Five ways to give your clients some facetime

It's the reason surgeons cut, the reason Steve Nash & CP3 dish out assists, and why Mother Teresa gave: IMPACT. Part of the thrill is seeing the results of your efforts. Given all of his rubber necking, impact on others is clearly the reason Usain Bolt runs the glamour events. So, it's unfair to expect the best from employees and not provide them the opportunity to see how their efforts affect customers lives



U.S. Cellular's current campaign on Youtube is one we have seen before. Giving customers the chance to hear directly from their more talented employees with the theme "Call someone who cares." Flip this around and bring all of your staff face to face with the people who benefit from their effort.


Use some or all of these tools to give every person in your company a glimpse into the companies and lives they impact with their work.

• Set up an internal Youtube channel and ask a few customers to send you video of them with your products or services in action. Show a few of the submissions at the next company meeting. Better yet, put a live feed in break areas and on the production floor.
• Use Flickr to chronicle a customer's environment before and after your company was called in.
• Launch the video chat features of Skype, Google Talk or Groups to let customer service, shipping, and others look a patron in the eye from time to time. It's harder to slack on someone when you've seen their smile.
• Send people who rarely leave the office out with a salesperson or technician.
• Have salespeople take some customer service calls so they don't forget that their promises impact people long after the commission check has been cashed.

I recently purchased a box of plastic, foam, and electronics which make up a RC plane. It is more than just an airplane, it is a reward for my son who reached a milestone and a father-son bonding opportunity. Those are just two of the ways it brings value to us. So receiving a defective part and not being able to get a replacement for two weeks makes a difference. Maybe if people in the testing dept. saw my son's eager face they would have checked better. The customer service person with kids of their own who promised a replacement part may have acted faster if they knew a dad had to tell his son to wait a little longer to fly his first plane.

Implementing these tools and others are minimal cost or free and readily available. Leverage this high-tech world and impress upon you people the importance of their high-touch in all they do.

How do you keep your staff from loosing sight of the lives the impact?