Customer Service Best Practices
A couple weeks ago, I had the opportunity to hold a workshop in beautiful San Juan with the Puerto Rico Hotel and Tourism Association. The best minds on the island came together for my workshop about best practices in customer service. What can your business be doing to enhance your customer service team? What can your team be doing to better serve your guests? Our workshop was buzzing with so many great ideas, I’ve condensed them all into five major categories:
- Make sure your employees are fully engaged–bad attitudes can be contagious!
When you come to work in the morning, do you feel energized and connected with your coworkers? Are you mentally focused and spiritually aligned with a purpose beyond basic work duties? If you are, then congratulations, you are among the less than 30% of workers who are fully engaged at work. When employees aren’t fully engaged with their work, they can transfer those negative feelings to their coworkers and to your customers. Think of all the 10s, 100s, or even 1,000s of dollars in lost productivity and business that disengaged employees cost your company every day! Remember, a positive attitude is just as contagious as a bad one. Be a model of good behavior by smiling, greeting your co-workers by name and opening doors for them.
To ensure that your employees are happy, help them to engage in each of these Four Principles of Happiness. Help them to:
- Find Meaning in what they do
- Find Purpose in what they do
- Find Pleasure in what they do
- Feel Connected.
- Never underestimate the power of quality rest and relaxation.
Everyone needs a break from time to time–every 90 minutes in fact. Your brain needs to recharge every so often, but if you don’t let it–it’s going to take a break for you! As the day goes on, even employees who came to work fully engaged will become less focused without proper breaks. If your employees are tired, not connecting with customers, and giving subpar service, they will drive customers away. Once or twice a year, consider planning a company retreat so that everyone can come back feeling refreshed and renewed.
- Let your employees be heard and give them space to grow.
Being on the front lines of customer service, your employees have invaluable experience and are overflowing with great ideas. They know what works, what doesn’t work, and what will help things work better. Hold open discussions to hear ideas that will improve every facet of your business. Have a suggestion box, and post responses to suggestions where all employees can see that management takes their ideas and suggestions seriously. Make sure your employees are given the tools they need in order to work efficiently and effectively–whether that means offering more (cross)training, mentoring, or attending conferences or classes offered by PRHTA to augment their strengths and skills.
- Invest time in Team-building activities.
One of the things I love seeing when I travel or even just out getting coffee, is the power and synergy of a well put together team. When people are working with people they enjoy working with, it truly shows. Not only are they vibrant and energetic, working together as a team enables them to get their work done with speed and quality. People who genuinely like, the people they work with enjoy coming to work and are more willing to pitch in and help grow your business. Plan team-building events and encourage your employees to form friendships in the workplace. At the very least, make sure everyone knows each others’ names.
And last but not least,
- Communicate.
This seems like an obvious one, but one of the most important things you can do in your business is to communicate clearly and frequently with your staff. This not only applies to letting everyone know what their job duties are, but also informing them about the company’s mission and goals. Transparency in a business helps employees prepare themselves daily for work as well as it makes them feel more of an active participant in the success of the company.
Customer service can be a tough job and it’s important to make sure that your staff knows how much they are appreciated. Employee recognition or incentive programs help motivate and focus a team by letting them know that what they are doing is important. Make time to celebrate your team’s achievements! Great questions to ask at any team meeting are: “What’s going right?” and “Why is it going right?” and “What are three things we need to START, STOP and CONTINUE? Listening to each employee’s response to these questions will provide you with great insight.
Stay tuned in the following weeks for an extended series on Best Practices in Customer Service!
Dr. Susanne Gaddis
The Communications Doctor
web: www.CommunicationsDoctor.com
email: gaddis@CommunicationsDoctor.com
phone: 919-933-3237
