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August 14, 2016

Recognising the potential in a prospective employee

Recognising the potential in a prospective employee could be the key to your business succeeding. It has been proven that investing time and money into building a successful team is extremely profitable in the long-term.

Many companies continuously say that their employees are responsible for the biggest part of their success. But how to recognise the potential in someone?

Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, and many other great CEOs have confirmed that an enormous part of their companies (Apple, Space X, PayPal, Tesla, etc.) success, is owed to their employees. Moreover, many authors have dedicated themselves to researching the topic of team-building. They analyse and refer examples of the most successful companies in the world and concluded that if you want to grow your business and be more successful and sustainable, you have to build your workforce. Also, they all conclude that it is necessary to recruit the right people, with potential.

It may not be about formal advantages

The logical question is how to identify the right people that fit your business? The right person you are searching for may not always be those who have formal advantages, but those who have opinions and values that correspond to the principles of your company. Some successful businesses in the world foremostly practice to recruit talented people. Secondly, they then look to find an appropriate role in the team.

Three core traits

Three core traits have been identified that key performers possess: aspiration, ability, and engagement. If the person aspires, they will have the desire to take on responsible tasks, all kinds of challenges and make important decisions. Ability means that the individual has a combination of natural traits and skills. And finally, engagement is the person’s full emotional and rational commitment and devotion, the discretionary effort and intent to get or complete the job. One does not go without the other, so when you’re interviewing the potential employees, you should pay attention whether they want to do more and achieve more, whether they see a future for themselves in your company, whether they’re always ready to go the extra mile!

Passion is crucial

People with passion can change the world. It’s so much easier to stay focussed on what you are doing, if you have a passion for doing the job. But how do you recognise passion from the get-go in an employee interview? First, try to make a distinction between fake from real passion. Have you ever been harassed by an over passionate salesperson. You feel that something is not quite right, false even? Remember you are trying to identify the right people who can use all of their passion for your company’s goals. Additionally, see how they speak about their work, your business and about their plans.

Communication is essential

Now the thing that links all of the key things above is your potential new-hires ability to communicate. Let’s face it, the success of your company depends on it. That is why it is crucial you recognise the communication skills when undertaking the interviews. An employee with good potential listens to others and responds effectively. If you want your company to reach higher goals, you need goal-oriented people that can communicate clearly. See our article for the importance of communication and how it relates to customer satisfaction.

Dynamic or inflexible

Today’s work circumstances, roles and responsibility are dynamically changing. Your role could be this today and something else tomorrow. This is why you have to recognise the person’s ability to adapt to new situations. Also, growing along with your business is equally important. Consequently, if you identify inflexible individuals, who interfere, challenge everything, duck and weave tasks that are slightly out of their normal duties, watch out!

If you recognise the good traits above in any of your employees or potential employees, you will certainly be on your way to building a strong team and a strong company. Remember that employment sometimes has to deviate from the formal principles and you should trust your instincts. If you recognise a potentially good employee’s worth to your company, hire or promote them. But value passion the most, because it comes naturally and you can’t be taught this.

Author: Industry Professional

August 5, 2016

DIY vs Professional home project

DIY handyman home renovation Professional home project

Is it better to take on a home project in a do it yourself (DIY) fashion vs. engaging a professional to complete the work? I imagine this question gets asked a lot every week in households all over the world, particularly if you are not that handy like me! It certainly has at my house over the past few weeks. In this article, we will cover off questions to consider before embarking on a DIY project. We will talk about the potential to save thousands of dollars, compared to, is it really worth it?

Potential to save thousands of dollars

In recent storms, my fence fell over due to the high winds and fallen trees resting on it. It obviously needed fixing. My first thought was to get professionals to provide three quotes. I was quite shocked at the high price of the quotes (and the pricing differential!). However, the quotes did involve replacement of the fence. The tradesmen don’t seem to want to repair the fence and replacement is the suggested course of action. As the fence was still in good condition i.e. straight but leaning, it got me thinking, could I fix the fence myself and potentially save thousands of dollars?

