In the second of a special Customer Service Week series, Samantha Saunders, Head of Innovation & Regulatory Compliance at OmniServ explores how cross-training staff improves morale, attitude and service delivery.

Capability & Skills: Identifying and nurturing customer service skills in your organization.

Airports are like small towns, and like small towns are broken up into districts – there’s landside and airside (the latter being the area ‘beyond’ security and customs checks), there’s Duty Free, the food hall, baggage and so on.
That means it’s easy for staff to become compartmentalised and focus on what their ‘part of town’ is all about, while losing sight of the bigger picture.

Companies across industries face the same challenges. How often have you read articles about how we need to break down barriers and lose the ‘silo mentality’? The issue is, if you have an ‘us vs. them’ mentality within a company, then it’s all too easy to lose sight of the shared goal – to deliver seamless service to your users and customers.

One sure way to get people to lose the insular mindset is to cross-train staff, giving them the opportunity to experience what life is like in the other bits of the company (and, in our case, the other bits of the airport) and the challenges that their colleagues face every day. If they understand what other staff do and why, they’ll start thinking about how their own roles mesh with the whole company and its objectives.

Take our biggest client, Heathrow. It’s the world’s second busiest airport by international passenger numbers and saw 75 million travellers pass through its terminals last year. On average, it serves around 220,000 passengers a day, who are assisted by more than 76,000 staff.

Many of those staff are vital to the smooth running of the airport, they are invisible to passengers. Even so, there are thousands who have day-to-day contact with the general public, in all its moods, and who play a key role in delivering the best possible customer service.

My particular responsibility is for our assistance services helping the 1.8 million passengers a year across the UK airports we operate in who have some form of disability (1.2 million of them at Heathrow alone); passengers with Reduced Mobility (PRM), as the airline industry and the regulators call them. People, as I call them.

Our PRM staff face challenges daily due to peaks and dips in passenger numbers, late arrivals and departures, changes in where flights are boarding or landing, unexpected demand (many PRM passengers let us know in advance, but it’s not a requirement), language barriers. Also for some people, their needs may change as they travel across time zones so when they left Los Angeles for example, they didn’t need any assistance however now they’ve arrived at Heathrow, they do. Our teams need to react accordingly.

It’s important to recognise just how important and challenging the employees’ job can be. Our PRM support staff is on the customer service front-line every day and likely spend more one-to-one time with a customer than any other airport or airline employee. That makes them ambassadors for great customer service, and also puts them on the front line when challenges arise.

To help our entire team understand the importance of this role, we try and have staff from other areas of operations shadow members of the PRM team.
Recently, the various members of Manchester Airport’s security staff went through this cross-training, and the response was incredible. Comments included “I feel that I’ve made a real difference today” and “I will fundamentally do my job differently now.”

The type of close role shadowing we have offered is known as horizontal cross-training. When staff contributing to an eco-system (such as an airport) better understand what each other does, they feel a greater commitment to the bigger picture, are more likely to stay with the company longer and can provide even better customer service.

Passengers, much like customers in a large department store, don’t necessarily understand that all staff they encounter under one roof work on different teams or for different organizations. If they ask any member of staff for help and they are met with a positive response, their experience is improved and they feel cared for. Cross-training helps create this holistic experience.

Cross-training also has significantly improved staff morale and helped counteract the ‘silo’ effect that large organizations can fall prey to. This boosts our industry as a whole. I would urge all organizations to look at the benefits that offering a cross-training staff programme would have on their service users, employees, and their industry. I’m sure you’ll find it’s a win, win, win situation.

Other articles in this series:

• Delivering Quality Customer Service to Disabled Passengers
• Recognizing Great Staff Performance Is Key to Improving Service Quality
• Company-Wide Commitment Is Needed to Lead Customer Service Innovation
• Working in Partnership to Deliver Enhanced Customer Service

About OmniServ

OmniServ Limited is the International Division of ABM Aviation, the aviation division of ABM Industries. ABM Aviation provides a comprehensive range of innovative and dependable solutions, including Persons with Reduced Mobility (PRM) Operations, to more than 100 airports globally. This includes the top 30 airports within the USA and 15 airports within the UK. Established in 2004, OmniServ employs over 5000 staff delivering ‘Legendary Service’ across a wide portfolio of aviation services.

