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If you are anything like me, you probably hate it when a service issue arises. I get irritated when I have to call or visit customer service. Why? For some reason, you are often left trying to explain your situation to someone who seems extremely disinterested in their job. Many people who work in this position often lack the motivation to do their job. I completely understand that this is their job and they are expected to perform their responsibilities if they wish to get paid. However, management can help prevent the lack of motivation by empowering their employees.
Many companies giver their employees rules to abide by and then have them to rehearse what answers to give if a particular situation happens. I guarantee you that these instruction manuals do not cover every scenario that is bound to occur. There are always exceptions to the rule, so why not give your employees the power to deviate from the script in order to right a wrong?
Companies often boast of wanting to hire the “best and brightest”, but often do not trust their employees enough to think for themselves in resolving minor service issues that fall outside of the manual. Many arguments could be avoided if companies fostered an environment that encouraged employees to truly take ownership of their positions.
I witnessed the following scene take place at a department store:
A woman at the store grabbed a shirt off the rack that was clearly marked as a sales rack. She went to the register to check out and was informed by the sales associate that the shirt was regular price. An employee had put the sales sign on the wrong rack.
How would you go about resolving this situation? Obviously, this mistake was not the customer’s fault and this scenario was probably not addressed in the manual. Clearly, common sense would be to honor the price stated on the rack. The department store did eventually honor the price—ten minutes later—only after the sales associate got her manager and the sales associate’s manager went and got his manager involved. An employee should not have to go through several layers of management to okay a simple price change. Sure there are times when it is imperative that management get involved, but this was clearly not one of them. The main reason why this sales associate did not take initiative to solve this problem on her own is because she was afraid of the repercussions she would face from management.
Customers should not have to be punished for mistakes made by the company. By allowing employees the power to make decisions on their own will result in a favorable outcome for both parties. The company will more than likely become apart of a customer’s evoked set because they will remember how this store demonstrated that they respect their customers by owning up to their mistakes and resolving discrepancies in a timely manner. The company will win because customers will share their experience with others. Employees will win because they do not have to be a robot anymore. They will welcome the opportunity to use their mind to solve challenges that are certain to arise. Having the power to solve problems on their own will increase an employee’s ability to take on more responsibilities and they will feel confident and more inclined to do so.
Think how many arguments could be avoided if management encouraged their employees to take ownership of their position. After all, companies hire people they deem are capable of meeting their requirements—so why not give them the power to effectively do their job?
"so why not give them the power to effectively do their job?"
Because that requires a lot of time and effort, that's why.
I completely agree with you, by the way. Employees should,/i> be empowered. But to do it right requires a lot of training. And creating this training plan requires a lof of effort from management. It's much easier just to tell the employees "follow this rulebook, and come get me if you need anything".
Then there is the other extreme, where management 'empowers' the employees, without really telling them what they are empowered to do. This is almost worse. Employees blunder around, creating havoc, because they don't know what they should do. It's like wandering through a dark room full of moustraps. You never know if you're going the right direction until you get snapped at.
But the benefits are clear. I once had a horrible time trying to get unecessary charge removed from my cable TV bill. I was actually told to fax the bill to 3 different fax numbers that were disconnected. I finally found a excellent customer service rep. She pulled up my call history, sighed, and said "I'll take care of it". That was it. I can only imagine that she took one look at the number of times I had called, and then just took the initiative to cut through the red tape and refund my account.
I'm still with that cable TV company because of her.
I completely agree it does take a lot of work to train your employees. However, what I do not understand is how companies do not see how the benefits far outweigh the cost and time invested in doing so. Companies have to have a balance. Obviously, in a situation like this woman or yours there is no need to get several layers of management involved. These are common sense situations that employees should be given a degree of latitude to solve. I believe that most people have a sense of what the boundaries are in the degree to which situations need to be escalated to management. If companies are “afraid” of those who do not know then they need to tell them during the training session by giving them scenarios. Again, everything in life is not “scripted,” but if you are hiring people with common sense I am confident they will be able to resolve the situation.
I agree, but I think ultimately it boils down to a fundamental distrust in the employees. Job security--and loyalty--don't exist on either side of the fence. But perhaps it would be if employees felt empowered.
Businesses are so stuck solely on economic outcomes that little else matters. I appreciate the triple bottom line companies that look at their social and environmental impact as well. If companies also measured their success by customer AND employee satisfaction, we'd all be happier consumers, employees, and employers.
I do believe that the main reason companies do not empower their employees is because they do not trust them. However, this logic is ridiculous to me because it does not make any sense to intentionally go out of your way to hire people you do not trust or deem capable of completing the responsibilities for the position. I also feel insecurity plays a role in not empowering employees too. Unfortunately, those who are in management might feel threatened by those they hire and try to keep these employees in line by having their employees check with them on every little thing in order to feed their (management) ego (which is really sad because everyone suffers).
Well, now we are entering the areana of the interview and hiring process. That is a whole other issue. Too often the hiring process is looking for skills that have nothing to do with the actual job. Again, to hire the right people, you hvae to expend a lot of effort to determine what you are looking for, and many companies don't do that. Part of this reason is that the managers who are hiring are not very good at interviewing. Or the HR department does the interviewing, but doesn't understand the job. Or both departments have an outdated and limited job description to work with when screening job applicants.
I'm going back to my original assertion, that to empower employees and hire the correct people, you need to expend a LOT of effort to determine their job descriptions and responsibilities. And most managers are not willing or able to spend the time on that.
So we end up with the managers complaining that the employees don't "show initiative". And the employees complaining that the managers don't trust them to do anything. And the companies and customers suffer.
I believe that the hiring process plays an integral role in companies empowering employees. In order to foster an environment of empowering employees you have to be able to train and retain those who also believe in this philosophy. I once worked for a company that basically scrapped the entire way they conducted interviews because the situation you mentioned kept happening and they got sick of the turnover rate (It is much more expensive to keep hiring and training new employees than it is to satisfy those who are already with the company).
Companies that seek to be successful will take whatever steps they deem necessary to correct a situation. Yes, it does take a LOT of effort, but a job is a job. If you expect to get paid you have to be willing to do your job to the best of your ability. If people aren’t willing to expend the energy to empower their employees not only will the company suffer, but the customers are left being punished (i.e. bad customer service).
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