DIY, Is it really worth it?

The web is a fantastic resource, and based on the relatively simple task, my cost estimates showed I actually could save thousands of dollars. So I decided to give it a go. What could go wrong? After two weekends of hard labour, plan revisions (due to human error) and multiple trips to the local hardware store it was done. On reflection, I am jubilant with the result, which was very effective and did save me thousands of dollars. There is also the satisfaction of doing the task yourself and the pride of a job well done!

Personally, I have found the key points to consider are the (1) size of the savings, (2) complexity of the job and (3) time vs. money tradeoff. As a non-professional taking on something for the first time, estimating the complexity or time to complete the job may be very inaccurate. So you should leave some fat in your estimations and then you decide is it really going to be worth it. For example, I did not take on our recent bathroom renovation as I did not think the amount I could save (if any) outweighed the effort and difficulty of the job.

Questions to consider before embarking on a DIY job

What are the potential savings?
How difficult or complex is the task?
Is the time vs. money tradeoff worth it? (i.e. forgoing family or other personal time)
Do you have the required tools already?
Is the job potentially life threatening? (i.e. electrical work)
Have I got some good mates that may be able to lend a hand?
Does it have to meet the applicable standard for that code, if so will it when I finish the project?

If you can get through those questions and are still keen to proceed with the DIY, I wish you the best of luck and may see you at the hardware store on the weekend!

Author: Professional Banker

July 31, 2016November 26, 2023

Superior customer service leads to sales

I’ve been in the customer experience game for over 20 years now, working in industries such as IT, Food & Beverage, Retail and the Services Industry and this has led me to believe that superior customer service leads to sales. That statement sounds like a no brainer right? I believe that in every industry there is only a handful of those “Superior Customer Experience” providers who can deliver on that promise. While it’s true that no two companies are the same, it takes a certain mentality and consistency to stand out from the crowd. My philosophy around superior behaviours is that we have to believe, we are all sales people, either directly or indirectly. And only when you are embracing that sales mentality and start focusing on a positive end to end sales experience, will your customer start to recognise a superior customer experience. With that said I want to share my experiences on why walking the customer experience is a journey worth travelling and how deploying a sales business model that encourages out of the box thinking will give you an edge over your competition. I will also touch on how embedding measured customer communication into your culture can identify problems early and avoid bad customer experiences. We will then run through my top 4 tips on why you should stand out from the crowd, why it is better to under promise and over deliver, why communication is king, and why empowering the team to make decisions is so important.

We are all sales people

As a newly recruited junior Technical Support Representative in a small two person call centre in 2000, the manager introduced me to the team. There were only twenty people in the company back then and I asking one of the guys there “So what do you do?” His response was “The same as you. I’m in sales”. I began to correct him “No I’m the new tech support guy”, before he interjected, “We are all sales people here mate”. My impression at the time of a salesperson, was the dodgy car salesperson who persistently called you after a test drive and made you feel like you were about to lose your first child if you didn’t sign up that day. This was confusing to me, as I certainly didn’t consider myself to be one of them. As a Technical Support Rep, you’re hired because of a genuine desire to help people and provide advice. That is why you would follow this type of career. I certainly didn’t consider myself a sales person.

The End to End Sales experience

After many years in and around various customer support, technical support and customer care roles my observations have lead me to change my perception in that, we are all salespeople in the end to end sales experience. Obviously, my colleague wasn’t literal when he told me I was a salesperson. After all in Technical Support (TS), what did I have to sell? In most cases, it is up to TS to help customers who are frustrated with their products and services issues and get them back up and working again. However, what is derived from these observations is that it was the customer’s end to end experience that would ultimately dictate the decision of the client to buy again. The TS team played a critical role in that customer’s sales experience and many cases it was the TS team which brought them back from turning away for good. It has become apparent; we are all salespeople, but not ordinary salespeople. We are all here to sell the end to end customer experience, and each person in the company from marketing, sales, finance, support and services play’s their part in any potential future sale.

