Author: Sienna Anderson

Business Process Mapping – The 8 frustrations you can face without it

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson
By Mark Hamon, Risk Management Training and Safety Consultant Sydney. Sometimes the work environment can be a little crazy, have you ever had those moments a customer calls and wants a solution yesterday. In these times staff can be stressed, time poorly allocated, communication breaks down and quality can suffer. Do you have a work culture where you’re constantly putting out spot fires and wish you could be more organised.  Streamlining of your business processes can reduce errors, reduce costs, and save on both time and money, so ask yourself the following questions about your operating processes:
  1. Are you sick and tired of dealing with bottlenecks and missing deadlines?
  2. Stressed or frustrated with customers complaining about errors or poor quality?
  3. Having to fit rework into an already busy and conflicting task schedule?
  4. Employees in denial or blaming each other when things go wrong?
  5. Conflict or low morale from a breakdown in team communication?
  6. Costs associated with task duplication or being missed all together?
  7. Frustrated at increased costs from reactive band aid solutions?
  8. Are longer or inefficient operating processes increasing your costs and reducing your profits?
Process mapping of your business operating cycles will support:
  • Communication and better understanding of the tasks
  • Allocation staff or employee responsibilities
  • Time allocation with stages of each work task
  • Better planning of materials and resources required
  • Inspections and standards for quality checks
  • Minimisation of employee frustration, conflict and stress
  • Customer confidence in your product or service
  • Reduced wastage of time and resources
  • Reduced rework costs and errors
  • Timely invoicing and payment from customers
Examples include:
  • Sales process mapping
  • Production process mapping
  • Service process mapping
  • Mapping of internal and external business procedures
Process or task mapping involves a KONA consultant visiting your workplace to create a mapping process customised for your business, the steps involved in this task involves:
  1. Mapping of your business process for product or service
  2. Analyse the process using proven methodologies
  3. Redesign the process
  4. Incorporate new resources into the change process
  5. Rollout change and communicate the process to all key stakeholders
  6. Management review of the improved process
If you have any questions about process mapping for your business operating cycles, then contact KONA Group’s Risk Management Training and Safety Consultant Sydney Specialist.  Mark Hamon can be contacted at info@KONA.com.au or call 1300 611 288

Catastrophic Disasters – 90% chance your business won’t recover

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson
By Mark Hamon, Risk Management Training and Safety Consultant Sydney. The U.N. Office for Disaster Risk Reduction warned that economic losses from floods, earthquakes and drought will continue to escalate unless businesses take action to reduce their exposure to disaster risks. The cost the economy since 2000 has been $2.5 trillion. Reference: https://www.businessinsider.com.au/un-natural-disasters-cost-25-trillion-2013-5 . Do you have a Business Continuity Management (BCM) and Emergency Plan that is benchmarked to global standards?  Listed is 5 questions you need to seriously ask yourself if you want your business to survive. If you answer NO to any of these questions then you are at risk:
  1. Does your business have a disaster recovery plan in place to help deal with the insurance process after the event has occurred?
  2. Do you have a plan of action for the recovery of your business including the clean-up?
  3. Do you have alternative plans for managing employees and making sure you provide a safe working environment in the post disaster recovery?
  4. Have you considered the impact on your business from damaged stock, damaged plant/machinery, unsafe building condition and disruption to customer sales?
  5. Do you have a check lists for dealing with the different types of natural disasters e.g. bushfires, floods, storms?
Now consider this: 40% of businesses don’t reopen after a disaster and another 25% fail within one year according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Similar statistics from the United States Small Business Administration indicate that more than 90% of businesses fail within two years after being struck by a disaster. Reference: https://www.datto.com/resource-downloads/BackupVsBusContinuity_WP.pdf The statistics are quite sobering with up to a 90% of businesses failing within 2 years of disaster, so consider the following if you want to survive:
  • Business continuity plans, emergency evacuation plans and emergency phone contacts Protective document holder for insurance policies, finance and banking records.
  • Back up portable database storage for electronic business files and records e.g. USB sticks.
  • MSDS folders, materials and equipment records.
  • Warehousing stock or products listing and including details.
  • Employee contact details.
  • First aid kit and safety items like small radio, PPE, mobile phone, camera etc.
  • Physical security items e.g. spare keys, code pin numbers.
Insurance companies and emergency services will be in high demand and waiting times may be long. What proactive plans do you have in place so you can help your business recover? Remember it’s not a matter of IF, but WHEN. If you have any questions about BCM or natural disaster planning for your business, then contact KONA Group’s Risk Management Training and Safety Consultant Sydney Specialist.  Mark Hamon can be contacted at info@KONA.com.au or call 1300 611 288

