A strong HR team is the backbone of any organisation. However, the role is not without challenges. From attracting and retaining employees to workplace security, communication, and leadership development, HR managers face common challenges that many of us could only imagine.  

As such, there is no better time for HR managers to refocus their attention on overcoming common challenges in the workplace. It’s time to develop plans and initiate policies that will build up their companies and their employees!

Acquiring the best talent, overcoming a sluggish economy, and building up a solid leadership team are just a few of the most pressing challenges that HR managers face in today’s business climate.

With this in mind, we’ll take you step-by-step through the most common challenges that HR managers face, offering actionable advice for overcoming these challenges. 

Attracting outstanding employees is the driving force behind any great business.  

For an HR manager, landing these talented individuals is a job in itself. To attract potential employees, businesses must set themselves apart from the competition. The job applicant should not be the only party working hard to impress. 

If an HR manager wants to find all-star candidates for a position, they must put their best foot forward and show the applicant what they have to offer. Great HR managers have to understand how to sell!

As ever, L&D plays a key role in attracting employees, with one study finding that 59% of people say opportunities to learn and grow are extremely important to them when applying for a job. 

To learn more, see our article on how to attract the best talent for your business. 

So, you’ve hired the perfect person, and they’ve signed on the dotted line. Now, how do you get them to stick around?

History has shown that some of the most successful companies have low turnover rates and positive atmospheres.

Promoting a positive work environment and sustaining employee morale is critical for HR managers. There are certain things you can do to keep your workers happy and performing at their very best, such as:

Establishing a positive workplace culture

Offering your employees the chance to consistently better themselves and improve their skills is not only good for them on a personal level but will also benefit the company. For example, 94% of employees say they would stay at a company longer if it invested in their professional development.

Whether you focus on courses offered in a traditional classroom setting or through online education, there are endless opportunities to foster progress in the workplace.

Focusing on the wants and needs of your employees and providing them with an atmosphere that will challenge them professionally and promote camaraderie should be a top priority for any human resources department.

To demonstrate this, TINYpulse finds that employees who don't feel recognized for their work are 2x more likely to be actively seeking a new job. What’s more, research shows that 79% of people who quit their jobs cite “lack of appreciation” as their reason for leaving. In contrast, a positive workplace culture will encourage employees to remain with a company long-term. 

To find out more, read our recent article on 5 tips for long-term employee retention. 

Whether you’re dealing with a potential data breach or a physical situation, ensuring your company is protected against security issues often begins with HR managers.

Reevaluating current policies and determining whether they work for present-day demands is essential. An HR manager will need to look at any vulnerabilities in a company’s structure and decide on a course of action to protect the business and its employees from personal and professional harm.

While the American economy is trudging along slowly, this is no guarantee for the future. Businesses must constantly work to protect themselves from financial downturns.

For HR managers, managing the HR budget is a large part of this protection plan.

This topic goes hand in hand with our previous suggestions on retaining good employees. The human resource department of any company should promote emotional intelligence within the workplace.

According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report, emotional intelligence will be one of the top 10 job skills by 2020. 

Given this, employees want to know they are appreciated for more than just the work they turn in. Whether a business leader takes the time to understand them on a personal level can be a determining factor in a company’s success.

The HR management team should involve themselves in this by assisting the company heads in understanding the need for emotional intelligence.

It’s essential that employers lookout for more than just their own professional gains and focus on the fair treatment of their employees. HR managers should look for ways to encourage a dialogue between employees and managers and promote an appreciation of their team's emotional needs.

For further insights, you can read our article on increasing empathy and emotional intelligence. 

Good leadership is an essential part of a company’s success. Smooth operations often lie in the hands of the company’s current management team and those candidates with future potential.

To maintain a positive leadership culture, HR managers must support these individuals. This can mean offering a variety of things, including:

Potential leaders should be identified early and given ample support and training opportunities.

Hands-on experience is the best way to prepare for upcoming responsibilities. Having the chance to shadow and work alongside current managers can be the ideal preparation for future leadership roles.