Walking the customer experience is a journey worth travelling

One interaction with a customer is not what you are not evaluated on. The typical customer’s decision-making process will mean that you are judged on their experience over the entire journey with your business. Most customers are forgiving and will allow for a mistake or two; however, one bad experience could mean you never get that opportunity to impress the client again. In today’s digital age that whisper of a bad experience can travel fast to others. That’s why walking the customer experience is a journey worth travelling, and you need to put yourself in the client’s shoes on a regular basis to understand how easy or difficult you are to do business with. I performed this exercise when working in tech support. It became the norm getting complaints about delivery delays. I thought it was normal. One day a customer ripped right through me as he explained his frustration at us delivering a critical part two days late and I couldn’t accept it as the norm any longer. This was a moment of truth situation where it was important to find out what caused the customer to unload on me.

Under promise and over deliver

What we uncovered was that it wasn’t the fact that our parts were late at all. In fact, we had sent the parts within our standard SLA’s, which was five business days. What became apparent was that whenever we quoted an ETA to a customer, we would always provide a range that it will arrive in 3-5 days. It wasn’t obvious back then, but all the customer heard was that it should arrive in three days’ time. While our delivery team, relied on the five days and would not put any effort into exceeding that timeframe. Customers want certainty so if something might take five days to arrive, commit to five days, however, do your best to exceed that, and you’ll have a happy customer when it arrives at their door earlier than expected. Without walking through that journey with some of our clients and identifying that pain point, we would have continued as normal and potentially lost customers along the way.

Embedding customer communication into your culture

If there is one thing I’ve learnt from working in the customer experience industry, it’s that customer communication needs to be embedded into your culture to enable successful customer relationships. I recall an incident where one of our customers had a major issue with their system, and it was expected that the parts would take several weeks to arrive. No doubt the fact the parts would take several weeks was a concern, to begin with. This customer had engaged our company for years and understood that there were long lead times associated with these parts in question. The customer then called us up with a couple of days to go and asked how their parts were travelling. That’s the moment the house of bricks fell over. If only we had kept the customer informed along the way! It turned out the parts had been delayed by a week and the team involved hadn’t passed the message along to the account management team, hoping the parts would miraculously arrive on time. It’s a mistake you only want to make once, and if we had installed a regime of continuous communications, both internally and externally, we might have avoided an awkward situation and given the customer a chance to make alternative arrangements.

Give the power to make common sense judgments

I recount a story of a young retail trainee keen and eager to impress. He was working the returns department for a couple of weeks and in general, things went smoothly, with customers approaching and returning damaged/faulty goods, with receipt in hand. One day a woman with kids in tow arrived with a bag containing school shoes with the sole peeling back. This trainee had worked the shoe department before so he knew they were our shoes; however, the policy at the time clearly stated no receipt, no refund. The women pleaded with the trainee and wanting to make an impression with management so he stood his ground on that ruling. The woman then proceeded to ask to speak to a manager. And to my surprise, the manager sided with the woman. When I reflected on this situation, it’s easy to understand the reason behind management supporting the women’s claim. She seemed honest in her complaint; they were school shoes and should last longer than a few months. She claimed to have legitimately lost her receipt, however, what continued to frustrate the trainee and other team members not in management positions was that they were not given the power to make a common sense judgment. This ultimately impacted team moral, and it wasn’t until after a couple of staff members left the company and completed an exit interview did management begin to understand the impact that had on the team.

It’s some of these lessons that have helped me grow as a customer experience professional. And there are four core philosophies that I go back to on a regular basis that I’ve discovered works when creating superior experiences to remember:

Customer Service Tips:

1) Recognise everyone’s contribution to the sales experience

It’s important that everyone in the business recognises what they are doing can ultimately lead to a sale, and therefore could be considered part of the sales experience.

– Finance contribute through timely invoices

– Technical Support provides sound advice and timely resolution of problems

-Supply Chain help by getting the product out on time.

-Sale team engage directly and communicate with the customer

Without each and every one of these groups contributing to the end of end experience, we wouldn’t have a sale.

