By Teri Yanovitch
September 4, 2020
As a result of COVID-19, many employees have been working remotely. Not having employees physically present in a location makes communication of an organization’s Service Excellence culture more difficult. However, just as there has never been a more critical time to build trust and goodwill by going the extra mile to WOW the customer, the same is true for your employees. The key is to lead with empathy. Take the time to understand your employees’ world, and that you care and support them during this challenging time.
Here are eight recommendations for how to continue reinforcing and building an exceptional customer service mentality into the hearts and minds of each employee outside the traditional office environment:
- Communicate the importance of service with a short reminder at every opportunity. Make sure you also communicate it during the interview and selection process of new employees.
- If you don’t have Service Standards, then create, define, and communicate them. Keep to a maximum of four or five Standards. People will forget if you have too many.
- When onboarding new employees, share your Service Standards. Also, provide specific examples of how they can be applied to that individual’s job.
- Dedicate a section of your organization’s newsletter to your Service Standards. Consider featuring contests, puzzles, anecdotes, or even customer compliments.
- Ask employees each week during virtual staff meetings to share how they incorporated one of the Service Standards into their work most recently.
- Managers/supervisors should “meet” virtually one-on-one with employees. The goal is to build relationships with your employees to better understand their personal situation and challenges, so they can better assist them.
- Hold monthly mandatory team video meetings to let employees get to know other team members. Allow time within the meeting to let employees learn from each other by sharing situations of how they were able to deliver a “Wow” customer experience.
- Set up a communication medium, such as an intranet portal, to allow for peer-to-peer recognition of colleagues delivering exceptional service. The recognition should tie the employee’s actions and behavior to one of your Service Standards.
What other tips would you add to help reinforce your Service Culture?
