In this special episode of The Leaders' Lounge, Marianne Rutz sits down with none other than Kevin Wilkinson - Founder of Ethical Maintenance and her husband! Together, they share an in-depth conversation about Kevin’s inspiring journey from a successful corporate career to building a Community Interest Company (CIC) that’s revolutionising property factoring in Scotland.

Kevin opens up about his decision to leave a well-established career and embrace entrepreneurship in a notoriously unloved industry. He shares insights into why property factoring in Scotland has been so problematic, and how Ethical Maintenance has risen to the challenge by putting homeowners first and creating a community-focused service model.

In this episode, Kevin and Marianne discuss:

• The history behind Ethical Maintenance and how it empowers homeowners to take control of their communal areas.
• Kevin’s role as an advisor to the Scottish Government during the creation of the Property Factors Act 2011 and his input in shaping the industry’s code of conduct.
• The challenges of serving an entire community versus individual homeowners, and how clear communication and transparency are key.
• The unique approach of Ethical Maintenance as a Community Interest Company and why that sets them apart from traditional property managers.

This episode offers a behind-the-scenes look at how Ethical Maintenance continues to disrupt the property factoring industry while staying true to its ethos of transparency, empowerment, and community engagement.

Resources Mentioned:

• Ethical Maintenance: ethicalmaintenance.org
• Connect with Kevin Wilkinson and Marianne Rutz on LinkedIn

Subscribe to The Leaders' Lounge for more insights on operational excellence, leadership, and creating lasting impact in your industry.

In this very special episode of the Leaders’ Lounge, I’m taking you on a personal journey—a story of resilience, transformation, and leadership. I often get asked, “How did you move from the corporate world to leading a property maintenance company?” Today, I’m opening up about that journey, reflecting on pivotal moments that shaped my path.

💡 Highlights from this episode:

• Cancerversary reflections: How a cancer diagnosis changed my life’s direction three days before my wedding.
• Phases of transformation: From “Who am I now?” to exceeding expectations and embracing new opportunities.
• Customer experience as my superpower: How my love for CX and leadership shaped my role at Ethical Maintenance.
• Empowering communities: How I’ve applied the lessons I’ve learned to elevate property maintenance and create better living environments for homeowners.

This episode is for anyone facing life’s curveballs while trying to lead with purpose. It’s about finding your path, empowering yourself, and empowering those around you.

Today it’s all about cash! Show me the money in your customer service delivery!

Resources:

We have created an amazing downloadable workbook for you - covering the content of this foundational series! Go and DOWNLOAD IT HERE…

Links:

Contact us at info@rutzconsulting.com or email me directly marianne@rutzconsulting.com

Website: https://rutzconsulting.com/

This Podcast is produced by: Andrew Madden Photography & Media Production

Amal Hassan, Founder and CEO of Outsource Global, Nigeria.



The very first guest in this exciting Leading Ladies Series is Amal Hassan. 
Amal Hassan is a leading Nigerian technopreneur with diverse interests across different technology verticals. In 2003, Amal set up the first organized ICT training institute in Kano that provides IT training to young Nigerians, especially women. Her passion to unlock Nigeria’s developmental potentials through technology-driven innovation and value-addition led her to build, capitalize and restructure a series of technology-related businesses that succeed in developing talent and creating employment for young Nigerians.

In 2013, she founded Outsource Global, a contact center business process outsourcing that now has offices in Abuja, Lagos, and Kaduna. Under her leadership, Outsource Global has emerged as the leading Nigerian contact center provider servicing the international market, turning the company into a truly global BPO giant, creating over 700 jobs and putting Nigeria on the global map for contact center business process outsourcing.

Amal’s entrepreneurial prowess and business acumen continue to set her apart as a highly regarded emerging business leader in Nigeria. Over the years, she has participated in local and international business missions and attended various professional and leadership courses, conferences and seminars both locally and abroad. Widely regarded as a role model for the girl-child and women especially in northern Nigeria, she has continued to mentor young leaders across her industry.

Amal earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administrations from Bayero University Kano, Nigeria and a Master degree in Business Administration from the same university. Amal is a partner in Bluetag Group the holding company for Parkway Projects, HealthStation, Bluetag Technologies, Bluetag Synergy and Outsource Global. Amal is also an Alumna of Fortune-US Department of State Global Women’s Mentoring Programme- which links young female leaders to Fortune‘s most powerful women.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amal-hassan-5992a346/

Outsource Global: https://outsourceglobal.com/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPanMBDvAYQ

Marianne on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marianne-rutz-351b0a5/



My Podcast is produced by: https://www.unavoided.com

On 01 January 2021 the UK leaves the EU and we are facing new ways of doing business in our contact centres. We have had 4.5 years to prepare for this moment!

In this episode I’m looking at what you need to do for your people, your processes and how to safeguard your profit in the post EU world! Although, at the time of recording there wasn’t a final decision on whether we leave with or without a deal - but things change regardless.

Marianne on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marianne-rutz-351b0a5/


My Podcast is produced by: https://www.unavoided.com

Gratitude is the key to happiness!

Even in difficult times like 2020 - where so many people have suffered the loss of a loved one, lost their job maybe, struggled with loneliness or depression - Practising gratitude can change your day! 


Step 1: Thank


Step 2: You


Then Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for each step…


Marianne on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marianne-rutz-351b0a5/


My Podcast is produced by: https://www.unavoided.com

There is ONE hack I want you to do every single day! In this episode I tell you why it’s important to stick with this one hack!

You will also learn...

• How knowing your leadership Style and your Kolbe support your teams performance

• How you can have ONE hack conversations with all your team members

• How to address the strengths or the lack of performance with your team members in 15min every day

• How to schedule a Power Hour



  
  
LeapAcademyInternational: https://leapacademyinternational.com/product/team-turn-around-bootcamp/
  Eisenhower Matrix: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1nG8kDyVULfbsEDBib_qxECJrkBP-Ikmo
  Marianne on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marianne-rutz-351b0a5/


  My Podcast is produced by: https://www.unavoided.com

In today’s episode I’m taking you behind the scenes of Rutz Consulting - and in fact of any operation that I have led in the past! You all know by now, that my contact centre career has taken me to BIG names such as Hertz, PayPal, Sitel, Ralph Lauren, Santander… the list goes on.

I hear very often - there is no entrepreneurial spirit in the corporate world. And this might be true for a lot of firms. But not for all of them! It’s down to you as the boss of your contact centre unit to create the business you want it to be. Plus…. Any manager I know, who treats their unit as their own business enjoys so much more fun, sees productivity soar and subsequently their career moving forward… pretty fast. 



Today I’m taking you through 7 reasons / 7 areas of focus that you want to consider when running your unit: 



1. Know your Finances and Growth


It is absolutely paramount that you keep the financials for your area in your peripheral vision at all times. You might say - well that’s not for me, I’ve got a Finance Department for this. Far from the truth! 
You are creating costs! You are “spending” money, you can make a profit.


Cost Factors are: Attrition, Absence, poor learning journey, poor product knowledge resulting in poor NPS scoring.
Profit Factors are: Exceeding contractual Service Levels, High NPS score, high quality scores. 
Some firms calculate the cost per contact. If you don’t know what this is - go and find out! 
If you don’t know how much attrition costs - go and find out what your recruitment department spends on advertising, pre-screening applicants, potentially personality testing, Find out how much overtime hours cost! And try to evaluate what the loss of knowledge is costing your operation! And you will very quickly notice - Financials are important. 


Another question you want to ask, especially in outsourced contact centres - what is the forecasted Gross Margin! From there you want to know the Net Margin (after cost) and subsequently the EBITA contribution  (Earnings before Interest, Taxes and Amortisation). 
Now this figure may vary by industry! But do go and ask your Finance Director what this number would be! 


2. Marketing & Visibility are everything - but...

I hear you! You are probably saying “I have nothing to do with Marketing”


Think again. Anything you produce for a business review meeting, maybe for a breakfast meeting or for a client quarterly review meeting creates visibility of you, your firm and your team! So be clear on your powerpoint presentations! No typo’s, no silly jokes that might upset others. Always ask yourself - who could see this piece of work! Think the boss of your boss! That’s two tiers above you! 



Also - if you have an online profile on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn - you want to be mindful that this is a public platform potentially referencing to your employer. 
Yes - you can get fired for posting on Social Media. 
You can get fired for


> leaking companies news

> Pretending to be in a deadly terrorist group (yes - it happened)

> Tweeting about lifestyle and drug possession - especially if you are a teacher

> Racist tweets (happened to British politicians)

> Posts about how much you hate your role or / and your employer

> Posts that insult your companies customers


And the list goes on.


Do employers do social media background testing? I can tell you - yes they absolutely do! 


3. Scaling - adding human capital to your Unit - do it with purpose and know your WHY! 


Very often a department starts small. It’s not uncommon that an outsourcing contract for a language account starts off with 10 agents and 1 Team Manager! However - you need to think about where this department is going! In other words - it is not very effective nor efficient to employ one Operations Manager for 10 Agents and 1 Team Manager!

Your offering needs to grow, add additional human capital under this ONE Ops Manager! 

Scaling is growing!


Growing is knowing where to let go of things.You see - not everything you do is adding value to your operation, your business! So think! Trim the fat! Implement changes in processes, Skill set requirements etc.

This leads nicely to point number 4. 


4. Operational Efficiencies make you profitable! 


Only your ops manual will show where you can gain operational efficiencies! 
We have an entire Podcast dedicated to your Ops Manual - have a listen to episode number 28! Please do download our very simple workbook. It cuts the elephant in pieces. And we - at rutz consulting - are here to help you make it happen. Get in touch via the contact form on our website. 




5. Innovation is king! 


In many firms - innovation and automation are value add’s and do sit outside the operational day to day delivery of your service. However…. The best ideas come from your frontline team members! They identify very quickly what could be done better.


Albert Einstein said: You can’t solve a problem on the same level it was created. You have to raise above it - to the next level!


May I make a suggestion? The best way to do this in your own teams is taking a group of agents off the phone and inviting them to  brainstorm the problem! You will not only get various angles of the one problem but you will get ideas how to solve the problem. Or at least where to start looking for solutions! This doesn’t cost a lot of money - and it goes a long way in employee engagement. 





6. Customer Experience makes or breaks your business!


We all know - CX is the buzzword in our industry. Everybody talks about it - nobody does anything for it! 
What would happen if you started to care about your internal customers? 
For example: What if recruitment really cared about operations? And treated Operations as their customer? You got it…. The recruitment department would be consistently feeding your pipeline, so that you always had a bank of potential new colleagues to fall back on to.

What if Operations really cared about Learning and Development? Your knowledge base would be up to date, because you would feedback to your L&D what is changing.

We do have an amazing episode with Daniel Ord in our podcasting series! Episode 19. Dan is also a guest expert in our LEAP Academy - the Academy for contact centre professionals. If you want to learn more about LEAP - check out the website LEAP Academy International.
7.

7. Invest in personal growth - and believe it happens for you and for you only! 


In my entire career I took care of my own personal growth. By that I mean - I kept learning, and I am still learning! 
Not necessarily technical, job related skills - but gaining knowledge in areas of interest to me. For example I started to study applied occupational psychology a few years ago. Simply because I was always interested in “what makes somebody tick to come to work”.


I’m a big fan of personality testing. Whether this is a Disc Assessment, Strengths-finder, Thomson International or my absolute favourite the Kolbe A Index - I sit down and study the result, in an effort to understand myself better and help others to work / live with me.


I am part of an amazing mastermind group and more recently I lead a Think Tank - the PeerCircle - where we discuss contact centre and personal issues in a Chatham House like environment. The group is by invitation only - but in 2021 I will open a handful of spaces. Please get in touch if you would like to be considered!


Last - but not least - I enrolled a coach / mentor. My very first mentor was Gregor Finlay. He was my guest in Episode 11! You can listen to how he helped me through a steep career path in my beloved contact centre career.

I would love to hear what resonated with you from today. Let me know where we can help you and your contact centre to strive in 2021! 


