Want your words to strike a chord? Learn from these inspiring examples. The philosopher Aristotle defined rhetoric as the art of persuasive speaking or writing. It’s no coincidence that many successful leaders and influencers have mastered this art. Next time you’re crafting an important piece of text, such as an email, speech, client proposal or even a tweet, consider using the techniques below to make your message really resonate.   Inclusive language One of the most effective ways to persuade people is simply to include them. The use of pronouns such as "we," "our" and "us" helps build a feeling of shared experience. President Lincoln used this tactic in his immensely powerful Gettysburg Address, one of the most well-known speeches of all time. Repetition This familiar rhetorical device, as wielded by inspirational speakers such as Winston Churchill ("We shall fight on the beaches") and Martin Luther King ("I have a dream"), creates dramatic tension and then climactic release. What strikes me about these speeches is the power they retain. Both are decades old, yet they still sound as urgent and necessary as the day they were written.  Humor A pithy one-liner or joke is sometimes what stays longest with listeners. Bear in mind your audience and tailor your humor accordingly. While not in the same league as the examples above, the 2007 keynote address by Steve Jobs at Macworld cleverly combined suspense and humor, playfully drawing the audience into a ruse about three new devices - "a widescreen iPod," "a revolutionary mobile phone" and "a breakthrough Internet communications device" - which turned out to be just one: a certain newfangled smartphone.   Vision The best writers and speakers constantly challenge our preconceptions, inviting us to dream of something bigger and better, as President Kennedy did in his "We choose to go to the moon" speech. In your professional life, what is your vision - and how can you bring your audience with you?   Revision Lastly, never forget the power of revising. It’s rare for a piece of writing to be executed perfectly on the first attempt. Get your initial ideas down in rough form and then hone them. Build revision into your processes, and the quality of your output will dramatically improve.      Photo Credit: shio via Compfight cc

We’re proud to announce that GoToMyPC remains the market leader in remote access. According to IDC’s Worldwide Remote Access Services and Applications 2013-2017 Forecast and 2012 Vendor Share (doc #239865, March 2013) report that was released this week, "Citrix GoToMyPC retains its market-leading position for another year, with 72.9% of the total remote access services and applications market share."  GoToMyPC has been a leader in the SaaS industry since 2001, and it’s been tremendously successful because we’re passionate about delivering a service that our customers love. It’s simple, reliable and secure. And it just works - it does exactly what it promises to do (and hopefully a bit more.) How do we do it? What’s the secret sauce? We listen, a lot. In fact, we’re fanatical about listening to our customers. Everyone in the business is focused on customer conversion and retention. The first two emails read every morning, by everyone on our team, are customer feedback and our daily dashboard. It’s a great way to keep a pulse on how we are doing. But we go deeper than these daily checks. We have an entire team dedicated to customer insights, and our product design team is constantly talking to customers and target prospects to get feedback on new features and designs. Our consistent research ensures our teams are always focused on the customer; it also allows us to start a dialogue with those customers who are at risk, and to identify our advocates and give them a voice. Here are 10 ways that we listen to our customers: Sales & Support interactions - These people are talking to customers and prospects all day long. They are a gold mine of information. But how do you gather it? We use Salesforce to help aggregate information from calls. We track why we won or lost business and if certain trends start to develop, we can react quickly. We also use Podio to share customers’ stories and ideas. Social media - Your customers are talking about you on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. Make sure you’re monitoring the conversation and that your social media team knows who to go to in your organizations to escalate potential issues, customer ideas, or general sediment. We hold quarterly reviews which look at not only how we’re performing, but also customer sentiment.  