World Social Media Day is here again, providing a great opportunity to inform and educate your own public sector organization about what its social media efforts do to benefit them and their audience: the public.

First, a Social Media Day definition from NationalDay.com:

“World Social Media Day was launched by Mashable on June 30, 2010. It was born as a way to recognize social media’s impact on global communication and to bring the world together to celebrate it. Everyone uses social media every day; it’s how we connect with people all over the world in a simple and fast way.”

In the public sector, globally, social media is still not as effective as it could be for public engagement. While some organizations certainly use it to build relationships and educate the public, there are still so many that focus more on the “media” (one-way broadcast) than its “social” (two-way engagement) power.

As someone who has worked in public sector customer care for more than a decade, I’ve found that World Social Media Day is a great opportunity to educate your organization about what a social media group does and why it does it for the benefit of the brand and its customers. Whether it’s part of your ongoing change management efforts to get social media the credit it deserves or for  onboarding new staff due to turnover and re-orging or just as a friendly reminder of your work, communicating your success and effectiveness can have many benefits. Those benefits? – awareness building, opportunity defining, and relationship creating.

So when sharing your Social Media Day announcement to those employees in your government organization, include some of the following.

An Overview of your Social Brands

In a nutshell, what your platforms do for the organization. This is your elevator pitch. Your mission statement. Your purpose. In my case, we have two brand with distinct purposes, so I like to define them by what they are and how they are different. For example:

• DriveBC – operated by the fine folks at the TMC, this platform shares timely road information so travellers know what they need to know to move themselves, goods and services along our highways. (on Twitter)
• TranBC – provides education and context around the work the ministry does and why we do it to foster trust and accessibility with the public (on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TranBC blog, Flickr, Youtube).

Breakdown the Benefits

Now you’ve given a high level purpose for your social media work, but you also need to explain what that means. How is the time, resources and cost of a social media group (even if it’s one person) justified? There will be many in your organization that don’t understand what you do nor are proactively willing to learn, so you need to make it easy for them. Below are the nine areas I created an infographic on to explain why a strong social media presence matters.

1. To build public trust and relationships – Regularly and consistently engaging with, listening to and helping the public while championing our business areas and their work has built us an invaluable reputation as a service-first organization. 
2. Timely customer service – With a customer-centric mindset, we regularly respond to the public to answer questions, correct misinformation, listen to feedback and note rising issues (all shared with relevant business areas). In 2020, we received xxxx messages we needed to monitor and respond to.
3. Education and context – To better understand and “know before you go,” the public needs to understand what we do and why we do it. We champion proactive customer service, creating content that provides context and understanding based on the questions front line staff receive. 
4. Emergency communications – Advising senior leaders, stakeholders and operations on how best to inform and engage the public through the lifespan of initiatives and projects. 
5. Communication and engagement strategy – Since the 2011 Peace region flood, we’ve been working with districts to share before, during and after updates to show our responsiveness, recovery and work to reconnect communities during fires, floods and extended closures. 
6. Highlight news and announcements – Supporting our media relations group and our ministry in posting timely information including announcements, information bulletins and travel advisories to keep people up to date on the latest progress of our ministry. Metrics have proven we get higher engagement on news by being a consistent online presence year-round
7. Promote safety – Either as needed (illegal U-turns, unsafe summer parking) or as part of larger campaigns like Cone Zone and Shift into Winter, we encourage and teach safety best practices.
8. Humanize our ministry – Whether it’s highlighting our work with First Nations to celebrate our culture, or having fun on Halloween ghouls and ghosts on highway webcams, we regularly reveal our humanity and approachability.
9. History of helpfulness – Sharing historical imagery and stories of our work through the decades to demonstrate we have been a consistent and safety-forward presence for a long time.

By The Numbers

Though telling the story of your work is effective, many are more swayed and impressed by the numbers. As part of your social media program, metric collection, analysis and communication is vital in demonstrating your progress and success (or lack of it). In the case of this internal email, choose metrics that are understandable and/or easily explained (many in your organization won’t “get” social media so don’t alienate yourself further). Though followers, impressions and reach usually showcase the bigger numbers, it is engagement numbers (total engagement and received messages) that have the greater impact. The former highlights whether anyone cares about what you’re putting out into the world and the later notes your customer service engagement operationally. We are talking about the public SERVICE after all.

Fun Facts

What wouldn’t your organization automatically know about you and your team? This is an opportunity to humanize your team and give an inside “sneak peak” into the people behind the work as staff build relationships with humans, not titles and department names. In this section, you could share creative hobbies, interesting milestones, or impressive achievements either professionally or personally. “Social” media is as much about fostering relatability with the public as it is with your internal stakeholders.

Resources for More Information

This email should inspire curiosity. Sure they can ask you, the email sender, some questions but they also should be given the opportunity to learn on their own. In your email, include links to various accessible articles, blogs, videos, etc. that will further provide context.

I shared a podcast I had been a guest on where I explained the work we did, a blog on the many ways you can build public trust through social media, our hub resource TranBC blog where the bulk of our content has shared from, and an infographic breaking down the previously mentioned benefits.

Real Root of Success

Though you’re taking the time to highlight your work in social media, you wouldn’t and couldn’t be effective without the help of the various subject matter experts in your organization. Make sure you thank them for their ongoing support, because any of your success and ability to serve and inform the public comes from their help.

Happy Social Media Day to you! How do you keep engaged with your organization to better serve your audience?

The post World Social Media Day – Public Sector Edition appeared first on Russel Lolacher.

What if we cared about our employees as much (or more) as we do about our customers? For inspiring employee experience ideas, a great place to look is what you’re probably already doing for the customer experience.

“Businesses often forget about the culture, and ultimately, they suffer for it because you can’t deliver good service from unhappy employees.” – Tony Hsieh

I read a lot of articles, books and blog posts about customer service experience and ways to attract, retain and reacquire customers to keep  organizations happy and healthy. Much of that advice is a mix of score keeping; being more human and less of a dick; building relationships that matter; solving customer problems; leading with empathy; etc. All good and necessary. There are some great brains out there that break all this down into case studies and tactics that leaders can really use to better serve their customers. I try to do that myself in this blog from time to time too.

But what about serving employees?

The Substitution Game

There are some great resources on employee experience but certainly not nearly as much as around the customer experience. With a quick Amazon book search, customer service keyword results are north of 4,000. Employee engagement hovers around 3,000. That says a lot.

So recently I started a little game. When coming across social media posts from some of my favourite thought leaders in the customer experience space, I replaced the word “customer” with “employee” and tweaked it to be internally focused, rather than externally. It got a little magical. For example:

The customer has choices. They honor us with their business. Make the customer feel special and appreciated.

