As a result of studying this chapter, the student should:

know

• some models or images of ideal organizations;
• definition of the organization and features of certain types of organizations;
• determining the image and reputation of the organization and the factors that shape them;
• signs and features of a learning, leadership, innovative organization;
• the main elements of the Japanese management system;
• factors that determine an innovative organization;
• differences between pioneering and innovation;

be able to

• distinguish between the expectations of different interest groups regarding the organization;
• identify and take into account in their leadership activities the interests of the employees of the organization and their diversity;

own

• skills to determine the image of the organization;
• the ability to select parameters and evaluate the characteristics of the organization - a real, ideal or promising place of work;
• the ability to separate an innovative organization from another type of organization.

The object of consideration in our book is leadership in the organization. The subject is the forms, qualities, properties, characteristics of leaders different levels, their behavior and development in organizational conditions and in different situations of the external and internal environment and in the process of working in a team.

The leader of the 1st level generally creates and (or) ensures the development, competitiveness, survival of the entire organization and (or) the direction of its activities. The success of the organization he leads largely depends on his qualities. Leaders of the 2nd and 3rd levels are responsible for the success of the group of workers they lead. A professional leader also interacts with the organization, works for the organization or for the organization. The mutual influence of leaders and organizations is obvious: leaders determine, albeit to varying degrees, the success of the organization, organizations create conditions in which the qualities of leaders will manifest themselves in the best possible way and develop, or will be oppressed. There is an interdependence and mutual influence of the leader as an employee, as official and organizations. Theories of leadership, qualities of leaders, images of ideal leaders for employees are discussed above and in many other sections of this book, as well as in numerous other publications. Building an organization and interacting with the organization, the leader usually forms in his mind or takes as a prototype a certain ideal, image, clear or unclear, of the organization in which he would prefer to work. The leader needs the ideal organization to develop a strategy for creating or developing an organization, setting goals, comparing with the real organization that he has or is getting, just as the image of an ideal leader serves for him as a source of formation of goals for his own improvement.

The ideal of the organization modern world should be considered from the perspective of different interest groups, including, at a minimum, different groups workers ( top management, other employees of the administrative apparatus, middle management, specialists, workers, etc.), owners, consumers, the local community and the organization itself as an integrity, a subject in the market, a large and complex living system.

Let us consider some descriptions and images of organizations, on the basis of which we can try to create a generalized image of the ideal modern organization, if possible, meeting the interests of all or at least many interest groups. The object of our attention remains, for the most part, such interest groups as company employees occupying executive and managerial positions in the organization, and customers, consumers of the company's performance results. At the same time, we will not give Special attention the image of an ideal organization for shareholders (owners), having determined that their expectations are as follows: an organization - a place of investment, must ensure the reliability of income on investments and their size at a level not lower than that of a bank. The higher the current and prospective return on investment, the more attractive the organization looks to investors. All other qualities of the organization in the eyes of investors are associated with the image of the company as an investment object.

What would be the image of an “ideal” company in terms of sales? Is it a company that has the best sellers "in its class"? Not! This is a company that has the best system sales? Not! Is it a company selling on an "industrial" scale? Not! In this article, the author offers his vision of the "ideal" company in terms of sales.

In the article "How to build "industrial" sales: 5 necessary levels" I tried to give an algorithm for the practical construction of the Sales Department, as a system that implements "industrial sales" and provides a significant increase in sales in the company.

The image of the "ideal company". What can he be?

If you imagine the image of an “ideal” company, you can get something like the following picture:

Perhaps this is the dream of any business owner! When "all by itself".

What's going on in today's market?

So what are we seeing in the market today?

1. From 500 to 1000 projects per year, which are implemented by large design companies (for example, IT companies) do not give anything. In the best case, this is the fulfillment of the sales plan and growth by 10-15% per year.
2. Hundreds of letters of thanks from clients, press releases about successfully implemented projects, and so on - all this is lost in a huge flow of information and is practically no longer a help in business.
3. Hundreds of salespeople of large companies "fight to the death" for their customers with competitors. And with varying degrees of success.
4. Companies participate in hundreds of competitions with the same variable success. Etc.

Why is that and what is the problem? The main problem of large and customer-oriented companies with a wide product line is that they are "everywhere and nowhere." There are many suppliers for one customer. It is impossible to “detune” from competitors and stand out from the background of many similar companies! But!

What does it take to make the "ideal" company?

A respected reader will probably say: “This is all good and, perhaps, right!”, But “Where can I get a “candy product” and how to create it?”, “Where can I get services that are highly demanded by the market and how to make them perfect?”, “How to stand out from the general mass of competitors?”, “What do you do in such a situation?”, to the point that “All this is theory! In practice, everything is different!

There is only one answer - we need a new strategy! A strategy aimed at moving to a new plane of work, which will allow you to develop and get new strong competitive advantages, stand out “from the crowd” and “show the product face”.

What exactly is needed for this? And you don't need much:

1. Take a fresh look at the chain: customer needs - product - sales - project implementation (or delivery).

a. See that the Product is primary! And the product must meet the needs of customers as fully as possible. Then it will be a highly demanded market. Then:

b. There will be a desire to create "candy products" and a desire for impeccable quality of services. Then:

c. There will be specific tasks of creating "candy products" and providing impeccable quality of services.

But this is far from everything in the modern world. Therefore, you still need:

3. Start building a new company awareness (new brand). Not by the name of the company, its turnover or its positions in the ratings, but by completely different parameters:

a. By recognizable goods and services - "candy products". It is not necessary to have a unique product, you can provide a number of services better than competitors.

b. For implemented large, complex and possibly socially significant projects.

c. According to the company's competencies in certain "locomotive" areas. To let the market know that projects<такой-то направленности>TheBestCompany does the best.

