Posts Tagged ‘CEO’

Holiday Giving – The WOW! Way

In: Culture

By: Sherry Zachary on Dec 07, 2010 at 9:30 am

Imagine you are the married father of three growing teens and a toddler and you are the sole wage earner in your household.  You work two jobs to make ends meet.  Then within two weeks, your car quits, and both your washer and dryer give out.  The car alone is going to cost over $1000 for towing, parts and labor.  All this happens just before the holidays.

Then imagine you work for WOW!. 

Guess what? 

Your supervisor calls the garage who maintains the vehicles for their office, and the garage owner offers to repair the car for the cost of parts alone.  Your supervisor picks up the tab for towing.  Your teammates secretly hold a meeting and take up a collection.  Their money pays for the parts.  Then they find a replacement washer and dryer set in good working condition and buy it for you.  Finally, they purchase gift certificates and donate the rest of the collected cash toward food and gifts so your family can have a real reason to celebrate Christmas.

This is just one story, in one location, in one holiday season at WOW!.  These kinds of efforts go on all year long when a member of our WOW! family is faced with unexpected trauma and need. 

It’s called Leading with Courage.
It’s called Serving with Heart.
It’s called Celebrating the holidays with Grace

This year, like last year, there is more need than ever in our neighborhoods and our communities.  Please consider a few less stocking stuffers, or a more cost-effective Christmas meal and consider spending your savings on someone else.  You can touch the life of someone who has very little to celebrate this year.

I’ve quoted our CEO in this column before, but it’s appropriate to repeat it here:

“NOTHING FEELS BETTER THAN GIVING.”

Happy Holidays from WOW!

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Happy Thanksgiving!!

In: Customer Experience & Support

By: Bill Wright on Nov 25, 2010 at 6:52 am

 I wanted to give a little bit of my “Customer Experience” I have had with WOW!.

 I have always known that WOW! was a place that gave back to the community and back to their employees but a few special memories stick out for me.

 I remember a call that came in from a customer that had been late on the payments and having a very hard time getting by. They were just trying to make some arrangements to pay the bill. I do understand that cable TV is not a privilege and you can do without it, in most cases but to some it is the only contact with the outside that they get. I remember hearing that for the holidays, all the person really wanted was new towels for the bathroom. That’s it!! That is all the person wanted was her bathroom to look nice with new towels in it. That really put things into perspective. And guess what happened? Those towels, she had been wantin,g showed up at the home and you will never guess where they came from. What a company!!!!!

  This Thanksgiving, WOW! was able to give 20+ families Thanksgiving dinner that they wouldn’t have been able to afford on their own. An Angel Tree has been set up in the lobby of the Call Center with the Holliday wishes of children. We can’t seem to keep the requests on the tree because the employees are buying and wrapping gifts for these children. 

  This is just part of what I am thankful for. Being a part of a team that when the going got tough, they got tougher.  Always giving and never asking anything in return.

  It’s that time of year when you are supposed to look back and think of the things you are most thankful for. Why does it have to be only once a year?  Why can’t we all take the time, everyday, to look at the things, and people, that we should be thankful for?

There are many things in life I am thankful for and I appreciate them all !!

 Every day, I am thankful that I got out of bed on my own. What are you thankful for?

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Communication, Camaradarie and Celebration

In: Culture

By: Sherry Zachary on Sep 14, 2010 at 10:40 am

I just came from an All-Employee Meeting, or AEM as we sometimes call them.  This is something WOW! locations do at least twice a year.  At an AEM, we review our current company strategies and our progress against them from both performance and financial perspectives.  Usually it takes place offsite, around a meal (breakfast) and it involves major maneuvering of work quota and route planning for our technicians.  At this meeting we introduce any new or changing strategies and sometimes, like today, we have the opportunity to talk about new technology.  Our CEO, Colleen Abdoulah usually wraps up the meeting (yes, in all six locations!) with a personal message.  But FIRST, before we do any of that, we recognize and appreciate top performers and significant employee accomplishments.

Why does this kick off the meeting?  Because employees at WOW! are so passionate about our business, so accountable for their role in it, and so dedicated to servanthood, the managers who design these meetings feel compelled to start out by recognizing the front line employees who make us successful. 

Today, while our 300 employees arrived, assembled and ate breakfast before the meeting started, we ran a loop of selected WOW! Moments with pictures of the employees who created them.  Year-to-date, this region’s employees have generated 2,780 customer compliments!  When the formal meeting started, we applauded 88 employees who received perfect attendance bonuses (that’s 43% of the total eligible); we cheered for 31 STAR Performance technicians, we whooped it up for a dozen sales reps (almost 25% of the team) who have exceeded quota every month this year, and we clapped for the 11 employees who topped the region in Just Ask Service Protection Sales – over 400 transactions just from this group!   Last but not least, we honored the 19 employees who were promoted so far, in 2010.

Only then did we go through performance numbers and progress this year, and at the half way point, we played a quick table game – designed to emphasize the power of teamwork.  There was lots of chatter and camradarie as the game progressed because there were prizes for the top 3 performing tables.  The second half of the meeting was dedicated to future strategies and a new technology that will set us apart from our competition, followed by the personal message from our CEO.  And guess what?  After Colleen delivered the ‘meat’ of her message, she ended by…  appreciating and recognizing all the front line employees who literally drive our success.

Hmmm.  I think there might be a message in there somewhere.

