Most companies focus their efforts on teaching specific job details and responsibilities when training a new employee. At Incept, we approach training with a focus on welcoming new team members into our company culture. By creating an open and comfortable atmosphere we empower each new Conversational Marketing Expert (CME) to be at their best from their first day on the job.
Once our new team members know they’re a part of the team we focus on learning step by step how to have productive conversations by using techniques like role-playing in the classroom. From there it’s a short, natural (although sometimes uneasy) step to having conversations with real donors and customers on the phone.
Because our employees come from a variety of sources (many of them are referred by current members of the Incept team) we think it’s critical to make them feel welcome to our culture. An employee who feels like they’re on the outside looking in is a lot more likely to go looking for work elsewhere than one who feels like they belong.
Interested in becoming a part of our team?
Interested in putting the Incept Team to work for you?
If so, visit our website and Let’s Talk…Results.
At the beginning of the work week, how easy is it to find yourself in that “Office Space” kind of mindset?
Trudging into work with your personal autopilot switch already flipped to “on” is, without a doubt, all too easy of a routine to get into. But think outside the cubical in terms of what you really do on a day-to-day basis. Having a job – or even a career – at its roots is how most of us make a living. However, beyond the paycheck, what do you take away from your occupation?
The reason I say this is because, quite simply, life is too short to have a never-ending case of the Mondays.
At Incept, our Conversational Marketing Experts (CMEs) have a purpose that certainly goes beyond their paychecks. They save lives through conversations, and that fact is reinforced the very moment training starts. In one year’s worth of employment at Incept, a Conversational Marketing Expert (CME) can save more lives than any fireman or policeman will save in their entire careers of service – and I say that with the utmost respect. One whole blood donation has the amazing ability to save the lives of up to three people, or at the very least make the lives of those people better. It really is because of the many meaningful conversations that take place every day at Incept that we are able to accomplish not only our goals for our clients and our own company, but make a real-world difference for an individual in need.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve called someone, as a Conversational Marketing Expert (CME), and have had a genuinely great conversation with the donor I’m speaking with. The number is simply countless. But why? Because I believe in what I do. I believe in donating blood and the life-changing effects it can bring to someone’s life. I believe in giving our donors the best customer service experience possible. I believe in Incept’s drive and leading ingenuity within our industry. I believe in my fellow coworkers and value my comradeship with them. I believe that even if I only schedule one person to donate on a given day that I have still made the world a better place before I clock out for the night.
Now, granted, every employer is different. Every occupation brings its own challenges to the table, as well, but that doesn’t mean you cannot look for purpose in anything that you do. I implore you to literally take an approach to treat everyone as your customer in whatever it is you do. Remember, no matter what job you have, no matter if it is a Monday or not, search for the meaning and purpose in your job. Chances are you have a bigger purpose than you really think!
What is something meaningful you take away from your occupation?
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There seems to be a whole slew of maxims and worldly ethical codes that accompany living in this world.
Most of us, without a doubt, have heard of The Golden Rule, in which we treat others the way that we would like to be treated. But when can a business fully harness that sense of ethics in a way that will produce productive results? There are many companies out there with great core values, and practicing these values usually isn’t an issue, until business seems to get in the way.
Today I’m going to be a little less verbose than usual and just dive right into how Incept uses our company value of Everyone’s a Customer in our everyday lives and roles at Incept.
- From an organizational perspective
Really when looking to utilize the value of Everyone’s a Customer, you must put yourself in the shoes of not only your clients but your employees. Additionally, you must push to think beyond the typical business-to-client relationship. I play the electric bass guitar in a band and always love grooving it up. My guitarist has said before, when we are writing new songs, that we all have our own sonic vision of how the song sounds and where different parts of it go in our own heads. Really apply that same type of thinking when you have identified your client’s needs and goals, and develop your own sonic vision of how you will assess their needs and plan to achieve their goals. This type of thinking not only brings together multiple people’s brightest ideas, depending on whatever it is you are trying to address, but it also places a certain sense of empathetic thought on what it is going to take to really please your client and treat them as your customer.
