One of the (if not the) top reasons that I see many customer service initiatives fail to reach their full potential is due to a lack of accountability. Too often managers ignore substandard service performance from an employee (or employees) because the manager is either uncomfortable with confrontation, worried the employee might quit, or they believe they'll handle the problem at performance appraisal time - which is absolutely the worst time to surprise an employee with any performance issue. My all-time favorite leadership quote is this: Intolerable service exists because intolera [...]

This photo of Walt Disney at Disneyland (probably in the late 1950s) is my all-time favorite Disney photo. The message it communicates is timeless – effective leaders walk-the-talk.   I like to imagine a new Disneyland cast member in training at that time, hearing his trainer explain the importance of keeping the park clean. Glancing up, the new cast member sees Walt Disney himself picking up trash. Training doesn’t get any better than that.  [...]

I’ve come to the conclusion that I must look a lot older than I really am. In the last year I’ve had at least three people approach me after one of my presentations and ask if I had ever worked with Walt Disney. Worked with Walt Disney? I was seven years old when Walt died, for crying out loud. So no, I never worked with Walt. But I can say without exaggeration that I owe my career to him. Without Walt Disney I wouldn’t have been blessed to spend 20-year [...]

In one of my customer service workshops not long ago, I shared some of the practices I learned while working at Walt Disney World. A clearly agitated participant stood up during the question and answer segment. “I’m a university professor,” he announced, “and I’d NEVER encourage any of my students to work at Disney World. They turn employees into robots and stifle all creativity.” He then stood there in anticipation of my response. Although he hadn’t really asked a question and seemed more interested in provoking, I had to admit it wasn’t the first time I had heard the c [...]

In this video I describe four steps that I believe any organization can use for creating a culture of customer service excellence. Don't let the simplicity of these steps fool you; they work! If you receive my blog via email, you may need to click here to view the video.   [...]

Have you seen the television show, Undercover Boss? It's a great show in which CEOs go "undercover" to work jobs on the front lines of their organizations, often with hilarious results. Even if you haven't seen the show, the following video shares some thoughts on the "real work" being done in any organization. If you receive my blog via email, you may need to click here to view the video.   [...]

Are effective leaders born or developed? That question has been debated in thousands of books, articles, speeches, and forums. While there are some characteristics effective leaders may have acquired early in life (I don’t believe they were born with them); I believe that leadership skills can be developed later in life. And these skills aren’t based on personality or charisma, nor are they dictated by a person’s DiSC or Myers-Briggs profile. No matter their style, effective leaders do three things very well. Effective leaders Operationalize the Organization&rsq [...]

In the spirit of full disclosure, this post is an update of a print article I wrote awhile back. But several experiences recently have made me want to post it in my blog. The Frontline Equals the Bottom Line Most of us have heard the expression, "The frontline equals the bottom line," as it pertains to a company’s employees.  It means that as far as the customer is concerned, a company's frontline employees ARE the company.  After all, rarely do customers come in contact with the executives of an organization.  Those frontline employees are truly the face of the organizati [...]

Due to the recession, employee promotions have been few and far between for most organizations. But as things begin to turn, promotions will likely start making a comeback. And now is the time to be thinking about your company/division/department promotion strategy. Nothing communicates more quickly what an organization truly values than the decision on who gets promoted. While all promotion decisions are important, the first promotion to a position of leadership is arguably the most important. The frontline supervisor has more power regarding the day-to-day customer experience than most execu [...]

One of the most challenging questions I get is, "How much will improving the customer experience add to our company's bottom line?" The problem is that many factors come into play regarding the level of success of a service improvement initiative, not the least of which is the level of organizational commitment to the effort. I just read an interesting blog post on the subject by Bruce Temkin titled, What if Custo [...]

When some friends and colleagues encouraged me to write my second book, Lessons From the Mouse, I was scared out of mind. What if it turned out that everything I knew had been written in my first book, Unleashing Excell [...]

The full effect of the Gulf oil disaster likely won’t be known for a long time. Already, industries such as fishing and tourism are taking the hit, and it appears to be only the beginning. Scientists and engineers are worried that Gulf currents might carry the oil around Florida and along the east coast. Pretty scary stuff. The finger pointing is well under way, and it sounds like there’s plenty of blame to go around, but I think it’s clear that the BP brand has a long road to recovery. While BP as an organization might deserve the consequences of the situation, I can’t help b [...]

