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Member You - Building Your Infrastructure to Sustain Your Service Strategy
Forex? What is it, anyway?The marketThe currency trading (FOREX) market is the biggest and fastest growing market on earth. Its daily turnover is more than 2.5 trillion dollars. The participants in this market are banks, organizations, investors and private individuals, just like you. (click here to read full market background by Easy-Forex™).The goods (merchandise)Markets are places to trade goods, and the same goes with FOREX. The Forex goods are the currencies of various countries. You buy Euro, paying with US dollars, or you sell Japanese Yens for Canadian dollars. That's all.How does one profit in Forex?Obviously, buy cheap and sell for more! The profit potential comes from the fluctuations (changes) in the currency exchange market. The nice thing about the FOREX market, is that regular daily fluctuations, say - around 1%, are multiplied by 100! (in general, Easy-Forex™ offers trading ratios from 1:50 to 1:200).How risky is Forex trading?You cannot lose more than your "margin" (your initial investment)! You may profit unlimited amounts, but you never lose more than what you initially risked. However, risk only what you can afford and is not vital for your well-being.How do I start trading?Register (Easy-Forex™ of
You have to prepare for victory otherwise you’re just practicing. And in today’s unforgiving marketplace practice isn’t going to cut it. The phrase: “The customer is always right” is not motivating to employees because it doesn’t tell them what to do for the customer. This phrase is more a bumper sticker than an operating principle.
Training and skill development ensures your employees are prepared to succeed. (*)
8. Communication:
Communication is the lifeblood to any strategy. You simply cannot over communicate. Just like infrastructure component #2: Appoint a Champion, assign someone to own the communication strategy throughout your organization, from headquarters to store-level. You must drive communication throughout every corner of your organization. This will provide focus and align activities. Communicate things like:
* Sales results * Mystery shopper score * What’s working/not working * Customer comments: good & bad * Performance expectations * Areas for improvements * Lessons learned * Customer service stories
9. Recognize & Reward:
Recognize and reward the behaviors you want to see more of. Why? Because what gets recognized and rewarded gets repeated.
But be sure to only recognize and reward the right performance and behavior. And remember, recognize and reward results, not efforts. At the end of the day it’s results that matter.
10. Celebrate Success:
Consistently delivering a great customer buying experience is hard. If it were easy, great customer service would be the norm not the exception. And if you think being a frontline employee is easy, then takeover their job for a day.
I’m confident you’ll walk away with a much greater appreciation of what our frontline employees go through on a daily basis. When goals are achieved and good things happen, make the time to enjoy and celebrate the moment with your employees
It works:Because the Advertising Agencies tell you it works without producing one iota of evidence to substantiate their claims as to the exclusive increase in sales that one advertising campaign has produced!It works because we live in an over informed society, and the agencies are working very hard to increase the quantity (but not quality) of clutterIt works because the customer has become immune to advertising, so Advertising Agencies are attempting to cut through the clutter with brilliant creative work.Advertising works – especially now that it is moving onto the Internet!Advertising works because advertising agencies pay scant attention (if any) to the actual process of communication, and concentrate heavily on creativity and media buying.Advertising works because the days are numbered for TV ads dominance…but they don't know what to replace it with!Advertising works because the correct model of communication is totally ignored by the advertising industry whilst they cling onto the reach frequency model beloved by the advertising industry but which has no relevance to the actual process of communication.Advertising works to waste your money. Study the annual expenditure of advertising in America, Britain, France, Germany, Spa
The type of buying experience that you’ll remember and influences you to return to that company. So how many companies did you come up with?
Two points I’d like to make here:
1) I bet it took you awhile before a particular company came to mind. I doubt very much that a flood of companies blitzed your mind when you thought about that question, and
2) I bet the number of companies that you came up with can be counted on one hand…and I’ll bet you’ll have a few fingers left over. The sad reality is, consistently receiving great customer service is the exception, not the norm. So why is that? I can cite many root causes, but without question the biggest one is a lack of an organizational infrastructure.
