Businesses large and small typically get started with a similar goal in mind- filling a basic customer need. Unfortunately, over time the challenges that present themselves often move the customer focus from a ‘priority’ to a ‘back seat’ position. Profitability and competition become the focus of management, which can have a negative ‘trickle down’ effect resulting in de-motivated employees, poor service for the customer, and finally low profits for the organization.

I recently read a book titled “Customer Service From The Inside Out” written by Paul Levesque, formally from my home town of North Bay, Ontario. I was delighted with the purpose of his book, which informs businesses about creating a sense of higher purpose. This creates dedicated employees and happier customers – all resulting in better profitability. The author identifies customer service as a set of shared beliefs, an attitude or state of mind from within, not a set of procedures. Although I enjoyed the complete content of the book, it was the reiteration of a few concepts that I truly believe in, which are confirmed with many concrete examples. They inspired this article written to you as a gift of knowledge and motivation toward creating an extraordinary business.

How would it benefit your organization if all employees felt empowered and motivated to contribute to a laser sharp mission? What would your competitive advantage be over the competition if your entire team worked with the same laser sharp mission to provide an excellent customer experience?

There is an important factor in implementing change and motivating employees to take ownership in their jobs for the benefit of the customer experience. The factor is “empowerment”. We can empower employees to get involved in the company’s success by providing feedback, cultivating new ideas, and sharing the responsibility and accountability of making actual changes happen. This results in a positive difference for the customer and a sense of pride for the employees. As Seth Godin, marketing guru, says “everyone within the organization is in the marketing department”.

If everyone on staff is motivated toward a very specific purpose, and feels that their role is very important in achieving the overall mission, their willingness to participate is apparent in everything that they do. This ultimately reflects good service toward the customer, whose feedback motivates employees to keep up the good work. The bottom line is positively affected without the focus even being on the bottom line. Employees are devoted and enjoy their role, which decreases staff turnover and heightens morale.

For example, an employee brainstorming session with the entire team can stimulate some excellent ideas for providing better customer service. After all, who knows the customers best but the front line workers who deal with them on a regular basis? Tapping into the creative ideas of a team has great benefits. As a teacher of adults, I always say “people believe their own data”. Letting a team of employees brainstorm ideas to enhance the customer experience not only allows the team to be involved in the idea generation, but also excites and motivates them to get involved in the proposed plans to put these ideas into action.

Extraordinary businesses don’t focus on the bottom line of profitability; rather, they focus on a higher purpose. Typically, this is the main reason that they started the business in the first place – to satisfy a customer need, or some philanthropic activity to make the world a better place. In doing so, they include their team in the development and implementation of creative ideas and strategies to serve this higher purpose. They also allow their employees to reap the recognition of their efforts directly from the customers. It’s a win/win/win combination that is rare, but possible to create if you are willing to have an open mind, and shift focus from working for money and profitability to creating a great workplace and offering a tremendous customer experience.

I encourage you to create a great customer service mentality in your business.

~ Penny