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Other Added - Case Study - Learning as a Growth Management Tool
No matter what kind of service you give, it is important to build costumer loyalty for it would yield to generating profit and market sustainability. But since it still depends to the costumers whether they choose your product or services over another for a particular purpose, building costumer loyalty is a goal you have to work hard on to achieve. However, it is not that difficult. By making your own correct perspective, realistic goals, and proper actions, you will be able to make a generous number of loyal costumers that generate a pretty competitive profit. Here are the important tips:Answer what the costumers need. Knowing the pulse of the market will give you the idea of the needs of the costumer. Once you know this, you can adapt your produc
"We spend a tremendous amount of time thinking about the things that we haven't mastered yet, and that we need to master to allow our company to get to the next level," David says. The CEO says this focus stems from his observances of other small businesses, which he argues haven't taken the time necessary to step back and reflect on what they need to do to clear the hurdles in their way. "People are afraid to dream. They're
It is useful to go into an understanding of some of the finer points of maximizing responses to produce business when you want it.1) Position - There is an ugly phrase that is based upon some measure of a truthful principle It is "last liar has the best shot". Humans remember the last thing that they heard on a subject. I once got a job through an employment agency partly because the agent thought I had the best chance of getting it if he placed me in the last position for the interview. It worked. The human mind is somewhat like a computer. It processes information and retains it. It recalls it with more ease if it was the last of the stimulus received. That's why people cram for tests; the recent ingesting of information is easily recalled.
The phrase is the embodiment of President and CEO David Williams' desire to build a big company, which he's had since he acquired it in 1988 at the age of 25. Back then, David was the twenty-fourth employee of the company; his brother, Lance, joined the firm two years later (then age 28), becoming its twenty-fifth employee.
"I wanted to work for a very small company," Lance says of his addition to the Merkle team. "I had worked for some very large companies and I found the roles to be too limiting. I wanted to be able to play a sales role and an operations role." Luckily, after Lance gained some post-college sales experience in the machinery and insurance industries, David was gracious enough to let him come on board. (It was a fortuitous pairing, the brothers having worked together before in a landscaping business.)
Now, after many years of compounding growth at an annual rate of 25 percent, Merkle is a midsize company. However, Lance doesn't wince at the business's current size. After all, the organization has practices in place designed to combat the "limiting" experience that Lance describes of his pre-Merkle career – an experience that many believe continues to hurt the morale of employees of large companies to this day.
One of these is the way in which job candidates are hired. David and the leadership team are deeply concerned with making sure people will fit into Merkle's existing culture and that they understand their roles. To this end, potential hires for positions at all levels have multiple interviews with employees corresponding to those various levels. At the conclusion of candidate interviews, they are expected to deliver a presentation, which helps managers assess, among other things, their comfort level participating in and leading meetings.
This kind of thorough, people-centric recruiting blends perfectly into one of the company's key cultural facets for those candidates who are invited to join the team: lots of meetings. Merkle's account teams huddle for 15 minutes each morning. Executives meet weekly for four hours starting at lunchtime. Senior management also holds monthly financial review meetings and two-day strategic planning meetings each quarter.
"We spend a tremendous amount of time thinking about the things that we haven't mastered yet, and that we need to master to allow our company to get to the next level," David says. The CEO says this focus stems from his observances of other small businesses, which he argues haven't taken the time necessary to step back and reflect on what they need to do to clear the hurdles in their way. "People are afraid to dream. They're
Today more than ever teachers need to concentrate on customer service. Who is the customer? Well both the students and their parents. Good customer service is required and bad customer service could get them fired. Are you a teacher? Have you considered customer service in your profession? How does a teacher give good customer service?Well, consider that parents really want to know what you are teaching and how you are teaching it. They want to know that their children are doing well and they want to make sure you are properly nurturing their little devils. Helping the parents with this valuable information means you will fulfill their needs as parents and that is great customer service.When dealing with these students customer service means
"I wanted to work for a very small company," Lance says of his addition to the Merkle team. "I had worked for some very large companies and I found the roles to be too limiting. I wanted to be able to play a sales role and an operations role." Luckily, after Lance gained some post-college sales experience in the machinery and insurance industries, David was gracious enough to let him come on board. (It was a fortuitous pairing, the brothers having worked together before in a landscaping business.)
Now, after many years of compounding growth at an annual rate of 25 percent, Merkle is a midsize company. However, Lance doesn't wince at the business's current size. After all, the organization has practices in place designed to combat the "limiting" experience that Lance describes of his pre-Merkle career – an experience that many believe continues to hurt the morale of employees of large companies to this day.
One of these is the way in which job candidates are hired. David and the leadership team are deeply concerned with making sure people will fit into Merkle's existing culture and that they understand their roles. To this end, potential hires for positions at all levels have multiple interviews with employees corresponding to those various levels. At the conclusion of candidate interviews, they are expected to deliver a presentation, which helps managers assess, among other things, their comfort level participating in and leading meetings.
This kind of thorough, people-centric recruiting blends perfectly into one of the company's key cultural facets for those candidates who are invited to join the team: lots of meetings. Merkle's account teams huddle for 15 minutes each morning. Executives meet weekly for four hours starting at lunchtime. Senior management also holds monthly financial review meetings and two-day strategic planning meetings each quarter.