— Shep Hyken (@Hyken) May 16, 2021

Can also be:

The employee has choices. They honour us with their time. Make the employee feel special and appreciated.

Or how about:

You call it churn. The customer calls it “shopping elsewhere.”

You call it processing time. The customer sees it as wait time.

Sharing the same vocabulary with your #customer puts you on the path to a more customer-centric culture.

Try it and see. #cx #customerexperience

— Stephanie Thum, CCXP #CX (@stephaniethum) May 20, 2021

Is also:

You call it churn. The employee calls it “getting a better job.”

You call it processing time. The employee sees it as too much bureaucracy to actually get things done.

Sharing the same vocabulary with your #employee puts you on the path to a more employee-centric culture. Try it and see. #EmployeeExperience #EX #EmployeeExperience

"Your feedback is more important than ever." Really? Why? These #CSAT survey requests are so stinkin' insincere. They've burned up my willingness to complete the survey. My experiences w both companies was GREAT, but I didn't complete the surveys because WORDS.#CX #plainlanguage pic.twitter.com/TZfP7goiIv

— LeslieO (@LeslieO) May 16, 2021

Is now:

“Your feedback is more important than ever.” Really? Why? These #ESAT (employee satisfaction score) survey requests are so stinkin’ insincere. They’ve burned up my willingness to complete the survey. My experiences w both employers was great, but I didn’t complete the surveys because WORDS. #EX #plainlanguage

Everything still aligned perfectly. Whether it’s appreciation, common language or asking for feedback, these themes resonate with employees as much as customers.

CX to Employee Experience Ideas

So I thought I’d pull together some common customer service tools, tactics and focuses and give them an “EX” (employee experience) twist. Some of these do indeed exist already but as our culture continues to put customers ahead of employees, it might spark some ideas on how an organization can internally better engage their staff. Or at least measure how they are doing. We can’t forget that improving organizational health improves customer engagement.

• Net Promoter Score (NPS) – a single question used to measure customer satisfaction with a product or service. For example: “On a scale of zero to ten, how likely are you to recommend our business to a friend or colleague?”
  FLIP IT to eNPS Employee Promotor Score – a question or two used to measure employee satisfaction with your organization. This is already used by companies such as Apple, and asks, “On a scale of zero to ten, how likely is it you would recommend this company as a place to work?” Other organizations such as Bain & Company have even added an additional question “How likely would you be to recommend this company’s products or services to a friend or colleague?”
  
• Voice of Customer (VoC) Programs – this is a focus on capturing, analyzing and reporting on all customer feedback—expectations, likes, and dislikes—associated with your company. Done through direct discussions or interviews, surveys, focus groups, observation, warranty data, field reports, complaint logs, etc. this exercise collects customer’s feedback about their experiences with and expectations for your products or services. It focuses on customer needs, expectations, understandings, and product improvement.
  FLIP IT to Voice of Employee (VoE) Programs – your customers certainly have the ability to provide open and honest feedback if, taken seriously by the organization, can benefit the product or service. So do your employees. How do you value their voice and their ability to freely provide open and honest feedback? Capture, analyze, report and act on their candour and through all those communication streams mentioned under VoC. Give your employees a platform to be open and honest to make your organization a healthier and more productive place to work.
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) – a tool used for managing all your company’s relationships and interactions with past or present customers and potential customers. As Salesforce puts it, “A CRM solution helps you focus on your organization’s relationships with individual people — including customers, service users, colleagues, or suppliers — throughout your lifecycle with them, including finding new customers, winning their business, and providing support and additional services throughout the relationship.”
  FLIP IT to Employee Relationship Management (ERM) – a tool that manages your organization’s relationships and interactions with your present employees at all levels, on a personal level. Milestones, achievements, challenges, anniversaries… all in an effort to to better connect with them and help them. I’m sure many staff would love a solution that “provides support and additional services throughout the relationship” when they need them, just like a CRM does.
• Buyer Personas – are, as Hubspot defined them, “semi-fictional representations of your ideal customers based on data and research. They help you focus your time on qualified prospects, guide product development to suit the needs of your target customers, and align all work across your organization (from marketing to sales to service).” They are a way to better personalize your products, marketing and services to the psychographics of your intended customer so it resonates and is more meaningful to them.
  FLIP IT to Employee Personas – use research and data to better understand how to connect with your current and prospective employees. Denise Lee Yohn wrote a great article in Forbes, highlighting that “a company no longer has a single employee experience; it has thousands of them.” So why not treat them less like a homogenous group and more as various groups you need to understand how to communicate and connect with to provide the best workplace experience? We spend so much time and money on understanding our customers to better get money from them, it’s worth the effort to understand our employees to better provide value for them and the company.
• Customer Journey Mapping – as defined by Salesforce, “is the process of creating a visual story of your customers’ interactions with your brand. This exercise helps businesses step into their customer’s shoes and see their business from the customer’s perspective.” It allows you to better understand the many touchpoints, pain points and friction of your customers, including what they are intending to do and how your organization helps (or doesn’t) at each opportunity. Annette Franz has a great book on it called Customer Understanding: 3 Ways to Put the “Customer” in Customer Experience (and at the Heart of your Business).
  FLIP IT to Employee Journey Mapping – on the other hand, this is a visual story of the life span of your employees within your organization, to help you step into the employee’s shows and see their career experience from the employee’s perspective. From recruitment and onboarding to promotions and exiting, it helps provide insight into how your company helps or hinders that process. You don’t know what you don’t know and this helps address that. There certainly aren’t nearly as many resources on employee journey mapping than on customer mapping but this breakdown from Qualtrics is pretty good.

Now think of all the many areas we make effort in to build customer relationships: active listening, consumer trust, consistency, retention, storytelling, responsiveness, feedback follow up, accommodating the customer, etc. … How is any of that not also obviously for the employee relationship?

Why You Should Treat Employees as Customers

Blake Morgan collected a list of stats for a Forbes article that really reinforce the importance of the employee experience and its influence on the customer one.

Only 31.5% of U.S. employees say they are engaged in their work. 

Companies with highly engaged employees outperform their competitors by 147%

Business units with engagement and connection scores in the top 25% had 10% stronger customer metrics.

So what can happen if an organization doesn’t take their employee experience ideas as seriously as their customer efforts?

• Employees can go to the competition, or anywhere else = higher churn.
• Employees feel less engaged and undervalued = less productive.
• Employees feel less connection and belief in the corporate vision/mission = diminished brand value.

You don’t have customers without employees. They are the the frontline for your customer relationships, for brand value representation, and for customer recruitment. They deserve as much of your effort and time.

