Tags |
|
|
Links |
|
|
Casual Articles - I Want to Speak to a Supervisor!
We can learn so much from our children. Ben, my 4-year old son, is learning to dress himself, and each morning my wife lays his clothes out for him. It’s amazing what you learn when you stay home in the morning! With great ceremony, she sets each article of clothing on the floor. His shirt goes upside down, and with any luck, it ends up on his body the right way.It was my job to help Ben this morning. I laid out his clothing as only a father can, wrong! I put his shirt down backwards, but not upside down. Ben, knowing a novice when he sees one, shocked me by saying, “You have to do it wrong, to do it right.” Wow, I thought. How profound! I started to think about applying something so simple to
Customers get smarter every day. So smart companies provide self-service tools for most basic needs. Well-trained frontline staff should spend their time helping new customers get acquainted and assisting repeat customers with any special situations.
This makes sense, and it makes money.
The next time you need to go beyond the frontline staff to get what you want from a supervisor, ask yourself this question: ‘Would you rather go to another business if the staff in that organization could say “yes” to you in the first place?’
If so, let the first business know. And if they still won’t empower their staff, then get up and go!
Key Learning Point
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Give your frontl
For most home buyers, selecting the right mortgage lender and the right home loan package may seem like an overwhelming task. There are so many rival lenders promising so many different things. They see advertisements for wonderful interest rates and mortgage packages. Of course, those packages are only available for a small percentage of home buyers who fit very particular criteria.So when you're talking with a mortgage lender you should always feel relaxed to ask questions. The lender may not always be able to give you an instant answer, but you should desire that they find out the answer before giving you a quick but wrong answer. You should also feel that your lender is giving you honest informati
The big boss asked, ‘And just what do you think you are doing now?’
‘I’m leaving,’ said the young man. ‘I made such an expensive mistake, surely you don’t want me to come back here again next week.’
‘Are you kidding?’ exclaimed the Big Boss. ‘I just spent a small fortune educating you. You’d better come back next week and show me what you learned.’
(Does this makes sense to you? If so, read on...)
***
Have you ever asked a frontline service provider for something special and been told, ‘Sorry, company policy. The answer is NO!’
Have you ever asked to speak with the supervisor and found the answer soon changed to YES?
When this happens (and it does all over the world) how do you feel about the company? Do you respect the organization more, or less?
How do you feel about the supervisor? Do you admire their use of authority, or feel pity for the frontline staff they overrule?
How do you think the frontline service provider feels? (And whose rule was he following in the first place when he said, ‘The answer is NO.’?)
One supervisor took this problem a step further and asked me the following question:
Dear Ron,
In our business, customers who get special treatment come back later and they only want to speak with a supervisor and no one else. These customers have lots of friends and tell everybody. I am afraid everyone will want the same special treatment.
In the end we would have no need for counter clerks as the supervisors would be serving all our customers! This might make the customers happy, and that is our ultimate goal, but it would be too much for our supervisors to handle. We have plenty of other work to do! How can we solve this situation?
Here is my answer:
Companies should empower frontline staff to do what the supervisor ultimately does, without having to check with the supervisor each and every time. This means staff must get training to know what’s right – and have authority to do what’s right.
It means supervisors must trust their staff to do the right thing at the right time and not abuse the privilege. It also means frontline staff must learn the skills required – and earn the trust desired.
This approach shifts the supervisor into the role of educator and motivator rather than controller and dominator. It’s a huge change of mindset and culture in any organization.
And it’s the right thing to do for two reasons:
One: The experience customers have with your company must be positive and uplifting, or they won’t come back. If your customer must get in touch with a supervisor to get satisfaction, more flexible competitors may take your customer away.
If, however, you can please your customers, inspire your customers, and make your customers feel welcome in a non-bureaucratic way, their desire to come back (and tell others) will grow.
This is essential for successful business in today’s fast-changing and customer-centric world.
Two: The cost of staff doing robotic work (and referring every exception to the supervisor) is simply too high to sustain. Companies that invest wisely in appropriate training will do far better than those who overspend on high levels of supervisory staff.
Customers get smarter every day. So smart companies provide self-service tools for most basic needs. Well-trained frontline staff should spend their time helping new customers get acquainted and assisting repeat customers with any special situations.
This makes sense, and it makes money.
The next time you need to go beyond the frontline staff to get what you want from a supervisor, ask yourself this question: ‘Would you rather go to another business if the staff in that organization could say “yes” to you in the first place?’
If so, let the first business know. And if they still won’t empower their staff, then get up and go!
