The Frontline Equals the Bottom Line. Most of us have heard the expression, "The frontline is the bottom line," as it pertains to a company's employees.
It means that as far as the customer is concerned, a company's frontline employees are the company. After all, rarely do customers come in contact with the executives of an organization. Those frontline employees are truly the face of the organization. But as leaders, do we perform in a way that is consistent with the frontline equals bottom line philosophy? In many cases, I think the answer is no. I was pondering this issue recently while I sat eating in a TGI Fridays restaurant. We should treat our frontline employees like the stars that they are. The need to be appreciated is one of the strongest needs of all. When my wife and I were both working, we had a housekeeper, Val, who cleaned our house once a week. Sustaining A Customer Service Initiative: The Need for Long-Term Commitment. Most customer service improvement initiatives fail to produce sustained results.
While such a statement may seem harsh, I think that most would agree with the statement based on their own experiences. After investing significant amounts of time, effort, and money in service improvement initiatives, most organizations do not attain the sustained results they were hoping for. Failure is usually not due to a lack of creativity or resources. Failure is most often the result of a lack of long-term commitment to the hard work that sustainability requires. The "launch" phase of an improvement initiative can be challenging, but it is also energizing. Service Excellence: The Leadership Factor. "The corporation can never be something we are not" Max Dupree, Leadership is An Art We all know that customer service initiatives come and go, usually beginning with a lot of fanfare and ending with a quiet departure.
With each occurrence of this pattern, an organization's employees become more and more skeptical about subsequent service initiatives. When employees don't see intense leadership commitment beyond the program's rollout, they quickly understand that the initiative is another program of the month. The general feeling becomes; "wait it out, this too shall pass. " There is no shortage of vision statements, service strategy formation, and service program rollouts. Loyalty-Based Management. The Idea in Brief Every time the credit-card giant MBNA retains just 5% more customers, its profits expand 60% over the next five years.
Clearly, customer loyalty is a key to sustainably superior profits. But it’s also an integral part of a larger profit engine that runs just as much on employee loyalty. Here’s how it works: Customer loyalty gains you market share and lowers the cost of acquiring and serving customers. Now you can pay workers more—boosting morale and longevity. What's your coin? Ron Kaufman - The Secrets of Superior Service (Part 6)
Why Managers Fail to Recognize Employee Contributions » Employee Engagement, Recognition and Reward Commentary. Occasionally we feature a guest blogger who brings new perspectives on key issues in the worlds of culture, engagement and recognition.
This week we welcome Leigh Branham, founder of Keeping the People, Inc. and author of “The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave.” After 20 years of researching the drivers of employee engagement, I have concluded that the mother lode of motivation come from what I call the C-A-R Cycle Giving employees a ChallengeHaving them AchieveMaking sure they are promptly Recognized Yet, sadly, about four out of every five employee contributions go unrecognized, according to at least one study.
These management errors of omission are costly missed opportunities to pump up engagement levels. They believe they are too busy to take the time. There you have it—a baker’s dozen reasons. I do not advocate giving more recognition than people deserve. Questions to consider: Which of the above reasons, if any, do you believe are justifiable? Good quiz at the end. Leadership. Delivering Happiness - HSM World Innovation Forum - 6.7.11. Service Excellence: The Leadership Factor. "The corporation can never be something we are not" Max Dupree, Leadership is An Art We all know that customer service initiatives come and go, usually beginning with a lot of fanfare and ending with a quiet departure.
With each occurrence of this pattern, an organization's employees become more and more skeptical about subsequent service initiatives. Customer Service Skills Are Leadership? One of the biggest misconceptions about leadership is that it has something to do with authority.
It doesn’t, although we should all look for authority figures to show good leadership. Good leaders themselves look to see leadership throughout the ranks. When they see it, they tend to reward it by moving the person who’s showing leadership upward toward more authority. How Leaders Retard Customer Service Excellence. Leaders of customer service organizations — have you set the bar as high as your customers expect?
Do you lower the bar without realizing it and thus retard customer service excellence? As I work with leaders of customer service teams and IT technical support teams, I see their inspiration sour without their awareness. So here is a checklist to help you assess whether you inspire all team members to service excellence every day or inadvertently stop them from delivering the best. How Leaders Retard Customer Service Excellence. Image Licensed from Istock. Leaders, Are You Souring Customer Service Excellence?
Letting your own inspiration sour.