Building a startup company requires a lot of work. As the number of employees grows, so do the responsibilities of a manager. Scaling your employee growth can be a difficult task as it’s not as intuitive as other responsibilities. There are, certain steps you can take to transition into a smooth growing period and ensure the best result. Here are a few ideas you should focus on. Don’t try to do Everything Alone As the number of employees goes up, the time you can devote to each one of them goes down. That lack of attention can lead to a lot of problems that can be devastating for a gr ..read more

In a sea of endless possibility, discover the power of not doing something A while ago a business associate and I were discussing a joint venture we had planned to do. Reviewing our various activities over the coming months we decided there was no way we were going to be able to do what we’d talked about until next year, so we said a decisive “no” to doing it now. And it felt liberating. Modern business culture rightly encourages positivity, but the unintended consequences can make you feel overloaded. Selective use of negativity can have a positive effect. Here’s how… The power of ..read more

I recently conducted an interview with ReachForce on the subject of ‘using data to improve Customer Experience’ – here is what I had to say… How did you become so passionate about customer experience management? In reality, I think I must have been born with a passion for CX! Apart from it being in my genes…. my very makeup, my evolution into the CX Specialist that I am now started at the end of the 90s. I was working as a process improvement specialist for General Electric – I was bowled over by the power of Jack Welch and his ideas. Using tools and methodologies to improve the abilit ..read more

While it’s true that Accountability starts at the top, and that if leaders don’t walk the talk, and meet their commitments, it will be almost impossible to create a culture of accountability. Yes, if you model accountability, some people will become more accountable. But it takes more than that to make accountability and ownership the norm within an organization. If you truly want to create a culture of accountability you have to HOLD people accountable. Most leaders seem to forget this piece. That’s probably because it’s the difficult part, the one where we have to focus on changi ..read more

When it comes to the profession that Customer Experience has now become, one of the most important and significant competencies required by all organisations is that of measurement. The ability of a company to robustly and continuously capture a ‘fact based’ understanding of how capable they are of meeting customer needs and expectations is critical if they have a desire to achieve customer focused success. However…. There is usually one of those, whilst many businesses may be confident that they are indeed ‘measuring’ the Customer Experience, my overwhelming concern is that too many are do ..read more

If you’re not running a customer-obsessed business, you might be missing out. I have noticed many companies are focusing on being customer obsessed. What does that actually mean? Well, in simple terms, it means to be conscious of or have empathy towards your customers. The product or service your business offers is solving a customer problem. It is critical that you continuously live that customer problem, focus on how to solve it, and, only then, will you be able to solve it well. You may ask, “how can we live the customer problem?” Well, there are several ways to do it. You can cond ..read more

A distant reminder of Candid Camera is nothing to smile about. As a TV-obsessed tot in the 1960s, one of my favourite programmes was Candid Camera. With its procession of pranks on unsuspecting members of the public filmed by hidden cameras it provided some guaranteed laughs and played to this child’s sense of mischief. One episode that’s stuck in my mind – for some reason – consisted of someone pretending to be Swedish and asking people where he could “buy a gorm” as he’d been told by his girlfriend that he was “gormless”. It was probably one of the least funny pranks – particularly over f ..read more

Trust – a small word that means so much. It is a word that plays an enormous part in all our lives. A word that epitomises our start in life – from the minute we enter into the world, we immediately have complete trust in the people who care for us. As we grow up we learn to trust in a wider sphere of people – our families and friends, as well as respected figures in our communities such as doctors, teachers and religious leaders. We learn to trust in the things people tell us – in opinions and perspectives. We start to trust organisations that we interact with. The majority of us are fort ..read more

It’s amazing how many different things get blamed for why businesses take a nosedive. Whether it’s the teams, products, marketing, sales, the banks or even in some cases I have heard companies blame their customers for their failure. But more often than not, and especially in owner-operated business, the blame lies elsewhere. And usually, it lies with the people who are doing the most of the blaming, the leadership. Bad leadership destroys engagement, raises stress levels, reduces morale and ultimately it leads to failures that can kill businesses. Today I was reminded of just how tr ..read more

A “non-toxic” theatre visit ticks all the right boxes If you’re lucky enough to get a ticket to a popular West End show – and in my case even luckier to get one fairly cheaply (thanks to TodayTix) – your elation can be followed by a sudden lowering of expectations: the venue will be crowded and the business of getting to your seat can be a major stress point. If your companion has mobility challenges, this stress can be compounded, but a visit to the Old Vic last week proved to be a pleasant surprise. I’d been warned that there was construction work going on at the theatre, so my expecta ..read more