Reality Check Blog

IS CUSTOMER SAT TAUGHT OR AN INTRINSIC VALUE?

A Large-Systems Perspective

A few weeks before Labor Day, I was in New York City. Overall it was a great experience. It was amazingly clean, safe, friendly, and fairly quiet (e.g. likely due to fines now imposed on irritated drivers who think horns are a polite way of ‘encouraging’ other drivers to step on it). Being in the field of organizational development for nearly three decades I tend to look at most things from a large-systems perspective – Yes, NY is a large complex system.

I was amazed at the courtesy and competency of almost everyone that we came into contact with from the hotel housekeeper, concierge, security guard, hotel’s restaurant food servers, doorman, etc. All appeared focused on delivering-on-the-promise (e.g. excellence in quality of service and products delivered), which crossed over to Broadway musical ticket ushers, boutique restaurant servers and chefs, tour guide, even NY’s infamous cab drivers etc.  American wine at $18.00 a glass was a bit of a pop, so dined mostly outside of the hotel, which was a solid ‘win’, the boutique restaurants were varied and the food great. Nothing like NY pizza!

It would be easy to assume that overall excellence was due to many of the individuals relying on gratuity as a major source of their income, but likely not a large percentage.  I assume those working for the hotel, received a healthy dose of multiple training classes in customer service, others outside of the hotel chain likely did not, but still provided excellent service.  More importantly, all of the individuals we came into contact with had only a limited encounter with the customer, but were able to significantly impact the organization in its ability to deliver against its core competencies.

During a period of several days, there were only two mishaps, one a city transit bus driver provided the wrong directions, taking us on a jaunt of three city blocks out of our way to purchase an additional transit ticket, which could have been readily available within the gates of a well known NY tourist destination and the other an exasperated front desk hotel clerk who twice demonstrated a loud sign of exasperation when requested for assistance.

Neither was a biggie in the overall scheme of things.  The transit issue is a quick fix, assuring bus drivers are aware of transit ticket availability at main tourist destinations and or having signage or flyers readily available on the bus.  

Zeroing in on the hospitality desk clerk, he or she is one of the first and last people the guest comes into contact with on entering and leaving the hotel and has the ability to make a positive or negative lasting impression on the guest experience.

The larger question becomes is seeking to serve an internal driver or one that can be taught, encouraged or  discouraged?

• Was the desk clerk provided so many menial tasks to complete that the individual became focused on completion of the tactical part of the job versus serving the customer or did she/he simply lack the understanding of the bigger picture and his/her primary role?

Perhaps the Question is Bigger than the Above…

• 1. Does Headquarters collect and respond to needed data real-time to make improvements on performance or does everyone pretty much assume that someone else is taking care of it?

• 2.  Does headquarters incorporate policies and procedures that exasperate employees and prevent them from performing at optimum, thus decreasing effectiveness and motivation? There’s a difference in having employees go through a treadmill of activities that are largely meaningless versus ones that can actually improve the customer experience and likely increase brand loyalty?

• 3. Who is responsible for assuring strategic alignment from a systemic perspective both at headquarters and field locations or does management in the field mainly support strategy thrown over the wall?

• 4. Is the training group strategic and does it have a systemic view of the organization, including focus on real-time training that matters to the guest; customer, or what headquarters believes to be important?

•  5. Is the training delivered real-time and measured on a quarterly or semi-annual basis for actual performance improvement? 

•  6. Is it value-add or activity driven? Are real metrics versus smile sheets utilized?

What would happen if headquarters sent a questionnaire via e-mail to every guest asking for their feedback on all critical touch points?  How about doing the same for employees, where they provide feedback regarding what is and is not working? (E.g. no smile sheets*, but rather timely and meaningful data?) With technology, it would be easy to tabulate on a quarterly and or semi-annual basis by each hospitality unit and then create a plan for implementation.

