These five objectives (product, quality, personalized services, timely delivery, and value) appear to satisfy customers. However, there is no company that consistently uses all five on a continuous basis.
The challenge therefore for management is how to get employees to consciously deliver these services to the customer.
Understanding that the focus must be on the employee is key to delivering the services. Unfortunately, some companies depend on their marketing instead and end up not delivering the promise.
In 1972, I was challenged by my boss to develop a training program that would get employees to deliver these services to the customer on a continuous basis.
After several months of trial and error we came up with a program that proved to be successful.
The program focused on employee needs and we used Maslow Hierarchy of Needs as our starting point.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs is predetermined in order of importance. It is often depicted as a pyramid consisting of five levels: the lowest level is associated with physiological needs, while the uppermost level is associated with self-actualization needs, particularly those related to identity and purpose. Deficiency needs must be met first. Once these are met, seeking to satisfy growth needs drives personal growth. The higher needs in this hierarchy only come into focus when the lower needs in the pyramid are met. Once an individual has moved upwards to the next level, needs in the lower level will no longer be prioritized. If a lower set of needs is no longer being met, the individual will temporarily re-prioritize those needs by focusing attention on the unfulfilled needs, but will not permanently regress to the lower level. For instance, a businessman at the esteem level who is diagnosed with cancer will spend a great deal of time concentrating on his health (physiological needs), but will continue to value his work performance (esteem needs) and will likely return to work during periods of remission.
The lower four layers of the pyramid are what Maslow called "deficiency needs" or "D-needs": physiological, safety and security, love and belonging, and esteem. With the exception of the lowest (physiological) needs, if these "deficiency needs" are not met, the body gives no physical indication but the individual feels anxious and tense.
For the most part, physiological needs are obvious - they are the literal requirements for human survival. If these requirements are not met (with the exception of sex), the human body simply cannot continue to function.
Physiological needs include:
• Breathing
• Homeostasis
• Water
• Sleep
• Food
• Excretion
• Sex
• Clothing
• Shelter
With their physical needs relatively satisfied, the individual's safety needs take over and dominate their behavior. These needs have to do with people's yearning for a predictable, orderly world in which injustice and inconsistency are under control, the familiar frequent and the unfamiliar rare. In the world of work, these safety needs manifest themselves in such things as a preference for job security, grievance procedures for protecting the individual from unilateral authority, savings accounts, insurance policies, and the like.
For the most part, physiological and safety needs are reasonably well satisfied in the "First World." The obvious exceptions, of course, are people outside the mainstream — the poor and the disadvantaged. If frustration has not led to apathy and weakness, such people still struggle to satisfy the basic physiological and safety needs. They are primarily concerned with survival: obtaining adequate food, clothing, shelter, and seeking justice from the dominant societal groups.
Safety and Security needs include:
• Personal security
• Financial security
• Health and well-being
• Safety net against accidents/illness and the adverse impacts
Social needs
After physiological and safety needs are fulfilled, the third layer of human needs is social. This psychological aspect of Maslow's hierarchy involves emotionally-based relationships in general, such as:
• Friendship
• Intimacy
• Having a supportive and communicative family
Humans need to feel a sense of belonging and acceptance, whether it comes from a large social group, such as clubs, office culture, religious groups, professional organizations, sports teams, gangs ("Safety in numbers"), or small social connections (family members, intimate partners, mentors, close colleagues, confidants). They need to love and be loved (sexually and non-sexually) by others. In the absence of these elements, many people become susceptible to loneliness, social anxiety, and clinical depression. This need for belonging can often overcome the physiological and security needs, depending on the strength of the peer pressure; an anorexic, for example, may ignore the need to eat and the security of health for a feeling of control and belonging.
Esteem
All humans have a need to be respected, to have self-esteem, self-respect. Also known as the belonging need, esteem presents the normal human desire to be accepted and valued by others. People need to engage themselves to gain recognition and have an activity or activities that give the person a sense of contribution, to feel accepted and self-valued, be it in a profession or hobby. Imbalances at this level can result in low self-esteem or an inferiority complex. People with low self-esteem need respect from others. They may seek fame or glory, which again depends on others. It may be noted, however, that many people with low self-esteem will not be able to improve their view of themselves simply by receiving fame, respect, and glory externally, but must first accept themselves internally. Psychological imbalances such as depression can also prevent one from obtaining self-esteem on both levels.
Self Actualization
The motivation to realize one's own maximum potential and possibilities is considered to be the master motive or the only real motive, all other motives being its various forms. In Maslow's hierarchy of needs, the need for self-actualization is the final need that manifests when lower level needs have been satisfied.
After studying Maslow Hierarchy of Needs and comparing them with the list of five customer wants (Product, Quality, Personalized Service, On Time Delivery, and Value) we found a match in priorities.
Our next step was to identify in simple language what management wants from its employees and how to get it. The first part was simple and we were able to identify five things management wanted from its employees at every level. (Work, Efficiency, Loyalty, Production, and Profit).
Next came the hard part, how to get it implemented. How do you get the employee to give you what you want.
More research and study took us to other motivation theories and we found that we could get anyone to do anything we wanted, that was the good news! The bad news was that it cost, it cost in time and effort. And of course, it would be easy to avoid putting in the time and effort and offer various rationalizations not to behave in a way that would produce the results we were after. However, we pursued and it worked. It not only worked back in 1972 but has worked wherever I have introduced this model to various companies for the past 37 years.
I call the model; CARES because it represents an acronym for each of the hot buttons that must be pushed get an employee to behave in the way you want. It also a subtle hint to management as to what it must do to get what it wants from the employee in order to satisfy the customer!
The model has been adopted by many companies in different industries and has proved to be effective in each where it is practiced.
Some management has created employee lounges with pictures of company history. Some have helped employees with cosmetic tips to improve their appearance and feel good about themselves. Some have bowling leagues and softball teams. Some have dances. Others have arranged for employee trips and cruises. And the list goes on.
Click on the image below and take a look at this powerful model and think of how you can get the employees you supervise to better satisfy the customer and improve your bottom line!
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Copyright © Donald N. Lombardi
http://adviceandcounsel.blogspot.com
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