If the project company has a wide product line, then you need to build the following blocks, but in a new way (using specific examples):

1. Strong Marketing Block.

Purpose: to analyze market trends and the efforts of competitors, demand and form proposals according to demand.

Who is needed for this? For starters, 1-2 strong marketers on 2-3 most successful and promising solutions of the company. What for? In order to permanently bring these solutions to “candy products” (!) in close connection with the Block of innovative and technical competencies.

2. Strong block of innovative and technical competencies.

Purpose: improvement of their products (goods and services). According to constantly emerging new (innovative) technologies. Let for starters - "locomotive", for which there is the biggest backlog. How? "Locomotive" solutions (2-3) should be based on the latest technologies that are in demand on the market. Then they will first become competitive, then they will become better than their competitors.

If these blocks do not work in close conjunction, there will definitely not be a result!

3. Strong Project Management Unit.

Purpose: to analyze the progress of, for example, large and significant projects and introduce new approaches and principles project management. What for? To implement projects faster and better than competitors, which means to receive additional margin and profit, as well as to stand out from their background for the better.

Who is needed? For starters, 2-3 of the strongest project managers (RP) and, for starters, "playing" coaches. What for? To disseminate the best approaches and principles of effective project management in the company. How? Analyze current projects, adjust the course of their implementation, adjust the composition project team(if necessary), train less strong RPs, etc., up to the replacement of ineffective RPs.

5. Strong Presale Block - The sales block of the future.

Purpose: the highest quality and efficient work with potential customers in order to receive an order. Myths about sellers who are able to "sell snow in winter" but who do not know their products are just myths. And illusions. Both product knowledge and sale-skills are important. It is easier to increase sales skills than to dive into the industry of technically complex solutions.

Over the course of 20 years, so-called "product managers" periodically appeared on the market, who were trained in products and acted as the main sellers of these products. Then the paradigm of companies changed, product managers changed to managers for working with corporate clients, then they reappeared, then again "disappeared". Why?

Because:

a. "Primary" product. If the product is not good enough, the market will not consume it widely.

b. There was no broad "coverage" of the market. There was a product, but the market didn't know much about it.

What would be the path to achieving the state of the "ideal" company?

There is only one way - striving for impeccable quality of goods - striving to create "candy products" and striving for impeccable quality of services - striving to impeccably implement projects or provide services of the highest quality. This is true for companies with completely different lines of business - consulting, servicing clients, performing certain work (projects) for them, etc.

If there is such a desire, the tasks of creating “candy products” and providing impeccable quality of services will certainly appear. I will give some options for possible business development for companies of different levels of development and scale.

It is quite obvious that it is rather difficult to “jump” from one state to another, for example, to grow a company with several thousand employees from StartUp with developed production, sales, marketing, HR, etc. services.

1. For companies with a single product, the key will be to improve their product by building up the technological block and marketing, and more powerfully promoting it to the market.

2. For companies with several key solutions (products), it would be advisable to choose 1-2 of the most successful ones and implement a pilot project according to the approaches described above.

3. For companies with a weak Sales Block, it is advisable to build a classic sales system. This will allow you to have sales (projects), develop and eventually move to a new level of development.

4. For large companies with a wide product line and a well-established sales system, it is quite possible to offer the following sequence of actions:

a. Implement a pilot project according to the proposed approaches and within a small working group. AT large companies you can always find "smart heads" ("diamonds") to solve such a problem.

c. Achieve the result - recognition by pilot solutions / services.

Analyze the results of the work done: what worked, what did not work and why? Correct further work.

d. Go to the next in the list and importance of goods and services (products).

Of course, this is not quick and easy. But I'm sure it's possible.

Classic Mistakes

The approaches described above already exist in the practice of a number of companies, but many of them turn out to be ineffective. Why? Because the "boiler method" is used and not purposefully, but formally. For example, the Center for Innovative and Technical Competences is being created. What happens next?

1. There is no clear statement of the task for this Center and the required sequence of actions. As a result:
2. A manager who does not have the relevant competencies is invited to this position. And this question is key! Further:
3. All product line company (consisting, for example, of 50-70 large solutions/products). Keywords: "immediately" and "all".

It is quite obvious that the output will be 0. Why? It is impossible to find such an amount of resource that would be able to digest such volumes of information and perform such work in the foreseeable future! Companies "rebuild" for years. Why should changes, and quite significant ones at that, be implemented quickly? Unclear!

Conclusion

Conclusion: The ideal company in terms of sales is a company in which traditional sales missing!

In fairness, it is worth noting that such an image of the “ideal” company may not be achievable. Especially for design companies. Or we can achieve it, but in the horizon, say, more than 5 years and only through clear and purposeful work in this direction. But! Striving for this - such a chosen strategy - will definitely contribute to the growth of the company faster than the growth of the market. Why?

Because the essence of the approach is the formation of the strongest competitive advantage, work with the market at a different - higher level, the formation of a recognizable brand and the desire for technological / product (or operational; for different companies in different ways) leadership.

"If you don't have a competitive advantage, don't compete."

Jack Welch

But better: “If there are no strong competitive advantages, they need to be created!”.

For memory. It fits in very well with my vision of the ideal enterprise.

To create best product- we need the best people . To have the best people we need Better conditions jobs, better office, better pay, better learning opportunities.

