Your Presence is Requested
I am here. Are you? Huh? When was the last time you were across from a person you thought you were engaged in some sort of meaningful exchange with only to discover that the other person was not “there”? Physically present: check. Mentally present: checked out. Think U.S. Postal Service. Think DMV. (Sorry, folks… I will quote Ram Charan here: “truth over harmony”). Heck, it even happened to me this week during a visit to my usually-amazingly-engaged bank! You know the scene: while you are thinking about your money and the product, service, and experience you expect to receive in exchange for said money, the person “serving” you is thinking “geez, its bad enough I have to actually be here… you expect me to be engaged, too?” Aaarrgh!
We have slipped. We are distracted. We are not showing up. In the retail world, the team that engages the customer best wins. We have to, as Susan Scott states in her book, Fierce Conversations, “be there and be nowhere else” for our customers AND our team. So often our hearts and our souls are absent… we are checked out. This vacant presence of leaders, sales associates, and cashier team members is nothing short of certain death. Sadly, certain death is quite prevalent. Big box home improvement giants know it. Electronics stores know it. Banks know it. So what? What do we do about it?
Get out of the fog and into the NOW, leaders. Engagement begins with you. Period. Be fully in the game, get in your zone, help the whole team win through your focused action. Example: we got REAL about engagement this week in a busy retail store. What was happening? Leaders were present on the floor physically and mentally. Their awareness of the customer experience was at a 10. Leaders were applying quick, laser-focused coaching to keep the whole team highly engaged. Result: customers went out of the way to smile, make eye contact, and tell us about their experience. A couple of their stories literally gave me chills. Chills! Oh, and we had a killer sales day to boot!
Lest you dismiss the opportunity before you because “I don’t work in retail”, consider this: what is possible when you are “there” for your colleague, shift leader, or potential client? High levels of engagement work incredibly well in spontaneous cubicle meetings, on the manufacturing floor, and even on the phone.
So, would you rather sweat to a certain death or experience the chills of high engagement? So what? What are you going to do about it?
on March 24, 2009 on 12:51 pm
Guilty. With so much going on these days, it’s very easy to be distracted by everywhere you’re not. When at work I’m thinking about home, when home I’m thinking about an upcoming obligation, when on vacation I’m thinking about work, and on and on. I’m everywhere and nowhere all at the same time. On magical days where focus is present, nothing else matters and the results are amazing.
It’s as simple as focusing on work when at work, and on home when at home. Easier said than done, at least in my experience, but worth the effort.
Great post. Thanks for the conviction!
on March 24, 2009 on 7:10 pm
Amen sister! Take it a step further. Take it into our personal lives. If we don’t show up – now. Really, now (see, it’s different than just a few seconds ago). We are giving up our lives. We think about past and future, but the joy of living is in the now. The now of being with the customer that is in front of you with their own crappy day. The now of being with a customer that might just walk away from your product or service or gizmo because you don’t ’see them’, because you don’t ASK, what do they need – now. What’s on their mind? Consider that 99% of the time we are distracted with things that don’t happen, aren’t relevant, and lose their power once ‘gotten’. Our gift is what we have now, and if that ‘presence’ is shared with your customers, you will create THE relationship your company is begging for with your customers. And the revenue. Really. And if you do that in your personal life too – watch out, you might just get what you’ve always dreamed or talked about…….. Really.
on March 24, 2009 on 9:32 pm
Experience the chills of engagement, that is my vote, every time. Just think, you are physically there, but mentally elsewhere??? Well, you really can’t do anything about elsewhere while you are here, wheras you can loose a lot of good customers by being “checked out” while you are here. Sue is right on: Focus on the people here now, worry about elsewhere later