Excellence Every Day
Chapter 1, In Search of Excellence?
While most executives and managers attempt to control the customer experience, ultimately, the task of providing great customer service falls on their employees. In this chapter, customer experience expert Lior Arussy explains how some organizations are changing the way they approach customer service excellence, and what executives need to do to make sure their employees are striving to provide excellent customer service every day.
Excellence Every Day, Chapter 1
Table of contents:
Achieving excellence through customer service
Employee-driven customer service success
As I was waiting to check in for a flight on a major U.S. airline, the person
in front of me began acting rudely toward the airline representative
handling our line. The nature of the problem was not clear to me, but
the passenger was screaming and yelling, and, occasionally, I heard a
profane word being uttered. The airline representative remained calm
and composed, making a conscious decision not to respond in kind.
Watching this interaction from a distance, I was amazed by her ability
to stay calm despite the customer's repeated verbal assaults. When it was
my turn, I smiled and congratulated her for the way she had navigated
the storm. "If that happened to me, I would probably have lost my temper
and responded to this rude guy in an even ruder fashion," I said
encouragingly. She looked at me unmoved and replied dryly, "Don't
worry, sir; his luggage is going to Alaska." She then asked if I had any
luggage to check—to which I responded with an unequivocal "No,"
while tightly clutching my bag.
 |
|
| Copyright © 2008 by Lior Arussy. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Published by Information Today, Inc., Medford, NJ 08055. For more information or to order contact: 800/300-9868 or 609/654-6266, visit Information Today or email custserv@infotoday.com. |
|
|
|
|
The scene I witnessed at this airline counter is representative of the
shift in power taking place in organizations across the spectrum.
Individual employees are taking power away from the top executives. In
spite of efforts by executives to control brand and the customer experience,
excellence is being determined—and delivered—by individuals,
on their own terms. In a world where the importance of personal connections
is increasingly emphasized, an organization's strength comes
directly from its employees who choose to deliver superior performance.
Organizational excellence (or lack thereof ) is, ultimately, the sum total
of the accumulated impact of decisions made every day by individuals.
Taken together, these decisions—what I call "Daily Choices"—are the
key to an organization's competitiveness and strength.
My experience on line at the airport is a great example of the Daily
Choice: At the moment of truth, an employee made a decision that
defined the company's success in the eyes of a customer. Every day, millions
of similar choices either to deliver superior service or to sustain
mediocrity by following generic rules and processes are being made by
individuals. It is these millions of daily choices, not corporate strategic
decisions, that ultimately account for companies' superior performance
and success.
To drive excellence, your organization does not need another topdown
strategic plan, but, rather, willing employees who have been given
permission to perform. Excellence cannot be mandated from above, it
rises from the bottom up. Your employees need to want to deliver excellence.
So, don't rush to appoint a CEO (Chief Excellence Officer) in
your organization; this will not be one of those top-down, enforced
activities. At the same time, excellence will not result from the random
actions of your employees. (Random acts of excellence will not be sufficient
to keep an organization going.)
The roles of organizations and managers will not disappear, but they
will evolve in the pursuit of excellence. These changing roles will serve
to define and create an environment that encourages employees to
choose excellence. Managers need to create an excellence-enabling environment,
an environment in which delivering excellence is not the
exception to the rule or something in the domain of the "suckers."
Enabling excellence will require you to give employees permission to
perform. You'll need to provide them with sound information for
decision-making, and empower them by granting authority and the
freedom to make mistakes.
Continue to the next section: Employee-driven customer service success
Download Chapter 1, In Search of Excellence?
Read other excerpts and download more sample chapters from our CRM and call center bookshelf