Yes - you can get fired for Social Media posts! 
https://www.themuse.com/advice/yes-you-can-get-fired-for-your-social-media-posts-9-times-people-learned-this-lesson-the-hard-way


Ops Manual: Episode 28 https://rutzconsulting.com/podcasts/episode-28-opex-with-marianne-rutz-how-to-design-and-produce-an-operational-manual-fit-for-purpose/


Clash of the Forces - Episode 19 https://rutzconsulting.com/podcasts/episode-19-the-clash-of-the-forces-operations-manager-vs-customer-experience-manager/



www.leapacademyinternational.com



How Executive Coaching helped me to drive and grow in my contact centre roles
https://rutzconsulting.com/podcasts/episode-11-how-executive-coaching-helped-me-to-drive-and-grow-in-my-contact-center-roles/

My Podcast is produced by: https://www.unavoided.com

My Guest today is Louise Brogan - the founder and owner of Social Bee Northern Ireland (NI). 

Louise started off as a Social Media expert, providing training on Facebook set up, usage, LinkedIn and other Social sites. Over the last year however she very much niched down into LinkedIn and has become one of THE most recognised experts for LI in the UK.



She has written articles for the Social Media Examiner - an esteemed and well thought of online magazine, she has been published in the Huffington Post and the Guardian. Louise hosts regular free LI training modules on LinkedIn - you should check it out!



Did you know:
 90% of people using LinkedIn are lurking. They are scrolling through posts and profiles.
9% of people will comment or interact with posts and only 1% are sharing content.

When someone clicks on your profile, is it showcasing what you do and who you work with? Are you losing business because your LinkedIn is looking a little sparse?

SocialBeeNI: https://socialbeeni.com/


Louise on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/louisebrogan/

Rutz Consulting: https://rutzconsulting.com/


Marianne Rutz on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marianne-rutz-351b0a5/

My Podcast is produced by: https://www.unavoided.com

For so many of us 2020 will be the most remarkable and memorable year in business - yet maybe for all the wrong reasons….

• Less customer contacts leading to loss of revenue
• Overwhelmed contact centres with too many employees falling ill with stress
• Huge efforts made to enable the workforce to work from home - yet the inital enthusiasm has worn off - so what now? 
• Furloughed employees as long as possible - but then having to make them redundant, as funds are running out
• Quality of work deteriorating
• Impatient customers
  
  

You name it - and it’s quite easy to just hope that 2021 will be different. 

There are still two months left - so in today’s episode I’m sharing how you can make a difference in your customer service centre - and how you can set yourself up for success in 2021!

1. Leading People

One of the simplest ways of engaging with your now remote teams is to invite them to virtual “brown bag lunches”! Remember, when you were in the office, you took the time to walk the call floor regularly, you sat with your advisors, you could hear what was going on first hand. Now this has all changed.

And whilst a majority of Working From Home Advisors state that they loved to see their leaders in a jumper instead of a suit, loved to hear their dog barking or a child dashing in and out of the office, they miss the leadership of their line manager - and more importantly of their executive team!

Play a game when you are with them! Just to break the ice! I recently attended a virtual conference and we played a wikipedia game! Given a starting point - who ever arrived at the final destination without leaving Wikipedia had won!

Here is how it works:

Open the Wikipedia homepage:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page (remember to stipulate the language you wish to use)
Start with a key word such as: Black Raven
Key this initial word or word combination into the search bar on the top right hand corner.
Now - as everyone is on the start page for the game give them the end work - for example Elizabeth The Second.
The aim is to get to “Elizabeth The Second” only using links within the articles you are looking at!
To prove that the winner didn’t cheat you will have to ask the candiate to back space from Elizabeth 2nd to Black Raven and verify that only Wikipedia pages have been used.
It’s fun and lightens the mood!

If you are hiring for peak or because you realise your team needs more people to cope with the workload - there is so much talent in the market place just now - you can choose. That’s a great place to be in, but also for all the job-seekers a very stressful place!

Please be considerate. Communication is key! It breaks my heart to hear and read stories where people have applied for jobs, and not even got an acknowledgement that their application had been received. Or they went for a screening interview (not uncommon, in fact quite best practice, I don’t want to waste your time, nor do I want to waste my time) - but never got any feedback!

It is reasonable and best practice to be in touch with your candidates within 24 to 48 hours. Also - if you do hire - be clear on the budget. In essence, if you have a salary budget in mind - advertise this clearly, don’t make false promises! Right now you, the recruiting manager, holds all the power. Integrity is the word. Download our free Recruitment and Onboarding Checklist. The link is below.

2. Improve Process

In a recent conversation with my hairdresser, we discussed the New Normal. Besides the fact that the current working circumstances are here to stay for the foreseeable future, Gary made a very interesting point. He said:
“I don’t understand what the fuss is, about the New Normal. We have always focused on excellent customer service and high employee engagement. So for me it’s just MORE of normal than normal.” We offer more training, we offer more service, we just offer more of everything than we did before. This allows us to claim excellence. And it pays off. Frances Hunter Hairdressing is a Finalist in the British Hairdressing Awards 2020! 

One of the main complaints I get when speaking to  frontline managers is that they do not have the tools or knowledge to perform their roles effectively and efficiently! That’s an interesting thought, considering that globally in 2020 there was a budget for Learning & Development of 370 Billion Dollars. A massive amount!

The average spend per employee for learning and development this year is $1299 in the US but only in the UK 30% of all firms only spend an average of  £400 per employee on L&D. Given that that the current situation is new to everyone, this is a concerningly low number! Even more concerning given the fact that 43% of the firms surveyed said their L&D budget is not to be increased in the next 12 months, 19% even say - it will decrease.
So - how does this sit with the work your team is asked to perform? And how does this sit with the customer experience your firm is asked to provide?

In order to finish the year strong - give your management team (especially team managers and operations managers) the tools to effectively work with their workforce. And help them to be leaders and managers (which is not the same!)

Another process you definitely want to improve is your operational handbook - the manual your team should have had at the start of the pandemic. There is an entire episode dedicated to this topic on our website, rutzconsulting.com. Just search for;

Episode 28 - How to design and produce an Operational Manual.

You can download a Blueprint I am using in my own business and have used as a framework in so many contact centres! Now is the time to document your workflows, your processes, your contacts. You will find the link in the show notes.

3. Amplify Profit

You are most likely in the process to finalise your budget for 2021 and get it signed off. This can be so stressful, I know! Depending on the business model you are running, you have so many moving parts. The more complex your contact centre set up is, the more complex most likely your budget is too.

You probably often wish - you, as the finance director - had more direct input from your operational team. And you ops team probably wishes they were consulted when a budget is created! In episode 31 “Finances made Human” - Andi Lonen explains in layman's terms how you can ensure that your budgeting process becomes easier, more realistic and subsequently much closer to reality, hence easier to manage.

The link to this episode is below.

Financial Performance is not just about the money coming in though! It is equally about the money going out! In our industry, the evolving door is one of the biggest costs. Yet one that is totally in your control! Absence and attrition can kill an operation! Just imagine - the cost to recruit, the cost to train, the cost of overtime to meet your service levels, the cost of absence due to stress, etc. etc. When I work with frontline operational managers I often notice that they have no idea what this figure actually looks like.

If your team leader doesn’t know the absence percentage or the attrition percentage of his team and how this translates into actual cost in pounds or dollars, then you must correct this. In the LEAP Academy we dedicate a full module to this topic!

Actions you can take today:

1. Schedule a Brown Bag Lunch for 45 minutes with up to 10 members of your frontline teams!
2. Enroll your Operational Leaders in a skills development course. Of course we would love to give you a capability briefing of the LEAP academy. There are so many other courses out there. Just do it! 
3. Revisit your hiring process. Ensure you provide feedback
4. Write this OPS Manual! You know it’s well overdue! 

If any of the topics resonate with you and you might find yourself in a position where in the next 3 to 6 months one of them might cause you a challenge, please do reach out to me and my team. We would love to talk to you in the next 30 days and evaluate how we are able to help! You can find us on rutz consulting.com or talk to me directly via linkedIn messenger.

As I am recording this, I want to share with you that rutz consulting has been accepted in the Programme for Growth with Business Women Scotland! I’m delighted to be spending a couple of days in the company of other, women lead, Scottish businesses. Learning together, sharing experiences and expertise. Of course my experience will turn into a podcast towards the end of this year.

https://rutzconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/LEAP-Recruitment-and-OnboardingCheckListV1.pdfLEAP Academy: https://leapacademyinternational.com/
Podcast Episode 28 - How to design an Operational Manual https://rutzconsulting.com/podcasts/episode-28-opex-with-marianne-rutz-how-to-design-and-produce-an-operational-manual-fit-for-purpose/

Podcast Episode 31- Finances Made Human https://rutzconsulting.com/podcasts/episode-31-opex-with-marianne-rutz-finances-made-human-with-andi-lonnen/

Rutz Consulting: https://rutzconsulting.com/
Marianne Rutz on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marianne-rutz-351b0a5/

My Podcast is produced by: https://www.unavoided.com

Peter is THE go-to expert for data relating to the BPO industry. He has been at the forefront of contact centre services market advisory for over a decade!

He began his career in London at Datamonitor in 2003 and quickly established himself as one of the foremost experts in the burgeoning Customer Experience (CX) sector. 

Over the course of his career, Peter has advised contact centre outsourcers, their clients, industry associations and governments, on matters ranging from vertical market penetration and service delivery, to best practices in offshore positioning. 



Peter Ryan’s expertise in outsourcing has been recognised multiple times. He was awarded callcentrehelper.com’s most recent prestigious Best Respected Contact Centre Professional and was included in Fonolo’s Top 16 Analysts Covering Customer Experience. He was also included in each iteration of the Nearshore Americas Power 50 influencers listings, which identified the most important outsourcing executives in the Western Hemisphere.

And just on the 20 October, the day of the recording of this episode, Peter was included in the Top 20 Social Media Superstars in Nearshore technology services. 



Throughout his career Peter Ryan has been a much sought-after speaker, headlining multiple events around the world. He has also been frequently quoted in the media on a variety of matters pertaining to BPO and contact centres. 



Ryan Strategic Advisory 
https://ryanadvisory.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-ryan-montreal/



Latest BPO analysis relating to the African Continent: 
https://ryanadvisory.com/africas-bpo-star-rises/

My Podcast is produced by: https://www.unavoided.com

Artificial Intelligence - a buzz word in the contact centre world - and one that can eat up a lot of resources, money and, frankly, often does not produce the desired result.

My guests today are David Naylor from Humanotics and Paul Carter from Customer Management Resources. Two experts in their fields - working together helping contact centres to get their Artificial Intelligence gathering right, employing people with unique skill-sets to drive the results and subsequently the savings that firms are looking for. 



Enjoy the conversation! 

Humanotics: https://www.humanotics.ai/


Customer Management Resourcing https://www.wearecmr.com/

Digital Workforce Guide: https://lnkd.in/d8M_FP7


Paul Carter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulcartercmr/


David Naylor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drdavidnaylor/

My Podcast is produced by: https://www.unavoided.com

My guest and his team just recently won the European Customer Centricity Award 2020 in “Digital Transformation” and “Best Measurement in Customer Experience” - recognizing Signify’s digital transformation of their Customer NPS programme.

Signify’s Head of customer satisfaction Bart Hendrik Huisman says “this journey has brought customers closer to us. It has empowered our people to define and implement improvements. Creating better experiences for our customers - that’s the impact we are most proud of”


Alex de Groot is part of this winning team - from a procurement point of view!  



Let’s face it - every customer service operation is a cost to the business. So setting it up, identifying where to go and how to get value for money is an integral part of the business! When it all comes together and wins an award  - the customer service operation has turned into a profit centre. Happy, loyal customers.

Alex candidly shares how he narrowed down the number of locations he looked at when searching a global solution. But also how some of his potential partners deselected themselves! Yes - that’s possible! 

We speak about Customer First in a savings driven environment! Why you must know and quantify your hidden costs and quite bluntly…. You get what you pay for! 



https://www.signify.com/

Alex de Groot: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-groot-de-1ab5a931/

Gemseek: 
https://gemseek.com

My Podcast is produced by: https://www.unavoided.com

Today's teaching is well and truly focused around your customers! 

And remember - we are customers of each other! We are not designed to operate in silos! 

Resources:

We have created an amazing downloadable workbook for you - covering the content of this foundational series! Go and DOWNLOAD IT HERE…

Links:

Contact us at info@rutzconsulting.com or email me directly marianne@rutzconsulting.com

Website: https://rutzconsulting.com/

This Podcast is produced by: Andrew Madden Photography & Media Production

What we thought would pass and was initially called the “new normal” for a period of time…. Is most definitely here to stay.



