Teaching Old Dogs New Tricks

Carol Smalley
Managing Editor, CRMGuru
Member

Posted 24-Mar-2003 06:12 PM
[Blair Favetta asks:] I have recently taken a position with a company that is moving towards being more customer centric. This position will involve changing roles for data entry people to a more customer contact position as well as changing some of the processes for the current contact center. The hurdle is that most of these people have been with the company for over five years and some as long as 15. The organization is going to make changes, but these groups of people have high morale, and I do not want to affect that. Any ideas?

[Guru Panelist David Rance responds:] Hi Blair, I'm curious to know what's driving the high morale of your data entry group if it's not customers! Are they interacting with customers and if so, is that directly or indirectly? It may be they're having a great time with each other but have become disconnected from the company's mission. That's a risky strategy in these market conditions. I'm also interested to know how the company is going about becoming more customer centric—whether there's an overall program of change.

I think there are two avenues of approach:

1. Have your team complete the Customer Centricity Index (CCI))
http://www.crmguru.com/cci/start.asp and play back the results to them at a team meeting or training workshop. If it's a large department, consider doing it by team. It's just 20 questions and takes about 10 minutes to complete. You have to complete it first and then register yourself, set up a team (or teams) and the CCI invites the team members to do the same. In my view, once people "get it," they usually know what to do about it.

2. If there is a company change program in place, find out its
structure, goals and functions involved. If your team is not part of it, you should ask why this is the case and how you can be part of it. It would also be useful to invite some of the program members to complete a separate CCI to get a reading on where then company is. You can also do this by setting up a new team within the CCI.

The use of the CCI is free, but it is only valuable if people complete it honestly. It doesn't matter if results are different. After all, it's their perceptions and it's as much use to know how differently they see it as well as where they believe they are on the journey to customer centricity. The results will also show the high level profile of your company in terms of its balance between the key "enablers"—Business Leadership, Customer Strategy, Organization Design, Information Architecture and Performance Measures. Once you have that picture, it will be easier to see how to sell it.

I hope this helps. Let me know how you get on.

Best regards,
David

Carol Parenzan Smalley
Managing Editor
www.CRMGuru.com
carol@CRMGuru.com

Edwin Setzpfand
Member Council
Member

Posted 19-May-2003 01:17 AM
If I understand Blair's description correctly these data entry people indeed will undergo a profound change of role, especially because the input to their work in part will change from reading information to hearing + interpreting information while on the phone with customers. That requires a totally different attitude, something not necessarily everybody will appreciate at first.

But you may be surprised what positive results can be achieved when an appropriate change mgmt programme goes hand in hand with adequate training for the new roles.

What's important here, I think, is that people do not get the sole feeling that everything is imposed upon them and that everything is pre-planned for 100 %. Although the actual decisionmaking is not up to them, they should be given incentives to get accustomed to and to be successful in their new roles. And maybe they can also be involved in actually setting up these new roles?

Furthermore, in each group you find formal and informal leaders. Especially by having the latter taking the lead and setting the example for others the group may continue to be one of "high morale", also in the new situation.

However, be prepared that there always may be individual employees that cannot or do not want to go with the new situation and you may have to find something else for them. Also, by doing that in a way that acknowledges their value and needs will have a positive effect on the new team as well, as it demonstrates that the decisionmakers are of "high morale" themselves too.

Success!

Edwin Setzpfand

[P.S.: I've also mentioned this elsewhere, but for more information about this type of change mgmt have a look at Peter de Jager's "M&CT" material
www.technobility.com

you may be surprised at what results can be achieved.]

Russ Lombardo
Member

Posted 18-Jun-2003 12:22 PM
Blair,

Several areas to address.
1) Inputs—Make sure you get inputs from these people so that a) you learn what they already know that works or doesn't, and b) they feel like they are part of the new system. If they feel part of the solution, they will have more buy-in when implementation begins.
2) Benefits—Make sure they understand the benefits, to them, of the new system. If it doesn't help them do their jobs better, make more money, save them time, etc, they won't use it. If you don't know what benefits this will have for them, then perhaps you are deploying a system that is just for management and they will reject it in a heart-beat. There must be something in it for them and they must understand what it is.
3) Training—If they don't get adequate training, don't even begin. And training comes in 2 flavors. One is product training, or simply how to use the product. Second, your business and sales processes that the CRM tools are automating. They need to understnad the new processes and why they are needed, as well as how to use the product.

For more info on planning, read "CRM For The Common Man". Order at www.peaksalesconsulting.com/new_book.htm
Good Luck.

Russ Lombardo
PEAK Sales Consulting
702-655-5652
russ@peaksalesconsulting.com
Author of "CRM For The Common Man"

Graham Hill
Guru
Member

Posted 19-Jun-2003 07:16 AM
Training is Much More Than Just Technology & Process...

If CRM is to be more than just an expensive new departmental toy, then you will have to do more than just train staff in how to use the new technologies and processes. As the old saying goes, OO + NT = EOO, (old organisation plus new technology equals expensive old organisation).

If you want to effect real change through the introduction of a new CRM system, you will have to tackle technology, process organisation and people issues in a balanced way.

Training is an important part of this, not only for the technology & process aspects, but also for behavioural changes that must accompany CRM if it is to be successful. That means change training to drive the adoption of new CRM-mandated attitudes, knowledge and skills in staff, and as the recent CRMGuru and George Day studies of successful CRM adoption showed, new management skills too.

And training is much more than just training too! Most training practitioners recognise that classroom training (and CBT, or any of the newer training technologies) only provides about 20-40% of the attitude, knowledge and skills uplift that training is supposed to provide. A much larger percentage of the uplift comes from post-training support back in the workplace. Things like desk aids, expert floorwalkers, peer-based support, self-help networks, masterclasses, even weekly team meetings. You get the idea.

The message should be clear; training should deliver much more than just technology & process knowledge if you want your CRM project to create real change. And it should extend from the classroom back into the workplace and be maintained over the months ahead.

Graham Hill
Independent CRM Consultant