Note: This post was originally published on LinkedIn Pulse.
Customer service leaders frequently ask me about employee empowerment. It sounds so good in theory, but it's often difficult in practice.
When I talk to them, there's usually something missing. Here's an example:
In a technical support contact center, each call was a roll of the dice.
The issue could be resolved in five minutes if one agent answered. That same issue would take more than 30 minutes to resolve if another agent handled the call.
The 5-minute agent was frustrated because she wanted to share the fix with her coworkers, but there wasn't a great way to do it. Ever since a major software update was released, the support team was flooded with calls. There didn't seem to be any time for team meetings or updating knowledge base articles.
The situation was also frustrating for the 30-minute agent because he wanted to solve customers issues faster.
Both agent were empowered in the traditional sense. They had the authority to go the extra mile to serve their customers.
Yet this authority fell short because they weren't truly empowered. Here's why.
The Old Definition of Empowerment
Ask most people to describe employee empowerment and they'll tell you it's entrusting your employees with the authority to do what's needed to serve their customers.
That's only part of it.
The 5-minute agent had the authority to deviate from standard procedures when she discovered a better way to solve an issue.
The 30-minute agent had the authority to take as much time as he needed to resolve the customer's issue so the customer wouldn't have to contact support a second time.
But there was something missing.
There wasn't a way for the 5-minute agent to easily share her knowledge with the 30-minute agent so he could solve the same issue just as quickly.
The New Definition of Empowerment
Employee empowerment really means giving people the authority, procedures, and resources needed to serve their customers.
Authority to go the extra mile to serve customers.
Procedures that represent best practices for serving customers effectively.
Resources such as knowledge and tools necessary to get the job done.
The support team was able to provide dramatically better support when they added much-needed procedures and resources to the authority they already had.
New procedures included:
A documented best practice solution that allowed all agents to solve the same problem in 5 minutes.
A standing meeting between the support team manager and development manager to review voice of customer feedback and get insights on new software releases. This allowed new issues to be identified, documented, and fixed. (Which, in turn, reduced call volume.)
Daily 5 minute huddles with support team agents that focused solely on top issues, so that the 5-minute agent could share her solution with her peers.
New resources included:
A regular bulletin of easy fixes was shared with the support team to promote new solutions to difficult problems.
An updated knowledge base that allowed the 30-minute agent to access the solution developed by the 5-minute agent.
Yes, all of this took time to put into place.
That time was quickly paid back because the 30-minute agent now became a 5-minute agent, too. Spread that out over an entire team and hours of time were saved per week.
That left plenty of time to identify, document, and share new solutions.
Put This Into Action
Customer service leaders frequently tell me the number one reason why employees don't go the extra mile is they don't realize how much they're allowed to do!
Here's a practical way to get started:
Jeremy Watkin, Head of Quality at the outsourced contact center FCR, told Shep Hyken on Amazing Business Radio that he regularly asks employees for the top customers requests they have to say "No" to.
He then works with the team to find ways for them to say "Yes." There are many ways this can be done:
Sharing alternative solutions
Clarifying existing authoring
Providing new authority, procedures, or resources
Another easy way to put this into action is to establish clear red lines. These are absolute limits for empowerment.
For example, The Ritz-Carlton is famous for empowering every associate to spend up to $2,000 to help a guest. That doesn't mean they automatically spend $2,000! It simply means $2,000 is the red line that can't be crossed.
The key to making this work is for managers to regularly discuss empowerment actions with employees. Employees should never get in trouble for staying under the red line. What managers can do, however, is have a collaborative discussion about the best ways to handle similar situations in the future.
You can learn more from this empowerment guide.
Do you have a customer service question I can answer? Contact me and I'll do my best to help!