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To the Point/December/2005
•Workers’ Compensation alert!
Don’t be confused by the offer of higher dividends
What seems to go down may actually cost more. “How can that
be?” you ask. Sounds confusing, doesn’t it? It is and
Workers’ Compensation is a good example.
Some companies may offer higher dividends for 2005. That seems like
good news since it means a savings. But in this case don’t
be too sure.
It’s also possible that your Experience Mod may go up! That’s
not good news because it means you could wind up paying more—possibly
much more—in total Workers’ Comp expenses.
As you can see, it’s easy to be confused—and to assume
that your overall Workers’ Comp costs will be going down.
Don’t count on that happening, unless you take the right steps
to make sure they will be lower.
Get all the information. Contact Judy Jacobs, at 800-752-8506 or
JudyJ@mosineeins.com,
the manager of our Comp-Save Solutions group.
Don’t take chances. What seems to be going down may actually
be going up.
• Play to the pause with prospects
“The pause that refreshes” is the way Coca-Cola once
described itself. If you happen to catch some radio programs from
the 40s and 50s, listen for the pauses. Jack Benny was a master
at going silent to create a laugh. Successful speakers are experts
at the art of using a pause to dramatize the point of a story.
Sales trainers also know the value of a pause. They teach salespeople
to stop talking once they’ve asked a question and wait for
the customer. That seems to be easier said than done. Waiting even
one or two seconds makes us uncomfortable so we start talking before
the customer has a chance to figure out what to say!
If you’re asking the right questions, you want the best possible
answers from prospects. To do that, you want to give them time to
formulate their thoughts. In effect, you are asking the person to
“think on their feet” and we all know that’s not
easy. It takes a little time for most customers to organize what
they want to say. If the salesperson starts talking too quickly,
the most valuable moment of the sales presentation could be lost.
Learning to be quiet and not rushing in to fill the seconds of silence
may be one of the most effective ways to make the sale. And those
are pauses that really refresh!
•On-the-job time wasting skyrocketing
At a time when operating efficiently is essential, the other shoe
falls. In this case, recent studies show that unproductive work
activities are close to being out of hand.
For example, the time spent handling email jumped from about 4 hours
a week in 2000 to 8.8 hours per week in 2004. It’s probably
headed toward 10 hours a week and quite possibly even higher in
certain businesses.
The same study—by IBT-USA, Inc., a training organization—found
that the time spent attending ineffective meetings tripled between
2000 and 2004, hitting 2.1 hours per person per week. Furthermore,
the time spent being interrupted jumped from 3.3 hours per week
in 2000 to 4.5 hours two years later.
But unproductive business time is not the only culprit. Another
study by Salary.com and America Online revealed that employees admit
an average of two hours of company time per day online for non-business
purposes. As more employees discover blogs, we can expect the numbers
to be even worse. In fact, it’s currently estimated that about
one in four people in the labor force visit blogs and on average
spend 3.5 hours during the work week engaging with them.
Add it all up and it’s easy to see where one-third of the
workweek is going.
•Northwoods area
You Can Control Your Workers’ Comp Costs Workshop
The positive response to our seminar in Wausau this past October
indicated a high level of interest in finding out how to reduce
Workers’ Compensation expenses over the long-term.
Our Comp-Save Solutions group will be offering the same seminar
at the Best Western Claridge Motor Inn in Rhinelander on Thursday,
February 16 from 8:00-10:30 a.m. Comp-Save Solutions manger Judy
Jacobs will be the presenter.
If you would like to attend or know someone in that area who might
be interested in attending, please let us know. Contact Judy Jacobs
at 800-752-8506 or JudyJ@mosineeins.com.
The seminar is co-sponsored by Mosinee Insurance and The Business
News.
•Why do people seem so irritable today?
Anyone who works closely with customers, for example, asks this
question at least several times a day. In his new book, Broken
Windows: Broken Business, author Michael Levine sheds some
light on this trend of the times.
He suggests that we have both a rational side and an emotional side.
When we are hungry, tired, angry, or lonely, the emotional side
dominates. We explode more easily when we’re under stress.
This is when we complain more and that little details we would otherwise
overlook become major issues of the moment.
He points out that customer satisfaction—not the devil—is
in the details. He thinks Starbucks has done a good job in creating
a good customer experience and that Wal-Mart makes the effort with
its greeters. A&I Products of Rock Valley, Iowa understands
customer stress. It ships orders for more than 55,000 agricultural
equipment parts the day they are received for next day delivery.
When a farmer is waiting for a tractor part that’s stress.
If customers know it will be there tomorrow, they don’t get
upset.
Paying attention to the little things that cause a stressed customer
to lash out may be the heart of good customer service.
On behalf of all of us at Mosinee Insurance, I want to wish you
the best during this Holiday Season.
Sincerely,
Tom Helbach
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