Contact Centres all over the place have moved their frontline delivery workers into home offices - and it would appear that this will be the trend for the foreseeable future.



In this episode Karen Abass, Operational Lead of Sainsbury’s & Argos Customer Service Team of the TU Clothing brand, shares very candidly the challenges her team has faced, how service delivery has changed and most importantly how connecting with your customers and your individual team members makes all the difference.



Learn how Sainsbury’s ensure new hires loving the brand and are all committed to the brand. Hear how Sainsbury’s adapted their scheduling to support Homeworkers and their personal circumstances, to get commitment from their colleagues and yet deliver a commercially viable solution.

Preparing for peak - how to implement a psychological contract with your workforce. Peak recruitment is always massive - we have to get it right! The streamlining of the channels that customers contact Sainsbury’s, reflecting and allowing for changed customer behaviour.

These 3 top tips are NOT to be missed! 




https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/


Karen Abass on LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karen-abass-27765741/

My Podcast is produced by: https://www.unavoided.com

I recently read an article in Forbes by Micah Solomon, a customer service and customer experience consultant. He had interviewed Yael Ron, the General Manager of the Ritz Carlton Hotel in San Francisco! And boy - I loved the points Micah brought across - hence I’m sharing them here with you - looking at it through the lens of a contact centre leader! 



What does it take for my centre to become the Ritz-Carlton of Contact Centers? 



Let me start with a quote from Yael Ron: 
“To create an exceptional customer experience, you don’t start with the customer; you start with the employee. This surprises a lot of people, and a lot of people get this wrong,” says Ms. Ron. “The gemstones of our hotel are our Ladies and Gentlemen [Ritz-Carlton’s term for its employees]. We embrace them and support them, and we know we can count on them to nurture and grow the interactions with our guests.”



The Ritz-Carlton works with 5 principles that are applicable to organisations in any industry that are striving to create a superior customer experience, a superior environment and a superior culture in your organisation.

1. Jealously guard the culture that defines you as an organization. 



A lot of firms tell me they are all about engagement and relationships! I have seen it on the walls of big firms, quotes such as this one (an airline I was privileged to conduct a review of their contact centre delivery)



Safety: We never compromise on safety


Simplicity: We cut out the things that don’t matter to keep us lean and make it easy


One team: Together we'll always find a way


Integrity: We stand by our word and do what we say
Passion: We have a passion for our customers, our people and the work we do


Pioneering: We challenge to find new ways to make travel easy and affordable

The question now is… How do we keep it that way? How do we keep the promises we make to our customers? At the end it all comes down to the culture of the firm. And the culture of any firm is created by its people. 
So naturally - you need to watch, nurture and embrace your culture - which means you have to invest in your people. 



Wikipedia says the following about culture:
 Culture is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behaviour and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities and habits of the individuals in these groups.



This means - you must give your onboarding process, your employee engagement process and your offboarding process a lot of thought! And your L&D department should really be the busiest in your entire organisation! 
 

2.  Engage customers when they want to be engaged.



Remember when the only two ways of contacting a customer service department was either by phone or by letter? Then by Phone, Letter (or Fax) and email? We have come a long way - but in principle - give the customers a number of ways to engage with you - so that they can choose how they want to engage with you! 



This means give people options!

Let’s look at the airline industry again: Today you can check-in online. You can get your boarding pass on your phone, you can download it as a PDF, or you can print it off at one of the airport kiosks. Getting your boarding pass is maybe not something people want to spend a lot of time on and we need to respect that.



3. Daily traditions and customs make the culture.



In Episode 6 I introduced the daily huddles with your teams - that’s what we are talking about here. 
Creating a customer-focused culture isn’t something you set in place one day and then believe it will last forever. You have to work on this every single day. For that to be successful you need to know your people, your metrics, your coaching, But you also need to celebrate successes, award your teams and energise your teams positively so that they can perform at the highest possible levels. 



When I worked with Ralph Lauren we encouraged our teams to start working with the fashion season, look at what’s in, dress in our favourite looks. We had Ralph Lauren clothes to raffle off each quarter, people just loved to feel part of the brand! 

How could you start to introduce meaningful traditions in your contact center? Especially now - where everyone is working from home - you must give new traditions a lot of thought. 



4. Strive for both big “wow” moments and smaller “everyday wow” 



Here I simply quote Ms Yael Ron and Micah Solomon: 

“Wow moments are important in building stories for our guests to take home with them. But the point isn’t how big of a wow you create; it’s about how much heart you put into making it truly thoughtful for the guest. It can be as small as remembering your guest’s favourite flower or scent, or as big as creating a special day full of wows. It’s not about what money can buy; it’s about what money can’t buy–the efforts and attention of genuine, caring people.” 


5. Develop your people over time.



In my LEAP Framework - Leading People, Executing Process, Amplifying Profit - working with my people is the most important principle of all! 
How can you as a manager put your team members first? 


* you remember their birthday


* you know their spouses and their kids’ names


* you know what they are good at and foster that strength


* you offer them regular one-on-ones and coaching (if you don’t know how to fit it all in - go back to episode 6 How to set yourself up for a successful day in the office



I’d like to give credit for inspiration to Micah Solomon, who is the author of “Ignore Your Customers (and they will go Away)” - the link to his book is below.


And also to Ms Yael Ron, General Manager of the Ritz Carlton Hotel in San Francisco - you will find the link to the Forbes articles and her thoughts.




Micah Solomon - Ignore your customers (and they will go away) 
https://micahsolomon.com/books/ignore-your-customers/

Yael Ron: https://www.forbes.com/sites/micahsolomon/2020/02/23/how-to-bring-ritz-carlton-caliber-customer-service-to-any-type-of-business/

My Podcast is produced by: https://www.unavoided.com

Holistic complaints handling has nothing to do with hugging trees - yet the complaint handling process is changing post-Covid-19. 

My guest Sarah Lawrence worked for the financial services ombudsman for over 16 years - and therefore couldn’t be better positioned to talk us through what 'good' looks like in complaint handling.

She explains candidly why the current Dispute Resolution Rules are hopelessly out-dated (they are over 20 years old) and why we need to consider all communication channels to receive complaints. Including snail mail!

Sarah shows us what we can do here and now to prepare for the Tsunami of complaints that no doubt will hit businesses in the next couple of months. She also talks about why we - as leaders - owe extensive, holistic complaint handling training to our frontline staff.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-lawrence-6b1146a6/

Website: https://cwsltraining.com

Free Resources: https://cwsltraining.com/quick-guides/

LEAP Waiting List: https://leapacademyinternational.com

My Podcast is produced by: https://www.unavoided.com

Every day I see and hear it from front line managers in contact centres and customer service centres - Everyday leaders worry about peak season! Every day I hear team members being stressed out about peak!

Their concerns and worries are very real. Stress levels are going up! High level of abandoned calls, growing backlogs, dipping quality, high absence rates, missed KPI’s - hence potential penalties. It is simply awful. And instead of making money in peak season, you are losing money for your firm. 



What if you could get your team in tip-top shape right in time for the next peak season? What if you could shift your mindset from overwhelm… to I can do this? 
What if you could actively take your team members by the hand and work with them over a 6 weeks period - resulting in positive performance improvement and personal growth? What if you could do this within your normal working day, effectively and efficiently?



It is possible! 
The Team Performance Turnaround BootCamp is designed to do just that. 



Over a period of 6 weeks, Teresa, our Learning and Development Expert, Laura, our Office Angel, and I take you through this interactive, blended learning course! And we guarantee - that you and your team will be in the best possible place to tackle peak! 

Here is a sneak preview of the course! 






LEAP Waiting List: https://leapacademyinternational.com

My Podcast is produced by: https://www.unavoided.com

I really struggled with this episode…. Firstly - ever since George Floyd’s murder in June 2020 I thought by myself - what have I missed? What is it that I have never really spoken about? Have I no understanding or awareness of racial differences, sexual orientation, religion, gender or age in our industry or more broadly around the world? 
Well - it wasn’t that - it was more about: What have I got to say to this topic? I went and learned, read, spoke to people in order to educate myself.

Eventually, I was comfortable that I could put an episode together on this topic - but then…. I struggled to find someone who would competently and with love and empathy speak to the topic. - Until I found Berthine.


We speak about why ticking the diversity box is not enough anymore - in fact it never was. We also discuss how to capture the heart of a predominantly male board - not uncommon in the corporate world. 


Berthine shares with us how to create psychological safety for all members of staff to be who they are and we discuss why growth is so much bigger and more powerful than perfection!

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/berthinecrevecoeurwest/

Website: https://westgrouptraining.com

Podcast: https://westgrouptraining.com/podcasts/


Books: https://westgrouptraining.com/books/

LEAP Waiting List: https://leapacademyinternational.com

My Podcast is produced by: https://www.unavoided.com

Hands up who has ever thought of starting their own contact centre? Bringing tailor-made solutions to businesses and well and truly caring about clients and employees?

We all know how much hard work goes into starting a business. It’s no different in the contact centre world. 
With his entrepreneurial spirit and approach my guest John Deviln of Ascensos not only built one successful contact centre, no - he did it again!


John and I discuss his secret sauce (and boy - there must be one, Contact Centres are a tough gig). We also share our views on why we keep it simple.

And…. whilst everyone is talking customer experience, customer effort John has one outstanding philosophy: Reduce Client Effort. That’s what small, boutique solutions do - we reduce bureaucracy and make it easy for our clients.

John and his team are proud of their Non-Cookie Cutter approach!

 John also talks about #theAteam - which has kind of become his digital marketing handle and we learn how Archie - the dog, Recognition VP and Chief Fundraiser, plays his role in the business.

Not to forget - what has ballet dancing got to do with it all? 



LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-devlin-ascensos-4731521

Website: https://www.ascensos.com

LEAP Waiting List: https://leapacademyinternational.com

My Podcast is produced by: https://www.unavoided.com

The connection between contact centre operations and a family-run Scottish Whisky Business is certainly not that obvious. However - My guest Karen Somerville shares how she had to change and pivot in her business pretty fast, as the world market place changed with Covid-19.


She explains candidly how difficult it was at times, but she also shares her 3 key points in crisis management which she always ensures are followed through;

1. Listen to your staff

2. Do your research

3. Don’t get disheartened by feedback (especially negative feedback)



If you treat your own operation as if it was your “family business” you will quickly realise that many of the conversations and processes are so much easier to explain and to follow through!



LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karen-somerville-aaa99127/

https://www.angelsshareglass.com

LEAP Academy Waiting List: https://leapacademyinternational.com

My Podcast is produced by: https://www.unavoided.com

My guest this week is Andi Lonnen, Founder of the Finance Training Academy, Speaker and Author - all things Finances.



Andi founded her business after a sabbatical cycling the Swiss Alps! I just had to get to know this lady and find out what made her leave her Chief Financial Officer role and start a training business in Finances! 



In the contact centre world, very sadly, many managers see the finance department as a stand alone financial department, not very personable. Also, many managers do not understand their contribution to the financial performance of the firm. 

Andi explains very candidly that this doesn’t have to be the case - especially now where so many firms face difficult decisions based on their financial performance, driven by Covid-19 and its impact. 



So, learn here about what an empty quarry has got to do with generating extra revenue. Also learn how asking your frontline people for ideas and inviting them to vote on their preferred initiatives can curb financial hardship in your firm. 



In challenging times like these Andi’s wisdom is gold!


LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andilonnen/

Finances for Non Financial Managers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fPRcxdaJO4

Website: https://financetrainingacademy.com


Book: Be Fabulous at Finance:  https://financetrainingacademy.com/product/be-fabulous-at-finance/

LEAP Academy Waiting List: https://leapacademyinternational.com/

My Podcast is produced by: https://www.unavoided.com

My guest today is a lady I absolutely admire! She founded a boutique operations management firm 15 years ago and to date serves CEO’s of Small Businesses but also C-Suite Executives as a consultant to instil operational excellence in their businesses! Alicia reviews her clients’ business infrastructure by using her very own Kasennu Framework for Business Infrastructure. Wow - She will tell us a story two!



Alicia is the host of the weekly Business Infrastructure: Curing Back Office Blues podcast. She also authored a two time Amazon bestseller book “Behind the Facade: How to Structure Company Operations for Sustainable Success! 

