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Establish Customer Empathy Rank-and-file workers often have little in common with customers: Many of USAA’s support reps aren’t in the military, and Four Seasons housekeepers can’t exactly afford the luxury chain’s pricey hotels. Both companies provide staffers with chances to understand the customer’s experience, such as tasting soldiers’ “meals ready to eat” or staying in the hotel for free. |
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Connect Pay To Service To keep customers’ needs in frontline managers’ minds, failures have to hit them where it hurts—in their wallets. Many of the names on our list, including Starbucks and Washington Mutual, make customer satisfaction a factor in setting pay. At Enterprise Rent-A-Car, branch managers can’t receive promotions unless their scores are at least the company average. |
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Adapt Tools To Your Needs Be careful of off-the-shelf employee assessment products, especially when it comes to hiring people on the front line. After Four Seasons tried out a standardized tool, it realized the test would have overlooked its most service-minded employees. Instead, it studied its best staffers to identify the attributes it would look for in new candidates. |
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Consider a Chief Customer Officer
While there’s danger in creating such a role—other managers could see customer service as something that isn’t part of their job—it can have an upside if structured right. Putting customers first requires collaboration in everything from marketing to operations to human resources and may require someone whose day-to-day job is to coordinate the effort. |
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Involve the Very Top No matter how effective a chief customer officer may be, participation from the top is key. At Cabela’s, Vice-Chairman James W. Cabela spends a few hours each day reading customer comments, hand-delivering the ones he wants resolved. Says Vice-President of Customer Relations Ron Spath: “When Jim Cabela puts them on your desk, you pay attention.” |
