Are your supervisors creating service problems?

"Praise in public, reprimand in private" is a business maxim that almost everyone has heard of. I witnessed a prime example of why this is true while enjoying a light breakfast in a bakery last week.

My morning serenity was shattered by a loud, piercing voice coming from behind the bakery counter. It caught my attention and I looked up to see a woman who appeared to be a supervisor addressing three other employees.

“This is the second ticket mess-up! Ladies, this ticket has been sitting here for five minutes! Please be careful!”

Her words, tone, and demeanor were all unpleasant and all the customers in the bakery were staring as her employees shirked away from her verbal tirade.

My breakfast was suddenly much less enjoyable. 

The obvious point to this story is it is never a good idea to reprimand an employee in public unless someone is in immediate physical danger. However, I’m willing to bet that even the screeching supervisor would know this if you removed her from the heat of the moment.

So, why did she do it anyway?

It's hard to know her specific motivations, but if I owned the bakery I certainly wouldn't want to see this type of behavior from one of my supervisors. 

Business leaders and owners need to do three things to make sure their supervisors are effectively representing the business and not becoming the source of poor customer service.

Assess job fit. People often get promoted because they are really good at their job, but leading others is a completely different skill set. Business leaders need to make sure their supervisors have what it takes to effectively lead other people. If the bakery owner hired a supervisor who doesn't have the make-up to do that job then I blame the bakery owner, not the supervisor.

Reduce pressure. Supervisors are expected to handle pressure, but everybody has their breaking point. When business owners cut costs, they can sometimes leave their supervisors feeling like they are trying to put out a blazing house fire with a squirt bottle. Business leaders need to make sure they provide the resources necessary to get the job done. 

Supervise the supervisor. Supervisors are entrusted with a lot of responsibility, but they are employees too. They need coaching, guidance, and support like everyone else. If the bakery owner is never around to see and correct poor behavior, it’s likely that the supervisor will make a habit of yelling at employees in front of customers.

Co-workers have high expectations for email response times

Nearly 75% of us expect co-workers to respond to emails within four hours or less, according to a recent survey conducted by Toister Performance Solutions, Inc. Almost 25% of respondents are particularly impatient, saying the expected co-workers to respond to emails within one hour. 

We give businesses a little more time to respond than our co-workers. The majority of survey respondents (63%) indicated they expected business to respond to their emails within one day.

The survey also tried to see if different generations of workers had different expectations for email response times. Expectations across all generations were similar for businesses, but Gen Ys (born 1978 or later) tended to expect faster response times from their co-workers. Nearly 35% of Gen Y respondents said they expected co-workers to respond to their emails within one hour:

The survey also asked how quickly people expected their friends to respond to emails. Here, there was a bit more leeway with more than 90% of the respondents saying 1 day or later.

What are your impressions?
Our expectations for response times clearly have some implications on customer service, both external (emailing businesses) or internal (emailing co-workers). Your thoughts and comments are most welcome.

Why winning awards is good for business

The range of awards businesses can win is pretty expansive, from company awards like “Best Place to Work” to “Customer Service Champion”. As a Chairman of one of these awards committees and a past award winner, I can tell that winning awards can be very good for business.

External Marketing
Awards are great marketing tools. They can add credibility to your sales pitch or just give you something new to share with your customers.

My company has been recognized as a Champion of Learning by the American Society for Training and Development. This award was fairly easy to win since it wasn’t a competition, but rather recognition for supporting Employee Learning Week. Nonetheless, I can accurately tell my clients that Toister Performance Solutions, Inc. is a Champion of Learning. If it comes down to a choice between a Champion and an also-ran, you can bet that clients are going to hire the Champ.

Internal Recognition
Departments and teams within companies often have to work hard to get the resources and executive level support they need to be successful. Awards are a great way to shine the spotlight on what your team is doing and rally the whole company around your initiatives.

I currently chair a committee called PEAK that recognizes companies in the San Diego community for best practices in employee training and development. Many of the past winners have their trophy proudly displayed in their offices so visitors will see that they’ve been recognized for outstanding achievement.

Some of my readers may be interested in applying for the 2011 PEAK Award. You can access more information and an application here.

Benchmarking
Awards are often built around best practices or industry standards. Applying for an award can help an organization discover success stories, identify opportunities for improvement, and motivate the company or team to reach for new levels of performance.

Many awards also provide applicants with feedback, so you gain valuable insight even if your organization doesn’t win. For example, applicants for the 2011 PEAK Award will get pointers from the panel of judges on how to make their employee training initiatives even more effective.

Ready to Apply?
Applying for an award is usually fairly easy. Here are three steps to get you started.

1. Pick a topic or focus area that is important to your business or department. For example, if you want to be a customer service leader then find awards that focus on customer service.
2. Search for relevant awards. A simple internet search will get you started. You may also want to ask colleagues, trade groups, customers, and suppliers for suggestions.
3. Apply!

Survey: how quickly should people respond to email?

Chances are pretty good that you send a lot of emails. Please take a moment to complete a short survey to let us know how quickly you expect to receive a response.

Update on Monday, May 30. The survey is now closed, but you can view the results on my blog.

The final tally will be profiled in my email newsletter, the Monthly TPS Report, which is due out next week. The second question is designed to see if there are different expectations among age groups.

If you don't already receive the Monthly TPS Report, you can sign up to receive the newsletter by clicking here.

Do your employees know how to WOW?

Your employees may be good at customer service, but do they know how to consistently deliver outstanding service? Giving your customers the "WOW" factor takes a lot of practice and skill!

What is the WOW? The short answer is service that makes your customers say, "WOW!" It's memorable, it's positive, and it leads to repeat business and referrals.

There are only three ways I know to deliver WOW-worthy customer service:

• Build relationships to make customers feel special.
• Exceed expectations with extra service.
• Solve problems like a super hero.

Do your employees have the knowledge, skills, and ability to deliver WOW-worthy service all three ways? Here's a short assessment to help you start the conversation:

Building relationships: How do your employees typically interact with customers?

• Outstanding. Employees treat customers like old friends and know them by name.
• Good. Employees are polite and friendly.
• Poor. My employees need to take a smiling class.

Exceed expectations: You have to know what a customer wants if you plan to exceed their expectations on  regular basis. What do your employees do to learn their customers' expectations?

• Outstanding. Employees listen intently with both their hearts and minds.
• Good. Employees generally do a good job of understanding what the customer wants.
• Poor. My employees have too many of their own problems to care about what a customer wants.

Solve problems: Super hero problem-solvers identify the issue, spring into action, and save the day. What do your employees do when they observe a customer with a problem?

1. Outstanding. Employees find a way to leave the customer even happier than before.
2. Good. Employees generally solve the customer's problem.
3. Poor. My employees do whatever they can to avoid blame and responsibility.

OK, so now what? Chances are, there's a little room for improvement. In my next post, I'll share some suggestions on how you can quickly help your employees develop new skills at little or no cost. You can also drop me a line or give me a call at 619-955-7946 if you'd like to brainstorm at no cost and with no strings attached.