Alicia and I only met a couple of months ago - but we hit it off! There are people who’s path you cross - and you simply click with them Alicia is one of these people. 

Her mantra is simple and applies to everything she does: "Leave it better than you found it."

Links:

• 𝗖𝗘𝗢𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗦𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗕𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀: https://aliciabutlerpierre.com/consultant

𝗖-𝗦𝘂𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗘𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀: https://aliciabutlerpierre.com/consultant/#enterprise

𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗔𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 & 𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀: https://aliciabutlerpierre.com/speaker/

𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗛𝗼𝘀𝘁𝘀 & 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀: https://aliciabutlerpierre.com/media/

LEAP Academy Waiting List: https://leapacademyinternational.com

My Podcast is produced by: https://www.unavoided.com

Last week’s podcast was all about the Ops Manual – so that your operations run like clockwork - even when you are not there. Or – so that in a crisis – as COVID 19 – you have it all in one place and won’t have to frantically search for documents or processes! 

It did make me think though. What is Excellence?  What does it actually mean? 

Let’s have a look at the origins of the word: 

“Excellence” 

The word originates in Latin – “Excellere” & Excellentia” meaning surpass. According to the Oxford Dictionary – the word was used a lot in the 19th Century, but then – in the 20th Century it dipped considerably only to gain an upwards trend again in the 21st Century – peaking slightly again in 2002 – and remaining stable as of 2017

The Oxford dictionary explains excellence as “the quality of being outstanding or extremely good. We all know the quote “Jack of all trades, master of none” by Benjamin Franklin
It is thought, however, that Franklin was misquoted and actually he had said “Jack of all trades, master of One”! So that would indicate that Excellence is achieved once you master your ONE, your trade! 

In the contact centre context, Operational Leaders are often frowned upon as “None Experts” – as oftentimes we need to bring the subject matter expert in. For example for Workforce Management, for Quality Control, for training etc. 

Many Ops leaders did stints in other areas of the business – and returned! For me – most definitely this was the case! I ventured into Account Management, Project Management, even HR – but – I always went back to Operations! 

With every bit I learned in other departments I became a more rounded Ops leader and also a more passionate Ops Leader! 

You see – Master of One in Silo is quite common! Master of ONE in Operations or General Management is rather rare. 

I’m making this very bold statement: 
Truly skilled and people-focused Operational Leaders are the backbone of every successful Business / Contact Center! 

What makes someone an Expert producing Excellence? 

I recently came across Jordan Raynors Book “Call to Mastery” – I will refer to it in the show notes - Jordan explains that there are 4 steps in the pursuit of Excellence: 

• Explore

• Choose

• Eliminate

• Master


These 4 steps nicely reflect how you - in operations - can become an expert in your field.



But let’s take it Step by Step

1. Explore


No other industry offers so many opportunities to learn and qualify in a subject matter than the contact centre industry does. If you are fortunate enough to work in a customer services centre - then do go and explore all departments that are of interest to you. Moving around is quite common! It also broadens your horizon and you learn how things hang together. 


I was quite astounded to understand the HR impact front line operations created by not diligently doing one on one’s, return to works or annual appraisals. Only when I spent a couple of months in HR and took courses in HR matters I realised how vitally important it was to work closely with my HR Business Partner! And believe me - the first time I was called to an employment tribunal I was eternally grateful for the fact that my paperwork was watertight! All there - done by the book. 


2. Choose


As we explore - we are, more than once, called to choose - especially if we love what we do! My basic question has always been: where can I serve people best? And where can I serve God best? For me - it was not a question of money or prestige - but a question of servant leadership (which I learned from my dad) 
Being a Relator in my Strengths-Finder also points in the direction of people management and relationship management.

And - as I get bored rather easily - loving the fast-paced Ops environment - HR for example really wasn’t for me. 
When we are asked to choose - there is always an option to either persevere or to pivot. Sometimes - it’s just not right - then go and pivot, find the next good thing and know that you tried. The process of elimination is a valid process. 
Other times you know that it’s right, but it’s tough going. Then - perseverance is required - with the view that you will learn a lot. 


Jordan Raynor writes in his book: “Choosing your vocation is not about choosing between good and bad or right and wrong. It is about choosing between better and best” - this sums it up nicely! 


3. Eliminate


Now the work begins! You have explored, you have chosen! Now it’s all about sticking with it and eliminating distraction. It’s now about boundaries! 
Saying “no” to nonessentials. 
Saying “yes” to the essential. 
Be aware of Side Paths

. Especially Operational Leaders with a lot of experience in other, related fields, need to learn to say Yes to Essentials and NO to nonessentials.

For me - as a recovering people-pleaser this is not an easy thing to do. I learned, that, if I am not working in my Zone of Genius - then I get annoyed, stressed, unhappy. Saying no, lovingly is an art - and has to be practised! As Ops Lead you are most likely asked to support Bid-Management or leading a Project or stepping in on Transformational Programmes. All great opportunities. But if the do not serve your calling - leading people - and take you away from leading your people, you might have to say “No”.




4. Master


In his book Jordan Raynor debates whether passion comes with mastery or mastery results from passion. He comes to the conclusion that, to do something really well, you should start off with an apprenticeship, followed by purposeful practice and then discipline over time. Clearly - there are no short cuts to mastery. In my own career I can truly say I did my apprenticeship in people-focused Operational Delivery with Hertz in Swords!

6 years I learned from the best! Then I practised with Sitel in Outsourcing for another 6 years. In these 6 years, I got promoted, I got demoted, I got excellent feedback and I was frequently in serious discomfort. I grew my skills, my knowledge, my expertise. Then I started to apply discipline over time - meaning I stuck with Operations, applied what I knew to be true in a number of turnaround operations before starting my own business - I mastered Operational Excellence. And I’m passionate about it. So going back to the chicken and egg question - what was first Mastery or Passion? For me it was Mastery! 





Now - today I’m letting you into a secret.

If you are on my mailing list - you know that we - at Rutz Consulting - have been working on “something” in the background! 
I’m so excited to share my knowledge with my audience! I love to see other Ops Leads strive for excellence! So…. drumroll, please…



I’m excited to announce, that in October I will be running the very first course of the LEAP Academy!

By now you are familiar with the LEAP Framework. Leading People, Executing Process, Amplifying Profit. 
Just in Time for your Peak Season (or Black Friday or COVID -19 Robustness), I will be running a 6 weeks Team-Turnaround Bootcamp for Frontline Managers (Level Team-Manager / Ops Manager) with the aim to move 3 underperforming team members of each Manager’s team from the bottom quadrille to the top quadrille in performance - and this with ease and joy - attributes you might not use in the same sentence as operational performance management.



I invite you to join the LEAP Academy Waiting list today! The link is below!

Jordan Raynor on LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanraynor/

Jordan Raynor's website: https://jordanraynor.com/

Master of One on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Master-One-Find-Focus-Created/dp/0525653333

LEAP Academy Waiting List: https://leapacademyinternational.com/

My Podcast is produced by: https://www.unavoided.com

Today we are discussing the importance of recording why you and your team are doing what your doing! 

Most of our clients struggle to produce an operational manual or ensure they have systems in place that allow the business to run, even if some key stakeholders are not available!

Resources:

We have created an amazing downloadable workbook for you - covering the content of this foundational series! Go and DOWNLOAD IT HERE…

Links:

Contact us at info@rutzconsulting.com or email me directly marianne@rutzconsulting.com

Website: https://rutzconsulting.com/

This Podcast is produced by: Andrew Madden Photography & Media Production

When this episode gets aired in August - I will be in Switzerland, staying with my family for the first time in 4 very long months. I can’t wait for this - and of course, to ensure I can take time out I have been batch recording podcast episodes so that you, my wonderful listeners don’t miss out. 

In Episode 25 - where we talked about the LEAP Framework, I mentioned that I would talk about the importance of having an Ops Manual - One single point of reference! 
This is a scary task! It’s big, It’s cumbersome. It’s hard work.

Let’s step back for a minute and think about a question:

Could you take a sabbatical of one to six months now and step away from your operation tomorrow? 

I invite you to write down all the reasons why you would not be able to step out of your business tomorrow. There’s a document linked in the show notes you can download. Be honest with yourself! 



So…. one reason that almost always shows up on this list is “Nobody knows the business/department as well as I do” - and that is probably true - yet not exactly healthy! 
The number of people I see working during their well earned holidays is so high - it prompted me to think about this very carefully. But also for my own firm, as I knew the lockdown would ease and I definitely wanted to spend some time in the mountains, I needed to come up with a contingency plan.



The fact is: Structure and Control in your operation give you the freedom to step out. 

It is also a fact that Structure and Control are created through documented processes so that everything runs smoothly and no longer requires your daily involvement.



The pandemic has shown that contact centers with clearly structured operational processes, front-line and back-office performed much better than those with out these processes. And figures also show that the lack of process created anxiety within the workforce - in addition to the already unfamiliar ways of having to show up to work!


When I consult with firms around Ops Handbooks I always tie it back to the LEAP Framework we talked about in Episode 25! Leading People - Executing Process - Amplifying Profit. 



Section 1 - Recruitment and On-Boarding - under Leading People:


Here you want to cover everything relating to your employees from starting a pipeline for your demand to how you recruit, where you recruit. You cover your interview process, assessment centres you may run.


It also covers everything HR, the link to the Employee Handbook (which should include links to the Return to Work Interview Form or how an employee can raise a concern or a grievance).



Once a person leaves there are steps to follow - capture them here! Don’t forget the Exit Interview, and what it is used for! 



Section 2 - Training and Development - under Leading People:



Here you capture everything relating to training. 
Initial Product Training, Customer Service Training, Systems Training, Telephone Manner Training
You also cover Up-Skill Training and Career Development Training for ALL levels in your operation! What do you do when somebody gets promoted to Team Leader? What do you do for your Quality Analysts (measuring QA and it’s process is covered in the Process Section but the skills you need to learn to do Quality Assessments properly are part of training). From experience I know that may promotions in a contact centre happen on the fly - that’s a wasted opportunity!

And I do encourage you to think hard about how you can ensure the entire ops team gets regular training and development. It does two things:

a) you create excellence  
b) your staff will stay with you!



Section 3 - Contact Details (Leading People)



You can argue that this should be Section 1 - and if it feels right - add it there.


In this section, you capture every single Subject Matter Experts contact details, email, phone number, title, a short description of responsibilities/job. Starting with your agents (most likely a link to your HR database) and then covers the rest of your operational tree.


But it also covers


• Client details

• Taxi Firms

• Your preferred supplier for food orders

• The hospital

• The nearest Doctor

• Letting Agencies (if for example, you re-locate staff)



This Section is your “Yellow Pages”




Section 4 - Operational Day to Day Processes - under Executing Process



This is probably your biggest Section with the most Chapters! It is also your daily bible! 
Here you cover all sorts of processes.


Let me give you a few examples:



• How to request a password reset

• How to conduct a stand-up meeting

• How to find information in your knowledge base system

• How to request holidays

• How to prepare for a monthly business review? Which powerpoint deck to use

• How to onboard a new account or a new client

• How to use your HR system, for example, cascade or similar

• How does the fire drill work?

• Quality Monitoring Process
• 
Net Promoter Scores Process

• Reporting Processes (where does the data come from?)

• Copy or a Link to your statement of work




You are getting the gist!



Section 5 - Business Continuity Process and Disaster Recovery - (Executing Process)

The Covid-19 Pandemic has separated the wheat from the chaff - so to speak. Not very many contact centres had the Pandemic in their BCP/DR! Not surprisingly, firms based in areas that had Pandemic in the past did much better. Very surprising to me though was that we seem to have forgotten how we, in the contact centre world, dealt with - what was commonly known as the Swine Flu Pandemic in 2009.

At the time I worked for Sitel - and we spent every single day at least one hour on a conference call talking about risks, new infections, absence rates, impact on our customers (I ran a global account, Lexmark, at the time and had operations stretching from St. Johns in Canada, via Dublin, Düsseldorf, Rabatt to Bangalore). 

What did the industry do with the knowledge gathered then? And I’m talking purely operational knowledge for day to day running of a contact centre here!

Especially outsourcers are well-advised to have very clear and regularly tested BCP’s! I guess this is another topic to discuss with an expert! 



