Contrary to what you may think, evaluation of your training programs does not start after the training program is over – it starts before.  The training plan and the training evaluation have a chicken and egg relationship.  If you are doing things correctly, the training plan is built upon the results of the training evaluation.  But, if you haven’t done a training plan, then you can still do a training evaluation on the training programs you select in preparation to create a training plan for the following year.

Deciding how you will evaluate the training should be a key part of planning training activities.  Further, the evaluation should occur in three distinct stages.

Before the training

• Set objectives for the business and the trainees (including financial objectives).
• Decide how you will measure the objectives.
• Analyze the situation before training using these same measures so that you have a baseline to measure improvement (or lack thereof).
• Identify the specific improvements you want to occur.
• Identify why you have chosen this particular training method (e.g. competitive price, trainee's preferred learning style, flexibility of delivery).
• Evaluate a range of training methods and choose the most suitable.

During the training
Ask the trainee to reflect on their understanding of the material and enthusiasm throughout the actual training process. A well-designed training program will ask participants to do this as part of the learning process (e.g. through interactive sessions and practical application, with regular recaps or by completing feedback forms at the end of each session).

After the training

• Measure your objectives at pre-set time intervals.
• Get detailed feedback from the trainee.
• Re-test knowledge and skills and compare with pre-training results.
• Review the performance of the chosen training method.
• Observe the trainee's new knowledge and skills in context.
• Identify any remaining training gaps, and include them in future plans.
• Review your return on investment.
• Give feedback to your training provider - this may help them improve their service.

I’m going to be honest.  Designing an evaluation method for training programs that truly measures their effectiveness is not an easy task – particularly if you are not an educated and experienced trainer yourself.  Therefore, if your small business is dependent on a sizable staff to operate, it will be worthwhile to hire a consultant to develop the system for you.  Although spending money on training without knowing if the expected results are achieved is not quite throwing the money away – it is getting close because you simply do not know and you cannot leverage the training for future training plans.

In the past, we’ve talked about client satisfaction and we’ve more recently been talking about client management.  So, if you’ve been diligent about frequently taking your clients’ temperature on how satisfied they are and you’ve implemented new processes and procedures for managing your client base, then you should have put good client service in place – right?  Hard to say!  Have you been measuring your client service?  Many businesses measure client satisfaction and business performance, but not nearly as many measure their client service.  What’s the difference?

Continue reading "Measuring Client Service – It’s Much More than Just Client Satisfaction" »

We have often heard the phrase "Systematic Approach" used in life, in many different ways, such as sales, business management, and even training. You may have heard people say that "you need to approach this systematically."

Yet, what is a Systematic Approach and, why is it important particularly in relation to how you manage your clients?

Let’s tackle the “why” first.  We’ve spent a lot of time talking about how important good customer service and client relations are, and one theme we continually return to is that of consistency.  When you utilize a Systematic Approach, you automatically build in the consistency factor.

Continue reading "A Systematic Approach to Client Management" »

Change…most of us humans don’t deal well with it to start with.  Add on a business owner role, and change is even less welcome.  Think about it.  We’ve invested a lot of time and effort into “perfecting” our business processes and procedures to get them to work successfully.  So why fix what doesn’t appear to be broken?  The problem is that even though everything looks like it is working smoothly, that doesn’t mean that it’s working as effectively as it should.

It’s somewhat like the frog in boiling water analogy.  You slowly turn the water up and the frog doesn’t realise anything is wrong until he’s already cooked.  If you haven’t figured it out yet, you’re the frog!

I was with a client the other day and her response to my question about why things were done the way they were was, "Well, that's the way it's always been done."  To me this is like raising the red flag and sounding the siren for immediate change and improvement in the system.

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One of the more difficult tasks associated with being a small business owner is dealing with the money.  We do a good job and like to believe that our customers will be so thankful that they will immediately send a special courier with our payment on a silver platter.  But, they don’t.  And, more time goes by.  And, it’s starting to look like we’re going to have to have “the talk.”  Not the birds and the bees…the collection talk.

I’ve been there myself!  I think I’ve heard all of the excuses – it’s been a long time since I’ve heard one that really impressed me!

“The money is coming in; just wait until this ‘big deal’ closes!” (I’m still waiting.)
“I’m just waiting for the economy to pick up.” (Really? My landlord isn’t.)
“I didn’t get your invoice. The post office must have lost it.” (Check your trash can, buddy.)

