Care

“Press 1 for contracts, invoices, and any other issue” is not a very useful step in the journey of your customer.

“I am experiencing a small technical issue, let me fix that, and I will call you back in five minutes” is a great step in the journey of your customer.

It sounds silly to still be talking about this in 2023, yet so many company fail at the “care” part in customer care.

No surprises

Winning and (not) losing is the focus for many.

But that doesn’t matter.

What truly matters is:

  1. Have you given it all you could?
  2. What could you do differently next time so that all you have to give is a bit more than this time?

Wins and losses are outcomes, you can’t control those.

Focus on the input instead.

No surprises there.

Just easier

Knowing yourself – what you stand for, what you want to achieve, how you like things done, what you want to avoid – is important mainly because it saves you from the frustration of not being able to have it all.

You can have control and you can have agility. You can’t have them both.

You can have family time and you can have a glorious career. You can’t have them both.

You can have independence and you can have stability. You can’t have them both.

When you know yourself, you know what matter, and letting go of things is just easier.

Note: of course, there are exceptions. Some people can have one and the other. But exceptions are rare, and betting on them is often conducive to further frustration.

Blaming people

It’s easy to blame it on people.

They’re not fast enough.

They’re not good enough.

They can’t sell.

They don’t know what they are doing.

They are a wrong fit.

They don’t know how to take criticism.

But when that happens all the time, it’s likely that the problem is in the system.

Do you onboard people well enough?

Do they know what is expected of them?

Do you talk to them and listen?

Do you give them space and freedom to operate?

Do you say when things are not working?

That’s much more difficult to fix. And if you don’t do that, you’ll keep blaming it on people.

What does that mean

If you are looking for a way to align across teams, start with definitions. Particularly, definition of metrics and KPIs.

A meeting is a meeting, right? Think again.

A signup is a signup, right? Think again.

A sequence enrolment is a sequence enrolment, right? Think again.

Going through what things mean, exactly, can be a painful, unnerving, boring process. And nobody ever wants to actually ask the question.

But when it’s done and documented, there’s immediate alignment and clarity.