- The number one key to sustaining great service is culture.
The culture of doing the daily hard work
to focus on what's best for customers.
What do organizations with the most engaged employees
and customer-focused cultures have in common?
Here are seven principles that I've seen stand out.
First, hire the right people.
I had a successful customer service leader
put it to me this way: we hire the passion
and train the skills.
I had to think about it for a little bit,
but I completely agree.
While it makes a lot of sense to recruit employees
who have the skills you need,
the drive and passion to help customers
is must-have in customer service environments.
Next, I've observed a common theme
among organizations that provide the best service:
they put their employees first.
Southwest Airlines, one of the world's
most admired companies posts on their website that,
"Our order of importance, we put our employees first,
"then our customers, then our shareholders.
"We believe that if we treat our employees right,
"they'll treat our customers right,
"and in turn, that results in
"increased business and profits
"that make everybody happy."
Another key principle is to empower and equip employees
to make real-time decisions.
You can't expect them to be effective
unless they have the authority
and the means to help customers.
For years, Ritz Carlton has given staff
$2000 worth of discretion per employee and per guest
to resolve problems as employees feel are appropriate.
As a senior manager explained,
sometimes the most delightful wow moments
happen in the blink of an eye.
If employees are not empowered,
and need to cross layers of approval,
these moments could be lost forever.
Fourth, find ways to continuously
keep the focus on customers,
rather than on internal objectives.
USAA, the insurance and financial company
that's consistently rated among
the top organizations for customer service,
operates by the mantra, "We know what it means to serve."
That simple statement helps guide every decision.
A large cable company with a mixed reputation for service
that they're working hard to change
recently took the symbolic step of putting an empty chair
in planning meetings to represent customers.
Those involved say it really means something
to have a tangible picture of the customer
sitting in those discussions.
It's beginning to have a positive impact.
Others might suggest, "Hey, fill that chair
"with a real customer."
That's what a utility in San Antonio, Texas
began doing in their new hire training program.
They brought in volunteer customers to talk to
new customer service agents and
tell them things they like, and things they'd change
about their experiences.
Next, take steps to communicate effectively.
Effective leaders at all levels,
whether CEOs, or supervisors of a group,
are predisposed to keeping their teams in the know,
good and bad, so nobody's second guessing or wondering.
And they listen.
When employees have a stake in developing
their approach to customer service,
they tend to work hard to bring about its success.
Employees of Homeroom, the popular
mac and cheese restaurant in Oakland
that has such raving fans, pass along improvement ideas
on index cards at the end of every shift.
And no idea's too small.
Angling a refrigerator by a few inches
provided additional clearance
in a busy corner of the restaurant.
Six, be sure to establish goals and objectives
that support customer-focused cultures.
A hardware store that stresses
the number of customers served,
or how long those interactions take,
could be missing some big opportunities.
The employee who points to the right aisle
may not be nearly as effective
as one who walks the customer to that aisle,
and asks along the way whether they have an allen wrench
to install the part they requested,
and in the process they learned that
the project's part of a larger remodel.
One chain learned this through experience,
and they're seeing both customer satisfaction
and business returns improved,
with a renewed focus on customers.
Lastly, cultivate supporting tools and processes.
This does not mean you have to have the latest technology,
but several capabilities are especially helpful.
These include knowing the customer's
history and preferences,
the means to capture helpful information
on customers and issues,
and good communication tools for internal collaboration.
Good resource management's also important.
Without it, backlogs lengthen, customers get unhappy,
and things fall through the cracks.
As a leader, you'll want to make sure
you're getting the right resources
in place at the right times,
and focusing on the right things.
In some companies, you can feel the energy
as soon as you walk in the door,
and without fail, these principles will be at work.