This past weekend we saw Broadway's Come From Away in Detroit, which is the story of 38 planes that were grounded in Gander, Newfoundland, during 9/11.
With over 7,000 passengers stranded on the tiny island for days, the people of Gander jumped into high gear providing shelter, food, clothing, safety, shots of screech, dancing, and so much more. The show is a must-see, especially if you're a Canadian.
In a situation like this, what makes the story so unique and so special is the power of kind, well-meaning people coming together to support others in such a tragic, challenging time. You do the best you can do, and hope for the best.
Since I had wisely decided to leave my strategist hat at home for the day, it wasn't until I looked back at it later that I realized the real miracle of the story.
The people of Gander had no time to think. There were no contingency plans for something like this. And they certainly didn't have a process or protocol to follow. And yet, they still made it work, and everything turned out well!
Friends, that doesn't happen often.
What happens more often is that even with plenty of foresight, budget, and great intentions, things fall apart because there are too many people operating in the ways they know best – rather than the ways that are best for the organization.
Last week I introduced my new 1-Day Process Development program. These intensive 1-day sessions are my answer to creating and developing critical, and perhaps non-existent processes, or improving your existing processes to operate at a world-class level.
As I said last week, you practically have no excuse anymore not to get this done.
During one of my first calls about the 1-day program, I spoke with a senior executive at a half-billion-dollar firm about the challenges that even a company of their size was facing from the lack of process.
For example, she told me:
- They struggled to onboard new sales reps quickly.
- They found themselves in trouble when a key sales person left.
- They didn't have a systematic way to bring mid-performers up to that top performer level (or new hires up to a decent baseline)
- They couldn't coach their sales team effectively because most sessions just ended up with some variant of "try harder."
Then we switched gears to talk about customer service and customer experience.
She explained:
- Every time they brought on a new client, things were done differently with little to no structure at all.
- In customer service, even the smallest of issues often found turned in to giant quagmires costing the company in time, energy, money – and customers still often left unhappy.
- There were no common service standards. Each issue was usually handled case by case.
Meaning, new employees were taught about the corporate culture and company mission, but very little guidance about how to deal with unhappy clients.
We can't predict the future, but we can put the right pieces into place to be as successful as possible.
After working with hundreds of organizations across dozens of industries, I've found the difference between average, and great is almost always found in those who have capitalized on best practices, codified what works, and put structure and process around the most important parts of their business.
What areas do you lack in?
Have you codified your sales process?
Have you defined your minimum expectations of activity?
Have you defined when the right time to ask for a referral is?
When will new and current clients be spoken with or met with the person?
What happens after you gain a new customer or client?
Do you speak to all clients every 90 days, and visit your top 10% of clients are met with every 45 days? How do you know it's happening?
Does everyone complete at least 3 customer-focused or revenue-generating tasks every day?
You get the idea… How do you ensure all of these things are happening and clients aren't falling through the cracks?
It can seem daunting – where to start?
That's why I developed the 1-Day Process program.
You can go from 0 to 60 overnight, and start getting all the benefits of having processes in place to safeguard the most valuable areas of your business.
