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Make Your Customer Number Two
by Michael D. Brown
The vast majority of customer service strategies use the idea of making the customer their top priority and cornerstone. Yet, lines are still long, information is scarce, products are out of place or stock, and no two employees have the same answer to the same question. If today’s public-serving organizations really are making the customer number one, they have a funny way of demonstrating it.
The business world needs a makeover. A new perspective. An approach that I like to call “Fresh Customer Service.” Fresh Customer Service® demystifies the process of attracting loyal, happy customers who return again and again and recommend your business to their friends and families. This type of customer reaction can actually tip the scales and prove the difference between a prosperous organization and a bankrupt one. So what’s the secret? Treating the Employee as #1.
The struggle to turn just-any-old customer into a loyal customer is unyielding, and the burden of competition is so stiff you don’t have time to think about what Mary Jo at the cash register and Frank the Janitor have to say about things.
But these are the exact people to whom you need to listen and show your appreciation. The only way you can hope to deliver a World-Class customer service experience is by listening to, equipping, empowering, involving, and valuing the feedback and expertise your frontline employees can offer.
The key to running a successful operation is believing in and practicing the concept that customers should always come second—employees matter more in the immediate sense and should therefore come first. After all, happy employees unleash their enthusiasm and passion from within, and that passion is contagious. It infects everyone around them, including customers.
The first step to treating the employee as number one is positive feedback. Management receives feedback, why not the frontline employees, the most important asset of an organization? Giving your employees the recognition and gratitude for a job well done is a simple, but overlooked act. However, it can make the difference between motivated and disgruntled employees. Here are some simple steps to putting this plan to action.
• Thank your employees every day. Thank them for going above and beyond their job descriptions. And why not thank them for doing what they’re supposed to be doing? It sure can’t hurt anyone.
• Treat each employee with the utmost trust, honesty, respect, integrity, and commitment to his or her well-being. The Frontline Employee is the most important asset, resource and ally to an organization’s operations. He (or she) and his (or her) quest to deliver a World-Class customer service experience are paramount. We must take care of all of our Frontline Employees first if we ever hope to effectively and consistently reach the customer.
Once the employees are respected, Fresh Customer Service is on its way. The next step businesses should take is to learn from their employees by walking a day in their shoes. Side-by-Side Walking offers businesses a way to interact and learn from their employees. It offers an insider perspective that is usually lost between frontline employees and management. By understanding the tasks and experiences that workers encounter, a better service plan can be created with employees in mind to highlight their strengths. Helpful tips for Side-by-Side Walking include:
• Before starting the experience, be sure to secure a copy of the formal job description for the job being observing. Write down your interpretation of what you think the job involves. After completing the experience, reflect on the reality of the employees’ day vs. the formal description.
• Complete an entire shift, from the pre-shift work through the closing process. You can’t cut corners if you expect to make a change. Observing all aspects of customer service is the only way to make informed decisions.
Once businesses understand the ground-up approach to customer service they are likely to develop a plan for efficiency. However, don’t make the mistake of not keeping the employee in the forefront. They are the brand ambassadors of any business, so make sure that they are Empowered Employees: Trusting your employees to make decisions and act with authority gives them not only a heightened sense of responsibility, but also the freedom to handle a customer’s complaint—not just directing them to a manager. Tips to creating Empowered Employees include:
• Listen. All employees should have the right to be involved in the planning of the work affecting them. They encounter and discover customer problems. Ask and listen to their feedback when developing new procedures because they may solve an issue that management hadn’t even thought of.
• Give workers Make-It-Right Power. Customers want to see an instant solution to their problems. Allowing employees authority, can transform a customer’s bad experience into a positive one.
• When deciding how much power employees have to make things right, make sure that firm, well-documented policies are in place.
For many individuals, organizations, corporations, mom-and-pop stores, and entrepreneurs, delivering a World-Class customer service experience through Fresh Customer Service® will require a cultural change. But embracing this experience, no matter how much work it will take, will deliver a competitive edge unlike any other.
If you are a manager, frontline leader, supervisor, entrepreneur, director, HR rep, small business owner or CEO, you must offer your Frontline Employees a healthy, fruitful, cohesive working environment where their contributions are valued and respected. Remember that if you first take care of the Frontline Employees, they will take care of the customers, and the bottom line will take care of itself.