Make ‘Em Say ‘Wow!’ Tips for Building a Strong Service Team

great service can actually elicit a physical reaction? Well, it can! A recent American Express Service Study found that 63 percent of its 1,620 respondents said they felt an increased heart rate when they just thought about great service. And for 53 percent of those studied, great service caused them to have the same cerebral response that results from feeling loved. Te trick, of course, says Ron Kaufman, founder and chairman of UP! Your Service, is developing a customer service team that has the skills to provide such an overwhelming reaction among your customers.

W Te truth is, in many of today’s indu-

stries and many of the world’s biggest companies, service can be downright disappointing, according to Kaufman, author of the New York Times bestseller “Uplifting Service: Te Proven Path to Delighting Your Customers, Colleagues, and Everyone Else You Meet.”

“We spend hours on hold when we

just need an answer to a simple question,” he says. “Store clerks seem angry with us when we tell them a mistake was made. And the list could go on and on.

“If you want to combat this at your

business, you have to make providing great service a point of pride for your employees. Service is taking action to create value for someone else — and when that is the driving force for your staff and your organization, everyone will be happier.”

E ALL LOVE receiving great customer service. That’s no surprise. But did you know that

What can you do right now to streng-

then your service team? Read on for tips from Kaufman:

• Give them the leeway to make in- the-moment decisions. “Empower- ment” is a buzzword in business, and in theory, we all understand that improved service is unlikely to happen inside or outside of an organization without it. Yet many leaders and employees seem to fear it. If a leader is not confident in her people, she doesn’t want to empower them with greater authority or a larger budget. And if an employee is not confident in his abilities and decisions, he often does not want the responsibility of being empowered.

“Don’t overcomplicate service,” says Kaufman. “Work with your employees to switch their focus from ‘What should I do?’ to ‘Who am I serving and what do they value?’ And then let them know you trust them to make the right decision so that they feel empowered to act. If an employee feels a customer should get a discount, either because a mistake was made or because they’re a great and loyal customer, then let them. You can monitor this system by reviewing situations with your team to ensure that in-the-moment decisions lead to the result everyone wants: happy and loyal customers, confident staff and a successful organization.”

• Have mistake meet-ups. Another big part of empowerment is demystifying the fear that comes along with making a mistake.

“Work with your employees to switch their focus from ‘What should I do?’ to ‘Who am I serving and what do they value?’ And then let them know you trust them to make the right decision so that they feel empowered to act.”

– Ron Kaufman, founder and chairman, UP! Your Service.

“Have a meeting and say, ‘We want learning from mistakes to be part of our culture,’” Kaufman advises. “Have your leaders kick off the meeting by saying, ‘I’ll go first. Here’s the biggest mistake I made last week. Here’s what I learned from it. What can I learn from you?’ Ten, everyone shares in that way, and, boy, does that make them feel safer. It gives them the freedom to try new ideas and to take new actions.”

• Eradicate cumbersome policies and procedures. In “Uplifting Service,” Kaufman writes about an experience he had while dining at a luxury resort in California. Te waiter explained that there was a special menu that night, spotlighting several of the chef’s signature dishes. But Kaufman’s guests were vegetarians and had nothing to choose from on the menu, and Kaufman himself had been craving a particular salmon salad. So, they asked to order from the regular menu. Obviously uncomfortable, the waiter whispered, “If you go back to your room and order room service, then you can order the salmon salad or anything else on the [room service] menu, but I can’t serve you those choices here tonight.”

In trying to spotlight the chef’s menu, the restaurant had created a major roadblock for the people who worked there — the waiter wasn’t given permission to serve, points out Kaufman. “Like this waiter, most frontline staff members are taught to follow policies and procedures and are hesitant to ‘break the rules.’ Yet some rules should be broken, changed, or at least seriously bent from time to time.”

• Acknowledge achievements. Com- pliments are highly motivating and inspire employees to keep coming up with new and better service ideas. Tat’s why you should actively solicit feedback from customers, and regularly share positive comments

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