{"id":2696,"date":"2015-10-16T11:00:43","date_gmt":"2015-10-16T05:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/?p=2696"},"modified":"2021-11-16T16:22:47","modified_gmt":"2021-11-16T10:52:47","slug":"empowering-frontline-is-still-key-to-customer-delight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/2015\/10\/16\/empowering-frontline-is-still-key-to-customer-delight\/","title":{"rendered":"Empowering Frontline Is Still Key To Customer Delight"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"bad-customer-service\"<\/a>Those of you that have read the all time classic business book In Search of Excellence<\/em><\/strong> might recall the anecdote of the automobile company that rushes a part by helicopter to a customer whose car has broken down in the middle of a desolate highway. Needless to say, the company wins the customer’s loyalty for lifetime.<\/p>\n

This true story shows how empowering your frontline staff is key to delivering customer delight.<\/p>\n

Considering that the book was published nearly three decades ago, it might seem that all companies would’ve mastered the mantra of frontline empowerment by now.<\/p>\n

Sadly many of them haven’t. This became amply clear during my recent interactions with three consumer-facing businesses.<\/p>\n

#1. Bank<\/strong><\/p>\n

I went to my bank’s branch for some work and took the opportunity to ask them to reinstate print statements for my company’s business account.<\/p>\n

My Relationship Manager noted down my request but warned me that his “backend” would most likely reject it, instead wanting to hear directly from me.<\/p>\n

I told him I visited the bank’s branch and was talking to an employee of the bank, why wouldn’t that count as hearing “directly”?<\/p>\n

He had no answer. Long story short, three months later, I still haven’t started receiving paper statements. Going by past experience, I’ll have to escalate this to the Branch Manager to get a resolution.<\/p>\n

#2. Store<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"efk-fi\"<\/a>I was in the market for a leather bag. I’ve been patronizing a certain leather goods brand for nearly two decades. I visited its website and found one model I liked.\u00a0However, it cost a bomb.<\/p>\n

Wanting to check out the bag’s size in a physical store before shelling out that kind of money for it, I visited the company’s showroom in a nearby mall.<\/p>\n

The salesperson at the store informed me that the said product was not in stock and told me to check it out online.<\/p>\n

I told him why I visited the store. He then averred that his company had a catalog of 285 SKUs but his store had shelf space to display only 80 of them.<\/p>\n

While I appreciated his problem, I asked him what’d happen if I went out and saw a competitor’s product online and never returned to his store. His sales instinct stirred awake at that point and he realized that he’d made a dumb suggestion.<\/p>\n

I asked him why he<\/em> couldn’t show me the product on his store computer<\/em> while I was still inside his store<\/em>. He then sheepishly admitted that his company didn’t provide instore Internet access.<\/p>\n

I walked out and bought from a competitor.<\/p>\n

#3. Restaurant<\/strong><\/p>\n

The mercury had soared to nearly 40 degrees C (104 degrees F) one day past summer.\u00a0I chose this QSR for lunch because it was the only air-conditioned restaurant near my office.<\/p>\n

After placing my order, I noticed that the AC was off. When I asked a waiter to switch it on, he confessed that the AC had broken down a week ago and they hadn’t been able to fix it yet.\u00a0I asked him if they’d offer a discount because of shortfall in service level. He laughed at me as though I’d cracked a very funny joke.<\/p>\n

When I finally got him around to understanding me, he threw\u00a0up his hands and told me that it was beyond his powers to give any discount for any reason whatever.<\/p>\n

While I was still in the restaurant, I tweeted a complaint to the company.<\/p>\n

\n

Hey @MastK<\/a> : I'm at your PNQ-VMN outlet. Your AC is not working. Will you give me a discount to compensate for shortfall in your service?<\/p>\n

— Ketharaman Swaminathan (@s_ketharaman) April 6, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n