Our principles

Confidence

Everything in the company is built on trust. Leadership trusts people, and people trust leadership. This resulted in such things as the abolition of time tracking, payment of sick leave without any certificates (a letter “I got sick” is enough), the absence of middle managers and, accordingly, control. There are no (or almost no, you never know) political games in the company. Professionals don't need control - they need freedom.

Passion

A person should be interested in working. Given that we make one product, there are difficult times. We try to give people the freedom to choose tasks and areas as much as possible. Interest in tasks at work is very important. If a person is not interested, everything will slide down to the average level. And the middle level is oblivion. If a person is not interested, it is hard for him to wake up in the morning, he is too lazy to go to work, he wants to read the news and get down to business as late as possible. This is bad for everyone.

mutual respect

People are different. It is impossible to please everyone. In a large team, conflicts, sympathies, neutrality and hostility inevitably arise. Dislike is necessary and can be minimized by everyone possible ways. People should be able to get to know each other better. For this, a shared kitchen, shared lunches, shared outings, etc. are great. Creating an environment where people can communicate is the direct task of any good company. Do not be afraid that dinners will be delayed and holivars will be conducted in the kitchen all day. See points Trust and Passion.

These three basic principles are obligatory for everyone. Everything else can be taught.

Education

Since the best people should work in the company, we need to give them the opportunity to develop and learn (otherwise, how will they become the best?) First, we introduced Friday's Shows - these are Friday events where we watched some video (an hour and a half) and then arranged discussion on it. It was quite interesting. There were also quite a few a large number of workshops. What we have now:

the opportunity to attend a class conference once a year at the expense of the company. These are the leading software development conferences in Europe. For example Qcon.
the opportunity to spend 5 hours of working time on self-education or your own projects. It's the big half of Friday. Not everyone takes advantage of this opportunity. Often a sense of responsibility outweighs and I want to finish this one important task today. So far, the real result is a tag game for iOS
salary increase linked to training. If a person does not learn anything significant new in six months, this is not good.
buy any book from oz buy or amazon
internal conferences every six months. The conference takes a whole day

We don't hire people who don't really like to learn. If a person in an interview cannot say anything intelligible, this is a big minus. A curious person is always learning. We like curious people.

Best place to work

It's stupid to save on jobs when the best people work in the company, isn't it? We have expensive comfortable furniture. The table is wide and spacious, you can put a lot of unnecessary things on it and comfortably program in pairs when necessary. Everyone chose a chair based on a budget of about $ 350. Unfortunately, we don't have money for Aerons yet. Monitors two and large. The work computer is powerful. People don't sit on top of each other. There are no huge open spaces and never will be. The ideal option is rooms for 4-6 people. We have one room for 10 people - the rest are getting smaller. Free lunches, good coffee, fruits and sweets are all very trivial and just a must have for any good company.

The best people

How difficult is it to assemble a team that does something better than anyone else in the world? Depends on this "something". For example, to make the best in the world operating system pretty hard. And it's much easier to make the world's best agile project management tool - the scale is different. The team should have great programmers, great testers, awesome designers, cool support specialists and a product vision. There must be a clear focus. Must be all-in. It is easy to make projects to order, which are paid according to a predetermined schedule. It is much more difficult to decide to put everything on one product. But this is the only way to create something new. Only then can you break the bank in the market.

"Company number one" or the ideal company If the company is part of a community, country, if the company has high ethical standards, financial strength, attractive locations, progressive working conditions in the long term - this will be my ideal company. And also, if the company has flexible working conditions, a clear path for promotion, competitive remuneration, international career opportunities and a career followed by a secure financial base with full employment being the most important thing to me. To be an ideal company, it must have a clear vision of the mission and ideas for managing the company in order to carve out its place in this big world.

There are many benefits of a good company culture. Some of these benefits include productivity, employee morale and motivation, increased interaction and collaboration, employee turnover, and company profits. Companies must work to achieve a "good" corporate culture, but as a potential employee, you can match the culture fairly quickly during the interview. Ask yourself the following questions to help determine company culture:

• Will I be involved in decisions that affect me?
• Do company employees focus on getting jobs rather than politics?
• Will I be personally responsible for my work?
• Will I look forward to coming to work for this company?

If you can answer “yes” to these questions, you can bet absolutely sure that this company is close to perfect. What do I need to do?

Improving Organizational Culture

Training your employees in the right direction is an important step towards improving the work culture of the organization. When your employees know how to do things right and what the company expects from them, conflicts and mistakes can be greatly reduced.

Discuss with team members issues related to the current culture of the organization. Make changes that you find worthwhile. Maintain healthy communication with the team. Tell the team about the organization's leadership and strategies adopted to create a more engaging company culture. Conflict is an integral part of any organization and is directly related to the health of its culture. Therefore, when conflicts arise, management must resolve them quickly and amicably.

Creation of an objective, transparent and fair system of conflict resolution.

A positive company culture can do wonders for your business by turning ordinary employees into super workers who go above and beyond your competitors.

Provide easy access to information

Give employees quick access to information so they can make their own decisions with the information they need. Failure to do so can result in loss of opportunities and income.

Increasing employee engagement

Without frequent interactions between employees, missed good ideas and opportunities. The result: valuable workers frustrated with their insignificance, which, as a result of poor cooperation, can be disheartening. And yet, how to develop the involvement of employees when many work remotely? An IP network with integrated voice, video, and wireless communications provides interactive web-based video conferencing, IP telephony, and other tools that facilitate collaboration.