Online Customer support communities are also a great way to gather customer input. We use GetSatisfaction and it’s a great product for facilitating customer support, feedback and ideas. Annual Customer Survey - This is a good opportunity to slice and dice the different customer segments you may have, see how they are changing year over year and get critical feedback. With the annual survey you may have a standard set of questions, looking at demographics and attitudes, but there is usually some room for discovery as well. Just make sure you keep it to a reasonable length; no one wants survey fatigue. There are great online survey companies out there and this is something you can do for very little money that has great value. Inquiry Surveys - Throughout the year, you’ll need to dive in deeper to a particular idea. Don’t wait for the annual survey; but do keep it short and to the point. You can also segment a particular group of your customers for analysis. Perhaps you only want to find out something from the customers who use mobile apps, or those that came in through a certain trial flow. With short inquiry surveys you can do this. Net Promoter Score (NPS) - Do this monthly and you’ll have the pulse of your customer base. Your NPS can be an indicator of future retention rates. And it’s as simple as asking one question, "How likely is it that you would recommend [your company, product or service] to a friend or colleague?" Customers respond on a scale of 0-10, and you calculate it by taking the percentage of customers who are Promoters (9-10’s) and subtracting the percentage who are Detractors (0-6’s). We are extremely proud of GoToMyPC’s high NPS, consistently scoring near the top for our industry (Computer Software).  Feedback requests at the end of a session - Give your customers an easy way to send you quick feedback right when they finish their session (warning: do not be obtrusive about this). It’s top of mind, very recent and with a quick 1-5 point rating and open text field, you can get immediate feedback on the product experience. Exit Surveys - Are you curious why people left your service? Ask them, and ask them right away - when they cancel service. Keep this survey very short and to the point. Was it the price, a feature, a technical issue, competition, or do they just not need it anymore? Retention is the lifeblood of a successful SaaS company and you need to know why people leave. This data will give you insights into what you need to test and fix. Customer visits / phone calls / meetings - Nothing replaces actually talking to a customer. We marketers live in a bubble of like-mindedness. We read analyst and industry reports, the latest news on competition. Day in and day out we live, breathe, eat this stuff. Guess what? Your customers don’t. Get out and talk to them in the real world. It’s important you discover your customers’ pain points, why they love your product, how they use it and what they see as the benefits. Usability studies - Did your team build a beautiful interface for your website or product? That’s great. But how do your customers and prospects react to it? Do they follow the expected behavior? Do they understand what the product can do? Test prototypes and take the time to watch people use your product. It’s amazing what you’ll learn. A day in the life - That’s right, spend an entire day with a customer, or a prospect. Understand what they really do and how they do it. What are their challenges? Can’t spend the whole day? Then spend a few hours and you will gain valuable insights as well. Another option is to conduct in-depth interviews (IDIs) to really probe into how your customers feel about certain topics and to understand the language they use. If you’re on a tight budget, or your customers are geographically spread out, use technology to conduct interviews. We use GoToMeeting with HDFaces for our virtual customer advisory boards. No one of these is a "silver bullet" and this is by no means an exhaustive list of how you might collect customer feedback.  What are your best practices when it comes to customer feedback? How do you assimilate it into your company and the service you’re delivering?   Photo Credit: JosephGilbert.org via Compfight cc

Dear Ritz-Carlton: What do you do differently to create a good work environment for employees? The above question is from an attendee at "Symposium: Your Journey to Service Excellence" in April. Answer from Joseph Quitoni, Corporate Director, Culture Transformation at The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center: At The Ritz-Carlton, we have created what we call our "Gold Standards," which are the foundation of our organization.  They establish our culture and govern our actions in delivering service excellence to our guests and each other every day.  We refer to each other as Ladies and Gentlemen, and one of our Gold Standards, our Employee Promise, focuses exclusively on our employees. This promise provides us with parameters and consistent direction when creating a work environment. It is a continuous reminder that our company is making the same commitment to our employees as it does to our guests. The Ritz-Carlton work environment is comprised of a few major components: involving our employees in the planning of the work that affects them; striving for continuous improvement; and being aware of the physical safety of the employees as well as their mental and emotional well-being. In addition to our Employee Promise, we also have key processes, known as the "Systems Behind the Smiles," which allow us as a brand to maintain a workplace of engaged Ladies and Gentlemen. One of those key processes includes our Daily Line-Up. This is our number one form of communication with our employees around the world.  It is the glue that connects us daily and keeps our culture alive. This, along with other key processes are standard, non-negotiable and allow us to maximize talents and create a healthy work environment of continual learning, innovation and engagement. ∞ Join us for a one-day symposium, "Your Journey to Service Excellence." The day includes a keynote speaker, a Q&A session with The Ritz-Carlton executive panel, an optional networking reception and presentations about legendary service, employee engagement and a customer-centric culture. The Blog Post Dear Ritz-Carlton: How do you create a good work environment? appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

