Engaging your team
Engaging your team - CCF magazine, June 2007
If outstanding customer service is a must for successful businesses today, it’s also one of the biggest challenges they face. The last decade has seen a growing trend in educating staff within the workplace, as part of a conscious effort made by employers to improve their employees’ customer service skills to the best possible standard.
Many companies focus these efforts on enhancing the product knowledge and soft skills of their staff, but the intangible element that actually makes for successful customer interaction comes down to one thing: employee engagement.
The employees who are tuned into and passionate about what they do, will be the ones who will deliver the best experiences.
The most iconic brands around today are not defined by the product or the level of service they are associated with. They succeed because their customer’s experience of them is one that is special and which they can appreciate, enjoy and remember. And we all know the rest of the story: If a customer is more than happy with the service they receive from a company, then they will more than likely use the company again. Furthermore, they will recommend it to others, thus enhancing the company’s reputation.
However, if a customer is dissatisfied they will more than likely not use the company again and they will also tell others about their bad experience, thus damaging the reputation of the company. Hence employee engagement is vital to the survival of a business.
Despite its significance to a company, ‘employee engagement’ is often fatally overlooked by employers because, traditionally, organisations are used to teach people to do things - and attitude is something that cannot be taught. I can use the most effective methods of training to provide colleagues with the knowledge and skills they need to understand and deliver this, but if this is all I do, it is very unlikely that my customers will notice any difference.
A great customer experience can only be delivered by someone who wants to give it. A greater knowledge and understanding of a company, does not necessarily make you care any more about it. You need more.
Employers can only achieve employee engagement by tapping into their emotions and getting staff fired up about the product or service they are offering. This is such an integral aspect to the running of a successful business, that many advanced companies even have in-house teams dedicated to motivation.
Creating learning programmes that address employees’ attitudes and emotions, as well as their knowledge and skills is essential. These should include blended learning courses, incorporating face-to-face interaction with virtual computer based training and group-based, action learning. Action learning is a chance for employees to get together and relate what they have learnt in their day-to-day tasks, thus creating numerous opportunities for individuals to actively engage with the challenge. This blend of learning offers a ‘best of both’ alternative to the traditional interactive classroom sessions and the virtual e-learning programmes. Both approaches have clear benefits, and by amalgamating them we offer training that combines vital face-to-face interaction and feedback, with the virtual flexibility of learning anytime, anywhere and at an individual’s own pace.
Try following these six key rules to help your employees become, and stay, truly engaged.
Start at the end.
The objective of any training is for employees to gain experience that enables them to provide better levels of service. The first thing to do is to understand the fundamentals of that experience – what it looks and feels like and how to make the experience real for the people who are learning how to deliver it. For example, in O2 contact centres, addressing customer retention, started with the experiences that led customers to make the decision to stay and the ways in which customer service advisors knew that they could create this experience. Engaging more of them with its delivery led to a phenomenal increase in retention rates.
Infect
The second step is essentially a cascade effect within a company. It takes the notion that people are influenced by their peers and immediate managers, far more than they are influenced by their trainers. Therefore, it is important for managers to take some of the responsibility for really involving the staff involved and recognising the individuals who have already taken the training on board. Managers can then equip them to engage others by making them part of the process.
An example of this can be seen in the ‘Above & Beyond’ recognition scheme at the centre for Camelot, the operators of the UK national lottery. The training objective was to equip managers to promote the tangible recognition of employees who demonstrated role model behaviours in line with the organisation’s brand and values.
The scheme helped to strengthen Camelot’s performance management system by giving employees a better understanding of how their work fits in with the strategic aims of their business. It also helped managers asses how well employees performed against clearly defined goals.
Recognise and reinforce
‘ Above & Beyond’ also offers a clear example of this step, taking heed of the idea that positive attitudes spread very quickly when there is overt recognition of people who do the right thing. The Camelot scheme allows managers to offer immediate rewards to staff who demonstrate their behaviours in practice and since the launch in September 2005, nearly 500 ‘Above & Beyond’ awards have been made. A survey has since shown that more staff now think their manager gives credit where credit was due.
Demand pull
This step describes the need to generate interest and promoting curiosity about what staff can do to give a great customer experience. Through this, you can open people’s minds to the kind of learning they need. Remember: people will only learn if they want to learn.
Active, not passive
People will only engage with a subject if they are able to take actions and feel in control. Take advantage of the numerous opportunities for involvement and interaction blended learning provides.
“A little piece of me”
This final step works on the idea that there is no formula for making the customer experience happen. Allowing everyone, at every level, to play some part in shaping the way it can be delivered makes each individual employee feel valued and gives them a sense of importance.
This is vital, because if your staff feel valued and understand how they are helping the customer, they will be more inclined to do so effectively. For example, a brand engagement initiative at InterContinental Hotels and Resorts gave staff at all levels within the organisation an experience in which they not only developed an understanding passion for what the brand – they also made decisions for themselves about what this meant for them in their day-to-day roles.
Employee engagement is essential for creating the ultimate customer experience and, while there is no one easy step to achieving this, the benefits to the company and brand of an engaged team are endless.