The three values needed to achieve top customer service are easy-to-understand but arduous to achieve. But if your human resources program adopts and implements these values, you’ll achieve enviable organizational effectiveness – a high performance culture – for strong revenue.
One key indicator is whether your employees are proud of your organization.
Here’s a question: How often have you as a customer experienced poor service from an employee? Quite often, I’d guess. It results from a lack of pride.
Not to oversimplify, here’s a case study:
A gas station attendant where I’ve frequently patronized annoyed me one day. I was in line first, and told an employee what I wanted to buy.
It was the same employee who once indicated his desire to me that he wanted to boost his career by qualifying for college in order to enter the medical field.
But I was aghast. The employee first finished serving a customer who arrived after me. The second customer paid for the gas and was on his way before the employee finished serving me.
Annoyed, but tactfully as I could, I explained to the employee principles of good customer service – why he and his employer were in danger of losing a customer – me.
Ironically, if the employee develops pride in his work and becomes better at customer service on behalf of his employer, he will also more easily attain his career goals.
Developing employee pride is or should be one function of human-resources management.
You see, proud employees see customers through a different set of glasses. They actually think differently, they develop good work habits, make sure customers are happy, and they are a source of profitable ideas for their employers.
The three values to deliver top customer service
More and more, employers value soft skills over talent. Either companies recruit employees with the right attitudes or they train them to become top performers.
Top-performing companies implement three core values:
1. With sovereignty or authority, managers give more sovereignty or autonomy to their employees.
2. With higher expectations in employee performance, managers make sure employees understand what’s expected in customer service and why it’s important.
3. With stellar practices in recognition practices, managers make recognition of employee contributions a top priority.
Sovereignty or autonomy
By employing trusted employees, companies give autonomy to make decisions to keep customers happy.
Micromanagement and unnecessary stress are non-existent.
Such empowered employees are more likely to be confident, polite, enthusiastic, and collaborative with other team members.
Employee autonomy involves employee engagement, and there’s a direct correlation between employee engagement and business success.
Higher understanding and expectations of employee performance
Managers, who emphasize why employees they should be mindful of enhanced customer service, inspire an environment for top performance. When employees get it, they do a better job of helping customers and they’re better team players, as well.
It’s also great for employee retention. You’ll be in a better position to spot the red flags you’re losing an employee.
Recognition practices
Best practices in employee recognition and rewards for terrific work, enhances the pride factor among workers. Work becomes fun when employees are recognized for their contributions.
As other employees see these principles at work, such a culture is a catalyst for trust. This positions the organization for high performance.
Finally, one recognition tool you can use is to help employees grow professionally.
From the Coach’s Corner, here are more HR strategies:
6 Tips to Turn Your HR Department into a Profit Center — At least 50 percent of a company’s profits are contingent on employee problems. If you have challenges in one department, odds are you have HR issues in other departments. In fact, human capital is the No. 1 reason why CEOs lose sleep. Many businesses often need an objective source of information and expertise from critical thinkers. It’s true you can turn your human resources department into a profit center.
How to Manage Your Employee Vacation Schedules for a Smooth Operation — Depending on the size of your staff, managing around your employees’ vacation schedules can be a thorny issue. That’s especially true for a small operation. With just a few employees, it can be difficult to keep everyone happy and to cover the workload.
Management/HR – How to Increase Profits via Employee Turnover — As cost centers, human resources have opportunities to shine whenever they act as profit centers. And employee turnover presents opportunities for companies to make money.
10 Steps to Manage Conflict for High Performance — For progress, a business needs human interaction for ideas and innovation. Sometimes, argument, debate and conflict prove to be productive catalysts for high performance. But such catalysts can be obstacles to success, too. Here are the simplest ways to manage conflict.
Hiring? 4 Pointers on Negotiating Wages with Job Applicants — Some employers have had difficulty in successfully extending job offers to applicants, especially Millennial professionals. It’s not uncommon to interview applicants who aren’t shy in negotiations with their inflated egos and salary expectations. Of course, that wasn’t the case in the Great Recession.
“The smaller the function, the greater the management.”
-C. Northcote Parkinson
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