FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: John Tschohl July, 2008 (952) 884-3311
E-mail: quality@servicequality.com
Web: www.customer-service.com
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NO EMPOWERMENT MEANS NO SERVICE
And if you don’t have service, you won’t have customers
By John Tschohl
I’ve traveled the world teaching organizations how to provide the best possible service to their customers. During those travels and visits to hundreds of businesses, I have constantly noticed the lack of one critical element of customer service: empowerment. You can take many steps and implement many programs in an attempt to ensure that your
customers are satisfied and loyal, but if you don’t have empowered employees, everything else you’ve done is worthless.
I define empowerment this way: It’s doing whatever is necessary, on the spot, to take care of the customer. It is bending and breaking the rules to ensure the customer is satisfied. Most companies spend a fortune on marketing and advertising in order to get customers in the door when they would be much better off if they gave their employees
the authority to make decisions that will enhance their brand, image, and customer loyalty.
The purpose of empowerment is to create an experience so remarkable that you wow the customer, who then goes out and tells 20 other people about her wonderful experience with your organization. The magic with empowerment occurs when a frontline employee effectively and efficiently handles a customer’s problem without having to move it up
the ladder, which frustrates the customer and costs the company more in time and money.
You cannot underestimate the power of empowerment. It will give your business an edge over your competitors and have a huge—and positive—impact on your bottom line. But empowerment just doesn’t happen. In fact, getting your employees to make empowered decisions is the single most difficult thing you’ll ever try to accomplish. Why? Because they fear empowerment. They think they will be fired or reprimanded if they make an empowered decision. Or they think they will be forced to pay for whatever they gave a customer as compensation for a problem he experienced with the company.
Managers also fear empowerment. They think their roles will be diminished if employees aren’t required to run to them for every decision. What they don’t realize is that when they allow employees to make empowered decisions, they will have more time to focus on other issues.
You can develop a team of empowered employees by taking the following steps:
Train your employees in the art of customer service. This is a key element of empowerment. When employees are trained and empowered to handle customer complaints, they not only will maintain customer loyalty, they will restore it when customers experience a problem with your organization. Train your employees and then trust them to take good care of your customers.
Eliminate policies and procedures that get in the way of great customer service. They are major roadblocks. Employees, however, love them because they’re safe. When employees rely on policies and procedures, they don’t have to make decisions. But, the more difficult you make it for customers to do business with you, the more customers
you will lose.
Reinforce the importance of empowerment. Talk about it and the role it plays in ensuring the success of your organization. Let employees know that it is OK to make a mistake in the process of ensuring that the customer is satisfied.
Recognize empowered employees. Celebrate the empowered actions of your employees. Feature them in your organization’s newsletter. Give them a round of applause in front of their peers. Make heroes of your empowered employees and get rid of those employees who refuse to make empowered decisions, as well as those, managers who don’t allow them to do so.
Empowerment is the key to customer service. You can’t have a successful business without providing exceptional customer service—and you can’t provide exceptional customer service without empowering your employees. You must put the customer first, be responsive to your customers’ needs, and be resourceful in meeting those needs.
Empowered employees—especially frontline employees who have more contact with your customers than anyone else in the company—will separate your organization from the rest of the pack. They are the magnets that will draw customers—and their money—through your doors and keep them coming back to you.
John Tschohl is an international service strategist. 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, e-Service, Loyal For Life, The Customer is Boss, and Ca$hing In: Make More Money, Get a Promotion, Love Your Job.
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