Section 6 - Financials (LEAP - Amplify Profit)



This Section covers the money. On all Levels!


Starting again with the front line advisor: How are their salaries structured. Do we pay bonuses - if so how and when? 
Salary increases - who are they calculated. What’s the process to put somebody forward for a salary increase. Once this is approved - how do I make sure the person gets the money paid.



But we are also looking at production cost here. What does my operation cost on a daily basis? If you are an Outsourcer - you are particularly interested in how much money did you make yesterday? And how much money did you lose? I call this your contribution report. 

It also covers how you invoice, how you or your firm is getting paid. How do you deal with Service Credits or penalties as it were?

I appreciate this looks like a massively huge task. Impossible to be done. 
So, let’s cut this elephant into pieces. I have given you examples in each single section. You can go and download the Workbook via the link below, which will give you the 6 headlines and some examples.

You can now start thinking about what would this look like in your organisation. 
I am now designing such an Operational Handbook for a client in Berlin. To divide the elephant I created a project in Microsoft teams. Each Section is put in as a Chapter. Each Chapter has got task cards.
We are using Wiki to start populating the sections.



I’m not doing this on my own - no! I provide the framework and the team, the subject matter experts are invited to populate their area of expertise! This way the huge task becomes manageable.



Another very workable tip - if you on-board a new account (this really applies to outsourced contact centres) - parallel to the onboarding start populating the Operational Handbook!



So - see - starting an operational handbook, an operational blueprint, and ops manual is now not all that daunting!


https://www.linkedin.com/in/marianne-rutz-351b0a5/

My Podcast is produced by: https://www.unavoided.com

In Episode 24 I touched on employee survey data very briefly with Dave D’Arcy, who - like me - is an operational generalist with a big heart for his teams.

My guest today picks up on the topic of employee survey - and how you can put your data to work! 

Teresa and I got to know each other through work and a mutual acquaintance - but then also found out that we both lived in bonnie Scotland - not far from each other.



Teresa’s field of expertise lies in Human Resources, plus Learning and Delivery Management.

In this episode we touch on the responsibilities of each manager when it comes to HR topics - and yes - the ownership of managing the team lies with you - the team manager!

HR provides you with guidance and ensures that you remain on the straight and narrow. 
In any organisation, there will always be policy and procedures, line managers need to know company policies and what they need to do.



We then move on to the topic of employee survey and frankly - how many businesses leave “money on the table” by not listening to the voice of the employees. 

Teresa is a Chartered MCIPD HR, L&D Professional with a deep passion for people!

She loves “helping people and developing people - whether this is part of Learning, Development or Change either in organisations or individually.  




I hope you enjoy our conversation - lets roll.



https://www.linkedin.com/in/marianne-rutz-351b0a5/

https://www.endrickconsulting.co.uk/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tmrobertson/

My Podcast is produced by: https://www.unavoided.com

Quite often we know what the problems are. We just don’t have the time, the energy or the resources to work on them all at the same time.

That’s where FAB Solutions and Garry Gormley - the contact center specialist can help! 

Do you want your customers to say amazing things about your service?

Are your processes letting you down and do you struggle to create the capacity and the time to fix them?

Do you want help to build a team of people that pull together, communicate more effectively and increase drive to deliver better performance?

Do your people tell you things need to change by walking out the door?

Do you feel you need more highly skilled Managers and employees to perform at the highest level so you can excel in performance and deliver customer excellence?

Garry and his firm FAB Solutions specialise in process improvement, people capability training programmes and leadership development to help you create a customer experience that underpins your business success.



In this episode Garry shares how to improve your sales centers performance using ethical, sales through service tactics. We also speak about why having a coach or a mentor helps people to advance their careers and grow as individuals.

Garry shares his 10 point Health check with us and at the very end gives you his 4 best tips to make it in our busy industry! 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/garry-gormley-fism-the-contact-centre-specialist-21516159/

https://www.fabsolutions.co.uk

Simon Sinek - start with why - 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4ZoJKF_VuA

Dates to Garry’s Events


23 July 2020: The Voice of the Customer


27 August 2020: Operational Excellence

The Events for The Contact centre network is https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/106731069502

Health Check Survey: https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/ContactCentreHealthCheck

Hello everyone! This is episode 25! We are listened to in 34 countries and by the time this episode airs we will have surpassed 1000 downloads! 
One of our raving fans - Morris - said recently “A brilliant series of podcasts! Marianne Rutz has built some of the best content available “ - Thank you Morris! 

Today I’m taking you behind the scenes of my LEAP Framework! What does LEAP stand for and how do I use it when conducting a 360 Degree Assessment of my clients’ contact center operation!

You have heard me talking about the LEAP Framework a couple of times by now. Today’s episode provides you with an insight into how I use the Framework when on a fact finding mission to drive operational excellence in contact centres around the world. 

I created this framework for myself initially - to ensure I ALWAYS - always in capital letters put people first in my work. 



LEAP stands for

...

Leading People

Executing Process
Amplifying Profit



...in that order.

I am a firm believer that we must always centre our work around our people. Whether these are the front line advisors I’m responsible for, my direct supervisor, my client, my end customer. And in order to Lead - I have to show up, demonstrate leadership, walk the talk! 

When I am called into an operation, I follow this framework. Let me take you behind the scenes and tell you what I’m looking for in my initial 360 degrees LEAP Audit.



LEADING People



Even before I get on the contact centre floor - I read up on the firm I’m auditing. I always look at their values statements, take a note on my audit spread-sheet and I look at customer feedback - whatever I can find in the public space.
When I read a value statement “people are our greatest assets” - and I learn that the firm is at the bottom of the payscale, offers no benefits or professional / career advancement  - then I know that there is an issue - In the audit document that’s a mark down.


One firm I worked with recently displayed their values in their staff’s break out area reading “we believe in trust and always act in transparency and integrity, demonstrating mutual respect. We encourage open and honest feedback.” - but… it turned out that the last employee satisfaction survey - where staff are encouraged to give open and honest feedback was blocked by the worker’s council. An airline I fly with a lot with and had the pleasure to do some work for, displays their customer Charter at airports and in their contact centres. One charter says “on your side - we see it from your point of view” - we don’t assume that we know best and we make decisions with you in mind. 
Yet - this airline doesn’t have any ground staff inside flight departure halls - so when your flight is cancelled or delayed - you either must rely on their app - which is time-delayed - or you have to leave the departures area and find their counter in the check-in/sales area. Very frustrating. 



What’s wrong here? The leadership doesn’t follow through to the end. People are not empowered to help customers, Senior Executives in the firm came up with a great statement - but were clearly never on the receiving end of the service break down.

It pains me to hear from contact centre ambassadors that they NEVER sat side by side with the managing director, that their Ops director doesn’t know their names or what football club they support. It also pains me to hear that their training and personal development stops after the initial product training, that they have not been presented with a career plan after 2 years in the firm. That they have never learned what their strengths are and how to capitalise on them.

Leading people also requires an engaged recruitment department! After all - most of our staff’s first touchpoint is recruitment! When working with the recruitment team I’m looking for the completed recruitment and onboarding checklist. This list should cover the candidate’s details, Pre-Interview information such as CV review, skill set match etc. Followed by Offer information and First day at work Information covering Banking Details received, Welcome Pack ready, training scheduled and the like! Here I also look for some People First information (which should have come out of the interview process) such as Hobbies, Other Interests, Family information (ie does the new colleague have any children?) 


Under Leading People I look for evidence that people are truly “the most treasured asset of the firm”.



I then move on to 

Executing Process! 


Here my first port of call is the Operational Manual or Operations Handbook. I can just hear and see you cringe… 
Let me ask you: Do you have an Operational Manual covering the day to day running of your operations? The one-stop-shop for phone numbers? The escalation tree? A link to the Business Continuity Plan? Guidelines on how to conduct your daily stand up meeting? 
If you haven’t - you are not alone - in fact, most firms I’ve done a 360 Degree Assessment haven’t got a complete Ops Manual - and that’s okay, as long as there is a starting point. These documents are evolving, ever-changing documents, so you can argue they are never complete! 
What am I looking for then? I’d usually ask for the Change Management Process, the Business Continuity Process or I’d ask for the annual Employee Satisfaction survey and it’s related action plan.


I would ask for the daily reporting and more importantly - what they do with the data on a daily basis.
When I initially casually ask for processes and procedures - I get an enthusiastic yes - we have it all. But when I then look for the evidence, trying to link the process to the people often times there is a lot of room for improvement. 
In order to be able to assess what’s there and what isn’t there I always conduct a number of interviews - starting with the front-line advisor, then the team manager and then only the Operations Manager, the HR manager, the IT manager. Why? If your advisor - dealing day in and day out is telling me that his last two paychecks missed the overtime payments - I know that the processes are broken in more than one area. In this particular example, the MI reporting might be wrong, or the communication between Team Leader and Advisor didn’t work, or the salary payment process is incorrect etc.  
The good news is - if you know what’s broken - you can act and fix it!



Amplify Profit


Here we are talking money! 
If People and Process work - your firm makes money
. If People and Process are broken - chances are your firm is losing money - or is leaving money on the table! 
So what am I looking for under the LEAP Framework? 
Firstly - and Always - I ask the teams for the Statement of Work and their understanding of the Key Performance Indicators they are contractually committed to deliver. 
I could probably spend an entire episode talking about a clean and clear statement of work - as a seasoned Contact Center Professional you probably know that these statements are crucial - but you also know that, if not very clearly defined - they can give you a big headache! 



I also look for daily financial reporting. I call this the “Daily Contribution Report” which in my humble opinion should be known to the Operations Manager - in fact without it - he or she would never know how much their work is worth  - or how much revenue they generated or lost.


I expect the Operations Manager to know exactly how much revenue he created the day before, what his team’s costs were, how much he lost through absence, what the GM contribution of the project is and what’s leftover after Tax. 
You may argue - that this is the finance directors issue. I beg to differ here. By the time the CFO looks at my team’s figures its too late to do anything about them! But if my Ops mgrs looks at yesterdays financial performance we can do something about it together, today! 

Do you understand where I’m going with this? LEAP hangs together - starting with the first P - Leading People, followed by the second P - Executing Process, followed by the 3rd P - Amplifying Profit.

If you are wondering how you are doing in your operation - you might have a notion that not all is that well - but are unsure what it is or where to start - please get in touch!

The link to our contact form is below. There is also a link to the recruitment and on-boarding check-list I mentioned at the start of this episode! Go and download it - I’m sure you find it helpful!

Rutz Consulting Contact Form 
https://rutzconsulting.com/contact-me

LEAP recruitment and on-boarding checklist 


https://rutzconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/LEAP-Recruitment-and-OnboardingCheckListV1.pdf

LinkedIn


https://www.linkedin.com/in/marianne-rutz-351b0a5/

My Podcast is produced by: https://www.unavoided.com

My guest today is Dave D’Arcy - the Senior Director International Care and Tech Support with Vonage.

Dave very candidly shares his initial first job in the industry - where all he knew was “wanting to wear a suit” and how he ended up starting up what we now would call a customer retention campaign for his then employer. 

Dave went on to live and work in a number of countries including India, South Africa, and some European Countries before taking up the role with Vonage. 



The main topic we discuss today is Employee Engagement and Employee Surveys. We all do them, have to do them - yet really - what do we actually do with the results? 

Then we move on to the Glitter and Glory of the European Contact Center Awards! A ‘must-see’ and ‘be-on’ for everyone in the industry. Dave shares with us why he entered the competition in the first place, what happened after he didn’t win first time round - and how he ended up winning! 



In this interview - Dave shares all his wisdom with us - and gives some great tips on how too keep the light on in the Contact Center world! 



Links: 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davemdarcy/


Twitter: Davemdarcy


Vonage: https://www.vonage.com/



My Podcast is produced by: https://www.unavoided.com

Helen joined BPA Quality in 2013 after previous roles in teaching and operations.

As EMEA Quality Solutions and CX Manager, she leverages her passion and expertise for all aspects of Quality and Customer Experience. Helen is considered a leading voice in our industry on Quality Evaluation. She has been a guest speaker at industry events, participated as a judge for the ECCSAs and also co-chairs a quarterly Quality Management Special Interest group in partnership with the CCMA.

