Customers Criteria for Assessing Service

Customers assess service by:

1. Reliability – dependable and accurate performance of promised service
2. Responsiveness – willingness/readiness to provide prompt service
3. Competence – knowledge and skill to perform the service
4. Access – approachability and ease of contact of service personnel
5. Courtesy – politeness, consideration, and friendliness of service personnel
6. Communication – keeping customers informed, listening to customers
7. Credibility – trustworthiness, believability, honesty
8. Security – freedom from danger, risk, or doubt
9. Understanding/knowing customer – knowing customer’s needs
10. Tangibles – physical evidence of service

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Power to Act

An organization in tune with its workforce and customers not only senses problems and opportunities before they break, but also often has the cohesion and confidence to turn direction. For these organizations the ability to let things go is as important as the ability to pick things up.

In contrast there are organizations caught like rabbits in car headlights, paralyzed by the fear of changing market conditions. In the end they would rather waste half a year on despair and acrimony than act boldly whilst they can still make a difference.

Prevarication and hesitation are without doubt the scourge of organizations.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

 

Openness to Criticism

Criticism of any decision not only reflects on the actual appropriateness of the decision itself, but also on the decision-maker as well. When making a difficult decision, it is very  tempting to quickly move past it in order to avoid the questions and doubts the disapproval causes. However, the failure to adequately engage the objection becomes its own ethical dilemma with costs to both the individual and the organization when the ethical dimension is ignored. Openness to the criticism and the lessons it contains can be a key indication that the professional is actively integrating ethics and value reflection into his or her professional life.

When one’s decisions are criticized, one needs practical tools and processes to effectively learn from the reproach and to engage the ethical issues the disapproval presents. there are four fundamental steps in such examination described per herebelow:

1. Accept the discomfort of the criticism and honestly confront the temptation to ignore it. An important incentive for this honest self-reflection is an understanding of the negative consequences of ignoring the ethics of one’s decisions and their consequences.
2. Identify personal core values, listing them and examining them in light of the criticism being encountered.
3. Cultivate openness to the ethical dimension of the business life and of business decisions. The role of the moral imagination and reflection will be examined.
4. The need for practical tools to identify and audit the core values at work in the decision-making process will be reviewed.

These elements will enable the professional to effectively engage the ethical dimension of decisions and their aftermath. Openness to criticism, developing the moral imagination, having practical tools for ethical decision-making, and understanding the need to integrate one’s values into business goals, perspectives, and decisions are fundamental ingredients in integrating both vision and reality.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Prioritization of Activities

One of the main aspects of time management is prioritizing activities. It has four quadrants. The activities are placed in each of the quadrants depending upon the importance and the urgency of the activity. Most urgent and most important activities fall in quadrant1. Least urgent but most important activities are in quadrant 11. The quadrant 111 has activities which are least important but most urgent. The least important and least urgent activities fall under quadrant 1V. it is needless to say that prioritizing should be done in the same order.

As the different activities are carried out, it is also important not to get bogged down with quadrant 1 activities. No doubt that these activities have to be finished because they are very urgent and important too. This leads to fire fighting. It has to be understood that activities have come to quadrant 1 because the quadrant 11 activities have not been done at the right time. The ideal situation will be to do the jobs at the right time so that the important activities are completed while being in quadrant 11. In such situations there will not be any activity in quadrant 1. That means no fire fighting and the situation will be cool and calm.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Handling Customer Objections, Queries and Concerns

Objections can arise in any sales situation, and at any point in the process. At the beginning, when you are phone prospecting, you may encounter resistance from ‘gatekeepers’ or from your intended contact person. At the end, when you are trying to close the sale, objections are typical.

In order to encourage long-term customer satisfaction and loyalty, dialogue about objections, queries and concerns must be conducted early and often. In essence, welcome complaints and concerns – seek them and anticipate them.

Objections must be resolved, or the customer may be lost. Many salespeople are uncomfortable about handling objections and feel threatened by them. However, objections should be viewed as potentially beneficial because they:

• Are a natural part of the buying process. Getting answers to questions and resolving doubts is a normal behavior pattern in buying.
• Present an opportunity for educating the customer, as well as for getting more information from the customer.
• Reveal the customer’s concerns and give you a chance to encourage the customer to become more involved in the sales call.
• Can result in enhanced trust and a better relationship, if handled well.
• Show that the customer is actively interested, and not keeping objections a secret.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

The Emotional

Unless you are more powerful than a locomotive, faster than a speeding bullet, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, minding your own business will be emotionally taxing. The mental and physical energy you put into it will at times leave you quite spent. If you don’t know how to refuel and refresh properly you’ll find yourself constantly out of sorts, fuzzy-minded, and ripe for depression. Even when things are on track, if you’re the type who has a prosperity for “borrowing trouble” the mere responsibility of failure is enough to keep you skittish and in knots. Of course, when problems arise matters can become all the worse since the buck both starts and stops with you. If you have only yourself to kick for a problem and lack a healthy sense of self, you could end up abusing yourself. Needless to say, when things go away through no fault of your own, the frustration, if not properly handled, can be devastating. Moreover, until your business begins to pay off you will be susceptible to bouts of doubt and second-guessing that can be debilitating.

 If after having counted all the costs you’re still undaunted about starting a business either immediately or in the near future, then it’s time to get all your ideas and expectations down in black and white by drawing up a comprehensive business plan.

 My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, Line of Sight

Managers are not just Leaders in Waiting

Managers do things right. Leaders do the right things.” Conventional wisdom is proud of maxims like this. It uses them to encourage managers to label themselves “leaders.” It casts the manager as the dependable plodder, while the leader is the sophisticated executive, scanning the horizon, strategizing. Since most people would rather be a sophisticated exective than a dependable plodder, this advice seems positive and developmental. It isn’t: it demeans the manager role but doesn’t succeed in doing much else. The difference between a manager and a leader is much more profound than most people think. The company that overlooks this difference will suffer for it.

 The most important difference between a great manager and a great leader is one of focus. Great managers look inward. They look inside the company, into each individual, into the differences in style, goals, needs, and motivation of each person. These differences are small, subtle, but great managers need to pay attention to them. These subtle differences guide them toward the right way to release each person’s unique talents into performance.

 Great leaders, by contrast, look outward. They look out at the competition, out at the future, out at alternative routes forward. They focus on broad patterns, finding connections, cracks, and then press home their advantage where the resistance is weakest. They must be visionaries, strategic thinkers, and activators. When played well, this is, without doubt, a critical role. But it doesn’t have much to do with the challenge of turning one individual’s talents into performance.

 Great managers are not mini-executives waiting for leadership to be thurst upon them. Great leaders are not simply managers who have developed sophistication. The core activities of a manager and a leader are simply different. It is entirely possible for a person to be a brilliant manager and a terrible leader. But it is just as possible for a person to excel as a leader and fail as manager. And, of course, a few exceptionally ralented individuals excel at both.

 If companies confuse the two roles by expecting every manager to be a leader, or if they define “leader” as simply a more advanced form of “manager,” then the all-important “catalyst” role will soon be undervalued, poorly understood, and poorly played. Gradually the company will fall apart.

 My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, Line of Sight