Improve the quality of your company's customer service

In a tough economic climate, improving customer service can be the key to survival. The reputation of a company depends on the quality of customer service. Favour, customers, and your customer base will increase due to their relatives and neighbors, who will be recommended to them by satisfied customers who work with you. But if one is unhappy, it can also cause word of mouth. “The experience people have with your company and then what they hear from friends and family affects their perception and likelihood of having business relationship with company. Understand what is important to customers. The speed and availability of services are universal truths. Improving customer service - starts with your employees. The most important person in the customer service scheme is the manager, since staff turnover is directly managed by the manager. Others important qualities are empathy, consistency and patience. Experience is vital, but it can be a double-edged sword: too much and the representative may come across as pedantic or condescending; too little and the representative will not know how to handle sensitive situations. Improving Customer Service: Use Online Tools to Personalize Help Your website is usually the first introduction customers have to your company, so your homepage should be user-friendly.

Each new day gives you the opportunity to move forward. You can improve your business on several fronts: by increasing profits, reducing losses, getting more customers, expanding markets.

1. Determine your core values What is your mission? What makes your business most valuable?

2. The right people Assess the potential of hired people and their compatibility with core values ​​and corporate culture. Ask specific interview questions that focus on loyalty, passion for your job, and the ability to communicate and work with other people. These traits can have a significant impact on the productivity and coherence of your employees.

3. Build a system of trust and accountability Your employees need to know that you respect them and trust their abilities. Let's start with empowering qualified employees to share in the decisions that affect the company. A little extra responsibility shows your confidence. If your employees make a mistake, hold them accountable - not by punishing them for failures, but by analyzing the mistakes. Be clear about what went wrong, how to fix it, and how to make sure it never happens again. Trust and responsibility goes beyond the interaction of employees, the relationship with customers is also very important. If your business is not honest with its customers, it can hurt employee relationships with customers. Learn from mistakes and keep your promises.

5. Reward People usually respond well to well-deserved praise and become motivated to keep doing it. Good work that supports your core company values. The best way for you to use this fact to create performance incentives that reward employees when they reach a goal. The reward does not have to be monetary - You can alternatively offer small, unique perks such as the best place for parking or honorary title(e.g. "Employee of the Month"). The strength and vitality of your corporate culture comes down to your people doing work that advances your core values. This positive attitude will extend to everything - improving customer relationships by getting a new order, and improving your brand as perceived by people outside of your company.

How to Improve Company Morale Without Spending Money

The morale of the company is key indicator employee satisfaction. Tax incentives are critical in attracting talented workers. However, non-monetary rewards remain a critical resource that directly affects the improvement of company morale.

1. Determine what motivates employees by surveying areas of importance in career development: leadership, praise, recognition, status, accomplishment tasks, and guiding others.

2. Link the vision of the company and its mission by connecting the individual goals of employees. Create an atmosphere that expresses genuine concern for employees. Ask staff to bring photographs, short stories, and memorabilia. The employee's life and general well-being fits into the larger goals, missions and vision of the company.

3. Instill a sense of confidence in the company's ability to provide resources for employees to succeed.

4. Highlight the achievements and success stories of employees by placing them in a prominent place.

5. Lead by example. The behavior model you are looking for in your employees.

6. Promote open communication towards achieving your goals.

7. Increase the level of responsibility. Set clear goals to accomplish. Be prepared to explain to your employees how to achieve the goal. Be available to employees. Help them identify problems by working together to overcome obstacles and explain how to achieve personal success. Encourage employees to be proactive in solving problems and welcoming their contributions.

Be creative by creating a productive and interesting work environment. Print posters with inspirational sayings and post them in prominent places.

1. Make sure your employees understand what you expect from them. Employees who understand what is expected of them are much more satisfied and productive than employees who have to guess what it takes to complete their job successfully.

2. Smiles. Smiles are contagious, if you smile, your employees smile too. The reverse is also true. If you spend your day with a grimace on your face, your employees will adopt your sour mood.

3. Provide positive recognition. Employees need to hear that they are doing a good job in order to keep doing a good job.

Surveys show that many employees are more motivated, their work is valued, recognizing high marks, than for a salary increase or additional incentives.

4. Let your employees leave early for the occasion if they finish their work early. Some employees don't want to go home, and that's okay.

5. Make the work environment fun. For example, competitions are great to cheer up and, as a result, work productivity. Sooner or later people will stop being afraid of work. You can increase the motivation and loyalty of the company by introducing a less rigid schedule, tying work time to the result. An employee may feel responsible for the productive use of their time.

Determine what your company can offer to improve the work environment. Financial incentives, additional training and other benefits increase productivity.

1. Find out what motivates your employees. Give them the opportunity to do a self-assessment to see what is hindering productivity in the workplace. Perhaps the working conditions need to be improved (Internet speed, the presence or absence of devices important for work, etc.).

2. Creating effective changes in the shortest possible time can increase productivity at no other cost. Adding new resources, flexible time, educating people are also important components of motivation and performance.

3. Remove inefficient resources. It can be equipment or people. Sometimes bad equipment or a bad worker can create less desirable results from an activity. Update tools that are essential to production process, or replace an employee who refuses to meet standards, established leadership. By improving environment, you can change the end result in your favor.

Employers can increase the productivity of workers by improving working conditions and removing obstacles that prevent workers from expressing their best qualities. Management must provide workers with the tools they need to carry out their duties.

Team Building

Events such as corporate parties or walks will improve employee morale and allow employees to get to know each other better outside of the office. Relationships built outside the company can enhance team spirit at work. Events and activities also improve employee satisfaction, which can lead to increased productivity.

Connection

To reward employees, management must communicate its goals to employees. Regular meetings will help maintain a clear vision of employees' goals. Workers without a clear understanding of the company's goals are less likely to work towards meeting them.

