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There are more and more demands being made of front line team
members, and sometimes the pressure can be heard by your
customer. As the leader of a customer facing team you must be
aware of what is going on with your team members – how to best
support them, develop their skills and handle some tough
situations. Building a strong customer service team is no easy
feat. Here are some suggestions for building and strengthening
your team:
Hire the right people
Decide up front what skills, strengths and personality you want
on the team. The team creates its own culture based on your
leadership. Be clear in interviews about what expectations you
have for the job, what will create success and how it will be
measured. As you narrow down candidates it’s a good idea to
have them meet a few people on the team. Let the candidates get
a feel for the team they may be working with.
Be a team member as well as a manager and leader
A successful team is only as successful as each individual team
member. By viewing each role as an integral part of the team,
not as a subordinate, each team member feels valued. This
results in greater trust, smoother communication and better
individual and team results.
Model the behaviour you want to see
As a leader you are the role model for the team. They set the
tone based on you. When things go wrong they look to you for
help. After a tough customer call it’s important that they feel
they can tell you about it – for two reasons: you never want to
be broad sided by an irate customer or customer issue, and you
want your team to have trust in you. You can information gather
after a tough call which allows you to identify any trends in
product issues or identify any training or interpersonal
issues. The sooner these are identified the better.
Jointly set objectives
It’s amazing what happens when team members are asked to set
monthly objectives! They gravitate toward those tasks that best
utilize their skills. Once your team members are clear of the
overall objectives they can begin to make them their own. They
explore how they can best support and advance the departmental
objectives. In a monthly one on one meeting you invite your
direct reports to prepare what they each feel are reasonable
objectives for the next month. Your role is to ensure that
these objectives are moving the individual and team forward in
achieving the overall objectives. Delegate any task that you
feel is best done by this person if they haven’t already added
it on to the list. Inform the team member why you would like
them to take it on (remember that the buy in is much greater
when you provide scope). If the team is working in harmony the
progress toward completing these objective increases. Result: a
more motivated, productive team.
Handle problems as soon as they arise
Just as we want customer problems to be handled immediately,
it’s important to assist in problem resolution as soon as it
arises. Here’s a watch point: you want to let your team members
to step out and try new things, take chances and manage the
consequences; however you need to be there as the support
system if they need you and to help as needed. Be there, be
available and be supportive.
Develop your team members
Look at each team member as an individual. If one of your team
members is very detail oriented try to give that person process
tasks that utilize those strengths. If another team member is a
high level type of person who achieves good results with the
efforts of others get that person involved in a team project.
Taking this individual approach will result in happier, more
productive and satisfied team members.
The bottom line is that you as the manager set the tone,
direction and expectations for the team. How you work with each
person, the team and each situation is an important part of
creating a positive, focused and energized team!
To learn more about how to best lead your customer focused team
join in on Canadian Management Centre’s Delivering Superior
Customer Service for Supervisors and Managers.
About The Author: Canadian Management Centre’s Customer Service
Training seminars, provide the skills and techniques to improve
customer satisfaction.
http://www.cmctraining.org/reg/category.asp?sid=0&cat_id=3
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