If your employees are engaged thoroughly in the job they do, and the company they work for, they are sure to do better at engaging customers. Start internally and work your way out.
Be sure that employees understand the vital role your company plays in helping to better the lives of others, and how your organization will enrich their lives as well.
Returning to work after the holidays can be tough. January is said to be the most depressing month of the year. The magic of the holidays are officially over, and for some, they may have not even lived up to expectations. New Year’s resolutions seem out of reach. The colder weather can keep many of us barred up indoors. That pesky post-holiday credit card debt seems larger than it did before.
Some will do their best to plan vacations around this time, but for those of us that can’t, make sure the office environment changes pace and still holds some surprises. While January’s infamous Blue Monday may be approaching, remember, it doesn’t have to be, show your employees that they have so much to look forward to.
Employees
1) Swag
Personalized gifts for the new year are a good place to start. Design custom products for your employees that reflect their personality:
Assign the project to someone who knows the office employees well, like the HR Manager, or better yet have your employees take a survey to find out more about them. If you have an extensive list of employees, you can also give them an account credit to design their own products for the office. There’s nothing wrong with branded company products, but something unique to the individual can be more meaningful.
2) A Party or Summit
Crank up the Jimmy Buffet! An office party is always welcomed. And there’s nothing better than a luau to fight back that seasonal depression.
Send out custom invitations for the party to get people in the mood, and then deck out the office in tropical details like:
- Tiki torches
- Straw canopies
- Umbrella drinks
- Fun cups
- Coconuts and pineapples
- Colored straws
- Inflatable pool toys
- Towels
- Beachy landscapes (put up pictures or choose ocean screensavers for your computers or televisions)
- Seashells and other marine life décor
- Throwaway waterproof or Polaroid cameras that you can develop later (actual photos can be way more fun than their digital counterparts)
Serve a smorgasbord of Hawaiian foods and make some Caribbean cocktails or mocktails (throw in a frozen drink or two).
Hire a steel drum band if it’s in the budget or simply create a playlist with island tunes and bring in a Bluetooth speaker.
Encourage your employees to wear appropriate island attire; sandals, Hawaiian shirts, sunglasses, swim trunks, and grass skirts. Bring in leis for your team members to wear during the workday.
Offer karaoke. Orchestrate a conga line. Play a game – fill up a baby pool with wind up fish and hand out fishing poles. Buy a piñata.
FYI: Board games, video games, and other fun, interactive de-stressors are also nice to have for your employees year round. It will improve interoffice relationships and give employees a way to unwind on their breaks.
Start-of-the-Year Summit
Host a summit to bring your team together. Have it at the office or, better yet, a great venue. Plan a list of creative team building exercises, like the marshmallow challenge. Encourage employees to plan a presentation on something they are passionate about, and what they feel this topic could offer your company, its employees, or your customers.
Go over anonymous suggestions or complaints about your company and what you can do to improve them – have employees submit proposals before the summit.
Have employees talk about what they love and a project they were most proud of. Encourage a formal show-and-tell. Share interesting, poignant, or funny office stories, and think about whether your customers might find these stories interesting as well.
End with a catered dinner or office happy hour.
These events don’t have to be just once a year. Try to host them monthly or bi-monthly – go bowling, have a pizza party, do office charity events (it’s also good press).
3) Come Up With a New Plan
The new year warrants fresh ideas. Look at your projections from last year, what things worked, what things didn’t, what haven’t you tried yet? Employees want to be involved with what you are presenting to your customers. Since all of your employees are customers of companies they enjoy, they all have worthwhile ideas for authentic content, products, and services. Listen to them, and show that they are valuable by incorporating their insights into the plan for 2019.
Too many rebuffed ideas will take the wind right out of an employee’s sails; they become disengaged and unmotivated until they eventually take their skills elsewhere. It costs far more to train a new employee than to make a current hardworking team member happy. Make your job rewarding by actually listening to your staff – sometimes that’s all it takes.
Customers
1) Review the Data
What you need to do is look at your triumphs as much as your failures. Positive reviews, bad reviews, and surveys. Examine your budget. Study all reports. And learn what methods sell your products and services best.
A customer needs to know less about what you do, and more about what you do for others.
It’s the authenticity of your company that will win out.
B2C businesses have an easier time changing with what the customer wants – speaking to them in engaging ways – and telling a relatable story. While it may be harder for B2B businesses to tug at heartstrings, evoke emotion, tackle humor, or capture meaningful stories of their products and services, all is not lost. In the business world, goals are usually attached to a bottom line. Sometimes it’s hard to make monetary acquisition seem anything but superficial. But money offers freedom, remember that; the ability to put kids through college, to give your family a better life, and to make an impact on the world.
If the role of your business is to make other corporations run smoother so that they can make an impact, you’re going to want to showcase this. No matter what your organization does, there is a reason for it, a reason why you are still in business— that’s what you need to expand uponand that’s what you need to present. Study your facts and figures, and learn what it was that your customers felt you could do better than anyone else – show it to the world. Always be willing to improve.
2) Feed the Need
Listen to your costumers. They know what problems they face each day, in their businesses and in life. How can your products and services quell them? It doesn’t matter what your company offers; you must show the need.
Clothing, besides its practical uses, offers confidence.
A tasty beverage quenches one’s thirst, but it also brings people closer together, it offers an extra component in a cheerful bond.
Greeting cards strength relationships.
A spiral notebook at its core is just a recording tool, but it can also be the basis for starting a business and for generating new ideas that could essentially change the world. It can be customized to the individual — they can add colors, patterns, graphics, text, and photographs to make it their own, it’s an expression of individuality, and it’s a meditative tool for self-reflection and self-exploration.
All products and services can help us grow! Whether you offer software, shipping services, marketing tools, or paperclips, study your customers and see how these products and services fit into their lives.
Think of something you haven’t thought of before and begin the year with new ways that customers can use your company to enrich their lives.
3) Have a Conversation
Talk to your customers, not down to them but with them. Do it through your business, show that you are listening. If you affirm that you are willing to help, to grow with your customers, and that you understand their needs, great ideas will flourish organically.
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