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HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL
Explore opportunities with your team
Your team members
and you provide ser
vices to customers.
The recipients of your ser
vice may be external (pay
ing customers) or internal
(employees in a different
department of your organi
zation).
Time passes and circum
stances change. Situations
“out there” in the world
affect your work, and they
especially affect your cus
tomers. Who would have
predicted three months ago,
for example, the, collapse
of real estate, our finan
cial infrastructure, and the
stock market?
Every three or four
months, gather your team
together and creatively ask,
“What could we do to shake
things up in terms of how
we serve our customers?
That is, what could we do
differently that would cause
our customers to be abso-
BUSINESS BIT
Swearingen earns WR Chamber's employee award
Special to the Journal
The Warner Robins Area
Chamber’s Small Business
of the Month Committee
recently presented Parrish
Swearingen, Program
Manager for Tetra Tech, with
the Outstanding Employee
Award for September.
“Parrish is one of the
LETTER
From page 4A
I believe we figured out
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I’m a smoker. I know it isn’t
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insurance and pay $96 per
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Houston Healthcare
Diabetes Day 2008:
Tools for Diabetes SelbManagement
Friday, November 14
8 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Central Baptist Church
1120 Lake Joy Road, Warner Robins
A FREE Diabetes education and information
program for all people affected by diabetes,
including family and friends.
Exhibits, door prizes & giveaways will be available.
Lunch will be provided to those who pre-register.
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Building Future Leaders
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lutely delighted with our
service?”
Identify Opportunities.
To start, ask, “What are we
struggling with right now?”
Spend at least fifteen min
utes just brainstorming.
List as many ideas as you
can.
The first several sugges
tions will be no-brainers,
where people are already
putting energy. Keep the
momentum going because
your truly creative ideas
will occur as you stretch
beyond what’s obvious.
easiest bosses to work for,”
says JaLynn Hudnall, Tetra
Tech Marketing Outreach
Coordinator who nominated
Swearingen.
“She is always helpful and
is always looking for ways to
both challenge and inspire
the people that work for
her.”
Hudnall says that
month for Medicare, whether
I use it, or not.
And, if I needed to pay for
insurance for my children, I
would do without the extra
car, the big-screen TV, beer,
cigarettes, the mini-mansion,
in order to do so.
Don’t be fooled by all the
handouts that Obama is
promising when you go to
Assessing Your
Leadership Skills
-SBS/person
J vj,
Houston Healthcare’s
Diabetes Management Program
Invites you to attend
Pre-registration required.
Call 923-9771.
A second approach is
to build on your existing
strengths. Ask, “What is it
that we already do very well,
but with a slight adjust
ment, our customers would
become raving fans?”
Since most people tend
to focus on problems, the
ideas may not flow as quick
ly here. However, building
on existing strengths will
likely enhance your reputa
tion with your customers in
a big way.
Consider Value. When
the energy for generating
ideas has waned, move on
to exploring the value of
each possibility. Describe
in detail the improvements
each desired outcome will
create for the customer. Ask,
“If we could instantly imple
ment this enhancement,
how would the customer’s
experience be enhanced?”
Don’t settle for generalized
answers here.
Dennis
Hooper
Your
Leadership
Coach
Swearingen never misses
an opportunity to create
a learning experience that
leaves both the employee
with new skills they can
use on the job as well as
leaving the client feeling as
if they’ve gotten their mon
ey’s worth.
To congratulate
Swearingen, call Tetra Tech
the polls. He wants to give
more money back, through
the “earned income” credit,
to people who have never
paid taxes, and who work just
long enough, and have more
children than they should, to
qualify for this give-away pro
gram.
- Carmen Lyons,
Perry
F. Dennis Hooper
Certified
Leadership Development Coach
Building leaders and
organizations of excellence
(478) 988-0237 dhoopcr2(4juno.com!
You are creating a vision
of emotionally delighted
customers, so imagine vivid
contentment.
Acknowledge that you’re
very interested in maximiz
ing your return on your
investment. As the leader,
insist that the potential
incremental increase in cus
tomer satisfaction is fully
explored for every sugges
tion.
Our tendency sometimes
is to jump to assuming that
the cost for some ideas (in
terms of time, energy, and
money) is excessive.
Remind everyone that
“value” is a ratio of per
ceived improvement divided
by the cost. If you don’t
explore the potential
improvement fully, you’ll
presume it’s minimal. Even
a very small cost divided
into “zero” improvement
will yield “no value.”
Only after you’ve evalu-
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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2008
ated each idea’s potential
gain for the customer, eval
uate the associated prob
able cost. Rank the ideas
in terms of relative value
(benefits to the customer
' per unit cost).
Evaluate Approaches.
There are many ways to
accomplish any desired out
come. For those ideas that
have the highest return on
investment potential, con
sider three or four approach
es you might pursue in gen
erating the improvement.
Keep the creativity flow
ing. You may identify some
methodologies that require
minimum increases in time,
energy, and material.
These low cost approaches
increase the value delivered
to the customer. You’ll likely
be surprised at some options
that suddenly become very
attractive!
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Maybe you’ve never gone
through a process like this.
That’s not unusual - most
organizations only put their
energies against minimizing
the biggest complaints.
If you just want to get by
with “good enough,” keep
doing what you’ve been
doing. But if you genuinely
want your customers to be
raving fans, give these three
steps a try.
Dennis Hooper helps
leaders build excellence in
their organizations. Contact
Dennis at 478-988-0237 or
dhooper2@juno.com. His
website is www:buildingfu
tureleaders.com.
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