Empowering FM with Daily Huddles

Quotes

“So with virtual life, it’s just a live presentation done remotely, but in a way that’s engaging. And so there’s two ends of the spectrum. People were doing webinars, which were excruciating — Zoom fatigue is a thing – or they were trying to replicate a huge big stage thing on their webcam.” (11:04)

“I don’t share my screen. I just run it behind me so that you and I, myself and whatever audience I’m speaking to, we can just deal with the content.” (12:01)

“We have choices. We can work with anybody. Those who are remarkably easy to do business with – and they define what’s easy – win.” (17:54)

“Our policies and procedures and behaviors are not to make life easier for us and our team. It’s to make life great for our customers, and our customers have choices. And if you’re difficult to do business with, if you have a frustrating process, if you have a maddening wait time, they will be gone, because they can. Competitors are everywhere.” (20:04)

“We create this whole journey, and it works. There’s a sense of predictability, and if we can predict that path, we can strategically plan. We can budget. We can anticipate cash flow. It works, but here’s the problem. The problem is your customers haven’t read your employee manual. They just know how they want to do business.” (21:07)

“We get so focused on controlling everything that we don’t let our people be creative and accommodate. We do it this way. We are entering an age that will require an extraordinary level of accommodation, and we’ve got to start saying yes to things that we haven’t historically, or at least find an alternative.” (21:42)

Empowering FM with Daily Huddles

Are you stuck in a time that feels like the beginning of the pandemic? Do you struggle to wrap your head around the ever-changing world, and you feel a step behind in taking care of your clients? Why are you still struggling? We’ve had a year to adapt to this new way of life!

All jokes aside, we understand if you find it challenging to keep your head above water as things are beginning to return to something that resembles pre-pandemic norms. David Avrin, acclaimed author and speaker, joined Shawn Black on a recent FM Evolution episode to talk about this very subject.

David is a proponent for adapting to changes quickly, meeting customers where they’re at, and utilizing your team to solve problems. On May 1, he releases his latest book, The Morning Huddle: Powerful Customer Experience Conversations to Wake You Up, Shake You Up and Win More Business! The book is a collection of essays meant to challenge you and your team as you work to improve your customer experience.

Check out a few of the tips he gave to adapt to changes, enhance your customer experience, and maximize your team!

Stop Using COVID as an Excuse!

How often do you login to a Zoom call and find that someone is still using their background as a joke? What about restaurants that have limited offerings because of the pandemic’s effects on their business? We’ve had a year to adapt and implement new systems that meet customers’ needs, yet many companies refuse to do so.

“So with virtual life, it’s just a live presentation done remotely, but in a way that’s engaging. And so there’s two ends of the spectrum. People were doing webinars, which were excruciating — Zoom fatigue is a thing – or they were trying to replicate a huge big stage thing on their webcam.” (11:04)

Meetings, speeches, and presentations have turned virtual, but many have struggled to find a way to remain engaging for their audience. Rather than revising their presentation format, people lean heavily into slide-based presentations full of statistics and graphs. David decided he would evolve to keep his audience’s attention.

“I don’t share my screen. I just run it behind me so that you and I, myself and whatever audience I’m speaking to, we can just deal with the content.” (12:01)

Meet Your Customers Where They Are!

As we’ve noted, COVID-19 has been used as an excuse for many issues, but few are more prevalent than customer inconvenience. Businesses think they can use the pandemic as a cop-out for inefficiencies in their systems and that customers will give them a pass. This is flat-out false. If you aren’t convenient for your clients, they will leave you for a provider that meets their needs.

“We have choices. We can work with anybody. Those who are remarkably easy to do business with – and they define what’s easy – win.” (17:54)

Companies often orient their whole system and workflow around what works best for the company, but what if that isn’t advantageous for customers? We must learn to calibrate ourselves to prioritize customers’ needs above our own.

“Our policies and procedures and behaviors are not to make life easier for us and our team. It’s to make life great for our customers, and our customers have choices. And if you’re difficult to do business with, if you have a frustrating process, if you have a maddening wait time, they will be gone, because they can. Competitors are everywhere.” (20:04)

It is common to find a company that is frustrated with their clients for not understanding how the business’s system works. It seems to be laid out clearly for the employees, but customers fail to follow the same structure.

“We create this whole journey, and it works. There’s a sense of predictability, and if we can predict that path, we can strategically plan. We can budget. We can anticipate cash flow. It works, but here’s the problem. The problem is your customers haven’t read your employee manual. They just know how they want to do business.” (21:07)

We need to stop expecting our customers to know how our business is run. Instead, accommodate your customers’ needs. Make it easy for them now so that it’s hard for them to leave you for a competitor!

Morning Huddles

One practice that David preaches is holding daily huddles. Bring your whole team together and address a potential problem in your workflow that could dissuade clients from working with you. Ask your team what they think the best solution to the problem is.

We often look outside of our companies to find solutions to problems when we have intelligent employees ready to solve our inefficiencies.

“We get so focused on controlling everything that we don’t let our people be creative and accommodate. We do it this way. We are entering an age that will require an extraordinary level of accommodation, and we’ve got to start saying yes to things that we haven’t historically, or at least find an alternative.” (21:42)

We must offer our teams the opportunity to be creative and grow towards solutions that work for everyone!