Customer Service Management Training 101 Chapter 2 Excerpt: Planning and Organizing for Results

You know that managing involves a lot more than making sure your employees are doing their jobs correctly and productively. In addition to all the duties that come with managing others, your job also involves managing yourself and managing results. You are responsible for completing projects and other assignments, analyzing goal achievement, measuring and controlling outcomes, providing feedback, appraising employees on their performance, creating development action plans for employees, and monitoring your personal development goals. How do you keep track of all your responsibilities and keep it all straight?

In addition to all your internal responsibilities, your most important role in frontline management is to ensure your customers are satisfied with the products and services you provide. How do you find the time—and the know-how—to do that?

A Customer-focused Plan Keeps You on the Right Track

With all the management and customer responsibilities on your plate, planning and organizing is your best chance to achieve both corporate and personal goals. Maintaining your focus on your customers when you plan and organize insures you do the things that are important to them—and that should be the number one goal of your company.

Managing without careful planning and organizing would be like leaving for a vacation without knowing where you are going. How will you know when you get where you’re going if you haven’t defined where it is you want to go? Unless you take the time to plan your destination, know your direction, and plot your roadmap , you will never know when—or even if—you have reached your destination.

Managing with thoughtful and insightful planning is one of the most crucial aspects of your job. When you take the time to create your mission, write a plan, and establish your goals, you set yourself up for success.

The first step in planning and organizing is to create a mission statement, which is your destination. Once you know your destination, you will create your customer focused plan, which is the general direction you need to travel to reach your destination. Finally, you will write out specific goals, which is the roadmap that will move you in the right direction towards your destination.

If your company already has a master mission statement, this makes creating one for your team that much easier because you can use it as a model to determine your team’s role in achieving corporate goals. But even if your company does not have one, you can create a team mission statement by analyzing how you and your employees can contribute to your company’s success.

Once you are satisfied that you created a vital mission statement for your team, you are ready to create your customer-focused plan. Your plan should include each component of your mission statement, broken down and further defined to give you an overall direction to reach your destination. By including all items that are important to your mission, you will be in a position to set goals.

The only way to make sure you are moving towards your destination is to plot your roadmap by setting specific, relevant, and realistic goals. Goal setting enables you to organize your time, talent, and resources to best achieve your mission.

Organization, to make the most of your time, is your key to getting everything done. Either you manage your time or your time manages you. Keeping a weekly and daily planner and sticking to the necessary tasks will help you keep on top of your responsibilities.

Even with thoughtful planning and organizing, everyone will be affected by stress. Sometime, something is going to happen that will unnerve you and when it does, it can zap your energy and leave you feeling overwhelmed. Learning how to handle stress effectively will be your best defense when it hits.

STEP 1: Create Your Mission Statement

Whether or not your company has a mission statement, it is important that you create one for your team. Think of your mission statement as your destination. Without a specific destination in mind, it is easy to get sidetracked or lose your way completely.

A mission statement is your overall goal. When you get where you are going, where will you be? What is your destination? When you define the answers to these questions, your mission will come into focus. Your mission statement represents what you stand for and what you wish to achieve. Having a team mission statement provides everyone on your team with a clear focus and, most importantly, the same focus. You may also wish to create a personal mission statement that includes your career aspirations and goals.

Analyze what your company, your team, and you stand for. Your mission statement should be a clear representation of what your company, your team, and you expect to achieve, and it should contain clear, tangible, specific wording that describes the destination for your team (or for yourself).

Ask yourself the following questions (changing “we” to “I” as appropriate):

? Who are our customers and how do we want to be viewed by them?

? What services or products do we provide and why are they important to our customers?

? What is our role in providing these services or products?

? What are the values and principles by which we operate?

When you have answered these questions and any others that are important to your work, you have the information needed to create your mission statement.

Use your analysis to create your mission statement. Keep it brief, keep it broad, and keep it customer focused. Remember that your mission statement is your destination. Later, you will figure out how to reach it. When writing your mission statement, think about your responsibilities and think ahead to the plan you will be creating. Make sure you include everything that is important to achieving your overall mission, and make sure that you will be able to plan and set goals to achieve each component. Here is a sample of a mission statement for Lauren’s telecommunications company:

Our mission is to be our customers’ provider of choice by focusing on their needs and providing cost effective products and services; by seeking new and innovative ways to improve and grow our company; and by remaining true to our values of operating morally and ethically.

