If you are anything like me, you probably hate it when a service issue arises. I get irritated when I have to call or visit customer service. Why? For some reason, you are often left trying to explain your situation to someone who seems extremely disinterested in their job. Many people who work in this position often lack the motivation to do their job. I completely understand that this is their job and they are expected to perform their responsibilities if they wish to get paid. However, management can help prevent the lack of motivation by empowering their employees.
Many companies give their employees rules to abide by and then have them to rehearse what answers to give if a particular situation happens. I guarantee you that these instruction manuals do not cover every scenario that is bound to occur. There are always exceptions to the rule, so why not give your employees the power to deviate from the script in order to right a wrong?
Companies often boast of wanting to hire the “best and brightest”, but often do not trust their employees enough to think for themselves in resolving minor service issues that fall outside of the manual. Many arguments could be avoided if companies fostered an environment that encouraged employees to truly take ownership of their positions.
I witnessed the following scene take place at a department store:
A woman at the store grabbed a shirt off the rack that was clearly marked as a sales rack. She went to the register to check out and was informed by the sales associate that the shirt was regular price. An employee had put the sales sign on the wrong rack.
How would you go about resolving this situation? Obviously, this mistake was not the customer’s fault and this scenario was probably not addressed in the manual. Clearly, common sense would be to honor the price stated on the rack. The department store did eventually honor the price—ten minutes later—only after the sales associate got her manager and the sales associate’s manager went and got his manager involved. An employee should not have to go through several layers of management to okay a simple price change. Sure there are times when it is imperative that management get involved, but this was clearly not one of them. The main reason why this sales associate did not take initiative to solve this problem on her own is because she was afraid of the repercussions she would face from management.
Customers should not have to be punished for mistakes made by the company. By allowing employees the power to make decisions on their own will result in a favorable outcome for both parties. The company will more than likely become apart of a customer’s evoked set because they will remember how this store demonstrated that they respect their customers by owning up to their mistakes and resolving discrepancies in a timely manner. The company will win because customers will share their experience with others. Employees will win because they do not have to be a robot anymore. They will welcome the opportunity to use their mind to solve challenges that are certain to arise. Having the power to solve problems on their own will increase an employee’s ability to take on more responsibilities and they will feel confident and more inclined to do so.
Think how many arguments could be avoided if management encouraged their employees to take ownership of their position. After all, companies hire people they deem are capable of meeting their requirements—so why not give them the power to effectively do their job?
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=1998d510-3e26-4dec-925d-6ea39b5d45f1)
PDF
Related posts:
AWESOME post LaTosha! It's amazing what an impact NOT empowering your employees can have on something like customer service. Imagine if that's how you try to standout in the marketplace. Something like what you saw would be pretty damaging to your competitive differentiator!
If you want an example of a company that gets employee empowerment right, check out Zappos. They have one mission: Delight their customers. Employees do all sorts of things never authorized in a manual to achieve this - finding products they're out of at competitor sites, sending flowers and cards when people are having a bad day, etc.
Again, great post!
- spam
- offensive
- disagree
- off topic
Like