If your company is built on the core value of providing exceptional customer service it will be important to foster employee engagement.
To boost employee engagement, start by instilling a "CEO mindset" in every employee of your firm, from senior management down to support staff.
Instilling a CEO mindset means empowering your employees to take ownership of their roles by taking the initiative in resolving customer issues.
Employees with a CEO mindset do not stick to their job descriptions or wait for direction but apply creative and innovative methods to improve and enhance work processes that result in superior service.
Empowering employees will differentiate your company from your competitors and build brand loyalty.
Let's take three examples to highlight how employee initiative drives exceptional service.
Case Study 1 During the early days of Starbucks, CEO Howard Schultz didn't see a need to purchase blenders-the store was selling coffee after all and what possible use could a blender have? A Starbucks store manager in Los Angeles, not dissuaded by his reluctance, took the initiative to purchase her own blender to create a new drink that she then tested with her café customers.
As greater numbers of patrons began asking for this drink over time, Schultz became convinced that an investment in blenders wasn't such a bad idea after all.
Since then, the Frappuccino has become one of the best-selling beverages served at Starbucks and has generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.
Case Study 2 Managers at UPS frequently tell stories of initiative during staff meetings to build employee morale and foster this behavior in all employees.
Here's just one example.
A UPS driver was delivering packages to a U.
S.
military base in Aberdeen, Maryland one snowy evening not too long before Christmas.
The driver noticed that part of the address was missing one package.
The easy solution was simply for the driver to leave the package with the base HQ to be re-routed at some later point.
However, this driver took the initiative and made the extra effort to locate the solider to whom the package was addressed.
The solider was very grateful for no little reason: inside the package was an airplane ticket home for the holiday! Had the UPS driver not made the extra effort the solider would have missed the flight and the chance to spend Christmas with his family.
Case Study 3 Southwest Airlines has been able to effectively combat rising oil and gas prices and maintain healthy revenue even during the recent economic recession.
The main strategy was to build a strategy team composed of senior management down through baggage crews.
The team met once per week for brainstorming sessions and was encouraged by top management to take the initiative in generating ideas that would improve productivity while reducing costs.
Southwest's Chief Information Officer, Tom Nealon stated that having a cross-functional team allowed members to develop a "big picture" perspective and ask insightful questions that led to innovative solutions.
These ideas have helped the company gain a substantial competitive edge in its market by delivering superior service (e.
g.
streamlined reservations, limited delays, quick boarding) at lower costs.
Employee Initiative Leads to Business Success It is a fact that those companies that which value employee initiative and foster a CEO mindset are more successful over the long run in terms of brand loyalty and revenue that those firms with a more autocratic culture.
The reasoning is fairly straightforward: Empowered employees are content employees which means: • content employees take ownership of their job • ownership fosters a sense of personal responsibility and accountability in meeting and exceeding customer expectations • emphasis on service build brand loyalty • company revenue increases.
The linear relationship above clearly proves the old adage "reap what you sow" in terms of the connection between employee morale and business growth.