Helen’s role requires the implementation of a range of complex quality monitoring programmes across the globe. She says the best part of her job is the opportunity to make a difference: by sharing best practice, and helping organisations deliver excellence to their customers and staff.


We are talking about the fact that quality assessments, calibration sessions and meaningful discussions on quality are usually one of the first things to fall off the wagon when contact centres get busy.


We also discuss the need to take a more holistic approach in quality assessment and that tick box exercises no longer serve us and our customer base! 

Helen shares with us the 4 Pillars of a Quality Assessment Framework that works for everyone, in every corner of the globe.


1. The Quality Framework has to be a living / breathing piece for everyone in the company! = Live the Quality Culture
2. The Quality Framework should always be for the customer, based on outcomes!  = Voice of the Customer
3. There has to be a calibration programme  = Dialogue within the organisation
4. Always consider the human element  = The Magic Sauce


For all of this - You do need an empowered Quality Team!




LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenbeaumontmanahan/

BPA: https://bpaquality.co.uk/

My Podcast is produced by: https://www.unavoided.com

Marcus - A German National - and I, first got to know about each other when Marcus promoted the DACH Customer Experience Awards. You will hear Marcus talk about them at the end of the podcast. 

But then I learned about his passion - Mystery Shopping - for big international blue chip companies such as DHL or Singapore Airlines, testing all their customer interaction channels - Including Chat Bots - Yes - Chatbots! 



Marcus is the Managing Director of OmniTouch International, helping and inspiring organisations in their goal to reach excellent Customer Experience.

With nearly 16 years consulting, training & research experience in Customer Experience, Marcus made it his mission in 2019 to bring a professional and inspiring Customer Experience to the DACH region.

For more than 18 years, OmniTouch has - through workshops, certification programs, Mystery Shopper research and consulting – worked worldwide to inspire and help people in the Customer Service, Contact Centre and Customer Experience industries.

In addition to his Customer Experience background, Marcus helps businesses to develop opportunities, grow markets and manage operations, employees and clients.

Earlier in his career Marcus was a scientist and Managing Director for Metrohm AG, a Swiss company that supplies chemical analysers. - Another possible reason why we hit it off at first discussion.



Marcus earned a Master of Applied Science degree in Chemistry from Europa Fachhochschule Fresenius and the Leonardo da Vinci stipendium. 


LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcusvonkloeden/

Omnitouch International: https://www.omnitouchinternational.com/

DACH Customer Experience Awards: https://www.dach-cxa.com/

My Podcast is produced by: https://www.unavoided.com

Martin started his contact centre career as an agent on the phones in a small contact centre in London. He has been in this vibrant, fun, diverse, creative and hard working Contact Centre industry now for the last 25 years.

He’s worked his way through a number of roles in the industry - from Team Leader to Contact Center Manager, to Director of Quality. 

This industry allows many of us to work abroad - Martin worked in Madrid and also Istanbul. He has been serving as a judge in the industry and has spoken at the contact centre Expo.

His enthusiasm for this industry has seen Martin create & host the UK's first podcast about Contact Centres called 'Get Out of Wrap'. #GOOW! 

In his spare time Martin loves to be with his 3 children, he is also a volunteer for a local homeless charity and is an ambassador for White Ribbon UK.



I couldn’t be more excited to welcome Martin to today's Operational Excellence Show! 

Martin's LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinpteasdale/



#GOOW: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/get-out-of-wrap-contact-centre-chat/id1462669837



My Podcast is produced by: https://www.unavoided.com

We all know somebody, that knows somebody who suffered from burnout in our very busy and pressurised industry!

I’m humbled and honoured that my previous line manager and now good friend B J Kennedy - is talking very candidly with us about his mental exhaustion in 2010. He was working 84hrs per week in an extremely busy environment - but had his wife buying a new home - one he never even saw before they moved in.

Something had to give!

This is a very powerful episode - I’m sure you can gain much from it, both for yourself and for your staff.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-kennedy-lib-apa-4611b413/

Brian’s Website: https://bjkennomotivation.com/

My Podcast is produced by: https://www.unavoided.com

For years on end there has been this chicken and egg scenario in the contact center world!



The question is - what comes first - Operational Management or Customer Experience? 

In this episode Dan Ord and I explore the differences in the two roles but also look at what they have got in common. 

And… we will answer the question for you - from our perspective of course! 



Dan Ord  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellawrenceord/

https://www.omnitouchinternational.com/

My Podcast is produced by: https://www.unavoided.com

Today is the first instalment of our foundational series "Customer Service Delivery Made Easy"

Over the next four episodes I will be looking at some of the basics & will be sharing insights, tips & tricks to help set up your Customer Service Delivery for success. 

In this episode I’m going to lay out a powerful 3 step approach to ensure your People aspect is covered from day 1! 

Resources:

We have created an amazing downloadable workbook for you - covering the content of this foundational series! Go and DOWNLOAD IT HERE…

Links:

Contact us at info@rutzconsulting.com or email me directly marianne@rutzconsulting.com

Website: https://rutzconsulting.com/

This Podcast is produced by: Andrew Madden Photography & Media Production

Sandra Green is a certified executive coach, founder of the Women Leaders Association (www.thewla.com), speaker and author. Her passion is in helping leaders recognise their brilliance and break through their limiting beliefs.  Her READY framework provides a model for bringing greater feminine energy into the workplace (for both women and heart-centred men). She is an advocate for men and women to lead with their heart.

Sandra worked in corporate for many years before following her dream to set up a business focused on developing individual potential.  She guides you how to shift out of overwhelm, self-doubt and ego-led decision-making so you can have far greater impact and love for your work.

Her work as a leadership consultant enables teams to grow as a collective with stronger understanding, empathy and performance.

She has self-published two books: ‘Handbags in the Boardroom’ and ‘Smash The Glass Ceiling’. She is a popular speaker bringing her signature talk: ‘The Triple Spike’ to many conferences and events.

Outside of work, Sandra lives in Cheshire with her family. She enjoys reading, walking with her working cocker spaniel Buddy and one of her claims to fame is spending 12 months as a licensed on-course bookmaker. 




LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandragreen1/

The Women Leaders Association: www.thewla.com

Books by Sandra Green “Handbags in the Boardroom” and “Smash The Glass Ceiling” - both available on Amazon

Online Career Bootcamp with Sandra Green
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=Cj2evM2woAA&feature=emb_logo%2F

My Podcast is produced by: https://www.unavoided.com

As I record today’s episode, the United Kingdom is still in lockdown - and it’s most likely to be extended for another couple of weeks. 

Many contact centres moved their workforce into home offices - with great effort, lots of logistics involved and at a huge cost to the business. It was, and still is, the right decision. 



Initially line managers reported that their staff’s performance was great, absence numbers were down, scheduled adherence was spot on - as high as never before. But now - for the last few weeks we are seeing a downward trend in productivity, we are seeing lower scheduled adherence and, worryingly we are seeing quality dropping. 

I spoke to one senior operations manager last week.  

She was telling me how, after initially excellent results from her home working crew, now - in week 7 the productivity of the agents was falling - and not only that, the quality of the work delivered was also going from bad to worse!

I listened carefully, quietly wondering when she would tell me that she implemented a turnaround project over 6 weeks for her underperforming team.

I waited and waited…. The sentence never came.

Eventually I asked her straight out: How is your coaching going and how many of your home working agents have you got on an improvement plan?


Sheer horror on her face - she looked at me (on Zoom) - as if I had lost my mind! 
Performance management in Covid-19 times? Surely a BIG no go?



I beg to disagree. 
In fact - I would argue that just because of Covid-19 your coaching and communication with your teams should have multiplied! Maybe 10x-ed? 

So I went and did a little research... and I found that in 80% of firms where coaching and lovingly performance management was not an individual Key Performance Indicator for all levels of management, both coaching and performance management had fallen off the wagon completely! Shocking!

The reason given was mostly “we are in a crisis, hence all we do is answer calls / emails / chats. We don’t have time to performance manage”

I have seen behaviour before - in peak times for example, or when contact centres are low staffed - let's say in the summer holidays or over the Christmas Period. Quality monitoring, daily stand ups, coaching and feedback sessions are cut back. Resulting in dropping performance levels! 



Your team craves engagement. Your team craves feedback, meaningful, elevated discussions about them. Questions about how they are doing, how is the business doing, how can they help or how can they make a difference to the situation the business is in.



Think about it, if this is you and your team, I strongly encourage you to listen to The Operational Excellence Show podcast Episode 6. Here I share how you can successfully work with your team, also remotely using the LEAP daily checklist and the LEAP Gameplan! You can download the respective documentation from my website.



So what can you do now - today? Communicate, Communicate and communicate again! 
There is no such thing as over communicating in difficult times! 

Let me share my 3 most powerful tips on how to communicate with teams and with individuals;

1. Get Clarity



• What do you really want your team or team-member to understand? 

• What’s likely to happen if your team-member or team doesn’t want to work with you on that? 

• Why is your approach essential for success

• What questions are you going to be asked? 

      Think ahead of time! 

2. Structure your communication


• Headline

  You have a matter of seconds to grab your audience attention - be clear on your headline



• Set the Scene

  Outline how far you have come and where you are today



• Main Message

  Explain where you need to go
Why you need to go there
Set your stall out - articulate your expectations
Know your message - DO NOT WAFFLE! 



• Re-cap
  
Bring your main point across again



• Next Steps

  Outline clearly what the next steps are




3. Rehearse your message

• Nobody is perfect Hence - rehearse your message - if need be in front of a mirror

• Create little reminder cards if you need them! 



  Treat your teams and team-members as responsible adults and very clearly work with them.



I recently read an email, sent by the CEO of AirB&B - who had to announce to his team, that he will have to reduce his workforce (you find the link to this letter in the show notes)

He clearly had the communication thought through very carefully. 
He set the scene explaining how he arrived at the very difficult decision to let 1900 members of his workforce go.


He explained where the AirB&B needed to go and what needed to happen to get the company through the restructuring process.
 He articulated very clearly what this meant for his workforce.
He addressed the steps one by one in a very humble and caring manner
He closed with final words - thanking his teams - both the ones that are now leaving and the ones that are staying on.

I sincerely hope that you never will have to make such a drastic announcement to your teams - but it illustrates the point - firms with an excellent communication strategy (coaching and performance management are part of that strategy) have it much easier to bring about difficult messages.

I would take it one step further - it is YOUR responsibility to ensure that you communicate with your teams!                 
               
              


https://news.airbnb.com/a-message-from-co-founder-and-ceo-brian-chesky/


LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marianne-rutz-351b0a5/

My Podcast is produced by: https://www.unavoided.com

In today’s episode I am talking to a LinkedIn expert! Over the last couple of months LinkedIn has quickly risen to the platform of choice for so many professionals and entrepreneurs! 
There is a reason for that!


LinkedIn is more than just another job-platform!


LinkedIn is more than just another sales channel.



Your LinkedIn Profile carries a lot of weight for you and your clients - no matter how big or small your company is, no matter how senior you are in your corporate world. 

Shelley Hutchinson shares her expertise in the field - also, she is gifting all of you listeners with a very generous takeaway - to enhance your own profile! 



Free 45 Minute Training  - How to Advance Your Career Using Linkedin - https://www.clientnectar.com/career



Clientnectar.com



www.linkedin.com/in/shelleyhutchinson/

My Podcast is produced by: https://www.unavoided.com

We are seeing the recruitment industry change at the speed of light. The current Covid-19 crisis forces businesses to look at Working from Home solutions on all levels.



Some people, like myself, have been an advocate of Home Woking for many years! One of these people is Jo Griffiths

. We hear from Jo about how the recruitment industry has changed over the last 20 years and more importantly how Jo and her team can help you to get high quality team members - offering the full process remotely, plus hiring a work from home team member.

Jo Griffiths 

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/jo-griffiths-b639242/


CCA recruitment: http://www.ccarecruitment.com

My Podcast is produced by: https://www.unavoided.com

In this episode I’m discussing the hot potato in the contact center industry - well any industry for that matter - Customer Experience - what do we measure and how do we measure it.



My guest is an absolute authority in this field - Morris Pentel 

Morris is the Chairman of the Customer Experience Foundation, he is also a consultant in Business Transformation, all things Omnichannel and of course customer experience. 
Morris calls himself the Chief Student at London School of Customer Experience. He is simply THE authority in the field.