The post Customer Service is a Gold Mine for Employee Experience Ideas appeared first on Russel Lolacher.

One of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen organizations do on social media, is treating it like it’s not SOCIAL media. They find it far more important to DO a platform than BE the experience their customers expect.

For example, I recently tried to engage with the twitter account of the Canadian arm of an international airline. I addressed my concern to them publicly twice over two days with no response. Their Twitter bio stressed “We are here to help and available 24/7 via DM”. Ooooh so it was MY fault, I didn’t direct message them. So I tried that too. No response.

If your company sets up a branded account on social media, you are making brand promises to meet the expectations of a social media experience: listening and responding, and doing it quickly.

Defining Social Media

– forms of electronic communication (such as websites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (such as videos) (merriam-webster)

– provide the means to create and maintain ties online.‘(oxford)

To dig a little further, “social” is defined as “seeking or enjoying the companionship of others” and “living in a community” while “media” is the means of communication.

So when using social media, it’s expected it’s being done to connect people, to provide communal value through a technical platform. It is a tool to facilitate this connection, and it’s how that tool is used is really the most important thing. That’s where the difference between DOING and BEING social is defined.

What’s Your Intent?

One of my favourite explanations comes from Amber Naslund, an author and speaker with decades of experience in this space. I’m an Amber fan, not only for her wisdom but in how she provides it – with candour. She explains that the difference between DOING and BEING is intent.

“DOING is an activity that anyone can easily replicate.

BEING is about the INTENT behind the actions: wanting to genuinely foster conversation and make connections with people on an individual basis.” – Amber Naslund.

If your intent is to build trust and relationships with your community, you have to BE social with them. The alternative is pretty much just talking about yourself and how awesome you are. Don’t be the narcissist at the party.

But I Content Market!

So content marketing is a big part of your social media strategy. OK. But that’s still not being social, even if people are talking about your content. Check out this video from Truly Social’s Tara Hunt. It dismisses the idea that content marketing IS social media… because it isn’t. We generally killed social (ie engagement) so content marketing rose to fill the void – creating videos, crafting graphics, writing blogs and articles and then sharing them across social distribution channels. Even though this media can be considered “social objects” or content that can create conversation and engagement, it’s not your brand being social. Again, this is talking AT, not WITH your audience.

Social and content marketing are not the same thing

What “Doing” Looks Like

To DO social, you are approaching social media like a check list. Something to do so you can move on to other things in your communications plan. These are a few traits of what DOING social looks like:

• Organization-centric – posts are about what you want to say, with little consideration of your audience
• Broadcasting/push info – communication is traditionally one-way
• All platforms are treated the same – regardless of the social media tool or the audience, messaging and media are treated the same.
• Time is not a consideration – whether when posting or in responding to your audience.
• Messaging is scripted – posts are scripted, approved by multiple levels and canned for use. Focus is on control.
• Risk adverse and avoidance – any interaction with negative comments is avoided. Possibly removed.
• Not “human” – little to no tone or personalization is apparent.
• Metrics focus on large numbers over meaningful ones – followers, total engagement define success with minimal further analysis.

Though the tact of DOING social isn’t ideal for your customers, it does (sadly) have its benefits for the organization.

1. Less time needed – if you care about your side of the communication, you don’t need to waste time on the relationship and trust building part.
2. Less resources needed – as you won’t be responding to customers, the added staff needed for growth won’t be necessary.
3. Easier to manage – with this amount of control and lack of interest in engagement or service, your organization will have less work to do. You can determine how busy you do or do not want to be.

What “Being” Looks Like

To BE social, is to approach platforms as if they are a conversation with the intent of starting and maintaining a relationship. Yes, this can still be part of your marketing and communications planning, but it also must include organic discussion as it would be between any humans.

• Customer-centric – consider your audience with every post, engagement and share to provide the most value to them.
• Conversational – communication is two-way, and is as much about what is said as it’s understood.
• Comments are seen as more important than content – what your customers say, feel, hope for, criticize or overall share with you is more important than posting a video. It’s the life blood of the relationship.
• Organic engagement focused – your social presence embraces natural conversation. It’s about having conversations like an actual person as the basis for your engagement while strategically embracing opportunities to share or post your information.
• Risk aware – you know people say bad things about you and your industry. You know they won’t agree with what you have to say on a particular topic. But you engage with them anyway, because you know that you don’t have to agree or be on the same page to start a dialogue or a relationship.
• Personalized – it’s not about speaking to your customers, it’s about speaking to Sarah or Jermaine or Michael. Customers build relationships with people, not logos or megaphones. So be a human talking to other humans.
• Proactive engagement – don’t wait for your customers to ask you questions. Ask them. Take any opportunity to be
• Engagement/response metrics – you’re looking at impact and whether your engagement is actually moving the needle in regards to brand exposure, sentiment, conversions, etc. Prove that the help you provide matters to your audience.

As you can imagine, taking the more human approach of BEING social has its benefits.

1. Building trust – As repeatedly mentioned in the yearly Edelman Trust Barometer, people are more likely to trust people that are like them. Being relatable and approachable allows you to open the door to that trusted connection.
2. Social capital – your audience is much more likely to be forgiving, defend you or give you the benefit of the doubt if they like you and feel you’re providing value.
3. Higher engagement – it goes to reason that the more engaging you are with your customers, the more engaging they’ll be with you. This allows your marketing and PR to improve in reach and impressions.

5 Ways to BE More Social

So of course you can DO social, but to really have benefits for your organization you have to BE social. Here are a few ways to go down the better path:

1. Engage with your community regularly on their platforms – be a member of their community by sharing ideas (yours and theirs) and using hashtags that matter to your customers rather than ones you’re trying to force upon them.
2. Make sure what and how you are communicating adds value – how can you help your audience? How can you make their lives easier, more informed, better entertained, etc. Look at the intent you come into conversations and make sure it’s beneficial to them.
3. Be open to all types of comments, responding openly, honest and human – your audience isn’t going to love everything you say and do, and that’s OK. Be open to their criticism, to their misunderstanding, to their frustration and see it as an opportunity to be their friend. Listen, acknowledge and respond. You may not come away from the engagement on the same side but you’ll have more respect for each other.
4. Prioritize social more than content – great content doesn’t matter if no one cares about it. Make sure you’re prioritizing relationships with your customers and the ingredients that go into maintaining them. They’ll care a lot more about your video, announcement, infographic, etc if they care about you. And you provide that opportunity by caring about them.
5. Have a CRM aka Customer Relationship Management – how often have you reinforced a relationship because you wished them a happy birthday? And you only knew it was their special day because Facebook told you. Take the opportunity to use a CRM to keep track of what makes your customers special so you can personalize their experience. There’s value in knowing their favourite sports team, the first time they bought your product/service, or their customer experience with you to date. With this information, you can be a better friend/business to them.

