egyii blog

Today Egyii announces the official launch of Trusted Advisor programmes in conjunction with Trusted Advisor Associates for the Singapore and Asia markets.

Egyii Launch of Trusted Advisor Programme

Trust.

Business leaders are talking a lot about it, but action speaks louder than words.

It is believed that building trust-based business relationships is the single best route to corporate and personal success; and that this truth is becoming more relevant in today’s world.

For more information on the programmes, see the trusted advisor edge.

Team Egyii, Singapore

Being “customer centric” and “client focused” are key ”mantras” that many businesses use today.

But how well are the employees in client facing positions performing under such mantras? Or is it just a lot of talk- mumbo jumbo?

To build a client focused organization, most companies engage processes and adminster rules & regulations. But does a processes, such as a script for a customer service representative, work? Yes, but to a point. Do tight rules work, or do they cause employee bitterness?

Yes, you do need certain rules and processes in place, of course, but with too many in place, employess feel “untrusted.” And that often is the case- the employer does not trust them to do their job.

And when you don’t feel trusted, how horrible do you feel? I feel awful.

Why would trust make a difference? A few benefits of instilling trust for client focused organizations are as follows:

Employees who are entrusted will……

Have more respect for the employer

Look to the employer for help when needed

Be truthful and outright

Be more willing to collaborate and share ideas

Treat the clients better

Be happier and more productive

Tend to stay on the job longer

(certainly there are more to add…)

Two key challenges, in, for example, call centres (one very important area in a client focused organization) are productivity and retainability. These are big issues that an atmosphere of trust would help.

A climate of trust, specifically in a client focus sense, will bring better results.

Trip Allen, Team Egyii, Singapore

Some of Today’s Sales Challenges

Your company has researched, designed and built competitive, innovative and compelling products.

Money and effort has also been spent on marketing and communicating the product benefits…only to soon discover that it is difficult to sell because your competitor releases a similar product shortly thereafter.

The last thing you want to do is do anything out of complete desperation or that is overly drastic…such as dropping the price or losing the sale.

This is just an example but these and other similar challenges confront your front line sales organization daily.

What to do in these and other scenarios? How to differentiate and stay ahead of the pack?

Differentiation through Your People and  Communications Delivery Methods

Your biggest differentiator is your people and how they interact with their clients.

If your people are not prepared to face these tough scenarios and work through them with your clients, then you will have difficulty growing your business and holding onto your key sales drivers, the salespeople (who will end up quitting).

How to work through this? Some examples:

Front line telephone sales need specific skills that outsell  the competition

Salespeople need to create customer value by cross-selling and up-selling

Sales needs to have high impact sales conversations with the customers

They need to present the value proposition in the right manner

How do you ensure that the skills are applied and properly utilised?

The team needs to be motivated and management needs to be aligned. Reinforcement also needs to be applied.

Motivation and Management Alignment Programmes

Examples. To enhance the sales team climate you need:

Interpersonal and team communication

Management needs to motivate the sales team, lead change and build the right team

Management needs to run effective performance appraisals and provide motivational feedback

Leadership needs to be developed through sales performance coaching, coaching the disengaged sales staff, and leading the sales team to success.

Reinforcement Methodologies

Without reinforcement, you lose the skills you have learned quickly. You need to treat learning and development with a five stage process to ensure business results always follow initiatives. Result: each initiative translates to measurable execution by learners which produces concrete business results. As follows:

Align the learning  to desired business outcomes and target behaviours

Involve all in the design of a holistic learning experience

Deliver using the right tools and practicing 80% of the time using realistic scenarios

Embed through active support  and reinforcement through direct managers

Form learning groups to act on barriers that impede performance

Lead with your people and ensure the skills they learn are embedded and utilised.

Andrew Sidwell, Team Egyii, Singapore

Trust. Everyone is talking about it.

