Mission to Impact Customers
If customers are your source of revenue...and how much they spend is determined by what your business does for them...what impact (positive or negative) do your employees have on your cash flow?
Your employees are never a neutral factor in the minds of customers, and therefore never neutral in their influence on customer spend. Employees have 'brand value' (high or low) in the eyes of customers (which can now be measured) which either increases or decreases your cash flow. Employees also have 'brand value' (high or low) in the eyes of internal customers (departments) which either increases or decreases the strategic effectiveness of your business.
Leaders make a grave mistake either assuming employees 'live' their company brand to customers or are neutral in their influence. The irony is that often the further down one goes in an organisation's structure, the more direct contact its people have with customers, and therefore the more influence they have on their spend. You can only be sure your business is maximising its revenues when the impact of each employee and team on your customers (internal and external) and your profitability is quantified. ProDex will do this for you.
A company's customer centric mission often falls short of the high standard of IMPACT that will keep customers from looking elsewhere or because it does not permeate the organisation, it gets undermined. To have the ability to impact customers every individual must participate in:
Shared Mission
Belief in a common purpose and standard that does not stop short of requiring the very best of themselves to provide the very best for their customers and your company. This is a tough call apart from the inspiration that leaders must provide. (covered in a future article)
Opportunity through Change
Willingness to be visionary about new opportunities brought about by change. Every day people are surrounded by change and new opportunities to create impact - if they could only see them. Often people do not because there is no expectation for them to do so and there is no or little reward if they did.
Focus on New Ideas
Engagement in the process of creating innovative impact. Human beings perform at their best not when they are 'production machines', but when they are free to bring ideas that other people appreciate and use - and this appreciation is more rewarding than money.
Leadership
Seeking long-term solutions to problems that impede your mission. When everyone shares your mission, everyone will want it accomplished and everyone will want to protect it. They will do this by working to eliminate anything that will impede it.
Future Confidence
Collective buy-in and focus on achievable goals. This is how the job gets done. When the previous four strategies are in place impact happens, when they are not, no amount of effort can create it.