Key Learning Point
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Give your frontli
The Personal Development Entrepreneur Business is skyrocketing all over the world. Personal growth is the number one natural resource for empowering yourself on this planet today. Entrepreneurs that spend most of their quality time in personal development are apart of the one percent population that earns around ninety six percent of the money in the world.Why is it that most of the wealthiest people on this planet are highly motivated in applying personal development into their lives and their businesses? It motivates them to be more, to do more, and to have move in their personal lives. Also, it allows them to explore more ideas in developing their organizations and companies to provide better servi
When this happens (and it does all over the world) how do you feel about the company? Do you respect the organization more, or less?
How do you feel about the supervisor? Do you admire their use of authority, or feel pity for the frontline staff they overrule?
How do you think the frontline service provider feels? (And whose rule was he following in the first place when he said, ‘The answer is NO.’?)
One supervisor took this problem a step further and asked me the following question:
Dear Ron,
In our business, customers who get special treatment come back later and they only want to speak with a supervisor and no one else. These customers have lots of friends and tell everybody. I am afraid everyone will want the same special treatment.
In the end we would have no need for counter clerks as the supervisors would be serving all our customers! This might make the customers happy, and that is our ultimate goal, but it would be too much for our supervisors to handle. We have plenty of other work to do! How can we solve this situation?
Here is my answer:
Companies should empower frontline staff to do what the supervisor ultimately does, without having to check with the supervisor each and every time. This means staff must get training to know what’s right – and have authority to do what’s right.
It means supervisors must trust their staff to do the right thing at the right time and not abuse the privilege. It also means frontline staff must learn the skills required – and earn the trust desired.
This approach shifts the supervisor into the role of educator and motivator rather than controller and dominator. It’s a huge change of mindset and culture in any organization.
And it’s the right thing to do for two reasons:
One: The experience customers have with your company must be positive and uplifting, or they won’t come back. If your customer must get in touch with a supervisor to get satisfaction, more flexible competitors may take your customer away.
If, however, you can please your customers, inspire your customers, and make your customers feel welcome in a non-bureaucratic way, their desire to come back (and tell others) will grow.
This is essential for successful business in today’s fast-changing and customer-centric world.
Two: The cost of staff doing robotic work (and referring every exception to the supervisor) is simply too high to sustain. Companies that invest wisely in appropriate training will do far better than those who overspend on high levels of supervisory staff.
Customers get smarter every day. So smart companies provide self-service tools for most basic needs. Well-trained frontline staff should spend their time helping new customers get acquainted and assisting repeat customers with any special situations.
This makes sense, and it makes money.
The next time you need to go beyond the frontline staff to get what you want from a supervisor, ask yourself this question: ‘Would you rather go to another business if the staff in that organization could say “yes” to you in the first place?’
If so, let the first business know. And if they still won’t empower their staff, then get up and go!
Key Learning Point
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Give your frontl
Before you can enjoy the benefits of having a life-time relationship with your customers, you first have to get them into your restaurant, store or other business. Good directions can make or break that fragile budding relationship. Here are tips to give great directions!Make triple sure you directions are accurate, that is, read through them yourself while looking at a map, have someone else who doesn’t know the area drive them and give you feedback, and be sure to ask real customers if the directions are working. Your customers don’t care how hard you worked or how many times you’ve been through them, if the directions don’t work, they don’t work, period!Layout your directions in bullet point
Here is my answer:
Companies should empower frontline staff to do what the supervisor ultimately does, without having to check with the supervisor each and every time. This means staff must get training to know what’s right – and have authority to do what’s right.
It means supervisors must trust their staff to do the right thing at the right time and not abuse the privilege. It also means frontline staff must learn the skills required – and earn the trust desired.
This approach shifts the supervisor into the role of educator and motivator rather than controller and dominator. It’s a huge change of mindset and culture in any organization.
And it’s the right thing to do for two reasons:
One: The experience customers have with your company must be positive and uplifting, or they won’t come back. If your customer must get in touch with a supervisor to get satisfaction, more flexible competitors may take your customer away.
If, however, you can please your customers, inspire your customers, and make your customers feel welcome in a non-bureaucratic way, their desire to come back (and tell others) will grow.
This is essential for successful business in today’s fast-changing and customer-centric world.
Two: The cost of staff doing robotic work (and referring every exception to the supervisor) is simply too high to sustain. Companies that invest wisely in appropriate training will do far better than those who overspend on high levels of supervisory staff.
Customers get smarter every day. So smart companies provide self-service tools for most basic needs. Well-trained frontline staff should spend their time helping new customers get acquainted and assisting repeat customers with any special situations.
