With frequent news coverage about data escaping government (and other) offices and posing potential security failures, more customers are feeling a little insecure about their personal information.

Here are a few practices you can implement to make sure that no personal data escapes your company:

• Don’t copy any data to your laptop, PDA or cell phone. You may bring these electronics to work with you, but be sure to keep the data within the confines of your secure company. The security that you may have on your personal electronics is probably not as impenetrable, nor are they monitored by the Information Technology (IT) department in your company.
• Keep your work inside your office. Don’t be tempted to take sensitive data home, or anywhere else, to work on. If you have extra work that you want to catch up on, talk to your supervisor about times when it’s best to complete that work.
• Use only a secure server. If you do receive permission to work on your personal computer or laptop outside of your office, make sure you’re accessing the Internet with a secure server. Use a password-protected connection that you or someone you know and trust created.

Filed under: Customer Service Corner | No Comments »

There’s nothing that discourages an employee more than a boss who requires him to do something that he won’t do himself. You may think you’re exempt because you’ve already “done that.” After all, you had to pay your dues and do the dirty work for many years to be promoted to your “posh” position. But getting involved with the day-to-day on-the-job tasks will provide you with multiple benefits:

• It will show your employees that you’re not afraid of a little hard work. They’ll also respect you more when they see that you don’t think doing their work is beneath you.
• It will keep you involved in the workflow. If your employees are complaining that a process needs fixing, the best way to evaluate the problem is to dive in and experience it first hand.
• It will give you empathy. You’ll understand your employees concerns much more when you face the same frustrations they do.

Filed under: Management Minute | No Comments »

Excel 2007 gives you a lot of new visual options when it comes to building a spreadsheet. You can apply themes to your data and use new shape effects and conditional formatting looks. But what about your Excel application itself? Believe it or not, you don’t need to stick with Microsoft’s traditional blue color scheme.

To change your Excel application’s color scheme:

1. Launch Excel and click the Office button.
2. Click the Excel Options button to open the Excel Options dialog box.
3. If necessary, choose Popular in the left pane.
4. Choose either Blue, Black, or Silver from the Color Scheme dropdown list.
5. Click OK to apply the new color scheme.

Filed under: Microsoft Office Tutor | No Comments »

When you’re overloaded at work your customers should expect to wait a little longer for their service, right? Wrong! When a customer calls you on the phone or steps into your office, he isn’t interested in how backlogged with work you are. Use the suggestions in the following scenarios to get a handle on your workload, without making excuses for being behind: Scenario: A customer needs a claim processed and you already have a lot of claims waiting.

• Don’t say: “I have 250 claims to process before I’ll be able to get to yours.” Your customer doesn’t care how many claims you need to process, and putting a number on it just sounds whiney.
• Say: “I will get to that as soon as possible. You should expect the situation to be cleared up in two to three business days.” This gives the customer a time frame when he can expect his problem to be resolved.

Scenario: Three of your coworkers called in sick, and you’ve been swamped and stressed all day. A customer asks you to remove a duplicate charge from his account.

• Don’t say: “I’m doing the work of four people today, and I have no idea when I can get to your request.” It’s not your customer’s fault that you’re understaffed, and he shouldn’t have to bear the brunt of your frustration.
• Say: “I will make sure this gets taken care of. If I’m not the one who takes care of it, my manager will see that your problem is resolved.” The customer will be happy that you are being proactive in finding someone else who can help him if you can’t.

Filed under: Customer Service Corner | No Comments »

Many staff problems you can handle yourself. But when a particularly difficult issue arises, it may be best to consult the experts in handling them — your company’s human resources department.

In many companies, the HR specialist can help you solve a wide range of problems.

Consider asking your HR staff for advice when:

• An employee is risking termination because of an attendance problem.
• An employee has an ongoing attitude problem that you cannot resolve.
• An employee is engaging in potentially illegal activities at work.
• You don’t know how to get started on the training that your boss wants done.
• An employee is producing inconsistent work.
• You notice a general disregard for punctuality and courtesy in your department.
• The suggestion box remains empty despite your repeated pleas for ideas.
• You sense a morale problem in your department or in the company.
• Your meetings are dull.
• You hear offhand comments about various company policies.

Filed under: Management Minute | No Comments »