Empowering Employees to Deliver Service Excellence

Are your clients satisfied with the products and services you provide? Ideally, you should get a consistent "Yes" from all members of your workforce, but all too commonly that simply isn't the case. Because many companies have built up organizational silos as they've matured - isolating various functions to specific departments and teams - that make it increasingly difficult to gauge how well your business is performing as a whole, with specific regard to client experience.

In fact, recent research conducted by Forrester Consulting and commissioned by Ricoh found there is a significant disconnect between managers and staff members when measuring how well their company delivers a meaningful client experience.

When Employees Don't See Eye-to-Eye
In the research report, roughly triple the number of managers compared to client-facing employees indicated they saw their client communications through various channels, such as text messages and email, as effective. What's missing? At the root of the problem is the fact that managers are disconnected from what clients expect.

Forrester research found 89% of employees who interact with clients on a daily basis explained a gap exists between clients' expectations and what the employees are capable of delivering. To address these issues, employees in the study said they needed more intelligent technology-based solutions that will allow them to improve client experiences. These resources include analytics, information capture to leverage data and process management capabilities, which would allow employees greater flexibility when handling client issues.

In the same vein, Customer Think, an online resource for client-centric advice, explained the key to generating greater client loyalty is to remove obstacles employees have to addressing client needs. This is done in large part by giving employees increased independence from management to make decisions. Supported by data released by Maritz Research, Customer Think wrote the fewer people clients have to deal with when they're making a purchase or have service done, the more satisfied your clients will be. While many organizations feel more secure with information silos, this approach will ultimately leave you with weaker client experiences and less effective employees.