Top five employee performance review tips businesses should consider when creating their 2010 News Year’s Resolutions according to ReviewSNAP

ReviewSNAP™ offers the following tips on how making maximizing employee performance a New Year’s resolution that will benefit both employees and the organization.

1. Create realistic goals and expectations.
2. Develop a method to measure success against each employee’s goal.
3. Provide ongoing feedback and coaching throughout the year to employees.
4. Track progress and areas of improvement for each employee throughout the year to ensure clear and thorough feedback to the employee.
5. Implement an on-demand employee performance management program to substantially enhance the performance review process.

“Employee performance is simply taken too lightly in too many organizations” said David Arringdale, President of ReviewSNAP’s parent company Applied Training Systems, Inc. “The commitment is just not there or the approach is not a good match for the employee base. Using a system such as ReviewSNAP™ can have dramatic results. It was developed based on years of experience and research into what makes employees tick and how feedback about performance should be implemented. When an organization makes a true commitment to maximizing the performance of its employees, the results can be amazing.”

ReviewSNAP has a significant subscriber base using both its performance review and 360 degree feedback modules. Companies benefit from having the flexibility and power to track and document performance easily, assure timely and accurate performance reviews, hold mangers accountable for timely and consistent reviews and gather feedback from other employees to use as a coaching and development tool. Research shows that the quality and timeliness of employee performance reviews affect employees’ perception of the organization they work for and employees with high morale produce quality results. ReviewSNAP was developed to make this process beneficial and easy for both employees and managers.

Des Moines Named Best City to do Business

Marketwatch's annual survey named Des Moines the best city to do business. The survey included metro areas with more than 500,000 people and Des Moines beat out cities such as Washington D.C., Omaha, NE., and Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN. ReviewSNAP is proud to be part of this great business city.

ReviewSNAP Launches Cascading Goals in Performance Management System

Yesterday ReviewSNAP launched a cascading goals tool as part of our performance management system. This tool allows you to add goals for the entire company, a department and all employees of a particular job description at the same time. This will eliminate the need to add the same goal into the system a number of times. The addition of this tool also allows you to import your goals into the system all at once. You no longer have to add them in one at a time. Another new cascading goals feature is the ability to select particular goals to automatically rollover to the following review period. This will be very helpful if you have goals that stay the same from year to year. They will automatically roll over to the next review period and you will not have to re-enter them for each review period.

ReviewSNAP Updates List To Be Added To Blog

Upon the request of our client subscribers, ReviewSNAP will soon be adding a section to our blog providing you a list of all of the changes/enhancements that are made to the system over time. To help you better understand the changes/enhancements, we will also be adding a description of the functionality of each feature and how to utilize them within the system. Once the list has been posted, we will send out an email to let you know it is there.

What Lengths Will People Go To Miss Work?

This morning while driving I was listening to the radio and the station was taking calls to hear the craziest takes on what people have done to skip work. This "contest" was prompted by a 29 year old employee who works at Blockbuster who stabbed himself in the leg to be able to miss work. Now, I've heard some crazy stories, but I can't say that I've ever heard of someone taking a sharp object to a body part just to miss a day of work. One of the callers said that she wanted to miss one day of work so she said that she had to go to a funeral. Well, that wasn't enough to get her out of work because she was told she needed to bring back some sort of proof that she was at the funeral. So, she researched online to find funerals that were going on in her area and found one a couple of hours away. Then she researched the woman who had passed away to see where she had lived. When she was at the funeral she was asked by a family member how she knew the deceased and she told them that her Grandma lived with the lady at the retirement home. Ahh, what lengths people will go to in order to miss a day of work.

Those are some crazy stories, but only a few. If you've heard some crazy "why I missed work" stories, I'd like to hear them.

ReviewSNAP Launches AuthoriCheck - Discriminatory/Derogatory Terms Scanning Tool

This afternoon ReviewSNAP launched our new AuthoriCheck tool. AuthoriCheck will be accessed using the gavel icon next to the spell check icon in the text editor above all narrative type boxes within the system. It will give you the ability to scan for any discriminatory and derogatory terms that may have been entered into the text. This tool will help your company avoid any legal issues from arising during the performance appraisal process. Keep in mind that this is only an identifier of potentially discriminatory or derogatory verbiage and is not a substitute for legal advice. If you have any questions or need any help on using this tool, please don't hesitate to email or call us at (800) 516-5849.

Recent ReviewSNAP Enhancements

Recently we made a few changes to ReviewSNAP regarding automatic notifications for upcoming and past due reviews as well as automated reminders sent to managers to leave feedback on their employees. Both enhancements are completely optional and can be modified in the Manage Company Information page.

As part of the change for the automatic notifications, we have added more intervals and now allow you to select which intervals you would like the notifications sent out for. Also, if you need or want to turn off the notifications, you can now do so by unchecking the box next to all of the intervals. Below is the list of intervals that you can select to have notifications sent out for:

Review Notifications:

30 Days, 10 Days, 5 Days, Day of Review, 2 Days Past Due, 5 Days Past Due, and 10 Days Past Due.

Based on the request of some of our clients, we have now added a function allowing the system to send automatic reminders to managers about leaving feedback. This is to help ensure strong communication and documentation within the company and the most accurate reviews. This option can also be found in Manage Company Information and allows you to choose how often you want the reminders to be sent out.

If you are looking to automate your performance reviews this is a great tool to have available to you. It saves HR the hassle of harassing managers to complete their reviews and document performance. If you would like to try out our system, feel free contact us for a live demo or sign-up for a free trial.

ReviewSNAP Attending Non Profit Human Resources Conference

This Sunday ReviewSNAP will be attending and sponsoring the Non Profit Human Resources Conference in Washington D.C. The goal of the 2009 Nonprofit Human Resources Conference is to bring together nonprofit human resources practitioners, executives, thought leaders and researchers to discuss human resources issues of critical importance to the nonprofit sector.