For current managers and company leaders, training should be ongoing. Over time, there will always be room for improvement with new skills, policies, and technologies to discover.

Communication is vital in any workplace. While this may seem like an overstated concept, it’s surprising how many professional leaders aren’t great at communicating with other leaders and employees.

HR managers should seek out online resources that encourage enhanced communication.

Overcoming these challenges will promote business success

Many of the challenges mentioned above not only represent the current professional setting many businesses find themselves in, but they will continue to be relevant for generations to come.

If an HR manager can find the techniques to overcome these challenges, they will provide the company with tools that will last them years. The specifics may change from company to company, but the base necessities for workplace success will remain constant.

For more insights, subscribe to the Go1 newsletter to stay on top of all the latest L&D trends. Or, you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can help with your team’s learning needs.

False

We’ll take you step-by-step through the most common challenges that HR managers face, offering actionable advice for overcoming these challenges.

How HR managers can overcome common challenges

We’ll take you step-by-step through the most common challenges that HR managers face, offering actionable advice for overcoming these challenges. 

Continued education and training for personnel are important in the success of a business, and that has never been more important than today since technology is growing at such accelerated rates. Here are a few ways in which eLearning can help you improve the performance of your sales team.

How To Improve Your Sales Staff Performance With eLearning

According to the Education Resources Information Center, “For companies to stay competitive, they must continually bring new products and services to the marketplace. One strategy organizations can use to support this requirement is to provide their sales force with training that enables revenue generation”. As you’ll discover, eLearning is the perfect solution for delivering training to improve your sales staff performance.

The most basic definition of eLearning is “electronic learning”.  However, it’s about more than just attending a school or college online, taking a few courses, and getting a certificate. Today, with all of their new technological advances companies can use eLearning to help their staff learn how to improve their sales skills.

Some of the benefits of eLearning vs. traditional learning include:

Tailored to specific needs.
With eLearning, a company can actually tailor the curriculum to its needs. For example, if the company wants to focus on marketing for one group of employees and sales etiquette for another, it can be done.

Flexible. 
Unlike traditional schools where students may need to wait a semester or longer for a particular class to become available, there are now software programs available to create particular classes and curriculum.

Ability to track progress. 
Instead of waiting for the “report card” to come out, you will be able to track the progress of the employees enrolled in the eLearning courses. Managers can also monitor the success, strengths, and weaknesses of each student to better address their needs.

Smaller bits of information. 
Instead of trying to cram a week’s worth of instructions and lessons into a three-hour training video, companies can break down the information into bite-sized classes or programs that will likely be better absorbed than longer classes.

3 Ways eLearning Creates Better Sales Staff Performance

5 Types Of Microlearning That Help Improve Your Sales Staff Performance 

According to the eLearning Industry, “In essence, micro-eLearning offers students and employees the opportunity to more easily absorb and retain the information that is being offered, by making lessons and course activities more manageable and ‘digestible’”.

Here are a few types of microlearning that can help improve your sales staff performance.

These would be games designed by the company that are in some way educational for the employee. They can be lesson-driven so that each level in the game passed is another level in lesson achievement.

The human brain tends to retain visuals more than the written word which is why slideshows are so successful. These provide valuable information in a short amount of time.

Again, instead of reading materials and perhaps zoning away from the information, people tend to find videos more entertaining. Instructional and informational short videos can be developed with an engaging tone that will capture the attention and help ensure the information is retained.

Hands-on learning is essential for some people. It also reinforces the information and lessons they are learning. For example: A sales team could be shown how to work a transaction from beginning to end, then the simulation would have the employees do the same transaction on their own.

These are other types of microlearning tools where the employees can watch and read at their own convenience.

The importance of eLearning is growing among businesses and corporations as they discover not only the benefits of the flexibility of eLearning, but also the invaluable ways employees can learn and grow their skills. Staying up to date with the products and/or services of the company, the newest technology and newest trends will help your sales staff performance in a big way.