Internal customers are organizational or contracted employees to whom you provide information, products and services. They rely on you to give good service.

Unfortunately, many employees fail to realize the importance of developing powerful strategies for building and maintaining strong internal customer relationships. That is too bad because internal customers are just as important as those outside the organization.Still, some employees fail to realize that everyone in the organization is a customer service provider, even if they work behind the scenes in a support function. This is why you should never forget that you are an important part of the customer service chain no matter what your job title.

The following are powerful strategies for building and maintaining strong internal customer relationships:

Develop positive relationships. Make an effort to greet others pleasantly each day and display common courtesies such as saying “please” and “thank you.” Do not forget the power of such simple acts. The impact your success and that of your internal customers depends on the strength of your internal relationships.

Listen objectively. When another employee has an idea, take the time to listen and discuss it. This is especially true when it affects external customers. Keep and open mind and consider the merits of what is offered before responding or making a decision on any action needed.

Take time to get to know more about your internal customers. Possibly takes breaks with your internal customers. Go to lunch or talk before or after work in order to get to know them as a person and not just as another employee. People are more likely to provide better internal customer service when they like the person they are serving.

Learn about customers on a personal level and about the job that they do. This can lead to a better understanding about what they might have to offer and how you might be able to assist them. The result might be that your job and service to your customers might become easier. Taking these simple steps can also give you a better understanding of organizational structure and departmental functions.

Show appreciation for help provided by others. If someone goes out of his or her way to assist you, take the time to acknowledge it. This could be a text or email message, or more powerfully, a hand-written note. Depending on the effort of the person, perhaps give a small reward. For example, give a hand-baked jumbo cookie along with a personalized thank-you note for any extra effort they provide to help you.

Acknowledge the contributions of others. Most people like to be appreciated. An important thing to remember is that you should always give credit for work done by others and never claim it as your own. The latter can lead to resentment and actually get you fired.

Avoid office politics and gossip. One of the quickest ways to get a bad workplace reputation is to become the person who acts like a pollinating bee. Do not move from one person to another sharing stories that you have collected about things that are going on in the office or with another employee. That type of behavior can quickly tarnish your reputation. Such actions cause loss of productivity time that you can use to better serve your customers. They can also, gain you a reputation as someone who is not trustworthy or is unprofessional.

Respect diversity. Today’s customer base is diverse including people all shapes, sizes, abilities, and backgrounds. Employees must learn about and appreciate people and groups who may look different in order to appreciate varying views, values, and beliefs. This pertains to both external and internal customers. Since we spend the major part of our life interacting with others in workplace and job situations, everyone benefits from better understanding people. Just because someone might look or act differently, have an accent, or not have the same knowledge or abilities as you does not mean there is something wrong with him or her. Embrace and respect diversity for the benefit of all internal and external customers.

Help others. Even if it means you have to put out extra effort, take the time to assist your internal customers. If you cannot do so immediately, negotiate a time when you can help. People will likely remember your generosity and willingness to assist them when a time comes where you need help.

Be reliable. Whenever you commit to something, you should follow through by delivering as promised. This includes meeting deadlines for information needed by others in your organization. In many cases, someone might request materials or products needed to serve their external customer(s). If the need is not addressed in a timely manner, external customers may become dissatisfied and the trust with your internal customer can be lessened. Another potential effect is that those internal customers may be penalized for poor performance. Ultimately, your failure to meet deadlines can also cause the organization to lose business revenue and suffer ill effects from negative publicity. Likely, this chain of events will have negative consequences for you.

The powerful strategies for building and maintaining strong internal customer relationships in this article are important to your success. While they can help improve relationships, continue to search for additional ideas. That can improve your ability to deliver stellar service to all customers.

About the Author

Robert (Bob) W. Lucas is an experienced customer service consultant and has written many books, including  the top selling college textbook, “Customer Service Skills for Success” and “Customer Service: Building Success Skills for the Twenty-First Century.”