If this was translated into a personal relationship, BEING social is the friend that’s there when you want to move to a new home, DOING social is the friend that only calls you when they want to talk about themselves or want something from you.

Now who would you rather have in your life?

The post The Secret is BEING Social, Not DOING Social Media appeared first on Russel Lolacher.

Legacy is a funny thing. It’s a term used more and more in organizations when executives or senior management are in their mid- to late career.

Their bosses will ask, or they’ll ask themselves,…

“What do you want your legacy to be?”

What many may not realize is that “legacy” ship, that’s attached to milestones and events, has probably already sailed if you’re waiting until the last years of your career to start considering it. Truthfully, your legacy isn’t in the milestones you’ve achieved, or the money you’ve saved the company or the big events you planned, it’s in the people you’ve impacted by how you made them feel and the health of the organization.

TRUE LEGACY

There are many who come and go from organizations, and before they left they created a new program or process that really improved the company. But time passes on. And no one will remember those people and what initiatives they were associated with. New staff won’t know who they are and others are too busy in their own work to really care after a while. And those impactful programs and processes? They’ll get stale over time and need to be revamped or removed as new technology forces them to change or become obsolete.

True legacy is in the people you’ve impacted and influenced. It’s the feelings they have for you when your name is brought up and the things they say about you when you leave the room. If you want a great legacy, focus on the relationships and the support you provide others in their journey.

THE DARK SIDE

Having a legacy doesn’t always mean good things.

I have worked for a few individuals, who may have gone on to other things, but left a horrible legacy. When their name is mentioned, many only feel anger and frustration from the time they worked with them. Now those people may have created amazing things before and after they left the organization, they may have been a great mentor to some, or they may have gone on to change as a person after leaving the organization, but their legacy is still based on personal and negative interactions. That’s the impression they left behind.

One “leader” sat in their office, a room that was between the communal work spaces of his staff, and rather than email, instant message, or come out and engage with his team, he would yell from his desk if he needed something. Many years later, I can’t remember how good he was at his job or how he inspired me to be a better leader, but I do remember him yelling.

I use him as a cautionary tale of how not to lead. That is his legacy.

LIKE HAVING A KID

Many will think about children, when they think of legacy. Let’s use that as an example.

Is your legacy the fact that you had a kid (result)? Or is your legacy that the child grew up to be a bully (dark side)? Or is your legacy that your children are amazing people who are amazing to other people?

Replace “child” with “organization”. Is your legacy the job you did (result), the projects you finished (result) or the amazing future leaders you helped create that will contribute to the ongoing health of the company (people)?

What kind of life do you want your organization to have and what are you doing to make it a healthy one?

INFINITE vs FINITE MINDSET

To truly build a lasting, positive legacy, it’s important to have an infinite mindset.

Following on the theories of Dr. James Carson, Simon Sinek wrote a book on the importance of the infinite game mindset over the finite mindset. Those that play with a finite mindset are looking to win something, to defeat someone else, to check a box. Sports games easily fall under this category with a focus on wins/losses and stats to show who’s better than whom. But many leaders also take this approach within organizations. Whether it is to “crush the competition” or to win awards or to “just finish this so I can move on to the next thing.” Sinek argues that an infinite approach is far better and healthier for leaders and the organization. He uses the example of a marriage, where no one is a winner or a loser, but rather consists of people working together to improve and strengthen the relationship.

“Players with an infinite mindset want to leave their organizations in better shape than they found them.” – Simon Sinek

Are you results-oriented or people-oriented? As mentioned before, focusing on the former, can hurt the latter. But, focusing on the latter can only improve the former… and help build a great legacy.

I remember years ago, talking to a friend of mine who worked in an executive office. We were discussing the work of another member of the C-suite and my friend remarked how great they were, how effective they were and how productive they were. Yet her perspective was from the top down, not the bottom up. She saw the tip of the iceberg, only what this person did for her and her office (the results), not how she got them (the people). This person was known more for bullying, intimidation and a lack of respect for those doing the work to impossible deadlines. My friend saw the results, not the wreckage. My friend and this executive were both working with a finite mindset.

An infinite approach is about inspiring your team people to solve problems to the best of their abilities, helping them learn from their mistakes, giving them all the kudos for their success, connecting their work to its value and to be leaders who lead.

BUILDING YOUR LEGACY

As you look to build your legacy in your organization, here are a few things to keep in mind to build a successful one:

1. Create and nurture other great leaders – I’ve heard the term “leaders create leaders” but I’d like to clarify the importance of creating great leaders. There are many who fall into positions of leadership that are ill-suited (think Michael from The Office) and they aren’t bettering the organizational health. Great leaders do. Make those.
2. Recognize and elevate those around you – as a leader, your job isn’t to make your boss happy, it’s to create the space for your team and others to grow and thrive in. Take every opportunity to brag about your team, give kudos to others at every opportunity, and appreciate the time and work your coworkers put in.
3. Lead with curiosity and collaboration – everyone has something to contribute and the only way you understand and appreciate their value is by connecting without ego, asking questions and looking for opportunities to work together. You’ll be remembered for it.
4. Foster self- and situational awareness – one of your greatest super powers is knowing yourself and knowing your environment. This knowledge and how it informs your interactions with others is one of your most effective legacy tools. For example, be aware and a-tuned to how:
   • you react in any given situation,
   • your actions influence others,
   • others receive information and interpret it,
   • corporate culture has an effect on someone’s career,
   • historical decisions have challenged the present and future, and so much more. 

Leave your organization healthier than when you joined it. That is the legacy you should fight for every day.

The post What Will be Your Leadership Legacy? appeared first on Russel Lolacher.

Adding an internal podcast to your suite of corporate communications is not just a tool, but rather a social object – an object creating a human connection. This can be both between the guest and the host, and the community (coworkers, executive, etc) listening to the conversation. Done well, it can serve so many purposes, all helping engage your employees.

The post How Internal Podcasts can Help Engage Your Employees appeared first on Russel Lolacher.

Time flies, and my decade in the public service at the BC Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure has certainly attested to that. Ten years of leading a provincial government team in web services and social customer care has been a challenging and rewarding experience.