"We spend a tremendous amount of time thinking about the things that we haven't mastered yet, and that we need to master to allow our company to get to the next level," David says. The CEO says this focus stems from his observances of other small businesses, which he argues haven't taken the time necessary to step back and reflect on what they need to do to clear the hurdles in their way. "People are afraid to dream. They're
If you hire staff, you know how difficult it is to know from a resume and interview who is the best person for the job. It’s easy enough to establish credentials and even identify “hard” skills (such as keyboarding speed, mechanical skills etc).However, measuring the “soft” skills (communication skills, attitude and other personal qualities) is much harder.These skills are easily identifiable from writing, and as a Handwriting Analyst I help employers “read” the writing of their job applicants.Below is one list of soft skills, or personal qualities, much in demand with employers and how to identify them from handwriting.The brief descriptions include only the most obvious traits for each. A total report for an employer as to
Now, after many years of compounding growth at an annual rate of 25 percent, Merkle is a midsize company. However, Lance doesn't wince at the business's current size. After all, the organization has practices in place designed to combat the "limiting" experience that Lance describes of his pre-Merkle career – an experience that many believe continues to hurt the morale of employees of large companies to this day.
One of these is the way in which job candidates are hired. David and the leadership team are deeply concerned with making sure people will fit into Merkle's existing culture and that they understand their roles. To this end, potential hires for positions at all levels have multiple interviews with employees corresponding to those various levels. At the conclusion of candidate interviews, they are expected to deliver a presentation, which helps managers assess, among other things, their comfort level participating in and leading meetings.
This kind of thorough, people-centric recruiting blends perfectly into one of the company's key cultural facets for those candidates who are invited to join the team: lots of meetings. Merkle's account teams huddle for 15 minutes each morning. Executives meet weekly for four hours starting at lunchtime. Senior management also holds monthly financial review meetings and two-day strategic planning meetings each quarter.
"We spend a tremendous amount of time thinking about the things that we haven't mastered yet, and that we need to master to allow our company to get to the next level," David says. The CEO says this focus stems from his observances of other small businesses, which he argues haven't taken the time necessary to step back and reflect on what they need to do to clear the hurdles in their way. "People are afraid to dream. They're
I've said before that there's no such thing as "Christian job search." There's just job searching that Christians do.Every job seeker I know of has to write a resume, every job seeker has to participate in job interviews, every job seeker has to perform on the job. There's no wiggle room in "every."Christian or not, more often than not you have to "do job search" to get a job.One of the biggest challenges I've faced in helping lots of Christians write resumes is an almost overwhelming reluctance to toot one's horn. That reluctance comes, I think, from a mistaken notion that describing skills and achievements on a resume is wrongful boasting.A resume is commercial for you. If you don't toot, nobody will hear anything. You must t
This kind of thorough, people-centric recruiting blends perfectly into one of the company's key cultural facets for those candidates who are invited to join the team: lots of meetings. Merkle's account teams huddle for 15 minutes each morning. Executives meet weekly for four hours starting at lunchtime. Senior management also holds monthly financial review meetings and two-day strategic planning meetings each quarter.
"We spend a tremendous amount of time thinking about the things that we haven't mastered yet, and that we need to master to allow our company to get to the next level," David says. The CEO says this focus stems from his observances of other small businesses, which he argues haven't taken the time necessary to step back and reflect on what they need to do to clear the hurdles in their way. "People are afraid to dream. They're
Last week I spoke to the Greater St. Louis Dental Society. My session was filled with primarily hygienists, receptionists and chair-side assistants.We explored something I call The OING Model.Oing represents four types of encounters between employees and patients, each of which is an opportunity to inject (no pun intended) a little more of your personality into each encounter.About 160 people filled out index cards with potential lines, expressions and greetings that were a bit more creative, fun, unique and of course, approachable. Many of these suggestions are listed below, along with a brief description of each category. (Remember: not all of these are gold. It’s an exercise in creativity that brainstorms ideas to make y
"We spend a tremendous amount of time thinking about the things that we haven't mastered yet, and that we need to master to allow our company to get to the next level," David says. The CEO says this focus stems from his observances of other small businesses, which he argues haven't taken the time necessary to step back and reflect on what they need to do to clear the hurdles in their way. "People are afraid to dream. They're afraid to compare themselves at those levels because they don't like the answers," he says. "Sometimes we don't like the answers, either, but it helps to motivate us and allows us to work more effectively."
Starting in the 1990s, this brand of unabashed deep reflection helped create another practice that sets Merkle apart today. When the company was a lot smaller, says Director of Workforce Development Martha Spivey, it had an informal brown bag lunch program. Spivey – who initially joined the company in 2000, left for another opportunity at a larger firm and returned in 2002 as a consultant before more fully defining her current workforce development role with leadership – helped shape this now commonplace practice into a full-fledged "university"-style workforce training program known as the Merkle Institute of Technology, or MIT.
The program, which operates at all locations through a company intranet, comes complete with its own schools and curricula. In fact, the continuing education credits that employees earn by attending and presenting MIT courses are tied into performance goals and compensation. Everyone from David Williams to front-line staff attend and present topics, which range from highly technical, industry-specific sessions to general personal and professional development tracks, such as public speaking and business writing.
As teachers in a variety of work settings can attest, learning goes both ways. So it is with MIT's attendees and the company's leadership. The day that we spoke with Spivey, the "Merkle Life" school of MIT had just given a course in partnership with the American Heart Association on healthy living and eating habits. She says that the school's post-attendance feedback form for that course solicited employees' views on everything from the effectiveness of the subject-specific content to the overarching issue of training areas that MIT should devote funding and resources toward in the future.
The learning focus continues outside of Merkle's workplaces through an annual client summit, which is an opportunity for them to network with employees. For the past three years, this summit has been held near Merkle's headquarters in Maryland or the District of Columbia area. This year's fourth annual summit, however, which will be held later this month, will take place in Denver, where the company's Colorado office is located. Bill Stoughton, group leade
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