December, 2009

Greetings!

Welcome to our December newsletter. This has certainly been a challenging year for both businesses and individuals for different reasons but still challenging. The push is on for a successful end of year and hopefully a fresh start in 2010.

In this issue:

Focus on Employees
New Look and New Website
Services

Focus on Employees

Focus on employees? Many may be asking, "Why the focus on employees? This is the time to focus on customers." While I agree it is the time to focus on customers, if you do not focus on your employees, you may lose your customers.

With the busy season upon us and year end goals pressing down, many employees are attempting to accomplish as much as they can with no more hours added in a day. For many, workloads have increased due to a loss of colleagues through layoffs and the amount of work has not lessened. Adding to your employees' stress is attending community or holiday functions, shopping for family and friends and financial challenges. This all can lead to an employee who may be tired and frustrated at not being able to get everything done.

This year has been a challenging year for many of your employees. Some have, as noted in the last paragraph, lost colleagues who were friends or faced economic and emotional challenges of having a family member lose their job. Money, time, and other factors are facing them. As managers, we need to our employees to focus on our customers in spite of the fact that they are challenged by many aspects right now.

Here are five things you can do to help your employees during this time that will help motivate them to excel in customer service:

1. Listen and watch for stressful signs: Is one of your employees short on the phone or face-to-face with your customers? Do they appear agitated? If so, take them off the front line and ask what you can do for them, even if it is just for fifteen minutes.

2. Bring your team together each day even for a few minutes to ask, "How are you doing and what can I do for you to make your job easier?"

3. If there is a problem or crisis, involve your employees in finding the solution. Make them be part of working through the year end challenges.

4. Offer short programs for managing stress during this holiday season or fun programs such as how to make the most of your holiday shopping.

5. Say thank you, over and over. Recognize accomplishments. A simple thank you goes a long way in motivating the people that work for you.

The holiday season and these economic times have certainly been a challenge for all of us. Making sure you focus time on your employees will help them focus on your customers. We all want to succeed and ensure that our customers will return again and again. A motivated employee is invaluable in making that happen.

 

New Look and New Website

In January of 2010, we will be launching a new look and a new website. Although our website has served us well over the past several years, we have decided to give our logo a different look and make our website easier to navigate.

We look forward to unveiling our new look but still commit to providing you with the best solutions to your organizational needs. We're excited about our look and hope you will enjoy it too. More in January 2010!

Services

Potential Released can assist you with by providing management and human resource services. We specialize in large change efforts, strategic planning, executive coaching and leadership development and recruiting.