“The Customer Is Always Right” Principle Does Not Always Work

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson
By Glenn Dobson of the KONA Group. “The customer is always right.” This is a platitude often heard around Australian businesses But regularly the question is raised in many Australian sales management training, sales training courses and customer service training programs, with limited resources and budgets it’s near to impossible to get every piece of customer feedback and incorporate it into this business principle. So it makes sense to stop making the claim “the customer is always right” and instead clearly define specific customer experience values which you and your team will incorporate and demonstrate on a daily basis to align with your core service values. Sure, you’ve got to listen to customer feedback but we are in a ‘blame era’ where customers and employees are having less accountability and responsibility for their own actions and are looking to blame someone else whenever they can Therefore it is important you don’t respond to every conflicting piece of advice and feedback from customers In Australian sales training and call centre training in Sydney and Melbourne we often hear sales people complaining that they missed target because “accounts didn’t collect the customer’s cheque; the warehouse doesn’t stock what the customers want; the CRM doesn’t work when…” While it’s good to get feedback from customers, you should determine to what extent you will be using them in making business decisions and how much is just customers exercising their ‘right to complain’ where their feedback is based more on emotion than practical logic. Don’t be like todays politicians who are making decisions that affect the majority based on a minority voice or group!! So What Exactly Is Your Organisation’s Customer Service Philosophy and Strategy? Customer service strategy involves how you are going to have customers experience your brand in a differentiated way so regularly review and ask these 3 questions:
  1. What are our core service principles and values?
  2. What exactly do we want our customers to experience?
  3. How can we best communicate our brand through every interaction?
From day one, you should define your customer experience values. (i.e, easy to do business with, competent, professional service, always ready to lend a helping hand, etc) and set benchmarks for your team as to what is acceptable and what is not That way you reinforce that everything you say and do aligns with your core values. When you have decided on your customer experience values, your business operations should work across the sales, service and support groups to ensure all of these people are able to deliver the desired customer experience with each interaction with customer. How Do I Know If My Customer Service Strategy Is Not Working? When your customer base remains static or is contracting instead of expanding something is wrong. Every sales and customer service interaction with customers is an opportunity to delight them not to disappoint them. When these customers don’t come back to you for repeat purchases it’s logical to conclude that the previous experience they’ve had with your company wasn’t what they were looking for. So it is important to invest in your people and not just systems Hire the right people, not just the best of who was available, then develop them through a practical, customised and results oriented sales training courses and customer service training programs to set them up for success. Then proactively monitor customer engagement via CSAT’s and other KPI’s which help to keep you abreast of how your customer base sees your brand. Keep in mind that the worst customer experiences generally come from companies where its sales or support staff  focus only on the beginning and end of the interaction. You should go beyond these major touch points and think about things that will help with customer growth and retention. To learn more about KONA’s Australian Sales Training, Call Centre Training, Customer Service Training and Sales Management Training and Coaching in Sydney and Melbourne, telephone Glenn Dobson on 1300 611 288, or email Glenn@KONA.com.au  