Legal Check Update

ReviewSNAP is currently working on adding a legal check tool to our text editor. This tool will be available on any page within the system that has a text box. Our legal check will be used to search for discriminatory and derogatory language and offer alternative words or phrases to replace the discriminatory or derogatory language. This tool is in the process of being built and the estimated date of completion is October 23rd. Please check back for updates on the progress of the legal check tool.

Do Your Core Business Well

When a business is initially successful, it is generally in one type of business. That success often leads owners and managers to begin thinking they can make any business successful. They start thinking about diversifying into other types of businesses. The reverse of this is when a business is struggling and the owner or manager believes that the only way to achieve success is to diversify.

In both cases, the core business probably represents an opportunity for additional success if properly managed. But there seems to be something about human nature that draws people away from what they do best and toward something that appears to be more glamorous or more intriguing.

We believe it is important to pay special attention to the core business...what it is you do best...and grow that business to higher levels of success. Business newspapers and journals are full of stories about companies that get outside their core business and fail miserably. And in many cases the core business suffers because resources are drawn away from it.
We think that too many decisions to diversify outside of the core business or strategic outgrowth of the core business are ego-driven. Making diversification decisions to feed someone's ego is simply irresponsible.

Before thinking about moving beyond the core business, ask yourself why you are even considering such a move. Can you grow your core business in a profitable, significant manner? Are you doing a good job with your core business in terms of operating efficiency, customer service, margins, promotion and quality of personnel? If there is room for improvement, concentrate and focus on making those improvements. Your objective should be to maximize the value of the business. Making the core business strong in terms of operations and customer satisfaction and loyalty will enhance value significantly. If you divert resources away from the core business by buying another business or diversifying through product or service development, the core business will not get the attention needed to enhance its value.

In short, focus on doing what you do best. And then try to do it better. However, none of this is to say that diversification is necessarily bad. It can be a very positive step for a business. But the point of this brief is to point out that the core business, assuming it has adequate potential, must have a lot of attention paid to it. A new venture can be undertaken as long as adequate resources and expertise are available for both the core business and the new one.

ReviewSNAP Partners with Personnel Management Systems, Inc. to Provide Web-based Performance Management System

ReviewSNAP™ and Personnel Management Systems, Inc. (PMSI) announced today that they have signed an exclusive agreement to offer and deliver ReviewSNAP’s performance management system to PMSI clients. PMSI, one of the leading providers of human resource management services, conducted an extensive search for a robust Web-based performance management system and selected ReviewSNAP from among several companies.

“We did a thorough search of software providers and ReviewSnap was the only program that met all of our criteria; easy to use, but capturing all the necessary technological features at a very affordable price,” said Wendy Peloquin, Director of Product Marketing, Personnel Management Systems. “The addition of this quality Web-based performance management system enables us to bring a strengthened breadth of offering to all of our clients.”

ReviewSNAP, a division of Applied Training Systems, Inc. offers its annual subscribers a fully automated performance management solution that includes both performance review and 360 degree feedback modules. It affords users the opportunity to access the software from any computer with Internet access.

“PMSI has a client base similar to ours with both companies providing small to mid-sized companies affordable and effective human resource solutions which makes this an excellent fit for both companies.” said Dave Arringdale, President of Applied Training Systems, Inc., the parent company of ReviewSNAP.

PMSI will not only be offering and delivering the ReviewSNAP system to its clients, but will be a user of the system as well. “For years we have wanted an online solution for our clients, but we had never found the right fit. We’re looking forward to the efficiencies that ReviewSNAP will bring to our staff as well as the value we can now provide to our clients. It’s a win/win for everyone,” said Jack Goldberg, President, Personnel Management Systems.

PMSI will fully support its client base in use of the ReviewSNAP solutions. “Our system is designed to be very user-friendly and easy to use,” said Arringdale. “The training and implementation for PMSI will be quick, easy and smooth as a result.”

Offer Up A More Robust Statistical Dashboard

We are very excited to announce that we will be offering a more robust statistical dashboard in ReviewSNAP. The estimated date of completion is September 4th. We will be tripling the number of statistical reports available for performance appraisals and 360 degree feedback and making the dashboard more dynamic allowing you to filter the information you would like to see. It will also be more visual offering charts and graphs to go along with the raw data. This will help give you an immediate visual comparison of data as well as put the actual numbers right in front of you. Keep your eyes out for a post letting you know when it has officially been launched.

Congratulations to Our Contest Winner!

Congratulations to Steve Griffin for becoming ReviewSNAP’s quarterly free subscription winner. Steve has won a year-long free subscription to ReviewSNAP’s Web-based performance management system for his company. He was among many who played our Riddle Me This, Riddle Me That contest and successfully provided the correct answer. Then luck was on his side when he was selected from a random drawing among others that provided the right answer.

So want to know the correct answer finally?

We asked what word can be written forward, backward or upside down and still be read from left to right. The correct answer is NOON.

Thanks to everyone who participated. Continue to visit our blog or follow ReviewSNAP on Twitter to stay updated on our next quarter’s contest and details on how you can win a free year’s subscription for your company.

What Statistics Matter To You? We Want Your Feedback

All performance management systems offer reports for HR personnel to view regarding the performance reviews and 360 degree feedback surveys that have been completed within the company. It is important to ReviewSNAP that we offer the most useful statistics within our dashboard. Soon we are going to make some adjustments to the statistical dashboard on our performance management system and we want to find out what statistics are important to you. We'll appreciate any feedback and all opinions.

Riddle Me This, Riddle Me That. Let's Begin!

Hi Everyone,


Below is the riddle for this quarter's free first year ReviewSNAP subscription contest. You only get one shot at answering the riddle correctly so click on the riddle to submit your answer. And choose your answer wisely. You will have until 5 PM CST on Friday August 14th to answer the riddle. Next week we will post this quarter's winner. Good luck!

Riddle: What word can be written forward, backward or upside down and still be read from left to right?

Riddle Me This and Win a Free Annual Subscription!

Riddle me this, riddle me that and you can win an annual subscription! ReviewSNAP will be giving away one free first year subscription in our quarterly Twitter contest. The contest will start on Monday, August 1oth at Noon CST.