- From an employee perspective
When looking at the value of Everyone’s a Customer to an Incept Conversational Marketing Expert (iCME), not only does it refer back to the type of thinking above, but it also is a tool that we use to determine what we need to do to be successful. Conversational Marketing Experts (CMEs) – really everyone in the company of Incept, for that matter – view Everyone’s a Customer in the terms that, if someone needs your help or advice, they are your customer. If you don’t show up to work, keep that type of thing in mind because your fellow employees are your customers, as well as your bosses. When you are asked to go into a program to call that might be a little more difficult at the moment, keep in mind your shift supervisors are your customers just as much as the folks who we literally talk on the phones with. This type of thinking is highly efficient in that it gives employees self-empowerment to realize they are an important part of the team, it helps address schedule adherence issues and, on top of it, always makes sure Incept is aiming to continue to provide world-class level service to our clients. What isn’t to like or embrace?
It’s easy to see how simple company values really do go beyond being just words, becoming mentally sharpened tools that organizations can use to their advantage when providing excellent service or any type to any client. What are some other ways you can use Everyone’s A Customer in either the workplace or everyday life?
Image Credit: http://www.dbmarketingblog.com/
Employee referral programs or incentives are a common theme these days.
Some are successful, and others are not. Few people ever dig deep enough into them, though, to truly understand why their program is successful or not. Typically, if the program is successful, the company just enjoys the successful recruitment avenue. If they are not successful, most companies either throw more money at them or just abandon the program altogether. Either way, it’s critical to understand why a referral program is working or not, as the story tends to tell quite a bit about the organization at the ground level.
At Incept, we have found employee referrals are critical to our growth and recruitment success. This is true for several reasons. Referred employees are typically higher performers, have better attendance, and stay with the company longer – thus reducing our cost per graduating employee. In addition, employee referrals have a positive impact on morale. As documented in multiple polls conducted by Gallup, having a best friend at work increases employee satisfaction and morale.
We all know increased satisfaction and morale lead to increased productivity, and increased productivity leads to increased profits. Sounds like a winning combination right? At Incept, we have found employee referrals to be the most cost-effective channel for recruitment. Despite the large payout that a current employee receives for bringing a friend to Incept, this channel still remains one of the lowest cost per acquisition methods we use.
The referred candidate already knows about the company and the job, but the best part is they know about it and understand it from the perspective a person that is in the same role they will soon be in. They get the unfiltered story about our management team, our Conversational Marketing Experts (CMEs), our policies, the type of work that will be expected each day, the way they can expect to be treated, and how they will feel each day when their shift is over. For us, at Incept, these things are awesome motivators for a new candidate to choose Incept over one of the many competitive contact centers in our area!
I can go on and on about the benefits of an employee referral program, but if you are having success with one you likely already know about most of them. What you really need to know is this: if your program is NOT working, then why?
As much as we would all love to believe that it’s all about the money, the simple fact of the matter is it’s not all about the money. If you are attempting to build a full staff of productive employees and your only hook is compensation, you will likely end up paying a lot of money per hour to people for very short periods of time! Instead of investing all of that money in signing bonuses and higher-than-standard wages, invest some of those dollars in a basic health check on your current staff.
Find out if they are happy. Do they enjoy the work they do each day? Does it make them feel fulfilled? Do they feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves? Do they understand what your company’s mission is? Do they know why their job is important? How do they feel about their managers? Do they feel as if they have all the tools necessary to do a good job every day? Do they feel like anyone at your company cares about them as a person? Do they feel like there is room for advancement or any benefit to achieving their maximum potential in their current position? The questions could go on and on, but the point is simple: if your organization is not healthy, no matter what you do with your employee referral program, it will never show the success you need from it.
Once you have done your health check, spent the necessary time to make the adjustments you find are necessary, and invested in your current staff, you will find that your employee referral program begins to work. You will also find that you can likely spend less money on your referral program and net even better results from it. When your employees are happy and believe in your company, they are eager to recruit new employees for you. After all, who doesn’t want to help out a friend with a great job? Now it’s up to you to turn your company into a place that is considered great.
Image Credit: ClickMail Marketing
When it comes to being unique, what is it that truly defines that quality within or about someone?