Improve the performance of your sales team with eLearning

Boost your confidence for your next talk with this short course! 

Many people would rather die than stand in front of a microphone. It doesn’t have to be that way. This brief course will show that anyone can become a polished public speaker with practice. We've designed it for the person who wants to feel confident while powerfully delivering a message to any audience, large or small.

The ability to speak in public is one of the most valuable of all business skills, so make sure you enroll and brush up on your skills today!

Looking for more? Try our Top Categories! 

Looking for something but can't find it? Meet one of our learning consultants and let us help you out!

Free course: how to master public speaking

With technology traditionally being viewed in opposition to the environment, with its reliance on power, batteries and mass manufacturing, the term green technology may sound like something of an oxymoron.

However, sometimes technology can reshape society in surprising and unexpected ways, being used for different purposes than that in which the product or service was originally intended. In this way, certain technologies are being used to mitigate or reverse the effects of human activity on the environment, reducing our carbon footprint rather than increasing it.

This rise of green technology is an interesting time for employees working in technology and development, allowing them to use their tech skills to help create positive change.

Here are 5 exciting examples of green technologies changing the world for good.

Reduce energy consumption with green power outlets

One of the ongoing problems of traditional power outlets is their continual need for power, even once a device or appliance has been switched off.

This continual use of power is often referred to as “vampire power” with its blood-sucking power consumption draining both the environment and your electricity bill.

To combat this waste of energy through vampire power, green power outlets have been designed that allow you to cut off all power to your appliances with one easy turn of a dial, increasing your energy efficiency and reducing environmental impact.

Did you know that many electronic devices can be harmful to the environment if they’re not disposed of correctly?

With approximately 20 to 50 million metric tons of electronic waste (or e-waste) being disposed of every year, e-waste is a huge problem for the planet.

As well as being harmful to the environment, electronic waste can also cause health issues for individuals. The tiny parts that go into your mobile phone, computer and TV can contain mercury, lead, cadmium and other dangerous metals inside. While dismantling and salvaging products for gold and copper, e-waste can pose a risk to people in developing countries tasked with this dangerous job.

However, the good news is that tech companies can now take care of their e-waste responsibly, through companies who will directly pickup and process e-waste and ensure none ends up in landfill or in the wrong hands.

Creating solar panels with 3D printing technology

With the exciting world of 3D printing continuing to grow, there have been some inspiring arrivals in the green technology sphere.

For example, Australian scientists are one step closer to making a cheaper and faster way to print solar cells onto plastic. Once available, this technology could be used to power laptops to rooftops, allowing you to run your home responsibly on power from the sun.

Green technology could also see the invention of a home 3D printer able to produce solar cells from easily available materials, with the capacity to provide remote areas outside of the power grid with cheap and reliable electricity.

Mini solar lights bringing education to Africa

With many people in developing countries living beyond the energy grid, electricity is a precious and valuable commodity.

In Africa, with half of sub-Saharan Africans living without power, many households rely on kerosene lamps – which are not only expensive to run but produce toxic smoke into the atmosphere.

Recently, the introduction of tiny solar lights, generating just a handful of watts, have made reading or working at night possible. These solar lights, being free to run and safe to use, have opened up possibilities for education that were previously unimaginable to many Africans.

Energy-saving computer hardware and programs

Computers are a continually rapidly growing source of carbon, contributing to approximately 2% of global emissions, with that figure likely to double within a decade. Is there a way for the IT industry to continue without the huge drain on power from fossil fuels?

Green IT products focus on providing consumers with more environmentally conscious hardware, such as energy-efficient laptops and servers. There are also software options on the market that can power down our desktop when it’s not being used, or run in the background of your operating system and tune up your computer's own energy-saving hardware.

The use of these technologies holds promising hope for the future, with innovative products and services enabling individuals and communities to reduce their carbon footprints and impact on the planet. It also offers an exciting time ahead for those working in the technology industry, allowing you to use your tech skills to help change the world for good.