Customer Service Infrastructure:
A customer service infrastructure is an organizational structure, which includes: systems, processes, policies and procedures that facilitate and support a continuous focus on the customer.
It all starts by building your organization from the customer backwards: not the other way around. An organizational structure that ensures a continuous, relentless and laser-like focus on the customer. An infrastructure is necessary because when it comes to a customer service strategy there is a distinct and marked difference between implementation and execution.
Implementation is all about “getting ready" to launch a strategy, whereby execution is about consistently performing to a desired standard. Take for example a soda promotion at your local convenience store. The implementation phase would include activities such as: ordering the appropriate levels of product, getting promotional signage in place, advertising, perhaps creating a store incentive program, and communicating and training store personnel. Once the soda promotion kicks off, the execution phase kicks in.
Execution involves: ensuring the signage stays fresh (and up!) throughout the duration of the promotion, product displays remain full and attractive, inventory levels are maintained, and most importantly, store employees consistently (there’s that word again) promote and suggest sell the product to every customer every time they come into the store - not sometimes, every time! (*)
Just imagine how much more soda convenience stores would sell if they excelled at the execution phase of the strategy? Good companies implement well, but great companies excel at both implementation and in particular execution. The ability to consistently execute is what separates the great companies from the good companies.
Unfortunately, most companies fail miserably at execution. Why? Because a customer service strategy unlike a product strategy is process driven vs. program, and a process requires a support system to succeed.
Paradigm Shift:
To launch and sustain a successful customer service strategy the first step in the process requires an organization to undertake a drastic paradigm shift. Most organizations are program oriented vs. process. Programs have a start and end date.
Metrics are developed and results are easily tracked. And at the end of the program period you know if it was a success or not because you can clearly see the results. A customer service strategy on the other hand takes time before you can readily see results.
Customer service is a process not a program. And a process requires patience and discipline. Because of this program mentality among many companies, patience and discipline unfortunately is not exactly part of their DNA.
I want to introduce 10-key infrastructure components that are required in order to facilitate, support and sustain a long-term customer service strategy. Noticed I used the words: long term and sustain, not short-term and program.
If you really want your company to stand for great customer service then you must think in terms of process not program.
Customer Service Infrastructure Components:
1. Commitment:
You need to make a conscious decision - you’re either going to be committed and stand for customer service or you’re not. You can’t be half pregnant with a customer service strategy.
Companies who stand for customer service have every fiber of their organization focused on the customer; it’s part of their corporate DNA.
Customer service is their north star providing direction, guidance and dictating behavior within the organization.
2. Appoint a Champion:
You must drive customer service ownership throughout your entire organization: every person at every level.
Ultimately, everyone must own the customer, not just your frontline team who interacts with your customers - everyone! But as you can well imagine, ownership will take time to permeate throughout your organization, and in most cases it can take years. That’s why in the interim, until you achieve customer service nirvana, you need to assign a Champion within your organization to carry the flag, lead the charge, and drive the process.
The individual you assign should have a high-level position that has the respect and clout within your organization to make things happen. The higher the level, the easier the road, because it sends out a strong message to your organization that customer service is important.
3. Identify your Moments of Truth:
Moments of truth or “touch points," are contact points that a customer has with your company.
Customers are constantly making both conscious and unconscious value judgments about each of the moments of truths they encounter. These value judgments are then recorded into a mental report card on your company.
Identify each of your company’s moments of truths: stores, employees, answering the phone, delivery trucks, etc., then develop a strategy around each one that will ensure a consistent world-class customer service experience.
4. Assess: Policies & Procedures – Systems & Processes:
Outward thinking vs. inward: start with the customer and work backwards.
Do your policies and procedures serve the customer or your organizational bureaucracy? Are your policies and procedures customer friendly? Are your systems designed to make it easier for you to do business or for your customers to do business with you? Do your processes put your frontline employees in a position to succeed or fail in the eyes of your customers? (*)
5. Develop Meaningful Metrics:
If you can’t measure it you can’t manage it! Meaningful, meaning those metrics that your frontline employees have direct control or influence over.
Things like: store sales, appearance and retailing, mystery shopper scores, and customer comments are meaningful frontline metrics that drive customer service behavior.
