Increase Customer Retention and Satisfaction: I’m Losing Customers and I Don’t Know Why

Read my column in this week’s Denver Business Journal and increase customer satisfaction, retention, and service:

We’ve all had customers we thought were satisfied, and the next month they’re off our books and we don’t know why.

Your customers are under no obligation to tell you why they replaced you. In fact, they have no incentive to give you feedback. Why would customers risk your defensiveness? It’s easier for customers to disappear than tell you what they don’t like about your products or services.

If you’d like to read the column in it’s entirety, please visit: http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/blog/broadway_17th/2013/02/im-losing-customers-and-i-dont-know.html?page=all

Workplaces need straight talk — but it isn’t for everybody

It’s time, once again, to put aside the pro-wrestling magazines and deliver a roundup of business books written by Colorado authors.

The usual suspects sell the books: Tattered Cover Book Store, Barnes & Noble, amazon.com — and check the authors’ websites.

Let’s start with an author who insists on candor in the workplace.

• “How to Say Anything to Anyone: A Guide to Building Business Relationships that Really Work” by Shari Harley (176 pages, Greenleaf Book Group, $19.95).

The New Jersey transplant runs Candid Culture, “training people to tell the truth at work without fear,” she says. Why push candor? …

To read the rest of the story visit: http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/print-edition/2013/01/25/workplaces-need-straight-talk—but-it.html

Business Communications Expert Shari Harley Shows Leaders “How to Say Anything to Anyone”

Managers Take Control of Their Careers with Help from New Book

DENVER, Jan. 8, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — Leaders, managers and professionals could accelerate their careers and make work a place they want to be when they read a new business book from business relationship expert Shari Harley. How to Say Anything to Anyone: A Guide to Building Business Relationships that Really Work (Greenleaf Book Group; $19.95) is a user-friendly, step-by-step guide that gives professionals the tools needed to take charge of their careers, by taking charge of their business relationships.

In How to Say Anything to Anyone Harley shares the real-life stories of people who have struggled to get what they want at work.

“From how to respond if one is suddenly promoted and put in charge of one’s former peers, to dealing with chronically absent bosses, or even what to say to a co-worker who cc’s every emailed request she makes to the whole team, How to Say Anything to Anyone is packed with indispensable tips, tricks, techniques, and suggestions from cover to cover,” said James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief of Midwest Book Review.

“Ask more. Assume less,” is the mantra throughout Harley’s book. “People are not us and don’t do things the way we do. If we want to be successful at work, we need to ask what the people we work with expect from us, before problems occur,” says Harley, founder and president of Candid Culture, a Denver-based training and consulting firm that works to bring candor back to the workplace, so people can feel safe telling the truth at work.

To work well with anyone, Harley, who presents keynote speeches about business relationships, recommends:

1. Tell people what you expect when relationships begin.
2. Ask what they expect. Don’t guess. Establish the rules of the game upfront.
3. Ask about working style preferences. Why unnecessarily annoy people?
4. Know your reputation. Ask how others perceive you.
5. Say “thank you” when receiving feedback, regardless of what you really think.

“People have been trained not to tell you the truth,” Harley says. “As a result, managers, co-workers, and customers have a tendency to talk about you, not to you. If you want the people you work with to give you feedback, you need to retrain them that it’s safe to do so.”

To see one of several videos Harley provides throughout How to Say Anything to Anyone, demonstrating how to have even the most difficult conversations, go to http://bit.ly/Wd1RMA.

With her clear and specific roadmap in hand, Harley enables readers to create the career and business relationships they really want-and keep them.

For more information about How to Say Anything to Anyone: A Guide to Building Business Relationships that Really Work visitwww.howtosayanythingtoanyone.com, email shari@candidculture.com, or call 303-868-9880.

About Shari Harley

Shari Harley is founder and president of Candid Culture, a Denver-based training and consulting firm that works to bring candor back to the workplace, so people can feel safe telling the truth at work. Harley is known globally as a funny, content-rich, keynote speaker, trainer, and consultant. She brings her 18 years of business experience to organizations around the world and to the many real-life stories and anecdotes that make How to Say Anything to Anyone a fun, useful and engaging read.

