How do you align the rest of the organization to that?
No. 1, we have company values that ensure that that is front and center. We have all-hands meetings quarterly to make sure that we reinforce that message. And we ensure that we are recognizing and celebrating the right behavior and extinguishing or correcting the wrong behavior. We need people that think outside of silos, and when we see silo thinking, we make it very clear they need to find a different (job).
Part of it is hiring the right people [who] understand that if a sale doesn’t go through, then no one has a job.
How do you identify that collaborative spirit during interviews?
It’s just asking people how they’ve demonstrated behaviors in the past that align with what we’re looking for.
(Before we interview) a customer service manager, we’ll come up with a difficult customer service scenario where maybe a customer feels they were promised something by sales, we can’t deliver it … and it’s a time-sensitive issue. How would they proceed with it? You want insight into how they think.
A wrong answer would be to tell the customer that they’re wrong. A wrong answer would be to call up the salesperson and yell at them. A wrong answer might be to promise the customer we’ll do whatever it takes to get it right.
If you create silos and reward that type of thinking, then you poison the environment. You have to figure out: Do you have the right people in the right positions — and not just for their position, but are they working across the organization, as well?
How to reach: Verengo Solar Plus, (877) 403-3479 or www.verengosolar.com