Oh, it’s been amazing. Our scope of work has grown from those early days to not only include leading our ever growing social customer care program and web development and maintenance but also in leading the business of DriveBC, hosting the annual Customer Satisfaction Survey, managing highway webcams, content marketing (video production, graphics, writing), communications strategy and consultation, user experience and research, newsletter editing and distribution, stakeholder relations, promotion, event planning, audio production, presentations, digital asset management, emergency communications, mentorship, change management, and more. I work with an amazing team of people that have almost all been on this journey with me from the beginning.

I have the pleasure of working within an organization that prioritizes customer service, which has been a huge benefit as we’ve worked to integrate our non-traditional pubic engagement and digital communications into the ministry’s operations.

With 10 years under my belt in the public service, there’s nothing like a milestone to get you feeling introspective. So here’s just a bit of what I’ve learned so far:

What I’ve Learned…about Public Engagement

1. Your audience wants to engage with you – conversations are happening about you and your industry, whether you are a part of them or not. Adding your voice provides a much needed perspective and resource, and that’s a great place to start building trust.
2. Listening will serve you and your customers better – really listening to what your customers and stakeholders want and need can be a super power. You’ll find gaps in your communication that need to be filled, misinformation you’ll need to correct, misunderstand to be better explained and all with the opportunity to build relationships and yourself as a trusted resource.
3. Empathy is everything – everyone is coming from a context of their own. Whether they agree or don’t agree with what you have to say, there is a personal reason behind it. You may never know what that is but you still need to approach them empathy and respect their need to say it.
4. People connect with people, not brands – talk like a human. Though great for factual information, overly crafted messaging can make you seem unapproachable and robotic. It can also appear as if you’re not listening to the comments and questions being asked. Be human in your engagement – with humility, approachability, respect and care.
5. Customers are passionate and they care about what you care about – generally everyone wants what’s best for their community. And people are passionate about what they are passionate about. Understand that your audience is interested in your subject matter and really want to talk to you about it, whether it’s their opinion, their feedback, their research, etc. They want to spend time with you.
6. People want to be talked with, not talked at or down to – meet your customers in the same space they approach you. You are not better or worse than they are, just someone wanting to help as best you can.
7. Everything should be responded to, except when you can’t – all comments should be monitored and responded to, even the negative ones. If you don’t have an answer to their critique, tell them their feedback is being shared with the relevant business area and then share it. If it falls to sexist, racist or demeaning language, your moderation policy should be shared and enforced.
8. You’re not just talking to one person – in a public social environment, it’s not just the person asking the question or making the comment, it’s all those who see how you respond to that question or comment. You are a member of a community and need to act as such with how you respond, in timeliness and tone.
9. Consistency is key – whether it’s in your activity or tone, it’s vital to not waver. Trust and engagement are hard to achieve if you only show up when you have something to say or need something. Community is built through actively being a member of that community. You must show up, every day.
10. To get engagement, you must be engaging – whether it’s continually responding or commenting with your audience, creating behind the scenes and interesting content, sharing fun facts or playing guessing games, if you want your audience to find you interesting and worth engaging with, you need to be interesting and worth engaging with. Creativity, empathy, effort, humour… all ingredients to build connection.

Bonus: Embrace customer-centricity – during a user experience (UX) exercise of our public service websites in our team’s early years, one of the feedback quotes was “you wrote this for yourselves, not for us.” That comment was transformative for me and our team. Ever since then, we have made it a point to focus on what the customer would need, what would they want, what would answer their questions, how would they like to engage, etc. This has only helped us grow in engagement with our community.

What I’ve Learned… about Employee Engagement

1. Everything is about relationships – whether it’s with the individuals of our team, our larger branch, our department, the larger ministry, all success and failure comes from the strength of the relationships we form and nurture, or ignore. Collaboration, coaching, inspiration, motivation… no contribution comes without connection to others.
2. Create an environment that supports passion and candour – I’ve always loved the metaphor of growing a plant when it comes to employee growth. A plant grows in the right environment, and so do staff. To get the best from your people and yourself, nurture a space where everyone can be constructively challenged and can demonstrate and explore what drives them.
3. It’s about them, not about you – success is shared by all. Failure is owned by me. Take every opportunity to showcase your team’s successes and the great work they do everyday, including how it’s benefited others and the organization. If there’s a failure, look to yourself to determine how you could have served your team better (communication, support, etc.)
4. Mitigate surprises – when you interact with anyone, make sure you loop everyone in that is impacted by your  decisions. Allow them to ask questions and offer input, while you explain why decisions were made with context. Not everyone needs to agree on the final outcome but respect and trust or informed the more inclusive you are.
5. Let personalities shine – your people are awesome. Provide space for each member of your team to be themselves and let them demonstrate what they bring to the table that is unique and helpful. Don’t try to conform them to some rigid uniform idea of what a “good employee” is.
6. Don’t treat every one the same – because they aren’t. Each works differently, each wants appreciation differently, each have their own strengths and weaknesses, and each are motivated by different things. Be respectful to the group but honour them as individuals.
7. People are more engaged when they see and feel their work matters – make sure your team knows, sees and feels the value of the work they do. Regularly tie what they do to tangle benefits, whether that’s helping a customer or a coworker.
8. Value of regular checkins – especially in an environment of remote work, make sure you check in with your team. This can be done organically (randomly or after a meeting you had) or scheduled (making regular time in the calendar). Both demonstrate your interest and your empathy in their care beyond the daily work you do.
9. Learning is important – happiness can be tied to growth. You want your team to feel that they aren’t stagnant in their role and that they are encouraged to expand their professional development, either for the job they have or the one they want.
10. Trust your team – you hired them to do a job. Trust them to do it, monitor the results. Otherwise, why did you hire them?

Bonus: Embrace coworker-centricity – I’ve always been uncomfortable with the term “employee”. Yes, I know it does have a purpose/meaning but it’s the spirit behind it that has always bothered me. I feel my team are far more co-workers than employees. Though we each have our own responsibilities based on our titles, they are far smarter, more creative and bursting with ideas than I am in many ways. We all benefit from each other. My role is to facilitate their leadership.

Ten years done. And I’m still growing, I’m still learning. And I look forward to so much more in my career.

What has been a gem you’ve acquired on your career journey?3

The post Lessons from 10 Years Working in Public Service Social Customer Care appeared first on Russel Lolacher.

The thing about expectations is they never go down. SMS self service is no different.

Customers are getting exceedingly comfortable navigating digital engagement with brands. And the expectations they have around what service will look like in that landscape continues to rise, whether your organization is ready or not. It’s often said that customers aren’t comparing you to your direct competition, they are comparing you to their last great customer experience. The use of texting or SMS for customer interaction falls under that comparison, whether that’s as a self-service tool or in how you use digital engagement proactively.