This is Part 2 in the second of a series of interviews and Podcasts with the leaders in Trust, in anticipation of our late August announcement on our new programme on Trust.

In this series we interview Nick Morgan, President of Public Words Inc and author of Give Your Speech, Change the World, Working the Room and Trust Me: Four Steps to Authenticity and Charisma. He started his career in writing political speaches and  is a fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy Center and former editor of the Harvard Management Communication Letter.

In this interview we discuss the differences between audience vs. face to face delivery, executives’ rights and wrongs for speeches, trust, the importance of passion and a few stories from his past experiences.

Link to Nick’s Podcast

Trip Allen, Team Egyii, Singapore

Customer Experience and Loyalty

The main driver behind customer experience for companies is building and maintaining customer loyalty. Happy, loyal customers tend to buy more products at higher margins with less associated costs (vs the banks’ cost acquisition of new customers). Loyal customers are also great marketing channels for the banks- word of mouth marketing (and therefore referrals) are the best way to attain well-qualified prospects.  

Customer Experience and Loyalty in Banking- 5 Key Factors

“In banking, every 1% increase in loyalty is associated with a 17% higher likelihood of repurchasing. “ (Lariviere, 2008 banking study)

According to Market Force Information Inc, there are 5 contributing factors that enhance the customer experience and therefore loyalty in banking :

Efficiency

Problem Experience

Knowledge

Relevancy

Trust

(Efficiency and Problem Experience are “the critical and necessary factors,” and Knowledge, Relevancy and Trust are “the factors that drive truly loyalty”)

So what is it that bank clients want?

The Market Force studies showed that customers wanted a knowledgeable banker (“value”) who is engaging (“relationship”).  “Being enthusiastic, sincere, and having a good rapport with customers has the highest impact on customer satisfaction, reinforcing the need to build knowledge, relevancy, and trust.” (Why the Bank Customer Experience Matters. Market Force Information 2008) This will help drive loyalty.

Building Trust to Build Loyalty- One Piece to the Customer Experience Puzzle

There is a lot of talk around building trust, but there is very little action. How to build trust and trustworthiness? It is not simple and it takes time.

Trust in banking needs to be inherently absorbed both internally and externally. Internally is within the organization- front office, back office and management. Externally is between the customer facing individuals and the customers. Without both forces at work, trust does not work.

Trusted Advisor Associates uses the Trust Equation, which consists of building trustworthiness:

Credibility

Reliability

Intimacy

Self orientation

So building trust and trustworthiness is one of the key factors in customer experience and therefore customer loyalty. Live it and breathe it to increase your business.

For more information on trust, see: Egyii- trusted advisor edge and Egyii’s partner in crime-Trusted Advisor Associates

Trip Allen, Team Egyii, Singapore

Trust. It is a hot issue.

This is the second of a series of interviews and Podcasts with the leaders in Trust, in anticipation of our August announcement on our new programme on Trust.

In this series we interview Nick Morgan, President of Public Words Inc and author of Give Your Speech, Change the World, Working the Room and Trust Me: Four Steps to Authenticity and Charisma. He started his career in writing political speaches and  is a fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy Center and former editor of the Harvard Management Communication Letter.

In this interview we discuss Nick’s passions and background, 4 ways to address authenticity and charisma and great speech deliverers.

Link to Nick’s Podcast

Trip Allen, Team Egyii, Singapore

There is a lot of talk on trust today.

But let me ask one simple question. Where is the action?

The following are quotes from financial websites and financial leaders. Can you see the common theme?

“Trusted relationships. Advanced thinking. Our private bankers offer clients a genuinely different service. Our proposition is led by solutions rather than by selling clients our latest product. We will do nothing to jeopardise the integrity of the long-term relationships that we enjoy with our clients.“ Schroders Private Banking Website.

“Company leaders must foster a culture that focuses on integrity, strong execution, quality products, long-term value creation and doing the right thing.” Jamie Dimon, CEO, JPMorgan Chase, reportedly saying that financial institutions need to clean up their act and earn back public trust.