How green technology is changing the way we work

We all know human resources is responsible for interviewing new hires and helping them through their onboarding process, but what other functions do HR professionals perform for their employers?

For HR teams, each day brings a diverse range of roles and responsibilities – from helping other staff grow and develop in their careers, to assisting with organizational strategy and budgets.

To get a better understanding of the diverse functions of human resources, let’s look at 5 reasons why your HR team is so important for your business.

Your HR team plays a vital role in the professional development of your company’s employees, carrying out important activities such as performance reviews and professional development programs.

HR professionals are able to identify the type of skills training and employee development necessary for individual staff members to improve their skills and qualifications. In this way, your HR plays a valuable role in enabling employees to reach objectives and company goals, which has a positive effect on your business’ profits and reputation.

Within their roles, HR staff can also gather valuable information and feedback from your staff, which can be used to improve levels of employee performance and engagement. 

The HR team can play an essential role in developing your company's strategic direction, with their job role giving them a direct say in all new hires and recruitment. This area of responsibility is very important in shaping the future of any company, having a definite impact on an organization's stability and future success.

In their interactions with staff across all teams and business units, and at all levels, HR professionals are able to form a big picture view of your organization and make continuous improvements to company processes and efficiencies. 

Through the use of employee surveys, focus groups and exit interviews, HR staff can conduct real assessments of your company’s culture and management through feedback from staff. This helps highlight any issues and challenges that need to be overcome, determining what underlies any employee dissatisfaction within your organization.

We tend to think of human resources as dealing primarily with the ‘people’ side of things, rather than finance, however your HR team can play a useful and positive role in curbing company spending.

It’s helpful for employers to understand how important the proper management of human capital is to your company's bottom line. Your HR team can reduce excessive spending by: 

Negotiating better rates for benefits such as health care coverage

Ensuring competitive and realistic wage-setting

Having a solid knowledge of employment trends and salary analysis

By making sure your recruitment and selection processes are efficient, HR can also minimize company expenses regarding advertising jobs, onboarding, training new employees and reducing staff turnover.

Conflict is bound to arise in all organizations, regardless of size or industry. With so many different personalities and working styles put together under one roof, it’s inevitable that certain employees will clash at one time or another.

The important thing is to have processes in place to deal with conflict, managed by experienced and qualified human resources professionals. HR staff are specially trained to handle conflict resolution between two employees, or even a manager and employee.

Your human resource manager can act as a consultant and mediator to sort out any issues in an effective manner and remove tensions from the workplace, before they get out of control.

Creating a Safe and Positive Work Culture

Last, but certainly not least, an organization’s HR team is responsible for creating a workplace culture that is safe and compliant, with minimal risks to your staff’s health or wellbeing.

In building a culture of compliance, your HR team will develop, implement and communicate policies around sexual harassment, bullying and workplace health and safety (WH&S). As champions of these policies, HR staff encourage equality, diversity and the protection of workers’ rights, with zero tolerance for any form of harassment or discrimination.

Every company wants to be known as an "employer of choice” – a workplace that receives recognition for the positive way in which they treat their staff. With organizational culture such an important part of any company, HR professionals also play a large role in how happy and engaged staff are in the workplace.

As you can see, your HR team is an incredibly valuable resource, responsible for empowering and strengthening your business through the successful management of your people.

Why your human resources department is so important for your business

Over the past 8 weeks, Go1 co-founder and COO Chris Eigeland has been in New York City fulfilling his duties as the Australian Youth Representative to the United Nations, culminating in presenting at the United Nations General Assembly.

During his time, in New York Chris has had the opportunity to attend a number of high-level forums covering diversity, innovation and youth, as well as being invited to speak as a part of Peace Day on Friday, September 16.

Prior to beginning his UN journey, Chris first travelled across all of the states and territories within Australia and spoke with more than 5,000 young Australians to understand their priority issues so he could include them in his address.