We will tweet a short riddle and post it on our blog and give our followers the entire week to answer the question. The answer form link will be on the ReviewSNAP blog in the lower right hand corner of the page. Also, we will send out the link via various social media sites.

The contest will close on Friday, August 14th at 5 PM CST.

Format and Rules:

At the end of the week, we will randomly pick 20 people who answered the riddle correctly. From that group of 20, we will select the winner. We'll post the selection process here on our blog, so everyone can follow along! You will only be able to submit one answer so choose your answer wisely.

Good Luck!

ReviewSNAP President Featured in Talent Management Technology Article

Take a look at the Talent Management Technology article featuring ReviewSNAP President, Dave Arringdale.

Communicate Often To Your Employees

In the absence of clear and frequent communication, employees can dream up all sorts of distorted ideas about what is going on within the organization. Managers are responsible for conveying to employees many things. Employees must know which direction the company and their immediate work units are headed. Providing clear feedback to them helps them stay focused and helps to avert a rampant rumor mill. Managers should make it a point to take time on a regular and frequent basis to communicate with employees.

Surprise! You're Fired!

Have you ever been fired, demoted or reprimanded and had no clue that it was coming? When the boss gives you the bad news you just want to laugh and ask if you're being Punk'd, but unfortunately you know that is not the case. It probably feels like someone just dropped an anvil on your chest and you wonder what you did to deserve this. And, for that matter, you can't think of a single instance of someone talking to you about performance related issues. While we know this isn't the case, it appears that some companies out there enjoy the shock value of dropping the bad news on people by surprise.

Reality is that people are going to be fired, demoted or reprimanded. That is inevitable. But organizations can avoid the surprise by having their managers give their employees feedback about their performance on a consistent basis rather than only once a year during their performance reviews. If colleagues and managers journal feedback throughout the year and this feedback is communicated to employees regularly, then there will be few or no surprises when it comes time for an employees review or when a formal reprimanded is issued.

If you are looking for a performance management system that offers a journal/feedback tool to help keep track of an employee's performance throughout the entire year, you will find it in ReviewSNAP. This process is proven and virtually guarantees no surprises along with accurate performance reviews.

Extension to a Good Post on Performance Management

This morning I read a good post on Renegade HR called "Create a Performance Management Culture The Ghandi Way" and I want to extend my thoughts on this approach. All too often companies do their reviews once a year and forget about the employee's development until next year's reviews come around. Then when it comes time for next year's reviews the managers rate the employees similar or identical to the previous review and their development plan looks no different than the previous year's.

To avoid this situation, managers need to journal and discuss with the employee where they stand on their performance and how they might improve their skills. This is beneficial to the company in a couple of ways. First, this will help maximize an employee's production by ensuring that they will work to improve their skill set. Second, this ensures the most accurate reviews and helps avoid unnecessary or overly generous compensation increases.

It's okay to do official reviews only once a year, but it's important that communication is strong between the manager and employee along the way. Only positives comes out of strong, accurate, and ongoing communication, so why avoid it?

What'ya Think About Our Blog?

Hey Everyone, as you can see ReviewSNAP completely revamped the look of our blog. We would appreciate your feedback on the look and feel of the blog.

Performance Incentives

Employees that have performance incentives as part of their compensation package need to earn their bonuses or other form of incentive compensation. In some organizations, incentive compensation is too loosely tied to performance and payments are made regardless of performance. This sends a very bad message in terms of accountability. When performance does not meet the minimum requirements for payout under an incentive compensation arrangement, there should be no payout. Incentive compensation should be designed to incent the employee to participate in enhancing bottom line performance of the company in various ways.

Weighted Competency Reviews and Assignable Review Periods Now Launched

ReviewSNAP recently launched the ability to create performance reviews using weighted competency groups. You will be able to assign a percentage to each competency group, which will be calculated into the overall rating of any given employee. Using weighted competencies is optional so you have the choice between weighted and unweighted ratings.

Also, we have added the ability to assign specific employees to specific review periods. For example, if your company has two review periods during the year where half of the employees receive their reviews in the first review period and the other half receive them in the second review period, you will now be able to assign the employees individually to the review period in which they will be reviewed. This is in addition to the multiple review period options already available within the system.

If you are in search for a performance review system to meet your needs, request a live demo with ReviewSNAP and we'll be happy to walk you through the system and answer your questions. And remember, we will never, ever pressure you to subscribe.

Employees Are Your Best Consultants

The best consultants for your business are your employees. They can help you with a wide variety of issues because they deal with them every day. Many times employees have great ideas, but are reluctant to come forward out of fear or simply because they feel their ideas won't be taken seriously. Develop a system that requires and allows all employees to be active "internal consultants". Suggestion boxes and anonymous systems tend to not work because employees don't feel compelled to submit ideas. Or they have in the past and their ideas have been ignored or someone else took credit for them. Setting up profit teams that submit and refine suggestions works in some organizations. Requiring work units to submit suggestions for their own areas on a defined, regular interval has worked well in others. In both cases, making suggestions and developing ways to enhance profits become a part of every employee's job.

Create a reward system that pays all employees for enhanced profitability. Make the rewards significant enough to incent the employees. Profit sharing is most common, but you can also pay on cost savings, productivity gains or any other unit of measure that makes sense for your company.

Obama To Give Performance Reviews To All Employees

This is a funny video. Maybe we'll have to give the Pres a call and hook him up with ReviewSNAP.


Obama To Hold Job Performance Review With Every American Worker

Reduce Employee Turnover

The cost of excessive employee turnover is extremely high. Below are some rough estimates that we use in assessing the cost of turning over one employee:

Annual Salary or Wages Turnover Cost
$20,000/$10/hour $7,000
$30,000/$15/hour $10,500
$40,000/$20/hour $14,000
$50,000/$25/hour $17,000
$60,000/$30/hour $20,000

Suppose a business has 50 employees. And assume that employee turnover is running in the 20% range annually. This means that one of every five employees is turning over annually for a total of ten employees. And let's use $30,000 as the average annual salary/wage. In this example, the company will incur $105,000 of costs associated with employee turnover.
What happens if the turnover is reduced from 20% to 10% annually? In this example, there is a $52,500 savings that will drop straight through to the bottom line. This is a significant amount of money that can be used in productive ways to grow and enhance the business.