If your company’s goal is to deliver an excellent customer experience, you must first embrace the concept of internal customer service. What is happening on the inside of the organization will define the type of customer experience that is presented to the outside. The company culture must form a firm foundation for customer service.

Here’s an interesting concept:

What if your internal customers had a choice about doing business with you?

External customers can choose a company to do business with. Can internal customers decide who they want to do business with inside the organization? Realistically, probably not. Employees have to work together for the company to function.

So, what happens when an internal customer is not happy with the type of treatment (internal customer service) that he or she receives? If the employee seeks a solution to the problem but it is not resolved, the only other choice may be leaving the organization, just as a customer who is unhappy with the customer service might decide to do business with a competitor. An unhappy internal customer may decide to go work for the competition – or any other company – if the opportunity arises.

Employees are drawn to other companies by the prospect of new positions that are more fulfilling and rewarding. How much time and money would your company save in the long run by having a low turnover rate? While we are on the subject, here’s another question to consider:

How well do you treat and take care of your internal customers?

Think about it. If your employees had the opportunity to leave and work with another company, would they do it? Or would they choose you? Do you offer a high level of internal customer service that keeps employees feeling valued and appreciated? Or is it just satisfactory (or not even that)?

There is merit to the idea that internal customers have a choice. I worked with a client years ago who had an internal event planning department. This company required the event planning department to bid on every job it did for the company’s meetings, and other creative event planning companies submitted plans and bids as well. So in effect, the internal customer had the choice of working with the in-house department or with an outside firm, a competitor. The pressure was on the internal event planners to deliver a level of customer service and results that would keep the internal customer happy. The concept worked well for the company, the event planners were motivated to do their best and internal customer service thrived.

In the end, most internal customers really don’t have a choice, but if they did, would they choose to do business with you?

About the Author

Shep Hyken is the Chief Amazement Officer of Shepard Presentations. As a professional speaker and best-selling author, Shep helps companies develop loyal relationships with their customers and employees.

When was the last time you made a mistake at work? Come on, you know you’ve done it; we all have. No matter how good we are at our jobs, there will come a time when we will screw up.

It’s what you do after that mistake, however, that determines how others view you and how you feel about yourself. Think back to that last mistake. How did you handle it? Did you take responsibility for it? Or, did you lie about it? If you did the first, how did your boss or coworkers respond? If you did the second, how did you feel about yourself and how others might perceive you?

Your coworkers and boss are your customers, and you must treat them and your dealings with them just as you would any other customer. You must be honest and respectful. And, when you make a mistake, you must take the same steps to make that wrong right. Those steps are the same ones you would take when dealing with customers who walk through the doors to your company, but with a few twists.

Take responsibility. It’s human nature to want to blame someone else for a mistake, or to deny that a mistake was made. We are afraid that, by owning up to the problem, we will lose face, or possibly lose our jobs. Sure, there is a chance that you will be reprimanded, but just as taking responsibility for an error diffuses a customer’s anger and frustration, it will do so with your boss or coworkers.

Act quickly. Resolve the issue as quickly as possible. Don’t try to cover up a mistake, or run from it. When you admit to it immediately, you will have the opportunity to take the action necessary to correct it. In the process, you will not add to the negative consequences of that mistake by delaying any corrective action necessary to correct it. In this, as in many cases, time is money.

Be empowered. Analyze the mistake—what you did and what you need to do to correct it. Develop a plan of action to make things right and then present that plan to those people who have been impacted by that mistake. When you are proactive, you will earn the respect of others by acknowledging that you made a mistake and doing whatever needs to be done to deal with it.

Compensate. When I train clients and their employees on how to deal with irate customers who experience a problem, I tell them they must take responsibility for the problem, solve it, and then compensate the customer. That means giving customers something of low cost that has high value in their eyes as a means and elevating customer service to a higher level. A restaurant, for example, can give a patron a free dessert, a hotel can upgrade a guest to a suite, or a cell phone company can give a customer 500 free minutes.

So, what can you give customers inside your organization when you make a mistake? I suggest you give them your time. Offer to stay late, or come in early. Do whatever it takes to solve the problem—do it quickly, and do it on your own time. When you compensate your internal customers, you raise your value in their eyes.