Employee recognition

Managers and supervisors can motivate employees by encouraging and stimulating them to achieve goals. Praise workers for a job well done will help inspire workers to give their best. This employee can also inspire other employees to achieve goals productively. Monetary and other incentives are also a good way to increase productivity.

Environment

The work environment can play a big role in productivity among workers. The location of the office must be efficient and allow employees to do their jobs without obstruction or interference. In addition, giving workers a place in the office, such as a personal desk, encourages a sense of belonging that can improve worker morale and satisfaction. Improved morale and job satisfaction leads to increased productivity.

Limiting communication time both among employees and on the Internet can increase your productivity. It's hard to be productive in today's world where distractions and situations go from TV to the Internet to your home computer and smartphone. Add to that the traditional distractions of family, kids, friends, and colleagues, and it's amazing that we can get anything done in such a short amount of time. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to quell distractions and improve productivity. Get rid of the time thieves. Turn off the TV, log out of your email, log out of social networks and other sites such as Twitter and Facebook, stop mindlessly surfing websites and blogs. The Internet can be seen as a large volume useful information or a major time waster, depending on how you use it. If you can completely disconnect from the Internet, do so. If your job, on the other hand, requires you to use the internet to answer emails or research, limit your use of social media and reading non-work related literature and newspapers. Find a quiet place to do your work. Noise and movement can be distracting. Without distraction, there may be a quieter place, such as a public library or your own home office.

Communication in the workplace

Chatting with co-workers on a coffee break is fine, but the constant distractions of personal email, text messages, instant messages, or visitors can be detrimental to your productivity. Tell employees not to disturb you during certain hours when you need to be more productive. Tell friends and family about this.

organization

Organize your desk to rid it of clutter that can make you absent-minded. Make sure to remember where you have everything, down to paper clips, pens and notebooks. A clutter-free workplace will help make you more productive. Don't forget to organize your time as well. Marking important appointments and project deadlines on a calendar will help your productivity and allow you to see specific goals.

Incentives

Form a system of rewarding yourself for achievements. For example, if you have a 10-page paper due within two weeks and you want it to be done on time, create incentives to write at least one page a day. The incentive could be the time spent on your favorite site after completing that day's page, or it could be a movie or a meeting with friends. Rewarding yourself for your hard work will increase your chances of being productive.

The ongoing revolution in communications, communications and automation, including mobile telephony, user-generated content (social media), the development of interactive technologies and self-service systems, and of course the Internet, has seriously affected the nature of commercial interactions and customer service in general. Therefore, in many industries, the most different methods efficiency improvements, including those borrowed from the production sector (in particular, the experience of Toyota). What should the ideal consumer-oriented company look like today in the light of ongoing changes and eternal values? And what about a company that thinks about customer service in the last place?

Ideal Company

Let's focus on the characteristics that ideal companies have in common, firms that satisfy their customers by providing them with outstanding, customer-focused service in all interactions. How does such an ideal company appear to a new or existing client - high-tech or the most ordinary?

1. The client feels the "hospitality" of the ideal company even before his arrival - real or figurative. And this fact does not depend on what channel of communication is used. Is it about the internet? e-mail, phone, in social networks, chats or video conferences, employees of the firm always greet customers and give them a concrete, clear and friendly idea of ​​their position in the market, brand and firm as a whole.

Companies often analyze the Internet, telephone and other means of communication to make sure they are functioning well enough and keeping up with the demands of the times. Any channel through which a client can contact the firm should be analyzed in terms of efficiency and user friendliness. This applies not only to the company's own websites, but also to third party websites such as Google Places. (It's very important to remember that consumers won't blame Google for misreporting hours of operation and office locations. They assume—and most often correctly—that the firm didn't bother to update that information to be true.) TripAdvisor and similar forums are usually followed by polite responses, so that the new user knows that even if the company is not perfect, it cares about its reputation, tries to correct existing shortcomings and improve customer service.

2. The company can spoil the first impression of itself with barriers that are perceived by the consumer as a hindrance. Ideal Company goes out of her way to remove all barriers so that the client immediately feels friendliness from the firm. In the physical world, for example, you need to think about parking and transportation for customers. The proposed directions must be perfectly accurate, preferably with GPS coordinates. If a customer needs to park on the street, the firm should provide them with change for the machines and a reminder to pay for parking. You can even assign a special employee to help customers. With an interactive Internet login, the registration process should be simple and accessible. Ideally, your site should not have any difficulties such as entering a code word. If you're setting up filters to cut out spam or bots, then you need to provide a user-friendly audio experience for visually impaired people and for those who browse your site on a smartphone keyboard that isn't the most comfortable to use. The consumer does not have to look through hundreds of names in the classifier to select his own country - after all, this can be easily determined by IP address or by customer base.

3. Your employees must show a visible and sincere interest in customers. Follow this. Employees should remain friendly and affable even in the most difficult customer service situations. Employees must be friendly consciously and not just to avoid disciplinary action.

4. The company must respect the desire of customers for self-service ... but at the same time give them the opportunity to choose. A customer who chooses self-service should never be without available support or abandonment of such a system. You should not punish him in any way for the choice he made. For example, when a store has self-service checkouts, store employees are always on duty to help customers who encounter unexpected difficulties. At telephone communication customers always have the opportunity to contact the operator in a convenient way- waiting for his answer, pressing the appropriate key or saying a specific word. Websites usually have a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section. At the end of the answer to each question, there is an opportunity to contact the operator and get further clarifications if necessary.