Morris Pentel LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/morrispentel/
Customer Experience Foundation: https://www.cxfo.org/London School of Customer Experience: https://www.cxfo.org/xic2020

My Podcast is produced by: https://www.unavoided.com

Today’s episode was supposed to be about the Ritz Carlton’s awesome customer experience - but over the last week or so - friends, colleagues, acquaintances - simply - just people - have been asking me

“How do you deal with this lock-down”? You seem so content - not worried at all? 

That got me thinking… - because I very well know what it means to be worried - worried for my life.

On the 29 September 2015, just three days before my wedding to Kevin, we were told by a very competent surgeon and an ever so lovely MacMillan Nurse that I had stage 3 bowel cancer - potentially stage 4 - as there was also a growth on the liver. I was given a survival rate of about 30% if it was only stage 3 - significantly lower if it turned out to be stage 4.


Was I worried - I was mortified! Not prepared at all! I had none of the typical symptoms, I only went to see my doctor because I couldn’t shake off a viral infection I caught earlier in the year. 

I was at the height of my career, a carefully built career, loved my job, had a beautiful family and a soon to be husband. I had it all, things went well - I lived a wonderful life. I considered myself privileged. Within the space of 5 min - all of that counted for nothing anymore


I’ve always had a positive outlook to life - and what’s happening in the world. On our family table politics was a permanent topic, but also religion and faith. My dad was a minister in the protestant church of Switzerland - and no doubt his life and how we practiced his strong faith influenced my thinking and my attitude to life and death. 

Whilst there was an initial shock - I remember asking my fiancee whether he still wanted to marry me, after all he could be a widower in no time - I pretty quickly fell on my two feet...

I manage my cancer journey using a project plan! And made evidence based decisions in relation to my treatment.

A good project plan has got one end goal - mine was survival. With a number of milestones - usually different milestones per workstream. 

My workstreams were simple: medical treatments and sport / fitness.

My milestones became chemo sessions attended and daily steps taken using a step counter. 


For my chemo sessions - every week one or two days before the Friday I sent all the observations of the last round to my oncologist - so that she could make “evidence based” decisions. My 3-weekly blood tests, my experience with the drugs throughout the cycle and my weight were the evidence for decision making on the treatment plan.

My steps (starting with 2500 steps at the start of the chemo cycle - going up to 5000 towards the end of the chemocycle) provided evidence of fitness level and mental health.

Now - at no point did I actually know what was going to happen next. I simply couldn’t know! 

I couldn’t expect life to be predictable or fair for that matter during my illness. There was also no point to pretend everything was fine, or telling myself a feel-good lie.

All I could do was to embrace the uncertainty of this whole life-or-death deal. And as I did that - some weird clarity started to surface! There is a humility that comes with realising that you're not the glorious plans you made for your life!  - And here is where my faith came in. I never knew that I still had it! I was busy, working hard, chasing goals, promotions etc. Yet - in my cancer journey it surfaced, quietly but steadily. And it has stayed with me ever since!!


So lets put this into perspective today

1. Making a plan is still the best way to move forward. It may or may not materialise. But if you don’t have a plan, you can’t be held accountable! No accountability means your progress is much slower or isn’t happening at all! And - if you change things - you don’t know why you changed or what you changed - because there was no plan in the first place.


2. Keeping your fitness up is absolutely paramount! It breaks my heart to read statistics about children having gained weight because of the lockdown - they didn’t get enough exercise. Or adults seriously suffering from depression because they didn’t get out, or joined a fitness class online etc. 


3. Be kind to yourself and to others - do not pretend all is well if it’s not. None of us can be up-beat and positive all the time! I know we see this on social media. Everyone seems to be doing so great. Learning new things, enjoying downtime, etc. Guys - if you are honest with yourself - you know that this is not true. Be kind to yourself - you are not Superman or Superwoman!

I recently read an article by David Brooks, a columnist with the NY Times called - “Screw this Virus”  - it so eloquently refers to how we could deal with today’s situation.
There is a link below.

Stay Safe!

New York Times Coronavirus Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/opinion/coronavirus-isolation.html?smid=em-share

Our Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/582396082326472/?source_id=1807833562816621

My Podcast is produced by: https://www.unavoided.com

My client today is an expert in the lighting industry! Just look at the light-bulb you may have in your home, or the Smart Lighting solution you may have - it could be from Signify - formerly Philips Lighting.



In today’s interview, Bart-Hendrik Huisman, Head of Customer Satisfaction with Signify and I, discuss what it takes to set up a global operation, starting in Kuala Lumpur ending in Puerto Rico. 

2 Years ago Signify went on a journey which saw the business model change in Signify but not the value the customer would get when needing support. 



Information:

Bart-Hendrik Huisman LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barthendrikhuisman/

Our Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/582396082326472/?source_id=1807833562816621

My Podcast is produced by: https://www.unavoided.com

I am so excited for today’s episode with business executive and team leadership coach, Gregor Findlay the owner of Courageous Development!

Gregor was the very first business coach I ever had. I was just promoted to Site Director in Accrington, near Manchester, to set up and open a brand new contact center. I was clearly talented, but out of my depth. My team was non existent, everyone I hired I felt I had to “control” because I could do it better myself. In no time I was overworked, stressed and frustrated.

Thankfully my employer offered me help - in the person of Gregor Findlay!

Gregor is an APECS Accredited Executive Coach with 18 years of experience and has helped hundreds of senior managers, directors and C-suite executives undergo transformative change, both personal and organisational.

Gregor's mission is to help leaders and leadership teams develop and grow so they can make a bigger difference for themselves, their people and society.

Gregor worked with big blue chip companies - such as Dell, Novartis, Munich RE and Sitel, where I got my coaching with him. He holds a BSc in psychology from the University of Edinburgh; his coaching is grounded in psychology  and neuroscience.

Let’s roll!

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Gregor's LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregorfindlay/

APECS: https://www.apecs.org

My Podcast is produced by: https://www.unavoided.com

Welcome to Episode 10!

As I’m recording this, the UK is heading into its second week of lock down due to the CoronaVirus. Many of you will have been advised to work from home now and your teams are remote! 
It was frantic all of last week - getting people access to companies' IT networks, ensuring everyone had the right equipment, setting up conference calls, and also pondering how on earth you would stay engaged with your teams.



I was privileged to attend a 2 day conference for business leaders - which initially was planned to be in Paris, but at the last minute it was set up as a virtual conference using Zoom technology. And it worked a treat! 

On the first day, Fabienne Fredrikson of Boldheart Business took the attendees through 7 steps how to Pivot Your Business. And with her permission, I’m using her 7 steps (The Titles only)  adapted to the corporate Contact Center life you are finding yourself in today. 



Lets go:



Step 1: Pivot Your Facts



You see - the news is full of information, right or wrong, plus all there is on TV, the Radio, Social Media - Covid-19. And to make matters worse, the so called facts don’t match! 

You know the scenario from your daily reports, reflecting yesterday’s performance. You look at the numbers and know they are wrong. So you go and dig until you find what’s right. 

I’d invite you to do the same with the facts around Covid-19. Find a source you trust. And work from that source only. Ditch everything else! 



I can recommend the worldometers.info webpage - where you can get facts around spread of the virus per country - and you can see when it peaked, when it started to decline and how the infection rate performs in relation to the death rate.

Really it is the same principle as if you look at last month's call performance vs. February 2019 call performance. You know what to look out for and then you can take action! 


Of course there is a high probability that your March 2020 stats are totally out of line, compared to last year - but because you know, you have an explanation and you can act. 


Going back to the crisis - the evidence on worldometers.info shows that New Cases in China are declining day by day. This gives hope that also in our countries the development of  the pandemic will change.


Step 2: Pivot Your Health


Now as you are working from home, you have got the perfect opportunity to eat healthily! Remember the excuses you had so far? Too busy in the office? Dashing out for a Latte and ready made sandwich or soup? 


Not only can you prepare your foods the night before, you can make a conscious decision what to eat! 

Alkaline foods to support your immune system! And if you can’t cook - now is the perfect time to learn!

I’d recommend Jamie Olivers ‘Superfood Family Classics Cookbook’. Easy, straightforward and incredibly healthy! 



Step 3: Pivot your Mindset


There are a number of ways to look at how you can stay positive - or at least try to see beyond the current crisis. One article I found helpful was by Jeff Van Clute “A message from the Coronavirus” - You find the link in the show notes.


Jeff talks about the gifts that the the virus presents;

• Slowing down humanity’s frenetic activities

• Activating networks of cooperation

• Spreading helpful DNA

• Upgrading humanity’s immune system

• Creating the conditions for peace and well-being

• Saving lives, especially over the long term, by strengthening the web of life




Listen, it doesn’t mean that you have to be all singing and dancing everyday! But remember - you can definitely influence your thoughts.



Step 4: Pivot your resources


Well - in the corporate setting, our resources are people, technology, processes, procedures. Those who know me are aware that I work with my clients using LEAP: 
Lead People
 - Execute Process
 - Amplify Profit - 
In that Order! 



This means you do have to put more time into leading people! Just over 50% (53.6%) of professionals in the UK say that they feel lonely at the workplace! So now - as we all work from home, this figure is most likely to spring up significantly. 



Reasons for feeling lonely at work:

 44.4% feel they have nothing in common with their colleagues.

 26.5% don’t have good work friends

 21.7% say they feel lonely because their colleagues are a lot younger than them. 

Other reasons are: Working in an office on their own (20.6%), having to eat lunch alone (18.2%), working with other colleagues (11.1%), or not being invited to work socials (6.4%).



Loneliness negatively impacts on performance. And now more than ever it is your responsibility to engage with your workforce.



I invite you to go back to Episode 06 - How to set yourself up for a successful day in the Office and to Episode 08 - How to help your team member to be successful in their career. In both episodes you will find downloadable resources in PDF format, that will help you to engage with your team members as you would do in the office! Use technology such as Zoom or Teams or Skype for Business to hold your team huddles, your one to one’s and your coaching sessions.



Engaging with your employees is vital in this moment and time! 



Step 5: Pivot your time



As a matter of principle - I work off of 90 day plans (quarterly execution plans) with bi-weekly sprints. That means I allow myself to focus 14 days on implementation or execution of one task that aids my project to be completed in 90 days. I use a project plan and I execute against the milestones.
You might say - well that doesn’t work for me, I’m not a project Manager! Believe me - it works. Cut your elephant in pieces! Although you are now working from home - you still have to deliver results.

And a plan is there to help you get these results.

 But now is also the time where you can go and read all these books you wanted to read. Or learn the language you wanted to learn for ages. 
Now is the time to get fit - use the daily exercise allowance to get out of the house! There are a lot of activities, you now have got no excuse not to do something! 



6 Pivot your Marketing

I can hear you - I work in corporate, I don’t do marketing! Hear, hear - let's look at Wikipedia; 

Marketing is the study and management of exchange relationships.[1][2] It is the business process of identifying, anticipating and satisfying customers' needs and wants. Because marketing is used to attract customers, it is one of the primary components of business management and commerce.[3] Marketers can direct product to other businesses (B2B marketing) or directly to consumers (B2C marketing).



Therefore - marketing is actually a relationship building exercise with your customer. Your customer could be your HR department. Your IT department, your L&D department. It could be the client you are serving, if you work in outsourcing.

I have a habit of calling my key contacts once a month, normally on a Friday. Just asking how they are doing, engaging in conversation around industry news, performance or simply their daily life. 

Give it a try! 


7 - Pivot your Career

We all do it from time to time - looking at what else is out there. Very often we do this when we think 'the grass is greener across the fence'.

We look for new jobs when we are frustrated, or feel we have reached the glass ceiling - and have nowhere to go.

Through the current crisis a lot of people have lost jobs they absolutely loved. Some have lost jobs they hated. Others are still in jobs - but are not clear why they do what they do! 



So I invite you to self find your reason for Being;


• What do I love?

• What am I good at

• What can I be paid for?

• What does the world need? 



Maybe you always wanted to change career completely? Now is the time to do the research and find out! Maybe speak to a career coach? So many career coaches are offering their services just now pro bona. 

Maybe you always wanted to progress and understand 6Sigma? Or take an excel course? If you have linkedIn - check out their learning department - it’s great!

So - what is it going to be for you? Seven areas where you can pivot in - pick at least two!