6. Scoreboard your Metrics:
Whatever metrics you decide on, communicate them throughout the entire organization via a visible scoreboard. If your business includes retail stores, purchase one of those large white poster-boards, the kind that kids use for school projects. These white-boards can be purchased at any office supply store.
A scoreboard is critical because it communicates to the employees what is important and how to achieve it. We tell our employees to go out and win, but we tend to keep the rules of how to win and the score a secret. The bosses know what the score is - their scoreboard is the P&L or management reports. Just like in sports, keeping score makes it more: interesting, engaging, challenging and enjoyable. Who plays golf or tennis and doesn’t keep score?
7. Training & Skill Development:
You have to prepare for victory otherwise you’re just practicing. And in today’s unforgiving marketplace practice isn’t going to cut it. The phrase: “The customer is always right” is not motivating to employees because it doesn’t tell them what to do for the customer. This phrase is more a bumper sticker than an operating principle.
Training and skill development ensures your employees are prepared to succeed. (*)
8. Communication:
Communication is the lifeblood to any strategy. You simply cannot over communicate. Just like infrastructure component #2: Appoint a Champion, assign someone to own the communication strategy throughout your organization, from headquarters to store-level. You must drive communication throughout every corner of your organization. This will provide focus and align activities. Communicate things like:
* Sales results * Mystery shopper score * What’s working/not working * Customer comments: good & bad * Performance expectations * Areas for improvements * Lessons learned * Customer service stories
9. Recognize & Reward:
Recognize and reward the behaviors you want to see more of. Why? Because what gets recognized and rewarded gets repeated.
But be sure to only recognize and reward the right performance and behavior. And remember, recognize and reward results, not efforts. At the end of the day it’s results that matter.
10. Celebrate Success:
Consistently delivering a great customer buying experience is hard. If it were easy, great customer service would be the norm not the exception. And if you think being a frontline employee is easy, then takeover their job for a day.
I’m confident you’ll walk away with a much greater appreciation of what our frontline employees go through on a daily basis. When goals are achieved and good things happen, make the time to enjoy and celebrate the moment with your employees t
Save Time and Money with Training: Computer, Projector, and Sound System Equipment RentalsEven if you own all the equipment you need for a computer training session you will save money by using the installation services of a computer rental company. Computer rental companies coordinate everything technical so you can concentrate on the execution of your computer training program.Trainers can become technicians very quickly when training computer equipment doesn't work properly.Training directors know how difficult it can be to 'work out all the bugs' before, during and after each training program.Execution is the key to training results and efficiencies. If 20% of the computers don't work, you can have a training disaster on your hands.Add up all the costs and distractions from your computer training goals. Put a value on your time, say $100 per hour. Now multiply the time you and your staff spent on hardware setup, delivery, installation, maintenance and removal. Keep in mind that all computers need to have the same configuration to maximize productivity.Here is a quick checklist of common tasks that need to be accomplished on every computer training session.1. Install same versions of operating systems and training software2. Inst
Execution involves: ensuring the signage stays fresh (and up!) throughout the duration of the promotion, product displays remain full and attractive, inventory levels are maintained, and most importantly, store employees consistently (there’s that word again) promote and suggest sell the product to every customer every time they come into the store - not sometimes, every time! (*)
Just imagine how much more soda convenience stores would sell if they excelled at the execution phase of the strategy? Good companies implement well, but great companies excel at both implementation and in particular execution. The ability to consistently execute is what separates the great companies from the good companies.
Unfortunately, most companies fail miserably at execution. Why? Because a customer service strategy unlike a product strategy is process driven vs. program, and a process requires a support system to succeed.
Paradigm Shift:
To launch and sustain a successful customer service strategy the first step in the process requires an organization to undertake a drastic paradigm shift. Most organizations are program oriented vs. process. Programs have a start and end date.
Metrics are developed and results are easily tracked. And at the end of the program period you know if it was a success or not because you can clearly see the results. A customer service strategy on the other hand takes time before you can readily see results.
