My Twitter Feed- TabithaDunn: Part 1 cont - as promised - what level do you ask your cust sat or loyalty question http://bit.ly/ba5Kub August 31, 2010
- TabithaDunn: @mooney1 enjoy! August 30, 2010
- TabithaDunn: RT @toutie @MarshaCollier Join #custserv Tues 9p ET Topic “To Crowdsource or Silo (clearly defined system boundaries) Customer Service?” August 30, 2010
- TabithaDunn: @Turntablez Love that show! Greece is a lovely place (I lived there as a little girl). August 30, 2010
- TabithaDunn: @WriteTheCompany than you for the RT about my blog - more to come this week! I look forward to your thoughts. August 30, 2010
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Category Archives: Leadership
The core of a customer experience program
With so many customer experience programs beginning, many people are asking, “Where do I start?” It’s a question that I have heard often enough that I thought I might do a blog series on what you want to focus on in the first year of your customer experience program. And it might be interesting for those of you who are already well under way in your program.
Customer Experience Professional
Customer experience is a growing specialty field. It goes by many names and titles but the disciplines are quite similar. As a member of this growing group of practitioners, I’m fascinated with the backgrounds where my colleagues come from. Many are from market research backgrounds (since getting the customer feedback is where you start a program) but mine is a different path. I come from an improvement background (project management, Lean Six sigma, program development, etc). I believe the heart of a customer experience program is identifying and driving customer fed improvements.
Engaging Stakeholders
Few things will kill the development of a successful program designed for change than unengaged stakeholders. For many, the desire to get things done quicklycauses the elements of communication and engagement to fall by the wayside. If you have been in that situation, you know how easily you end up wondering at the end why your new or improved process isn’t going as well as planned.
Posted in Change, Communication, Customer Experience, Leadership
Tagged Program, Stakeholders, Success
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Time for planning
The business planning cycle I have gotten used to seems to be one of good intentions but just slightly off. I have had the good fortune to see this planning cycle work the same at more than one company. I ask myself this (and you, of course) – is this cycle a necessity or can it be successfully improved upon? Here’s the one I mean – it starts with budget time (where you hope you have a solid long range strategy to lean on). It’s approximately mid-summer. Now, for some it actually starts a bit sooner or a bit later but I picked a mean. You haven’t solidified your plan for the next year yet but you have the framework, so you can put together the money. Then year end hits (for those of you on the calendar fiscal year, which is quite a lot of you) and everyone is focused on that. Come January, you hope to have a finalized budget and plan for the year. That is always the goal. It’s part of why you start the budget cycle early, right? But how many of you make it to the goal line of early January? Part of that is because you need to see how year end close went but there are often other factors that get in the way. So you may not have a final plan and budget until February or even March. It’s a crazy cycle – shampoo, rinse, repeat! Every year this happens, everywhere I work or where my friends and colleagues work, it tends to happen. Does it work better where you are?
Posted in Authenticity, Balance, Leadership, Work
Tagged Balance, Change, Leadership, Work
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Leading Change
The importance of communication in leading a successful change effort cannot be overestimated. I find myself pondering that element while participating in a major change initiative at work. It is difficult, in our busy day-to-day world, to remember that others are not mind-readers - there is not instantaneous knowledge transfer. Therefore, what you know is not necessarily known to others. So how do you, as a leader, remember to communicate to the broader audience? How many of us build a formal communication element into our planning process that enables us to segregate people into communication audience categories and follow up diligently throughout the change? Based on my experience this is a key element of employee dissatisfaction, when done poorly. And what a shame, because so many initiatives might be more successful had effective communication happened in a timely manner.
Posted in Change, Communication, Leadership
Tagged Change, Communication, Leadership
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Damned or Doomed Debate
http://www.catalystwomen.org/pressroom/pressdoublebind.shtml
This is a very interesting article. When I first read it, quite a bit about the subject struck me as things I have experienced in my own career. Is it true (as stated in the article) that women leaders are perceived by others (male and female) as “never just right”? Are we truly often considered like the beds in the Three Bears story - ”too hard” or “too soft” but never “just right”?