*Smile sheets –questionnaires created and or data tabulated to provide positive impression

One of my favorite clients once mentioned that he would like to pop-me-in-my-nose (lovingly of course)  if he heard the statement below one more time, so Cris…this one is for you… value-added results and impact that has been achieved in a sense of quality and urgency….

The above saying has been a staple of mine for almost two decades.  Why? Too often, I see organizations drift from one flavor-of-the-month initiative to the next and celebrate the ‘activities’ that have occurred versus assessing the value-added results and impact (both positive and negative) of the initiative on critical stakeholders. Let me explain.

An individual requires a use of the paramedics.  The paramedics get caught in a traffic jam and arrive too late (urgency).  Perhaps the best of intentions were present, which culminated in a lot of activities - but the value-added results didn’t happen.  Let’s look at it another way.  The paramedics arrive on time, but never had adequate training (quality). In either case, a value-added result wasn’t achieved.

The best intentions don’t necessarily translate into Value-Added Results -VAR©) unless there is true alignment, including proactively taking into consideration likely cause and effect scenarios that will likely impact the above.  Think of incidents that you may have been involved in.  Would love if you would share some examples and or ask questions.

Here are a few examples to get you started:

• An organization downsizes a department and the remaining individuals have so much on their plates they can no longer produce the required amount of work in a Sense of Quality and Urgency  (SQU©) – efficiency, in this case headcount - has been traded for department effectiveness.

• A sales division meets milestones by getting new products and services rolled out during the first quarter of the new year; however, the new incentive plan that would have encouraged multiple functions to work together more effectively isn’t rolled out until the last quarter.

• An organization’s comp plan is suppose to be competitive - and it is - but on the very low end of the scale, resulting in the organization forfeiting a lot of great talent to its competition.  

 Is Value-Add Results Critical?  You Bet!  But, more important, we are so much more than numbers.  We each have and can make a viable contribution.  It’s about how one shows up. Integrity. Commitment. Trust.

From Roberta
Today’s organizational environment is complex and there are multiple issues. Two of the biggest issues concern the following:

First, trust for the organization is at an all time low - which also includes trust between management and employees. When management or employees are faced with environments that promote a culture of “I’m valued….but you’re easily expendable”, this usually translates into encouraging and rewarding short-term results, marginal performance that may be masked by healthy shareholder returns, and an environment in which ‘delivering-on-the-promise’ (e.g. quality products and or services) becomes more of a PR focus than a way work is actually accomplished. Bottom line -it is a lapse in integrity on multiple fronts.

Will the organization’s ability to attract and retain great people be influenced? … absolutely….regardless of whether its boomers, grads, current employees or the current unemployed…. Most people want to make a positive contribution…commitment…but  there needs to be trust.
Second, outsourcing and downsizing,  while increasingly fashionable; does not mean or should not mean focus on efficiency at the expense of effectivenesss, nor should it equate to cookie-cutter strategies that provide a quick fix at the expense of true organization effectiveness.
Impact of the above? Organizations will begin seeing an increase in loss of differentiation and an increase in commoditization, one in which price could easily become the deciding point – rather than brand, quality and service levels that once provided the organization a distinct competency edge, brand image and competitive niche’. Such short-term thinking will further impact an organization’s core competencies, its values, manner in the way it conducts business, customer satisfaction and loyalty, stakeholder satisfaction, commitment to and from employees, investment in long-term innovation, etc. With loss of differentiation, focus will increase more on how many heads are within in a given function, rather than the overall group’s effectiveness, commitment, quality of products and services produced and commitment both to and from employees.
The good news is twofold. First, there will likely be a major increase in entrepreneurial type companies that will create a strong following, unbeatable customer service, healthy cultures and committed employees. Second, existing organizations committed to long-term results; effectiveness at every level of the organization, ability to deliver on the promise to customers, and viewing employees more than expendable numbers, will likely be the ones to thrive, retain both customer and employee loyalty.