Is it a huge multicolored mohawk, adorned in liberty spike style that grabs your attention? Maybe it is an awesome pair of ultra-rare Dinosaur Jr. Nike SB Dunks just screaming for notoriety from their wearer’s feet. Could it possibly be a face full of piercings and ears that are gauged so big you can almost fit a soda can through them that command your eyes to gaze with wonder? And let us not forget the full assortment of tattoos to match. At this point I can only imagine the type of imagery you as a reader are envisioning! It’s almost humorous what our brains can determine to be unique when generating a first impression of someone. In all reality, I have used one of my friends for inspiration in writing the first paragraph of this blog.
What does it mean to you to be unique?
The thing about the term and quality of being unique is that it can come across in a rather superficial way – sadly enough – especially within the context of today’s society. Always remember that the way you made people feel within the interactions you share daily in your life will always be what makes you as a person unique rather than your looks, because, after all, with age your looks fade away.
When it comes to being an innovator within the Conversational Marketing field, as well as a philosophical zebra of a different set of stripes when it comes to company culture, Incept recognizes the fact that no matter what we do, we always strive to strengthen the relationships between ourselves and our customers and clientele. Here are three big reasons why Incept is currently leading the way in the field of blood donor recruitment and why we stand out above our competitors:
- We capitalize on one of the biggest things that makes Incept unique: our company culture.
The thing consistently noted about Incept is the atmosphere in which all of us work. It’s really a productive and friendly environment. Do you understand how encouraging it is to come to work and see so many different types of people getting along naturally? People aren’t just coworkers at Incept, they are friends. And that type of camaraderie not only has a positive effect on employee morale, but it has also created a team vibe where we always look to succeed as both a world-class organization and as a collective team of goal-focused individuals working towards our clients’ goals first and company goals second. This is what it really means to harness the energy of your own company culture.
- We always think about what it means to “Strengthen the Relationship” with out donors and clients in every call we have.
When it comes to our industry there is a big misunderstanding that one always has to be pushy and overly assumptive – almost to the point of being aggressive – with someone just to get a sale or appointment (or whatever the conversion might be). At Incept we do believe in being assumptive, but we believe that the way we end each call with our donors and customers is what is really important. Sometimes that doesn’t mean getting the appointment or getting that close; as long as we do what the donor or customer asks us to do and can manage to pull it off to where that person gets off the phone with a Conversational Marketing Expert (CME) and feels good about why we called (or even simply about talking to us), that is what it is really about. There are no instances of force-feeding anyone products or trying to push people into tentative appointments. The quality of our conversations speak for themselves when it’s time to check the results.
- We are a Conversational Marketing Firm, not a telecommunications agency.
There has always been a big misconception of what we actually do here at Incept. Yes, at the very core of our business the telephone is one of our biggest tools when it comes to literal communication of the spoken kind, but that doesn’t mean we are telemarketers. When you think of the word conversation, do you think of two people talking? That is what it is all about. Communicating to create meaningful results through productive conversations is what we stand for. This doesn’t mean talking at someone, but rather with them – putting more of an emphasis on listening. By simply listening to our donors and engaging them in quality conversations is really how we have been so successful and helps to explain why Incept has catapulted to become a leader in the industry.
Many organizations seem to still have this cookie-cutter image of what they want to be, not what their customers need them to be. For Incept, being a unique organization doesn’t have to mean that, though. At the core of all that we do it is our clients and customers we put first – even before ourselves as a company – and that is the main attribute behind why Incept stands out from the pack.
What other examples do you have of companies that are unique within their own industries?
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A few years ago, I had the opportunity to hear Joe Gibbs (three Super Bowl titles, NASCAR Championship team owner, and two-time NHRA Pro Stock team owner) speak for an American Teleservices Association (ATA) conference where he talked about leadership. Coach Gibbs explained that three things were expected of leaders: communicate expectations, provide training, and hold people accountable. He took exception to the Peter Principle, saying that people don’t typically fail because they rise to a level that’s above them; it’s usually because leaders fail to provide adequate training.