HDFaces was a game changer for Citrix when we launched the high-definition video conferencing feature with GoToMeeting in August 2011. The crystal-clear, multi-point webcam experience allowed audiences to engage each other like never before and conduct meetings with a "like being there" face-to-face experience. The launch of HDFaces for GoToWebinar and GoToTraining gives our webinar and training professionals the opportunity to visually connect with their audiences in their sessions. Now webinar organizers can bolster their message with their own personalities, while virtual trainers can enhance the classroom experience with visual demonstrations and face-to-face interaction. I’m proud to see our customer’s preliminary excitement. For instance, Lee Rosen, a law attorney at Rosen Law Firm in Raleigh, NC said: "HDFaces in a webinar? It’s a game changer. We use our webinars to help our prospective clients get to know us and trust us. What could be more powerful than adding a face? Even with my ugly mug I’m certain that we’ll see a powerful increase in conversions when we add our faces to our voices and PowerPoint. We can’t wait." Learn more about HDFaces for GoToWebinar and GoToTraining: GoToWebinar with HDFaces GoToTraining with HDFaces Note: A maximum of 100 participants will be able to view webcams during a live session. For GoToWebinar, HD video conferencing is currently available in sessions using the GoToWebinar 100 attendee plan with an upcoming beta for the GoToWebinar 500 and 1,000 attendee plans.

When you search the Web for "executive education programs," you’ll receive around 15 million results, and when you search the Web for "executive education programs online," you’ll receive over 25 million results. When potential students have so many options, what can academic institutions do to stand out from the crowd? Dr. Brenda Harms, a higher education consultant, notes, "The goals of students in executive education programs are different from the typical college undergrad and even from the graduate students. They are not there to make friends and happy memories. They are busy professionals who are specifically trying to increase their value in the workplace." Because these students are spending less face-to-face time with other students and less time at your institution (especially if your program is online), they may feel less bonded to your school. If your educational program wants to create word-of-mouth or solicit donations in the future, you need all of your students to feel connected to your institution. Offering excellent customer service is one way to not only differentiate your executive education program, but also to increase loyalty to your institution. Every interaction your organization has with students is an opportunity to engage and build a relationship. Dr. Harms and The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center suggest the following ways executive education programs can offer a better customer experience. 1) Reduce Red Tape Your customers are working professionals who are trying to add your program to an already full life. You should make applying, enrolling and learning about financial aid as hassle-free as possible. Do not make your potential students call one department, then another department and then another department to get questions answered. Frustrations build when people are handed off over and over again. Ideally, your institution should offer one point of contact—like an academic concierge—who can guide your busy applicant and find answers to all questions. One of the Service Values at The Ritz-Carlton is "I own and immediately resolve guest problems." When you instill accountability and problem resolution into your administrative process, you reduce the number of hurdles your customers have to overcome to work with your organization. 2) Make Your Program Convenient You want to give your students options. Some students may want an asynchronous online learning environment, but other students may not be able to commit to a specific time. When you’re able to provide options, you have a better chance of meeting the needs of your students. Another Service Value at The Ritz-Carlton specifies that we are "always responsive to the expressed and unexpressed wishes and needs of our guests." Note that the word above is "responsive." There are some wishes and needs that you may be unable to fulfill. However, if your institution is at least approachable and willing to listen to and recognize the needs of your prospective students, you will create a more personal and caring environment. 3) Provide the Services of a Career Coach Your students may not understand the complete value of your educational offering, and a career coach could help with individual development and share how others have utilized the degree. A career coach will help guide your students to greater success, and this will reinforce the value of your program. When an employee starts at The Ritz-Carlton, they are not only assigned a mentor, but they are also asked to create an annual personal development plan with their manager. The goal of your program should not be to just recruit students and collect tuition payments. Your executive education program should be focused on helping students improve their careers. 