5 Tips to Show How Customer Centric Your Company Is

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson
By Glenn Dobson of the KONA Group You might say that “THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT” is an overused cliché. And you could be right.It’s been there for years and has invoked many differences of opinion. Customer CentricThrough all these years many things have changed in the way businesses interact with clients and customers but making them a priority continues to be crucially important. In Australian customer service training, call centre training and sales training courses, customer centric organisations stand out as making every customer interaction a chance to build and strengthen relationships with their customers and in the process, impress them. So here are 5 ways to make sure your team don’t forget to put customers at the centre of everything they do on a daily basis. 1. Get everyone in your business involved in customer service. Ideally every employee, from the CEO to the receptionist, from accounts to sales, should be able to pitch in and lend a hand with customer support.Smart companies include ‘none sales’ departments in on customer service training and sales training in Sydney and Melbourne as they realise that not only will participation equip them with the right communication skills, it will also show none sales and service departments how important you regard this working philosophy. 2. Work out a schedule for all staff members to meet with key customers. Customer service training should be a continuing aspect of every employee’s job and organising face to face meetings is one of the best ways for them to really get to know your customers and how your products are used. Sure it may be unrealistic to expect everyone to do 20 meetings a week, especially with small customers, but at least free up the time to work with the sales and customer support people to meet with important customers 3. Make your customers the centre of your business You and your management team should define the kind of company culture you feel is needed for the business with customer service an integral part of it.Set the tone by including customer service training and call centre training updates, issues and concerns during company meetings. Also, as you work out your vision and mission statements make customer service a critical part. 4. Reward service excellence For excellent support from your frontline people, offer performance based rewards and incentives. It shouldn’t just be the sales people who get the rewards.Your office bound top performers should likewise enjoy such rewards of being customer centric by recognising them publicly. Ensure all internal communications reinforce to everybody they need to understand that this concept of being customer centered is important to your business and share real life examples of where employees have made a difference. 5. Make sure everyone has access to customer information. Entering information onto your CRM should not be just the domain of sales people. All departments and every employee should be in a position to know about your individual customers and by entering and sharing information they will become more productive and build more positive relationships. When you make customers central to your business operations, you have a real opportunity to differentiate your organisation from your competition, and by putting these 5 tips in place you will establish the key corporate value that customer service is everyone’s responsibility To learn more about KONA’s Australian Sales Training, Call Centre Training, Customer Service Training and Sales Management Training and Coaching in Sydney and Melbourne, telephone Glenn Dobson on 1300 611 288, or email info@KONA.com.au

Hazardous and Dangerous Materials – Is your workplace a potential Titanic disaster

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson
By Mark Hamon, Risk Management Training and Safety Consultant Sydney. When asked about the potential risk of a disaster in his shipping career, Captain of the Titanic EJ Smith said “it will never happen to me”. It’s very easy to put off safety commitments for another day until a problem actually occurs (reactive safety culture).  Hazardous and dangerous materials can pose a serious threat like fires, explosions, toxic release, employee injuries or fatalities. Reactive decisions after a disaster won’t help when emergency services are onsite and safety inspectors start asking you the hard questions.  If chemical related disaster happened right now in your business, would the blame be pointed at you? Workplace duty of care requires an employer to ensure they manage all hazardous and dangerous materials , so it supports employee health and safety. Any breach with Duty of Care means you as the business owner or manager could face litigation risk and possible prosecution. Hazardous substances – Where employee exposure, can result in adverse effect on health e.g. cancer Dangerous goods – substances which present a  hazard to people, environment or the property, due to their toxicity, chemical or physical properties. What can I do to fix this concern?
  • Obtain a copy of relevant legislation, standards, and codes of practice or industry guidelines for managing dangerous and hazardous substances.
  • Audit review of all hazardous and dangerous substances. Record container amounts for each class/division and packing group of each substance and storage location. Do not store incompatible substances together e.g. Dangerous Goods Segregation Chart
  • Establish a risk register for all hazardous and dangerous substances with easy access for employees or emergency services.
  • Ensure MSDS or SDS information is available for all hazardous or dangerous substances, and complete a risk review of each substance onsite.
  • Keep your chemicals or substances in approved storage facilities e.g. national standards
  • Keep appropriate resources onsite including: PPE, spills kits, firefighting equipment, HAZCHEM signage and employee emergency plans.
  • Make sure all dangerous and hazardous substances are clearly labelled.
  • Evaluate and document risk controls for all hazardous and dangerous substances.
  • Ensure all employees are trained, competent and authorised in the handling, storage and use of dangerous and hazardous substances onsite. Evaluate and review all employee training.
  • Carry out ongoing audits/ reviews for the handling and use of hazardous and dangerous substances.
If you have any questions about hazardous and dangerous substances in your workplace and looking for a solution to your needs then get on the phone (obligation free) and contact KONA Group’s Risk Management Training and Safety Consultant Sydney Specialist.  Mark Hamon can be contacted at info@KONA.com.au or call 1300 611 288

Internal Business Audit – How sick is your business?

