Your most important assets are not your customers or your employees. It’s how your customers and your employees feel about your company. Your success as a manager is directly proportional to your ability to simultaneously drive customer satisfaction and employee engagement. Happy employees are willing to go out of their way for their customers. And when your customers feel cared for, they will return. You cannot satisfy customers with disinterested employees. Start there first. So what can you do to make sure your employees are engaged? As a first step, start by asking at least one employee these two questions every day:
What are you listening? You can’t even begin to satisfy customers until you eliminate all potential dissatisfied within your experience. The American Customer Satisfaction Index found that response rates for electronic surveys averaged between 5% and 15%. So if surveys are your sole source of feedback, at most, you personally know 15% of all your customers’ distress. If you interact with customers while monitoring employees, you may meet 20-50% of your customer dissatisfied. But your Associates know 100% of their clients’ complaints and concerns because their clients report to them every day. So find out what they are hearing and take action to systematically eliminate potential discontents.
What can I do for you? Jan Carlzon, former CEO of SAS Airlines and author of the book Moments of Truth, said, “If you’re not serving the customer, your job is to serve someone who is.” To serve the customer, your employees need the empowerment, tools, and resources to care for their customers. Without the tools and resources, they won’t feel empowered to resolve complaints or answer customer questions. As much as you want your employees to meet the needs of your customers, you must serve your employees to meet theirs. So, at the end of every employee conversation, whether in a group setting or a one-on-one conversation, ask, “What can I do for you?” Listen and then act on their suggestions. Take every suggestion seriously, no matter how small you may think it may be. If they mentioned it to you, it’s a GREAT DEAL for them. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have said anything. And if it’s a BIG DEAL for them, it should be a BIG DEAL for you. Whether or not you can implement your suggestion, always contact the individual employee who offered the suggestion personally. It will reinforce your perception that you are committed to their success, as well as to the satisfaction of your customers.
The biggest complaint of employees from their managers and supervisors is a lack of communication. Ask these two questions every day to generate a flow of ideas to continually improve the customer and employee experience. Then act on the feedback you receive to drive engagement and empower your employees to provide exceptional service that your customers will enthuse with you and others.