Turnover costs include, but are not limited to; hiring expenses, training expenses, productivity losses and internal resources applied to dealing with the termination and hiring process. There are also soft costs associated with excessive employee turnover. Soft costs have more to do with the impact of a revolving door on other employees. Other employees often have to pick up the additional work load until a new employee is hired and trained. This can lead to morale problems.

Keep in mind that we are talking about excessive turnover. There can be times when some turnover is positive. Cleansing the organization of problem employees is usually a positive and can have a significant positive impact on morale and productivity.

Why Automate Performance Management

The majority of companies are still using a paper driven process or a proprietary performance management system, which is not automated. Read this free white paper to see why you should switch to an automated performance management system.

ReviewSNAP to Add Weighted Competencies Option

This is just a quick update to let you know that ReviewSNAP will be adding the ability use weighted competencies within your performance appraisal process. When we initially built the system we wanted to stay away from weighted competencies, but this is another example of ReviewSNAP keeping our ear to the ground and our mind open to make sure and meet the needs of our customers.

When this is launched you will have the option of using weighted or non-weighted competencies. This way you are sure to meet the needs of your current review process. The tentative launch date is July 15th. If there are any changes in the status or launch date we will keep you updated through the ReviewSNAP Blog.

Don't Let Your Performance Appraisals Be Cumbersome Like This!

Some companies and employees dread performance appraisals because of how cumbersome they can be. The humorous video below illustrates this fact. To avoid having your performance appraisals become cumbersome, try ReviewSNAP and automate your entire review process.

What Are ReviewSNAP Clients Saying?

Take a look below at some of the recent feedback that ReviewSNAP has received about our performance management system.

“After scrutinizing over at least six Web-based systems for performance appraisals, we are very happy that we selected the ReviewSNAP application to support our performance management process. The system's design is simple and efficient and has taken the "fuss" out of the performance management process.

But one of the best aspects of the ReviewSNAP application is the team behind the product...the sales staff and the Account Managers are incredibly responsive and professional. They provide solutions, fixes and customization quickly and expertly.”

Nanette V., Asian Art Museum

"I was given the task of finding a performance review program that was inexpensive and easy to use for our company. It didn't take me long to find ReviewSNAP. The first time I opened ReviewSNAP and ran the trial I found it to be extremely user-friendly.

Once we decided to go with the program, we found some things we wanted customized to fit our company needs. The team at ReviewSNAP was more than happy to help and were able to deliver very quickly.

I feel they go above and beyond in the customer service area. They are dedicated to their customers by always being there to answer your calls or respond to emails in a very timely manner. I look forward to working more with ReviewSNAP.

The continuous improvement and upgrades they are making just makes this software better and better."

Marybeth W., Alien Technology

"The ReviewSNAP Performance Management System is working great for our company. All of our employees have found it easy to use. I highly recommend it to all of your prospective customers."

Brent C., The Stucco Company

"Not only is ReviewSNAP easy to set up, but a review can be completed within minutes."

Anita L., Crown Packaging Corp.

Follow Up on Open Ended Questions

This post is a follow up to the announcement that we were in the process of adding the ability to use open-ended questions in your performance appraisals. This post is to let you know that this function has been completed and is now implemented in the ReviewSNAP Performance Management System.

Cosmetic Changes to ReviewSNAP

Have you been to ReviewSNAP lately and wondered if you were at the right site? No need to worry........you were at the right place. Recently we made a few cosmetic changes to our site giving it more of a dynamic, fresh look. The site was simplified with more image links and buttons. We've added the new buttons below and you can feel free to sign up for a free trial, watch the demo or request a live demo.

Low Employee Morale

Employee morale is a fuzzy issue at best. Measuring morale can be difficult and inconclusive since employees will often not reveal their true feelings. But make no mistake about it. Employee morale has a major impact on productivity and ultimately profitability.

Most of the time, we will have a sense about the level of morale within a work unit or company as a whole. It is not hard to see when morale is generally high or when it is generally low. Employee groups that work hard, smile and have a little bounce in their step when they come to work would seem to have a high level of morale. Those that seem unhappy, don't interact much and generally seem disinterested in their work are probably suffering from morale problems.

It is not uncommon for a particular employee to suffer from low morale and this can be attributed to a number of factors including poor job fit, a personality conflict with a co-worker, personal problems or difficulty fitting in. While this is an issue of importance, this Quick Tip will focus on widespread work unit and company morale issues.

When a work unit or the company as a whole is affected by low or insufficient morale, the root cause can very often be traced back to the person in charge. Ultimately the manager of a work unit brings a certain philosophy and style to work that directly impacts his/her employees. Unfortunately there are a number of unenlightened managers and supervisors in the business world who don't understand the impact they have on their employees. As a manager or supervisor, look closely at your style and approach. It is the single most important factor in morale issues. See An Introduction to Team Building and High Employee Turnover for more insight into this issue.

In order to get a better feel for the level of morale in your work unit or organization, pay close attention to your employees' behavior. Do they appear to enjoy their work and those around them? Does there seem to be a problem employee in terms of being "poisonous" to the environment by making life difficult for those around them? How do employees seem to react to you? Do they seem fearful or tentative around you or are they open and willing to discuss issues?

If there is an employee who seems to cause problems for those around them, they must be dealt with. This is when the coaching and counseling skills of a good manager come to bear. That problem employee needs to be coached and counseled to change his/her behavior to better blend with co-workers. If the employee simply can't change, the company is usually better off without that employee. If nothing is done, the message that gets sent to employees is that one problem employee is going to be put ahead of the welfare and morale of all other employees. This is a very damaging message to send.