4) Leverage Your Alumni Network If your institution boasts notable alumni, consider integrating them into your offerings. Perhaps alumni can guest lecture, or you could offer a special event with an alumni panel. Giving students the chance to connect with your alumni will increase their appreciation of your program and will bond them further to your institution. 5) Ensure Professors are Accessible If your institution has prestigious faculty, make sure they’re available to students. If your marketing implies that students will be rubbing elbows with the greatest academic minds on the planet, then your students will be expecting to have contact with these professors. If they are not available, then you miss an opportunity for students to build a greater connection with your organization and risk eroding the student’s trust in your institution. At The Ritz-Carlton, leaders on property leave their desks, walk around and check in with employees, also known as Ladies and Gentlemen. Leaders understand the need to interact in order to build relationships. 6) Offer Perks After Graduation Once your students complete the program, you want to keep them connected to your institution, remind them of your value and create memories. You may give them a discount to networking events or offer them exclusive events that are only available to alumni of your program. You can also maintain connections through social media. At The Ritz-Carlton, we don’t look at any of our guests as a one-time transaction. Every guest is an opportunity to cultivate a relationship and create a guest for life. Students who enroll in executive education programs are making a substantial investment of time (classes and homework) and money (tuition and other expenses). When they receive excellent customer service, they will feel more cared for and connected to your institution. Improving your executive education customer experience will differentiate you from the competition, increase student loyalty and consequently, create positive word-of-mouth for your organization. ∞ The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center offers advisory services, courses and presentations to organizations that wish to benchmark the award-winning business practices of The Ritz-Carlton. Your organization can learn about The Ritz-Carlton methodology for customer service, employee engagement and leadership development. Join us at our Symposium: Your Journey to Service Excellence. We also guide organizations through a multi-step process in order to achieve sustainable culture transformation.  The Blog Post Executive Education Customer Experience appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

Work life has gradually morphed into everyday life, without us even realizing it. The concept of a 9-5 schedule has been phased out over the past few years, and with the ever-increasing demands from bosses and clients, we often forget to add a bit of fun into our lives.  A recent study from Michigan State University suggests that employers take more notice of a worker’s need for a "life outside the workplace." This is especially true for those of us who don’t have families or partners to support them.  In a similar vein, Accenture conducted a worldwide survey on the definition of success. It found that 52 percent of the 4,100 respondents had declined a job offer due to concerns about how it might affect their work-life balance. The results also showed that 70 percent confessed to having mixed feelings about the lifestyle impact of technology, because it can bring work into their personal life. In light of this, here are my top 5 tips on how to maintain a healthy work-life balance. Schedule work and life. Schedule in activities for after work, just like you do while at work, to encourage yourself to make more plans and better manage your time. Remember: no double-booking!   Boost your brainpower throughout the day. Our nifty video on increasing productivity through nutrition shows how you can sustain yourself for the whole working day and then still have some energy left over for activities in the evening.     Learn something you’ve always wanted to do. Ever wanted to speak Spanish or play the guitar? Book some lessons or classes to help yourself get motivated and excited.   Turn off all technology. To combat anxiety about work creeping into your life, simply turn off your phone at night if you can. This will give you a clear head to better enjoy time to yourself.    Make to-do lists. By writing down all your actions for the next day, you will be able to relax more, enjoy your evening, have a good night’s sleep and be ready for the tasks ahead.   What do you do to keep the balance? Let us know at @GoToMeetingUK.   Photo Credit: carterse via Compfight cc

