Developing a Great Team and Great Customer Service

Drawing on his background as an occupational psychologist, Paul Gallichan-Todd has worked in training and development for 10 years. Vastly experienced in customer service and leadership training, Paul is the founder of Capricorn Coaching Ltd.

Here he offers some tips on how business owners can get the best from their workforce.  

Developing a Great Team for Great Customer Service

Anyone who manages an organisation or team offering a service wants to know how to start or continue to deliver great customer service. Yet even if our staff know what to do, it doesn't always happen. Worse still, we can have the impression of having told them several times, yet it still doesn't happen.

Tackling the mountain of expectations

Almost all customer expectations are reasonable. We would expect no less ourselves.

However, businesses, or rather, people, consistently fall down in some areas. Consider honestly how well you do in the following areas.

Failing to consider the impact of poor or ‘non’-service

You will almost certainly have experienced this personally. An example is the garage who calls at 4pm to inform you that they won’t repair your car as expected. For them, it’s just another car. To you, it’s that crucial interview you just cannot be late for, the dentist appointment you waited weeks for, or your daughter who cannot be collected from school.

It’s stress, it's hassle, it's extra cost. You wanted service, not hassle.

Does this happen in your business? What is the impact on your customers and the reputation that spreads? How well do your staff manage customer expectations in such circumstances?

Never judge until you've walked a mile in their moccasins

One study found that 94% of customers did not make formal complaints (ie the silent ones who never come back. Are you one of them?) Your staff must understand the impact of poor or ‘non-service' on your customers. Once your team has grasped this, you can help them to find better solutions.

You may have encountered the IBM research which found that we learn best from experience, rather than being told or shown. In which case, to ensure your team really does understand the impact of their actions, get them first to consider problems when they are customers. Find out what the pain was – was it cost, hassle, time or something else? Then get them to identify when your customers have the same experience. The logical progression from here is to coach and give feedback on how well your team delivers service.

Poor feedback

Here are the four top complaints about feedback, both from staff and managers:

• Too vague (“what can I do differently?”)
• Too negative (“I feel attacked and certainly won’t go the extra mile for you.”)
• Too positive (excess feedback diminishes value, plus “what can I do to improve further?”)
• None (“You don’t care about me – plus I have no idea how I’m doing.”)

Do you need to know how you’re performing? Almost everyone does. It could be from your manager, your performance, the board, etc. Consider also that if you fail to provide feedback: "The void created by the failure to communicate is soon filled with poison, drivel and misrepresentation." (C. Northcote Parkinson)

Feedback to move forward

Spend time with your team. It sounds banal, but simple is powerful. Beware the trap that we can fall into: spending most of your time with the best and worst performers. Whilst this is logical, your team might be split by 20% top performers, 70% in the middle and 10% at the bottom. If you spend 70% of your time with the extremes, something is wrong.

Focus on the 70% in the middle: the solid performers who never complain, who just get on with the work, are rarely off sick: the backbone of your business. Yet you spend more time with the extreme performers. So go and talk to the 70%. You will make more impact on them than you know. I have many anecdotes where staff recalled feedback from directors and managers years after the event.

A quick reminder on ingredients of effective feedback: honest, factual, constructive, timely.

Beyond that, there is a danger of charging in with our perceptions and judgements – only to be met by a wall of negativity. The manager consequently complains that the team member is not receptive to feedback. Step back. If you watched ‘Hell’s Kitchen’, there is a lesson there. We initially see how the team struggles to deliver great or effective service.

However, on almost every occasion, Gordon Ramsay focuses his efforts on getting the manager to change how they do things. Ask them how they think they are doing and, of course, have some solid evidence about their performance.

The manager gets the team (s)he deserves. So if you’re not helping your team to perform, how do you expect them to be motivated to perform and go the extra mile? It’s that 70% of your business where you can arguably make most impact.

Conclusion:

We have focused on ensuring that you give your team appropriate feedback and that you and your team consciously consider the impact of ‘non-delivery’ on your customers. It is critical to remember that ‘the customer’s perception…is your reality’. Remember that your staff are your customers too: what is their perception right now?

© 2015 Capricorn Coaching Ltd.