We often hear so much about the customer experience. "The customer is always right!" as the old adage goes. Then the next moment, "All you need to do is read the script that generates for you. Just stick to the script and you'll be fine." And hence the current dilemma we find ourselves in: cold, insensitive scripts, probably saying some of the things that our now defunct middle managers - the ones who were once our "supervisors" - wish they could have said and gotten away with when faced with the occasional rude and obnoxious patron who decided the front-line worker's response would not cut it. (No, this would be escalated to said employee's "supervisor!)
Whether it is the work of some jack-of-all-trade consultant that advised a company to remove the middle manager's "headache" - usually by removing the middle manager position altogether in an overzealous attempt to impress with some "cost-saving measures"! - or a poorly-run outfit that allowed its personnel to "handle" the situation to the customer's satisfaction if they felt able to do so (usually without providing appropriate training) BEFORE elevating it to the level of red alert, the object has remained the same: the question, in this transaction between the buyer and the seller, is how do we both get what we want out of our relationship? At least, in an open, competitive market it is.
So long as people are able to choose where they transact their business, the delicate dance between the business shop owner and the customer continues, with a sometimes gentle-other times dissident cadence, ensuring that both parties' interests were being met. Now, I say this very carefully. I would hope that, at least, at the moment, everything I've said so far, has made absolute sense. It is, after all, solid, time-tested and evidence-based knowledge that Economics 101 can teach you. (Heck, you don't even have to go to college to learn this!) But even beyond what books and videos can tell us, our daily living teach us to discern when it is a buyer's market vs. when buyer beware is in effect.
Having worked some 20 years in the higher education space, I have watched how this concept of buyers' rights have even infiltrated the education arena. Sure students have more of a choice than ever in where they go to college. And, yes, we entice them to choose our institution over another by using all sorts of drawing tactics. However, one thing that I have noticed that usually gets stuck in the proverbial "craw" of higher ed employees is the notion that students have somehow become the new "customer." Perhaps it was the slow and gradual changing student demographic, indicating that our students were coming in a little older - maybe even a little wiser - and more savvy, that caught some of us by surprise. I, myself, worked full-time throughout the majority of my college years and knew the dissatisfaction I felt in the dismissive and callous way that I had been treated by some of these very colleagues. (Incidentally, it was this self-same experience that led me to transfer and attend another college to complete my education. Oops! Lost sale there.)
It did not surprise me, then, to perceive the resistance to the notion that the students my colleagues were assisting actually warranted - or worse, yet, had the right to expect - a higher level of service and responsiveness than had been previously required of them. One can think that this is an easy thing to learn, understand, accept. However, let's put it in context: anyone who works with youth, know what it's like to constantly be "the adult in the room" because the young person will, left unchecked, tend to do dumb things, make poorly-thought-through decisions, lie, cheat and omit pertinent details at salient points in a discussion, given the right conditions. And, somehow, just somehow their actions and decisions always wind up impacting YOU! (This behavior does not end just because a person turns 18 or 21 years of age...)
I've been building up to a point (I promise you, I have). I had to admit, being on the other side of the transaction, as both an administrative professional in higher education and a small business owner, I had the opportunity to work on several projects (thank goodness projects are only temporary) that gave me a deeper understanding of the employer's role in all this. Yes, customer service relies on the customer having a satisfactory experience. But if we are always having to pay off our customers, we are not, on the seller's side, very happy in the relationship: because we are losing money, not gaining more business.
If I could make a case for the need for increased emphasis on cultivating, what I call "the employee experience" (I don't know if this is a real thing but it feels right), I would say this: We send trillions of dollars on marketing to woo our customers but barely pay employees a living wage. We ask employees to bend over backwards to deliver exceptional service, all while ignoring their individual needs to be seen as partners, instead of just means-to-an-end. Often they need to be seen and appreciated, and rewarded (two separate things I'll discuss in a later post) for giving you the best of them (under the circumstances of being seen as in-human, or not important enough to matter). And if nothing else, amidst a pandemic, at-home workers have opened up their homes and their personal lives and time that could not be replenished, to support businesses and organizations, isn't now is the perfect time to seriously re-examine what we are doing to truly support our "essential workers" who hold us up, and go out and do the grunt work so that we can stay in our relatively comfortable homes and home offices? Are we doing right by them in terms of pay? Are they being considered - along with the general cost of living - when we offer a salary number? Or when we dictate unreasonable work hours (when we stick to them ourselves)?
I would gander a guess that some employers don't even get that all some employees might want to continue to do a good job and, who knows, maybe even a great job is a mentor. One thing, of the many, that the pandemic has taught us is that we take a lot of things for granted, relationships notwithstanding being among the highest ranked of all. The spotlight on the losses, both perceived and not perceived, that we have sustained as human beings span from our mortality, to our health, our jobs, our businesses, dreams, morality, and even, for some, our humanity. What better time to refocus our eyes, upgrade our lens prescriptions and revise how we view this partnership that we have with our employees! After all is said and done and we return to the offices, we need to remember the feeling of being alone, of not having those employees that we took for granted. Not to say we want boycotts. That's not what I am saying. What I am, however, saying is, if we listen to our employees, we don't have to get to the point that they need to leave us. (Remember: you don't have a business without people partnering with you in the delivery of your goods and services, whether as full--time or part-time employees, or as independent contractors.)
After the onboarding, how do you engage your employees? Do you know who they are - not just by the position and role that you ascribed to them, but also what their talents are? Do you know what makes them individual or unique? Many corporate leaders later wished they had paid more attention to who they had, and cultivated former employees who became their future rivals in business, later edging them out of the space. Because no one has a monopoly on creativity or ingenuity or even that unquenchable entrepreneurial spirit! The question is how we are going to navigate this often-tenuous relationship. We've made the transition, at least from the customer side, from customer service to the customer experience. Now it's time to harness all of our resources (our employees are our greatest resource - yes, because of the potential synergy that can come of what we collectively bring to the table) and build work places that can weather some storms and even become a legacy and an inheritance that our children - yes, those wonderful youth we all love - can come to and learn and grow in, as they become honest, hardworking, responsible citizens of our country and the global community.
Be well,
Vanessa
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