Now that he has delivered his address, Chris reflects on his time with other United Nations delegates, and what he learned from the experience.


“Last year the UN set the agenda for the next 15 years in terms of social economic culture development. It was increasingly clear throughout my tenure at the UN that in order to achieve the ambitious goals such as educating every person of primary to high school age in ending extreme poverty, we’re relying more and more on the largest human generation to ever exist. 

The key part of that will be how we approach the education question from a primary education perspective, rather than how we correct skills for the industries and economies in the future. One area that the UN is relying more and more is private sector and start-ups working to solve this problem.”

What do you think you learned from being in and around in that environment for 3 to 4 weeks throughout that process around government officials and so on from a range of countries all over the world.


We need to remember that government and international government systems like the UN don't have all the answers, and relying on small enterprises to think outside the box can really help to solve some of these problems.

The disparity in trying to provide this sort of opportunity is proving to be more challenging for UN members in areas of the world.”

Chris Eigeland: enabling young Australians to change the world

Being a perfectionist at work may seem like a good thing – to others, you probably look like a person who gets things done and gets them done properly.

In the workplace, you most likely appear as efficient, confident and well organised, checking things off a perfectly written to-do list while always looking busy and in control. But can being a perfectionist at work be a bad thing? You might be surprised to learn that telling recruiters or interviewers you’re a perfectionist could actually be holding you back.

Studies show that perfectionism is linked to depression, anxiety and a range of other mental health issues. You’ll also be at higher risk of burning out at work, so it’s vital to your wellbeing to get perfectionism under control.


Learning how to manage your perfectionist behaviour will prove positive for your productivity, self-confidence and working relationships. Let’s look at some steps you can take to start dealing with perfectionism at work.

Recognise that Your Perfectionism is Getting Out of Hand


The first step is recognising that your constant strive for perfection is causing you stress or issues at work. As bestselling author and president of TalentSmart, Dr Travis Bradberry, says “to defeat perfectionism, you have to learn to spot when it’s holding you back.”

Most perfectionists hide themselves behind hard work, appearing constantly busy and always in motion. While this may look super productive, the need to do everything perfectly can actually have a negative impact on productivity – spending so much time on making each task perfect, means less things are actually delivered and achieved.

When you let go of this need to be perfect and get your tendencies under better control, you’ll find you can actually work less while getting more done.

Because perfectionists care so deeply about their work, they can often find it hard to hear feedback, taking it personally and often straight to the heart. They can even get quite defensive or upset, as well as disappointed in themselves and their work.

However, feedback – particularly “negative” feedback – is a critical part of professional development, allowing employees to continually grow and learn. If you struggle to receive feedback from managers or workmates, try not to take it personally and embrace their comments as an important learning curve.

Everyone makes mistakes. So when something goes wrong, go a little easier on yourself.

Viewing the smallest of mistakes as epic failures makes you less resilient to every day challenges. To succeed at work, you need to have the ability to bounce back from your mistakes and show resilience to challenges.

It’s important to also accept mistakes in others. Perfectionists can be highly critical of colleagues and workmates because they hold everyone to the same high standard to which they hold themselves. Try and let go of the need to criticise and judge the people around you.

As hard as it is to hear, perfectionism can actually be a sign of low confidence in your work.

While colleagues and managers may assume you are confident because of your high quality work, they probably don’t see the deliberation and doubt that lies behind each piece. Not to mention the constant drafting and re-drafting!

Perfectionists always feel like they’re coming up short. This means they often don’t have the self-confidence to go ahead with a new concept or challenge, for fear that it won’t be good enough.

As Dr Bradberry explains, “perfectionists’ hard work, research, and attention to detail produce novel ideas… unfortunately, their great ideas are often placed on the back burner because of their fear of risk.”

Next time you feel yourself scared of putting an idea or project out there, think about the risk of not making a move at all. The worst thing that can happen is that your idea or piece of work is knocked back, in which case you try again next time. This is the best way to build confidence in your work.

