Your people will not treat your customers better then they are being treated! If that statement is true, and you believe your warehouse plays a valuable role in maintaining your current customer base, then ask yourself this question. How do you treat your warehouse? Do you have a lot of turnover? If so, then how can we expect our customers to be loyal when we can’t even get our employees to remain loyal? Edward Deming said, “Our prevailing system of management has destroyed our people!” And, Albert Einstein said, “You can’t solve a problem with same mind that created it!” It is time to adopt a new way of thinking about our organizations. We must view total experience of customer and not just total value of their account. If we look at that experience: CC + TIS + AI + TAOF + PNP + OTS + CI + OTOA = PO (Customer Contact + Timely Information and Solution + Available Inventory + Timely and Accurate Order Fill + Proper and Neat Packaging + On Time Shipping + Correct Invoicing + On Time Order Arrival = Perfect Order).

Of eight steps in this experience your warehouse is responsible for five of them. This means if your customers are not loyal which one of five areas in their experience did they have a problem with. If they remain loyal it is because your warehouse has trained them to be. We often hear that difference between a median and a high performing company is sum of, “Many Little Things!” It is actually one thing, your warehouse, which does many little things. In this age or computers, internet, buying groups and even war, a customer’s loyalty should not be questioned. What should be questioned is how they became way they are? And answer to that question is, “Because We Taught Them To Be!”

So why are others there?

To lead, you must “make sense” to your followers. Surely your intent is to reward those who come on time, and not ones who come late.

CONSTRUCTIVE DISCONTENT

The opposite of this EQ competency is destructive content. Being able handle disagreement is one of strongest indicators of leadership. It means being able to stay calm, focused and emotionally grounded during conflict.

If there is no conflict, nothing is happening. If there are 10 people in a planning session, and they all agree on every point, you either really have a goldmine, which is unlikely, or there are 9 people you don’t need for brainstorming.

CREATIVITY

If your meeting is to generate creative ideas, alternative and solutions, you have to create atmosphere where this can happen. If you ask for ideas, and reply to first one, “no,” you’ll deadend process. Brush up on rules of divergent and convergent thinking in creative process.

PROCESS AFTERWARDS

It's a good idea, if you're serious about improving quality of meetings at your office to have your coach “shadow,” observe and then process with your afterwards. You’ll learn a lot!