Employee motivation is a pillar that must support an adequate service strategy, so that it is not only a brilliant idea of management, but it is lived and breathed in every corner of the organization. I share 3 keys to get motivated and committed employees with your service strategy.
Employee motivation is a pillar that must sustain an adequate service strategy, so that it is not only a brilliant idea of management, but it is lived and breathed in every corner of the organization, which is put into practice, to the behaviors and actions of each one towards the external and internal client.
But we know that staff motivation is one of the most sensitive aspects, the one that generally costs the most to implement, and also a reason for skepticism on the part of management. A colleague and friend asked me about the case of a company that she advises, and that she is proposing to implement now a service strategy.
It is a commercial company, with long-standing employees and resistant to change, as happens in so many organizations!
How to motivate employees to work in the service culture
She told me that the proposal is to work with them, to make them part of the process, to favor the ideas that will come from them, to spread this way of working…, but these arguments are not enough to convince the management.
Why would they change now? What is so different that we are going to do? Why would they receive the words differently now?
This approach has led me to analyze what is the key to produce that change, that commitment, to produce a different result than what is normally achieved.
Key # 1: A message that expresses coherence and decision
As a first point, management must be sure that a service strategy is what they need to differentiate themselves in an increasingly competitive market. In this way, you will develop your own strategy, and link it to organizational goals. It is a strategy that helps the success of the organization, it is not something that goes in parallel. In this way, you will be able to tell your employees, clearly, that they have decided to take that course, and that you need to count on them to survive in the long term (the company survives and grows = its employees survive and grow).
The message must be firm and consistent, and must be reflected at all hierarchical levels. If this does not happen, contradictions appear that confuse the staff. We ask for quality, but we reward for speed… We ask that they serve customers, but we sanction them when they make a decision that benefits the customer and not the company…
Key # 2: Goal-aligned rewards
All kinds of rewards, from cash prizes to verbal recognition, must reinforce the message that is conveyed with the words. Joining a culture of service may be a bit strange at first for employees, but they will only understand what it means exactly when they see what attitudes, behaviors and results are rewarded.
If an employee made the decision to compensate a client out of the "internal rules", because he considered that, if he did not do it, that client of years was lost, the management has two ways:
- Punish the employee for breaking the rules, and generate an unprofitable operation for the organization, or… Congratulate the employee because he understood that valuable customers must be retained, even though he has generated extra expenses to achieve it. Then they can analyze together a compensation policy that allows them, in the future, to take actions to retain the client, within certain criteria that satisfy everyone.
Key # 3: Identify service leaders and expose them
The service culture develops as a gradual process. But one of the most important motivators that determine people's behavior is social pressure. If we are in an environment where everyone is educated, we tend to behave with education. If we are in an environment where everyone seeks their interests, we become selfish. We repeat the behaviors that we see around, and that are accepted as valid by that social environment.
If there is a work environment of neglect, of disinterest in customer service, this environment forms a current that drags. However, when we convey a message that we want other behaviors, we have to rescue those people who immediately grasp this message, and start working with them, to expose them to everyone as examples to follow.
Smartly choose the pioneers of change, train them and put them to generate results. And here we must be careful not to provoke the opposite effect with these measures: envy, which can lead to greater resistance. Always with a message open to all, that shows recognition of the actions that these pioneers are implementing (and not to the people themselves). This will give them the assurance that everyone who does the same will be recognized the same way (and everyone wants to be recognized).
Thus, the process will be covered with justice, and not with favoritism, but a justice that encourages joining the desired behaviors and attitudes. Not blind justice, which rewards for years of service or hours of work. Those awards are from the past.
In summary, a coherent and clear message of the way forward, recognitions aligned to the service strategy, and a gradual process of generating the service culture, with clear messages of approval towards those who assume the desired attitudes and behaviors.
On this basis, we can organize concrete activities of involvement, teamwork, improvement projects, but knowing that we work on firm foundations.