Stop Procrastinating – Just Get it Done!

One of the biggest problems with perfectionism is that it can cause constant procrastination.

Because deep down, you may not have confidence in your work and are scared of criticism or rejection, perfectionists can often become paralysed. Even the most ordinary tasks, like replying to an email, can become daunting when you’ve talked yourself into a perfectionist downward spiral.

When everything on your list needs to be done perfectly it can become so overwhelming that you end up completely frozen, unable to produce anything or meet your deadlines.

To avoid this, be realistic about the significance and priority of your everyday tasks – sometimes you need to realise that getting something finished and off your list is the most important thing, even if it’s only 80% “perfect” to you.

So next time you find your perfectionist tendencies taking over your work life, take a deep breath and think about all of these steps. Then make a start on that exciting new project, put forward your great idea, or post your work online for the world to see. After all, what’s the worst that can happen?


Is being a perfectionist at work a bad thing?

It’s great news that the NSW government has developed a new, six-year plan to make workplaces safer, healthier and more productive for all employees. The government’s new Work Health and Safety Roadmap for NSW 2022 aims to reduce the rate of illnesses, injuries and fatalities in all NSW workplaces.

At Go1, this a direction we support wholeheartedly, which is why we’re campaigning to help promote the Work Health and Safety Roadmap for NSW 2022.

At the same time, we know that government agencies are struggling to train staff properly due to budget constraints and limited technology. Without proper training, staff will find it difficult to deliver services safely and efficiently.

Go1’s recent Local Government 2016 survey found that most local governments aren’t even offering online training yet, let alone mobile. Fewer than one in three government agencies offers mobile learning.

Given that governments are setting the standard for the community, they need to be well trained and informed in all of the areas they deal with on a daily basis. All local governments we surveyed listed the same three compliance courses as their top priorities: Traffic Control, Codes of Conduct and Workplace Health and Safety.

So to make training easier, and help more organisations get online and embrace the advantages of eLearning, we’re offering three of our most popular workplace health and safety courses to all NSW businesses for free.

You can enroll in Go1 SafeWork for FREE here

Independently reviewed by Sparke Helmore Lawyers, this course is designed to provide employees with an understanding about bullying and harassment in the workplace, the type of behaviour that should be avoided and what employees can do if bullying or harassment is occurring in their workplace.

This course is designed to provide an understanding of the controls that should be applied to manual handling in the workplace. It has been reviewed by the National Safety Council of Australia.

Endorsed by Chubb Safety Australia, this course is designed to provide the learner with an understanding of why evacuations take place, what occurs during an emergency and their responsibilities concerning evacuation.

Keeping up with compliance is one of the most critical components in training. Governments are setting the standard for the community. They need to be well trained and informed in all of the areas they deal with on a daily basis, and eLearning can make this simple, efficient and cost-effective.

Go1 SafeWork provides support for a safer government

When it comes to retaining your best customers and building a successful business, the customer service experience you provide is absolutely critical. According to the White House Office of Consumer Affairs, a dissatisfied customer will tell between 9-15 people about their experience. Likewise, a Bain & Company study found that a customer is 4 times more likely to defect to a competitor if the problem is service related than price or product related.

Clearly, when customer satisfaction begins to dip, you know you have a serious problem on your hands. Whether you’re working for a lean and mean start-up or an established corporation, make sure you don’t make these critical customer service mistakes:

When your customer service staff is inadequately trained it reflects poorly on your entire organization. To prevent this, it’s important to have standardized processes for dealing with upset customers, deescalating situations, and above all else, providing actionable solutions. Customer service training shouldn’t just be for the customer service department either. Everyone in your company should be on the same page when it comes to customer interactions.

Not greeting your customers in a friendly manner.

The way your customer service staff greets your customers can change the entire mood of the conversation that follows. If they are friendly and warm then there is a high probability that the customer will respond in the same fashion. However, if your customer service staff sounds stressed out, bored, or uninterested then it will only lead to a negative experience.