From this corporate mission, a manager can then break it down to create a team mission statement. Here is a sample:

Our mission is to do our best to provide exceptional customer service to every customer; to find innovative ways to improve our team to meet corporate goals; and to conduct ourselves in an ethical manner at all times.

Focus on your mission daily. Everything you do should in some way move you towards achieving your mission. Post both your company or busying yourself with unimportant tasks that are not tied to your mission, redirect your attention back to what is important.

STEP 2: Create Your Customer-Focused Plan

Now that you have your mission statement, what do you do with it? When you fine-tune and further break down each aspect of your mission statement, you will create a plan that will become your direction. Keeping a customer focus will help you find ways to do what is important to them. Your plan should include the general direction by which you will operate and manage your team to provide exceptional customer satisfaction and achieve corporate goals.

Break down each aspect of your mission statement. Looking at the team mission statement above, how do you accomplish providing exceptional customer service to every customer? Specifically, what can your team do to accomplish this mission? Can you satisfy your customers 100 percent of the time? If that seems unrealistic, can you satisfy them 98 percent of the time? If you feel that is a realistic plan, then in your plan, write “We will strive to achieve 98 percent customer satisfaction on the first try.”

Fine-tune all components that are important to your plan. Now, think about how you will achieve 98 percent customer satisfaction. You might include: “Train my team on all products and services in order to find the best solution for each customer; observe my employees to make sure they are providing the best customer service; provide meaningful feedback and create development actions plans when necessary; and motivate my team to do their best.” Later, you can break down each of these items to set realistic, relevant goals.

Detail all major work activities on which you want to concentrate. Because your mission statement is an overall, general goal, make sure you include all of your work functions in your plan. After reviewing the items you listed above, you may realize that your job duties include your requirement to interview a random number of customers each month to determine their satisfaction after interacting with your employees. In this event, you decide to add: “interview customers after their contact with my employees to insure they are satisfied. Later, when you set goals, you can incorporate the specific number you will interview.

Review your plan to make sure it is challenging, yet achievable. Before you move into the goal setting phase, carefully review your plan. Ask: “Have I included sufficient direction to move my team—and company—towards our destination? Have I challenged myself and my team with a plan in which we can succeed? Have I incorporated all aspects of my work duties in my plan?” When you are satisfied that you have a workable plan, then you can break it down further into specific goals.

STEP 3: Set Goals

Now that you know your destination and have mapped out your general direction, the planning phase is almost complete. Next you need to plan and organize how you will reach your destination. What specific steps do you need to take to get where you are going? Setting goals helps you organize your time, talent, and resources to set time frames to move you in the right direction.

Write specific, tangible, realistic goals. Now that you have broadened your mission into a plan, you will be able to write and organize the goals that will get you there. When you set goals, take each component you wrote in your plan and create the goals that will provide you with your roadmap.

For example, if in your plan you wrote that you will interview customers after their contact with your employees to insure they are satisfied, how will you set a goal for this? After analyzing your work responsibilities, you may feel that you can manage interviewing four customers per employee per month.

Set specific time frames. Your goal to interview four customers per employee each month is still somewhat broad. What happens when you get to the last couple days of the month and see that you have only completed one interview for each employee? By being more specific you will find your goals are more manageable.

Looking at the interview example, let’s say you have eight employees. Considering that you work an average of twenty days a month, you will need to complete approximately eight interviews each week. Your goal may look like this: Interview four customers per employee per month by completing eight interviews per week. Is this specific? Yes. Is this tangible? Yes. Is this realistic? You have to decide. If you find that a goal you set is not doable, rewrite it. The purpose of goal setting is to keep you on the path towards your destination and to set you up for success. Setting unrealistic goals that are impossible to meet will only lead to frustration.

Break down large goals into smaller, more manageable ones. In your plan you wrote that you will train your team on all products and services in order to achieve 98 percent customer satisfaction. By breaking down this component of your plan and writing it as step-by-step goals, you will find it easier to stay on track down the line.