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson
By Mark Hamon, Risk Management Training and Safety Consultant Sydney. “99 percent of success is built on failure.” — Charles Kettering Have you ever considered an audit like a health check-up of your business, to identify and put right what might be a hidden risk or going wrong in your business? All business owners need to make sure they manage their risk, customer needs, and litigation and business activities. Do you really know if they are operating efficiently or leaving you at risk?  Auditors will never assume, their role is to find the facts (objective evidence). For an auditor the 3 main areas they focus on is management commitment, quality / business objectives and customer satisfaction. An internal audit will help you understand the following:
  1. Is your employees doing what your processes, policies and procedures say they are meant to be doing? If not an audit can determine areas of improvement.
  2. Are your processes, policies and procedure, out dated or obsolete and need to be changed? If something goes wrong how do you know you won’t be held liable?
Areas of risk to your business can be: Commercial/ legal issues, management activities/controls, economic circumstances, technological issues, human behaviour, natural events, political issues and individual events. Impact issues from risk can include: Organisational behaviour, asset / resources base, direct and indirect costs, people, performance, community issues, environment, intangibles (e.g. good will, quality of life, reputation), revenue and entitlements. So what evidence or bench marking can be used during an audit?
  • Customer requirements including contracts, orders, specifications and briefs · Strategic business plans and project management plans ·         Legislation and regulations e.g. business law, safety law. ·         National and international standards e.g. Safety, Quality, Risk, HACCP, IT Security, BCM, Risk Management. ·         International or domestic conventions e.g. World Health Organisation ·         Industry codes of practice e.g. specific to your industry ·         Company policies and procedures ·         Work instructions
Internal Auditors are trained in a methodology of auditing, including how to plan, prepare, lead and complete an audit and trained to international professional recognition e.g. QSA International. If you have any questions then get on the phone (obligation free) and contact KONA Group’s Risk Management Training Specialist Mark Hamon at info@KONA.com.au or call 1300 611 288 and you can discuss your internal business audit and improvement needs.

Building Rapport helps deliver Exceptional Customer Service

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson

Why bother building rapport?

Building rapport is one of the foundations to delivering exceptional customer service. Our ability to influence customers with whom we have rapport is ten-fold.

Rapport will bridge the gap between parties and pave the way for future business relationships. When we communicate with people that we admire, or share similar interests; our body language is mirrored with the person that you are speaking with.

This mirroring action will result in both parties being relaxed and positive. – This is building rapport!

It’s actually pretty easy to build rapport, if we just stop and think about what we do when we talk to our customers.

Building rapport with our customers can occur when we listen openly to their comments, find some common ground and deliver upon expectations.

Store Knowledge About Your Customers

Storing knowledge of our customers, where possible, such as birthdays, family members or hobbies as well as details on their organisation is critical when wanting to develop rapport.

Easy Tips on How to Build Rapport

  1. Mirror/match body language, tone, verbal cues. Don’t copy! That looks contrived. If you are really listening this will happen naturally.
  2. Flowing on from the first tip, Listen. Listen with the intent to understand, not to be understood.
  3. Ask questions, this really shows you are listening and getting to know the client.
  4. Deliver upon expectations.

If you can follow these simple tips, rapport comes naturally.

Our Ultimate Aim

Our ultimate aim is to ensure our customers become advocates of our business and us as individuals. We can ensure this by building loyalty and rapport.

You might look at the above tips and think, “yeah, I already do that “.

Remember, there is a difference between knowing and doing.

For more information on how The KONA Group can assist your sales team or call centre team please contact us by email info@KONA.com.au or call 1300 611 288.

Business disaster prepardness, why risk a nervous breakdown

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson
By Mark Hamon, Risk Management Training and Safety Consultant Sydney.
“Private-sector preparedness is not a luxury; it is a cost of doing business in the post-9/11 world. It is ignored at a tremendous potential cost in lives, money and national security.”  ? The 9 11 Commission Report
Let’s face it, we are now living and working in a time where business managers are facing increased uncertainty, and more companies are embracing business emergency preparedness. Over the recent years we have been bombarded with media news about natural and man-made disasters, economic instability, poverty, disease, political unrest, cyber risk, terrorism and criminal activity. It tough to run a business when times are challenging and puts a huge amount of stress on managers and owners. Are you laying awake at night worrying about your business, knowing the stress isn’t good for you or your business? Anxiety and depression now impacts 1 in 4 people, a simple phone call to a Risk Management consultant can give you a solution and peace of mind. Ask yourself the following questions.
  1. Wouldn’t you prefer peace of mind, knowing you have a solution in place for emergencies?
  2. If you had a disaster or an unexpected emergency could you cope, and would your business survive?
  3. How would you generate an income, support your employees or family, do you even have a plan?
  4. What are the legal ramifications or duty of care if something goes wrong?
  5. What is the real consequence and costs for failing to plan?
You might ask, OK you have my attention so where do I go from here? The good news is that with the right consultant, you can have instant peace of mind.  You can have a system in place that will support your business, family and employees, especially when unexpected emergencies or disaster’s happen. An emergency management plan can be customised for your business, using national and international standards for emergency benchmark excellence. Once a plan has been established then it’s vital to carry out a test drill of your emergency management plan to determine its effectiveness. It’s not enough these days to have a bit of paperwork in a folder titled “Emergency Management” simply collect dust, you need to know it work. By consulting with Mark Hamon, the Sydney based Risk Management Training and Safety Consultant from KONA Group, you can discuss your concerns or needs regarding emergency and disaster preparedness, so you can have peace of mind. Mark’s background in emergency management comes from real world experience including:
  • Military service and operational training with both Navy (aviation) and Army service
  • Frontline hospital trauma experience as a Registered Nurse
  • Industrial health and rescue (ambulance responder) in the power industry
  • Safety management roles across mining, civil construction, manufacturing and engineering sectors.
If you have any questions then get on the phone (obligation free) and contact KONA Group’s Risk Management Training Specialist Mark Hamon at info@KONA.com.au or call 1300 611 288

