Let’s face it – performance reviews can be fraught for everyone involved, no matter if you are on the giving or the receiving end of them. It’s no wonder there is often a lot of anxiety surrounding them! Staff may find themselves wondering: Am I meeting expectations? Am I providing value? Does my manager think […]
Here at Zingerman’s, our fiscal year goes from August to July and each year we spend the months of April, May and June working on our plans for the upcoming year. So as you can imagine by the timing of this webinar, we’re deep into annual planning over here. That means visions, spreadsheets, flipcharts, whiteboards, […]
What makes Zingerman’s approach to giving great service unique? We realized early in the game that in order to deliver an exceptional customer service experience, day-in and day-out, it was important to focus on more than “just” customer service. We wanted to build a culture of great service throughout the organization—top to bottom, from every […]
What if we told you that you were just 4 Questions away from creating really great training in your business? We’re here to tell you that it’s true and you don’t need to have a background in instructional design or even prior training experience to start training your staff well today. We created Zingerman’s 4 […]
Several years ago, we realized that although we were teaching many important leadership topics to our staff, we also had a gap—managers didn’t have enough opportunity to practice these leadership skills, with an opportunity to mindfully reflect on what they were doing well and how to improve. As is common in many (most?) organizations, we […]
Have you ever wanted to address something “tough” with a coworker but not known where to start? Or perhaps you’re someone who prefers to avoid conflict altogether? Conflict in the workplace can be tricky and knowing how to navigate it well can make a huge difference to yourself, your staff and your coworkers. At Zingerman’s, […]
A new year brings with it renewed energy – energy to tackle goals, try new things and/or break habits that might not be serving us. What happens when we bring our unique energy to work each day? We have the profound power to affect our work ecosystem in ways that impact productivity, profits and well-being. […]
Talk to any business owner who has kept their doors open year after year and chances are they’ll credit their longevity, at least in part, to giving great customer service. Similarly, many customers who stay loyal to specific businesses and brands will often cite great customer service as a big (if not the biggest) reason […]
Ever been to one of *those* meetings? You know the one… somebody is grandstanding and won’t get off their soapbox. Somebody else is having a side conversation. The person sitting across from you might as well be alone in the room with their smartphone. Nobody is making decisions. The energy is low, and almost everyone […]
Business as art? There’s a concept you don’t often hear swirling around the business world these days… What would happen if everyone approached their lives as artists? What if business leaders looked at their organizations as if they were making art for the ages instead of being just vehicles for making money? What if everyone—not […]
If you’re in the business of serving customers, it’s no secret just how important giving great customer service is to the success of your business. But how do you know if you’re doing it well? As they say, what gets measured gets done. At Zingerman’s, we do a lot of work around customer service and […]
At Zingerman’s, we define a Vision as a picture of success at a particular time in the future. It’s different than a mission statement (those are never-changing) and it’s not a strategic plan either, as it doesn’t lay out a step-by-step guide for how to move forward. Rather, the Vision is the desired destination, described […]
