Have you ever had a miserable customer experience?
I had a miserable customer experience recently, but instead of griping about it, I chose to channel my frustration into writing something constructive that could help leaders create better cultures.
The Miserable Story
My wife was working to get our son enrolled in an academic program at a local institution. Because he was still in high school, we wanted to take advantage of their dual-credit offering. After filling out the necessary forms online, they went to visit the Registrar. The Registrar was polite but noted that the classes our son wanted had pre-requisites.
My wife and son were pretty sure that he met those requirements, but they were still directed to the dual credit office. The dual credit office person was also polite but could not answer the question and sent them to the class teacher.
The teacher was similarly polite but unable to help and referred them to the department head.
The department head was less polite and created several hoops for them to jump through just to be able to speak with her. After clearing all the hoops, our son was denied registration because the class was now full.
Although we had begun the process in April, our son was still not enrolled in the correct classes at the last week of August. At each stage, we were directed to another office in endless circles. In desperation, my wife finally got two of the offices on the phone with each other, since they had both told us to talk to the other one. Even then, they could not resolve the issue, and one of them advised us to appeal to the dean.
How the leader created the miserable customer experience
One way to measure leadership influence is by looking for consistency throughout an organization. A single bad encounter might be a fluke, but if the same behavior is consistently repeated across different departments and different levels, it’s a sign that leadership is part of the problem.
[By the same token, consistent positive behavior across departments and levels is an indicator of positive leadership influence.]In the case of our registration problems, the root leadership issue was that employees were not empowered to make decisions in their areas of work. When a customer is directed from one office to another to another just to get an answer or a decision, you know that lack of empowerment is a big part of the problem.
Because the leader did not empower the employees, they were not able or willing to make a decision and register a student. Their lack of empowerment showed as they cited procedures and sent us through an endless series of offices and hoops. I don’t blame them—instead, I see a leadership gap that is affecting both employees and customers.
What is empowerment, really?
Empowerment is giving people authority to do something without asking anyone else.
Only leaders can empower employees. It is very difficult for an employee to empower herself. Empowerment from a leader must be actively granted and consistently upheld.
Every time a leader says, “check back with me before you…,” they have limited the range of empowerment for that employee. If leaders say those words very often, they undermine even the limited authority they actually want the employee to use.
Are your employees empowered?
Here are three tests to know whether your employees are empowered:
- Can they spend the company’s money without asking? You are probably not willing to give every employee a blank check, but is there an amount they can spend to solve a problem or meet a need without checking? If they can’t, then they probably don’t feel empowered.
- Can they resolve an issue without checking with their supervisor? If my milkshake order at Chick Fil A is wrong, the cashier can replace it without asking anyone. But I once spent 10 minutes watching employees climb up the chain of command at another frozen dairy establishment before they got permission to do the same. Which store empowers their employees? At which store would customers be more satisfied?
- Can they be creative in their solutions outside established procedures? Yes, I know that process is important. Our company emphasizes standard processes in the business operating system we teach. But if an employee can never “break the rules” when their good judgment tells them they should, then they are definitely not empowered.
Why you haven’t empowered them, yet
As a leader, if you cringed when you read these three tests of empowerment, pay attention to your reaction and ask yourself, “Why am I uncomfortable with empowering my people?”
Is it because they are young? Because they lack training? Because they have made bad decisions in the past? If so, you have some work to do to bring them up to speed.
Or is your reaction the sign of an internal hang-up? Is it that you are reluctant to give up control? Do you believe no one can handle things as well as you can? These are what we call “self-limiting beliefs,” and they could be creating a miserable experience for your customers right now.
Ironically, on the day that my wife went to appeal to the dean, the whole mess was simply and quickly solved by one woman who had the audacity to make a decision on her own—without consulting anyone. Her responsiveness went a long way toward redeeming our bad customer experience.
What is it like to be one of your customers?
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