We all know that being on the front lines of customer service can be a challenge. Representatives are faced with expectations of extensive product knowledge, policy and procedure adherence, dealing with displeased customers, and delivering every answer and every solution with the utmost friendliness. We’ve previously discussed various ways to prevent service representative burnout, but what else can we do to enable our teams to deliver service of the very highest quality?
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Zappos headquarters image by Lizzielaroo
If we acknowledge that excellent service can be stressful to consistently provide, we should also acknowledge that we must ourselves provide consistently excellent environments for our representatives to work in. If our teams are expected to be happy, friendly, and accommodating, we must lead by example! We cannot expect our teammates to treat our customers more kindly or respond to them with more enthusiasm than we internally show our team.
We’ve touched on it before, but fostering a fun, positive environment truly is key for sending our representatives out into “the world”, ready to wow our customers. This is why companies like Zappos allow their service team members to decorate their cubicles in fun, even outlandish, ways. Others invite employees to bring their dogs to work with them. Some keep their break rooms well stocked with tasty treats. Still others have friendly competitions amongst themselves to vie for kitschy trophies or titles. We even known a company that encourages employees to pass “secret” notes to others, acknowledging stellar performance or offering encouragement.
The more we do to send the message “We value you and the work you do” and “We want you to enjoy working for us”, the more easily our service representatives will carry that same attitude forth to our customers. If our team members feel undervalued or like they are not being treated well, it will become nearly impossible for them to perform well as our brand ambassadors and, consequently, our customers will begin to feel unappreciated as well.
What creative ways does your company employ to keep morale up and create – not just a hospitable – but a fun working environment? If your company has made a concerted effort to fortify its internal culture, what changes have you noticed, not only in the office, but in customer satisfaction as a result? If this is an area in which your company could use improvement, where do you plan to start making improvements? As always, we would love to hear about your experiences and insight.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]