It was extremely frustrating because not only am I an excellent coach, I’m a good person. And, it seemed that every time my sincere desire to serve my clients overrode my business sense, I was left holding the (empty) bag.  I was tired of acting like a bank—providing interest-free loans on my coaching expertise to clients who claimed they couldn’t pay when the bill was due.

Continue reading "Having Trouble Getting Paid? It’s Time to Train Your Customers!" »

Many small businesses get started because the “owner” is very good at what they do.  Whether they are a butcher, baker or candlestick maker, they are expert technicians in their field of expertise – possibly even the best.  Often they start their business because they are frustrated by someone else profiting from their hard work and controlling what they do. 

So now they’ve hung their own shingle and it should only be a matter of time before everyone realises they can go straight to the expert instead of the middleman and their business will be wildly successful.  Right???  Not likely.

Unfortunately, customers care about more than just expertise when they decide to buy a product or service.  They care about their customer “experience.”  They want to feel special and important.  They want good service and responsiveness.  They want to feel valued.   

What the new business owner quickly realises is that they are no longer free to just focus on their craft.  They are now in charge of accounting, marketing, sales, etc.  They now have to do for themselves everything that the “middleman” did for them when they were an employee.  Unfortunately, they’ve spent all of their time learning to be the expert, not the businessman.

Continue reading "Being the “Best” Doesn’t Mean You’ll Have a Successful Business" »

This is the first post in a new series starting next week that I’m calling “Back to Basics – A Happy Business is a Profitable Business.” For those of you who are just starting to grapple with the issues of building a happy and profitable business, it will serve as an introduction to the basic concepts that underlie much of what Extraordinary People is all about. If you are already familiar with the “Happy Business” concept, it will serve as a refresher of what you should be doing and to help you out in case you’ve got off track.

At this point, I’m not sure how long the series will be.  I intend to keep going until; a) I run out of topics to cover, or b) people start asking me to stop. :-)

Happiness and profit are uncomfortable bedfellows for some people. However, studies show that a “happy business is a more profitable business.” Over the past few weeks, many of the posts have addressed the idea that, as a manager or business owner, you can’t make people happy –  anymore than you can motivate and empower people. This I believe to be true – people choose to be happy or not! However, you can create an environment where the choice to be happy becomes possible, and I want to introduce you to the idea that “Courtesy” is at the heart of such an environment.

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In my last post, I mentioned the concept of a Welcome Book.  While I provided a short description of what it is and how it is different than a brochure, I want to go into the concept a little more because it can be a very valuable tool.

As business owners and professionals, we are used to thinking about ourselves and our businesses as “what we do.”  At networking events and parties, the first question asked after introductions is, “what do you do?”  What we “do” is our role.  It defines our activities and behaviors.

When we design a brochure to tell people about our business, it describes the type of work the business does and the services it offers.  Essentially, it describes the “role” of the business.

Continue reading "Brochure vs. Welcome Book and Role vs. Identity – what’s the difference?" »

Seemingly simple questions, but they are not so simple to answer in today's financial climate; especially if you are happy and have had success. With so many people struggling financially and looking for work, many of us feel like we will be perceived as gloating or "rubbing it in" if we are openly enthusiastic and happy about good things that are happening to us. So, we hide it or downplay its importance.

When we hide our happiness and stop sharing our success, we are actually fostering the negativity the economy is causing and lengthening the amount of time before we see a turnaround.  Perception is very powerful.  During times like these, people begin assuming that silence means unhappiness or lack of success because of our old adage, "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything."

Continue reading "Are you happy? Is your business happy? Do you have a happy business?" »

When we think about extraordinary people in the hospitality industry, people like Gordon Ramsey and Raymond Blanc often come to mind.  They’ve become icons in popular culture and built business empires with enormous following.  Multiple restaurants and cookbooks used to be the benchmark of extreme success, but now it is reality television shows and video games.

Yes, they are very accomplished - professionally, but without knowing more about the other side of their lives, I wouldn’t call them extraordinary. In my estimation, truly extraordinary people have successful professional and personal lives.  Although we constantly hear talk of work-life balance, it is a rare individual that not only finds that balance, but maintains it.  Are Gordon and Raymond balanced?  You would have to ask them.

Continue reading "Are you the next Gordon Ramsey? Would you want to be?" »