Let Your Team's Ideas Supercharge Your Customer Service !

I bet you never thought somebody would recommend that you let the inmates run the asylum. By asylum I mean your customer service. But to a point at least I would recommend exactly that ! Let me explain a few reasons why.

They talk to the customers all day, every day !

Think about it for a minute. Your customer service team in all likely hood spends more time, more often talking to your customers than anyone else in your organization. Are you aggressively or even passively seeking their input on a regular basis ? Why not ? This is one of those many times when I am reminded of the words of Walmart founder Sam Walton “Listen to your employees, they are your best idea generators.”

My first job was at a theme park. They had a suggestion box near the time clock. Suggestions along with management's feedback was posted adjacently. Whether the front line force agreed with management's response, at least they knew their suggestions were being read, and at least somewhat considered. Some very good ideas originated through this process. Why not create a virtual version of this on your corporate website.

They know their job, and what it takes to do it well !

You as the manager know the policy. You know the reasons behind the policy. You wrote it. Your team members on the other hand know what works, and doesn't work in their jobs on a daily basis. They also know what they need, or wish they had to do their jobs well.

This often reminds me of the day when I worked in a call center doing third party technical support for a medium sized company. As many will tell you that is an absolute pressure cooker of a work environment ! The team lobbied management for a punching bag in the break room. The idea was to provide the call takers a way to work off hard, or frustrating calls. The idea was that it would reduce call takers carrying over a difficult call into the next one. Management thought it was a great idea, and the punching bag was soon found in the break room of our call center. It worked very well, as it was intended.

Then came the day we were bought out by a Fortune 500 Company. They were in such a rush to make our company like theirs, they ignored what made our company one they wanted to buy. They thought the punching bag was too unprofessional and took it out. One of the worst customer service team management decisions I've seen in decades of first line customer service !

Many of them bring experience, training, and education with them !

Most of your team members probably worked for other companies. Some of those even in positions quite similar to the functions they perform for you. They also likely attended a wide range of schools and colleges. Why would you want to leave all this additional experience, training and education on the table ? Shouldn't your customers have the benefit of these not so hidden resources ?

Tapping into your team members to improve your customer service.

So how do you put this all into action ? I already mentioned the suggestion box idea. One of the oldest feedback concepts out there, but done correctly it works. The downside is it is a mostly passive approach. It depends on the team member to have the initiative to put a suggestion in the box. Many will be reluctant to do so for many reasons. What if the suggestion is anonymous, but not clear to you ?

A better answer is a combination of passive and active approaches. Try focus meetings, where Small groups of team members are brought in for brainstorming sessions on how to improve your processes.

Don't for get to incentivize ! We tend to get what we reward. You already reward your top performers, why not those who help your entire team become top performers ?

Too many organizations ignore their team members as a resource to engage in better customer service. Hopefully these thoughts will help prevent yours from being one of them.