We hear it all the time.
“Our TripAdvisor scores are falling”
“We are in the red zone with our brand for our customer service scores”
“Our employees just don’t seem to know what to do”
“Our employees just don’t seem to be motivated to deliver great customer service”
“What we need is some consistency – but good consistency, not bad!”
“We have a lot of turnover.”
“We just want to be better.”
Signature Worldwide has been helping to turn around customer service at the front desk and in reservations for 30 years. We’ve learned a lot of hard lessons along the way.
#1 – Training by itself doesn’t improve customer service.
#2 – If the GM/Leadership doesn’t set the example or make legendary service delivery a priority, there isn’t a lot we can do to help.
#3 – Change is really, really hard.
#4 – See # 3
#5 – See # 3
Where we started and what we have evolved into today would make a great mystery novel – Who Killed Great Customer Service?
Honestly, you might have contributed.
“What?” you say, “Me?” Possibly. Have you ever observed an employee doing a mediocre job and thought to yourself, “What is wrong with him?” but never said a word to the employee? If so, then you have contributed.
One of the biggest lessons we have learned is that silence means approval. Anytime you observe mediocrity or worse – truly poor performance, you are saying out loud to your team –“I DON’T CARE WHAT YOU DO!” Is that the message you were hoping to send?
But I can also hear you saying, “Oh my gosh, sometimes it is exhausting to call out every single employee every time they don’t rise to the occasion.” So true, so very true. And that is exactly why we are surrounded by mediocrity. Managers are just exhausted. Maybe that should be insight #6:
#6 – Most managers are really afraid to confront employees – or anyone for that matter! Better to ignore than cause any potential trouble.
So what is to be done?
There is a #7 that we have learned in all of our years of training. People fundamentally want to do a good job. They really do. All they need from you are the tools and a little recognition; they really will step up and do the rest.
Elevating your customer service levels is really not that hard – and here’s the best part, it is actually a lot of fun!
At Signature, we have evolved our programming to include two very different programs that we always deliver together:
Manager training for Coaching for Performance
A lot of companies offer the first part – front line skills training. But stop there and nothing really changes. The second part – providing the tools for managers to feel comfortable observing, commenting, praising and holding their teams accountable is really the key to long lasting change. And then there are a few more items we always include – measurement, ongoing coaching, celebrating, and continual learning in one form or another.
It’s a process. It isn’t the easiest, but honestly, it has to be easier than your status quo!
Talk to us and let us help you devise a plan to:
- reduce turnover
- develop leaders
- increase service scores
- improve TripAdvisor reviews
- and ultimately increase sales
Call us at 1-800-398-0518 or email us at [email protected] and we’ll do a free assessment of your online reputation.
Help is on the way.