2) Walk the customer journey

You must walk the customer journey to understand truly how easy or how hard you are to work with. Spend time with the customer, listening to their needs and what works and what doesn’t.

3) Communication is king

By keeping the communication flow going throughout the process you’re not only keeping yourself honest by keeping track of the customer’s request, but you’re also given the customer options should something not go to plan. Even in times of bad news, the customer is likely to respect you for being honest and open in the long term, which is why communication is king.

4) Empower the team

Empowering the team to make judgment calls is critical in building a team of trust. People make mistakes. However, it’s what you learn from those mistakes that counts. Empowering your team to make important customer decisions, while providing some space to make the odd mistake helps build a strong culture of trust and rapport.

Author: Clinton Smith

June 19, 2016

Tax return tips – free spreadsheet

It’s tax time again and every year if you’re like me you wonder if you are on top of all your tax submission requirements. If you have a complex submission, it could end up costing you a bunch of money if you’re relying on your accountant to manage everything for you. Even a simple tax return can cost you more money than you should be paying if you are not prepared when you get to your accountant. Engaging an accountant to add up simple receipt amounts, doesn’t make sense to me. You can easily input your information into a spreadsheet. At the end of this article, you can register for our free tax expenses calculation spreadsheet, see figure 1. A quick look at the spreadsheet from your accountant, and they can take the input required for your return, saving you loads of time and money. The alternative is you send your accountant a bunch of receipts or take in your expanding carry file and they sift through the receipts at a couple of hundred dollars an hour. Your accountant then essentially creates a spreadsheet for you! It’s convenient, but a more expensive option.

Figure 1: Tax expenses calculation spreadsheet –Download free

It’s easy to make mistakes

Following on from above. An accountant is human, and can easily make mistakes like the rest of us, and you should be across what you’re signing. In the end, you are responsible for it. Several times I’ve sat there with my different accountants over the years and picked up errors in the calculations. One wrong digit can make a huge difference in your submission. But the same goes the other way too; I have been picked up for my errors in my entries. In most things in life peer reviews are common, engineering, medicine, and banking just to name a few disciplines. By getting involved and prepared for your return, it gives a second set of eyes and understanding to how that magic number appears at the end of the calculation. It’s good for you and your accountant because neither one wants to be involved in an incorrect submission, which could be picked up in that random audit that heads your way, or that sends a red flag to the taxation office that triggers them to start poking around your affairs!

Personally, I have a medium complex tax return with some small investments. Usually, with my return, I sit with my accountant and go through it within an hour.

Seven tips for your tax return

Here are a few tips to save you time, money and be organised for the next tax return:

Do your tax return early, just after the financial year ends. That way there is less chance of losing receipts and the chance of forgetting one of your expenses throughout the year is less likely.
Prepare a compilation summary sheet. That way you know what you need to account for, and nothing is missing. Each year you can add to this sheet, or take away things that are not required for that year.
Sit down with your accountant and go through your summary sheet with them. It’s efficient, and it gives your accountant the chance to ask you questions while you’re there in front of them. Likewise, it gives you the chance to question them, about areas you not sure on, or pick up on mistakes.
Create a folder for each year, i.e. 15/16, 14/15, etc. This could be in the form of a physical folder, a digital folder or both. That way you can easily find things down the track when you need to.
Break your folder into logical sections, i.e. Property 1, Property 2, Car Expenses, Health, Shares, Banking, Receipts, etc.
Set up automatic filtering on your email accounts. For example, many receipts these days come in the form of digital. Applying a filter is very easy to do on your mail account that will automatically drag emails into the right folders. Anything in the header that mentions receipt will divert to your receipts folder you set up without you doing a thing. The result is you will have a folder full of all your receipts for that financial year.
Ask the question to your accountant, what can I do to maximise my return for next year? That way all year you can work on it. For example, it could be that you need a work computer or keep a car log book for work. Or it you may need to make some repairs to an investment property you have been holding off doing.

Download our tax return spreadsheet for free, register here:

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