Coaching: Plan Your Work and Work Your Plan!

“Plan your work and work your plan.”

Never have truer words been spoken for the effectiveness of your supervisors or others doing Agent skills coaching. If there isn’t a good plan for coaching, your Coaches will be just going through the motions, missing needed sessions with agents or looking at coaching as just an interruption in their busy day.

Many supervisors have every intention of working with their agents on skills, but find that the week or even a month has gone by with just minimal Coaching done. Feeling rushed, their weak Coaching substitute of “telling the agent what to work on” happens instead of an interactive and focused coaching that brings results.

Effective coaching isn’t a once and done effort. Your Coaches need to plan for skills activities time with their agents and the motivation needed to encourage continuous improvement.

Many supervisors tell me that they are buried under reports and meetings scheduled by their manager. In order to help them be successful, we need to be clear on our expectations for coaching and remove any obstacles that our Coaches have.  We can demonstrate our interest in helping them succeed by our own planning and review of theirs.

Here are some questions to help in your process:

NOT PLANNING WASTES TIME

What are my Coaching mission and goals?  Are they based on a number of coaching sessions completed or focused on results?

Many supervisors are doing a lot of coaching but with minimal results. We must make sure that our supervisors aren’t just going through a coaching checklist to meet coaching “metrics”, but instead are doing what brings results in terms of agent skills development and increased customer satisfaction.

Some Coaches tell me that they see their goal as the completion of X number of sessions.  They make sure that they do the minimum required in order to stay in the manager’s good graces. Others say that they often feel that they are spinning their wheels and making no progress. They work with the same poor performing Agents each month, telling them the same things that are needed for improvement. These coaches are frustrated by the lack of results. Their manager just repeats the mantra “more coaching” without giving direction and working hands on with them to assist in developing a good coaching plan for each agent.

The goals for Customer Experience and development of agents must be clear for your Coaches and you must also provide them with the tools to reach those goals in terms of training and working side by side with them for success.

COOKIE CUTTER COACHING WASTES TIME:

 Am I holding my Coaches responsible for completion of certain results-based activities related to successful Coaching? Are they personalizing the coaching method based on the agent’s skills, experience and learning type?

Responsibility for results, not just actions is a big key to their success. Agent skills differ, length of time on the job varies and so the time that must be spent with each agent varies as well as the type of coaching done.

Instead, many newer Coaches make the mistake of coaching everyone just once a month, using the same coaching method with every agent.  They miss the opportunity to see results from those average or struggling agents who need a boost from increased coaching or approaching the skill needs using more personalized approaches. They will tell me they don’t have the time to Coach more.  Often it isn’t more coaching that’s needed but the right kind of coaching to help the agent change skill behaviors.

Managers need to make sure that the Coaches are not just “tellers” but coaching “doers”, rolling up their sleeves and working with their agents.  Initially more intensive coaching such as role-play, side-by-side call handling while the agent observes them handling calls may be needed.  Once results are seen, the Coach will be able to work on more of a “maintenance” coaching schedule requiring less time with agents who have improved.

NOT SCHEDULING COACHING WASTES TIME

Are they scheduling Coaching activities on their Calendar?

If we are working with our supervisor Coaches on how they communicate with the agent about skills, we may not realize the importance of working with them on their time management for coaching.  I find that if it isn’t on the Coach’s calendar or schedule, it isn’t going to have priority. If your supervisor is a Myers-Briggs type “P” (http://www.myersbriggs.org/) who may like to keep plans to a minimum, keeping a calendar with Coaching and alert reminders for it may not come naturally for them.

Recently, I walked a Coach through his calendar to demonstrate how the amount of coaching needed for effectiveness could be possible.  We discussed the need to be flexible in case an urgent situation conflicts with the time and how to deal with that.

It was interesting to watch his expression when he realized that scheduling blocks of time for his formal and side-by-side coaching sessions for the month made it seem less daunting a task.

NON-ESSENTIAL TASKS WASTE TIME

Do I help them find the time to Coach?

Holding a supervisor or quality coach responsible for results but not giving them the time to do it is a recipe for disaster. I’ve had Coaches tell me that they have the desire to do more Coaching but their manager always assigns them other activities.

Your goal should be to review how they spend their time, then find ways to free them from non-essential activities so they can spend 50 to 60% of their time Coaching.