Morale is something that needs to be managed. Take these steps to better manage the morale of your employees:
-Create an environment that is fun and lively.
-Carefully evaluate your management style. Is it facilitating in nature or is it dictatorial or overly assertive and direct.
-Encourage employees to come forward with problems, suggestions and issues. Listen carefully and acknowledge their concerns. Follow up on them and communicate results of your findings back to them. Don't leave them hanging.
-Address compensation and benefits to make certain that you are competitive with the market.
-Be consistent in how you administer rules and policies.
-Be fair and reasonable.
-Set expectations for all employees about team work and working cooperatively. Let it be known that you expect employees to get along while on the job.
-Be clear in your expectations and follow up when they aren't met. Don't ignore low performers. -If they can't become good employees, terminate them. Bad employees affect those around them.
-Don't allow double standards. What's good for one employee is good for all of them.
-Eliminate a punitive mentality. Don't make employees feel that they will be punished if they make mistakes.
-Encourage innovation and creativity.
-Show employees that you care about them.
-Communicate as much as possible to all employees. Keep them well informed about what's going on in the business.
-Look at the work environment. Is it light and airy or is it dark, dreary and counterproductive?

Don't ignore morale issues within your work unit or company. They can be extremely detrimental to your success. Remember that high morale usually equals high productivity.

Turning Satisfied Customers Into Loyal Customers

While building a customer base, businesses sometimes move too quickly and focus on quantity rather than quality. Just as organizations experience turnover in their employee ranks, turnover occurs in the customer base as well. The extent to which both occur has a significant influence on your bottom line.

There is a lot of emphasis these days on creating satisfied customers. But is having satisfied customers enough? In our research we found several sources that conducted surveys addressing the impact of customer satisfaction on loyalty to a particular vendor. Depending on the survey source, between 60 and 85 percent of customers who chose a new vendor indicated they were satisfied or very satisfied with their former vendor.

What these results say is that having satisfied customers is not always enough. Certainly the first step in a vendor - customer relationship is working hard to keep customers satisfied. If your customers aren't satisfied with the level of service you deliver, you can rest assured that there will be a high level of turnover within your customer base.

An important transformation needs to take place in the way businesses view their relationships with customers. The transformation involves moving customers from being satisfied to being loyal. It's important to keep in mind the fact that a satisfied customer isn't necessarily a loyal customer. Moving a customer from satsfied to loyal requires hard work, constant attention to the customer and diligence in delivering outstanding service consistently.

Any given customer can be satisfied with multiple suppliers of the same product or service. Does the level of satisfaction factor in? Possibly, but not likely. The more likely scenario that gets played out is that as long as a threshold level of satisfaction is achieved the customer will tend to buy from supplier(s) offering the best price. Clearly, price will always be a factor to some extent in terms of which supplier gets the business. But what happens when a supplier is able to differentiate itself in terms of building some degree of customer loyalty? Chances are good that price becomes less of an issue as loyalty increases.

Satisfaction allows you to be in the game, so to speak. Loyalty translates into repeat pruchases. When a company is able to achieve some degree of customer loyalty among its customer base, the rate of customer leakage drops and the share of a given customer's business increases. Bear in mind that not every customer will feel the same sense of loyalty even with the same level of effort applied. But, this point notwithstanding, customer loyalty can clearly correlate with increased sales and increase profits.

So how do you build customer loyalty? First, we need to briefly address loyalty as it relates to the product or service itself. Let's look at what we'll refer to as a commodity product. A commodity product (or service) is one that looks and functions identically or nearly identically to the competitions' product or service. In this case, there is little to differentiate on other than price or level of service. In the case of differentiated products or services, the various suppliers can point to subtle or not so subtle differences in the product or service in making their case for buying one over another. If a differentiated product or service clearly has a functional or benefit advantage over those of its competitors, short-term loyalty can be achieved based on that advantage alone. But in most cases competition simply upgrades their own product or service to deliver the same functionality or benefit as the superior product/service so over the long-haul the level of product/service-specific loyalty diminishes.

We address the issue of commodity versus differentiated products and services only to point out that in many ways and in most cases, there is really very little sustained product differentiation. The implication then is that we have to build loyalty in other ways. Here are some things to keep in mind when attempting to build customer loyalty:

• Let customers know that you are interested in them as a long-term customer. This implies that your people are very much geared to being problem solvers for the customers. They must understand that their jobs exist to solve customers' problems and to assist the customer on demand.
• Think in terms of developing relationships with the customer. This doesn't mean a vendor customer relationship. This means attempting to cultivate as many personal relationships as possible within the customer's organization. While this is often disputed, we firmly subscribe to the notion that people buy from people they like. And they buy from people they can trust. Perhaps the key differentiating variable in the business world today is people. The quality of people you put in front of your customers will clearly help separate you from your competition. Your sales force must have very high expectations established for them in terms of relationship development.
• Make every attempt to differentiate your product or service from the competition. Try to stay out in front in making your product or service more functional or beneficial to the customer. The essential ingredient here is value. Does the customer perceive that your product or service is worth more to them than your competitors' products or services?
• Serve the customer at extremely high levels. This means that your processes must be efficient, your people who have any interaction with customers must be highly trained in customer service skills and you must establish a culture with high expectations for serving the customers at very high levels. Nothing short of outstanding customer service can be expected with no exceptions granted.
• Think long-term. Your business needs to establish a stable customer base. Companies that have a short-term mentality rarely, if ever, build much customer loyalty. Don't go for the quick sale just to generate revenue. Build a strong relationship with the customer and sales will follow.
• Allow customers to provide you feedback easily and whenever they feel they need to do it. Encourage your customers to contact you with ideas, problems, concerns or with a pat on the back that can be passed on to employees for a job well done.
• Create an environment of high accountability, high performance, high morale and high productivity. Happy and productive employees will do a lot to build customer loyalty.
  

In summary, customer loyalty can be accomplished. But it does take hard work and constant management attention. Your sales force is an integral part of building customer loyalty. They need to fully understand their roles in building strong, long-term relationships with the customer.

