Women's Enteprise South East

Joanne Rogers suggests how the New Year can be a fresh start, when it comes to creating and building a positive workforce…..

My company, Prowse & Co, provides PR and marketing services to help clients communicate more effectively with their customers, staff and other stakeholders.  Therefore a key priority for us as a business is to ensure we are practicing what we preach.

Given the choice of dealing with a positive, cheery employee or dealing with a disgruntled, uninterested one, which would you choose? No contest. Those who come into contact with your company will always want the best experience possible; they want it to be easy, pleasant and straight-forward. 

Whether answering the phone, dealing with an enquiry or giving advice, the quality of the interaction will be judged by the customer to determine how much you care about them and their business. If your customer handling skills do not equal or exceed your sales and marketing skills, your business relationships and your company’s reputation are in danger.

As a customer, we instinctively know that we want to do business with people who enjoy what they are doing, are having a good time doing it and genuinely care about being able to help to solve a problem or achieve goals. 

Whatever your role within an organisation, it's your responsibility to help create a positive experience for your customer. Customers respond better to a company which provides them with a quality service or product at a fair price delivered by positive, ‘can-do’ people.  

And what better time to reassess the quality of your customer relations and inject a new sense of passion among your team than in the New Year - here are some tips to get started…

1. Remember, a good example is the best teacher.  Examine your own behaviour - are you walking the positive talk?  Take great care to listen to your own language. Do you frame things in the positive, or do you often say "Yes, but…..", negating the first half of your sentence with your last?
      
2. Encourage people to live in the "now."  Dwell on the past only long enough to figure out what you want to learn from it, and then move on. What is important is what is going on right now. Give your fullest attention to exactly what you are doing now. Do it well, do it right and enjoy it.
    
3. Learn (and teach) the power of positive self-talk. Often our internal thoughts are negative. Re-programme your own chatter and then listen carefully for signs of it in others. Our bodies respond to our self-talk, if we tell ourselves we are disorganised, we behave just that way. Tell yourself, with conviction, you can be a better organised person and the behaviour will begin to change. 
   
   
4. Ban whining.   One whiner in the group can bring everyone down. A whiner is like an infection - it spreads. Stop it at the source. Learn to spot them during the interview process. Don't hire them in the first place, unless you are prepared to keep vigilance over their behaviour and attempt to change it.
   
   
5. Teach people the art of win/win. Help people to understand that thinking "Win/Win" opens up the possibility for new solutions. Remember, that in today’s business environment, it's innovation and creativity which give us the edge - and innovation comes from open minds and "possibility thinking."
   
   
6. Dump the drama.  Melodrama. It sells tabloids, and gets people to watch TV, but it's something you don't need in your company. It saps valuable creative energy. If you've been using "Crisis Management" as your modus operandi, get out of the office, read a few good books with "new thinkers" and learn a new style. 
   
   
7. Learn, teach and reward stress management techniques.   Make sure people understand the role they play in controlling their own stress. We don't have control over circumstances; we do have control of how we perceive them. Take a deep breath, count to ten, walk away (physically or mentally) when you have to and call a "Time-out."  Learn good stress management skills and teach them. Reinforce them. 
   
   
8. Lift Your Spirits.  Create a positive sanctuary in your workplace and bring in the natural environment with plants.  Keep inspirational books around or start discussion groups. Create positive energy, people inside and outside the company will feel it and want to come back for more. 
   
   
9. Start a list called "The 10 Best Things about Working Here." Let people add to it and watch it grow. It's fun, positive and a great way to focus people on what's right with your business. Remember you get more of what you focus on.
   
   
10. Smile. When you activate the smiling muscles in your face, you activate the "happy" brain chemicals that help you feel good. You can't be depressed when you are smiling, and smiles are contagious. So, smile.

If you want to learn more about how your company could benefit from a new internal communications programme, contact Joanne at Prowse on 01372 363386 or at joanne@prowse.co.uk