We attend a great deal of meetings and often pull the supervisors in to tell them what happened or even have them attend some meetings with us.  While communication of information is a key to the success of our business, we should decide which meetings are crucial for the Coach to attend, and which can be summarized in an email you or another attendee sends out to share key information.

Reports are another time eater for many front line supervisors who coach.  Once again, prioritizing with your help is key. Can reports be handled by an agent who has potential for moving into a lead or supervisor’s role in the future?

MOTIVATE COACHES TO SPEND TIME WISELY

What am I doing to motivate my coaches to spend the time needed and get results?

Much as our Agents need motivation, our Coaches need to be rewarded for their efforts and results.  You get the behavior you reward so you need to make sure that you are aware of their daily coaching activities and observe them in action.  If you hear an agent showing improvement when you monitor or if customers give kudos to an agent, it’s a great opportunity to not only praise the agent, but the coach who has been working with them.

Verbal and written praise goes a long way to encourage your Coaches to keep working towards the goals for improved Customer Experience.  Monetary incentives if tied to actual improvements and not just activities can be great motivators as well.

You cannot wait to notice and give positive feedback a month or two later when you review quality reports.  Take an active role in observing and rewarding good efforts and results on a daily basis.

REPEAT COACHING WITHOUT IMPROVEMENT WASTES TIME

Are any Coaches wasting time Coaching the unwilling or unable? Have I given the Coach the tools needed to be successful?

If your supervisor is coaching the same agent without results, is it because the Agent is unable or unwilling, or does your Coach need coaching themselves to learn some new techniques?

Observe the coaching sessions and coaching activities each supervisor does and then meet with them to discuss.  Do they need some coaching skills training?

If your coach is doing all the right things to drive skills improvement and motivating the agent, you need to assess whether that agent really wants to improve or is unable to show further improvement.  Your coach needs to know that you will support them and make a decision to change a coaching situation into a disciplinary one if warranted.

Originally published in Contact Center Pipeline in October 2012

Being Thankful For Our Customers

As we plan for our Thanksgiving Day celebrations here in the United States,  it is a time for all of us to remember and be appreciative for what we have…family, friends, and other blessings we have received.  It should also be a time for us to be thankful for our customers.

Sometimes when I’m working with service agents and their leaders, I hear them complain about their customers.

“Why do they call for something so stupid?”

“That last guy had the TV blaring and I could barely hear him!”

“She was really upset.  It’s not my fault she didn’t get the package in time”.

We all have moments when we are thinking or saying negatives about a difficult customer. Anyone who says they haven’t isn’t telling the truth.  What is important is whether you allow these negatives to become a part of your daily approach to customers or remind yourself of your role, i.e. why we work in service.

How many of these calls are coming in daily?…”I don’t have a problem or complaint.  I just called to tell you how much I love your products and your service.”  If you have more of these than customers needing assistance or having complaints, we need to talk about how you are doing it

Let’s face it…our job is dealing with customers who are not always nice, polite, reasonable or happy.  But that is the nature of our job and without our customers, even the ones who make us take that deep breath and count to ten, we don’t have a job.

Our goal is to provide the best customer experience.  Our work only happens if we have customers.  If we work in customer service, we need to have appreciation for not only for the customers we love to work with, but also for the customers who are challenging and give us the chance to shine and do our best.

Let’s be thankful and count our blessings.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Driving Employees from Engaged to Embalmed

Will someone please save these Agents?

Most companies are focused on employee engagement and understand the benefits for retention, customer experience and the bottom line.

Some just “talk the talk and don’t walk the walk”.

A few don’t even crawl.

The latter would apply to the senior management responsible for an insurance contact center team I’m writing about today.  Incidentally, this is not one of my clients but maybe they should be.

A little background on the employees:  They are a small satellite center a few hours away from the headquarters where a large 100 seat center is located.  The contact center agents handle customer service calls and walk-ins needing help.  They appeared to have a good system of shared work loads and they worked well together. They even spent a few months “self-managing” since their local Supervisor retired and was not immediately replaced.

Senior management finally posted the open Supervisor position.  Two of the eight employees at the small center were interested in the promotion and so interviewed and tested.  One candidate handled a lot of special projects for the center; the other was always asked to participate in new technology development and testing of systems and procedures. Both had excellent work histories and quality of service.  Both had letters of praise from customers.

