Who Do You Recognize and Why?

With technology moving at such a rapid rate, the speed to platform and measurement of metrics has become the main focus and competitive drive for many companies. Now-a-days, the process and ease in which we do things determines the success of a business.

As a consultant, I have found many companies forgetting the employees who face the customers. No, they are not the digital analysts that created and improved upon the systems. They are those employees who represent your company. They are the voice and their feelings about their job, their tone, knowledge, and communication skills impacts each and every one of your customers and validates your digital success. What good is it to have a fast and easy platform to only have a customer call your center and get bad service?

So who do you recognize for your accomplishments? Both, of course, but every organization needs to remember that the front line employees, the customer facing ones, regardless of being a salesperson or not, are emotionally driven and have more, if not equal, amount of stock in the game.

The challenge with data focused initiatives is that it can be easily manipulated or flawed. This alone could be an entirely different discussion but I have to say, the issue with a data driven focus can create false data, fake success, and a Narnia-like environment where things may appear great, but there are strange things going on.

Here are some ways to show appreciation to your customer facing employees who use the systems your continually improving.

Listen to the outsider -  Invite people from the front-line to share their success stories and struggles in the meetings. Listen to their ideas on ways to improve. I have personally seen Leaders spend countless hours discussing ways to change things to eventually implement the idea shared by a front-line employee months earlier. Look past the style in which they communicate, rather look for content and value. Talk less and listen more. It’s imperative to get a true scope of the their aspect of any system.

Observe – Any analyst or data capturing person should sit and observe front-line job functions for no less than an hour a week to get a clear perspective of the business, work-load, time frames, and trends that the front-line employees face. The systems and data that is captured only provides outcomes of the job, but the reasons behind the outcome is only experienced real time.

Reward the right way and the right people - Reward front-line for customer interaction, but not the end result of the functions associated with the job. It’s my belief that too many gift cards create an entitlement program; and, sales people should not be recognized for funding’s, closings etc. If not careful, you will find yourself rewarding the wrong people and the wrong behaviors. This is because subconsciously it’s saying, the process is our focus, not the people we serve.

Your front-line employees who deal with the public are usually the more emotional ones. They do care and feel unappreciated when not recognized for helping that single mom or a customer in need. You have to hear their stories and successes and shout them out with recognition.  

If you recognize the small things the front-line does, the front-line will focus on the small things. It’s the small things that create big results when it comes to social media, word of mouth, and customer satisfaction.

To learn more on how to improve your teams mental and emotional performance, reach me at www.juliansado.com or www.pivot2change.com