The story of social recognition

Let Us Talk

Leaders often ask me “what makes for a sustainable employee recognition program with consistently high participation?” Of course what they really want to know is “How can a recognition program help me make my company be more profitable. I already pay employees – isn’t that enough?” Regardless of their motivations for asking the question or their opinion of recognition as a management discipline, the simple answer I always give them is… “conversation.”

Conversation creates an exchange of ideas that impact human perception and ultimately human behavior. Consider the last new restaurant you ate at – most likely you tried it because someone told you about it or you read about it in the local paper. Both of which I consider part of an overall public “conversation” about the restaurant.

Recognition programs are just like new restaurants. The initial “buzz” about the restaurant brings customers in the door, but the experience and the stories that people tell about their experience keep new and old customers coming back. Recognition programs need the right amount of upfront marketing and communications to build awareness and interest. But they also need an amazing user experience where recognition “stories” can be shared and talked about in an ongoing “conversation” within an organization. This means that it important to create conversation not just ABOUT the program but also sustained conversation WITHIN the program.

  • Good recognition programs create conversation between employee and manager.
  • Better recognition programs create conversation among employees within an organization.
  • The Best recognition programs create conversation with customers.

Imagine a recognition program at an organization of 1000 employees. Each month 100 recognitions or “stories” are written by employees – one employee recognizing another employee. Each story is strategically written, tied to a company value clearly indicating the impact on results. Each story is the start to a strategic conversation that positively influences employee behavior toward company goals. Imagine:

  • Recognized employees read their story as captured by a peer, feel appreciated, and discuss further with their manager or the employee who recognized them.
  • Managers collect stories for an employee and discuss them as part of his or her annual performance review.
  • A selection of stories are printed in a weekly news summary sent across the organization – creating a sense of cultural connectedness.
  • Stories prompt informal conversations in the hallway where co-workers congratulate the employee(s) being recognized that week.
  • Leaders choose stories that directly impact their department and share them with their in their weekly meeting.
  • Employees read stories and add comments to re-enforcing the story’s impact or elaborate on how the story has affected them.
  • Prospective or new employees read the stories and immediately feel part of the conversation and know how they can help make a difference.
  • Customers participate by submitting stories of great experiences they have had with an organization – they share with their friends.
  • Prospective customers read employee stories decide to do business with this type of organization.

The most successful recognition programs create thousands of sustained strategic conversations that influence employee behavior, customer perception, and impact your bottom line.

Talk is cheap…and very profitable. What are you waiting for.

Imagine Becoming a Great Company

Good companies recognize the importance of having clear values.  Good companies recognize the importance communicating those values to employees.  Good companies recognize they have to dedicate time, money and resources to build a successful culture and do so in a variety of ways:

  • Employee Satisfaction Surveys
  • Rewards programs
  • Performance evaluation systems
  • Pizza
  • Thanksgiving Turkeys
  • Etc.

Ultimately, good companies are good because they are mindful of the importance of an engaged workforce and are striving to make sure they deliver.  The problem is good companies are just good; just good because for all of their effort, they struggle to measure this amorphous thing called culture.  Therefore, they cannot manage it and don’t really know if all of their effort and expense is actually making a difference.

Great companies recognize culture eats strategy for breakfast and is the most important differentiator they have.  Great companies get entire workforces to share a common mindset.  Great companies are aligned and engaged around the behaviors that are necessary to make branded experiences come to life.  Great companies recognize employees based on those behaviors and don’t need the traditional and potentially counterproductive rewards programs.  Great companies have managers who truly understand that it’s their job to manage the Branded Experience.  Great companies have systems and tools in place that enable Managers to measure their efforts.

Imagine becoming a great company.  Imagine your company was able to measure and manage the Branded Experience with Engaged employees who Live the Brand and Create Customers for Life.

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Sarah Derrenbacher is a colleague of mine.  She forwarded these stats to our team a few weeks ago.  They speak for themselves.  They should speak to YOU too.

Did you know?

