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The View from the Front LineEmployees who deal directly with the public are valuable players in building a customer-focused organization. Their potential, however, is often overlooked. Only a tiny fraction of customer complaints and suggestions ever reaches top management's attention. To tap this motherlode of suggestions and ideas, companies must set up processes to make internal communication easier - and they must invite front-line employees to pass along what they hear. That's been the goal of Blue Mountain Resorts, a ski resort about two hours north of Toronto. President Gordon Canning and his vice-presidents regularly run meetings with front-line employees to ask: "What are our customers telling you?" The feedback is recorded and posted on bulletin boards for all to see. Issues and opportunities that arise from these meetings are put on management meeting agendas and relentlessly tracked until they've been acted upon or proved unworkable. Input can come from many sources: from busboys noticing uneaten food (they're expected to ask the customer why); or from bar servers receiving repeated requests for a particular snack that's unavailable. These steps have improved customer satisfaction dramatically - to the extent that Mr. Canning got a standing ovation from the resort's members at the annual meeting. Vancouver-based Finning Ltd. is another company that has taken the opportunity to involve front-line people in eliciting customer feedback. Finning, the world's largest Caterpillar dealer, has implemented a complaint management system that makes employees the eyes and ears of the organization. "We're located in a number of small communities across Western Canada," explains Ron Clark, general manager of branch operations. "Many of our customers are friends with our employees. They play ball and drink beer together. "In the past, when customers mentioned a service or equipment problem, most employees couldn't do much more than show some empathy or apologize for it. Now we've given them a process to bring those problems forward and have them dealt with." Once a particular complaint is voiced, it is recorded and added to a data base that pinpoints deeper problems in processes or systems that need attention. In any company, front-line employees are not just important sources of customer feedback - they play direct roles in raising satisfaction. Research consistently shows that customer and employee satisfaction are intertwined. You seldom find happy customers being served by unhappy employees. It doesn't take an organization psychologist to figure that out. Customer service, especially service that delights and astounds, is voluntary. Employees decide whether to follow strict company policy or make a little exception for a customer's unique circumstances. They can decide whether to call customers by name, or treat them as more files to be managed, more calls to be handled, more mouths to be fed. Going the extra step to take care of an unusual request is often optional. The degree to which employees make those decisions in favour of the customer depends upon the environment they are working in. Other articles by this author »
About Jim Clemmer
Jim Clemmer Originally appeared in Jim's column in The Globe & Mail. Jim Clemmer is a bestselling author and internationally acclaimed keynote speaker, workshop/retreat leader, and management team developer on leadership, change, customer focus, culture, teams, and personal growth. During the last 25 years he has delivered over two thousand customized keynote presentations, workshops, and retreats. Jim's five international bestselling books include The VIP Strategy, Firing on All Cylinders, Pathways to Performance, Growing the Distance, and The Leader's Digest. His web site is http://www.clemmer.net/articles Related
And here is another random article you might be interested in... Cultural Awareness - an HR perspectiveThe use of cultural awareness training has increased rapidly in the majority of global companies over the last decade. My experience working in global companies in which effective cross-cultural functioning was critical, involved the devotion of considerable time and energies to ensuring that cultural training needs were identified and accommodated as necessary. This commitment to bridging cultural gaps represents a perceptible shift in attitudes amongst British company global thinking. This is a shift from the prevalent subconscious (and sometimes not so subconscious) driver, which existed in previous years. Thinking typically held that the way in which the West did business was the norm to which to strive and that non-western citizens should assimilate into our own particular mode of cultural thinking as opposed to vice versa. Little effort was truly made to understand the cultural differences between countries. This thinking was gradually moulded and changed by the realities of the failure of such thinking â€" including ineffective team functioning, lack of productivity and general dissatisfaction amongst cross culturally functioning staff. It also become apparent that the financial costs of failed cross-cultural initiatives could be readily assessed and had a tangible impact on the financial bottom line. It is also interesting to note that the view that cultural awareness is unnecessary within other western groups has also changed. Commonality of language can sometimes be an impediment as opposed to an advantage as it disguises the differences of thinking and approach, which may underlie whole strands of business practice. When dealing with countries with obvious 'differences' in respect to language, religion, values and behaviours etc., then individuals more readily accept the need to understand the motivations of the other party. When multicultural differences arise between western groups however, conflict within approach is often attributed to the 'ineptness' / 'stubbornness' of the other party. When such attitudes become ingrained within teams, then self fulfilling prophecy may kick in and poor relationships become the norm â€" affecting productivity and hence financial gain. Recent experiences of running cultural awareness sessions for a UK team dealing on a regular basis with the US proved invaluable to overcoming a number of issues which had become entrenched into the operating behaviours of the teams. The sessions heightened awareness within the team of operating differences and helped to generate an understanding of why these differences existed within the groups. It also presented the teams with an opportunity to understand the potential frustrations that their US colleagues may have had with their UK peers in respect to their own personal approach to managing meetings, negotiations, making decisions, resolving issues etc. Involvement in awareness programmes across a range of diverse issues is proving invaluable in resolving numerous poor performances in international business and in enhancing day to day HR practices; for example:
Clearly from an HR, and hence a business perspective, cultural awareness has been critical to the success of global companies with the progression of strong acceptance within businesses for the need to enhance cultural awareness through diverse cultural interventions. Other articles by this author »
About N.A. Johnson
N.A. Johnson was an HR consultant for many years with the world's leading global companies. She now works freelance as a consultant on HR issues. This article was written for www.kwintessential.co.uk Related
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