In a nutshell, self-service is about your customers finding the answers they are looking for to the questions they have, while proactive digital engagement is your brand making the first step in communicating to your customer to better inform or assist them like upcoming appointments, service updates, etc. (Spammy marketing doesn’t count)

For example:

Banking

• Self-Service: allowing customers to report stolen bank cards
• Proactive Engagement: reminders when renegotiating mortgages is possible

College and University

• Self-Service: report a problem with campus facilities
• Proactive Engagement: alerts when laundry machines are available

Hotels

• Self-Service: questions during a stay
• Proactive Engagement: reservation reminders

It should be noted, before using SMS messaging, make sure to follow the applicable laws, industry standards and carrier compliance requirements for your region. 

If your organization is going to explore SMS in this way, you must understand the expectations your customers are going to have. And they will have them.

From SMS self service, your customers expect…

• Timely responses – when connecting, they don’t want to see there is a 2-3 day business day response wait. When people text their friends and family, they expect a response quickly. That expectation has moved its way into these digital transactions. They want you to engage with them as quickly as “Steve” or “Amy” would.
• Solutions to their problems – they have questions, so they want answers. Quickly. You should absolutely show some personality, either from your agents or a chatbot, but get to the point and answer them. This isn’t an opportunity to put up sales-y road blocks and scripted banter, it’s an opportunity to help and be useful.
• Systems talk to each other – if your customer needs to be transferred to another channel or another agent, whether due to escalation or the nature of their question, they shouldn’t have to re-enter their question, a recap of their issue or their personal information. They’ve done it once, it’s on you and your processes to pay attention.

From SMS proactive digital engagement, your customers expect…

• Personalization – of course people want alerts that impact all their customers and those in their regions, but also look to provide information impacting them specifically. Providing personally relatable information (an appointment reminder, a service they may need based on their last query or search to your website) will help build a connection and provide real value to your customer.
• It to be easy – whether it’s to opt into or out of  the service, or the text language used to inform and engage the customer, interacting with your business should never be difficult.

As far as expectations of what customers DO NOT want from their SMS interactions, whether it’s self-service or proactive, is that by engaging over this channel, they are giving permission to be spammed with marketing. Text messaging tends to be a much more personal medium for many, as it’s the same channel their friends and family use to interact with them. So engagement must be personal while constant texts about the latest contest or 20% off sale will only be irritating.

To meet the SMS self service expectations of your customers in 2021, consider…

• Using SMS/texting as a relationship tool – check-in to strengthen the overall relationship, send them a gift to improve loyalty
• Continually seeking out opportunities to improve your customer self-service – are people being dropped? What is the percentage of resolved interactions? Don’t just launch it and forget it. Make sure to monitor and improve the customer experience.
• Using the SMS data to improve products/service – look at the feedback and trends acquired through this voice of customer channel. This is a valuable resource to learn about your customer, what they want and how they want to use your product or service. Improve accordingly.

Customers have strong expectations about the kind of service experience they want from organizations they engage with. And whether your organizations think they are high or not, is irrelevant. You’re either meeting them or you’re not. Make sure your SMS service is far more the later than the former or someone else will.

This post was originally included as part of 8×8’s Contact Center Trends to Watch in 2021 ebook.

The post Find Balance in SMS Self Service and Proactive Engagement appeared first on Russel Lolacher.

You have employee experience superpowers and you may not even know it.

I’m a super hero nerd. I grew up on Marvel comics, reading about the latest adventures of Spider-man, the Avengers and the X-men. And, with the rise of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, I’m a very happy, happy boy. Watching these extraordinary people show the world their astonishing abilities is so much fun. As a kid, you always imagine you have those same abilities – flying, turning invisible, looking good in spandex, etc. and picturing yourself in that world doesn’t have to end at a young age. Especially in the workplace.

As an adult, it’s possible to go beyond imagining and actually demonstrating superpowers. No, I’m not talking about X-ray vision or super-strength but rather going beyond the efforts of average humans. Really, what is a “superpower” but using extraordinary abilities that regular people don’t.

And making that extra(ordinary) effort with your colleagues, your coworkers, your employees will only help foster a culture of community and connection (that’s a lot of C-words).

Importance of Engagement

Why should you leap tall buildings in a single bound (metaphorically) when it comes to employee engagement? Because those “average humans” aren’t. In 2019, Gallup reported only 35% of employees were engaged at work – defined as those who are highly involved in, enthusiastic about and committed to their work and workplace. And that was a 20 year high.

In another study, 82% of employees don’t feel that their supervisors recognize them (a key factor in engagement) enough for their contributions. So looking at that, 65% of employees aren’t engaged and only 18% feel adequately recognized for what they do. Ick.

In a nutshell, the standard employee experience provided by mere mortals isn’t great. There is a lot of room for someone, anyone to sneak out from their secret identity, jump into some bright tight clothing and wow them with such things as respecting their time, thanking them regularly and organically, and valuing their input. It sounds very cape-worthy, doesn’t it?

Find Your Superpowers

An employee experience superpower is one that is used frequently and with intent. It is used to improve the relationship between those involved and model behaviour for others. These superpowers aren’t just there to save the day, they are there to influence the culture of the organization with their good deeds. Hell, they might even save humanity.

To help, I’m getting EXTRA nerdy and associating these superpowers with heroes associated with them:

• The Self-Awareness of Iron Man – how well do you know yourself? To be able to engage with anyone, you have to know who you are, and that includes your weakness, your strengths, your annoying habits, your triggers… anything that will either help or hinder your ability to connect to others. To understand others, you first have to understand yourself to see how you will react and rise to meet others. Tony Stark is extremely over the top, but he knew that about himself. He was aware of both the good and the bad. And it made him a stronger hero.
• The Situational Awareness of Daredevil – read the room. That can include anything from body language and how someone’s breathing, to where someone sits in relation to you, to the kind of day they are having (personally or professionally). All this data informs how you will engage and the kind of space you’ll provide for them. Matt Murdoch was blinded as a child, but his radar sense ability allowed him to perceive everything that was going on around him.
• The Active Listening of Black Bolt – right there, in the moment, having the strength to really listen to what is being said to you. To not interrupt, to not let your mind wander, to not check your email or texts, but to be there for the person that’s wanting your attention and your time. Valuing their words more than your own. Black Bolt, king of the Inhumans, had a voice that would crush mountains so he was forced to be absolutely silent in every interaction with full presence.
• The Patience of Professor X – take the time to look at the larger picture, and at how every interaction has bigger impacts on the larger corporate culture. Use your tolerance and restraint to make sure relationships made and nurtured now can have a lasting effect in improving your organization. Charles Xavier had a long-term vision for peaceful co-existence between mutant and human, and to achieve it he would build relationships with governments, allies, enemies, and anyone in society that would help. All to achieve the greater dream.
• The Empathy of Superman – putting yourself in the emotional place of another person, relating to their experiences and feelings and understanding the value they hold. This allows you to connect on an emotional level that only adds more meaning to the relationship. Rather than literally be an alien to humanity, Kal-El spent his entire life wanting to be human. Watching them and trying to understand how they live so he could relate to them better, which all helped to fuels his need to keep them safe. I really enjoyed this article on it.
• The Consistency of Captain America – your values do not waver, no matter the day or the circumstance. Work may continue to throw curveballs at you, but how you show up for your team and your organization can be relied upon and trusted. Steve Rogers grew up before World War 2 and was then frozen for decades before re-emerging in the 20th century. And he was still the same person. Though he adjusted to the times (societal progress, technology kinda), he was someone you could rely on to do the right thing.
• The Humility of Spider-man – the ability to put aside all ego and any perceived status, in order to be approachable and accessible. You’re not better than anyone else, regardless of their role or affiliation, and through that humbleness you are someone people want to be around. Peter Parker is considered one of the most accessible superheroes because his problems (paying the rent, job stress, relationship issues) are our problems. Even though he can lift 10 tons and swing across the city, he’s still the hero that forgets to wash his outfit on occasion. He’s us.