5. Processes, technologies and systems must be organized in such a way as to anticipate the needs and desires of customers. Anticipation service is not only correct selection personnel. Yes, of course, an empathetic person who feels responsible for anticipating the client's desires is very important. This is the central element of perfect service. But it's also important that your company's systems are attuned to the wishes of the customers—even before the wishes themselves are voiced. Companies achieve this by letting employees know that their job is to learn to think like a customer, to observe and predict customer behavior, to guide their wants and needs so that the company can anticipate what customers will want in the next moment. And that brings us to the critical next step: the resulting knowledge and attitudes must be built into systems, processes, and technologies.

I will give a simple example. It snowed heavily in Philadelphia during the winter and my flight was delayed by two hours. No wonder I missed my connecting flight from Denver. But as soon as I got off the plane in Denver with thoughts of waiting in an endless line, begging for a ticket to another plane, or calling 800 and waiting for the operator to answer, I was instantly approached by a Southwest employee who holding tickets for another flight. She asked for my name and handed me the correct paperwork for the next flight to my destination.

6. The company must take into account the time constraints of the consumer and his pace - and this factor should be considered paramount. The ideal company never wastes a client's time. In an ideal company, you don't have to wait. Temporal Needs and Expectations individual customers are taken into account both by experienced, dedicated staff and thoughtful technological systems. For example, a tourist who is on vacation has a completely different attitude towards the Internet system and the signals received from it. He may well prefer face-to-face communication or a phone response from an attentive employee to scouring the Internet. Such a person will appreciate the receptive software, which allows the user to answer a series of questions: "Not now."

7. The emotional state and needs of the client is of great importance for any company.. Don't think of a customer as someone who called just to make a big purchase (or any purchase at all). Perhaps he calls or comes because of a temporary feeling of loneliness. Maybe he needs support related to your products, or maybe he has some questions. In order for the relationship with the client to be long-term and profitable, you must definitely take into account these non-commercial desires and purely human needs.

8. The company must recognize and take into account the unique circumstances of the individual situation of a particular client. In other words, employees need to understand that while the vast majority of customer interactions follow one of several typical scenarios, each such interaction for given customer unique from his point of view. I once spoke at a conference of the Student and Youth Tourism Association (SYTA). A tour operator who was there told me what he had to deal with every day: given the tour could be the first and possibly the last.”

What a great and precise attitude! But what role such attitude can play in company policy? Maybe the company prides itself on fulfilling customer requests "within 12 hours", and perhaps this promise is used in advertising. This, of course, is very likely if the client has contacted the firm with the first request. But forcing a client to wait 12 hours between requests if the response to their first request was "Please let me know what operating system you're using and I'll give you an answer" is completely unacceptable. However, as sad as it is to admit, this is very typical for many firms. Yes, really, it may take a company 12 hours or more to fix the problem, although it was stated in two, and not in one request. The ideal company understands this very well.

9. Standards exist - and are implemented in life. For example, in an expensive hotel, you will never see a doorman standing with his back to a client trying to open the door. Why? Because they are standards! In this case, the standard is that doormen work as a team. They look at each other and give each other a sign if someone comes up from behind. Doormen literally cover each other's backs. Thanks to this, the client has a feeling of hospitality and comfort in general.

10. The standard is Additional services . Ideal companies always offer something above the existing standards. Admittedly, in difficult situations, shareholders will always seek to reduce these additions in the first place, but without them it will be impossible to differentiate your service. When you buy an iPad from Apple, you know you can read e-books. Excellent. The industry leader Kindle offers the same service. And Nook. And Kobo. And Sony Reader. To understand that you are dealing with an exceptional company, you are helped by the "unexpected addition" - the ability to virtually "turn the pages" and read e-book like the most ordinary, only printed on special paper.

Ideal service in the physical world is carried out in the same way. During the last economic downturn, the Ritz-Carlton's Horst Schulze said that economic hardship was no excuse for a luxury hotel to forego "nice little things," such as daily fresh flowers in the rooms. The guests of such a hotel do not buy four walls and a ceiling, but an elaborate sense of exclusivity. And if they do not feel it, then they are unlikely to want to return.

11. The company should strive for efficiency, but in no case at the expense of the client. Service is a unique situation that does not always fit modern requirements speed and continuous improvement in efficiency. Yes, production techniques are used quite widely in the service. However, if you want to be ready for any customer requirements, then you have to put up with inefficiency in the production sense of the word. It will be necessary to have an increased stock in stock, and for a fairly long period of time. Ideal companies are well aware of when it is possible to use efficiency techniques (for example, demonstrated by the firm), and when they are not applicable.

12. Customer experience must be constantly improved. As consumers, we all appreciate the convenience and familiarity with the process, which makes it easy to order and purchase goods and services. When I order something online from a company I've dealt with before, I expect all the on-screen menus to look exactly the same as before. I want to see what I'm used to, not re-learn ordering protocol. The same thing happens when I call the company that supplies me with fuel for the heating system. I'm counting on the usual protocol of being told the price per gallon, offering a reasonable delivery time, and providing a driver who already knows my home's system and how to use it so I don't need to be there.

However, while consumers value consistency, the ideal company understands that service needs to be improved even to maintain a sense of consistency as consumer expectations continue to rise.

At the beginning of the 20th century, about 30 years after the invention and widespread use of the telephone, Marcel Proust, with his usual vivacity, wrote that the telephone had come to be taken for granted. People began to perceive the phone as ordinary household appliance and began to complain more about the static noise on the line than to admire this amazing marvel of new technology.

