I was in a retailer recently and noticed the manager on duty was talking to a customer on the phone, explaining basically, that the customer is wrong, there was nothing she could do about it, it was company policy and that's that.
I was surprised because this is just plain wrong. If you are running a business and have rules set up for your convenience and not the customers, you better take a second look at the effect those rules are having on your bottom line.
Take a look at this recent email:
Hi Scott,
Welcome to this week's business insight by Shep Hyken. This
week's insight is titled:
Operations Driven Versus Customer Driven
Are we an operations driven organization, or a customer driven
organization? We have a choice.
1. Do the operational standards and policies of our organization
have regulations that are clear to every employee? And, is it
clear the employees are not to deviate from the policy?
2. Do employees have the freedom to change operational standards
in order to get or keep a guest? This is known as empowerment
and is the fundamental difference between an operations driven
company and a customer driven company.
Goal: Remove the safety net of saying, "I'm sorry I can't do
that. It is against our policy." Instead the employee has the
attitude, "How can I modify the operational norm to give this
guest what he/she wants?" The only way to achieve this is to be
customer driven.
If you aren't driven by your customers' needs and wants, they
will find a company that is.
Our next set of tips will focus on four specific ways to create
the customer driven environment.
Copyright © – Shep Hyken, Shepard Presentations
Shep Hyken, CSP is a professional speaker and author who works
with organizations who want to build loyal relationships with
their customers and employees. For more information on Shep's
speaking programs, books and tapes contact (314)692-2200 or
shep@hyken.com. (www.hyken.com)
Shepard Presentations, LLC
711 Old Ballas Road, Suite 215
St. Louis, MO 63141
Friday, December 26, 2008
Where is your Focus
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1 comment:
Great post - it reminds me of an experience I had in my first real job after graduating from college sooo many years ago.
I had been hired into the management trainee program at Sears and very early in my training I had been assigned to shadow one of the 'shining stars'. This young, energetic department manager had posted some of the best turn around results in the corporation at the time and it was made quite clear to me that this opportunity for me was HUGE.
As luck would have it, my first day with him happened to coincide with a huge sale in his department and the department was jammed from open to close with buyers. Merchandise was flying off the shelves and customers were asking if there was anymore merchandise in the backroom.
Now I thought this was a great thing - selling lots of product is what it's all about, right?
Well, I quickly learned that the department manager had received a 'special command performance' from HQ and he had to perform an immediate inventory of all product in his department.
Now, try to imagine getting an accurate count when darn near every bit of inventory is being purchased!
Well, about an hour into the day, this very frustrated manager looked at the activity within his department, glanced at the inventory paperwork he had to complete and then said some of the most amazing words I have ever heard.
"Retail would be so much easier without customers."
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