Are the fries hot? The beer cold? Products that deliver as promised are key

Recently, during a connection through O'Hare Airport in Chicago, I approached a Starbucks for a cup of coffee. The barista said, "I'm just brewing a new pot, so I'm afraid there will be a two-minute wait, but of course it will then be free. Can you wait?" For free coffee, I could wait.

Compare this to another recent airport experience with a mechanical delay. The gate agent became short and rudely said, "I have no idea," when multiple passengers asked about the extent of a delay.

Was the first employee good and the second, bad? Absolutely not! In both cases, the employees were playing the cards they were dealt by management. 

As a business owner or manager, you are responsible for providing employees with the tools and guidance they need to deliver products and services to customers. Front-line employees are not robots and need the following five prerequisites to be successful in dealing with customers:

1. Customers who have proper expectations  - If customers have been misled by sales, employees can't be successful. 

2. Easy access to information - This includes information on key aspects of business, such as status of orders, price, and availability of merchandise.

3. Training and skills on how to answer predictable questions - This would include the rationale for policies, how to find inventory, and use all of your systems. They must also be able to explain how the merchandise they're selling works. 

4. Products that deliver what was promised - The french fries should be hot, the beer should be cold. 

5. Empowerment - The ability and authority to fix most customer issues on the spot, such as the barista in the Starbucks example. Situations vary and employees need flexibility. 

Even the best employee gets embarassed, and sometimes rude when asked for information they know they should have, but don't. One airline employee told me, "I should have known how long the repair would take, but no one in operations would tell me. When the 20th passenger asked, I just snapped at them because I was embarrassed to not know." In 90+ percent of cases when employees are rude, it's because they are backed into a corner by the customer's question and are embarrassed they can't properly respond to a reasonable request. 

Your employees are your conduit to your customers. If they lack the tools, authority, and information they need to give great service, they will fail. Not only do you lose customers and foster negative word of mouth, but you also lose good employees. Half of all voluntary turnover among good employees is due to them saying, "I'm not getting paid enough to take all these hassles." Not being able to satisfy customers is a major source of employee stress in most companies. 

At Amtrak, when the operations department changed procedures to first communicate in one minute the issue causing train stoppages to conductors before working to resolve the issue, one conductor told me, "It changed my life, I stopped looking stupid in front of 200 passengers."

Two Tips for Improving Employee Morale and Customer Service

1. Ask your employees their three biggest frustrations in giving good service. You will be shocked to hear a lack of simple tools, information, empowerment, or policies that do not make sense. If employees believe customers have unrealistic expectations or are too demanding, ask yourself, "Where does the customer get those expectations?" Often, it's your own marketing messages. Take action on one issue that they raise, and expect to see a huge positive impact because you have given them hope that things will change. 

2. The next time you get a complaint about rude or unresponsive employees, do not start by castigating the employees. Ask why they acted and said what they did.  Preface your question with belief that they are good people and employees and must have been lacking tools, information, or empowerment to give great service. Again, you will be surprised at their answer. 

John A. Goodman is vice chairman of Customer Care Measurement & Consulting in Alexandria, VA. A version of this post originally appeared in the Washington Business Journal. 

For more great tips, check out the Customer Service section of this blog, and be sure to download the John Goodman-penned ebook below for a look at creating a bottom line-enhancing Customer Service process.