If you want your customer service to be improved, you have to get more out of your employees—more desire, more commitment, more responsibility in resolving problems and finding resolutions.
How to you get more from your employees? Well, to start with, stop handling them as dispensable, or just numbers on your payroll. The challenge is to treat your employees the same way you would treat your customers. You need to interact with them just like you would with your top clients.
Let’s look at some ways you can treat your employees better—and improve your customer service.
Show Your Employees Compassion
As an employer, you can’t expect an employee to display friendliness and compassion to your customers if you’re inhibiting your employees’ time for unforeseen childcare issues, if you’re timing their breaks to the bathroom, and so forth. Many employers strongly believe compassion should have no place in the business world today. While some managers fear that displaying too much compassion could be perceived as a sign of weakness, others think pressure—not compassion—is the only approach to keep employees busy.
Nurturing a compassionate atmosphere within the workplace, which strives to reduce adversity and increase relationships, functions as a win-win situation for everybody. An employee who is shown compassion by their employers will be more willing to show their customers compassion.
Allow Employee Involvement
To whatever point employees are restricted in what they need to get done, at least involve them in how it is done. Allow them to use their own style when it comes to phone support, emails or how they layout their workspace. When it comes to the macro level of the company, include them in decisions that will affect their work, because who knows the work more than the employees who do it every day?
Employee empowerment and involvement directly increases productivity. Employees who are allowed to be involved in all aspects of their job, adopt a stronger work ethos, and in turn this will improve customer service.
Celebrate and Praise Your Employees
Keep a look out for incidences when your employees are successful and acknowledge it. Many employees receive no recognition from their employers when they excel in something. When you praise people’s achievements openly in the workplace, it sends a message to your employees that they work in a place that wants to see them develop and grow.
When employers recognize and praise their employees for a job well done, this makes them feel respected, worthy and motivated, which ultimately effects how customers feel about them.
Train, Empower and Guide Your Employees
Investing in each one of your employees has a progressive return on investment. The more you coach them into reaching their full potential, the more they will feel valued and respected. Consequently, they will do exactly the same for your customers. As an employer, you are accountable for creating a culture of development and continued growth. Training and growth should not be a one-time occurrence—it should be continuous.
Your employees should always be treated as valued members of your team, never as dispensable cogs in the wheel. By treating your employees well, you will start to see service and commitment from the heart. As a result, your employees will care more about your business and the customers they serve.
About the Author
Stephen Pritchard writes for Adzuna, the search engine for job ads. Adzuna searches thousands of websites and brings together millions of ads so you can find every job, everywhere. Adzuna provides smarter search options and powerful data about the job market, giving you the information you need to take control of your career.
