While all of the above are important (especially the part about having a brain), customer service must be empowered to deliver an exceptional customer experience. Let’s put things into context. Would you jump out of a perfectly good airplane without a parachute? Would you do it for $1,000,000? I hope not!

Would you jump if you had a parachute — just for enjoyment? Some would. Would you for $1,000,000? I would!

The point is this: Without the tools to “safely” carry out the job, rewards and recognition programs don’t work. This two-part series provides approaches to take to empower your service team, not with lip service, but with teeth. The 3 topics are:

- Be careful what you ask for
- Empowering the front-line
- Engaging the rest of the organization

In this first article, we cover the first two items.

Be Careful What You Ask For

Let’s talk about the role of metrics. Several years ago, I took over a Customer Care function and quickly learned that the team was being measured primarily on “production metrics.” We were doing very well on call answer time, abandonment rates and talk time. However, customers were telling me that they weren’t getting the necessary service.

We immediately made a shift to customer-focused metrics, and leveraged our “production” metrics as a 2^nd priority barometer. Over the course of the following 3 months, our customer satisfaction levels improved and I had fewer “suit meetings” to attend with unsatisfied customers.

Key principles:

- What is measured improves. Are you measuring operational efficiencies, production levels or the customer experience? All are important, but there is a balance…

- Metrics aren’t (only) about volumes. Focus on how effective you are and if you are getting better or worse (relative to volumes).

- To be effective, metrics must be compared and trended over time.

Following are metrics to consider for empowering customer service.

Empowering the Front-Line

One definition of empower is: To give authority to; to delegate power to; to commission; to authorize.

Below is a list of 6 common scenarios with the “don’ts” and “do’s” for each. How empowered are your Service Reps?

Key assumptions for you to make include:

- You hired competent, intelligent human beings with common-sense and good business judgment.
- Your Customer Service Representatives:
* Want to do the job they signed up for - “meeting or exceeding customer expectations.”
* Will make mistakes in YOUR “good name.”
* Are willing and able to learn, and can be coached.

In the second part of this series, we will discuss tips for engaging the rest of the organization to support in you in your support of the customer. If you’d like a further discussion of strategies for empowering customer service, feel free to contact us for a no-cost, no-obligation 30-minute consultation.

Part II