"The average person puts only 25% of his energy and ability into his work. The world takes off its hat to those who put in more than 50% of their capacity and stands on its head for those few and far between souls who devote 100%." - Andrew Carnegie, Founder of the Carnegie Steel Company  The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center: Creating lasting relationships requires one to be genuine, present and to have his/her "radar-on, antenna up" 100% of the time. Just like in everyday life, business relies on the strength of relationships. Each guest interaction must build upon the relationship—whether it is a warm welcome to a long-time customer, recovery from a guest incident, a small gesture to surprise and delight your customer or a fond farewell to a new customer whom you hope to see again very soon. When you invest 100% of your energy and ability in providing a first-class customer experience, nothing will stand in your way to accomplish what you wish to provide each guest, each day. At The Ritz-Carlton, we believe in being "on stage" when we interact with our guests. This means 100% focus on their experience and creating a memory that stays with them long after they leave. Does your team give 100 percent? ∞ The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center offers advisory services, courses and presentations to organizations that wish to benchmark the award-winning business practices of The Ritz-Carlton. Your organization can learn about The Ritz-Carlton methodology for customer service, employee engagement and leadership development. Join us at our Symposium: Your Journey to Service Excellence. We also guide organizations through a multi-step process in order to achieve sustainable culture transformation.  The Blog Post Inspired Thinking: Give 100 Percent appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

Many of us don’t look forward to meetings, but we seem to pack our schedules with them, often spending more time traveling to and from our weekly meetings than we spend in the meetings themselves. But why does business culture remain so obsessed with the need to meet face to face? I imagine many people will say it’s because of the visual clues you can only get by seeing someone in person. But with the wide availability of video conferencing, is that really the main reason?  Imagine what we could do with the time we saved by skipping the commute. If you’re like me, you’ll often spend 4-5 hours a week traveling to meetings or waiting for one to start because someone else is running late. That’s 5 hours a week we could be using to finish projects, pursue new business leads or work on hobbies. That being said, there are times when a face-to-face meeting is the best approach. If I’m meeting a potential colleague or client for the first time, I would always rather meet in person. But for colleagues I work with regularly, they gain little or no value from my physical presence. The other argument I hear raised in favor of meeting in person is that people get too distracted in virtual meetings, preventing everyone from fully focusing on the topic at hand. But I think this has less to do with the format and more to do with good meeting practice. A clear agenda and a commitment to agreeing on action points will help keep people’s attention.   So here’s my challenge to you. Take 5 minutes today to review your calendar for the next week and decide whether each of your face-to-face meetings really needs you to attend in person. If not, why not join the meeting remotely and suggest your fellow participants do the same? Photo Credit: Village9991 via Compfight cc

Today, we have a guest post from Marco Mo. When Marco isn’t pushing his team to sell more at Citrix, you can find him busy on his highly irreverent blog, www.marcomo.com. The workforce today is more dispersed and diverse than ever. More than any time in the past, companies are embracing the "Work is no longer a place you go, but a thing you do" ethos and the economic results of the shift are enormous. Readily available remote access and online collaboration tools have enabled an increasing number of smart companies in Canada to adopt remote workforces as an alternative to traditional in-office work arrangements. A small company with a mobile workforce can have the reach of a big company and a big company with the right mobile work tools can have the agility of a small company. If your company is blind to this shift, you will lose to your competitors who adapt. Here are 3 reasons why. It’s all about the burn When I raised money for businesses, the first question I would ask is, "What is your burn rate?" An owner who was not militant about cost control was not a guy I wanted to fund because it’s not about how much you sell; it’s about how little it costs you to sell. You’re going to lose if your competitors sell the same sort of product as you do at a lower cost to produce it. Production costs include everything from raw materials to development costs to the office space where your people work. And every dollar you spend that is not directed to making your product better is making your competitors more competitive.Now imagine those same competitors with remote workforces. Fewer people required in an office means smaller offices. Money that was once making the building owner wealthy is now directed back into the business to improve the product or the delivery of the product. Remote workers today are technology savvy and have access to a whole suite of online meeting and collaboration tools, like GoToMeeting and Podiofrom Citrix, that make driving or flying to team meetings and sales meetings as old-school as knocking door-to-door to sell vacuums. The travel and building dollars saved by companies who embrace workshifting are staggering.But cost savings are not the only reason your competitors with remote workforces are beating you. Another reason they’re beating you is because your employees secretly want to work for them. Keeping the troops happy In research conducted by Citrix last year, 54% of Canadian companies reported having adopted mobile workstyles in response to staff requests. Their employees can work from anywhere there’s an Internet connection; at home, at a coffee shop or wherever people feel most productive. This means that the other half of all workers in the country want something they don’t have because "Getting up and fighting traffic every single day is awesome!"