When you treat your internal customers with the same care and concern as you do your external customers, you will earn the respect of others in the organization.

About the Author

John Tschohl, the internationally recognized service strategist, is founder and president of the Service Quality Institute in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Described by USA Today, Time, and Entrepreneur as a “customer service guru,” he has written several books on customer service.

When we talk about customer service, we usually think about how we deal with the people who walk through our doors—both physical and virtual—to purchase our products and services.

What we often fail to realize, however, is that we also have customers within our organizations; those customers are our co-workers.

Customer service means being responsive to a customer’s needs and being resourceful in meeting those needs. Customer service is many things: knowledge, communication, skill, attitude, efficiency, integrity, reliability, knowledge, and helpfulness.

How you interact with co-workers and supervisors has a huge impact on the effectiveness of the team. When Dan asks for your help in completing a report, do you tell him that it’s not your responsibility, or do you eagerly offer to do whatever you can to help him meet his deadline? When Bethany points out an error, do you get defensive, or do you view her comment as constructive and vow to improve your performance?

When you treat co-workers and supervisors with respect, when you help them solve their problems and meet or exceed the demands of the job, your value as an employee increases dramatically. Just as you should do whatever it takes to satisfy a customer, you should do whatever it takes to help a co-worker.

If you want to ensure that the internal customer service you are providing is exceptional, take these steps:

1. Develop a positive attitude. Your attitude is reflected in everything you do. It not only determines how you approach your job and your co-workers, it determines how they respond to you. Don’t complain—and don’t hang around negative co-workers. Do whatever it takes to get the job done—and done right.

2. Listen. You can’t help a co-worker unless you hear and understand what he needs. Listening shows that you care and provides you the information you need to do what needs to be done. Ask questions. Rephrase what your co-worker is saying to ensure that you understand the situation. Then use that information to decide how to move forward.

3. Solve problems. Great customer service professionals are quick on their feet. They have the skills necessary to quickly analyze a situation and decide what needs to be done to solve the problem. Don’t procrastinate. Develop a plan of attack, and handle the situation as quickly and efficiently as possible.

4. Be accessible. This means returning phone calls and responding to emails as quickly as possible. Doing so sends the message that what your co-worker needs is important to you and that you are available and eager to provide whatever assistance is needed.

5. Be honest. If a task is outside your level of expertise, or if you cannot meet the required deadline, admit it. Then offer to facilitate by helping your co-worker identify someone in the organization who does have the expertise and the time to assist with the project. Honesty earns respect. The same holds true when you make a mistake. Admit it, apologize, and learn from it.

6. Make your co-workers feel valued. Recognize them with a smile. Call them by name. Make eye contact. Be attentive to what they have to say. Compliment them when they do a good job. Ask for their advice. Make them feel important.

7. Perform. Deliver what you promise. Send the message that your co-workers can depend on you. Do what you say you will do—and do it with quality, speed, and accuracy. If you say you are going to complete a report by Tuesday, do your best to complete it by Monday.

There is great power in mastering the skills necessary to provide exceptional internal customer service. You will gain confidence in yourself and your abilities, you will earn the respect of your co-workers, and you will be recognized and rewarded. You will set yourself apart and be recognized as a valuable member of the team. And you will have satisfied customers.

About the Author

John Tschohl is a customer service strategist and is the founder and president of the Service Quality Institute. John has been described by USA Today, Time, and Entrepreneur as a ‘customer service guru’ and has written several highly acclaimed customer service books.

Learn how internal customer service is a crucial element for any organization.

Employees must focused on delivering timely, effective, quality products and services to employees in other departments, otherwise, service to external customers can suffer.

The latter impacts the organization’s reputation and bottom line, which ultimately affects the organization’s ability to hire, train, and provide income and benefits to its employees.

If you ask most employees and their supervisors if they believe they deliver effective internal customer service, they will likely say “Yes” but then qualify their answer with “But we can do better.”

They are probably right in both cases. Most employees make an effort to be professional, project a positive image and to address the needs and wants of their internal customers. The challenge is that their organization’s systems, policies and procedures often stand in their way. Let me explain.