Customer service is a process not a program. And a process requires patience and discipline. Because of this program mentality among many companies, patience and discipline unfortunately is not exactly part of their DNA.
I want to introduce 10-key infrastructure components that are required in order to facilitate, support and sustain a long-term customer service strategy. Noticed I used the words: long term and sustain, not short-term and program.
If you really want your company to stand for great customer service then you must think in terms of process not program.
Customer Service Infrastructure Components:
1. Commitment:
You need to make a conscious decision - you’re either going to be committed and stand for customer service or you’re not. You can’t be half pregnant with a customer service strategy.
Companies who stand for customer service have every fiber of their organization focused on the customer; it’s part of their corporate DNA.
Customer service is their north star providing direction, guidance and dictating behavior within the organization.
2. Appoint a Champion:
You must drive customer service ownership throughout your entire organization: every person at every level.
Ultimately, everyone must own the customer, not just your frontline team who interacts with your customers - everyone! But as you can well imagine, ownership will take time to permeate throughout your organization, and in most cases it can take years. That’s why in the interim, until you achieve customer service nirvana, you need to assign a Champion within your organization to carry the flag, lead the charge, and drive the process.
The individual you assign should have a high-level position that has the respect and clout within your organization to make things happen. The higher the level, the easier the road, because it sends out a strong message to your organization that customer service is important.
3. Identify your Moments of Truth:
Moments of truth or “touch points," are contact points that a customer has with your company.
Customers are constantly making both conscious and unconscious value judgments about each of the moments of truths they encounter. These value judgments are then recorded into a mental report card on your company.
Identify each of your company’s moments of truths: stores, employees, answering the phone, delivery trucks, etc., then develop a strategy around each one that will ensure a consistent world-class customer service experience.
4. Assess: Policies & Procedures – Systems & Processes:
Outward thinking vs. inward: start with the customer and work backwards.
Do your policies and procedures serve the customer or your organizational bureaucracy? Are your policies and procedures customer friendly? Are your systems designed to make it easier for you to do business or for your customers to do business with you? Do your processes put your frontline employees in a position to succeed or fail in the eyes of your customers? (*)
5. Develop Meaningful Metrics:
If you can’t measure it you can’t manage it! Meaningful, meaning those metrics that your frontline employees have direct control or influence over.
Things like: store sales, appearance and retailing, mystery shopper scores, and customer comments are meaningful frontline metrics that drive customer service behavior.
6. Scoreboard your Metrics:
Whatever metrics you decide on, communicate them throughout the entire organization via a visible scoreboard. If your business includes retail stores, purchase one of those large white poster-boards, the kind that kids use for school projects. These white-boards can be purchased at any office supply store.
A scoreboard is critical because it communicates to the employees what is important and how to achieve it. We tell our employees to go out and win, but we tend to keep the rules of how to win and the score a secret. The bosses know what the score is - their scoreboard is the P&L or management reports. Just like in sports, keeping score makes it more: interesting, engaging, challenging and enjoyable. Who plays golf or tennis and doesn’t keep score?
7. Training & Skill Development:
You have to prepare for victory otherwise you’re just practicing. And in today’s unforgiving marketplace practice isn’t going to cut it. The phrase: “The customer is always right” is not motivating to employees because it doesn’t tell them what to do for the customer. This phrase is more a bumper sticker than an operating principle.
Training and skill development ensures your employees are prepared to succeed. (*)
8. Communication:
Communication is the lifeblood to any strategy. You simply cannot over communicate. Just like infrastructure component #2: Appoint a Champion, assign someone to own the communication strategy throughout your organization, from headquarters to store-level. You must drive communication throughout every corner of your organization. This will provide focus and align activities. Communicate things like:
* Sales results * Mystery shopper score * What’s working/not working * Customer comments: good & bad * Performance expectations * Areas for improvements * Lessons learned * Customer service stories
9. Recognize & Reward:
Recognize and reward the behaviors you want to see more of. Why? Because what gets recognized and rewarded gets repeated.
But be sure to only recognize and reward the right performance and behavior. And remember, recognize and reward results, not efforts. At the end of the day it’s results that matter.