What Proust wrote about the telephone applies to every aspect of the consumer experience. Today, the period during which the perception of something new changes dramatically is much shorter than it was before. What was considered an incredible achievement in customer service last year is quickly becoming commonplace, if not outright unacceptable. What seemed fast last week looks awfully slow today.

The ideal company understands this very well and is constantly improving. For example, a retail network, opening new outlets, sets itself a very specific task: do new shop better than the previous one. Dot. This is the optimal path to improvement, which saves the company from unnecessary thought and regrets about the mistakes made.

All 12 components will be discussed in more detail a little later. Each of them has its own significance for consumers.

Disaster Example: Fatal Error in an Ideal Service

I hope that this list of 12 features that characterize a company with excellent customer service did not confuse you. And that's good - I prefer to deal with an unafraid reader. However, around us we constantly see examples of the opposite. There are many anti-consumer (and usually anti-collaboration) companies and firms in the world that do not intend to be different from competitors, rarely meet customer expectations, and certainly never exceed them in anything - except by accident. In an ideal company, all potentially destructive elements should be identified and eliminated. Therefore, you must analyze the negative characteristics in their "natural" form. Let's take a moment to understand what the ideal company shouldn't be. Remember how inspired preachers paint pictures of hell before their flock. Let's talk about this abyss, where any company can collapse.

To make the example as accessible as possible, I invite you to join me and go grocery shopping, which we do every day. What could be more positive and human-friendly than a well-funded, fully stocked and conveniently located grocery store? Well, let's go? We head to an expensive grocery store in a suburb that I won't name (although I'm tempted once again!). This is a branded boutique owned by a well-known corporation. The store is ideally located, both geographically and demographically. It is surrounded by private houses of quite wealthy citizens, where there are many old mansions. These houses are inhabited by people with a high level of education, and within a radius of six kilometers there are four colleges, etc., etc. Let's start our shopping. Don't forget that we came looking for unpleasant surprises.

Entry and unnecessary barriers. Even before we are in the store, it is clear that interaction (or interaction attempts) will not be easy. Before we go shopping, we look at the site to check the road and opening hours, but we do not find information. Yeah, the site has a live chat button. Let's try. Two unbearable minutes of waiting pass, and finally someone answers. Indeed, “someone”, because the answerer does not introduce himself - most likely, this is some kind of automatic program, because we did not learn any useful information from these voice messages.

Waving our hand to the store's website, we find it on Google Maps where opening hours are also mentioned. Unfortunately, the hours shown on Google Maps and Google Places are incorrect. (Actually, 16 months ago they were correct, but since then the store has not bothered to contact Google and update the information, and because of this, customers like us often find themselves in front of closed doors.)

Let's try to remain calm in this situation. On the second attempt, we arrive at the parking lot of the store during those hours when it is still open. The first noticeable obstacle is purely physical. The shopping carts are in a "corral" that completely blocks a person in a wheelchair from leaving the disabled parking lot. On the disabled person, his friends and family members, such a situation will not make the most positive impression.

Arrogance and carelessness of the staff. And here we are in the store. We see a young saleswoman placing bottles of balsamic vinegar on the top shelf. She climbed onto the stepladder with "the top of her thighs" pointing straight at the incoming shoppers. The saleswoman clearly does not know how to communicate with customers. She doesn't even greet us. Something out of the ordinary? Unfortunately no. We walk around the store, but none of its employees, even those who facing us, and not other parts of the body, do not pay any attention to us. Nobody says hello. Doesn't smile. Doesn't offer help.

New imperial carts. Okay, no one paid any attention to us. Let's walk around the store with cute, but extremely inconvenient shopping carts. We need to buy something. Everything seems to be simple - if you have never tried to roll a cart on hard rubber wheels on a floor lined with fashionable ceramic tiles- with an uneven surface and large gaps between the tiles, filled with a thick mortar that imitates manual work. The cart hobbles across this floor with a terrible rumble. It looks like we've been hit by shelling. By the end of shopping, the hands are numb with terrible force.

We did it! And here we are at the checkout. Having overcome all the obstacles, we put the necessary products into the cart and dragged it to the checkout. And finally she is: the cashier is the first human being who, by virtue of her official duties must contact us in person. Really personal: face to face. Oh happiness! We have a moment of human communication!

Roll up your lip! They don't even notice us! The cashier is busy - she chats with other cashiers: she tells them about her unsuccessful date yesterday. The conversation is extremely exciting, and even the need to twist her neck in order to be heard does not stop her.

Angry that she had to interrupt the conversation, the cashier tosses the punctured products into bags - strong-smelling cheese ends up in the same bag with equally odorous sushi, heavy apples crush fragile cookies into crumbs.

We could have hoped that, without bothering to make human contact with us, the cashier would pay more attention to the correct packaging of products, but, apparently, our hopes were not justified.

flower disaster. Sometimes the strongest impressions of contact with a certain organization occur "at the edges": at the very beginning and at the moment of completion. For me, the most terrible disappointment was visiting a flower shop in the same expensive grocery store. Look there with me, but this time remain an observer - a kind of fly on the wall. Time? 6:45 p.m. is a regular business day (the store closes at 7 p.m., as it says on the front door, although Google has completely different information). I went to buy flowers, but I have no idea what kind of bouquet I need. For about three minutes, I absently examine the flowers on the shelves. The saleswoman asks if I have made my choice. I answer that not yet. She keeps pushing but offers no help or advice. She finally announces sternly, "We close at seven."

