How Can I Involve My Employees In Customer Service?
- Instill a customer service "culture" within your organization by sharing positive front-line employee stories and special service examples with all employees.
- For call center employees, avoid basing their performance appraisal ratings and raises on "time spent" per phone call. This may be detrimental, particularly with new customers. Your employees should be encouraged to build rapport and share important information with your customers.
- Use a Customer Satisfaction Survey for customer feedback. Let employees know what happens to customer comments. Suggest specific action plan ideas to individuals and/or departments on how to improve their customer service ratings. If using a Customer Satisfaction Survey, provide bonuses based on improvement or number of excellents received.
- Provide an on-going customer service column in your employee newsletter. Keep customer service in the front of your employees' minds.
- Increase compensation for all employees who provide good customer service.
- Develop a customer service reward and incentive system, which may include a point system for gift certificates or funding for external continuing education. Encourage competition for better customer service only if it rewards internal teamwork.
- Ask employees for ideas on how to provide better customer service. They know how to improve service because they are the people on the front lines delivering service and hearing customer feedback. Really listen to employees. Compensate for good ideas where there is a return on investment.
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Patti Hathaway can solve your people challenges through her highly customized solutions. Do you have customer retention concerns, leadership challenges, or employee resistance to change? Patti Hathaway, The CHANGE AGENT, has built her reputation since 1987 as a business advisor and best-selling author who gets her clients' results. For a free monthly tips e-newsletter and many helpful articles, go to: www.thechangeagent.com or call 1-800-339-0973.