49% of executives believe customers will switch brands due to poor Customer Service 89% of customers say they have switched brands because of poor Customer Service 80% of companies rate Customer Service as a top strategic objective
93% of business leaders say that improving Customer Service is one of their top three priorities for the next two years
97% state that Customer Service is critical to their business success
20% loss of annual revenue is the estimated cost of failure
91% of businesses want to be a Customer Service leader
37% are getting started with a formal Customer Service initiative

Nothing I can say in this blog could possibly have more impact on you than those stats.  Will you ignore them?  Go into denial?  Point fingers?  Or will you do something about it at your company?

 

Source: O’Keeffe , Bloomberg Businessweek

The Legislation of a Smile

I am interested in smiling. Many of our clients define their brand to include how to greet each other (eye contact, smiling, etc.). Lots of people love having this behavior as part of their defined culture, but sometimes people are uncomfortable having smiling “legislated” by the company. Here are some pretty compelling reasons why this one behavior is a benefit both to the company and to you.

INCREASES SUPPORT

Did you know that if you smile at someone on the street they are 50% more likely to help a person in need further up the street? It’s true. I read about it and so can you. I like smiling at people, and now I wonder what amazing acts of kindness my smiling may have inspired. I’m no longer just friendly, now I’m a hero. Smiling at your co-workers can impact their willingness to go above and beyond and eventually productivity. That always felt true to me, and now I know it is.

REDUCES STRESS

Another study done at the University of Kansas indicated that the physical act of smiling actually reduces heart rates and helps people feel better. Even if you don’t mean it, smiling has an impact on you. Imagine if you leave a stressful internal meeting and are on the way to meet with a high profile client. The best thing that can happen is that a few people smile at you, forcing you to smile back. That simple occurrence could actually better prepare you up for a successful client meeting.

INCREASES CUSTOMER CONFIDENCE

For this one, think about your personal experience. When you are on a flight and there is bad turbulence, who do you and your fellow passengers look at? The flight attendant. If he/she is smiling, all is good. If he/she looks concerned, time to get a grip on that floatation device you’re sitting on.  An airline customer’s confidence feels more about the facial expressions of one or two front-line employees than the pilot’s skill or the plane’s safety record. When customers need to feel comfortable, when they need to trust your company, having someone smile can be just the reassurance needed. Your company may not deal with life and death situations, but I’m sure it would benefit from more confident, trusting customers. Smiling conveys that reassurance.

Just one, simple behavior has that much power. No wonder it is so often a part of a company’s branded experience that they want employees to be focused on. Think about those people around you that naturally and consistently greet co-workers and customers with eye contact and a smile. Think about the impact you have as you smile and greet others as they walk by. Who wouldn’t want managers encouraging such a powerful behavior?

:-) Now go have a more helpful, less stressful, more confident day. :-)

Is your Company Delivering a Superior Guest Experience?

In my four years of working at Brand Integrity I have had the wonderful opportunity to work with several different organizations across many industries. The part of my job I absolutely love is helping organizations achieve their goals, creating a great employee experience and also a great customer experience.  I recently assisted a client of ours in writing a proposal for a Learning and Performance award. I think many people can benefit from hearing their success story.

A convenience store chain began its quest to create a superior guest experience in the summer of 2010 with the launch of a Mystery Shopper program to grade how their employees were doing on delivering their core values. Management followed up with the employees to give them timely coaching and feedback.  Guest service scores increased 14.33% over the first 14 months of the program and there was a measurable positive impact on their business metrics.  The guest service experience improved, but was not exceptional.  They knew we had to do more to engage their employees and shape the business culture so that they could deliver consistently outstanding service in order to stand out from the competition.

To take this step they engaged the assistance of Brand Integrity, to help align and involve employees, and create greater accountability for delivering consistently positive guest experiences.  Based on their research and experience, they concluded that the best way for their guest service program to reach the next level would be to engage employees at a grassroots level.  Their employees needed to own the guest experience and drive it.  They integrated the use of Brand Integrity’s Potential Point Experience Management Platform to achieve this.   As a result, they have experienced a significant increase in their Mystery Shop scores as well as increases in Average sale, Gasoline revenue, Food service sales, and tobacco sales and a reduction in Employee turnover. Recently they have also seen a significant increase in assessment participation from 76% to 100%.  This shows that the employees are becoming more fully aligned and engaged in their guest service culture.