Everyday your employees have a choice in how they help your customers solve problems or purchase your products/services. What choice will they make when it comes to handling your customers? What “GUIDE” do they follow when helping your customers?
Organizations often rely on “policy manuals” or “procedure manuals” or “customer scripts” or “customer flow charts” to solve issues. What ends up happening more times than not is that they PUNT!
NO manual, no matter how much time or energy is put into it, can handle all the situations that come up with customers. Customers are unpredictable…they often times don’t know exactly what they want so they turn to your employees for answers. Answers that aren’t in the company “manuals” or “guides.” Unfortunately, this is usually more of the “norm” than it is the “exception.”
What do your employees do when these “exceptions” occur? How do they proceed to solve the customer issues and leave the customer feeling awesome? What is the “process” for handling these situations in real time when the customer is anxious, in a hurry, confused, and needing answers? Is there a process?
The process in many organizations is to “pass it off to another person” and hope they can take the issue and resolve it to the customers delight. They PUNT!
The sad part is that we…the CUSTOMER…now expect this to be the “norm” inside most organizations. Have you ever called a support line with an issue and immediately asked to speak to a supervisor because you know you will probably end up there anyway so you might as well start there? We all have…it’s what we, as customers, have been trained to do because employees PUNT.
Have you ever had a situation when talking to a company where you explained your situation and the person couldn’t solve your issue…so they PUNTED to the next level…then you had to explain your situation all over again…and they PUNTED…and you had to explain it once again to another person at another level in a different department? We all have…and with each “hand off” we get more anxious, more upset, more frustrated, and more inclined to tell our friends how terrible this company is at handling their customers.
Employees have their scripts, their policies and procedures that tell them if anything happens outside of this I have to PUNT to the next level and let the next level deal with the issue. While this might be a great INTERNAL SOLUTION it isn’t a great CUSTOMER SOLUTION. It doesn’t win you any points with the customer or the experience they are having with your company.
One thing that does happen when this cycle occurs…the customer remembers this and so the next time they try to bypass this system and go directly to the supervisor. They also tell all their friends how to get past your system and go directly to the supervisor to get anything resolved. The customer learns quickly and they build their own process to avoid your process of PUNTING.
Let me share with you a different approach to this issue…one that will DIFFERENTIATE your company and give you a clear COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE in your industry.
PURPOSE…give your employees a sense of PURPOSE rather than more detailed policies and procedures. Give them THE REASON and THE AUTHORITY to handle the customer the way the customer would want them to handle their situation.
When employees know they can solve a problem and become resourceful, both you and the customer win…and the employee is much happier because they solved a problem and got positive feedback while doing it.
Take any world-class company that is known for delivering an awesome customer experience and their employees have PURPOSE…they understand their true role and they have AUTHORITY to deliver an awesome experience to their customers.
DISNEY is one of these companies…their employees are focused on delivering “happiness” to their guests in everything they do…regardless of their role. You can see it every day in every employee…they act knowing their PURPOSE is to deliver an awesome experience. There are thousands of situations that come up every day throughout all of the Disney properties that aren’t in any manual or policy…yet they get solved and the customer leaves saying WOW. These solutions and processes can’t be captured or documented…the employee has to feel they have the authority and empowerment from leadership to do what they feel is the best outcome for the customer.
ZAPPOS does the same thing…there are no supervisors to PUNT to in their system. Their employees have full AUTHORITY to solve an issue or determine the best way to help a customer. They have the authority to deliver WOW in every interaction with every customer…no supervisors to go to, just the employees. They also don’t measure the statistics others measure…they measure WOW…how can I make our customers happier than when they first called. This is their PURPOSE and every employee knows it when they work there or they don’t work there.
NORDSTROM, especially in the earlier days, hired employees and gave them the same PURPOSE…deliver the most incredible and memorable experience to the customer. It didn’t matter if the customer was going to spend $100 or $10,000, they were going to make them feel special and like the most important person. And every customer going into their stores knew they were going to get this treatment and knew they were paying more for their products…but it didn’t matter. The employees had a PURPOSE to deliver this experience to every customer and with every interaction…and customers told everyone else where it soon became their brand.
There is one common thread that runs through all these companies…THEY HIRE THE RIGHT EMPLOYEES WITH THE RIGHT ATTITUDE. This is their common thread…their employees. TOTALLY AWESOME CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES CAN’T BE DELIVERED WITHOUT THE RIGHT EMPLOYEES. These successful companies don’t want employees that are always asking what to do or afraid of doing the wrong thing or looking to PUNT…they hire employees that are creative and have a passion for serving their customers. Having the right employees is critical to having a PURPOSE DRIVEN organization work.
I’ve just given you a very POWERFUL FORMULA to create incredible success and a COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE for your company. Three things you can take away from this and incorporate into your own organization to help you become even more successful than you are today…
- DEFINE YOUR PURPOSE…make sure your purpose is crystal clear so every employee and customer understand and get it…focused on delivering an awesome customer experience…every day.
- HIRE EMPLOYEES WITH ATTITUDE…get people on board who have the right attitude rather than aptitude…can’t train attitude but you can train aptitude…to get to this level you absolutely, positively need the right attitude.
- LET THEM RUN AND BE THEMSELVES…if you followed step one and two above, now let them be them…their attitude, with your purpose, will give them the authority to deliver some absolutely amazing things to your customers.
When these three things are working, you get massive WORD-OF-MOUTH and your BEST MARKETING is now being done by your MOST POWERFUL SPOKESPERSON…your CUSTOMER. Companies that follow this today will find themselves being differentiated and the envy of their competitors. Are you ready to make this happen in your organization? If so, and you want to understand how this all comes together, let’s chat and I can give you some additional insights to help you move forward in this direction. It’s a wonderful place to be…just ask Disney, Zappos, Nordstrom, and a host of other incredibly successful companies that follow this recipe.