Both were offered the Supervisor’s job and declined.

Why would these long time, loyal employees turn down this great opportunity to become leaders with the company?  Unbelievable as it may seem, they were offered lower salaries for this promotion than what they were earning as Agents.  When each questioned the amount, Human Resources said that the VP had said that was all to be offered. They decided to remain as Agents instead of taking on more responsibility for considerably less money.

Then, the supervisor replacement took an interesting and insulting twist.  They hired someone from the outside with no customer service or contact center experience.  He had never processed an insurance claim or worked with the industry either.  And more fun…those two agents were asked to train him.

There are some more great moments in Employee Engagement with this same team:

Communication:

• An Agent relocated from headquarters to join the satellite team.  The first day, the other Agents saw her leave at 4pm. She told them “We always leave at 4pm at headquarters”.  The satellite team always worked until 4:30pm and never knew that the other contact center agents in the large 100 seat center left that early. No explanation was given.

Knowledge base errors:

• Agents are receiving “errors” from quality control despite showing the quality people (in writing) that the knowledge base has two differing answers for the same procedure. Management ignores and the errors continue on their performance reports.

Performance feedback (NOT coaching!):

• 98.8 accuracy performance stats (99% accuracy is goal) are emailed to an agent by headquarters manager who asks, “Why are you making all these mistakes?”  (note to manager: SEE KNOWLEDGE BASE ERRORS ABOVE FOR ANSWER.)

Rewards and recognition:

• Agents receive letters from customers with compliments for service but management never acknowledges or rewards.
• Agent sent to internal conference with supervisors from other national locations.  He is the only agent attending because his former supervisor was afraid of technology and didn’t like to travel. His suggestions end up saving company time and increase effectiveness.  He never is told thank you or given an incentive for his cost saving and efficiency suggestions that worked.

Recently, the president of this same company  sent out an eloquently written letter to all employees saying how they must all “focus on the customer”.

I heard the satellite team laughed when they read it.  They said he never mentioned any appreciation for what they or the other agents were already doing for customers.  The two who rejected the poorly offered promotion have expressed an interest in looking for new jobs.  I hope they find something worthy of their great skills and work ethic.

Employees don’t need the president to tell them to focus on customers.  What they need is for the president to say, “We are focused on YOU, so in turn, you can provide the best customer experience”.  And then he needs to take action and do what he says.

Not holding my breath on that one…are you?

Are your Employee Engagement Efforts Driving Service Quality Too?

Somewhere along the long and winding road to find the temple of Employee Engagement, some Contact Centers are finding a disconnect between their goals for Customer Service quality and Employee Engagement.

When Employee Engagement is successful it should also be driving Customer Engagement.

Thousands of books and articles have been written about Employee Engagement. Two of the more common ways that managers try to engage employees in Contact Centers and in other customer service settings are by implementing an employee award or incentive program, and by having team parties or theme events. I’m not saying that either of these is totally without merit for motivating and leading the way to engagement. What I am saying is that we cannot make these the end all, be all for engagement.

Some managers are focused on making the employees “feel good” using awards and parties, without finding out what really makes each Agent feel engaged and motivated.

We need to ask ourselves if our employee award program is inspiring every employee to provide great service?

A new Kohl’s store opened up recently in the area I live in. I had watched the construction for months and looked forward to some Grand Opening bargains. I went shopping there shortly after it opened.

When I first arrived, I noticed the first two parking spots closest to the door were labeled. One said it was for “Employees Who Carpool”. That was a first for me here in Charleston, S.C. where I live since the area seems to be more of a drive your own car everywhere kind of town and not a big carpool mecca.

The other parking sign said it was reserved for the “Star Employee”. That sounded nice. I didn’t see an explanation of what this meant near the sign or later anywhere in the store.

When I entered the store, I didn’t see a single employee to ask where I might find a certain item I was seeking. As I walked through the store, I finally saw an employee who quickly left the area when she saw me approaching. Did I look that scary?

I saw another employee around the next corner and asked my question, which was a relatively easy one: “Do you carry X brand coats for men?”

She kept folding sweaters, made no eye contact and finally said, “I’m new here. You’ll have to ask a Customer Service” and waved her hand in the general direction of the front of the store.

