Bob Cicerone is director of customer loyalty services for ETC Institute in Olathe, Kan. The firm’s market research services provide information that helps organizations to make better decisions. Cicerone has more than 25 years of experience using human performance technology to improve results on key performance measures for organizations, work processes, and individuals. For the past 20 years he has specialized in providing business leaders with tools that enable them to better measure and manage customer satisfaction and loyalty. He can be reached at 913-829-1215 or by e-mail at rcicerone@etcinstitute.com.
A fundamental truth that applies to improving employee job performance is that the degree of success improving any outcome, including the functioning of an HVAC system and employee job performance, is determined by whether all relevant interventions are used to achieve the desired improvement.
Is assessing customer satisfaction an example of trying to catch chickens after they’ve flown the coop? It is when the identification of opportunities to improve customer satisfaction does not combine a traditional (reactive) assessment of customer satisfaction with a non-traditional (proactive) analysis and evaluation.
Rewards are a powerful method for encouraging good job performance. Good work may not be repeated and employees can upset customers when managers don’t recognize, encourage, and reward them for job performance that meets or exceeds customers’ expectations. But rewards must be used effectively.
Many organizations promote non-management employees who perform well into management positions. Often, however, these new managers are not prepared to perform the basic tasks of management.
When managers give useful feedback, employees know how closely their work meets the expectations of customers and managers. Useful feedback is information that tells individual employees as well as work groups how well they're doing and what to do to improve their work.
Employees upset customers when managers don't give employees all the information they need to perform as customers expect. In other words, customer dissatisfaction can be an unintended consequence that occurs in spite of a manager’s efforts to satisfy customers.
Photos from the 2013 ACCA Conference & IE3 Expo in Orlando, Fla.
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Cade Clark, assistant vice president of government affairs for the Air-Conditioning, Heating & Refrigeration Institute (AHRI), gives a brief overview of the new version of the Shaheen-Portman bill, what AHRI thinks of the energy-efficiency legislation, and how it might affect the HVACR industry if it becomes law.
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