Okay, my apologies to Lowes for bastardizing their slogan...
Hopefully you’ve taken the time to read the previous post, a great piece by Eric Jacques on a recent trip to his local Home Depot. It embodies just about everything that can create a negative customer experience and insure a trip to the competition. Worst possible scenario? The blog Eric wrote!
Home Depot places “Excellent Customer Service” right up there in their list of Values, yet failed to live up to that commitment. Why?
When I do my onboarding presentation to new hires at our company, I talk about what it takes to create a world-class customer support organization. Here are the steps to success we use:
1. It starts with a corporate culture focused on the customer experience and driven from the top down. The CEO of our company recognizes the strategic value a positive customer experience plays in growing our business and regularly promotes the value added by the Customer Support organization. And it’s not lip service; she and her Executive team live that value by regularly spending time on the floor listening to customer calls and talking about the Support associate’s experience supporting the product.
2. Engage the teams to develop, implement, and take ownership of “voice of the customer” programs. Being an advocate for the customer to the rest of the organization is the single most important function we perform. We get over 5,000 pieces of customer feedback a day through Support calls, chats, and emails and what they tell us about our product, service, and company is gold. It’s our responsibility to pass that feedback, both the good and the bad, up the chain.
3. Focus performance expectations, daily activities, and coaching / developmental efforts to support delivery of an “awe-inspiring” customer experience. Be crystal clear in job descriptions about how employees are expected to contribute toward creating that superior customer experience and check in with them on a regular basis to evaluate their performance. Our mantra is that at the end of the year after we’ve delivered the annual performance appraisal, we ask the Support associate “Did that evaluation make sense?” And consistently the answer we get is “Yes, because that’s what you told me the last 11 months in a row!”
4. Reward them consistently, appropriately, and in a timely manner. It’s not just about the money. You need to find what really motivates a person and reward them with opportunities to fulfill that need. Maybe it’s a shot at a key position elsewhere in the company. Maybe it’s the chance to work on a cross-functional project team. Or maybe it’s just a few extra hours off the phone. Incentive packages need to encompass the entire spectrum of human needs, not just the desire for the almighty buck.
It’s a simple success formula steeped in common sense. Yet for whatever reason, we stumble across companies every day that just don’t get it.
Home Depot doesn’t seem to be able to do it, maybe we can help!
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Hi Larry,
ReplyDeleteI really like this post. You describe how your organization makes customer service important.
Unfortunately, I think that most companies screw up at step #1. The executives don't feel that there is value to establishing a customer-centric corporate culture; they see it as a cost.
It's great that your CEO is actually willing to spend time on the floor. I've been saying for a long time that every employee should have to spend some time listening to and answering customers.
Cheers!
Eric