160: Year in Review: Bringing People Together

Charlotte Ward: 0:13

Hello and welcome to the Customer Support Leaders Podcast, episode 160. I'm Charlotte Ward. This week I continue to look back at 2020. If you're listening to this real time, it's Christmas Day 2020. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas or holiday season, whatever you choose it to be. At this time of year, in the most difficult of recent years, it's a time that we think about coming together. It's a time we think about spending time with friends and family. I don't want to speak too much today. I'm just going to take this opportunity to look back at some occasions earlier in the year when I was able to bring people together. In March, some of my guests came together on the podcast for a series of panel discussions. Here are some highlights from those conversations. Merry Christmas.

Lauren Eimers: 1:17

Everyone is making it up as they go. Truly. Um because once you get into a leadership position, you realize that the people who promoted you, they had no idea what they were doing either until they figured it out. So one, people are making it up as they go. And two, um, it's okay to hear no. And just to just reach a little bit further, get a little bit more uncomfortable than you usually would because comfort zones aren't where growth occurs. And if you're not growing, you know, you're stagnating. So everyone's making it up and get a little scared once in a while. And um oh, one last thing. Leave the door open behind you.

Sarah Betts: 2:01

I keep saying this to everyone have grace, have grace with yourself, have grace with the people around you. Um you know, there's always the saying that you never know what someone was going through. And now we kind of have a peek into that. The person that we're working with, you know, they may be worried about parents or children or partners, or they may be on the verge of losing their job, or any number of things. Um so I think the kindest and most important thing that we can do that will get us through this at work, at home, in every facet of our lives, is to just have grace and mostly with ourselves. And that's a reminder to myself because that's the one I struggle with.

Matt Dale: 2:38

I think trying to think about it from their perspective too, and and being ready for whatever situation comes up. So making sure there's a tissue box on the desk, having a box ready or several boxes ready and available if they need to clear out their desk. I I always try to think I've seen some people that want to just leave and don't want to talk to anybody. And I've seen scenarios where people want to come and they want to say goodbye and hug people and and go through that whole process. And I want to make sure that I'm honoring them in whatever that is. So if you want to sneak out the back door, you know, I'll actually say that, hey, you know, you can go talk to people. I've got boxes. If you'd rather, you can sneak out the back door, I'll get your stuff ready and you can pick it up later. Whatever you're most comfortable with, how can I help you through this so that you're not you're not feeling awkward?

Craig Stoss: 3:19

Allow your employees to have these conversations, to have the tools available. I go back to my example of speaking to a person in person in an airport who couldn't fix my airport airline related problem. I mean, that just seems ridiculous to me for a customer experience. So make sure your employees are set up to take the actions that you expect to happen. You know, the phone calls, the messaging, the consistency internally is delivered to your employees at the right times.

Lauren Eimers: 3:46

If you can operate from a firm foundation of empathy with, you know, healthy boundaries, um, empowering not only your team, um, but giving them, you know, the autonomy to serve those customers, but also having that clear North Star from your leadership. In the absence of micromanagement, I think you've got a really great little stew of um success, customer success, customer centricity, team centricity, and kind of that people first attitude.

Charlotte Ward: 4:17

That's it for today. Go to customer supportleaders.com forward slash one six zero for the show notes, and I'll see you next time.