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Few will argue that providing exceptional customer service gives a business an edge over its competitors. What many employers don't realize, however, is that in order to provide superior customer service they must have an empowered workforce.
   "Employee empowerment is the most difficult element of customer service you will try to implement," says John Tschohl, founder and president of Minneapolis-based Service Quality Institute and author of several books, including Achieving Excellence Through Customer Service. "My definition of empowerment is an employee who can do whatever he has to do on the spot to take care of a customer to that customer's satisfaction--not to the company's satisfaction. If the customer doesn't win, the company loses."
   While many employers talk about empowerment, few actually put it into practice. Too often, says Tschohl, they don't really understand what empowerment is. "To many managers," he says, "empowerment is giving employees the authority to make a decision to take care of the customer--as long as the action they take follows the rules, policies, and procedures of the organization, which means there actually is no empowerment. True empowerment means employees can bend and break the rules to do whatever they have to do to take care of the customer."
   There are limits, however. For example, empowerment doesn't mean that sales people can indiscriminately slash prices to retain a customer. What it does mean is that employees can take the initiative in solving customers' problems so that they will continue to do business with the company.
   Jan Carlzon, former president of Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), has said that one of the greatest fears executives have is that the employees will "give away the store." Says Tschohl, "What the worst thing that can happen: You're going to get an overly happy customer?"
   At Disney World, if a supervisor sees a front-line person "giving away the store, he'll usually wait and talk it over with him later," says James Poisant, former manager of business seminars. "It's okay if a guest gets away with something. The alternative is that we could be wrong, and that could cost us a fortune. An aggrieved guest would tell everyone he knows that Disney is cheap. Occasionally we'll take a hit, but that's okay."
   According to Tschohl, most businesses today operate under these myths:
   Don't trust the customer. "Many executives think that the customer is out to take advantage of a business in any way possible," says Tschohl. "Consequently, they develop rules, policies, and procedures to ensure that doesn't happen."
   Don't trust front-line employees. "Most executives have very little confidence in their front-line employees," Tschohl says. "They think that, if they are paying someone a minimum wage, they couldn't possibly trust that person to make a decision without the customer taking advantage of him."
   Empowerment will diminish or eliminate the role of middle managers. "Many middle managers present an obstacle to employee empowerment, fearing that it will lessen their control or, eventually, eliminate the need for their positions," Tschohl says. "With empowered employees, middle managers have a lot less control, but that isn't necessarily a negative. Time spent dealing with decisions that can effectively be made by a front-line employee can now be spent dealing with other issues."
   Employees should fear empowerment. Why? "Because," says Tschohl, "to make empowered decisions means taking risks. When making a decision, the greatest concern for many employees is that they will be reprimanded --or worse, fired--for making what management sees as a bad decision. Employees should know they won't be fired if they make a mistake and that it's okay to make mistakes in the process of working to win customer satisfaction."
   Executives must excise these myths from their organizations, if empowerment is to work and their businesses are to prosper and succeed. An organization's mission, says Tschohl, should be to take care of the customer. In order to do so, employees must be trained in customer service and be empowered to provide exceptional service.
   On a recent trip to Cancun, Mexico, Tschohl was a keynote speaker at a conference at the hotel at which he, and 150 participants, were staying. When Tschohl asked an employee at the front desk if she could upgrade his room, she told him she had no authority to do that without charging him an extra $25 per day. If she waived that fee, she said, she would have to pay it. The manager told Tschohl that the hotel's employees are empowered to make decisions, as long as they fall within the organization's policies.
   "That," says Tschohl, "is not empowerment. This organization fails to see that empowerment is a powerful tool that can give it a competitive edge. It's difficult to get employees to use empowerment, if their employers and managers aren't using it."
   Tschohl cites Disney World as the epitome of customer service and empowerment. "Empowerment is a religion there," he says. "Employees are thoroughly trained and then told that they have the authority to do whatever is necessary to deal with problems on the spot in order to make customers happy. In fact, management interference is discouraged."
   The Disney philosophy is reflected in a statement that every organization in American should frame and mount on the board room wall: Management must not only support the front line, but it must trust it as well. "Disney World believes that front-line employees should be the first, and the last, contact for customers," says Tschohl.
   Front-line employees must have authority to respond to the needs and problems of individual customers with speed and courtesy. An example of exceptional customer service is L. L. Bean, Inc. One of its employees actually drove 500 miles from Maine to New York to deliver a canoe to a customer who was leaving on a trip.
   "Employers need to support and reinforce empowered action by their employees," says Tschohl. "They need to celebrate it, applaud it, and reward it. They need to make heroes of their empowered employees."

John Tschohl is an international management consultant and speaker. Described by Time and Entrepreneur magazines as a "customer service guru," he has written several books on customer service, including Achieving Excellence Through Customer Service, Cashing In, and The Customer is Boss. As president of the Minneapolis-based Service Quality Institute, Tschohl has developed more than 26 training programs that have been distributed and presented throughout the world.