This makes sense, and it makes money.
The next time you need to go beyond the frontline staff to get what you want from a supervisor, ask yourself this question: ‘Would you rather go to another business if the staff in that organization could say “yes” to you in the first place?’
If so, let the first business know. And if they still won’t empower their staff, then get up and go!
Key Learning Point
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Give your frontl
Have you ever noticed the brightest colors, and the funniest scenes are the most memorable?A little old granny with her red hat and red vinyl purse looking at a teensy weensy piece of meat on a big round bun saying, “Where’s the beef?” comes to mind when I think of funny commercials. Everybody for years walked around commenting “Where’s the beef?” It became the instant putdown on every date, the end all of party conversation, and the choice location to have a burger.Splash yellow paint across the screen, zap it with a green jagged line, and add a pair of bright red lips talking from the depths of creation and you’ll get some attention. If the lips happen to have a quirk and say something funny,
And it’s the right thing to do for two reasons:
One: The experience customers have with your company must be positive and uplifting, or they won’t come back. If your customer must get in touch with a supervisor to get satisfaction, more flexible competitors may take your customer away.
If, however, you can please your customers, inspire your customers, and make your customers feel welcome in a non-bureaucratic way, their desire to come back (and tell others) will grow.
This is essential for successful business in today’s fast-changing and customer-centric world.
Two: The cost of staff doing robotic work (and referring every exception to the supervisor) is simply too high to sustain. Companies that invest wisely in appropriate training will do far better than those who overspend on high levels of supervisory staff.
Customers get smarter every day. So smart companies provide self-service tools for most basic needs. Well-trained frontline staff should spend their time helping new customers get acquainted and assisting repeat customers with any special situations.
This makes sense, and it makes money.
The next time you need to go beyond the frontline staff to get what you want from a supervisor, ask yourself this question: ‘Would you rather go to another business if the staff in that organization could say “yes” to you in the first place?’
If so, let the first business know. And if they still won’t empower their staff, then get up and go!
Key Learning Point
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Give your frontl
To say that we as human beings have ethical values implies something quite profound. It literally means that we are, in a manner of speaking "hardwired" with such values. If we were not we would not have the ability to ever gauge when something was "right" or "wrong".You see, before you can make such an assessment you need to have an "internal measuring stick" by which to make such measurements.So where does this internal reference or "measuring stick" live inside of us? Well many would say that it is something we learn through our lives say from our families, religion, courses on ethics, involvement with or awareness of the legal system and so on. In other words that the "ethical measuring sti
Customers get smarter every day. So smart companies provide self-service tools for most basic needs. Well-trained frontline staff should spend their time helping new customers get acquainted and assisting repeat customers with any special situations.
This makes sense, and it makes money.
The next time you need to go beyond the frontline staff to get what you want from a supervisor, ask yourself this question: ‘Would you rather go to another business if the staff in that organization could say “yes” to you in the first place?’
If so, let the first business know. And if they still won’t empower their staff, then get up and go!
Key Learning Point
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Give your frontline team the training and authority they need to take care of customers without constantly asking for approval. This will help you build your business, please your customers and keep your most able staff loyal and growing.
Action Steps
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Make a complete list of everything your frontline staff cannot do for customers without getting a supervisor’s permission. (Hint: ask your frontline staff to make the list.)
Now scrutinize the items one by one and do everything you can to make the list simpler and shorter. Where staff can be trained to decide for themselves, train them. Where guidelines are needed, provide them. If mistakes will be made, allow for them. Over time, everyone can learn to do what only the supervisor used to do.
Empowerment is simple, really. Give good staff the authority to make a decision and tell them to use their common sense. If they bring a situation to you that they should handle themselves, turn it back to them. If they make a good decision, pat them on the back. If they make a bad decision, pat them on the back for doing something and then help everyone learn from the mistake.
One more thing: Leaving things as they are is not an option for success. Your best staff will leave in frustration, your customers will leave for better service elsewhere, and you will be right where you were at the beginning, making all the decisions...alone.
HTTP = HTML link (for blogs, profiles,phorums):
<a href="http://www.casualarticles.com/article/21887/casualarticles-I-Want-to-Speak-to-a-Supervisor.html">I Want to Speak to a Supervisor!</a>
BB link (for phorums):
[url=http://www.casualarticles.com/article/21887/casualarticles-I-Want-to-Speak-to-a-Supervisor.html]I Want to Speak to a Supervisor![/url]
Related Articles:
A Quick Guide To Setting Up A Temporary Job Services
Bookmark it:
|