Drive – Carmel, NY 10512
845/222-2455 fax 928/223-6165
rosanne@human-technologies.com
http://www.HumanTechTips.com – tips newsletter
http://www.customer-service-expert.com
http://www.drrosanne.com – blog

*http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130312190950-86541065-what-it-really-takes-to-succeed?goback=.ptf_86541065_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1&trk=who_to_follow-b

Dear Subscriber,

Even in a negative economy, customer experience is a high priority for consumers, with 60% often or always paying more for a better experience.¹

86% of consumers quit doing business with a company because of a bad customer experience, up from 59% 4 years ago.  And, 89% of consumers began doing business with a competitor following a poor customer experience. ¹

What does it cost you to lose a customer, if you know?

The top three drivers for investing in customer experience management are:

• Improve customer retention – (42 %)
• Improve customer satisfaction – (33 %)
• Increase cross-selling and up-selling – (32 %)²

Are you in alignment with these drivers?

The IVR accounts for an astounding one-third (33%) of the total call experience. However, only 7% of organizations currently offer an IVR solution that delivers a better experience (CSAT) than their live agent experience. ³

Are you one of those 7%?

These stats aren’t to make you bad, but rather to wake you up.

Regards,

Rosanne D’Ausilio, Ph.D.
President – Human Technologies Global Inc
3405 Morgan Drive – Carmel, NY 10512
845/222-2455 fax 928/223-6165
rosanne@human-technologies.com
http://www.HumanTechTips.com – tips newsletter
http://www.customer-service-expert.com
http://www.drrosanne.com – blog

¹http://www.rightnow.com/files/analyst-reports/RightNows_4th_Annual_Customer_Experience_Impact_Report.pdf

²http://www.aberdeen.com/Aberdeen-Library/6196/RA-customer-experience-management.aspx

³http://www.howto.gov/sites/default/files/the-drivers-of-customer-satisfaction-in-the-contact-center.pdf