Service Aptitude: The Game Changer in 2016
it is the company’s job to teach it to them.
WHO’S TO BLAME?
If your employee disappoints your Customer, whose fault is that? Typically, the blame is placed on the employee for using poor judgment or being indifferent to the Customer. However, 99 percent of the time blame should be placed on the company or supervisor for putting someone in a position they were not qualified to handle. Most companies have their new employees go through technical training only, and when they end up delivering poor Customer service, management gets frustrated with that employee’s decision making. It is not their fault! Most would agree that the hospitality side (how our Customers are treated and cared for) is just as important as the technical/operational side of what the Customer receives. However, our training contradicts that. We would never think of having an accountant, lawyer, nurse, doctor, hairdresser, or technician perform work without the proper technical training, certification, and licensing. Yet most companies have little to zero Customer service certification. To my knowledge, there is no college major in Customer experience that prepares our next generation of workforce on how to have strong Customer service skills.
Service Aptitude: A person’s ability to recognize opportunities to exceed Customers’ expectations, regardless of the circumstances.
SERVICE APTITUDE SCARCITY
No one is born with it; it is not innate. The vast majority of the workforce has extremely low Service Aptitude, especially when they are entering the workforce after finishing school, regardless if that is high school, college, graduate school, or a trade school. As a result of poor training and paranoid management, many employees, including management, don’t have high Service Aptitude even after years of working. And sadly, a high percentage of senior-level executives continue to have low Service Aptitude during their careers. Why? Why is high Service Aptitude so rare? What dictates it, and what impacts it? There are three things that shape everyone’s Service Aptitude:
- Life experiences
- Past work experiences
- Current work experiences
LIFE EXPERIENCES
These are a significant factor in people’s Service Aptitude level, especially in the younger workforce. Think about home environment, groups of friends, and life experiences growing up. Frontline employees’ standard of living typically does not afford them the opportunity to fly first class, stay at five-star resorts, drive a luxury automobile, and enjoy other higher-end experiences. Yet we, as managers, expect those same employees to be able to deliver world-class service to clients, guests, patients, or whomever we call our Customers, who may be accustomed to these types of experiences. It doesn’t make any sense.
PREVIOUS WORK EXPERIENCES
These have a major impact on a person’s Service Aptitude. Think about how small the percentage is of organizations that are truly world-class at Customer service. It is a good bet that most of your frontline employees have previously worked for an average or less-than-average Customer service company, which means that not only were they not trained on what excellent service looks like, but they were brainwashed by a policy-driven, ironfisted manager who taught them that Customers are out to take advantage of businesses.
CURRENT WORK EXPERIENCES
These dictate the current state of an employee’s Service Aptitude. Nearly every company states on paper, plaques, and its website how it has a Customer-first philosophy, but how many really back that up? New employees typically get initial training on a company’s operational processes-product knowledge, how to do the fundamentals of the job, and so on-but very little if any Customer service or soft-skill training is invested up front. Actions speak louder than words.
CALL TO ACTION
It all comes down to Service Aptitude training. Think about this: If today’s younger generation lacks the skills gained from human interactions, who is responsible for improving their people skills and increasing their Service Aptitude? The businesses that hire them! We need to have better training programs, not just training on product knowledge and the technical side of the job, but also training & certification on the soft skills. The companies that deliver world-class Customer service are the companies that understand this fact and provide training in Customer service skills. The second theory is about how well companies like Zappos, Chick-fil-A, John Robert’s Spa, Nordstrom, The Ritz-Carlton, and Disney make their frontline employees part of a bigger purpose in which they play a major role. This is why each of those companies has young, fully engaged team members.
HOLLY STIEL “LIVE” AND ON DEMAND
If you saw Holly Stiel’s present at the last Secret Service Summit, where she shared her signature The Wings of No™ and The Art of The Apology, you experienced first-hand the value of the content as well as the impact Holly has in front of a live audience. Now, you can bring Holly Stiel “live” into your organization anytime, anywhere.
HollyNow.com is the newest way to access Holly’s world-class customer service training. Designed to meet the needs of any size organization, a year-long subscription provides 24/7 365 access to her live-on-video presentations with self-study guides, fully scripted group-session leader’s guides, and participant workbooks. The program is instructive, entertaining, and memorable. Based on real scenarios, and real outcomes, it produces immediate results and is very affordable.
Visit Hollynow.com to see sample videos and learn more about this impactful training. Use the code DJG10 to receive a discount on your subscription. And, HollyNow! will donate a percentage of the profits from sales with the DJG10 discount code to The Believe In Dreams Foundation.