“No matter how sophisticated, no matter how complex, ours is an industry that is underpinned by the fundamental building blocks of confidence, integrity and trust. These are basic principles in running a bank – principles which may have been forgotten along the way.”  United Overseas Bank Ltd. Chief Executive Wee Ee Cheong. 

“There is a certain level of disappointment and a need to re-build trust.” Francois Monnet, Credit Suisse MD and Head Private Banking, Southeast Asia/Australasia.

“The client is the driving force behind what we do: Develop and maintain long-term relationships by actively listening to client feedback in order to build trust and loyalty.” from The Merrill Lynch Principles: Defining Our Shared Values.

“If you look at the financial crisis the world is experiencing, it is a crisis of trust. The main currency we need to restore is trust between businesses and customers, as well as employers and employees.” Alain Rohaut, EVP HR, AXA Insurance.

Can you see anything different about the following?

“Those banks that caused our problems need to step aside. It’s time to go beyond a return to old-fashioned banking. It’s time to restore trust between banks and the customers we serve.” Gerard P. Cuddy, President and Chief Executive, Beneficial Bank, July 16, 2009.

Gerard Cuddy gets it. What about the others? All talk? All marketing? No action?

Trip Allen, Team Egyii, Singapore

Client Relationships 

Although the term “client relationship” can be nebulous and can carry broad meanings, client relationships can be defined as a connection, association or involvement with a prospect or ongoing client in a business relationship.

A “relationship” can be achieved through numerous means, for example:

Someone who “surfs” the internet to look for a product, some value or knowledge.

A customer service representative assisting a client with his needs.

Advertising, PR and word of mouth marketing that connects a product with a client (or a client with a product).

A customer service survey, requesting for feedback.

But, from Egyii’s perspective, the most powerful and meaningful client relationship (for both internal and external business) is a close, personalised, long term face to face relationship.

Challenges Today in Client Relationships

With today’s busy, interconnected and digital world, it is becoming more and more difficult to build and maintain close client relationships. Companies understand the importance of it and have gone to great efforts to enhance their relationships.

Why is it so difficult?

There are too many distractions and there is too much competition for both the companies and the clients.

People are not so loyal anymore as everything is a “click away.”

Many people are leery of the “gun slinging” salesperson looking for “the deal” to meet his numbers.

Companies are too focused internally and not focused on the client.

Companies are too short term focused and not medium to long term focused.

People have doubts and trust less due to the economic environment.

From Egyii’s research and experience, we see, through service driven economies and the need to introduce complex solutions to be competitive, that the most difficult relationships for businesses to attain are the relationships that drive intangible and complex sales and overall business.

So what is missing?

Solutions

In more complex or less tangible business scenarios, what do most people want? People want to be understood and treated like an individual- not as a number. They want that connection, association and involvement. They want help.

They want some sort of relationship.

To build your relationship you first need the tools to manage yourself – your own situation. We call this self management.

Once you can manage yourself, you can start to manage the relationship. We call this relationship management.

The combination of self management and relationship management tools, along your company’s tools (your sales process, marketing and unique product offerings) make for a powerful client relationship programme.

The Benefits of Well Executed, Long Term Client Relationships

The benefits are clear. With long term, solid client relationships you and the client benefit.  

For example:

You attain a more loyal client base. It is proven that loyal clients typically buy more products at higher margin, and they are easier to cross sell and up sell to.

Your operations costs are cut. As the client becomes more familiar with you and your business, less support is required.

It is easier for the client: peace of mind.

Your product and company look different- people become the differentiator.

You become more competitive through your biggest asset- your people.

The benefits of well executed, long term client relationships benefit all parties. It is a win-win scenario.

Understanding one’s self is the key to true knowledge. Aristotle

Trip Allen, Team Egyii, Singapore