We wrap up how to manage crisis situations in your organization; and we’ll wrap it up with 2 ideas:

Idea One:

There is one thing that is more important than a good strategy or perfect plans.

Do your thing. Each day you open up shop or show up to conduct training for your customers or manage an event for them, they expect a WOW! experience, whether they state that to you or not.

This is what you were born to do. This is what you are trained to do. Show up. Show up on time. Show up ready. Show up ready to execute. Then execute.

Do your thing. It’s that’s simple.

Idea Two:

When you occasionally don’t get the results you expect, you often wonder if the job is too difficult. Or if it what needs to be done is not clear. Or training hasn’t been effective. All these thoughts run through your mind…

What is wrong?

It could be all of these things or it could simply be that you haven’t specified exactly what success looks like. When you don’t specify what success is, whatever effort people make is just not enough. Having a clear goal makes it easier to review whether or not you were successful. If your goal is to deliver your solution within 4 hours of the customer ordering it, and you deliver in 2 or 3 hours, you’re successful. And if you can do this consistently, including during peak hours or peak seasons, then you have a capable and sustainable system of filling customer orders. If during peak seasons or hours, you delivery time creeps up to 4.5 or 5 hours, then you have some work to do. What is the reason, you wonder? Did you take on more than you could chew? Do you need an extra rider at those times or is it that the delivery route needed to be planned better?

Review your service levels periodically. That way you’ll know if you are meeting your goals, most of the time, all of the time or not at all. You want to land at meeting your goals all of the time. If you find that you meet your target only some of the time, then:

• Find the root cause of the failed service;
• Brainstorm on possible solutions;
• Pick a practical – within cost and possible to apply – solution that addresses the root cause;
• Implement your solution; and
• Check the results.

It’s what guarantees quality service. It’s what prevents crisis.