TRC Online Meeting Blog

Happy Holidays from our team to yours! We truly appreciate your business and look forward to serving you in the New Year!

Please reach out to us with any updates that need to be made or questions you may have regarding your service with us!

New Year - New Fun!

TRC wants to be a part of your meetings in 2015! In addition to our platform of audio, web, and video services- we will be offering a new suite of hosted services such as audio moderation and hands on event services. Some of our clients have already started taking advantage of our operator assisted meetings for their large events. Let us do the work for you in the New Year!

In his book “Legendary Service - The Key Is to Care” author Patrick Blanchard boldly states, “Being responsive to your customers goes hand in hand with being attentive to their needs and preferences.”

He then provides compelling examples on the way service providers can demonstrate a genuine willingness to serve customers as they fulfill their individual needs. These include listening to concerns and needs; taking care of problems right away; showing the customer that you are on their side. Blanchard also describes how managers can engage team members to contribute ideas for providing better customer service through the use of a customer service model based on the acronym ICARE.

In his book “Legendary Service - The Key Is to Care” author Patrick Blanchard boldly states, “The more empowered the frontline people in an organization are, the happier the external customers are going to be, because their needs are being met.”

He then provides compelling examples of what makes people feel empowered on the job. Examples provided include the following:

In his book “Legendary Service - The Key Is to Care” author Patrick Blanchard boldly states, “Ideal Service is meeting the customer's needs on a day-to-day basis by acting on the belief that service is important.”

He then provides a compelling example on the use of service statements to provide a clear definition of an organization's service vision and values. Used properly, service statements can help each team member to “have a clear vision of the kind of service they personally would like to deliver to their customer.” Blanchard also describes how managers can engage team members to contribute ideas for providing better customer service through the use of a customer service model based on the acronym ICARE.

Two Rivers Conferencing has several clients that utilize Blanchard's guidance in their strategies for enhancing the quality of customer service. They routinely conduct weekly Service Satisfaction Meetings with employees and managers identified as part of a “Customer Service Team.” This meeting is chaired by the client's Vice President of Sales & Service, with the company's President & CEO and selected members of his sales, product development and business operations team in attendance. Using this approach allows a company the opportunity to fully evaluate its service activities and product R&D in light of its service vision and values.

To be attentive is defined as thinking about or watching something carefully: paying careful attention to something. When we speak of being attentive we imagine a situation that is detailed and precise. This situation comes from possible planning and preparing in order to ensure the best possible outcome or scenario.

In Kenneth Blanchard's book “Legendary Service” we learn that attentiveness comes into play once an organization has clearly identified its service vision. According to the book “the next step is to get clear on who its customers are and what they want”.

By learning who your customers are and what they want you can better serve them. You must realize that your customers will vary and have specific preferences and needs according to their own business model. In our industry of conferencing we must clearly define who are customer is and how they plan to use our service in order to service them to the best of our ability. I would say this holds true in any industry. We must first define their specific needs, and then put the best possible solution in place to allow them to get the most from our solution.

In his book “Legendary Service - The Key Is to Care” author Patrick Blanchard boldly states, “Simply put, companies can achieve Legendary Service by showing their customers they care about them.”

He then provides a compelling example on the use of regularly scheduled meetings where employees and managers can dig into the critical issues that can allow an organization to “consistently deliver ideal service that keeps customers coming back and results in a competitive advantage for your organization.” Blanchard also describes how managers can engage team members to contribute ideas for providing better customer service through the use of a customer service model based on the acronym ICARE.

Two Rivers Conferencing utilizes Blanchard's guidance in its strategies for enhancing the quality of our customer service. We routinely conduct Weekly Sales / Service Meetings with our Director of Customer Service Kristina Owen. This meeting is chaired by our Managing Partner, with our President & CEO and selected members of his finance, accounting and business operations team in attendance. Using this approach allows us the opportunity to fully evaluate Kristina's service activities in light of current business developments and other ongoing initiatives.

The cornerstone of any business is a loyal customer. That is why in September, our main focus has been on building strong customer relations using customer information supported by excellent service. The two simply go hand in hand. Starting in October, we will start a series, “Using Conference Calling to Define Service” building on that foundation. Conferencing can be a cost effective and simple way to facilitate this customer research and information gathering in order to provide the best in service.