In many organizations, people are hired into various internal positions (e.g. human resources, marketing, sales, facilities, cafeteria, accounting, or security) but are not trained in effective customer service skills. In fact, the phrase customer service is likely not used in the context of providing products and services to others in the organization.

New employees often go through orientation training and then have a peer assigned to show them the ropes, give a tour of the building and explain job responsibilities; however, this often occurs in a low key or informal manner.

There is often no consistency in the training of new employees. There may be a checklist used of things that someone has to cover with the new employee, but no focused training on products, services organizational values, and other important information.

Many new hire training programs do not use a scripted lesson plan or a formalized training session to emphasize internal customer service. As a result, employees do not learn the impact of their actions related to organizational success.

New employees often receive the opinions of their peers and learn shortcuts to policies and procedures. They are then placed in front of their customers without the proper tools to represent themselves, their department and the organization effectively from a service perspective.

Another shortcoming is that there is no incentive or reward for employees to provide quality service in many organizations. If an employee comes to work, does what they are told and does not have any performance issues, they get a good performance evaluation and likely a modest salary increase.

Internal customer satisfaction is typically not measured and workers are not held accountable for their success rates in that area. Unless a customer complains or compliments an employee, their supervisor typically assumes that everything is being done well and provides positive feedback on their performance review.

Tagged onto this issue is the fact that most supervisors receive no training on how to effectively coach and counsel their employees so there is little opportunity for ongoing dialogue, feedback and mentoring throughout any given performance period.

In short, the organization does not have systems to monitor how service is being delivered. Instead, people are rewarded and promoted based on tasks that they accomplish rather than the overall quality of job that they perform and the level of service that they deliver.

So what is the answer? Quite simply, a thorough review of policies, procedures and systems currently in place related to employee performance in the area of internal customer service should take place.

This includes doing a needs assessment by asking for customer feedback on a regular basis related to how service might be improved. In addition, working to create an environment in which internal service is a key initiative should become a priority.

All of this could start by forming an interdepartmental team made up of representatives from all departments and a representative from human resources and the training department. These people could brainstorm what currently works and what needs to improve related to internal service.

Customer satisfaction feedback could be gathered through a written survey coupled with focus groups of 8-10 customers and hosted by human resources and/or an external customer service consultant.

In order to determine service levels being provided by employees, a 360-degree performance appraisal system in which performance feedback is obtained from the employee, their supervisor, peers and customers could be used. Based on the results, supervisors could reward or coach as appropriate.

Many other strategies can help improve the quality of an organization’s internal service. You can start by examining the ones I have mentioned and use them as a basis for more initiatives.

About the Author

Robert (Bob) W. Lucas has written and contributed to many books, including: Customer Service: Building Success Skills for the Twenty-First Century.

What is Internal Customer Service?

Before we answer that question, let’s look at exactly who an internal customer is. A good definition would be anyone who depends on someone else in the organization.

Internal customer service could be supplying information, technical support, training – or any other action that ultimately results in serving external customers.

Internal customers are a key part of the Customer Chain:

Customer Chain = Vendors/Suppliers>Internal Customers>External Customers

By expanding our definition of customers to include internal customers (and even our vendors and suppliers) we are well on the way to ensuring customer service is a company-wide effort.

A key success factor in dealing with internal customers is communication. We should strive to communicate with our colleagues to the same standard as dealing with external customers. We can even go as far as applying the same standards and measurements that we use on our external customers.

Here are ten ways we can better serve our internal customers:

1. Come to work on time

2. Be polite

3. Answer calls quickly

4. Get back to each other promptly with replies to queries

5. Provide clear guidelines of what is expected of each other

6. Define roles and responsibilities

7. Be professional at all times

8. Go the “extra mile” and exceed internal customer expectations

9. Hold customer focus “round tables” to discuss each others needs

10.Say THANK YOU!

The importance of internal customers should never be underestimated. Without serving our internal customers well, we can will never be able to serve and delight our external customers.

About the Author

Arnold Sanow, MBA, CSP works with companies and organizations to build stronger customer and workplace relationships by improving verbal, interpersonal and organizational communication.