In the workplace, you have an amazing opportunity to be more than is expected. Statistics show that employee engagement and the employee experience isn’t where many want and need it to be. So, put on your cap, or tiara, or boots or whatever you like, and show them your superpowers.

The post 7 Employee Engagement Superpowers for More than Mere Mortals appeared first on Russel Lolacher.

It doesn’t need to take much for a customer to break up with your business, go to your competition and never use your service or product again.
And there are so many factors that can go into it – the kind of day the customer is having, the kind of day the business is having, weather conditions, misunderstandings, miscommunication, etc. Is it fair? Hell, no. But it happens all the time, and it’s up to the business to mitigate as best they can.

Don’t Owe You Anything

A few years ago, I got into a bit of a heated conversation with a local bakery after I had shared a bad experience online. Their baked goods were amazing but their staff put on the impression that you were bothering them by even being in the store. So, I wasn’t planning on going back anytime soon.  The owner had a big problem with this. Oh, not with their staff’s attitude (which I’d heard similar complaints about from others quite a few times) but rather that I would decide not to buy his products again after a bad first impression.

I “owed it” to the small business to give them another chance.

Um… what now?

Should I give them another chance? Probably. Do I owe them another chance? Very much not. It’s my money to be spent on the experiences I want. The possibility of being ignored by wait staff isn’t something I’m looking to invest in again. And that was a first impression, and I’ve never been back. Many customers break up with businesses at any point in the customer journey, all for some would consider “minor” reasons. But they aren’t “minor” to your customers.

It Doesn’t Take Much

I reached out to my community to ask for examples of experiences causing them to quit using a service or product.  But these examples couldn’t be big – no blow ups or crazy fails, just every day occurrences that bothered them enough to break up with the business. Here’s what I heard:

I walked into an electronics store and nobody greeted me. I then walked up to a sales client and asked if they had any phones available in my preferred brand. He said yes. That was it. I then asked if they used my carrier. Another simple yes. It was a most awkward one sided conversation and I felt this salesperson really didn’t care one way or the other about my business. I bought my phone online from another retailer, and I won’t go there again for any other needs. – Miranda

I moved veterinarians because two of the nursing staff who handle my dog well (he’s not nervous with them) moved clinics. Nothing to do with the actual vet. And I left [a credit union] because they became very dog unfriendly overnight changing their policies. So I moved to [a bank] who love dogs and [an auto association] for insurance because they were also dog friendly. I’m seeing a theme here, the dog dictates my business choices!! – Sara

I’ve left banks for having restricted hours. If I’m working 9 to 5 and you can’t serve me outside of those hours it’s not going to work for me. I also recently made a decision not to return to a place of business when I discovered the owner was supporting anti-mask protests. – Page

I stopped going to a barber when several people told me the staff were bad-mouthing a restaurant I enjoy. To customers. With no provocation. – Heather

I left a dentist because their receptionist was rude. – Jill

I stopped shopping at a tech/hardware place when their sales person consistently ignored the person asking detailed questions about a specific tool and only spoke with the husband. Even after he shouted (Yes, SHOUTED), “Stop talking to me. SHE is the one buying the thing!” – Heather

I stopped going to a major grocery chain because they overcharged me on my bill, then had me stand in a customer service line for a refund for an additional 20 min wait. Not once, four visits IN A ROW. – Erin

Generally, high-pressure sales will guarantee I don’t go back. [A video game store] has owed me $500 since December and you can’t even communicate with them about it… I will never buy anything from them again. But that sort of thing, thankfully, is rare. – Shelley

I changed dentists after I witnessed him berating his employees. I didn’t just change though, I told him exactly what I thought of his approach and that I would no longer being seeing him. – Annette

[I’m not a fan of] overly chatty (lonely proprietor) who then shares details of our last visit when I bring someone with me who has no business knowing that.  – Jim

Went to the dentist and the hygienist was really rough. I ached for days. This dentist has an automated follow up by text that asks if you left smiling. I replied no. Dentist called and I told him. He first tried to make it sound like I was just sensitive to a “thorough” cleaning. I’ve had cleanings before that were thorough. This was more than that. Then he admitted they had been addressing issues with her because she’d been having personal problems. As if that was some kind of valid reason for her to hurt me. He said the next time I went in, he’d clean my teeth. After the non-apology apology, I didn’t want to go back.
P.S. I need a new dentist. – Kevin

There’s one restaurant in town I won’t return to ever because… servers ignored me to the point of me having to flag someone down for every part of my dining experience, while said server “keke-ed” with another table. Happened twice because I figured maybe it was just that day. I’ll never cross their threshold. – Janice

Speaking with someone, in person or on the phone, and being fully aware that they’re responding to your enquires from a script. I’ve worked enough jobs to know the script, come up with something original!  – Melissa

Our condo parking area is next to [a local bakery]. Its customers frequently – and I mean a lot – park in our spots, on the apron, in the visitor spots, despite signs and despite street parking around the corner. We asked the bakery owners to post a small sign asking its customers to respect our private parking. They were rebuffed. I not only will not patronize that outlet, I will take every opportunity to disparage it. A 3 inch by 4 inch sign is what we asked for. What they got by flipping the bird is relentless resentment. – Kate

[A local pizza place] gave away our order not once but twice to other customers. The second time was a free pizza for the first mistake. – Jen

