Avoid Dissatisfied Customers by Empowering Your Employees

Here are a few reasons you should consider employee empowerment as a permanent shift in your business strategy:

1. Lower-Level Employees Can Properly Address Customer Concerns

Empowerment is the key to a great customer experience.

All of us are customers and we've all experienced the woes of terrible customer service. Maybe you've even objected, asked for a discount or some kind of accommodation, only to be told that there's nothing that can be done.

This kind of dissatisfactory experience is a direct result of employee disempowerment, and it's one of the main reasons customers ask for a supervisor. The customer is unsatisfied and the employee is restricted by company policy from offering any kind of recompense or compensation to make it right.

I give my employees the authority to incur a company loss of up to $ 500 in order to resolve a service issue. If a customer is upset, an employee can offer a refund of $ 500 without even asking. As a result, I deal with far fewer headaches, and both the customer and the employee have a better experience when resolving issues. Everybody wins.

The key point is to give employees the ability to create a positive experience and a happy customer with every interaction.

2. Employees Can Enhance the Customer Experience in Real Time

Empowered employees have the ability to greatly improve the customer experience during a live interaction by pulling out any of the tools you've given. For instance, giving away an extra bag at the register or enacting a fast-and-loose policy of rounding $ 2.04 down to $ 2.00 so that customers don't have to dig for change. You can also go big by empowering employees to apply discounts to close sales or add small items to a larger purchase. I've found that the best way to ensure that employees use good judgment during this process is by creating a broad, ethical goal to make customers happy and setting relaxed guidelines regarding how they utilize their authority.

3. Staff Morale and Communication Drastically Improve

Giving your employees the ability to affect the outcome of an interaction using their own judgment and authority is a tremendous morale booster for your team. This is doubly true if you celebrate empowerment wins across the team and use it to inspire employee best practices.

Morale is a powerful tool. If your employees feel powerless to solve their own problems, they'll likely be just as frustrated by your customers when problems arise. Instead, give your employees the ability to change the outcome of their own interactions.

One study published in the Global Journal of Management and Business Research indicates that using employee empowerment as a motivational tool "gives employees a sense of satisfaction toward their job and organization." When employees feel like they have a stake in the business through their choices and actions, they're more likely to provide feedback on how you can improve that process. Employee empowerment may provide a window for you to solicit feedback and use the results to further optimize your sales process.

4. Lower Turnover Means Less Time Training Replacements

Every year, companies spend thousands of dollars training new staff because team members leave.

Organizations with empowered employees see lower rates of employee turnover. This helps your bottom line indirectly by decreasing the amount of time, money and energy your company needs to expend in order to build your team.

On top of that, veteran employees are much better at enacting your vision, especially if they've built long-term relationships with customers.

5. You'll Learn How Your Employees Handle Authority

Pay careful attention to how each employee utilizes their authority during customer interactions. Do they use it sparingly or not at all? Are they reckless with discounts? How does the employee deal with situations when they aren't straightforward? Do they willingly share those practices with others when they uncover a method to success?

The right empowerment methods can give you key insight into your next employee promotion. 

Sharing your vision with employees and giving them the tools to implement that vision is a strong start. 

On a broad scale, empowered employees are happier, more creative and more willing to help your business grow. Give your employees what they need and congratulate them when they exceed your expectations.

Edited by: 浪子

Bibliography

Brian Greenberg. (2018). Avoid Dissatisfied Customers by Empowering Your Employees. Retrieved from 
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/317641