Coincidentally, Incept undertook a branding initiative about a year ago with the objective of becoming a world-class organization. In setting that compass, Incept committed to a “listen before we lead” approach with both our clients and our employees. So, as part of this initiative, we asked our employees a series of questions aimed and defining our roadmap to become world-class in our service. Can you guess what they told us? Their feedback indicated a thirst for training, knowledge, and growth. No big surprise there, right?
In turning that feedback into something actionable, Incept’s Live The Brand oversight committee developed a service standard: “With education, constant improvement and growth are expected.” With every service standard, there should be a definition, so the committee went on to create the definition: “As we pursue our goal of becoming a world-class organization, we recognize that the continuous training and development of all employees is key.” And in order for us to truly live our brand, the committee created these actions:
- Employee – Every day I will seek opportunities to better myself and my career.
- Organization – We will provide tools and resources that help our employees accomplish their personal and professional goals.
Providing the tools and resources is a significant undertaking. Consequently, we formed a subcommittee entitled: Learning Never Stops. Current Learning Never Stops subcommittee members include Incept’s CEO Sam Falletta, Conversational Marketing Expert Zev Rosenburg, Program Results Supervisor Allison Legg, Shift Supervisor Amber Nelson, and VP of New Client Results Jim Beuoy.
Again, we deployed our “listen before we lead” approach and asked the employees to provide specific subject matter for the courses. The interest was beyond our expectations. Employees quickly realized that by Incept investing in them, they would become better employees, become more engaged with the brand, and provide better service to our clients.
The Learning Never Stops subcommittee outlined a plan for ongoing education, determining which trainings are mandatory, which are optional and at what intervals they should be held. Topics vary, ranging from leadership to communication to personal well-being. Plans include training curriculum, performance management (formal and informal) and an advancement path for success both personally and professionally. The outcome is Incept University. It’s run like many universities in that there are requirements for acceptance, credits for successfully passing course assessments, and majors – which are career paths through various disciplines within the organization.
The concept of a corporate learning and development center, regardless of the title, isn’t something new. Even the concept of a corporate university has been around for awhile. So far, Incept’s appears to be a rousing success as employees frequently ask about timing of courses, how they can take corrective action on attendance and performance to become eligible, and other expressions of interest. Still, there could be challenges along the way. We’re interested in hearing from others about keys to success and potential pitfalls of corporate development.
What’s your experience been in launching and sustaining a “Learning Never Stops” initiative?
I am not one of those people who are content with just vanilla. I actually quite prefer having a variety of options in life – from the clothes I wear to the food I eat and everything else in between.
When it comes to company culture at Incept, I think that is one of our strongest points as an organization. It is a company culture that feels more like a family than anything, and 
that family is made up of multiple personalities – some wild, some mild. But at the end of the day, it all seems to work into this giant, driving force of camaraderie. The thing is everyone brings something to the table, professionally and personally. Certain Conversational Marketing Experts (CMEs) have different techniques and work styles that rub off on one another and helps our employees to be more self-sufficient when it comes to problem solving. Furthermore, everyone is generally willing to lend advice and share their techniques.
Overall, workplace diversity is very important and sadly seems to be overlooked by many corporations trying to climb the ladder to a world-class level. Here is some insight into what Incept’s diversity amongst our employees is and how it works for us:
- We embrace a “melting pot” ideal.
When you walk into Incept, one of the first things you read is, “Through these doors walk exceptional people” on the main office door. That definitely is not an understatement. What is also not an understatement is the fact that Incept has many different demographics of people, culturally and metaphorically. Whether it’s the student working through college, the mother that just dropped her child off at daycare, or even the part-time mixed martial artist (and trust me, we do have a few at Incept!), without a doubt all these people contribute to the overall atmosphere of the workplace at Incept. It’s awesome to see so many people at lunch or on break hanging out and chatting it up like old friends, when in reality if you saw some of these people outside of work, you’d never think they could get along.
- Diversity is spread among management.
How often do you see a company where diversity is somewhat healthy amongst the company’s general employee culture, but then hits a wall when it comes to upper management? Not at Incept. One of the driving forces behind this mantra of multifariousness is the fact that when you look at our upper management team, it isn’t just carbon copies of one type of person. The fact that management is so diversified with different mind types and characters creates the opportunity to look at situations in different perspectives, adding an effective boost to being able to solve problems more efficiently and creatively.
