Doubling Down on trained customer facing teams, a cakewalk for business success

I woke up at 5 am to several hoots from my pick up for the Airport. Luckily, I was seated in the car headed for the Airport 20mins later as I was all packed the night before. A known fact is that those who live closest to the airports are often late for their flights; so true, I live 15mins from the Airport.

Got to the Airport went to the wrong terminal; the MM2 vs Old local terminal mix up for travellers from Lagos is an ongoing saga due to inadequate communication, so I went to the wrong terminal and spent an additional 14mins making the turn back to the right terminal as a result of traffic. P.S.: the federal airport management authority can generate revenue by enabling companies to advertise (billboards, social media, etc.) while messaging on what airlines run at what terminals to ensure clarity.

I got dropped off and went through the covid protocol check line uneventfully, and as?I walked through the doors, bam ?? the queue was long from the entrance to the counter at 6.15 am for a 7 am flight. I found a crew member for the airline I was flying and mentioned my flight time. He was flustered- "ma'am, the system is not working. We are checking people in manually". Shocked, I ask, what does that even mean? He goes, "there is a list, and they will call your name if you are travelling; please come forward so you can hear your name". At this point, I had developed cold feet took two physical steps backwards, and my first thought was if anything happened on this flight, there is no way of even confirming I was on it and at the same time thinking my drop off hasn't gone far, I need to call him back to ask if he can give me a ride back home.?

It must have been the look of consternation on my face and the uncertainty in my gait that caught the attention of a staff of the carrier, and he says, "can I help you, ma'am? Are you travelling this morning? do you have a ticket already? "I look up at where the voice came from and saw a face with a genuine interest in my situation, and I answered in the affirmative, then expressed my concerns as to the problem. He showed me his I.D. card and politely requested for and took down my booking reference on a tiny notepad, asked me to please wait where I was for a moment, then went to their back office and came back with my boarding pass in 5 minutes. He then explains that they just had a slight system glitch, and as such, they had gone to the queue to search out people on the 7 am flight so they wouldn't miss their flights. The names called out on the queue were for those booking references the airline staff previously collected and whose boarding passes had been pulled up to avoid flight delays or misses due to a temporary technical glitch at the front end. He assured me the backend was fine and all data available.?

I thanked him, went through the checks, and boarded the carrier. The journey was otherwise smooth and uneventful aside from the washroom door that seemed difficult to open from the inside, where I had to knock loudly to have the aircrew let me out ( my claustrophobic side came to play).?Sitting on that plane and reflecting on the initial experience from the first guy, the thoughts below popped up in my mind.

As SMEs, large businesses, MNCs and even nonprofits;

*how effective and detailed are your customer engagement strategies?

~ This situation presented to me as a crisis without a clear business continuity plan (BCP) was actually under control with the (BCP) deployed and an agile team strategically positioned at different levels to ensure the BCP is effective and any misses caught.?

?

* do you have the right people in your customer-facing teams trained on customer relationship management and communication in a crisis?

~ communication-in-a-crisis is a whole thing! The INSEAD business schools advanced management program has a very brilliant model for this as I attended courses that detailed the various steps needed to communicate in a situation that is turbulent. Remember, the experience is already a crisis, so an uncomfortable situation in itself for the customer/client. The two choices are;

a. worsen it with poor management of information, allowing the customer not only to leave but leave with tales to put other potential customers/clients off

or,

b. Own the situation with a strong communication strategy such that not only do you keep your customers and give them confidence, even if & when they decide to try other options, but they are also looking at the ability of your competition to manage crises relative to the standard you set.?

* do your teams have the capability to engage for customer success?

How much are you investing in building your teams? The cost on a company's reputation brought on by untrained customer-facing staff is always more than the cost of training.? An IBM study revealed that employees who feel they cannot develop and fulfil their career goals are 12 times more likely to leave. Additionally, training helps in a more short-term way by prepping employees to be more efficient in interacting with customers.

A trained employee can answer questions without going to a manager, and with training comes a greater understanding of the job, which leads to more efficient work and the ability to get along with management.?Conversely, untrained and unhappy employees who feel underutilized are more apt to become frustrated with their job and be less loyal to their company, meaning they will make more mistakes and fail to meet even minimum standards (most likely the situation with my first contact).?Management often assumes that providing training will lead to employees moving on to other companies, but this isn't true. With proper training, employees feel valued and are happier in their jobs, plus a job that comes with training will attract a higher class of candidates.

* How are you measuring your losses?

Loss is a major one, really; how you measure losses directly affects your performance- how sensitive to losses from zero, little or poor customer engagement are we? Is it an important metric, or do we move on? Are the losses quantified with loss bridges? Is there a map to zero loss? Is there a MOM,?Qtr on Qtr and YOY comparison of how we are doing? Are surveys carried out to be aware of the customer end's challenges? Is there a clear line of communication for complaints, feedback, improvement ideas etc.??

* how far across the value chain are you looking at service efficiency??

Where you provide a product sold to Consumers via Distributors or offer a franchised service, is your customer engagement strategy extended to all your stakeholders? One experience in my career spanning over 15years that cut deep was when the company I worked for had a?returns policy and an allowable limit for Distributors that was well spelt out on the contract- however, when the sales team visited the shelves and the wholesalers/ open market retailers, we found damaged packaging and a lot of complaints regarding returns ambiguity. A few of them had a sizable quantity of valid returns! On interviewing the Distributors, the unanimous feedback was that when they asked how to treat returns, the field sales associates didn't accept or give conclusive feedback, so the distributors stopped collecting as they couldn't tie down any more of their own money.?

Think about the cost to a company regarding unwholesome products on the shelf, trust issues with Trade partners across all levels of the value chain and of course, poor quality products on the shelf. Root cause? The company did not adequately communicate its customer service strategy across all stakeholders. A costly omission, right? that occurs every day in many businesses due to suboptimal focus on Customer-facing teams and how they engage with their customers/clients.

A survey conducted by PwC asked Millennials, "Which of the following characteristics make an organization compelling to work for?" Below is a map of what they answered:

Today's workforce is high on self-actualization and the opportunity to advance in a position and value training. They are well aware of the competitive world they live in; a job that provides training opportunities satisfies their need to stay ahead of the curve.

Businesses that continue to undervalue their customer-facing teams in terms of poor remuneration, little or no benefits, high staff turnover, inadequate Investment in building talent, no clear growth plan in the organization, amongst others, since they are easy roles to fill miss the big picture.More importantly they lose an opportunity to make the much needed returns from the low hanging fruits.