Consider the way your company operates. The more questions you answer “yes,” the more your firm behaves in an ADD-like manner:
- Are people texting or checking email during meetings?
- When you talk to someone, is he or she often doing something else?
- When you call someone, do you hear them typing in the background?
- Do you get conflicting messages from your company? Does one memo stress that “sales is our top focus,” and then another criticize your team for not providing better service?
- Do meetings often conflict with other meetings and obligations?
- Are employees overloaded with “urgent” but ultimately unimportant tasks?
- Is time rarely – if ever – available for introspection or considered thought?
- Are opinions given more weight than facts, and facts that are too hard to unearth (hello, siloed databases) ignored?
- Do forceful personalities have more say than intelligent and creative ones?
- Are people often promoted because they are personable (i.e. their boss likes them), rather than because they focus well on what matters most?
This is in the context of the growing interest in customer experience, and in protecting your business – and customer base – against the onslaught of disruptive forces. A management team so distracted and incoherent will never be able to focus sufficiently on listening to customers and customizing the services they require.
What’s the alternative? We recently launched Mind Your Customers, a free resource for focused firms determined to grow their revenues via customer experience.
P.S. If you are checking the sports scores while finishing this paragraph, you might also want to read this piece: Mind Your Culture.