You wrote your goal as: “Meet with each employee to check for understanding on products and services, determine training needs, and train all members of team by end of 1st quarter.” You realize that this goal is broad and ambiguous. If you get to March and have only trained three of your employees, you may feel overwhelmed and stressed.

Breaking it down is going to make it more tangible. For example: “Meet with each employee to check for understanding on products and services by January 15. Schedule training for each employee by January 20. Complete all training by end of first quarter.” Once you know your training needs you can go back and change the goal sheet to schedule a completion date for each employee who needs additional training. For example: “Complete training as follows: Janie by January 31; Mike by February 7; Justin by February 14….” Setting step-by-step goals also makes it easier if you find the need to move time frames.

Prioritize your goals by importance. While all your goals should move you towards your mission, some carry more weight than others. After you prioritize your goals, review them to make sure you will be able to complete each by your committed dates.

If four interviews per employee per month is a self-imposed goal and you find that other goals are going to make this impossible to meet, change the goal to one you can achieve. Challenge yourself but stay realistic when you set goals and organize your time. Remember, you want to set yourself for success, not doom yourself to failure.

Review your goals with your manager and your team. First, meet with your manager to review your goals. After agreeing on your goal plan, meet with your employees to discuss team goals with them. Discuss strategies to achieve the goals and engage your employees to take responsibility for meeting them. Challenge them to set their own goals.

Periodically, review your progress with your team. Make sure you keep them up to date on goal achievement so that they remain engaged and involved. Celebrate victories, discuss ways to overcome problem areas, and revise goals and dates if they need to be changed or updated. Goal setting is a continuous process, so when you meet your goals, set new ones.

STEP 4: Make the Most of Your Time

Now that you have your destination, direction, and roadmap, you can move your goals to your weekly planner to make sure you not only stay on the right path, but that you remain on schedule. When you organize your goals into time frames and set specific dates you will feel confident, calm, and in control. The bottom line is that you will work more efficiently when you organize and manage your time.

Write out a planner and keep it current. Scheduling what you plan to accomplish each day will help you accomplish more. Noting your goals on your planner puts them in your face, so to speak. Look at your goal sheet and note on your planner the tasks you need to complete and when you need to complete them.

Review your list of tasks every day. When making your daily plan, schedule a block of time at the end of the day to review and prioritize your tasks for the next day. Flexibility is most important in this step. If you find that you are getting backed up, go back to your goal sheet, rewrite your time frames, and change them on your planner. Be realistic about how much you schedule and what you can accomplish each day.

Schedule only three-quarters of your day. Something is going to come up every day. It might be an emergency. It might be an unscheduled meeting with your boss. It might be a project assignment dropped in your lap. Or it might be that you have gotten behind on meeting a goal. Whatever the reason, you know that sometimes things just happen that you had not planned. Allowing unscheduled time every day will give you a cushion that will help you remain calm when you get hit with something unexpected.

Take control of your time or your time will take control of you. Make good use of all your time. Stick to your daily and weekly schedule as best as you can. If you frequently spend time on the telephone, make good use of hold time by filing, reading, or working on other tasks. When you call someone who is a talker, begin your conversation by telling the person that you are busy now, but you need to talk about _____. This sets the tone for the conversation and makes ending it easier.

If someone asks for help but you are busy, tell the person that you want to help but that now is not a good time. Then schedule a time that works for both of you. Learn the difference between importance and urgent. Not everything is urgent.

Organize your workspace. Keeping an uncluttered desk and organized workspace helps you work more efficiently. Knowing where everything is located speeds up any process. When working on a task, make sure you have all necessary items within easy reach. Keeping your planner up to date keeps you in the know about what tasks you need to complete. Creating and organizing task files helps keep your workspace clutter free; when you are done with something, put it away.

