How to Motivate Your Customer Service Team
By Ilse J Strauss
Small Business and Customer Service has become synonymous with taking an order with a smile.
It makes you wonder what happened to the Training Manual you received as a Small Business owner when you were taught the logistics of great customer service, the culture you need to advocate and how to translate that into your business.
The problem isn’t you knowing or your staff knowing ‘what’ to do but rather it knows how to activate a culture of excellence, outstanding and servant hood.
While the latter can easily be micro-managed or professed in a motivational speech it really becomes a challenge of how well you can infuse your team and every aspect of your business with the values that you need to hold.
You may have tried staff meetings, performance reviews, individual coaching, seminars, or team building days but if it wasn’t part of a constant and consistent campaign then you can see why the strategies aren’t working.
You must create a culture where your team is walking, talking and breathing your vision, and establish a campaign that never ends creating a kaleidoscope of everything I have mentioned above and you keep persisting and pursuing.
So what needs to happen and what are the fastest and quickest ways to motivate your team to action?
1. As the Business Owner you need to decide what you stand for? That is what are the ground rules that you play by, that you live and die by, that but for these principles and foundations; you would not be where you are today.
And you make this a non-negotiable for you as the Leader so that you know your anchor.
2. Then you facilitate a roundtable with your team and you get them to do the same exercise. What do they think the business stands for, what do they believe the principles are that they are really operating out of?
This would start to give them an understanding about why they do what they do. But also, why you have them do what they do.
You allow this to be a free flowing conversation where they can be open to play and speak boldly whether right or wrong.
3. You then as an entire team, staff, managers and you decide on what needs to make the cut on your Values list.
This them stimulates the rise of a culture.
4. Then you need to look at how your policies, procedures and systems reflect these values. For instance, does your Marketing Strategy sit in congruency with your culture? Does your Sales Process fit the values?
Does your Team need more up skilling or better yet, do you need to do some ‘weeding’ of your team if they don’t meet the values or aren’t prepared to meet the new values?
5. It’s going to take time and the process will never end as you as the business owner need to spend your time Marketing, Closing Sales and Improving Culture all the time.
So my advice is you do everything in 90 Day Chunks. EG In the next 90 Days, you and your team need to complete your roundtables and have it facilitated to establish 7-10 core cultural values that underpin everything you do in business.
And whether you are a one man band or have up to 50 staff, the process is the same and needs to be done. Set yourself up as if you already had the business of your dreams and make the decisions that are congruent with that mindset.
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