Some organizations make it very difficult for their customers to actually contact them. They hide their contact information or direct customers to a long and tedious FAQ in an effort to avoid a real human-to-human interaction. While it's true that customer service time adds to your costs, the customer service experience also drives revenue. When your customers can't find solutions to their problems then they will turn to someone else and they will tell the friends to do the same.

“I’m sorry, that’s just our policy.” This is a statement that will turn your customers away in a flash. When there's a situation that needs to be remedied and you can keep the customer by bending the rules a little bit, sometimes this is truly the best option. Amazon is a company that lives by this policy and will go above and beyond to make sure that you’re satisfied with the outcome of your purchase—even if this means doing things that aren't in the rulebook sometimes.

Sometimes your customers just want to be heard. If you want the interaction to go well then it's important to pause and listen to everything that they are telling you. In some cases the problem they have might not be as obvious as they think it is. This is especially true in the tech world, for example. If you take the time to listen to your customers before responding to them the outcome of the interaction may be much more positive.

Airlines and telecom providers are particularly bad about this. As soon as you get through to a real human being they ask you questions about your call and then hand you off to another representative. Then that representative asks you the same question and hand you off to someone else!

This is extremely frustrating and turns customers away. The solution of this problem is to give representatives the authority to solve the problem themselves without handing it off to a different department or superior.

Failing to follow up with customers after the contact was made.

Following up shows the customer that you care about their experience and that you want to make sure that the problem was fully resolved. It leaves things on a positive note so that the last thing your customer remembers is that you were attentive enough to make sure they were fully satisfied.

Some companies train their customer service staff to keep the customers happy at all costs. While this sounds like a great philosophy it also leads to a lot of promises that cannot be fulfilled. Obviously, when your customer expects one thing and is given less than they planned on then your reputation will suffer. Your staff should only make promises about service that they can actually keep!

Documenting your interactions with customers saves you time and provides you with critical data that you can use to improve your products and services over time. Plus, nobody wants to explain their problem over and over again when contacting a customer support representative. If you have a database that documents prior actions then you can get caught up and start addressing the problem faster, which will lead to a more positive outcome with the customer in the end.

Some companies – startups in particular – choose to provide customer service exclusively over email. While this isn’t a problem itself, it can become one if you are sending too many canned responses. Your customers know when they’re receiving a pre-fabricated message and it can make them feel like they are being brushed off. All it takes is adding a little bit of personalization in the beginning of these emails to make the customer feel like they are being paid attention to.

Another Bain & Company study found that it costs 6 to 7 times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one. This statistic alone should show you how valuable each and every one of your customers are. The bottom line is that customer loyalty is paramount to the health of your organization. Avoid the mistakes I’ve listed above and you’ll be providing a superior customer service experience that will pay off tremendously in the long run.

Are you interested in learning how to better understand the needs of your customers?

You might find How to Understand Customer Needs to be a valuable resource.

When someone says “leadership” whom do you picture that epitomizes that trait? Is it someone like Steve Jobs with his laser-like sense of focus and clear vision of the future? Or is it someone like Martin Luther King Jr. who understood how to motivate and unify people, while at the same time acting as a moral compass for those around him?

The truth is that leadership comes in many forms. Some leaders are more compassionate and inspirational, while others have a “stiff upper lip” and lead by example. However, what works as strong leadership in a college football setting might not go over as well during a religious ceremony (and vice versa).

How can you embrace these concepts of leadership in your day today? 

If you’re in customer service, how can you motivate someone in your department to make a more human connection with their customers? 

If you’re a sales manager, how can you get your team to share your vision for how you’ll hit your sales figures in the next quarter?

If you are looking to learn more about leadership, here are two great courses that you might find interesting:

Welcome to the Go1 blog. Helping you to achieve your L&D goals through the latest learning and development insights, trends, and technology.

Blog

petrol_green

Over 200 L&D pros shared their biggest challenges and investments in learning. Read the full report