Live the values
Communicating the values and showing that you, as the leader, believe in them is only the first step. You have to make sure your employees live the values. And they live the values every day.
In setting the company values and direction, Sheakley is clear on his expectations and has systems in place to make sure they’re met.
“The CEO has to set the expectation, because everyone is looking at the CEO to set the expectation,” Sheakley says. “As long as it’s a rational expectation, then people are going to buy in. If you don’t get buy-in, then you have to examine what your expectations are or you need to find people who are going to buy in.”
A prime example of Sheakley’s expectations blending with company values is customer service. His client expectations include being up front and honest, making customers feel comfortable that the company is there to serve them and using a sense of urgency, basically answering the phone when you can and returning calls that you’ve missed as soon as possible.
What Sheakley sees as its standout difference in the industry is its ability to provide personalized customer service. To provide that level of service, the company relies heavily on feedback.
Every time a customer service or field person talks with a client, notes from the conversation are recorded. Details include whether the conversation took place on the phone or in person, who initiated the conversation and why, what was the resolution to the conversation and any other pertinent information.
The strategic nature of collecting data is informative for many reasons, including tracking customer trends and truly understanding whether management’s expectations are being heard at the bottom level.
“First of all, you understand your client better and what their needs are,” Sheakley says. “Second, it’s a reminder if a caller would call and if they want information on why did we do that that way, we can refer back to our notes and say, ‘Well, here’s what we talked about, and here’s what our notes were.’ We can also be very specific about why or why we didn’t do some action on a particular claim. It also helps us in our dialogue with the client. ‘Yes, we were on top of it, and this is what we did.’”
Having an open and honest dialogue with customers is really how you’re going to understand their needs and get the feedback you truly want to determine how your employees — in Sheakley’s case the customer service and field executives — are following through on service.
“We come back and gather a lot of that data and have conversations internally about what are the highlights and the things that our clients are asking for,” Sheakley says. “What is important to our clients and what is not, because what seems maybe what we do for a client or a group of clients (is important) is not necessarily perceived as valued.
“A lot of it has to do with listening. Not only listening but also accumulating the data, and then trying to do something with it so we’re not just thinking that, ‘Well, we’re providing a product here and this is what you’re buying so good luck.’ It’s more about listening to what the client is really asking for and trying to give that to them.”
It’s important in every customer conversation to ask questions like: Are there any other needs you have? Is there anything else we can do to help? By asking those basic questions and pausing to hear the answers, you’ll pick up on little things. It’s truly listening to their needs.
“Being a good listener is always predicated on being empathetic to the other party’s needs,” Sheakley says. “If you can listen with the idea that you really want to have empathy for what the other person is saying and you really do want to hear and feel the pain of whatever is going on from the other perspective, then you’re going to be a good listener.”
Sheakley’s supervisors and employees look over the notes taken from the customer conversations to understand whether trends are taking place. If a trend is identified, the information moves its way up to the direct reports and possibly on to Sheakley if a discussion needs to take place on making changes.
No matter what the outcome to the answer, you always have to follow up with customers and be honest about what you can and cannot do to meet their needs.
Using a system that tracks customer conversations and satisfaction has allowed Sheakley to retain customers and be better prepared to handle questions and concerns, it has also boosted employee morale from the standpoint that employees realize management takes customer service seriously.
“Leadership all comes back to whether your people believe in what you stand for and what you’re saying,” Sheakley says. “If you don’t actually live it out, then they’re not going to believe it. It all comes back to whatever goals and ambitions and core values you set for your business. You’d better be willing to live those yourself.”
How to reach: Sheakley, (800) 877-2053 or www.sheakley.com