10. Celebrate Success:
Consistently delivering a great customer buying experience is hard. If it were easy, great customer service would be the norm not the exception. And if you think being a frontline employee is easy, then takeover their job for a day.
I’m confident you’ll walk away with a much greater appreciation of what our frontline employees go through on a daily basis. When goals are achieved and good things happen, make the time to enjoy and celebrate the moment with your employees
Association -- It connotes people working together to achieve a common goal. That goal could be anything from improving your education, finding a new job, getting more business, increasing your visibility or simply expanding your network of support resources.That works for me! I'm an association junkie. I learned very early in my career that belonging to an association can make or break you. So, if you haven't joined one now is the best time to start. For you independents out there, belonging to an association can get you great discounts on services you might not be able to afford otherwise. Or, membership can provide a way to showcase your services and products for a nominal investment.There is an association for almost everything and it’s important to assess which one can do you the most good. Just having your name in the directory is meaningless unless you utilize the resources and work as an active member. Active means participation of some kind -- not just sitting on the sidelines waiting for something to happen.So what can a professional association do for you? • Increase your credibility and visibility • Introduce you to new contacts • Position you in the forefront of the industry media • Engage you in long lasted personal relationships
If you really want your company to stand for great customer service then you must think in terms of process not program.
Customer Service Infrastructure Components:
1. Commitment:
You need to make a conscious decision - you’re either going to be committed and stand for customer service or you’re not. You can’t be half pregnant with a customer service strategy.
Companies who stand for customer service have every fiber of their organization focused on the customer; it’s part of their corporate DNA.
Customer service is their north star providing direction, guidance and dictating behavior within the organization.
2. Appoint a Champion:
You must drive customer service ownership throughout your entire organization: every person at every level.
Ultimately, everyone must own the customer, not just your frontline team who interacts with your customers - everyone! But as you can well imagine, ownership will take time to permeate throughout your organization, and in most cases it can take years. That’s why in the interim, until you achieve customer service nirvana, you need to assign a Champion within your organization to carry the flag, lead the charge, and drive the process.
The individual you assign should have a high-level position that has the respect and clout within your organization to make things happen. The higher the level, the easier the road, because it sends out a strong message to your organization that customer service is important.
3. Identify your Moments of Truth:
Moments of truth or “touch points," are contact points that a customer has with your company.
Customers are constantly making both conscious and unconscious value judgments about each of the moments of truths they encounter. These value judgments are then recorded into a mental report card on your company.
Identify each of your company’s moments of truths: stores, employees, answering the phone, delivery trucks, etc., then develop a strategy around each one that will ensure a consistent world-class customer service experience.
4. Assess: Policies & Procedures – Systems & Processes:
Outward thinking vs. inward: start with the customer and work backwards.
Do your policies and procedures serve the customer or your organizational bureaucracy? Are your policies and procedures customer friendly? Are your systems designed to make it easier for you to do business or for your customers to do business with you? Do your processes put your frontline employees in a position to succeed or fail in the eyes of your customers? (*)
5. Develop Meaningful Metrics:
If you can’t measure it you can’t manage it! Meaningful, meaning those metrics that your frontline employees have direct control or influence over.
Things like: store sales, appearance and retailing, mystery shopper scores, and customer comments are meaningful frontline metrics that drive customer service behavior.
6. Scoreboard your Metrics:
Whatever metrics you decide on, communicate them throughout the entire organization via a visible scoreboard. If your business includes retail stores, purchase one of those large white poster-boards, the kind that kids use for school projects. These white-boards can be purchased at any office supply store.
A scoreboard is critical because it communicates to the employees what is important and how to achieve it. We tell our employees to go out and win, but we tend to keep the rules of how to win and the score a secret. The bosses know what the score is - their scoreboard is the P&L or management reports. Just like in sports, keeping score makes it more: interesting, engaging, challenging and enjoyable. Who plays golf or tennis and doesn’t keep score?