Harley’s media kit is available at: http://bit.ly/X18kN4.

How to Say Anything to Anyone: A Guide to Building Business Relationships That Really Work. Publication date:  01/08/2013.  Greenleaf Book Group Press, www.greenleafbooks.com, ISBN:  978-1-60832-409-5

CONTACT: Shari Harley, (303) 868-9880, shari@candidculture.com    

©2012 PR Newswire. All Rights Reserved.

Under Commit in 2013

Tis’ the season to over commit.

It’s almost January 1st, when many of us begin thinking about New Year’s Resolutions. We vow to lose 20 pounds, save 10% of our income, get promoted at work, take an exotic vacation, be a better partner, etc. etc. Also known as “how to set yourself up to fail” in five easy steps. The reality is we might do one or two of those things, if that.

Why not set yourself up to win instead? Instead of setting huge goals that are unlikely to happen, why not set more realistic goals that you can and will likely to do?

Many of you manage people. Perhaps you’re thinking about how you can be a better manager in 2013. Or you may be thinking about how you can accelerate your career. You may decide to meet with your employees more frequently, or ask your boss for more feedback, or ask for new and different work. You may think that doing these things will help you strengthen your relationships with your employees and your reputation, and advance your career. Doing any of these things might help you strengthen your business relationships and help you get ahead. But they might not, if those things are not important to your employees, your boss and/or your organization.

In 2013, put energy and resources into the things that truly matter to the people you work with, rather than the things you think they think are important. And the only way to know what the people around you really want and need is to ask them. Don’t assume you know what is important to your boss, direct reports and co-workers, ask them. Ask more. Assume less.

There are countless examples of managers who went to great lengths to make their employees happy. They gave bonuses, cool projects, and time off. And their employees quit anyway. Or, trying to make a manager happy, they stayed late, beat deadlines, and took on additional work, and still got a mediocre review. Rather than doing what you think others want, ask them!

How about this for a new year’s resolution — ask your boss, direct reports and key customers these questions as we begin
the New Year:

1. What’s the most important thing I did for you in the past 12 months?
2. What’s an area, in 2012, I exceeded your expectations?
3. How did I let you down?
4. If I could do one thing differently next year that would make the biggest difference for you, what would it be?
5. Why do you think I should focus my energy in 2013?

It may be intimidating to ask for feedback from your peers and direct reports. But you won’t know what to do more, better,
or differently if you don’t ask.

The right answer to feedback is always “thank you,” regardless of what you really want to say. Saying “thank you” makes you a safe person to whom to tell the truth and makes it more likely you’ll get more information in the future. So bite your tongue and respond to all feedback with, “Thank you for telling me that. I’m going to think about what you’ve said and may come back to you to discuss further.” They’ll be relieved and you’ll strengthen your professional image.

It’s easy to assume what others want and are expecting from us. The problem is we’re not always correct. Thus we expend energy doing things that others don’t find valuable or important, otherwise known as wasting time and resources.

Your time and budget dollars are valuable. Use your time and money for things that others actually want, versus what you think they want. In 2013, dial it back. Make realistic, attainable goals that are aligned with what the people around want and need. And in return, you too will get what you want and need.

The Queen Of Candour

Shari Harley has spent the last fifteen years developing talent in Fortune 50 companies, and in this exclusive interview, she tells us how to say just about anything to anyone!
 
Growing up attending personal development workshops made for a slightly unusual upbringing. However, Ms. Shari Harley, Principal of The Harley Group says that these sessions helped her understand the career path she wanted to take. Ms. Harley followed her heart and is now a leadership and organisational development expert. In this exclusive interview with The Human Factor, she talks about how each of us is responsible for the success of our own career. 

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Staff on Board

Companies should not be shocked when employees quit. International consultant Shari Harley says there are may reasons for an employee to leave a company but a little effort into the ‘on-boarding’ process can help employers retain more staff for longer. She reveals more in this exclusive teaser to her upcoming HR Summit presentation.