Too often when the service scenario becomes complicated or frustrating, management wants to step in and take the matter in their own hands.. Yet, this is really not providing a better service response. Far better is to allow the first responder to be the first to respond. Why is this important?
- The sooner you show you care, the more meaningful the caring response.
- It demonstrates that we are all responsible for providing a great customer experience, not just management.
- It shows our readiness to be as helpful as possible to the customer.
- Research shows service recovery on the front line is more practically delivered than when left to management who was not there and can be overwhelmed by putting out every fire.
- It resolves the problem sooner, keeping it from festering further. Frustrated customers do not want to feel like they have to go through hoops to get help.
- It creates for greater customer loyalty, which generates greater long-term business for us.
- It makes the staff members feel more empowered and engaged in their work.
That said, there are some challenges in having the front line respond. What are the challenges to having the front line, or first responder, be the first to respond?
- They may not be experienced with what to do.
- They may not know how much to offer—they may end up doing too little, or they may end up giving away too much.
How do we respond to those challenges? Here are three ingredients:
- Train. You need to provide the formal training for how to handle a service scenario when it goes wrong. Train them on how to go from “sorry” to “action”. Teach and practice empathic listening. Discuss the right solutions based on responsibility and severity.
- Talk. Beyond the formal training opportunities you need to have a window to daily discuss what’s working and what’s not. We need to talk about it all the time. That’s why world-class organizations usually have pre-shift meetings in place so as to discuss what we should do when these things occur. A pre-shift or stand-up meeting on its own is a relatively insignificant thing. But like anything else that is small, it can quickly add up to more. Snowballs are a great example – if hundreds of snowballs are consistently rolling down a mountain, it creates an enormous force that creates an avalanche of opportunity. When we get together, if only for a few minutes, it’s not much. But if we do it every day it becomes a bigger thing. And if everyone does it, it becomes an even more powerful force for providing greater service.
- Coach. The front line’s response may not always be perfect. But create a culture for making mistakes. Allow people to learn when they didn’t provide that first response correctly. Give them guidance and coaching about how they might do it differently the next time.
Nothing can be more empowering than having an employee really turn an unhappy customer to one that is loyal and is an advocate of the customer service you provide. But you have to be intentional in order to deliver that quality of customer service. You need to allow your first responders to deliver the first response. And you need to prepare them to deliver that response.
Comments are closed.