While we should hope that every business wants to deliver a top-shelf customer experience, complete with great products, convenience, and a well-trained staff, far too many fall short of these lofty standards. Worse still, there are many companies that seem to have accepted their shortcomings as being necessary, especially in a climate of economic recession, inflation, supply-chain delays, and understaffing.
This is foolish and short-sighted. Moreover, it’s indicative of bad leadership.
Excuses
There are a few explanations for why businesses provide a poor experience. As Shep Hyken explains in his article, Customer Service Isn’t the Problem. A Bad Culture Is the Problem, these companies might not have the knowhow or the right people to implement a better experience. Or perhaps they can’t live up to the comparisons made with high-end brand experiences offered by industry titans like “Amazon, Lexus, Nordstrom,” and so on.
Disappointingly, some may have even chosen “not to invest in the people and tools it takes to meet the needs and expectations of their customers” on purpose—perhaps for those excuses mentioned above, like economic pressure and understaffing.
Whether by choice or by accident, however, the result is the same: disappointed customers. And as we should all know by now, an unhappy customer is not a loyal one. He or she can and will move on to the competition, and you would be wrong to blame him or her.
It Starts Up Top
“The culture of an organization is defined by leadership,” Hyken reminds us. “It sets the tone and direction for others to follow. Success doesn’t happen by accident.” This means that when a company offers a bad customer experience, the person most directly responsible is the one in charge. After all, he or she was the one who hired the employees, picked the products, and set the standards.
True, the external pressures of the economy are outside of our individual control. However, we have to admit to ourselves that a bad experience isn’t just because of delays, rising prices, or anything like that. A well-trained staff that is transparent and communicative assuages many of these problems; on the other hand, if those employees are not trained, not held accountable, and not empowered to advocate for their customers, then they cannot succeed.
This all begins with leadership. Everything else is symptom.
Wisdom
An old proverb tells us that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. This applies to your business’s improvement plan. In other words, progress requires action. While you might wish you had started this process before it became a problem, let us remember another proverb: while the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the second-best time is now. In other words, don’t delay any longer.
Real leaders can’t simply pay lip-service to these principles; they must act, starting now.
To that end, we humbly suggest investing in your customer experience through services like mystery shopping and leadership training. The former will tell you what you need to know about your products and services from the eyes of your customers, and the latter will teach you how best to use that knowledge. These tools will empower your business through self-scouting and accountability, and they will set the tone for the level of quality you expect from your staff.
Want to learn more? Please explore our website and consider sending us a message. We’d love to hear from you, to learn more about your business and what you hope to accomplish in the near future. Together, let’s begin this journey—starting today. Step-by-step, we’ll help you achieve your goal of a superior customer experience through a strong and healthy company culture.
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