Stop procrastinating. Make your attitude, “I’ll do it now” rather than “I’ll do it later.” Putting off work, especially tasks that can quickly and easily be handled at the moment, will eventually put you behind schedule. If your boss keeps assigning you additional work and you cannot get it all done, do not procrastinate; take initiative and meet with him or her to discuss. Bring your plan, goal sheet, and weekly planner. Rather than complaining about the additional assignments, be proactive. Tell your boss you need help in prioritizing all your work because you are finding it difficult to accomplish everything. He or she just might be surprised to see how much work you have been given and may reassign some duties.

STEP 5: Handle Stress

Even with the best planning and organization skills, things still go wrong and feelings of stress often ensue. Careful planning and organizing helps keep stress at arm’s length, but depending on the circumstances, stress can overcome even the calmest person. For example, you may find that you are behind schedule in your goal of interviewing customers and your boss just dropped another project in your lap. Or you are over-scheduled with meetings this week and do not see how you can complete the employee training you had planned. Or you just handled an upset customer, and even though you did your best to find a satisfactory solution to his problem, the way in which he spoke to you left you frazzled. Whatever the reason, stress is unavoidable.

Stress, in and of itself, is not a bad thing. It is how it is managed that determines whether it will impel you in the right direction or derail you completely.

When not handled well, stress can affect both your mental and physical health. It can drain energy, causing you to become impatient, irritable and, in severe cases, it can cause depression. It also contributes to many physical illnesses and conditions, including heart disease. Since we all encounter stress, learning how to handle it well is your best defense in keeping it at under control. When you notice feelings of stress, do something about it before your health is compromised.

Get enough rest. This may well be your best defense to keep stress manageable. Feeling rested helps you make sound decisions, put your critical thinking skills to good use, and enables you to work more efficiently and effectively. Contrary to the amount of sleep people think they can get by with, most of us do need around eight hours to refresh and rejuvenate our bodies. Getting enough rest—every day—is one of the best antidotes to becoming overwhelmed and stressed out.

Exercise. Exercise is a great stress reducer. While thirty to sixty minutes is a daily goal for which we should all strive, taking a ten minute walk outside in the fresh air will give you a quick boost, and that is often all that you need to de-stress and refresh. Just make sure you take the time to get some good exercise every day. Choose an activity you enjoy and you are more apt to do it regularly.

Eat a healthy diet. Energizing your body with the right kind of fuel can help you de-stress. Eat a balanced diet and eat in moderation. What your mother told you was correct: breakfast is the most important meal, so start your day by fueling properly. Including a protein source such as a glass of milk or an egg, a whole grain such as a healthy cereal or slice of toast, and a piece of fruit will give you steady energy throughout the morning. For lunch, stay away from heavy or fried foods. Choosing a healthy sandwich or a salad with meat or cheese will keep you energized through the afternoon. When you need a pick-me-up, a high sugar snack may give you a quick boost but when you need stamina to last the morning or afternoon, make it a wise selection such as nuts, fruit, or yogurt.

Develop relaxation techniques. Deep breathing, counting to ten, getting away from a stressful situation, taking a short mental break, meditating, taking a stretch break—these are all great relaxation techniques. The best thing is that they can all be done in little time. Here are two great relaxation techniques:

1) Close your eyes and inhale deeply. Consciously starting from your abdomen, slowly inhale to fill your lungs, hold the breath for a moment, and slowly exhale the air.

2) Close your eyes and take a quick mental vacation. Love the beach? Picture yourself feeling the warmth of the sun, breathing in the salt air, hearing the sounds of the seagulls and waves.

Learn to be resilient. Resiliency is one of the most important qualities you can develop to manage stressful situations. Resilient people bounce back from life’s challenges, learn to overcome difficult situations, hold up under pressure, and find renewed strength in all life experiences. When life throws you a curve, put your problem-solving skills to work to find the best solution. When there is no good solution, deal with the situation to the best of your ability. Drawing on your inner strength and allowing family and friends to help will see you through the really tough times. Most importantly, try to keep your sense of humor. Laughter often can be the best medicine.

Develop an attitude of gratitude. Appreciate the good in yourself and in others. Respect others. Be tolerant of differences. Focus on being compassionate. Walk in someone else’s shoes rather than judging. Laugh. Do something fun every day. Enjoy a hobby. Count your blessings—you may be surprised by how many you really do have.

from Customer Service Management Training 101--available on amazon.com