Apparently part of her job description did not include Customer Service but simply folding sweaters because that was clearly her focus. She made no attempt to engage my interest as a Customer.

I thought again about the Star Employee and wondered when they worked and if I would encounter them. I wondered if I could suggest a parking space for “Star Customers” who planned to spend a certain amount of money that day because having that special parking space was doing nothing for the first employee I encountered.

Perhaps the criterion for winning Kohl’s Star award was well thought out, but it was doing nothing to inspire this employee to provide a wonderful Customer Experience for me. Sadder still was the fact that she was new, fresh out of training and yet showed no enthusiasm for her opportunity for a career with Kohl’s. Was she just a bad hire? Why was she not more engaged?

When we create a reward program in our Contact Center, we need to insure that we are rewarding the right behaviors.

Are we rewarding the same people over and over again? Are we rewarding progress made, i.e. achievements or only 100% success? How do our programs translate to engaged employees and great service?

WHY DO FOOD OR THEME PARTIES BECOME AN EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT PRIORITY FOR SOME?

A favorite motivational tool for most contact center management is food. Every Contact Center I visit seems to have a variety of reasons to have food available all hours of operation: birthdays, holidays, theme parties, and the popular “make up any reason to eat” day.

Food is an easy out for many managers who want to appear to be engaging employees. It’s easy to have a “fun” committee volunteer step up or be appointed and they do most of the work. It also looks great when the Vice President stops by and sees all the balloons and photos of merriment posted on the walls.

Unfortunately, the food party sugar high passes quickly and then our Agents are back to service normal mode, which may not translate to great Customer Experience mode. Shocking as it may sound, some of the “happiest” (and well-fed employees!) I’ve worked with in Contact Centers have not always provided the Customers with stellar service or had high levels of engagement.

In the same vein, a Contact Center Manager friend recently shared with me a story about his introduction to the new corporate regional Employee Engagement Director at their company. The new director had no experience with contact centers and had worked previously only in an academic setting.

When she came for an initial meeting onsite at the center, the Director didn’t ask any employees or managers what would make them feel more engaged. She didn’t refer to recent employee surveys, which showed concerns about training, opportunities for advancement, coaching and motivation from Supervisors.

Instead, the Employee Engagement Director began the meeting by telling the manager exactly what he and his team would be doing to “make employees feel engaged”. She announced that starting the next month, every Thursday would be popcorn day.

Free popcorn for everyone!

Needless to say, the Manager was speechless. I can only hope that after a few months on the job, the Director is now more “engaged” with what the agents are saying which clearly wasn’t about the need for free food.

Are you using your parties and theme days as ways to engage employees and drive better service? Some Agents have told me they aren’t interested in these and don’t want to participate but feel that they must. How does that affect their engagement level?

JOB SATISFACTION PLUS JOB CONTRIBUTION = ENGAGEMENT

In the “BlessingWhite 2011 Employee Engagement Report”  they state, “Full engagement represents an alignment of maximum job satisfaction (“I like my work and do it well”) with maximum job contribution (“I help achieve the goals of my organization”).
In their survey with over 10,000 employees worldwide, BlessingWhite found that only 31% of employees worldwide are engaged, and as expected, the engagement levels varied based on age, role, and tenure.

One of their most striking survey findings was that Employees view “opportunities to apply their talents, career development and training as top drivers of job satisfaction”. This reaffirms for me the importance of coaching and communications with agents in our Contact Centers, which unfortunately some Supervisors and Managers do not fully commit to.

As I coach with agents, I often have a chance for some private talk time and it’s always interesting to hear their take on what they’d like to have versus what management is doing to engage them.

Some tell me that their Supervisor only has a conversation with them when they have done something wrong. Others said they wished they knew how they were doing but the Supervisor was always in meetings or otherwise busy. Many say that their Supervisor never asks what they think they do well, where they want to be two years from now, or anything related to career development or training. Some are perfectly content being an agent and don’t want to move up in the company but just want someone to notice what they are doing.

When we offer our Agents opportunities for development and input related to their work and customer interactions, we have made them feel valued.

As we get to know each agent’s skills, goals (both personal and work), and how they view the Customers and our company mission, we will understand what drives their desire to work at our center and how to help them to become more engaged. In turn, those factors can be channeled into helping them provide great service. They will want to make that “maximum contribution” to the success of your organization.