—said no one… ever. All things being equal, people want to work for companies that have flexible work arrangements. Flexibility allows folks to deal with life as it happens and companies that allow their employees to balance their personal lives with their work lives see the greatest return in loyalty.In the same study, a majority of Canadian companies stated that their mobile workstyles have allowed them to retain top talent and just as important, attract talent from their competitors. Also, 71% of Canadian companies reported productivity benefits from implementing mobile workstyles. And it’s not just the obvious cost savings but savings from loss due to presenteeism, a totally made-up word describing sick people who show up at work and wipe everybody out with a single sneeze."But I need to see my guys in their seats to know that they’re working," you snarl in your best manager voice. No you don’t. Good people are good people wherever they work. You see, while you are insistent that people show up every day at the office, your competitors understand that the less rigid they are with their workforces, the more they’re getting from them. You’re only ever getting some of the person’s motivation if you force him to come in. You’ve lost some of it during his commute. You’ve lost some of it to him rushing home to see his family and you’ve lost some of it to him wondering how cool it would be to work for a company that embraces workshifting. Instead of making his workers clock in, your competitors are upgrading their management teams’ ability to manage remotely so more can be done with happier remote workforces. Getting more done all the time. While you’re driving to your 11 AM sales call, your competitors have done three already using an online meeting tool.While your team is cursing traffic to get to a morning meeting at the office, your competitors’ teams are meeting at 8:30 AM from home. By 9:00 AM, they’re selling, marketing or doing whatever it is important people do.While you are burning through hours training new people at your office, your competitors are training their new employees virtually from wherever they could log on and all the new folks are ready to work in half the time it takes you to train your staff.And they do it all with less money. Remote workers have always been around. But never before have tools been so readily available to enable entire remote workforces. This shift is happening and it’s catching a lot of old school business leaders off guard. As a leader, you have a choice. You can look at this as a fad and do nothing to change. Or you can do like your competitors are already doing and evolve to keep up.   Photo Credit: maxymedia via Compfight cc

Dear Ritz-Carlton: How does The Ritz-Carlton motivate its employees? The above question is from an attendee at "Symposium: Your Journey to Service Excellence" in April. Answer from Alexandra Valentin, Corporate Director, Culture Transformation at The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center: At The Ritz-Carlton, we strongly believe that employee motivation starts with the right selection process. Our selection process helps us identify employees who are already motivated, and the on-boarding process begins instilling "psychological ownership" to the brand from the beginning. According to an article by Data Freaks, "psychological ownership is defined as the extent to which an employee feels as though their organization or their job is ‘theirs,’ (i.e., ‘this is MY company!’) to the point that the company becomes an important part of an employee’s self-identity." The Ritz-Carlton builds on this sense of ownership through employee empowerment. Each employee is encouraged to go above and beyond to create unique, memorable and personal relationships with our guests. This empowers our employees—known as the Ladies and Gentlemen of The Ritz-Carlton—to make decisions, craft special moments and resolve customer issues. Empowerment moves employees beyond passivity and simply being a "warm body" at work. The Service Values of The Ritz-Carlton also foster a sense of psychological ownership. Each Service Value begins with the word "I." Using the pronoun "I" not only reinforces each individual’s contribution, but also promotes accountability and ownership. It encourages our Ladies and Gentlemen to volunteer ideas, approaches and solutions—whether they are problem solving or innovating—and that is motivating. ∞ Join us for a one-day symposium, "Your Journey to Service Excellence." The day includes a keynote speaker, a Q&A session with The Ritz-Carlton executive panel, an optional networking reception and presentations about legendary service, employee engagement and a customer-centric culture. The Blog Post Dear Ritz-Carlton: Employee Motivation? appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.