How to keep customer service from falling apart when that person is missing
Have you managed with great effort that your clients receive a very good service, but you realize that everything depends on the work and the constant gaze of a certain key person? This situation is quite common, but be careful! hides a latent danger disguised as success.
Energy, innovation, drive and the ability to be concrete are great virtues in each member of your organization, and you must promote them. What you should not do is let your service hang from them every day.
A few days ago, I heard a client complain about how the accommodation service she usually used had degraded since they had changed the manager.
She was aware of every detail. Each client's requirement was assumed responsibly and he always found a way to satisfy it. But since that person left the company, nothing is the same.
Is the energy of people necessary, or can a service be built that dispenses with them?
Services are produced and delivered by people, and therefore, constitute a fundamental piece. Although technically they could be totally replaced by machines, the personal touch is an essential attribute of each service. Not only is it very difficult to automate most services, but taking away the personal relationship totally changes the perception of the customer.
We could say that people are the energy of service, and you need them motivated, active, willing to serve with excellence. But this does not mean that you leave the service completely dependent on them, their energy and will.
There are certain methods of work that you can, and should, define, establish, and perpetuate. This is what will make your service transcend the people who will give it life and energy at every moment of the day, at every stage of its evolution, in every generation of employees and leaders.
What do you use the energy of your people for? A change of focus
Having proactive staff, with a vocation to serve and motivated is an excellent "raw material" to deliver your service. But, what use do you make of that "raw material"?
A first option is that you use that energy to serve each client, to provide answers to their requirements, to make them live an unforgettable experience. Thus, you keep them satisfied and happy with your service, they will come back and make you good publicity abroad.
This happened for a long time with the client who was now complaining. What happened? They did not go beyond the short term.
The short term is the customer you receive today. The long term is all that you will receive in the future. What they did not do in this case was to think long term, and harness that energy to build a service system (in addition to serving current customers, which is sorely needed).
A service system is what will make that energy transcend to people. It is what allows you to capitalize on experiences, positive and negative, for the benefit of the entire team. It is what manages to add new members to the knowledge that is already shared by all.
In your organization, are you using the energy of your team for the short term, running the risk of everything falling apart when the key people are not there? Or are you taking advantage of that positive energy to build a solid service system that transcends people and capitalizes on learning, multiplying the benefits for the organization and each of its members?
