Don’t be surprised if Anne Doris shows up at your door someday soon.
If you’re a customer of Cox Communications Inc. Cleveland, she might just be riding along with the technician who comes to your home or office. And during the call, Doris probably won’t even mention that she is general manager and vice president.
“I first just simply say, ‘I’m Anne, and I’m here to install whatever services today,’” she says of her customer visits. “Then someone might ask what do I do, and I tell them, and they’re very pleased that I’ve taken the time out to come to their particular installation.”
Doris doesn’t ride along on calls every day, but she wants her 180 employees to see that she understands the business, so she has no qualms about rolling up her sleeves and joining the crew.
Smart Business spoke with Doris about why you have to listen objectively if you want to bring people in and how to build rapport by riding shotgun with your employees.
Listen carefully before reacting. Something that’s been critical for me has been the ability to listen. … Successful leaders have to be able to listen well and use the information they get to help formulate the strategy for their organization.
It’s really critical when you hear information to probe further and get more facts but simultaneously assume as you go along positive intent of the information that you’re hearing.
We’re all in business with the purpose of serving customers, and there are times when information may not be as clear as you might think, and perception may not always be reality. So the burden on you as a leader is to always delve deeper into any issue that you’re faced with and not make any assumptions about the information that you’re receiving.
It’s very important to be objective. You’ll find yourself being cut off if you’re not clearly maintaining objectivity about the information you’re being given.
One of the things that I try to do at all times is maintain a certain sense of unflappable calm, and that gives me a great deal of advantage. That way I am always open and listening. People will respond to how they think you are reacting.
Acclimate employees to you and your company. I can’t personally hire everyone, but one of the things that we do focus on is the orientation schedule for employees. We want to be sure that they understand what each department does, what are their objectives, what their work is in regards to a product or a customer, and we want them to have an understanding of what the organization’s strategic vision and goals are.
So we ensure that their very first day with our company they learn our company history and tell them what customer service means to us.
Then it’s really important for me to set the stage at each new employee orientation class for them to know what I, as the leader of Cox Communications in Cleveland, expect of the organization and the role I expect them to play. I want them to know our products, align themselves with our goals and support their coworkers and to deliver a high standard of customer service.
