by Steve DiGioia, Featured Contributor
I HAVE FOUND, time and time again, that along the “ladder of success” comes a withdrawal from the front line of customer service.
As one gets higher up the chain of command he/she lowers their concerns of the customer.
Numbers, budgets and marketing take the lead over all else. But what about the customer?
Has your success come at the expense of the very same people that have allowed you to move up the corporate ladder?
Yes, you have taken good care of them along the way; received wonderful guest surveys, comment cards and rave reviews of your service…great job.
But now look at you. Sitting in your corner office meeting with your underlings to hash out the keenest way to cut costs or modify your pricing strategy to allow for a percentage point savings here and there.
New policies are put in place that puts numbers ahead of the guest experience. Employee morale is second to meeting budget. Receiving a quarterly bonus is now your benchmark to business success.
This is backwards thinking.
Lay out the policies and procedures that put your customers first and you can be assured that the revenues will follow.
But you forgot what it’s like to be on the “front line” of customer satisfaction. Too long you have gone without allowing the guest to walk through the doorway before you.
You don’t have the time now to meet with staff to gage how the “new ways of doing things” may affect the customer.
It’s been years since you personally met face to face with an upset customer because your product or service didn’t perform as advertized; others in your organization are responsible for this.
You have too many other BIG things to worry about.
But, since when has anything other than your customer been a BIG thing?