7. Training & Skill Development:
You have to prepare for victory otherwise you’re just practicing. And in today’s unforgiving marketplace practice isn’t going to cut it. The phrase: “The customer is always right” is not motivating to employees because it doesn’t tell them what to do for the customer. This phrase is more a bumper sticker than an operating principle.
Training and skill development ensures your employees are prepared to succeed. (*)
8. Communication:
Communication is the lifeblood to any strategy. You simply cannot over communicate. Just like infrastructure component #2: Appoint a Champion, assign someone to own the communication strategy throughout your organization, from headquarters to store-level. You must drive communication throughout every corner of your organization. This will provide focus and align activities. Communicate things like:
* Sales results * Mystery shopper score * What’s working/not working * Customer comments: good & bad * Performance expectations * Areas for improvements * Lessons learned * Customer service stories
9. Recognize & Reward:
Recognize and reward the behaviors you want to see more of. Why? Because what gets recognized and rewarded gets repeated.
But be sure to only recognize and reward the right performance and behavior. And remember, recognize and reward results, not efforts. At the end of the day it’s results that matter.
10. Celebrate Success:
Consistently delivering a great customer buying experience is hard. If it were easy, great customer service would be the norm not the exception. And if you think being a frontline employee is easy, then takeover their job for a day.
I’m confident you’ll walk away with a much greater appreciation of what our frontline employees go through on a daily basis. When goals are achieved and good things happen, make the time to enjoy and celebrate the moment with your employees
The People aspect of business is really what it is all about. Rule #1: Think of customers as individuals. Once we think that way, we realize our business is our customer, not our product or services. Putting all the focus on the merchandise in our store, or the services our corporation offers, leaves out the most important component: each individual customer.Keeping those individual customers in mind, here are some easy, down-home steps-to-remember when you want to keep ’em coming back!1. Remember there is no way that the quality of customer service can exceed the quality of the people who provide it. Think you can get by paying the lowest wage, giving the fewest of benefits, doing the least training for your employees? It will show. Companies don’t help customers….people do.2. Realize that your people will treat your customer the way they are treated. Employees take their cue from management. Do you greet your employees enthusiastically each day; are you polite in your dealings with them; do you try to accommodate their requests; do you listen to them when they speak? Consistent rude service is a reflection not as much on the employee as on management.3. Do you know who your customers are? If a regular customer came in to your facility, would you recognize th
Identify each of your company’s moments of truths: stores, employees, answering the phone, delivery trucks, etc., then develop a strategy around each one that will ensure a consistent world-class customer service experience.
4. Assess: Policies & Procedures – Systems & Processes:
Outward thinking vs. inward: start with the customer and work backwards.
Do your policies and procedures serve the customer or your organizational bureaucracy? Are your policies and procedures customer friendly? Are your systems designed to make it easier for you to do business or for your customers to do business with you? Do your processes put your frontline employees in a position to succeed or fail in the eyes of your customers? (*)
5. Develop Meaningful Metrics:
If you can’t measure it you can’t manage it! Meaningful, meaning those metrics that your frontline employees have direct control or influence over.
Things like: store sales, appearance and retailing, mystery shopper scores, and customer comments are meaningful frontline metrics that drive customer service behavior.
6. Scoreboard your Metrics:
Whatever metrics you decide on, communicate them throughout the entire organization via a visible scoreboard. If your business includes retail stores, purchase one of those large white poster-boards, the kind that kids use for school projects. These white-boards can be purchased at any office supply store.
A scoreboard is critical because it communicates to the employees what is important and how to achieve it. We tell our employees to go out and win, but we tend to keep the rules of how to win and the score a secret. The bosses know what the score is - their scoreboard is the P&L or management reports. Just like in sports, keeping score makes it more: interesting, engaging, challenging and enjoyable. Who plays golf or tennis and doesn’t keep score?
7. Training & Skill Development:
You have to prepare for victory otherwise you’re just practicing. And in today’s unforgiving marketplace practice isn’t going to cut it. The phrase: “The customer is always right” is not motivating to employees because it doesn’t tell them what to do for the customer. This phrase is more a bumper sticker than an operating principle.