Through your coaching and one to one “roll up your sleeves” training time with an agent, you will help them to enjoy their work, warts and all, and also feel a part of the organization’s goals for customer engagement. It is our job as leaders to make them feel that what they do in their front line jobs with customers is crucial to the success of our business. If they like their job, feel that they are doing it well (and you do too!) they will be more likely to help your center achieve its goals for Customer service quality and Customer Engagement.

If they still aren’t fully engaged, we need to find out what is preventing it and how we can help them. If fully disengaged, they will negatively impact those working with them in your center and your Customers as well.

A Special Thank you to Susan Hash and Linda Harden for publishing this article in the February 2012 issue of Contact Center Pipeline

Can You Ever Coach Too Much?

Today’s post is about those who suffer from what I call “Overkill Coaching”.   Too much Coaching without results or effectiveness.  

It’s out of balance.

Overkill Coaching can be approached by a Supervisor from either a positive or negative manner.  And this type of Coaching is frequently accompanied by repetitious Rewards and Motivation. It’s important to coach with every Agent according to their level of skill needs and motivation rather than having a cookie cutter program for one and all.

When too much Monitoring and Coaching is done with top Agents, even if positively done, it may trigger negative reactions in those Agents.

Your most productive and high quality reps may feel that the Supervisor doesn’t trust them to do their job well. They sometimes say to me, “Why is he listening to my calls every single day?” or  “Is she hoping to find something wrong?”

The poor quality Agent has their own take on too much Coaching.

If you are coaching with a low performing Agent day in and day out with no visible progress and this same Agent sees no action is taken by you to turn Coaching into a more serious performance plan including possible removal from their job, your Coaching becomes meaningless despite the amount being done.  They might be unable or unwilling but your Coaching is getting the same results either way.

It all revolves around Coaching for results.

• How much Coaching does each Agent need?
• How much do best Agents need versus those struggling?
• And, when do you decide that the Coaching isn’t working and next steps are required?

Coaching for results must have great planning, implementation and follow-up, not just a series of activities.  Change your monitoring, coaching and motivation activities to personalize your approach with Agents and keep your Coaching interesting.

Dear Supervisor…Please Leave Your Cubicle Sometimes

My first job in a Call Center was with DialAmerica Marketing in the 1970′s.  Because they did Telemarketing and I had a sales background, I was quickly promoted to Supervisor.  In early days of Call Centers, many of us didn’t have computers.  In fact, we were paper driven…Reps stacking cards with Customer magazine renewals on their desk, dialing until the stack was gone and receiving another stack.  Tracking was done by making little piles of these cards on desks:  Sales, No Sales, Call Backs, Wrong Number/Disconnects   Very simple but effective back then.  When I told Greg Levin (@greg_levin) about our “primitive” Call Center, he said Lily Tomlin must’ve been our ACD (remember Laugh-In’s Operator, Ernestine…”One ringy-dingy…”?)   Pretty close.

We didn’t have cubicles either. Rows of desks lined up neatly in an open square room with one big Supervisor desk in the front like a teacher’s desk in a classroom.  A phone for monitoring was prominently located in the center. We had only one chair for two Supervisors, which meant only one of us could sit down at any time.  One monitored and tracked activities/performance up front while the other walked around the center to motivate, smile, offer assistance desk-side.  I had very tired feet at the end of my shift.

I’m sure you are wondering why I bring up all this Call Center nostalgia.

Sometimes I think all of the fabulous technology and all of the beautiful Call Center ergonomically correct furnishings and cubicles which greatly enhance our work today, unfortunately have also brought about the dreaded “Supervisor in Hiding” disease.

I love working with the front line Leaders, Supervisors and Team Leaders. Many suffer from the “Hiding” disease.  Sometimes, getting them to leave their cubicle is like asking them to let you take them for dental surgery. These cubicle driven Supervisors spend hours glued to their monitor, answering email, taking escalated calls, and then leave only to attend endless meetings requested by their Manager, HR, Training, etc., etc.  Hours are spent locked away in their cubicles or in meeting rooms away from the Center action.  Communication with Reps is via email or chat.  Some even email coaching feedback to Reps.

