Just one in four of the employees who deliver your customer experience really care about the job, customers and company. It’s unsettling, but you can avoid the turmoil disengagement can cause.
Half of employees are not engaged in their work, and another 20% are actively disengaged, a recent Gallup poll found.
Those actively disengaged employees — who pretty much hate their jobs and the people they deal with — could actually do things to hurt the customer experience and thwart the success of the company. Those who just aren’t engaged are likely letting details important to customer satisfaction slip through the cracks.
Leaders have the power to overcome
The good news: Customer service leaders set the tone for engagement in their workforce. You have the power to keep front-line employees excited to be at work and committed to delivering a great customer experience.
Here’s how:
- Encourage teamwork. Most people prefer to be part of a group for the social purposes. Help them work together more often by rewarding collaboration, idea-sharing and contributions to common goals.
- Give them more power. Hand out assignments, give guidance and monitor the progress of employees who have proven themselves as reliable and self-reliant. Avoid interfering so they can do their best work.
- Allow experimenting. Let them try new things, tweak processes and share unique ideas — without penalizing them for failures.
- Set clear goals. Include front-line employees in the process of setting department and personal goals so they are fully vested in the outcome. Always let them know what they’re working toward and why it’s important to the company, your customers and their success.
- Offer opportunities to learn. Provide year-round opportunities to learn so employees see that you value their talents and knowledge, and want them to grow within your organization.
