Customer Service Issues: Start at the Top or Bottom?

I was just reading a recent post at Dennis Snow’s blog in which he asks if Training is the Answer when an employee exhibits customer service issues.  He states:

When employee performance doesn’t match expectations, it’s important to look at what factors may be involved. Lack of training may be the issue, but it’s just as likely that something else is afoot. Are the right people being hired? Do employees have the tools they need to do the job well? Is substandard performance corrected when it occurs? Is strong performance recognized and rewarded?

I too am a fan of training, however, if the training isn’t reinforced by management, the “feel good, customer-focused” attitude one gets from a rousing training seminar will soon fade. 

As Dennis states further in his blog – if you ask an associate to be nicer to customers and they do, then motivation for consistent behavior is the issue.  If you ask them to be nicer and they aren’t – then perhaps training is needed.

But what about the assoicates who WANTS to be customer-focused but the tasks and messages they receive from their boss lead them in a different direction?

I once had a boss who would holler from the roof tops that “superior customer service is our number one goal.”  Yet he would follow that up with detailed reporting on numbers of customers serviced in an hour, seemingly impossible sales goals and extra community out reach tasks that forced our customer experience to be one of “order taker” rather than relationship builder.

For a company to truly exhibit a focus on the customer – that belief needs to start at the top.  The mission, vision and values of the organization need to support a focus on the customer.   Then if each layer of management’s roles and responsibilities support the customer-focus that will translate to the hourly employee who has to actually execute the customer-focused behavior.

Do we have employees who could be better listeners and more empathetic to their customers?  Yes.  Could training help?  Absolutely! 

However, as managers we also need to ensure that the messages we send to our team keep the customer in the forefront of everyone’s mind rather than as an after thought.