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A Word from Our CEO

In: Culture

By: Sherry Zachary on Aug 31, 2010 at 8:00 am

This week, WOW!’s CEO Colleen Abdoulah posted an article on our employee blog.  It tells the story of what makes WOW! unique and I thought I would share pieces of it with our community visitors.  As a Company, we speak about our core values – Respect, Integrity, Accountability and Servanthood.  We talk about Leading with Courage, Serving with Heart and Celebrating with Grace.  We try to influence, but really have no control the attitudes or the ‘mindset’ of an employee. 

Colleen starts her article this way:   “As you know, mindset simply refers to a person’s outlook – their attitude, approach, or way of thinking. During these times, we know there are many people and companies of all sizes who are struggling. This past quarter, another 500,000 people became unemployed. It is no wonder we may experience people whose mindset is negative, defeated, desperate, anxious and maybe even bitter.”

The year 2009 was a tough one, but WOW! managed to meet its budget plan and financial commitments.  The first half of 2010 so far not much easier, but our performance is still meeting expectations and our owners and investors have not lost confidence in us.  Why is this?  How is it possible?

Says Colleen, “It is not because we are the low price provider. It is not because our cost structure is less than our competitors. It is not because we have an easy budget and low expectations from our owners and lenders. It is not because we have technology and products that no one else has. So why and how do we continue to create value, sustain our market position, provide growth opportunities that allow us to build new plant – all during times that are tight and difficult for so many? Is it because we have it easy with all the resources in the world to just coast along on our past successes?  Of course not.  For me, how and why we are able to achieve these things is anchored in our MINDSET.”

“Yes, technology matters. Systems integration is critical. Processes and procedures that help us learn and do things faster and better are essential. Our products and services need to keep pace with ever-changing consumer expectations.  But choosing to serve one another instead of competing or blaming opens the way for ideation and innovation.  And at the foundation of it all is each and every team member’s chosen outlook – how we choose to approach our day and the obstacles and opportunities that are presented. The attitude we each project to one another and our customers is unique. With all the uncertainty in life, each of us has control over how we choose to respond. And what a mindset we have at WOW!.”  It is not our products and services that are differentiators – it is each of US that makes WOW! unique.

At the end of her article, Colleen invited comments from employees, asking what and who had influence over their mindsets every day.  I wish the community readers could see employee responses – tThey are numerous, genuine and inspirational.  What I’ve learned over nine years with WOW! is that this positive mindset, this can-do attitude, this ‘how can I help approach’ is a self-fulfilling prophecy.   As Colleen says, a strong business plan and sound technology are critical to our business, but it is our spirit and our attitudes that set us apart from our competitors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Humble, Happy, Hugged at WOW!

In: Culture

By: Sherry Zachary on Jun 01, 2010 at 8:00 am

‘The Three Hs.’  Never heard of ‘em?  Oh, come on now.  Humble, Happy, Hugged?   Ok, I confess I made it up.  When I sat down today to write another article for the Culture space on the WOW! Buzz, I was stumped for a few minutes.  I’ve been away from work for five days now and therefore not in a WOW! environment to be unexpectedly inspired.  “What will I write about?” I wondered.

(The Hug)   I spent a few minutes thinking about all the many things that make WOW! such a unique place to work.  For some reason the picture that kept popping up in my mind’s eye was one of our CEO Colleen Abdoulah giving a hug to a brand new employee.   I thought about how many times I’ve mentioned this to new hires before they meet her for the first time.  It’s truly something you don’t expect in a work environment.  But it isn’t suggestive, it isn’t invasive, and it isn’t forward.  It is simply this:  ‘I’m really glad you’ve joined our company.  If you’re here, you must be someone special.  Since you are someone special, I look forward to working with you and I’m really happy to welcome you to our team!’  

(The Humble)  Another thing I thought about is how being humble is such a prevalent personality characteristic at WOW!.  I guess it’s natural because it goes along with one of our core values, Servanthood:  ‘Embrace the attitude and honor of serving others rather than being served.’  Everyone at WOW! understands what it means to serve others and everyone knows we are one big team.   There are countless examples of this over the years at WOW!   With every little success and every big success there are always fingers pointing in other directions – pointing at all the other people at WOW! who helped to make it possible.

(The Happy)  Finally I thought about how happy I am to be part of this company.  This is not an original thought – I’ve probably had this thought 1,347, 983 times over the 8+ years I’ve worked at WOW!.   And guess what?  It’s not just me.  More than once I’ve had an employee tell me that this is the first job they’ve had where they are happy to come to work every day.  (A couple of times it was the employee’s spouse who told me this!)  If you’re ever in a WOW! office first thing in the morning the happiness is a palpable thing.  People are greeting each other, people have smiles on their faces, there is energy in the air and a sense of urgency and purpose.  Every employee at WOW! knows what it is about what they do to make a difference in our success.  Everyone adds value.  It’s a beautiful thing.

Ok, so I had my thoughts together for a culture article - The Three Hs – but then I thought ‘Uh oh.  Which comes first?  Isn’t there probably a natural order for The Three Hs?’  I think there is and I challenge you to find it.  Here’s your hint:  it’s not the order in which I wrote about them in this article.  So just think about it for a minute.  Got it?  Good for you!  Yes, it’s the order shown in the title.

(1) Humble people truly appreciate all the good things that happen to them so they are (2) happy more of the time.  (2) Happy people are more likely to want to share how they feel, so they are more generous with their hugs (3).  Too simple for you?  Ok then, answer this:  When was the last time you were hugged by an egotistical grumpy person? 

Have a great week… and hug someone!   Blog hug

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