November 16, 2005
Does Employee Empowerment Work?
A few years ago my colleague purchased a camera from Macy’s. Unfortunately the camera didn’t work. She went back to Macy’s to get the problem fixed, but because the camera was a discontinued item, Macy’s told her that they would not be able to help her get the camera fixed.
Having heard about Nordstrom’s legendary customer service, she decided to put them to the test. She walked into Nordstrom’s with her broken camera, despite the fact that Nordstrom’s does not sell cameras, to see what the reaction would be. When a sales consultant asked if she could be of assistance, she told her about the troublesome camera and the unhelpful response from Macy’s.
The sales consultant told her manager about the problem. Upon confirming the issues with my colleague, the manager said he might be able to help so he took the camera and asked my colleague to come back in a few days. Two days later, the manager presents a brand new replacement camera to my colleague for free! Now that is legendary customer service!
Clearly the Nordstrom’s manager went above and beyond the call of duty to solve this problem. Why? The simple answer would seem to be that my colleague was an important customer of Nordstrom’s so they made every effort to keep her happy. But that was not the case—it was her first time in the store.
This manager was empowered to use his judgment on how to best handle customer situations. Most organizations, however, don’t put in place all of the necessary elements to make it work for them. Three things that often go wrong are:
·Lack of clear policies and procedures for dealing with customers
·Policies and procedures are not aligned with customer focused behaviors/initiatives resulting in confusion and punishment
·Employees become fearful of taking action
In order to make empowerment work, the following things must be done correctly:
·Develop clear service strategies by customer segment
·Set clear boundaries around what must be done, can be done, and cannot be done in serving customers
·Review policies and procedures to ensure support of required behaviors or service initiatives
·Provide employees with information about business situations that affect the customer and their daily work
·Reward and recognize people for doing good work for customers
·Use overzealous service initiatives/actions as learning/coaching opportunities
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So how did the manager get a new camera for my colleague? Turns out the manager had a friend who ran a camera store. His friend carried the camera line and was able to take the defective camera and exchange it for a working one at no cost. The manager’s initiative turned an unhappy Macy’s customer into a loyal Nordstrom’s shopper. It also created significant positive word of mouth for Nordstrom’s as my colleague, by her own estimation, has told this story to over 1,000 people in the customer service and management training programs she has taught since then.
A little initiative goes a long way. Since it is difficult to judge which prospects will turn out to be long term loyal customers and passionate advocates for your company when they first walk through the door, you are better off assuming that everyone has the potential to be an important customer and treat them with the same care that you treat your best customers. You never know how many people they will tell about the experience.
Posted by Greg Robinson at 10:27 AM | Comments (2)