- New employees are more relaxed.
When I see a new training group for the first time at Incept, I notice the anxiousness and nervousness on the expressions they wear upon their face. But I can remember being nervous my first day at Incept; I really didn’t know what to expect. I felt like I was the new kid at school. The reason why I have developed such a passion for what I do at Incept, along with many of my fellow coworkers, is the fact that right out of the gate I could see the type of culture at Incept and how diversified it was. That made me feel that I could fit in. I didn’t feel like a black sheep because I was new, rather I felt that when I came out of training I was accepted not only as a coworker, but as a fellow peer. And that is all basically because of the company culture at Incept. When I had rough days or wasn’t feeling up to being conversational, it is my coworkers that pulled me through.
I could ramble and rant all day about how diversified Incept is. When it comes to company culture and being diverse, what are some more benefits of diversity amongst employees in the workplace?
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When it comes to company culture, there are many different angles, variables, questions and circumstances that seem to all accumulate into this one, big blender and then spewed upon an allegorical canvas to then be analyzed by the parent organization as if it were some Jackson Pollock painting, riddled with deeper meaning.
There are no instructions that come with building a world-class organization and there is nothing that will guide you towards the perfect secret recipe for creating the ultimate company culture. The whole relationship between employees and their organizations has been changing from more of an “Us to Them” relationship to being more open all across the board. Why though and what does positive company culture have to do with it? Let’s avoid the fluffy statements and dive right into what will help you in building a positive company culture like we have at Incept.
Overall, without a goal or mission statement, you are wandering aimlessly in the dark. When it comes to identifying what your company’s mission is, keep in mind it does not have to be a grand and lofty idea, but something all employees can strive towards. The tone of your mission statement will set other aspects of your company culture into motion and initially is an idea that will trickle from top-down throughout an organization. It is up to the organization to keep that feeling of “Us” or “We” appropriate in their education of their desired goals or it can come off rather imperative and make creating a positive team environment more challenging.
Without a doubt I’m a better bass guitarist than I am a drummer, although I do dabble on my kit more often now in my apartment. Everyone has something they are better at doing than another task. Your employees are no different! Strength based development and management focus on what a person is already good and simply builds off of it. That doesn’t mean ignore areas needing improvement, but when an organization addresses what someone is good at or another strong quality and encourages that employee to strive towards improving that aspect, people can be much more receptive and willing to push towards even further improvement. Are you more likely to talk about something you are good at or something you don’t excel at? Try looking at it that way.
- Effective company cultures are values-aligned
When it comes to company values, keep in mind, these are more than just words on a wall meant to sound all flowery and pleasant to clients. Company values are what your mission statements, service standards and service promises should align with! Company values aren’t just created to sound impressive, but to be used as guidance between the interactions between your clients, your company internally and externally, and especially between your employees. Educating your employees about the values and why they are what they are and their purpose is key. When Incept held our own launch event to commence our Live The Brand process back in January, we educated our company over the direction we were going in and what our values meant in that decision, and from looking around the event I could almost see light bulbs light up above my fellow employees’ heads. They understood more clearly now about what was happening and there was a feeling of comradeship between the whole organization. That is still one of Incept’s biggest qualities and is another trait that separates us from our competitors.
When it comes to building that feeling of teamwork through company culture it is not an overnight success in most cases, but that doesn’t mean it should be abandoned early either. When you have a positive company culture you can feel the benefits of less absenteeism since people want to show up to work, high senses of employee morale and responsibility, reduced turnover rate and so on. I could probably write another blog based on the benefits of a company culture, which isn’t a bad idea now that I think about it, but what are some more ways to increase or build positivity in a company’s culture?
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Here is a tale of my own early childhood tenacity.
As a small child I had interest in many things. From what type of dinosaur was running rampant through Jurassic Park, how toothpaste got inside the tube, or even why Curious George was just so curious, there literally was nothing I did not question. For reasons of the sticky and burning kind, the following story sticks vividly in my mind.
