Get Engaged

Employee engagement is key to providing outstanding customer service.  Do you make it easy for your staff to communicate customer feedback?  Are your policies consistent with good customer service?    The only way to find out is to stay in the customer service conversation with your staff. 

Let me share an experience I had recently.  Friends of ours joined us for dinner at a fairly expensive restaurant.  We ordered our drinks and entrees and the experience with our waitress was positive.  One of our friends had ordered a steak and shrimp dinner which was quite pricey.  Just before bringing out the entree, our waitress brought our friend two different bottles of steak sauce.  He joked with the waitress about whether or not he was going to NEED the sauce.  She laughed and replied by saying, “it’s our policy and I am required to bring it to the table”, even though she felt that it sent the wrong message.

From a customer’s perspective, her providing the sauce sent the message that the steaks may not be of the highest quality.  From management’s perspective, they are thinking that they are providing great customer service.   Now we don’t know if our waitress is encouraged to communicate feedback from customers to management.   We also don’t know if she cares enough to do so. 

Feedback is a gift.  Engage your staff to share feedback from customers.  Look at your policies and determine if your staff has questions or concerns.  Getting engaged is a win-win-win, for you, your staff and the customer.

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