Last week, we discussed the importance of excellent customer service in building loyal, repeat customers who makes referrals. Earlier in the month, we outlined ways to know your customer as well as steps to gather market intelligence. All the suggestions offered will help to serve your customer base. Ultimately, this customer knowledge can help your business reap tremendous benefits. We strongly emphasize that gathering this customer knowledge has to be a priority. It just doesn't happen! Outlined below are suggestions that will make this research a reality.

“Spontaneous service brings joy to both receiver and giver. Good customer service has to come from people who like people and enjoy being nice to them. It starts at the top.” (Neiman-Marcus)

We have all heard the phrase “The customer is always right”. The truth behind this famous slogan is recognizing that customers are the lifeline for any business. A successful company understands that excellent customer service is essential for a healthy business, creating new customers, keeping loyal customers, and developing referrals for future customers.

Why is excellent customer service important? Simply put, future business depends on it. The best in customer service can result in three positive outcomes:

The most successful organizations in the world are also those who apply the most rigor to reviewing results against plan and providing guidance and training to ensure plans are met. That which gets measured, gets done! Audio and web conferencing are great ways to perform these reviews with individuals and functional groups throughout your company in a way that provides uniform dissemination of information while eliminating the need for travel to accomplish these purposes. Some common areas where this could be applied include:

Building a strong customer relationship is necessary for excellence in customer service. In order to build this foundation, it is essential to understand your customer's specific needs and business goals. This understanding will make the most of your customer relationships and allow you to provide them with the best service. It is equally important to know them on a friendly level, which will build trust and loyalty. This customer knowledge will guarantee a long lasting client relationship that will transition and grow as both of your businesses evolve.

Understanding how your customers are managing their business along with a knowledge of their future plans and goals will play an important role in building a strong relationship. Getting to know your client and their needs means that you need to be a step ahead of the game and know what will benefit them in the long run. This knowledge about your customer's business will help you put the right solutions in place for them, not only for the present but for the future. Knowing the direction a customer plans to take their business can make you an integral part of growing their business. This will also help to grow your business in order to maximize business potential!

Gathering market information is an essential part of any business or organization - no business can work isolated from their industry, market, clients and partners. All businesses, regardless of size and type, have to continually maintain contact with their clients and business partners to keep current with relevant marketplace issues and trends.

The problem is businesses have time and resource limitations, impacting their ability (and willingness) to implement ongoing market intelligence/information programs. But businesses need to have a market intelligence program. The business environment and market factors evolve too quickly not to keep abreast with changes and trends.

Audio conferencing in various forms has been around for a long time. There are few in the business world who have not participated in an audio conference at one time or another, whether it was a toll-free reservationless call, an operator assisted event call or an audio call in conjunction with a web conference or webinar. In fact audio conferencing has been around for so long it is sometimes considered old news compared to newer technologies such as web conferencing and the various forms of video conferencing (room-based video, desktop video, mobile video, etc.). It would be easy to assume that audio conferencing is a mature technology that has had no new developments for some time as everyone's attention has turned to flashier alternatives. That assumption is wrong!

Today's workplace is global and dispersed. Businesses need seamless collaboration that merges all forms of communication including voice and data. In our global work environment, meetings are held at multiple locations and varied times. Documents need to be shared for effective management and decision-making. Calendars have to be accessed quickly so meetings can be coordinated with geographically dispersed participants. Bottom-line, communications needs to be fast, efficient and flexible while using resources in the most cost effective manner.

Enter Unified Communications (UC) which integrates communication services in a cost effective real-time way. UC unites audio and video conferencing, instant messaging, presence information, telephony, document sharing, call control and unified messaging (integrated voice mail, email and fax) all under an integrated communication service.

Our fourth article on effective meetings focuses on the quarterly review meeting. Author Patrick Lencioni strongly advocates the use of quarterly leadership team meetings in his book “The Advantage – Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business”. Regarding this meeting form he states, “Activities that should be addressed during these meetings should include reviewing the organization's strategic anchors and thematic goals, assessing the performance of key employees, discussing industry changes and competitive threats and, of course, reviewing the behaviors of the team members in regard to cohesiveness.”