Training and skill development ensures your employees are prepared to succeed. (*)
8. Communication:
Communication is the lifeblood to any strategy. You simply cannot over communicate. Just like infrastructure component #2: Appoint a Champion, assign someone to own the communication strategy throughout your organization, from headquarters to store-level. You must drive communication throughout every corner of your organization. This will provide focus and align activities. Communicate things like:
* Sales results * Mystery shopper score * What’s working/not working * Customer comments: good & bad * Performance expectations * Areas for improvements * Lessons learned * Customer service stories
9. Recognize & Reward:
Recognize and reward the behaviors you want to see more of. Why? Because what gets recognized and rewarded gets repeated.
But be sure to only recognize and reward the right performance and behavior. And remember, recognize and reward results, not efforts. At the end of the day it’s results that matter.
10. Celebrate Success:
Consistently delivering a great customer buying experience is hard. If it were easy, great customer service would be the norm not the exception. And if you think being a frontline employee is easy, then takeover their job for a day.
I’m confident you’ll walk away with a much greater appreciation of what our frontline employees go through on a daily basis. When goals are achieved and good things happen, make the time to enjoy and celebrate the moment with your employees
The North Carolina State Agency that oversees the collection and reporting of State income taxes deducted from payroll checks is:Department of Revenue P.O. Box 25000 Raleigh, NC 27640-0640 (919) 733-3991http://www.dor.state.nc.us/North Carolina requires that you use North Carolina form "NC-4, Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate" instead of a Federal W-4 Form for North Carolina State Income Tax Withholding.Not all states allow salary reductions made under Section 125 cafeteria plans or 401(k) to be treated in the same manner as the IRS code allows. In North Carolina cafeteria plans are not taxable for income tax calculation; not taxable for unemployment insurance purposes. 401(k) plan deferrals are not taxable for income taxes; taxable for unemployment purposes.In North Carolina supplemental wages are taxed at a 6% flat rate.You must file your North Carolina state W-2s by magnetic media if you are have at least 250 employees and are required to file your federal W-2s by magnetic media.The North Carolina State Unemployment Insurance Agency is:Employment Security Commission 700 Wade Ave. P.O. Box 26504 Raleigh, NC 27611 (919) 733-3121 http://www.ncesc.com/The State of North Carolina taxable wag
You have to prepare for victory otherwise you’re just practicing. And in today’s unforgiving marketplace practice isn’t going to cut it. The phrase: “The customer is always right” is not motivating to employees because it doesn’t tell them what to do for the customer. This phrase is more a bumper sticker than an operating principle.
Training and skill development ensures your employees are prepared to succeed. (*)
8. Communication:
Communication is the lifeblood to any strategy. You simply cannot over communicate. Just like infrastructure component #2: Appoint a Champion, assign someone to own the communication strategy throughout your organization, from headquarters to store-level. You must drive communication throughout every corner of your organization. This will provide focus and align activities. Communicate things like:
* Sales results * Mystery shopper score * What’s working/not working * Customer comments: good & bad * Performance expectations * Areas for improvements * Lessons learned * Customer service stories
9. Recognize & Reward:
Recognize and reward the behaviors you want to see more of. Why? Because what gets recognized and rewarded gets repeated.
But be sure to only recognize and reward the right performance and behavior. And remember, recognize and reward results, not efforts. At the end of the day it’s results that matter.
10. Celebrate Success:
Consistently delivering a great customer buying experience is hard. If it were easy, great customer service would be the norm not the exception. And if you think being a frontline employee is easy, then takeover their job for a day.
I’m confident you’ll walk away with a much greater appreciation of what our frontline employees go through on a daily basis. When goals are achieved and good things happen, make the time to enjoy and celebrate the moment with your employees that made it happen. After all, life’s too short not to, right?
Keys To Success:
In addition to the 10-infrastructure components I’ve outlined, you’ll need to possess: patience, discipline and a laser-like focus to succeed. A customer service strategy takes time to see results. So have patience and the discipline of staying power to not abandon your customer service strategy midstream.
* For a free report: “Motivating Non-Performers: 20 Do’s & Don’ts of Employee Motivation” go to: www.eps-i.com
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