When asked to describe their corporate culture, business leaders sometimes struggle to answer. Responses often run the gamut from vague generalities such as "we have a culture of putting the customer first" to recitations of the company's mission statement. I believe that you can see a company's culture simply by watching what employees are doing and how they do it. In short, a company's culture is defined by what people do within the organization. The critical point of course, is to have a culture by design rather than by default. Many organizations simply allow their culture to evolve with no p [...]

My post about my recent experiences with Southwest Airlines, The Curse of Arrogance, seems to have struck a nerve with some folks, especially Southwest Airlines flight attendants. Another site picked up the thread and included several comments from flight attendants who placed the blame on obnoxious or abusive passengers. I agree; no employee of any organization should put up with abuse. But the situations I observed involved no abusive passengers. As I wrote in the original post, I've recently started to notice more and more Southwest flight attendants being s [...]

An article appeared in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal titled, "Firms Keep Brakes on Hiring: Unsure About Strength of Upturn, Employers Produce More With Fewer Workers." The article notes that while hiring always lags behind economic recoveries, this time the lag is likely to be worse. Doubts about the strength of the recovery and concerns about the potential costs of health care reform are two of the reasons the WSJ says companies may be slower to replenish their [...]

From 10+ years of working with organizations on customer service improvement initiatives, I can say without hesitation that the number one ingredient for success is top management commitment. While an improvement initiative can begin anywhere in the organization, top management support quickly becomes required for the initiative to gain any real traction. Without such support, the organization's naysayers and skeptics will eventually squeeze the life out of the effort. The situation is effectively explained in an excellent book, Chief Customer Officer: Getting Past Lip Service to Passionate [...]

Starting a customer service improvement initiative is challenging for most organizations. I've seen countless leaders so frustrated over where to begin that they don't begin at all. The question of how to get things started freezes some initiatives in their tracks, and what could've been a successful improvement initiative never gets out of the gate. Here are three ideas for getting started: Decide what metrics you want to affect with the initiative - A bank might focus on "share of wallet" metrics, or customer retention. A hospital can focus on patient satisfaction scores or [...]

The link between employee engagement and customer engagement has been well established. So, check this out with that link in mind. A Harris Interactive poll of 23,000 U.S. residents employed full-time in key industries and key functional areas found the following: Only 37% said they have a clear understanding of what their organization is trying to achieve and why. Only one in five was enthusiastic about their organization's goals. Only one in five said they have a clear "line of sight" between their tasks and their organization's goals. Only 15% felt that their organization f [...]

I recently came across a verse in the Tao Te Ching, a book of ancient Chinese Philosophy written over 2600 years ago, that caused me to take a few moments (over a great cigar) to reflect on the qualities of great leaders. The verse states: The best leader is one whose existence is barely known.Next best is one who is loved and praised.Next is one who is feared.Worst of all is a leader who is despised. If you fail to trust people, they won't turn out to be trustworthy. Therefore, guide others by quietly relying on Tao. Then, when the work is done, the peop [...]

Here's a quote to pass around to your leadership team: "When bosses are in the habit of giving praise, employees get in the habit of being praiseworthy."Barbara Farfan When an organization sets lofty customer service objectives, employees are often asked to do things in different ways - sometimes in ways that may be out of their comfort zones. And that's good. Breakthroughs usually only occur when we are willing to move out our comfort zones. I believe the single most powerful thing a leader can do when he or she observes an employee stepping up to achieve the organizatio [...]

The CEO letter at the beginning of almost every company's annual report will include the statement, "Our employees are our most valuable asset." That is a true statement - our employees are the organization's most valuable asset. But just saying it isn't what makes it true. Through their behaviors, leaders must demonstrate that their employees are truly valued. So, here is a pet peeve. I can't stand it when leaders refer to their employees as "headcount." I don't know for sure, but it's likely that the term came from the cattle industry. Headcount = how many of head of cattle o [...]

In my  previous blog post, Why Service Initiatives Often Fail, I emphasized the importance of never tolerating intolerable service in your organization. I also promised to share a 5-step coaching process to help plan and deliver coaching to any employee who is not living up to your organization's service expectations. I want to emphasize the word plan because it is vital to plan each of the steps in advance of the coaching meeting. This post is longer than usual; but I believe the subject is critical for service success and I also know that the 5-Step Coaching Process works. [...]

As a customer service consultant, I am constantly stressing the importance of the little things to my clients. I believe that people and organizations that focus on the details (big or small) are ultimately the ones that stand out from other businesses. That’s why I am a big believer in the importance of saying “thank you.” People appreciate being thanked for their actions. It doesn’t matter if it was for purchasing something, holding a door open for somebody, going above and beyond at work, etc. That small “thank you” (or lack thereof) from a customer [...]