Upcoming Additions to ReviewSNAP

Shortly after it was decided to add open ended questions to ReviewSNAP, we also decided to add the capability of creating rating scales anywhere from 1 point to 10 points. The ReviewSNAP system initially allowed you to create your own rating scales, but only on a 5 point scale. Soon you will be able to create your own rating scales with any number of rating points between 1 and 10 for your performance appraisals and 360 degree feedback surveys. We are working hard to have this change completed by the middle of July 2009. ReviewSNAP will always entertain requests for changes to the system to accomodate specific needs and if you are looking for something that may differ from our current features and functionality, let us know and we will be happy to discuss your suggestions.

Open Ended Questions in ReviewSNAP

This is just a quick post letting everyone know that by the end of July ReviewSNAP will provide you the capability of creating open-ended questions. You will be able to build your own templates consisting of strictly open-ended questions or mix your open ended questions in with ratable questions. Keep checking back for updates on this new feature.

Latest ReviewSNAP Additions

Recently, based on requests from some of our clients, ReviewSNAP has added the capability of attaching documents such as job descriptions as well as attaching documents to our feedback area. Clients wanted to know how they could add job descriptions and other documents into the system and still avoid a lot of scrolling? To address this question, it was decided that we would allow clients to attach job descriptions in their current document form. Another area that this capability was added to was the "Create/View Feedback" section. Now you will be able to attach any past reviews to be viewed when it comes time for the upcoming review. You can also attach other documents such as disciplinary documents and emails. This function will prove quite helpful in making a smooth transition to an automated review process.

SaaS vs. On-Premise Software

ReviewSNAP was recently asked by Capterra to give them a list of features or benefits of a SaaS (software as a service) program for their buyers' guide. There are advantages to both types of software, but it really boils down to the needs of the company. If you are considering using a SaaS program rather than an on-premise program you will need to ask yourself the following questions:

. If implementation of the software is required, how long will it take?

. Is it possible to integrate your product with on-premise software?
. Is the SaaS program compatible with both Mac's and PC's as well as all browsers?
. Is the SaaS product more affordable than on-premise software?
. Is your SaaS product secure?
. What steps are taken to ensure security of your data?

. Is the update cycle for the SaaS program shorter?
. Can upgrades can be made at anytime?
. Does the SaaS program allow for product evolvement and customizing code?
. What is the payment structure for the SaaS product?
. What tech support does the SaaS product offer?
. Will it fit the needs of any size of company?
. Does it have a good data backup and retrieval strategy?

How you answer these questions will determine whether or not a SaaS program will fit the needs of your company.

Spellchecker and Format Editor Added to ReviewSNAP

Everyone at some point questions whether or not they spelled something correctly or they used the correct grammar. Well you no longer need to worry about that when adding comments/suggestion, development plans or adding job descriptions to the ReviewSNAP Performance Management System.

Not only did we add the ability to spell-check your content, but you now have the ability to format it as well. As part of the spell-checker addition we have also added a What-You-See-Is-What-You- Get (WYSIWYG) editor allowing you to add bullets, numbering, bolding, underlining, italicizing, and more.

Learn and Understand Front Line Jobs

Have you ever had a manager request or assign you a task and want it done in a time frame that was simply not realistic? This probably happened because they did not understand your job and day-to-day tasks. This generally leads to mistakes, stress and unrealistic expectations.

The more a manager knows about the day-to-day operations of your business, the easier it will be to make informed decisions. Spend some time working side-by-side with your front line employees to gain a better understanding of what they go through each day and to get a better feel for the processes they undertake. This knowledge will help when focusing on process refinement and when making operational decisions. Also, you will gain the perspective of your customers and have an opportunity to identify problems with customer service.

Respond to Customer Inquiries and Complaints Promptly

With all the talk about customer service and responsiveness, it is interesting to note how many businesses talk a good game but just don't deliver. We can all relate experiences with businesses where an appropriate sense of urgency didn't seem to exist. One area that seems to stand out is responding to customer inquiries and complaints.

When a customer, or prospective customer, takes the time to contact a business they are looking for some type of assistance. They generally want initial information, additional information, resolution of a problem or they just want to sound off about an experience they have had with your organization. Unfortunately, most businesses do a mediocre job, at best, of responding to customers in a timely manner.

Most customers will expect to have their requests responded to in a reasonable time frame. But what is reasonable? There is no standard rule of thumb to define response time. Believe it or not, responsiveness is a strategic issue and can be used to differentiate your business from your competitors. Therefore, the standards you establish for responding to all customer issues will determine the level of differentiation you achieve. And the consistency with which you are able to respond quickly will go a long ways toward determining how loyal your customers become.
It seems that many managers are afraid to press their employees too much when it comes to responding to customers. Attitude has a lot to do with how customers are treated. What attitude do you convey about customers? Is it a casual one or is it a "customer first" attitude? Your employees will pick up on your attitude quickly and will often mirror it. At the very least they will understand how serious you are about serving the customer.

A business can't afford to be casual about how it deals with its customers. The "I'm too busy" or the "you are just one of many customers" excuses are just not acceptable! We experience and hear horror stories constantly about poor responsiveness. The level of incompetency in this arena is mind boggling. We often wonder how something so obvious goes so wrong in so many companies.

Responsiveness is part of your culture. Is yours a casual, "I'll get to it when I can" kind of culture or is it a "I put my customers above all else and make their issues a priority" kind of culture? This is a key and fundamental issue that needs to be addressed.

How would your employees answer these questions?

-When a customer calls and has a problem that requires a call back, how long does it take, on average, to call them back either with an answer or to let them know the problem is still being worked on?
-If a customer leaves a message for an employee, what are the expectations in terms of how much time can elapse before calling him/her back?
-What are the policies regarding responding to customers?
-How much training have employees had with regard to responding to customers in terms of time management, prioritization of customer issues and dealing with difficult or angry customers?
-At what level does decision making occur regarding customer problems and inquiries?
-How well do employees understand the company's products/services, its policies and what the next level or step in problem resolution is?

Setting extremely clear expectations about responding to customers is critical. To some organizations it might seem like a relatively minor issue. Those organizations are bound to struggle. Those that have figured out how to respond expediently, effectively and with a caring attitude distinctly have an advantage over their competition.