Resources: 


https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/china

https://jeffvanderclute.com/articles/a-message-from-the-coronavirus/

https://www.cv-library.co.uk/recruitment-insight/brits-suffer-loneliness-workplace/

https://rutzconsulting.com/podcasts/opex-006-how-to-set-yourself-up-for-a-successful-day-in-the-office/

https://rutzconsulting.com/podcasts/episode-8-how-to-help-your-team-member-to-be-successful-in-their-career/

https://boldheart.com

Our OpEx Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/582396082326472/?source_id=1807833562816621

SEO:

My Podcast is produced by: https://www.unavoided.com

I first met Willow in 2018, we both attended a course by Heather Dominique to think about our deposition of being ‘Highly Sensitive” - that doesn’t mean we are highly emotional or irrational as many people would assume! You will hear in the interview what traits HSP’s have and why they make excellent Customer Service Advisors, Coaches, Consultants - especially in an industry that’s highly pressurised! 



I needed coping mechanisms: ways to structure my day differently, I needed to learn how to accept and honour boundaries. Hence I took that course.



For Willow however it was always clear that “something was missing” - he will tell you himself what it was and what he did about it. 

You are in for a real treat - Highly Sensitive and High Sensory Intelligence are relatively new fields and there is still a lot to discover. 

Lets roll - here is my chat with Willow McIntosh!



www.inluminance.com
www.businessmiracles.com


https://www.linkedin.com/in/businessmiracles/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewillowmcintosh
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/willowmcintosh/

Our OpEx Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/582396082326472/?source_id=1807833562816621

SEO:

My Podcast is produced by: https://www.unavoided.com

Becoming and remaining an Employer of choice - that’s a tough order nowadays! 

I’m discussing this topic with Wendy Sellers, the HR Lady, who boldly claims… Your People are My Business! 

Topics such as Retention, the importance or nuisance of employee surveys, the silent resignation and so many more hot potatoes in the HR world are discussed and assessed! People leave bad Managers - that’s a daunting truth! So - what do you have to do to save your manager? And how do you deal with layoff’s? 

Links:

LinkedIn: Wendy Sellers

Web: The HR Lady

Contact us at info@rutzconsulting.com or email me directly marianne@rutzconsulting.com

Website: https://rutzconsulting.com/

This Podcast is produced by: Andrew Madden Photography & Media Production

Hi everyone, welcome to this episode! I’m delighted it comes on the back of Episode 6 ‘How to set yourself up for a Successful Day in the Office
- I got a number of comments and requests around 

“And what happens next - I have done all the coaching with my agent / Teamleader / Member of staff - but somehow the performance doesn’t improve.”



Now - let's be clear - not every team member we have is also in the right role! 
Here’s what I mean by that:



You followed the recruitment guidelines, you hired a person to the best of your judgment. Maybe you used a matrix to calculate somebody’s “fit for role” state and the number was fine. For example over 7 on a scale of 1 - 10.
 Yet the person is not performing
.

You may have promoted somebody into a role, for example an Agent has become a Teamleader. Your firm has given training for Teamleaders, you have done your one to one’s on a regular basis - yet the individual is not performing. And to make matters worse, they don’t seem to be enjoying the job
.

You may have been desperate for support, hired a person into a role in a hurry - lets face it - we all have done that - and now it’s not working out.




Now - you have got two options if any of the above scenarios occur:
Option 1 - you can fire the person (of course you need to be within the law…)
Option 2 - you can proactively help the person to become successful - either within your company or elsewhere.

 Here is where the LEAP PDP comes in! 

Using a personal development plan with your staff takes the individual in question into account - in fact - the individual himself is in charge of the plan - you as their manager provide the coaching or counselling relating to the plan.

You can download the document for yourself - the link is below.



The LEAP PDP consists of 3 Steps:

• Plan your career

• Manage your review

• Implement and update your Plan



To illustrate I’m using an example of a Teamleader, let’s call him John, whom I managed a couple of years ago. John had been promoted internally from Agent to Teamleader - and he desperately wanted to move up to Operations Manager. I saw his potential - but somehow his own team’s performance was not there, he got frustrated very quickly and he threatened to leave. 
Honestly, people, I don’t react very well to threats and thought somewhat grumpily - well then just leave!

However - my passion for people and their development quickly got the better of me and I brought John into my office, explaining that I was putting him on a personal development plan. 

And you know - John’s initial reaction was…. Well why don’t you fire me? Why are are putting time and effort into a PDP?  - My answer - because I am a Kolbe 8 (I need to find the facts before I make a decision) and my biggest Gallup Strength is Relator  - I manage relationships very well.

So we got to work.



Step 1: I issued John with the LEAP PDP form and invited him to start his own personal assessment. If you work in a forward thinking enterprise, you and your teams probably have some form of personality testing - use that as a baseline. 
In step 1 we are looking at the strengths John has, based on either Myers Briggs, or Gallup Strengths Finder or Kolbe A+ index and how these strengths show up in his daily conduct with this team and the wider organisation. 



None of us is perfect - I also invited John to take a very close look at his development needs.

In order to assess whether we really needed to help him with additional skills (based on his development needs) or - indeed should further enhance his strengths, John is now looking at his career objectives
Where does John see himself in 1 year, where in 3 years and where in 5 years? 



Unsurprisingly - John saw himself as Ops Manager in 12 months and then as Ops Director in 3 - 5 years. He also wanted to be come competent in Lean Management and he wanted to be involved in Bid Management. 

However - his development needs where two fold:

His own team didn’t reach targets, despite daily huddles, one to one’s and constant in-the-moment coaching that needed attention. John identified one individual bringing the teams morale and performance down - but he was afraid to act because he didn’t know the HR implications and was worried the agent in question might take a case against John or/and the firm
.

John had an understanding of “cost saving was necessary in the business” - but he couldn’t identify opportunities and address them accordingly.


As a result of 
a) John’s strengths
, b) John’s Development needs
, c) John’s career aspirations

 we agreed the following development objectives:


Understanding basic HR people management skills


Activity: I sent John on a 10 weeks HRD course @ the local University to familiarise himself with the law, with how we manage performance, exchange views with other aspiring managers. 
The measure to show that what he learned was really holding clear: He managed said “disruptive” agent clearly and precisely. On a weekly basis and ensured he had all the necessary facts to take an educated and fact-based decision as to whether or not to “help the disruptive agent” to be successful elsewhere.  - You notice…. I don’t fire people. I’m not Alan Sugar :-) 


My firm ran internal LEAN courses - I put John onto a lean course. As part of the course he had to complete a small cost saving project - which we both agreed would be our Development Measurer. 


Both activities had very clear completion dates. 

We also jointly agreed - that we would work together for 9 months and that I would do my utmost to get him into a position where he could confidently apply for the next Operations Managers Position. 



Step 2: My own commitment in this process was that I regularly reviewed the progress with John. Now - when you engage in longer term development of your staff you want to schedule these review meetings quarterly - to allow your staff member time to learn and implement what they learned. 



Step 3: Review and update the PDP on an ongoing basis! - meaning - as soon as one Objective was achieved - we looked at the next one! The LEAP PDP became an evergreen tool. 


I recently spoke to John, who is now a successful Operations Director in an In House Contact Center environment. Needless to say - I’m proud of John and what he has achieved over the last 10 years.


I have of course had situations, where it became clear over the course of a PDP, that the individual would be much happier in a different role. So you can see - Personal Development Plans not only serve direct career advancement; they also are a very clear indicator with actual options how to get there for a career change.

Earlier - I mentioned popular personality assessment tools.

 Here they are again:



Kolbe A Index: measure the cognitive behaviour we are actually born with. The link is below. 
Personally I am an 8 - 6 - 4 - 2


8: Fact-finder

6: Follow Through

4: 
Quick Start

2: 
Implementor

Gallup Strengths Finder - measures all your skills and identifies the top 5 you should be working within, 
For me that’s Relator, Individualisation, Analytical, Ideation and Arranger

.

The details of how I use these results in my business and my career are for another episode! 



Kolbe A Index: https://www.kolbe.com
Gallup Strength Finder: https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/en/252137/home.aspx

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Today I’m talking to Joy Bains. Hands down - Joy is one of the best project / programme managers I have worked with in my career. 
I hired Joy in May 2019 - simply because I struggled to deliver a global, multilingual programme, spanning around the world - from Malaysia to Puerto Rico.


In this episode Joy shares a wealth of tips, ideas and insights covering all aspects of project management.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/joy-bains-b3171646/

Our Facebook Group
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My Podcast is produced by: https://www.unavoided.com

In our fast-paced environment, most of my Team Managers and Ops Managers struggled to demonstrate how they worked through their day.

 Often - at the end of the day - they sat at their desks - wondering whether or not to actually go home - as their to-do list was endless! And yet again some of the coaching they had planned to do hadn’t happened. 



As I was measured on the performance of my teams - I thought about how I might be able to help my guys without taking up too much time in their already busy day. Creating Systems for my team! 



1. The LEAP Daily Check-list - to keep my guys on the straight and narrow numbers wise
.

2. The LEAP Game Plan - A daily coaching records list.

Here is how they work

; First we talk about the LEAP daily Checklist
 Clean Up.

Clean up: Tidy desk, tidy mind! Nothing more annoying than empty cups, crisp papers, yesterday’s daily mirror (or worse) on the desk
.

Up-date Board: it annoys me, displaying out of date stats

Client specific materials - back in place - example RL store

Equipment checked and accounted for - headsets in poor condition
.

Damaged equipment given to IT, or IT ticket logged

Supervisor area clean?  - messy sup desks, missing tissues, etc etc. 



Plan for the main tasks!
LEAP Game Plan completed?  - coaching planned and prepared?


Daily reporting reviewed? This ties in with stats on the board

Call monitoring done? In many firms you think your QA team should do the monitoring! Of course - that’s great - but really - it is your responsibility that the QA’s are done and to ensure that you do one yourself every so often! Also remember to schedule calibration sessions
.

Return to works / care calls / etc. Done? And Documented


Review the Scheduling - Who is actually there today to do the work? 

Why important: CC are a cost if service based or a revenue generator if sales based.

You need to know how many people you have got at any given day to either generate sales or deliver a service, and the cost of that service! 

Managers - who don’t know these costs tend to slack in their employee engagement! They don’t know where there agents are, which ones need help, whether or not they are feeling well etc.

Create an Agent RAG List


Here it’s all about your people



Green: People that are always there, perform well and deserve a thank you - what action are you taking today to thank these guys?


Amber: People who you notice have been quiet, or absent a lot or have returned poor quality  - what’s going on with them - and what actions are you going to take to find out?


Red: People that are on your radar - maybe at the edge of leaving? What are the issues / Symptoms / Observations?  Action steps!



These are the topics on the daily game plan! It takes about 30 to 40 minutes to fill it in - every day at the start of your shift (or the day before at the end of that day for the NEW day!)



Don’t forget to create accountability and share your Checklist with your Manager! 



Secondly - The LEAP Game Plan

Schedule coaching for your Amber people on a daily basis! This will do two things


a) it makes your agent feel valued
b) it will increase their productivity / quality / well being / overall performance.



I believe you can coach 2 Agents per hour - if you stick to it! So use the Game Plan wisely. Don’t schedule coaching just once an hour! Also - note comments about the shift. For example - if there was a fire alarm - you couldn’t coach Agent “B” - so note this! And move on to Agent C when back in the building! Don’t go and rework the entire plan for the day. Just reschedule the one you didn’t do! 

I can guarantee you - if you do these two tasks consistently - over the course of 4 to 6 weeks you will see the benefits!



You will be very clear how your team performs and more importantly why the performance is where it is
. Your Absence percentage will have reduced significantly - as you do the Return to Works systematically
. Your overall team performance will have increased - as your Amber Agents have received regular coaching, their performance will have gone up. Your Red Agents will either have moved to Amber or Green - or you will have enough evidence to help them to be successful elsewhere
.

Your manager will be impressed and your Senior Manager will be even more impressed - you are setting yourself up to be noted! 





You can download a free copy of the LEAP Daily Checklist and the LEAP Game Plan. Feel free to amend the tasks as they fit your environment and team! 



I hope these tips help you to structure your day, trust the process and reap the fruits! 

You are in for a juicy episode!

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My Podcast is produced by: https://www.unavoided.com