Performance Specialist
The Experience Blog is committed to bringing you quality interviews from a range of industries covering off different aspects of customer experience. For this post, I interviewed Geoff Greenwood FCCA MBA Msc who is a performance specialist with a long career working at Neuro-Performance.
During this spotlight interview we cover off:
- How Neuro-Performance serves its clients through online content delivery
- Geoff’s unique approach to customer experience
- How Geoff’s company teaches its clients about neuroplasticity
Tell us about what you do and the company you work for.
I have a passion for performance and the pursuit of excellence in self, business and elite performance.
It started back in the corporate world when I became frustrated at seeing so called performance measures forced upon employees and managers with differing degrees of force. The measures made no sense, were de-motivational and were not underpinned by evidence from any field.
On investigation it became clear that very few understood the true definition of performance and how to improve it. The usual response was carrot and stick motivations, as it had always been, but did not justify its mainstream usage.
At this stage, Neuro-Performance was created to disseminate the message about performance and how it had been underpinned by scientific research, data and observation. This had happened over decades in highly competitive fields such as elite sports, global business, performing arts and the military.
Who are your customers and how do you serve them?
Our customers have a broad base consisting of individuals, teams and businesses of all sizes and our services and products have been designed with the human being in mind. This ensures our services can be used in any industry, sector or field because every single business or profession is really just a behaviour business or service.
Think about supply chains, customer service, design, negotiation, leadership and all other aspects, they are reliant upon the performance (behaviour) of the person(s). In my experience with elite sport, performing arts, military and high-pressure environments like Air Traffic Control, it’s clear that mental skills development could be the next competitive advantage in all fields.
How do you provide great customer experiences for your customers?
These customers are serviced in two ways. Firstly, by digital delivery through courses, membership and online programs. Secondly, supported by online conferencing either on an open program basis or bespoke company basis.
The digital programs and coaching services introduce the employee to the performance equation and how the end result is a combination of earlier mental processing, emotional regulation and highly skilled behavioral actions. All areas can be improved once the individual is aware of how they translate into exceptional performance.
The programs are also supported by free webinars, videos, textbooks and articles. Much of which has been included in HR and Training Magazines, Executive Journals and I have also been featured on BBC Radio 4.
I feel that customer experience is crucial and I am an advocate of the early 80’s and 90’s when the focus became targeted on human beings, both the external customer and what we then termed as the internal customer (employees). People buy from people and buy again if totally delighted. It is sad that the economic world felt that this was too difficult to achieve and turned attention towards data, AI, robotics, machine learning, cost cutting and distant communication.
I deliver customer experience by identifying the real problem and producing a solution to that difficulty. I am aware of keeping employees and managers motivated and do so through intrinsic motivations and behavioral nudges. It’s a pathway of process towards mastery and not just an outcome focused target.
I also have the material available 24/7/365 from any connected device anywhere in the world. It satisfies the requirements of convenience, motivations and self-awareness. It is focused on simple and continuous change that makes people better one day at a time. It is supported by activities that are crucial for behavioral change. It can be scored and assessed if the organisation needs it to be.
The hours for coaching support are set to meet with differing time zones and everything is hands off for our customers. We set the turnkey system up and all that is needed is the employee to log in and improve.
In your opinion what do you think makes a great customer experience?
In my opinion, great customer experience is about the emotional aspect of humanness coupled with the efficiencies of technology. It is a simple equation but an important one. A real person on Live Chat, a real and swift email reply, bespoke tweaks to online content and a simple and quick set up of access.
It is about giving the customer what he/she needs and not asking them to accept what suits us. How often have you accessed an offering online and found features missing from your requirements? They want you to accept what they want to give you and that is alien to me.
I remember many years ago, conversations that got quite heated about customer service and whether people were born to do it and you could train people to do it. I will leave you to think about that one.
Can you give us an example of when you provided excellent CX to a customer or client?
I do have many examples of where me and my team have delivered amazing customer experiences. My favourite is a large organisation that were skeptical about the whole neuro-psychology approach to human performance.
The company let me produce a simplified digital program just for them that would start to inform staff, managers and leaders that great performance comes from within, not from external factors. They learned that the brain is not hard wired and can be changed through neuroplasticity and also that nobody but them could change it.
This awareness, control and dedicated actions made them see changes in approach, mindset, attitude and behaviour. The performance increases could be identified in the bottom-line profitability, labour turnover, creativity, problem solving and overall mental health.
The system was tweaked for them, set up for them and they received excellent training. They could also ask for help, access content when it suited them, and were informed when new material was updated and old material improved. This motivated them to consume the content.
Do you have any plans to improve customer experience in your company? If you do, how are you planning to do this?
Customer experience is crucial to what I am trying to achieve and will be a continuous ongoing improvement quest. As new requirements are asked for and new technologies come along, I will be there to see if it works for my customers.
New programs will be written as our world is in constant change and flux at present. Many people will need help with their fear and anxieties, they will need help with the changing social interaction from more working at home.
Businesses will need help to achieve outcomes in this changing environment and we will need neuro-leaders to steer the course forwards to drop egos, understand diversity, become aware of brain to brain leadership and to guide constant change in our organisations, both public and private.