What Supervisors don’t do often enough is “walk the floor” to see and hear what is going on, to offer motivation and praise during these “walk-by” opportunities.  Too often, they monitor and Coach following a rigid process designed by QA or Management.  They check off their tasks as completed each month, putting coaching away until the next month it is due.  They miss the chances to “catch” a Rep doing something right, a Rep working on skills, and reward them for efforts made right then and there.  Stopping by to thank a Rep for their work or compliment them on improvements brings positive results and lot’s of smiles.  I practice this myself when I’m working with a client on-site doing skills coaching.

Sitting “side-by-side” with an established Rep, observing them on their calls and navigating the system is a wonderful opportunity to build rapport and coach on the job.  Handling calls while they observe shows you are willing to roll your sleeves up and do the job too. Many times, this type of on the job coaching is done only with New Hires.

DialAmerica may have been saving money on furniture by having only 1 chair for 2 Supervisors.  Or maybe they really understood the best way to get us to motivate and coach “on the floor”.

Struggling with Time Management?   I hope you’ll enjoy this article by Wendy Hearn,  Principal of Wendy Hearn Coaching, an international coaching company about work “time wasters” as much as I did: http://tinyurl.com/27926lu

“Do We Still Have A Call Center?”…and more scenes from Phone Hell…

It’s amazing to me that a CEO or top management at a company can put their best company front line people in the dingiest places to work and provide little to no motivation and training.

I’ve seen Call Centers or small Customer Service teams in old trailers, Reps hanging lunches up to avoid mice sneaking bites of their meal while they go into the warehouse.  Then there are the windowless dungeons of phone hell….people given just enough room so as not to touch elbows and bad chairs that squeak or are bent like contortionists.

I’d like to say that the management in these places were not aware of what was going on, but unfortunately, all of them acknowledged it was bad and often added comments like, “Well, we are going to relocate in a year or two” or “Well, the Reps haven’t complained about it”.  If no one complained, I guess that was because that company also had huge Employee turnover problems in the Call Center.  No one stayed around long enough to complain.  They stayed just long enough to find another job or on occasion post out somewhere else within the company.

Then there was the business that had an Exec who, when asked about the Call Center team said, “Do we still have one of those?  Where are they?”  In this case, the small team of five Call Center Reps were in a building several minutes away from the nicely decorated headquarters.  There was a light out in the corridor outside the Center — dark and creepy— shades of a Friday night fright flick.  The inside was no better. Grey walls, torn carpet, no pictures or anything colorful or interesting.  And, there was row… after row… after row of old files stacked on open shelves filling one-half of the room.  Reps complained of breathing dust in. A Rep had asked for headphone replacement parts for months to no avail and was now sitting 8 hours a day with her neck bent to one side to hold the phone while she typed.  To add to the bad atmosphere, there was an off-site Manager who only visited every couple of weeks and no Supervisor on-site.

When I sat with Employees at this center, listened to calls and observed their interactions with each other, the word that best described the overall atmosphere was Apathy.  They weren’t rude to the Customers.  They took down information and answered questions. They just didn’t appear to care at all.  All of the Service Reps had good work backgrounds in the industry.  All should have been providing a high level of Customer Experience on calls but weren’t.

Fortunately, this “Do we still have a Call Center” story has  a happy ending.

Image by Martin Cathrae via Flickr

I wrote an Operational review report for this client and outlined some opportunities for improvements for the Employees as well as the Customer Experience overall.  In one section of the report, I discussed how having a poor work environment was very demotivating to the team and in turn affecting both turnover and the Customers.  Happily the CEO admitted that improvements were long overdue in the small Center.  Within two weeks of making some initial improvements in the Center, the attitudes were greatly improved and so were the Customer calls.  I had recommended,  and they had implemented, some relatively inexpensive improvements such as installing an air filter to help with file dust,  painting walls in colors the team chose, purchasing new Ergonomic chairs that were more supportive, replacing some defective headphones and cleaning old computer equipment out of the area (yes, the Call Center had also been deemed a garbage dump by IT).  I also asked the off-site Manager to commit to more hours per week in the center doing coaching and motivating the Reps which she agreed to.

I’m happy to say that the Reps’ skills have greatly improved.  The improved work environment, increased support and motivation demonstrated that Management cared about them.  With the Reps’ attitudes and skills improved,  Customer feedback is more positive and the Reps themselves are noticing that Customers are appreciative of their efforts and smiles.

Simple but effective solutions.  This has been a real Win-Win-Win for all parties involved.