I often write about employees using common sense, creativity and empathy to deliver exceptional customer service. But, do YOU give your employees the breathing room to do just that, in order to WOW your customers? And what exactly does that mean?
Real World Story: Breathing room can mean many things to many different organizations. So the first thing you should do is define what breathing room means in respect to your customer service delivery.
For example, breathing room at Zappos means employees are on the phones between 60 to 70% of their shift. The industry standard for call center employees is 80%. This means that Zappos employees have between 30 to 40% of their shift to work on fixing customer service issues that go beyond the initial telephone call.
In another example, breathing room at Ritz Carlton means that employees have the power to spend $2,000 of organizational resources to help out a customer. Empoyees don’t need to ask for permission from management or feel like they are overreaching in solving a customer’s problem, two hindrances that often limit how employees solve problems creatively and effectively.
Given these two examples, what does it mean to you to give employees the breathing room to WOW your clients? And are you willing to implement the necessary protocols to give employees the breathing room they need to be rock star service agents?
Strategies that Turn it Around:
- Define Breathing Room. Breathing room is going to vary from organization to organization and from industry to industry. The first step, nonetheless, is going to be to define what breathing room means to you, whether that means setting a monetary value per customer or an allotment of pre-approved time to solve problems.
- Set Parameters. You will then need to set parameters. For example, will your employees be empowered to waive late fees for every customer they engage with every single time or for first time late payments only? Will employees have the option of giving a free service or product to every customer they engage?
- Let Them Fly. Once you define what breathing room means to you, and you have set the parameters of what service agents are authorized to do without permission, you can then let them fly on their own and watch them WOW your customers.
Remember: It’s great to have employees who use common sense, creativity and empathy to solve problems, but do You give them the breathing room to perform gold standard customer service that consistently WOWs your customers?
How do you empower your employees with the breathing room necessary to WOW customers?