ReviewSNAP to Add Weighted Competencies Option

This is just a quick update to let you know that ReviewSNAP will be adding the ability use weighted competencies within your performance appraisal process. When we initially built the system we wanted to stay away from weighted competencies, but this is another example of ReviewSNAP keeping our ear to the ground and our mind open to make sure and meet the needs of our customers.

When this is launched you will have the option of using weighted or non-weighted competencies. This way you are sure to meet the needs of your current review process. The tentative launch date is July 15th. If there are any changes in the status or launch date we will keep you updated through the ReviewSNAP Blog.

Don't Let Your Performance Appraisals Be Cumbersome Like This!

Some companies and employees dread performance appraisals because of how cumbersome they can be. The humorous video below illustrates this fact. To avoid having your performance appraisals become cumbersome, try ReviewSNAP and automate your entire review process.

What Are ReviewSNAP Clients Saying?

Take a look below at some of the recent feedback that ReviewSNAP has received about our performance management system.

“After scrutinizing over at least six Web-based systems for performance appraisals, we are very happy that we selected the ReviewSNAP application to support our performance management process. The system's design is simple and efficient and has taken the "fuss" out of the performance management process.

But one of the best aspects of the ReviewSNAP application is the team behind the product...the sales staff and the Account Managers are incredibly responsive and professional. They provide solutions, fixes and customization quickly and expertly.”

Nanette V., Asian Art Museum

"I was given the task of finding a performance review program that was inexpensive and easy to use for our company. It didn't take me long to find ReviewSNAP. The first time I opened ReviewSNAP and ran the trial I found it to be extremely user-friendly.

Once we decided to go with the program, we found some things we wanted customized to fit our company needs. The team at ReviewSNAP was more than happy to help and were able to deliver very quickly.

I feel they go above and beyond in the customer service area. They are dedicated to their customers by always being there to answer your calls or respond to emails in a very timely manner. I look forward to working more with ReviewSNAP.

The continuous improvement and upgrades they are making just makes this software better and better."

Marybeth W., Alien Technology

"The ReviewSNAP Performance Management System is working great for our company. All of our employees have found it easy to use. I highly recommend it to all of your prospective customers."

Brent C., The Stucco Company

"Not only is ReviewSNAP easy to set up, but a review can be completed within minutes."

Anita L., Crown Packaging Corp.

Follow Up on Open Ended Questions

This post is a follow up to the announcement that we were in the process of adding the ability to use open-ended questions in your performance appraisals. This post is to let you know that this function has been completed and is now implemented in the ReviewSNAP Performance Management System.

Cosmetic Changes to ReviewSNAP

Have you been to ReviewSNAP lately and wondered if you were at the right site? No need to worry........you were at the right place. Recently we made a few cosmetic changes to our site giving it more of a dynamic, fresh look. The site was simplified with more image links and buttons. We've added the new buttons below and you can feel free to sign up for a free trial, watch the demo or request a live demo.

Low Employee Morale

Employee morale is a fuzzy issue at best. Measuring morale can be difficult and inconclusive since employees will often not reveal their true feelings. But make no mistake about it. Employee morale has a major impact on productivity and ultimately profitability.

Most of the time, we will have a sense about the level of morale within a work unit or company as a whole. It is not hard to see when morale is generally high or when it is generally low. Employee groups that work hard, smile and have a little bounce in their step when they come to work would seem to have a high level of morale. Those that seem unhappy, don't interact much and generally seem disinterested in their work are probably suffering from morale problems.

It is not uncommon for a particular employee to suffer from low morale and this can be attributed to a number of factors including poor job fit, a personality conflict with a co-worker, personal problems or difficulty fitting in. While this is an issue of importance, this Quick Tip will focus on widespread work unit and company morale issues.

When a work unit or the company as a whole is affected by low or insufficient morale, the root cause can very often be traced back to the person in charge. Ultimately the manager of a work unit brings a certain philosophy and style to work that directly impacts his/her employees. Unfortunately there are a number of unenlightened managers and supervisors in the business world who don't understand the impact they have on their employees. As a manager or supervisor, look closely at your style and approach. It is the single most important factor in morale issues. See An Introduction to Team Building and High Employee Turnover for more insight into this issue.

In order to get a better feel for the level of morale in your work unit or organization, pay close attention to your employees' behavior. Do they appear to enjoy their work and those around them? Does there seem to be a problem employee in terms of being "poisonous" to the environment by making life difficult for those around them? How do employees seem to react to you? Do they seem fearful or tentative around you or are they open and willing to discuss issues?

If there is an employee who seems to cause problems for those around them, they must be dealt with. This is when the coaching and counseling skills of a good manager come to bear. That problem employee needs to be coached and counseled to change his/her behavior to better blend with co-workers. If the employee simply can't change, the company is usually better off without that employee. If nothing is done, the message that gets sent to employees is that one problem employee is going to be put ahead of the welfare and morale of all other employees. This is a very damaging message to send.

