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B ig Picture
Bruce Bolger, Managing Director,
Enterprise Engagement Alliance
The Most Overlooked Excellence
Competitive Advantage
that lasts a lifetime.
am always surprised by the extent to which organizatons overlook • made us wait 10-15 minutes every tme we called
the impact their employees have on their brand, productvity, about getng the problem rectfed.
I quality and performance. While companies ofen publicly disclose • sent a text message at 8am to tell us the problem
their expenditures on advertsing – the process of making promises – had been solved and the service call was
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a company disclose a budget for keeping canceled, even though the problem had not been
promises – i.e., engaging employees to deliver on the direct or solved and I had planned my day around the cable When a reward is needed, choose one that keeps on rewarding. Our products are
implied promises made in marketng or sales eforts. technician’s visit. This required another phone call
(and another 15 minutes on hold) to correct.
• made it very difcult to move over our phone more than a gift; they help enrich our lives. They help us become better storytellers by
THE HUMAN FACTOR number once we had decided to go back to our
How many tmes have you experienced a situaton in which the original provider. capturing meaningful moments for us all to share. It’s these moments that enrich us
behavior of an employee or the policies of a company have stopped
you from buying from them? How many tmes have you seen practces, In the meantme, the original company: and inspire us to reach for excellence. That is the true reward.
attudes or policies in your own organizaton that you know are • sent a highly knowledgeable, experienced
hurtng customer satsfacton, quality or performance? salesperson to our home who was candid about
The trouble is that in the past organizatons had no way of the pro’s and cons of returning.
measuring this connecton. Companies like Gallup, Towers Perrin, • communicated with us regularly related to the Find a Nikon product for everyone at nikonusa.com/rewards.
Hay Group, the Conference Board, Aberdeen and others have new appointment.
published extensive research demonstratng the connecton between • installed everything as requested at the
employee engagement, customer satsfacton and performance, yet designated tme so that it works as advertsed.
huge companies contnue to overlook the Human Factor. We see it • answered calls rapidly.
every day with executve or management appointments based on
who someone knows rather than on true performance or capability; THERE’S NO EXCUSE
misleading advertsing claims; marketng promotons with unfriendly Now that we have the old service back, we see that it has
fne print; policies that are infexible or unfriendly to consumers; some advantages – as well as some disadvantages – versus
and on and on. The New York Times columnist who calls himself The the other company that almost made it a wash from a
Haggler has made a career out of exposing these broken promises. technical standpoint. But from a human standpoint, there’s no
comparison, and that’s what ultmately drove us back into the
THIS MAY SOUND FAMILIAR embrace of our original provider.
I experienced the Human Factor frst-hand when our family decided In the old days, companies couldn’t measure the Human
to try a new cable provider six months ago, only to go back to our Factor. Today there’s no excuse not to. We have members of
original provider. I don’t wish to use our media to air personal the Enterprise Engagement Alliance who ofer a wide variety of
grievances, and our experience might have simply refected a rare assessment and implementaton tools to ensure that front-line
bad experience, but the company to which we temporarily switched managers are engaging people, and that people at all levels are
did a number of things wrong that may sound familiar: commited to delivering on the brand promise. The problem
• employed a very green, independent contractor is that there’s stll a generaton of executves leading our
salesperson who outright lied to us about specifc businesses who were never trained in the Human Factor – and
features and procedures related to the switchover to in some cases were actually trained to ignore it as something
make sure our current provider at the tme didn’t try that couldn’t be measured or controlled.
to get us back. This is no longer true, and companies that contnue to
• consistently failed to deliver the level of web- operate with the old mindset do so at their own peril. ESM
streaming quality that we’d been promised.
4 engagement strategies Vol.18 Issue 2
4 engagement strategies Vol.18 Issue 2
Bruce Bolger, Managing Director,
Enterprise Engagement Alliance
The Most Overlooked Excellence
Competitive Advantage
that lasts a lifetime.
am always surprised by the extent to which organizatons overlook • made us wait 10-15 minutes every tme we called
the impact their employees have on their brand, productvity, about getng the problem rectfed.
I quality and performance. While companies ofen publicly disclose • sent a text message at 8am to tell us the problem
their expenditures on advertsing – the process of making promises – had been solved and the service call was
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a company disclose a budget for keeping canceled, even though the problem had not been
promises – i.e., engaging employees to deliver on the direct or solved and I had planned my day around the cable When a reward is needed, choose one that keeps on rewarding. Our products are
implied promises made in marketng or sales eforts. technician’s visit. This required another phone call
(and another 15 minutes on hold) to correct.
• made it very difcult to move over our phone more than a gift; they help enrich our lives. They help us become better storytellers by
THE HUMAN FACTOR number once we had decided to go back to our
How many tmes have you experienced a situaton in which the original provider. capturing meaningful moments for us all to share. It’s these moments that enrich us
behavior of an employee or the policies of a company have stopped
you from buying from them? How many tmes have you seen practces, In the meantme, the original company: and inspire us to reach for excellence. That is the true reward.
attudes or policies in your own organizaton that you know are • sent a highly knowledgeable, experienced
hurtng customer satsfacton, quality or performance? salesperson to our home who was candid about
The trouble is that in the past organizatons had no way of the pro’s and cons of returning.
measuring this connecton. Companies like Gallup, Towers Perrin, • communicated with us regularly related to the Find a Nikon product for everyone at nikonusa.com/rewards.
Hay Group, the Conference Board, Aberdeen and others have new appointment.
published extensive research demonstratng the connecton between • installed everything as requested at the
employee engagement, customer satsfacton and performance, yet designated tme so that it works as advertsed.
huge companies contnue to overlook the Human Factor. We see it • answered calls rapidly.
every day with executve or management appointments based on
who someone knows rather than on true performance or capability; THERE’S NO EXCUSE
misleading advertsing claims; marketng promotons with unfriendly Now that we have the old service back, we see that it has
fne print; policies that are infexible or unfriendly to consumers; some advantages – as well as some disadvantages – versus
and on and on. The New York Times columnist who calls himself The the other company that almost made it a wash from a
Haggler has made a career out of exposing these broken promises. technical standpoint. But from a human standpoint, there’s no
comparison, and that’s what ultmately drove us back into the
THIS MAY SOUND FAMILIAR embrace of our original provider.
I experienced the Human Factor frst-hand when our family decided In the old days, companies couldn’t measure the Human
to try a new cable provider six months ago, only to go back to our Factor. Today there’s no excuse not to. We have members of
original provider. I don’t wish to use our media to air personal the Enterprise Engagement Alliance who ofer a wide variety of
grievances, and our experience might have simply refected a rare assessment and implementaton tools to ensure that front-line
bad experience, but the company to which we temporarily switched managers are engaging people, and that people at all levels are
did a number of things wrong that may sound familiar: commited to delivering on the brand promise. The problem
• employed a very green, independent contractor is that there’s stll a generaton of executves leading our
salesperson who outright lied to us about specifc businesses who were never trained in the Human Factor – and
features and procedures related to the switchover to in some cases were actually trained to ignore it as something
make sure our current provider at the tme didn’t try that couldn’t be measured or controlled.
to get us back. This is no longer true, and companies that contnue to
• consistently failed to deliver the level of web- operate with the old mindset do so at their own peril. ESM
streaming quality that we’d been promised.
4 engagement strategies Vol.18 Issue 2
4 engagement strategies Vol.18 Issue 2
