|
CLE Leadership & Management
Ideas, Resources, and Techniques for
CLE Professionals
A periodic e-newsletter
By Chuck Bingaman - chuck@chuckbingaman.com
#17 October
2004
Leadership  Leadership in customer service is
one way of building a CLE organization’s “brand”, its unique identity that
sets it apart from its competitors and makes more likely its survival in
highly competitive markets. Tom Knighton, head of customer experience
practice at consulting firm Forum Corp., is quoted in a recent Fast Company
magazine as arguing that “People are starting to understand that the customer
experience is the next competitive
battleground. It’s where business
is going to be won or lost.” What
is your CLE organization doing to be sure your customers feel that they are getting
top-flight customer service? What
customer experience expectations do you as a leader emphasize and model for every
member of your team? What new initiatives
are you planning to upgrade your customers’ experiences with your organization? Have
you had an outside person register for a course or purchase a publication through
all of the ways you offer and give you a detailed critique
of their experiences? Have you identified
all possible problems in such transactions and sought ways to
eliminate them? Have you made sure
that all customers can reach an empathetic, friendly person they can talk to
if
necessary? Are you tracking—and
acting on—ALL customer complaints, confusions, criticisms and suggestions?
Management
A friend and top management
consultant
in Toronto, Richard Stock, showed me his list tool two years ago for keeping
track of the many projects, responsibilities and duties he needed to
handle. I’ve modified it for the
varied types of work I do, and I note that, in the Ready for Anything book
cited below, David Allen emphasizes using such a tool. Allen’s point—and I certainly
agree—is that, by making and keeping up to date such a comprehensive project
list, one effectively reduces the stress of having to remember everything AND
it
enables one to prioritize and complete one’s work in a more relaxed, efficient
way. The two key secrets to using
such a list of responsibilities is to continually work to make it contain EVERYTHING
you need to do AND to update it regularly. Maintaining such a comprehensive, up-to-date
list, works automatically to remind you of things you need to do, to stimulate
your unconscious to think of creative approaches, to reduce the stress of having
to remember critical jobs, deadlines and people, and to prevent your letting
key jobs slip through your otherwise unreliable memory. See a sample template for a personal
project list at the bottom of this newsletter. And modify it for YOUR personal mix of
responsibilities. How do you handle “early
bird” incentives for CLE course registration? “Early bird” incentives are
important because those who make early commitments to attending your courses
may
be less likely later to make competing commitments to other things. But I say the case for offering cash
tuition discounts is weak and shortsighted. ACLEA experience on the issue and common
sense say that a 15-20% tuition discount is needed revenue lost to the CLE sponsor
and almost never meaningful—or motivating—savings to the potential
registrant. If you want to offer
a truly motivational incentive to early registration, offer a limited time or
limited number of FREE gifts of real value. Those incentives can actually reach your
customer, have tangible value, put your name in a benefit-laden medium before
them for some time AND save you money. A
simple article on “Five New Ways to Build Your [Subject] Practice” to those who
register before the “early bird” deadline may actually get people’s attention
and find a place in their reading materials. The same may be said for a special report
in the field of the seminar being advertised, a preview version of a chapter
from a new book in a related field, or a summary of developments in the
field. WHAT you can send your
potential “early birds” is limited only by what is valuable to THEM and your
imagination for identifying and delivering it. Mailing a report of 10-20 pages
will cost, even including the cost of producing and sending it, much less than
a
cash discount and you do not decrease your seminar revenue. As in any change of approach like this,
you should TEST it in several 50-50 mailings to see for sure what works best
in
your markets.
Resources Several
issues back I suggested signing up for David Allen’s monthly newsletter
on time management and efficient work. Well, he’s also got a very useful book
out called Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Work
and
Life (Penguin Group 2003). It’s a collection of 52 short essays,
many of which have very good ideas for helping people, as Allen says, “achieve
a
more relaxed, positive, and sustainable way to live and work.” A
broader and brand new book with innovative ideas for handling demanding work
in the 21st century is Making Work Work by Julie Morgenstern
(Fireside 2004). Each of these books offers great material
for in-house discussions or personal regrouping!
I
welcome your feedback! Please keep in touch! CCB
Following 20 years as Executive Director of a major CLE organization in
the USA, Chuck now consults on strategic planning, marketing and management
challenges with CLE and other legal organizations, law firms, law schools and
others. He is currently advising
on new strategic directions with a national CLE provider and a national legal
membership organization and advising on marketing strategy for an investment
company. He welcomes your inquiries
on projects designed to enhance your organization’s
effectiveness. You can contact him
at chuck@chuckbingaman.com,
at 603-756-9268, or at P.O. Box 390, Walpole, NH 03068. Past issues of this newsletter are archived
at http://www.chuckbingaman.com/.
_______________________________________________
Sample Template for Personal Project List
[Note: I have not filled
in my personal items because no one else would be intersted in them and
because some of them are confidential client matters. In my filled- in
template for myself, though, I note deadlines, last steps taken, next
steps needed, relevant dates,
and other facts that add life to the entries. Creating your list is a LARGE task the
first time, and you will inevitably forget more than one key job the first few
time through. But, with a word processor,
updating and filling it out is quick and simple once you get it in pretty good
form. ]
Date:
Projects Committed to or
Under
Contract
Projects Awaiting Client
Decisions
Possible Projects in Preliminary
Discussion
Alliances Needing
Feeding
Confirmed
Presentations/Talks/Papers/Courses
Articles/Deadlines
Personal Marketing Projects
(Including People to Phone)
Miscellaneous
Civic Projects and
Responsibilities
Personal and Family
Projects
|