It was a cold morning in the Dodson household, and outside looked like a scene out of The Empire Strikes Back when Luke Skywalker was on Hoth. The wind, ice and snow were brisk and too unforgiving for a toddler. My morning plans of building a snowman and sledding were put on hold. To make matters worse, I had a dentist appointment in a mere matter of hours. In the midst of everything, I suppose my mom was too tied up in her motherly duties with my siblings and forgot to make me one of my favorite breakfast time snacks: peanut butter and jelly toast.
Now I’ve always been a persistent one, so to speak, so I was going to jump on the chance to be a big boy and make my own food. There was just one obstacle; I was only about 3-and-a-half feet tall, and the counter top seemed like a climb to the summit of some large mountain peak. Nevertheless, feeling inspired from recently building one of the tallest Lego towers in my short history, I decided to do the same thing, but with my Little Tikes ride on tractor, my collection of story books, and my lunch box all stacked upon one another.
I began my ascent to the the top of the counter (upon a pile of my belongings) and after a short battle to find footing amongst everything, I had finally made it up to the counter top. The bread, the peanut butter and jelly, and the toaster were all at my finger tips so I began. It was my first time making myself breakfast, so I did it the way I thought was right, by smearing gobs of peanut butter and jelly on the bread first before putting into the toaster.
Just when I thought things were going good I could feel my lunch box and storybook tower start to wobble below my little feet. This proverbial house of cards was definitely coming down, and I was ready to hang on for dear life. All of a sudden my ride-on tractor started to slide forward and it was all history from there. The tractor slid forward while books slid across the flooring and my lunch box made a dramatically loud, “PLUNK!” upon impact. In my efforts to save myself from falling, I grabbed on to the burning toaster, but the angle at which I had fallen my chin caught the toaster on the way down and held me there for a few burning intense seconds. While the scent of peanut butter toast coming directly into my nostrils wasn’t bad, the fact that I had a huge painful black and blue burn mark on the bottom of my chin wasn’t pleasant at all.
Later that day when at the dentist office my mother kept being asked why her little boy looks like he got upper cut and burned with a lighter under his face? My mom would simply sigh and tell me where and when to be there. the hat I was very persistent and passionate about my breakfast, especially peanut butter and jelly toast. Years later after that painful, yet humorous life experience, I guess I wore my tenacity right on my face.
At Incept we support being “Tenacious” as one of our core values, but that doesn’t always just mean having persistence! It is the persistence to be passionate that makes the Conversational Marketing Experts (CMEs) at Incept tenacious. Stay tuned for more on how being tenacious ties in with being passionate!
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I wanted to take a couple minutes to talk about my start and growth here at Incept.
I started on the phones mainly making calls to current and potential blood donors for various blood centers across the nation. I was inspired by the work I did, and I took it very seriously. I am competitive by nature, so I was always looking for ways I could do better and produce at the rate that many of the veterans were at that time. Everyone from fellow Conversational Marketing Experts (CMEs) up to the CEO was very helpful in encouraging my development.
Within two months of my first day of employment, I was asked to become a Coach and assist on the floor with developing and improving other CMEs. This brought on more of a challenge, as I now had to continue making calls myself in addition to coaching people on how to make their phone calls better. This was an interesting transition – mainly because I was low on the totem pole – being that I was to work with CMEs who had been doing this job for much longer than me. Again, I was shown how great of a place Incept is to work for as these veterans accepted and welcomed my help graciously.
Shorty after this, I was given smaller blood center campaigns to run operationally. After learning the complexities of operations and reaching and exceeding goals for our blood centers, I was eventually moved to the position I am in today: Program Results Manager. Through the hard work of everyone on my team, and my constant dedication, I am managing our largest client at Incept. I set up operational strategies for reaching our units goal along with our Client Results Team and our Technology Results Team. These strategies include but are not limited to scripting, time-of-day calling, specific CMEs used for specific campaigns, testing new ideas, managing Supervisors and Coaches that work directly with CMEs, and developing new strategies with the actual client through meetings and various other forms of contact. Every day brings a new challenge, but the success of my responsibilities is worth all the hard work.