Quality Management – 4 ways it can improve business performance, boost sales and save you thousands

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson
By Mark Hamon, Risk Management Training and Safety Consultant Sydney. Quality Management, we have all heard about it, but what are the real tangible benefits for your business? A quality management system bench marked to ISO 9001 Quality Management System (QMS) can:  
  • Improve business sales performance
  • Help with branding and reputation
  • Reduce costly errors in time and money
  • Reduce waste in materials and rework
  • Open up new doors for customers and contracts
  • Enhance your competitive edge
  • Improve the accuracy and efficiency of your business operations.
 
  1. Improve market reputation & competitive edge
Having a quality management system shows reliability and gives your customers peace of mind. The concept allows your company to be measured against a global standard of quality excellence recognised throughout the world. A quality management system can be beneficial to your business regardless if you want the external 9001 QMS accreditation or not. Many customers still like to know their suppliers for goods and services have some kind of quality system in place and ISO 9001 QMS is the global standard. Customers may also see this as a deciding risk factor to choose your business over a competitor (peace of mind), especially if you have a quality standard of excellence and they don’t.
  1. Reduce wastage, errors and excessive costs
Having a quality system can help you reduce errors (e.g. time, money and resources) and identify areas for improvement. Bench marking against ISO 9001 QMS allows you to monitor and measure business outputs in either goods or services. In a challenging or softer market, it’s vital for a business to reduce its operating costs from wastage, rework errors, production delays or inefficient practices. Errors or poor quality re-work can also impact on a customer’s perception of your reputation and reliability. Improved or better managed business processes can also increase your profitability and send a powerful marketing message you’re dedicated to reliability and consistency.
  1. Contracts and tenders in a global market
Many companies or government contracts will request some kind of quality  bench mark or accreditation (e.g. ISO 9001 QMS) in their tender process. In the tendering phase you could be graded according to scale on your company’s  quality and reliability. For the company who has successfully won a customer’s contract, the commitment to quality isn’t over as you can be subjected to ongoing quality audits or evaluation as a condition of that contract. Having a quality management system agives your company and risk management strategy competitive edge in a challenging global market by ticking all the quality boxes your customers need. Quality is a commitment that gives your customers reassurance, trust and reliability in your brand.
  1. Improve company culture, systems and practices
A quality system with training will  give your employees the support and resources they need to better understand the benefits of quality excellence (improve quality workplace culture). Other benefits include a work environment which promotes; management efficiency and planning, enhanced supply chain management, support with change management, employee training, workplace morale and behaviour and communication. Quality management will also allow for employee key stakeholder engagement on  issues such as improving production, reducing wastage  (e.g. time, money or resources), exploring ideas to improve efficiency, driving best practice standards and brainstorm non-conformance issues/errors for improvement/ reviews.   So where to from here? By consulting Mark Hamon, the Safety Consultant and Risk Management Training Specialist from KONA Group in Sydney, a simple discussion of your needs can best determine a plan of action to help you:  
  • reduce operating costs,
  • reduce non-conformance’s and errors,
  • increase profitability and give your company a competitive edge
  If you want to know more then please the contact KONA Groups Risk Management Training Specialist and Safety Consultant in Sydney Mark Hamon at info@KONA.com.au or call 1300 611 288