Morale is something that needs to be managed. Take these steps to better manage the morale of your employees:
-Create an environment that is fun and lively.
-Carefully evaluate your management style. Is it facilitating in nature or is it dictatorial or overly assertive and direct.
-Encourage employees to come forward with problems, suggestions and issues. Listen carefully and acknowledge their concerns. Follow up on them and communicate results of your findings back to them. Don't leave them hanging.
-Address compensation and benefits to make certain that you are competitive with the market.
-Be consistent in how you administer rules and policies.
-Be fair and reasonable.
-Set expectations for all employees about team work and working cooperatively. Let it be known that you expect employees to get along while on the job.
-Be clear in your expectations and follow up when they aren't met. Don't ignore low performers. -If they can't become good employees, terminate them. Bad employees affect those around them.
-Don't allow double standards. What's good for one employee is good for all of them.
-Eliminate a punitive mentality. Don't make employees feel that they will be punished if they make mistakes.
-Encourage innovation and creativity.
-Show employees that you care about them.
-Communicate as much as possible to all employees. Keep them well informed about what's going on in the business.
-Look at the work environment. Is it light and airy or is it dark, dreary and counterproductive?

Don't ignore morale issues within your work unit or company. They can be extremely detrimental to your success. Remember that high morale usually equals high productivity.

Turning Satisfied Customers Into Loyal Customers

While building a customer base, businesses sometimes move too quickly and focus on quantity rather than quality. Just as organizations experience turnover in their employee ranks, turnover occurs in the customer base as well. The extent to which both occur has a significant influence on your bottom line.

There is a lot of emphasis these days on creating satisfied customers. But is having satisfied customers enough? In our research we found several sources that conducted surveys addressing the impact of customer satisfaction on loyalty to a particular vendor. Depending on the survey source, between 60 and 85 percent of customers who chose a new vendor indicated they were satisfied or very satisfied with their former vendor.

What these results say is that having satisfied customers is not always enough. Certainly the first step in a vendor - customer relationship is working hard to keep customers satisfied. If your customers aren't satisfied with the level of service you deliver, you can rest assured that there will be a high level of turnover within your customer base.

An important transformation needs to take place in the way businesses view their relationships with customers. The transformation involves moving customers from being satisfied to being loyal. It's important to keep in mind the fact that a satisfied customer isn't necessarily a loyal customer. Moving a customer from satsfied to loyal requires hard work, constant attention to the customer and diligence in delivering outstanding service consistently.

Any given customer can be satisfied with multiple suppliers of the same product or service. Does the level of satisfaction factor in? Possibly, but not likely. The more likely scenario that gets played out is that as long as a threshold level of satisfaction is achieved the customer will tend to buy from supplier(s) offering the best price. Clearly, price will always be a factor to some extent in terms of which supplier gets the business. But what happens when a supplier is able to differentiate itself in terms of building some degree of customer loyalty? Chances are good that price becomes less of an issue as loyalty increases.

Satisfaction allows you to be in the game, so to speak. Loyalty translates into repeat pruchases. When a company is able to achieve some degree of customer loyalty among its customer base, the rate of customer leakage drops and the share of a given customer's business increases. Bear in mind that not every customer will feel the same sense of loyalty even with the same level of effort applied. But, this point notwithstanding, customer loyalty can clearly correlate with increased sales and increase profits.

So how do you build customer loyalty? First, we need to briefly address loyalty as it relates to the product or service itself. Let's look at what we'll refer to as a commodity product. A commodity product (or service) is one that looks and functions identically or nearly identically to the competitions' product or service. In this case, there is little to differentiate on other than price or level of service. In the case of differentiated products or services, the various suppliers can point to subtle or not so subtle differences in the product or service in making their case for buying one over another. If a differentiated product or service clearly has a functional or benefit advantage over those of its competitors, short-term loyalty can be achieved based on that advantage alone. But in most cases competition simply upgrades their own product or service to deliver the same functionality or benefit as the superior product/service so over the long-haul the level of product/service-specific loyalty diminishes.

We address the issue of commodity versus differentiated products and services only to point out that in many ways and in most cases, there is really very little sustained product differentiation. The implication then is that we have to build loyalty in other ways. Here are some things to keep in mind when attempting to build customer loyalty:

• Let customers know that you are interested in them as a long-term customer. This implies that your people are very much geared to being problem solvers for the customers. They must understand that their jobs exist to solve customers' problems and to assist the customer on demand.
• Think in terms of developing relationships with the customer. This doesn't mean a vendor customer relationship. This means attempting to cultivate as many personal relationships as possible within the customer's organization. While this is often disputed, we firmly subscribe to the notion that people buy from people they like. And they buy from people they can trust. Perhaps the key differentiating variable in the business world today is people. The quality of people you put in front of your customers will clearly help separate you from your competition. Your sales force must have very high expectations established for them in terms of relationship development.
• Make every attempt to differentiate your product or service from the competition. Try to stay out in front in making your product or service more functional or beneficial to the customer. The essential ingredient here is value. Does the customer perceive that your product or service is worth more to them than your competitors' products or services?
• Serve the customer at extremely high levels. This means that your processes must be efficient, your people who have any interaction with customers must be highly trained in customer service skills and you must establish a culture with high expectations for serving the customers at very high levels. Nothing short of outstanding customer service can be expected with no exceptions granted.
• Think long-term. Your business needs to establish a stable customer base. Companies that have a short-term mentality rarely, if ever, build much customer loyalty. Don't go for the quick sale just to generate revenue. Build a strong relationship with the customer and sales will follow.
• Allow customers to provide you feedback easily and whenever they feel they need to do it. Encourage your customers to contact you with ideas, problems, concerns or with a pat on the back that can be passed on to employees for a job well done.
• Create an environment of high accountability, high performance, high morale and high productivity. Happy and productive employees will do a lot to build customer loyalty.
  

In summary, customer loyalty can be accomplished. But it does take hard work and constant management attention. Your sales force is an integral part of building customer loyalty. They need to fully understand their roles in building strong, long-term relationships with the customer.