Today’s episode features two interviews from leaders in B2B organizations who decided to grow their company through focused CX efforts, in which they placed a strong importance on team and employee development. You’ll hear from Rich Sheridan, CEO of Menlo Innovations and Andy Schulkind, the VP of customer experience at Domino North America.
Both leaders place a high value on developing a trained, supported, and efficient internal workforce which serves as a strong foundation for delivering great customer experience.
Menlo Innovations is a B2B company that creates custom software for other businesses, with the goal of “ending human suffering in the world as it relates to technology.”
Domino North America is an industrial printing company that laser prints barcodes and expiration dates on everyday items that customers rely on. From scanning barcodes on items like contact lenses to soda, and prescriptions, Domino is an integral part of a business’s operations.
Build a Joyful Internal Culture
In our conversation, Rich Sheridan of Menlo Innovations shares that he was very intentional in building an internal culture that encouraged optimism and joy. He mentions that the foundation of this culture was instrumental in handling the challenges that stemmed from 2020 lockdowns. Pulling in an analogy from his experience as a pilot, Rich shares that he and his team relied on the principles of lift, weight, thrust, and drag to build a joyful culture.
Lift the spirit of your team: Rich says, “say good morning to your team, engage with them use a little bit of humor, to just just those little things can make the human connection to our team to lift up the spirit of your team, give given environment, create an environment where clarity is valued over ambiguity.”
Reduce the unnecessary weight: Rich encourages us to think about the time you spend in meetings versus taking action. He mentions that sometimes when you go into policy creation mode, you end up creating more red tape around a situation and prevent it from actively moving forward.
Find the thrust of purpose: “Who do you serve? And what would delight look like for them?” says Rich. You need to be clear about who your customers are and be committed to improving their lives.
Don’t let fear hold you back (drag): Don’t shoot down ideas and allow employees to experiment. Rich mentions that when you allow people to experiment, they feel more empowered to bring ideas to the table that can contribute to positive improvements within the company.
When you allow employees to experiment, they feel more empowered to bring ideas to the table that can contribute to positive improvements within the company. Rich Sheridan, @menloinnovation #CX Share on X
Develop a Long-term Plan for Business Growth Centered Around Customers
In my interview with Andy Schulkind, he shares that he developed a 3-year plan to grow the business and obtain more market share by developing a framework that would help differentiate Domino from the competition. While formulating this plan, Andy realized that it needs to be centered around people because it’s ultimately about the experience that they have.
Andy understands that the success of the business is about “being a trusted adviser; it’s being able to deliver on promises, and treating customers as people. And it’s very much almost a B2C strategy that B2B customers are also consumers.”
He also shares that team development is important, stating, “I have very dedicated people that work for me, it’s really helping them become more situationally aware, helping them become more empowered to make the right decisions, even to what we would call failing forward. What do we learn from it? How do we do it better next time?”
Andy says that they spent a lot of time looking at finding the ways that we could deliver a better service or better quality to their customers in terms of making sure orders were entered properly, and in ensuring that their team was trained and got regular feedback about their performance. “We also introduced a really great rewards and recognition program around customer experience. And the other thing that I think was really important as we looked at upskilling our frontline employees was helping them have the right skill set, getting regular feedback, setting some goals and making some improvements so that their role would grow and they would grow within the role.”
As a leader, are you able to serve as a trusted adviser, deliver on promises, and treat customers as people? #customerexperience #employeeexperience Share on X
About Rich Sheridan
About Andy Schulkind
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