Mr. Hanks

Guest Service / Customer Experience Mgmt

How Employee Satisfaction Can Improve Customer Service

By Richard D. Hanks, Chairman and President, Mindshare Technologies

All businesses depend on employees to deliver quality service. For most businesses, improving customer service levels is more important than providing a good product. It is wise to remember Sam Walton's famous adage, "There is only one boss, the customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else."

Research clearly shows a link between employee performance and customer satisfaction. Put in the reverse, your customer satisfaction level accurately reflects your employees' performance. Thus, who better than your customers to let you know how effective your internal processes are at providing the appropriate levels of customer service?

How then, does a company improve employee performance? By measuring it. Businesses that are effective at monitoring and modifying employee behavior will be able to enhance customer satisfaction. According to Bill Gates, "Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning."

Good employees want to be held accountable. According to Cornell's School of Hotel Administration, an employee's sense of purpose within the company is a key factor in providing excellent service. An effective employee measurement program will allow customers to comment on individual employee performance, which gives the employee an objective measurement of their service delivery. In turn, managers can then fine-tune training to the individual employee, making them much more effective at their job and giving them a clear sense of purpose.

At Mindshare we provide automated customer feedback across more than 20 service industries, which gives us a front-row seat to a wide range of customers' perceptions of service. For example, let's take "Chatty Cathy" case in the Salon industry. It's a fact that many people go to the barbershop or beauty salon for two main reasons: (1) Get a haircut, and (2) engage in pleasant conversation with a stylist. A talkative, chatting stylist fits this need exactly. But some of us just want to be left alone. A haircut is a time of thoughtful contemplation about ... well, nothing. How do the truly great salon companies use this need to their advantage? They note the customer's preference each time they visit, and then meet those expectations. Some even go so far as to ask the customer if "he or she feels like talking today?"

In Mindshare's experience, the practical application of improving customer service is fairly simple:

(1) Find out what customers want

(2) Develop a way to give it to them

(3) Monitor delivery to make sure they're receiving it (e.g. real-time customer surveys)

(4) Make adjustments to improve operational execution. (e.g. immediate training or process changes)

Here's another recorded example from the hotel industry: "I needed to send a fax, and arrived at your Business Center one minute before closing. As I walked up to the center, fax in hand, your employee locked the glass door, looked at his watch, shrugged his shoulders and mouthed, 'Sorry, I have a date." With additional training, this associate was taught not to let what is convenient for him personally take precedence over what is convenient for the customer.

Multiple research studies have shown that measuring employee performance drives revenue and profitability. Continuous measurement helps individual employees overcome weakness, emphasize their strengths, gain a sense of direction, and know what's expected of them. According to research by Gallup, employees who have clear, well-defined expectations about their roles are more successful. All of which will lead to loyal customers and repeat business.

Take for example this feedback example from the airline industry: "My flight was delayed and we were stuck on the ground for 3 hours. The attendants didn't provide any snacks or drinks and I got 4 different stories for the delay from 4 different attendants. I understand things happen, but your passengers deserve to be treated with respect when they do." The airline incorporated this feedback into their training and quickly corrected the service lapse.

This airline example is particularly relevant in light of the Jet Blue's recent operations breakdown that led to more than 1,000 canceled flights. Although flight analysts and public relations experts have praised Jet Blue's CEO, David Neeleman, for his handling of the debacle (The next morning he appeared on national news shows, apologized profusely and unveiled a Customer Bill of Rights), it would have benefited Jet Blue much more had they fixed the operational problems that led to the meltdown.

Although many customer and employee feedback approaches exist, to be truly useful, any feedback solution must offer:

Real-Time Capabilities:

An effective feedback solution should deliver real-time, employee performance information while the experience is still fresh in their minds, and useful. You can't afford to wait days or weeks to fix operational problems or to implement suggestions.

Must be Continuous:

A one-time snapshot of your product delivery is not overly useful. But a continual "finger on the pulse" can capture the operational issues that need to be improved. Daily monitoring is required in order to effect continuous change.

Share the Information:

Every employee must know what customers are experiencing. An effective feedback solution should provide reports that are easily accessible on the web, at all levels in the organization.

Drive Action:

Even real-time, continuous feedback is no good unless you take action. Improve employee performance by listening to your employees and also your customers. Respond to their needs. Involve them in solutions.

Now, taking the above into consideration, let's look at another example from a fine- dining restaurant chain. This restaurant was experiencing individual service lapses. Management wanted a way to measure and monitor employee service delivery and to involve the customer in constructing better service. Examples from verbatim customer voice recordings at the time of service included:

Real-time customer feedback enabled this restaurant to make immediate changes to poor operational practices. For example, clams sink to the bottom of the pot, if not stirred frequently. New servers ignorant to this fact were serving bowls of chowder without any clams. The restaurant adjusted its training program to include teaching servers to stir the clam chowder before serving individual bowls, thereby solving the problem. In addition, the restaurant was able to effect immediate service-lapse recovery by contacting the affected customers, explaining the situation, and inviting them to return for a complimentary meal. Thus the restaurant's customers became performance coaches for front-line staff, leading to customer retention and increased profits.

As the management guru, Peter Drucker, puts in, "Quality in a service or product is not what you put into it. It is what the client or customer gets out of it." The best product or service will fall flat on its face in light of bad customer service. The dog-eat-dog business landscape is hard enough without handing customers over to your competitors. Remember what acclaimed business trainer Kate Zabriskie said, "Although your customers won't love you if you give bad service, your competitors will."

There is a cause-and-effect relationship between great customer service and a loyal customer base. Great customer service must come first, and monitoring customer experience is a crucial step in building loyal, effective, and performance-oriented employees.

Richard D. Hanks is President of Mindshare Technologies. Mr. Hanks has been a senior executive of several Fortune 500 companies and several start-up ventures. He is on boards of corporations, universities, and foundations. His experience spans multiple industries and disciplines, including as an adjunct professor at Cornell. He is a teacher/speaker at trade, academic, and professional gatherings. He is also the author of "Delivering and Measuring Customer Service". He obtained his bachelor's degree from Brigham Young University and his MBA from Northwestern University. Mr. Hanks can be contacted at 801-263-2333 or rhanks@mshare.net Extended Bio...

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