Establish Productivity Standards

Because productivity has such a profound impact on profits, there must be some way of measuring performance. Setting productivity standards for a particular job is important. Whether it be processing payables or picking orders in the warehouse or some other job, it is possible to establish minimum standards in terms of output. These standards become expectations for your employees. Also, incentives can be established for performance above the minimum performance level. In order to establish standards it is essential that you understand what it takes to do the job and what a reasonable work pace is. Setting unrealistically high or low standards can be detrimental to productivity and/or morale. It is also imperative that employees are held accountable on meeting these productivity standards which can be done through performance reviews.

The Cost of Turnover

Some turnover of employees is normal and expected. When it becomes excessive, it costs a business a significant amount of money. There are tangible and intangible costs associated with employee turnover. As a general rule of thumb, we believe that the cost of turning over one employee is roughly 25% of that employee's annual wages and benefits. For an employee earning $30,000 (includes benefits), this would amount to $7,500 of "cost" associated with that employee leaving the company. For example, suppose a company employing 100 people turns over 25% of its work force annually. In this case 25 employees leave the company every year. Assuming all 25 employees were earning $30,000/year, the total approximate cost of these employees departing is $187,500. If the turnover rate is reduced to 10%, the total approximate cost would fall to $75,000. Obviously it is important to take steps to control employee turnover. Are you taking those steps?

ReviewSNAP Updates

ReviewSNAP is always willing to make changes upon the request of clients and recently we have made updates to the system. Here are this week's updates:

1. Goals will no longer automatically carry over to the next review period. All goals will be entered per review period and not carry over to the upcoming review period.

2. You can now use separate rating scales for your competencies and your goals

3. You now have the option of turning off the ability for employees to view feedback on themselves that was given by others.

4. We are now offering annual, monthly, quarterly and semi-annual anniversary review periods. This means that you will be able to have annual, monthly, quarterly or semi-annual reviews based on an employees hire date.

Employees Creating Their Own Goals

Do your employees create their own goals in your current review process or do their managers create the goals for them? Now with ReviewSNAP you have the option of creating goals either way. You can have the managers create the employee's goals and the employee will be able to view the goals, but make no additions or changes to the goals. Or, you have the option of allowing employees to create their goals, discuss them with their manager and once they agree on the goals the manager will have the ability to lock down or approve those goals. From then on the goals that have been approved can no longer be changed, but the employee will be able to create additional goals if necessary.

ReviewSNAP Announces New 360 Degree Feedback Module

In a move to offer current and future clients a comprehensive performance management system, ReviewSNAP announces the launch of the new 360 Degree Feedback module, ReviewSNAP360TM. A division of Applied Training Systems, ReviewSNAP provides a fully automated, web-based performance review solution.

ReviewSNAP360 is a complete multi-rater 360 degree feedback solution with fully automated functionality. It is designed for ease of use and efficient coordination of the actual 360 degree surveys.

The decision to add a 360 Degree Feedback Survey solution and bundle it together with the existing performance review system was an easy one according to Dave Arringdale, President of Applied Training Systems. “Rather than creating another system that our clients would have to pay for and access separately, we made the decision to incorporate the 360 tool into our existing performance review system. We have bundled them together to create one point of access, allow for sharing of common employee and company information, and to keep the annual subscription cost at an affordable rate.”

ReviewSNAP is a popular on-demand employee performance review system that can be logged into from any location at anytime using a computer that has Internet access. The bundled solutions offer a number of robust and automated features including:
·The ability to personalize the site, create custom rating scales and design review periods to the specific organization
·An automatic notification via email to reviewers and raters of pending reviews/surveys
·An option to use and modify standard templates or create completely customized review and survey forms
·The use of an e-signature feature to accommodate a completely paperless process
An option to view aggregated statistics at several levels,

For more information regarding ReviewSNAP and the new ReviewSNAP360, visit http://www.reviewsnap.com/ or call 1-800-516-5849 to talk with a company representative.

About Applied Training Systems
Applied Training Systems, founded in 1995, assists organizations of all sizes and types in learning how to better manage people and resources using seasoned business professionals that train, coach, and consult with clients. As an industry leader, Applied Training Systems has expanded into publishing and Web-based human resources software solutions. The company’s primary goal is to help organizations get better at what they do and become more efficient in the process to contribute to the overall enhancement effort.

What Makes 360 Degree Feedback Work?

The use of 360 degree feedback surveys has grown and is continuing to grow at a very fast rate. The idea of surveying employees isn’t new, but the notion of having multiple employees rate a specific “target” employee to provide as much unbiased input about that person’s performance is a relatively young concept.

But why does 360 degree feedback work and what can it do for an organization? Before answering the question of why 360 degree feedback works and what it can do for an organization, it probably makes sense to describe and define what it really is.

The term 360 degree implies a circle of raters surrounding the “target” employee providing anonymous feedback. A department manager, for example, likely has peer managers, subordinates, and superiors. Using a traditional definition of 360 degree feedback, some or all of the people “surrounding” the employee will be invited to complete a rating and comment survey form on critical competency areas for the employee.

But any employee level can be selected for receiving feedback. Even when an employee has no subordinates, peers and superiors can certainly provide sufficient feedback in most cases to help the employee better understand his or her strengths and weaknesses.

And it is not out of the realm of reason to include people outside the organization such as vendors or customers to participate in the feedback. While this is not all that common, the feedback from familiar “outsiders” can be beneficial to the process.

The raters selected should have direct experience working with the “target” employee on an ongoing basis. Certainly the biases of the individuals completing the feedback will enter into the process. This is why it is important to get enough people involved to smooth out some of the inherent bias involved in a survey scenario.

In a 360 degree feedback survey, the ultimate objective is to gain a clear understanding of how others within the organization view the performance of the “target” employee relative to specific competencies or performance factors such as those related to accountability or cooperation. The raters provide a rating (generally on a 1 to 5 scale) based on their perception of the employee’s performance for each of the competencies listed on the feedback form. And there is usually room for overall comments at the end of the survey form. Of course, all of this is done anonymously and the employee will see the average ratings for each competency as well as a compilation of the comments offered. The results are then used in the creation of a development plan for the employee that will focus on strengthening areas that may be in need of attention.

