Rounding for Business

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Rounding…Proactively, engaging, listening to, communicating with, building relationships with and supporting your most important asset (your employees). ~ Studer Group

The phrase “making the rounds,” also known as “rounding,” clearly has medical roots. It brings to mind individuals in white coats walking through hospital corridors at regular intervals to check on those under their care. All the while, they are paying attention to vital signs and making adjustments to care accordingly. While rounding may seem like something best left to the medical profession, the concept itself is universally applicable in any business setting.

The idea behind rounding is to make concerted efforts to touch base with your stakeholders (i.e. clients, team members) on a regular basis. With clients, rounding can mean weekly meetings to talk about ongoing initiatives, monthly calibration sessions to ensure that service delivery meets expectations, and/or comprehensive quarterly reviews to dig into a number of key areas of importance. In addition to being essential for rapport and relationship building, rounding with your clients is a competitive edge because they know you are listening, responding, and making regular time for what’s important to them.

With team members, rounding means reaching out to each person on your staff on a regular basis to see how they’re doing, ensure that they have the resources they need to do their job, and cement a positive and productive relationship between you and them. We all know how nice it is personally when a boss reaches out just to say hi, to see how we’re doing, or to ask if we need anything. By rounding, you are perpetuating this positive experience with those who report directly to you.

While there are myriad ways to round with clients and team members, the best way to start is by setting up calendar events (i.e. standing meetings) that occur either weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or quarterly, the frequency of which may be dictated by the needs of the relationship and mutual agreement by the parties. For example, weekly rounding with individual team members is critical to team building and ensuring that everyone is always on the same page when it comes to the goals and direction of the business and the department. Your clients may also be best served through weekly touch-base meetings but some clients may prefer bi-weekly or even monthly sessions, so keep the wishes of the client in mind and schedule accordingly.

Monthly team meetings are another effective way to round, especially when there is an element of fun and/or recognition built into the event. By making the meeting informative as well as entertaining, team members will have something additional to look forward to at the same time each month.

Another less utilized but highly meaningful way to round is, quite literally, putting pen to paper and thanking your clients and your team members personally. For clients, letting them know you appreciate their business in a handwritten card will get noticed and stamp a positive imprint on the relationship. You can also include a news clipping that is particularly relevant to their business or industry and let them know you thought of them when reading the article.

With team members, thanking them in writing for a specific “job well done” not only shows your appreciation of them and their work – it also tells them that they are valued members of the team. Making it a habit of mailing 1 or 2 handwritten thank you cards a week will give you the opportunity to look for the positives in your team members’ performances, and a few short sentences is all you need to communicate your message. In addition to getting an unexpected, pleasant surprise in their mailbox, your team members will feel appreciated, valued, and more inclined to keep up the great work that earned them the thank you in the first place. While sending 1 or 2 thank you notes a week may seem daunting at first, it’s a habit worth developing when you look at the rewards to you and your team from this one simple act.

There are many ways to round and the suggestions provided above are just the tip of the iceberg. The best way to get started? Simply schedule rounding into your work week and work on making it a permanent part of everyday operations for you and your managers.

Rounding is more than making an appearance — it involves talking with employees about what is going well and what is not; it is about soliciting their input and having one to one time to grow your relationship, while supporting their development and “ownership” of their work. ~ TheWorkplaceCoach.com

Republished with author's permission from original post.

Teresa Sinel
Teresa Sinel is the Director of Operations, Analytics and Innovation for VIPdesk, the award-winning pioneer of home-based virtual customer care solutions for global brand leaders committed to enhancing their brand experience. Serving over 40 client programs and 10 million customers, VIPdesk specializes in delivering Concierge Programs, Contact Center Services, and loyalty programs for national brand leaders in the travel, auto, financial services, real estate and retail industries.

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