As politely as possible, I reply, "Actually, I think you should close the store after the last customer who entered before 7 p.m. has left the store." To my amazement, the saleswoman reacts completely differently than I expected. She is quite sincerely surprised: “Really? I did not know that. I had so many problems when I closed even a minute later than seven that I was sure that by seven o'clock all customers should leave the store..

How did such a striking example of what not to do come about? Let's go back to that grocery store again.

Against employees, against customers. My conversation with a flower shop clerk showed you everything you need to know about catastrophically anti-consumer companies. They are set not only against customers, but also against their own employees. They cause the same harm to employees and customers, forcing sellers to literally push customers out of the store at exactly 19:00. All the actions of this store are based on a superficial and extremely harmful desire to achieve their goal at any cost. This approach leads to negative, and sometimes downright terrifying results.

Lack of purpose and standards. Now let's take a closer look at the mistakes that were made at the checkout. Firstly, the cashier thought only of her professional duties- break through the goods, take money from us and throw the goods into bags. She did not have a goal to help the store flourish. Thoughts that the same thing can be done in a human way, so that the buying process becomes as pleasant as possible for buyers, she clearly did not attend. This behavior of the store employee working with the checkout is the end result of poor training and mismanagement.

Secondly, the cashier did not have standards performance of their duties. One of the standards was to understand which products can be put in one bag, and which are better to put into different ones. It is not difficult to learn such a standard, but the absence of it can completely spoil the customer experience from visiting a particular store. Standards should be developed, taught to staff, and then enforced to adhere strictly to them. The devil most often lies in non-standardized details.

Thirdly, the cashier did not make the slightest effort to support her customers. She wasn't happy about them at all—she preferred to crane and twist her neck at the risk of injury, but to chat with her girlfriends rather than doing her actual job, which (let me repeat) was to improve customer satisfaction, not is to bundle their purchases into bags. Why did the cashier act like this? Most likely, she simply did not feel like a part of the company and did not consider herself obliged to increase customer satisfaction and thereby contribute to the success of the company.

Reasons why employees turn away from customers and do not come into contact with them. How can a salesperson not make contact with incoming customers and even turn around to face them? How can one salesperson after another ignore the customers who are in the store? Yes, they are busy - they put up and adjust the layout of goods on the already sparkling shelves, doing other things. But all these people, like the cashier, do not fulfill their main task - they do not care about customers. Solve this problem without reviewing the entire corporate culture impossible.

Bumpy floor and misplaced ramps. What do you say about the wrongly located ramp, which the disabled cannot use? And what about a ceramic field that is not adapted to move shopping carts? These mistakes are explained by the fact that the sellers and the store management have never put themselves in the place of buyers - and it is not surprising that they leave their personal cars in a special parking lot and enter the store through other doors. Few of them know what it's like to enter through the main entrance, exit the handicapped parking lot, etc. (The exception is young employees who collect carts from the parking lot and return them back to the store. If they reported an existing problem, senior managers did not listen to them, or even simply stated that it was none of their business.) The motivation of the store staff is completely wrong - people perform their duties in order not to run into punishment, instead of serving the prosperity of the store. Handicapped parking was made for an opt-out only, as such parking is required by local and national laws. If the store management really thought about the disabled, then everything would be different. If store owners are oblivious to the barriers that prevent disabled people from using their store—and even deliberately place barriers between parking and entry—then there must be some explanation. Apparently, this store just wants to cut off a certain segment of the market base - the disabled and those who care for them.

Actions taken for the wrong reasons, and therefore poorly executed, are unique to bad companies. If the firm is not flexible about working hours, then it often receives results from employees of poor quality, but received at a strictly defined time. Firms that treat sick leave unfairly or overly harshly can be absolutely sure that all their healthy employees will certainly make full use of all sick leave days, scheduled. forgetting about the real security, and in an effort to just get rid of safety checks, companies are creating dangerous jobs. The result is poor quality customers - or lack of them, because there is no law that would require people to shop here.

Yes, I guess it's a bore - useful, I hope, but still boring... I'm glad to say that now we'll move on to something a little more fun.

And what do you think of all this?

Here are 12 characteristics of ideal companies.

1. The ideal company welcomes customers - through any channel! And even before the client arrives - literally or figuratively. The company constantly analyzes the experience that its customers receive using the Internet, telephone and other communication channels.
2. When a customer arrives at a company, there should be no barriers in their path that could cloud their experience with the company.
3. Employees of the company show a sincere and deep interest in the client.
4. The company respects the client's desire for self-service... but always provides an opportunity to move to direct communication with employees.
5. The company has the processes, technologies and resources necessary to meet the needs and desires of the client. In other words, you need not only employees who feel what the consumer wants, but also systems that are focused on satisfying his desires, and even before these desires are voiced.
6. The company must take into account the time constraints and wishes of the client. Customer time should never be wasted. The most important thing for a company is to take into account the pace needs and expectations of a particular client.
7. The emotional needs and state of mind of the client are extremely important. Employees of the company must be friendly and polite with customers, even if their calls do not have immediate commercial value.
8. The company recognizes and takes into account the unique features of the specific situation of a particular client. Even if the vast majority of customer interactions follow one of several typical scenarios, employees need to understand that every interaction is unique to that customer from their point of view.
9. Standards exist and must be followed.
10. Extra amenities are standard. Without unexpected and pleasant additions, it is almost impossible to differentiate your service.
11. Efficiency is important, but it should never be at the expense of the customer. A certain amount of inefficiency, being ahead of schedule (as opposed to strict timeliness), and excess inventory is sometimes necessary to keep a company ready for any customer request.
12. The customer experience must be constantly improved, often through continuous improvement methods borrowed from the manufacturing industry.