Habits Of Amazing People: Create An Anti-NO Zone
In Be Amazing or Go Home, Shep Hyken explains what makes “Amazing people” amazing. In this blog series, I have covered several habits these people have in common, including:
Always showing up early (“Lombardi time”), and
Always acting like you’re “on the clock”, even when you’re not.
In this post, we move on to setting up an Anti-No Zone.
“Imagine a world where the word NO isn’t the first option.”
Just for some reference, it took me about 30 seconds to get past the title of this chapter. So, let me save the “Is he crazy?” moment and say right up front that this does not mean you always say YES. The idea is to try to find another alternative to NO. I read this chapter twice to absorb the idea entirely and have started to implement it—with excellent results—when working with our customers. My next goal is to use this internally.
I am sure each of us has had one of those times when we did something and later realized it was not the best action we could have taken to resolve the issue. One example of the Anti-No Zone is creating a mindset where NO is not your first reaction when working with a customer to fix a problem. We do not want this to be our first reaction: “I cannot help you fix this.”
The Anti-No Zone is about taking that mistake and turning it around—something like this: “I realize this update caused additional issues. I am working employee XXX to resolve this issue as quickly as possible. I will contact you as soon as we have a resolution, but feel free to contact me during this process.” While you are still telling the client you cannot fix their issue without help, you are not leaving them wondering what will happen next.
Try thinking of the Anti-No Zone as a No…But scenario. You can tell someone that you are not able to complete what they want in the way they want, “but” you follow that with providing an alternative if you have one. If you do not have an alternative, you let the person know you are willing to research a solution or reach out to additional resources to help find an alternative action.
If you have a customer who comes to you with an issue, even if you are not the original “owner” of that issue, you do not automatically say, “No, I can’t help you.” Try to offer an alternate solution to the problem, even if you tell the customer, “I cannot dedicate the time you need for a complete and swift resolution, but let me find you a resource that can help move this forward.” The key is to find an alternate solution if you cannot say YES.
At ArcherPoint, we are empowered under Holacracy to make it right when a customer comes to us with an issue. The ArcherPoint company culture allows us to provide these alternate solutions without approval, thus providing us with continued opportunities to provide amazing customer service (Common sense factors do apply to all make it great moments).
If each of us will stop for a moment before we reply, we might be able to help find a solution that will provide a magic moment and a better overall result for the customer and our company.
I invite you to share these experiences with your fellow employees so they can learn from your examples and find a new way to create an Anti-No Zone. Take each opportunity to reverse a NO moment of misery and turn that into a moment of magic. How can you create your own Anti-No Zone? Please share your thoughts with us, and let’s talk about how we can help you with ArcherPoint’s customer service offerings or try our pay-as-you-go support for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central or Dynamics NAV.