A local gift shop. I haven’t been there in almost 10 years. I used to love buying cards, kitchen stuff and housewares there until the cashier was extremely rude to me when my baby woke from a nap crying mid-transaction. Her loud sigh of exasperation showed she was clearly displeased to have a crying baby in the store. I left the things I wanted to buy on the counter and never went back. – Lara

I stopped going to a the local gourmet foodie store because of the owner’s grumpy response when I came in to pick up one item with my then four-year-old in tow. (My well-behaved, recently-fed, even-tempered, gourmet-in-training, four-year-old, I might add). She suggested I leave my child alone in the car while I shopped. I didn’t buy the oven mitts and that store has probably lost out on $5,000+ worth of purchases from me over the last 10 years (plus the purchases of other parent friends in the area). – Angela

Owner who’s polite but never greets me with recognition (despite the fact that I’ve been ordering the same coffee drink almost every single weekend for the past six or seven years). I still go cause I like the coffee – but am irritated that I do. I do find that I  go less because of his breezy indifference. – Hope

I will never go to my local coffee shop again. Years ago, I was waiting for my coffee and I overheard their staff talking about what a waste of time it was to fundraise for “Run for the Cure”. – Erin

After years as a customer, left a telecommunications company for their competition because a manager trying to “help” me kept interrupting me mid-sentence even after I asked her to stop interrupting me and let me finish. – Liz

No one to talk to. Overly aggressive or rude staff. Being dismissed. Every one of these are legit reasons for someone to break up with a business, because they feel personal even if they aren’t intended to be. It really doesn’t take much to lose your customers. And think of all the potential customers they are going to tell of their experience.

How to protect yourself from a break up

Things happen. We’re humans interacting with humans, so there’s always an opportunity for error on any given day. But, that doesn’t mean your business can’t reduce the chances of it impacting customer retention and causing a break up. Keep these three approaches in mind:

1. Build relationships  – what will over come any bad experience, is a great relationship. Customers are much more forgiving and understanding if they feel like they have a great connection with your business. That they feel like you have their best interests at heart. As with personal relationships (and this is one as well), forgiveness is much more available with a strong personalized connection.
2. Really listen to your customers – many businesses have challenges like those illustrated above, but it’s important to realize that and then do something about it. A business can flag these issues by really listening to conversations online, analyzing emails/phone calls received and taking stock feedback surveys, all for opportunities to do better. Address the mole hill concerns before they become customer experience mountains.
3. Silent shopper yourself – there’s something to the idea of an undercover boss. Take an active role in reviewing your processes and touchpoints as they happen and do a gap analysis between what is actually done versus what the customer expectations are. It’s another great opportunity to learn.

Here are a few suggestions on building trust for your digital engagement that could be considered in-person. What are some “small” (note the air quotes) ways businesses have lost your business, causing a break up,  and what could they have done to get you to come back or brush the incident off? Share below.

The post Customers Do Not Need a Big Blow Up to Break Up with You appeared first on Russel Lolacher.

We can love what we do and still need to practice self care to address our mental health.

In providing customer care to your customers through frontline services (social media platforms, LIVE chat, phone, in-person), you will engage every day – answering questions, correcting misinformation, listening to concerns, passing on feedback, etc. This is all in an effort to grow as a trusted resource and build relationships with your customers.

Take Self Care Seriously

But, as with any frontline communications role that involves engaging directly with a customer, it’s not always easy. Whether it’s a recent announcement, progress on a project, delivery of a service, explanations on why a company decision was made… some topics can be met with resistance, and sometimes that’s putting it mildly. Your responses could be considered “not enough”, or “too much” in areas that are sensitive or “completely wrong” all together. And on social media, it’s quite common for people to express their displeasure to you far more extremely than they ever would face-to-face.

It is absolutely important as an organization to provide accessibility for your audience and to regularly engage with past, present and future customers. It’s hard to build a brand and customer relationships if you aren’t there to have a relationship with.

But it can add up. On Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, your blog, your LIVE chat, your inbox, etc… you can get 100s (and far more) of messages a day. Sure there are some messages of curiosity, kudos, and sharing but a lot of it is going to be frustration and conflict.

And though you may practice patience, empathy and a customer-first approach, it can be hard on a person’s mental health being challenged or “attacked” as the front-line contact to that displeasure. Psychology Today did an article on this, stating a study “found that when customer service representatives receive a heightened number of angry or abusive calls it impacts them psychologically and emotionally.”

Here are a few self care tips that I’ve found work during some of those times:

In the Moment:

• Breathe – stop, close your eyes, place your hands on your lap and take a deep breath. A good pause can really help you through a challenging moment.
• Move – get up and stretch. Just taking that brief pause from the conversation you’re having or the response you are drafting can help reset yourself and calm our nerves.
• Take a walk – around the block, to the end of your driveway or to the closest park and back. Just get away from your screen for a little bit and remove yourself from the situation. A quick fresh start.
• Understand it’s not about you – though it’s not a single fix, it does help to not take what is said personally. As the front line, you are a representative of an organization they are frustrated at. It’s not about you, it’s about the concern.
• Talk it out with your coworkers – you are on a team for a reason so support each other. Communicating your frustrations with your co-workers and getting their input, dividing up the displeasure, can really help share the load. You are not alone.
• Know where the “line” is – sometimes the line between frustration and inappropriateness can be crossed. This can lead to abusive, profane, racist, etc. language and is beyond what you should tolerate. If someone has clearly crossed the line, let them know their communications/language is unacceptable. Then share your moderation policy if the interaction is online (you really should have a moderation policy). Seek support from your supervisor if you have further questions and concerns if the matter continues. Again, you are not alone in this.

In Lifestyle:

• Sleep – if you’re not sleeping well or for a healthy amount of time (7-9 hours), you’ll not be setting yourself up to succeed. You’re too tired for that.
• Meditation – take 10 minutes a day to focus on mindfulness and enjoy huge benefits to the rest of your day. It works and science backs it up.
• Regular Exercise – similar to sleep, it helps release stress and provides energy for your day (add healthy food to this)
• Reading – escapism can be a beautiful thing. Whether it’s to take you to another place or time, or help you to think differently, reading is a great way to relax and be present.
• Nature – get outside. That fresh air and change of environment can help with building connections to things that don’t stress you out.

For more ideas on how to handle stress, I put together a blog with some of the best ideas my community had to address this issue.

How do you handle yourself and self care after stressful interactions with the public or stakeholders? How did these ideas work for you? Let me know below.

The post Ways to Prioritize Self Care for the Service Frontline appeared first on Russel Lolacher.