Building a Loyal Team

How do you build a loyal team?

Our AlphaKOR Family has been together for a number of years and we keep adding members.   We have had very little turnover over the years.  Many of us have been together over 10 and 15 years!

Building long-term trusted client relationships requires a team member who is familiar and who understands the relationship.   This is not an easy achievement in companies with high employee turnover.   

It is a challenge to contact a company after dealing with them for a while and to be treated like it is the first time calling.  We are hearing this feedback from prospects contacting us every day looking to start a discussion with our Team to consider moving their relationship to AlphaKOR.

What impact does employee turnover have on your Team?

Taking care of our Family, supporting them, providing direction, autonomy, company events and good two-way communication have resulted in a very successful long-term team.

As we continue to grow, we will keep adjusting our processes to keep striving for excellent service.   Thanks to our Team and to our Clientele to keep us moving in the right direction.

Creating Great Ideas Grassroots Style

For 27 hours straight, five teams were provided some data and asked to create an idea on how to use this data.   This grassroots approach resulted in a lot more than anyone was expecting.  

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to be a judge and to hear the teams' presentations of their final product.  They were all very impressive considering the conditions and time constraints "locked" in a room at the university.  

Making presentations on a "good" day is tough enough for most of us.  Making presentations after a day of brainstorming, developing and no sleep (although you would never know it) truly impressed me!

Two actually made games in such a short time frame!  All five were solid ideas.  We were faced with the challenge of picking only one winner.   It was decided two winners; one would be based on creativity while the other would be based on technology.

This experience showed us how much talent and energy teams can generate with a common goal and with a focus of creating something.   Hats off to all who were involved in this event.

For more information on the event check out http://windsorite.ca/2013/01/windsor-gets-hacking/

What is your Team doing grassroots style to create great ideas? 

 

Have a sense of Urgency

Do you and your team have a sense of urgency?  Or do you and your team move along at a slow, complacent pace?

Successful teams are associated with members who possess a sense of urgency, not panic, in how they perform all their responsibilities.   Sense of urgency can be seen as setting proper priorities especially when interfacing with customers.

Imagine being complacent when a customer contacts you for an inquiry or a support issue.  What message are you really sending out?  

Now imagine the same customer reaching a team member who instead does their best to make the request urgent ensuring the customer is a priority and will be taken care of.   See the difference?

It is a tall order when all requests are all priorities all the time.   The key is to focus on the current request, provide the attention it needs at the moment and move on to the next request.

At what pace does your team move?

Networking Event Goals

What are your goals when attending networking events?

Some of my personal goals are to show up early, introduce myself to at least two new people and listen to their story and introduce people to each other.

What does a successful networking event look like?  It is walking away with two new business contacts and understanding what they do.  

Post-networking event goals are to send an e-mail thanking each person for their time.   Most of the time I send an invitation to continue our discussion in the near future.

Of course, I always invite everyone to connect on LinkedIn, check out their profile, see who they are connected to and what groups they belong to.

Happy networking!