Lencioni recommends the use of an outside consultant or leader of the executive team to participate as a member, organize the meeting and facilitate the discussion. He advises executives to step back and revisit the four disciplines covered in his book: team, clarity, communication, and human systems. The author advises that every organization spend two days each quarter for these developmental review meetings.

We all cringe at the thought of sitting through yet another weekly meeting in which we hash out the events of the seven days and discuss what each team member feels is top priority moving forward. These meetings can seem mundane and tiresome as can the time spent creating an agenda leading up to them. In “The Advantage” Patrick Lencioni addresses how to eliminate the fuss and capitalize on time to ensure your dreaded weekly meeting not only serves purpose, but makes it enjoyable.

According to Lencioni “there is no more valuable activity in any organization than the regular staff meeting of a leadership team.” He has designated weekly or bi-weekly meetings for tactical purposes. These meetings are to quickly create a real-time agenda and assess top priorities. The challenge is evaluating the importance of each priority brought up by team members while eliminating topic distractions.

Continuing our discussion on effective meetings, Patrick Lencioni in his book “The Advantage — Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business” said, “The highpoint of being a leader in an organization is wrestling with difficult decisions and situations. Truncating those high points just doesn't make sense.” Lencioni makes a strong case for the utilization of adhoc topical meetings where management digs into the critical issues that can have a long term impact on an organization or that require significant time and energy.

According to Lencioni, managers should separate their tactical conversations from their strategic ones. Combining the tactical and strategic conversations just doesn't work and leaves both set of issues inadequately addressed. He further states that if leadership goes more than a month without a strategic meeting, something is probably wrong.

In his book “The Advantage — Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business” author Patrick Lencioni boldly states, “If someone were to offer me one single piece of evidence to evaluate the health of an organization, I would want to observe the leadership team during a meeting.” He then makes a compelling case for the use of daily check-in meetings where management teams briefly review schedules, events and issue alerts.

Lencioni advises the team get into the habit of gathering once a day, for no more than ten minutes, to clear the air about anything administrative that would be helpful to know. He further advises that there be no agendas and no resolution of issues, just an exchange of information. Two Rivers Conferencing's toll free reservationless conference services perfectly complements this healthy organization strategy!

International business is exploding across all industries as new technology makes the world a smaller place. Although more international business opportunities exist than ever before, communicating effectively with parties in different countries can be a challenge. Different physical locations, different time zones and long travel durations combine to create strong barriers to communication. Audio and video conferencing are powerful ways for geographically distributed groups of people to collaborate effectively. They allow multiple participants to communicate as a group and create real time teamwork where it otherwise could not exist. They can also allow sharing of documents, drawings, spreadsheets and even full motion videos, which aid the communication process.

As significant as the benefits of international conferencing may be, challenges to effective communication do exist. Accents from non-native English speakers can be difficult to discern. Some words and phrases have different meanings in different countries which can lead to confusion. With that in mind here are some do's and don'ts for international audio/video conferencing:

It is a challenge to connect professionals suspicious of sharing information with other professionals in the same industry — even though sharing expertise could benefit both parties. Conference calling technology provides an effective way to bridge this need for shared professional expertise. A real estate agent program provides a strong example of the benefits of sharing information at a distance using conference calling.

A sales representative from a large conference service provider (CSP) attended a real estate sales seminar hosted by an acknowledged industry expert on the best practices for achieving success in residential and commercial real estate. His seminars were attended by some of this country's most successful real estate agents. The sales representatives were told that surveys taken by the seminar's attendees indicated that the agents strongly valued the information obtained from the program's presentations and educational events. Surprisingly, the survey data showed attendees gave even greater value to the information shared among fellow sales agents during the many social and business networking events that occurred over the course of the three day conference seminar event.

In our April 24th blog, we discussed conference call techniques for meeting managers, where we emphasized knowing your conference call provider's features and options. This will help you manage your calls more effectively. Last week's blog (June 24th) on conferencing etiquette provided guidelines for the moderators and participants. This week we want to add more ways for improving your conference calls.

We would recommend having your conference calls at a regular, recurring time. The conference call can be scheduled daily, weekly or monthly. The key, however, is to schedule the conference call at a consistent day and time. This allows your team members to plan their schedules and emphasizes the value you place on the participant's input. Having this fixed schedule shows respect and helps to maximize the success of your conference meeting for all involved.