Now that we have identified the basis process involved, the real question of what makes 360 degree feedback work and how the organization will benefit remains. There are several critical factors that will help ensure successful implementation of 360 degree feedback in your organization:

-Cultural integration. 360 degree feedback must become a part of the organization’s culture. This is accomplished by very clearly communicating what it is, why it is being done, and what the intended uses of the results are. But it doesn’t end there. To truly achieve integration into the culture, there must be consistency in using the tool and development plans that address deficiencies must be put into place and then completed. Keep in mind that the objective is to provide feedback that will help the employee become more aware of his or her behavior and performance levels and then enhance performance.

-Accountability for participation. Since having enough diversity in raters is important, it is critical that the raters understand that when they are invited to provide feedback by a certain date, they must not ignore the request. Expectations must be made very clear to all employees about the importance of 360 degree feedback and the need for timely completion of the surveys.
Relevance of the competencies. Developing the survey form is not complicated. But it is important to make certain that what should be measured is actually measured when selecting competencies to include in the survey. Making the survey forms specific to each position is one way to help ensure that job-specific competencies are being evaluated.

-Simplicity. If the process is too complex, acceptance will be hard to gain. Using an automated solution is usually best since they usually include automated notifications and carry out all of the calculations and compilation of results. Manual processes can be cumbersome and time consuming and can put a damper on long-term integration into the organization.

-Positive results. Like most activities, 360 degree feedback cannot be perceived as nothing more than an exercise. It must be perceived as a viable and useful tool that helps employees get better at their jobs. If nothing happens after the feedback is obtained, employees will begin to perceive it as just another useless exercise. Make certain that the feedback is used to create sound development plans that are then implemented. Over time, incremental improvement will occur and employees will see real benefit in participating in the process.

These are just some of the factors that will help your organization implement a successful 360 degree feedback process. As with other programs, commitment and attention to detail will help cement it as a viable and beneficial tool.

On-demand, web-based solutions such as ReviewSNAP (www.reviewsnap.com) offer excellent automated 360 degree feedback tools. They offer a free trial and “live” demos so that you can see how the system might benefit your organization.

Awareness Can Be Important To Your Credibility

Competing in today's markets can be difficult. It is made even more difficult by a lack of awareness of your business, product or service on the part of prospective customers. Positioning your company properly in the minds of potential customers is a critical, yet often overlooked part of promotional strategy.

When you are faced with several competitors in a market, it is likely that the firm with the highest level of market awareness will have some level of credibility established unless it has somehow deteriorated its reputation. If that firm has credibility through a higher level of awareness in the market, it will generally have a competitive advantage. But why?

It is well known that people are swayed by awareness of a particular company. They might know very little about that organization, but a company that has done a good job of frequently putting its name out in front of the market with a subtle message about the quality of its products or services or by presenting a highly professional look and image will entrench itself in the subconscious of the prospective buyers. When the buyer is ready to buy, the fact that they already have a positive image of the company and/or its products and services will serve as a compelling reason to at least consider that company and its products or services heavily.

A well planned and executed awareness campaign can establish a real sense of quality in the minds of those who represent your market. Suppose your sales people are making calls and competing with firms that have established themselves in the minds of the prospective buyer. Your firm is a relative unknown and people know virtually nothing about you. The dilemma that the buyer faces has to do with risk. Are they willing to take a risk and purchase something from you when they can buy the same type of product or service from a company that has credibility with them. That credibility might have been established simply by using institutional ads to attack the subconscious of the buyer by putting the name and some subtle message about quality or image in front of the market on a frequent basis.

Think about many of the ads you see or hear. They could appear on television, in a newspaper or magazine or on a billboard. You might hear them on the radio. A majority of those ads are insitutional in nature by virtue of the fact that they are not selling something specific. They are positioning the product or company in the minds of the prospective buyers and creating high levels of awareness. When the buyer is approached to buy one or more of its products or services, the fact that they have awareness of the company reduces the risk of doing business with that firm.

A very bad argument against this type of campaign is that they are expensive and don't sell product. While such a campaign might be expensive, they certainly don't have to be. And the argument that they don't sell product is pure nonsense. That argument is usually used by the unenlightened as a way of covering up the, "I'm too cheap to do things right" syndrome. Awareness and image campaigns are designed to instill credibility. Therefore, they take time to work. Most business people don't have the necessary patience to see such a campaign through. And institutional campaigns are more difficult to measure in terms of direct impact on sales. But the impact of the campaigns can be measured through pre and post campaign market research efforts designed to measure awareness and credibility levels.

Budget for some sort of campaign that is designed to position your product, service or business properly in the mind of your prospective buyer. It doesn't necessarily have to be a media advertising campaign. Newsletters and direct mail can often be used effectively. But keep in mind that the best campaigns generally use a combination of mediums and methods in positioning the company. Using an advertising agency for any sort of significant promotional campaign is recommended.

Attributes Of Successful Long-Term Businesses

We believe there are attributes that are common to successful businesses. While there are probably others, we feel that the twelve attributes below represent the most important:

1. They are focused on the customer and gather feedback and input from the customer on a regular and consistent basis.

2. They understand the concept of relationship development, both internally and externally and they work hard at forming new relationships and strengthening old ones.

3. They are externally-driven (customer) rather than internally- driven (operations).

4. They have a high percentage of talented and high performing employees.

5. They understand how to apply their resources in a manner that maximizes their opportunity for success.

6. They have a high level of morale and teamwork and foster that kind of environment.

7. They do not constantly shift and change priorities.

8. They have well defined and simple, efficient processes.

9. They have a long-term mentality.

10. They have a long-range plan with goals that all employees understand.

11. They spend money wisely and are not afraid to spend money to the benefit of the organization.

12. They have strong and effective communication taking place consistently and regularly.