A Whistle-Stop “Empowerment'“ Guide
So this week I have been working for Alliance Healthcare…travelling the length and breadth of the county, presenting to their teams of Customer Service Managers on how to feel more empowered, confident and happy within their roles.
It is such a positive campaign to be part of- as the company is only too aware that Customer Service representatives are on the front – line of how it is being perceived by its customers as well as its competitors. All too often companies spend thousands of pounds on advertising, branding, logos, websites etc and forget the importance of making sure that their employees (who are obviously one the biggest “voices” as well as brand-carriers for the company) are feeling enthused, supported, confident and happy within their roles. It is not rocket science that if those in roles who are customer / client facing are firing on all cylinders then this will effect the success of the business.
So their brief to me was to give their teams a bit of a “How-to” guide on building their confidence and competence within their roles, as well as knowing how to present themselves best on the phone and in person. I thought I would share with you some of the areas I covered as they can be applied to anyone doing any role.
Make a plan…where do you want to be in a year? Doing the same job? Your manager’s job? A different job? A belly dancer? In order to achieve you need to know where you are going otherwise how will you know once you’ve got there or even how to get there?
Set yourself job goals and work out Action Points (bite-sized pieces) as to how you are going to reach them
Work out how you are going to reward yourself when you have reached your goals…a facial / new bike / dinner out …it’s your choice. Try to save each month for this reward so that it feels real and you have the money to do it properly.
Take control: this is hard when you work for a massive organisation as so often things are totally out of your hands. However, you need to try to let go of the things you can’t control and manage those you can- such as your own time / to-do list / distractions and communication methods- this way you will feel ownership and more empowerment.
Take time to fully appreciate the role you do and how it affects the company so that you realise your true value.
Appreciate the effect your appearance and how you dress has on colleagues as well as clients and customers. When we meet people the judgement we make about them is split… we notice and place our opinions from 7% of what they say, 38% on how they say it and 55% on what they look like…the numbers speak for themselves when I say that it is VITAL you know how to present yourself best when trying to create the most positive impression.
This is just a small summary of the areas I covered…and everyone seemed to really enjoy the opportunity to share the challenges, and highlights of their roles and how they can support each other with these.
A brilliant but exhausting week and I LOVED it…getting out there to give people real, tangible ideas in order to empower themselves to do a better job and to feel happier within their roles.
Have a lovely summer, whatever you are up to and I look forward to checking back in, in September.
Kate x
