You have worked hard building your business and investing in customer acquisition. Your customers love your products, but do business with you because of your service. How do you get your employees to do great things for your company?
Big companies especially, struggle with this concept. By definition, larger companies have more trouble with great individual customer service because of their systems which identify the behavior and outcomes that they expect. So just throw out the operations and service manual and all will be fine? Hardly. Large companies with good or great customer service thrive because of their systems. The insure that service is consistent across properties or regions.
Small companies tend to have more individual freedom for employees. That's mostly because nobody has thought about or had time to document a system for employees to use.
Is service necessarily better at small companies? Does the systematic structuring of big companies prevent local level employees from having the soul that often accompanies awesome customer service? In my opinion, no and no. Have I talked myself into a circle?
Let me give you two examples, one from my recent real-life consulting experience and one I read about, but related as real none the less.
Real Life Example
My partner Felica at Ad4! Group and I were working with a group of upper-level line employees at a hospitality venue. As I talked about understanding customer expectations and responding accordingly with information and service that wasn't part of their "job" but would endear them to their customers, they proceeded to school me on just how that is done in real life. At a single location business, they created, on their own without any prompting or inducement from management, a system to categorize and organize this information of which I spoke, so that they could use it help their customers without having to fumble. They created a system for their own use so that they could provide an unexpected level of customer service.
Read About Example
Walt Disney Company strives to provide a level of service that exceeds most expectations. They train their hotel housekeepers that they are not there to clean rooms, but to help create memorable experiences for their customers. They had a housekeeper who would take little Mickey Mouse plush dolls and put them in children's beds with a note 'I was waiting for you.'
What do these examples have to do with each other? Probably many things if we were to study them, but my point is this: train your employees to understand your mission and give them the resources to do their job. Then, if you get out of their way, they will do great things for you. My experience with employees is that they just want to be able to take pride in what they do. Whether they are artists, craftsmen, or accountants, they want to have the freedom to do a great job. Allow your employees the freedom to express their individual style and creativeness to implement your systems and forward your mission. In this type of environment, good people will thrive. They will deliver the service that you need and feel empowered to be the best they can be. It's a win-win.
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