Employee Engagement

SO Disinterested or disingenuous employees are the biggest hurdles organizations must overcome to deliver a great guest or customer experience. In the life cycle of the service product a company will deliver, the company develops Standard Operating Procedures. These SOP’s are designed to help quantify the nature of service standards and ensure proper execution of the brand promise. Roles are defined between each front line employee and job descriptions are written for managers. Managers develop performance metrics for each employee and through proper coaching and follow up, a superior guest experience is achieved. Then why is the number one reason guests give for brand disloyalty is disinterested employees?

SOPs, brand promises, and vision are important components to a company but it must take comprehensive and extended steps to ensure engagement. Employee engagement, according to Swedish consultancy OPC, “… (is) the means or strategy, by which an organization seeks to build a partnership between the organization and its employees, such that: Employees fully understands and is committed to achieve the organization’s objectives” This sounds like a description of the Earth from space to me: round; mostly blue and white. Let’s take a look at what that may look like to front line employees.

A means or strategy an organization could employ to encourage employee engagement would be to develop a culture where front line employees have more control over workload issues and provide solutions for guest issues. This is called empowerment. Another high level term that may be lost on front line services providers. Do your employees know it is OK to solve a guest issue, without asking permission? Have you spent time investing in them on how to show empathy? Understanding? Do your employees feel empowered in their job? Imagine a time in your operation when every employee has emulated this and what kind of impact could this have on the business.

Building a partnership with your employees is more than having them solve their own problems; it is a true relationship with constant conversation both ways as in a good marriage. If one member of marriage only tells the spouse they love them once every three months, could you see how the other spouse can become disenfranchised? Why do we regulate employee performance reviews on a quarterly basis? To ensure the feedback happens. Why do we only give feedback once a quarter? Laziness, priorities, other projects. More frequent feedback sessions with back and forth discussions have shown to greatly improve a company’s ability to deliver exceptional results.

Once we have these programs in play, we need to follow up on them and nurture our relationships through appropriate discussions, goal setting, and celebrations. Survey companies can provide services to measure employee engagement and provide you with valuable insight on how to best leverage the results to more employee engagement. I have seen first hand the effects of failing to engage my employees properly and also the amazing results when I have. I cannot express the importance of engagement; this is something you may have t experience yourself to truly appreciate. All I ask is that you build an engagement strategy for your business. Your guests will appreciate it.

Haywood, Bob (n.d.) “How Do You Define Employee Engagement?” OPC, LTD.
Retrieved from the OPC website on February 9, 2010.
http://www.opcuk.com/downloads/defining_employee_engagement.pdf

Recently I ate at a restaurant that has begun to experiment with electronic interface on the table. This LCD monitored hub place at the end of the table became the topic of conversation. “What is this for?” “Beam me up Scotty” were just some of the quips to be had. A nice young lady approached the table and synced her watch with the unit and began to explain it.

This is an interactive tool that lets you contact me if you need me and it will provide you an opportunity to fill out a survey on your experience today as well as contact the manager should you need to speak to him”, she explained. This hockey puck is connected to a server in the back of the house that notifies the server with a vibrating LCD wrist watch whenever the table presses the “See Server” button. The same signal is sent to the manager if his button is pushed. The read out on the watch tells whoever is being hailed which table is requesting assistance. Once the person hits the table and resolves whatever maybe the issue. The watch is the “synced” again with the receiver to confirm the issue has been addressed. Pretty slick huh?

Finally the survey came up on the screen about 15 minutes into our dining experience and asked the obligatory questions like “How would you rate your overall satisfaction today?” and How would you rate the quality of your service today?” Once the survey is complete is sent to a monitor in the kitchen for everyone to see the ongoing results of the food and service for the last hour. Talk about real time reporting. Everyday this report is rolled up into a overall report, populated by the previous days and weeks to see how the restaurant is operating on an ongoing basis. Ah Technology.

Don’t get me wrong. I am a tech guy. I love gismos and bright shiny new stuff just as much as the next guy but I worry about the personal aspect of this. In this day and age, the trend in every sector is moving to a technology based solution. Tracking, managing, and reporting are being handled by CRMs, databases, and servers at lightning fast speed and will continue as it is a way to leverage the power of computing and work smarter not harder. When will we have computers or a program address guest issues?
Can you imagine a time when as a guest at the restaurant I just spoke of, had an issue. Since the operation had become automated, the company decided to reduce the number of staff on: fewer employees and fewer managers. Starting to feel the pressure of being everywhere at once, the manager asks for a program to be written to help clarify the guest issue at the table to speed up the guest interaction time. “If I knew what the problem was I could have a solution before I made the table”. Quicker, smarter, and more efficient, right? So the interactive coaster on your table asks, “What is the nature of your issue?” or “How may we be of service?” The guest selects on of the say ten or so most common complaint issues and sends to the manager. The manager approaches and already has an idea of the issue and because he is pressed for time, quickly attempts to resolve the issue without expressing empathy or compassion to the guest for the substandard service or product. Do you think this could happen? Will this improve service, thus loyalty to a brand through a technology portal?

The big push in service today is for automation. There are many fine companies out there that are offering technology solutions to major hospitality providers and are doing quite well. The argument is if the public as a whole is becoming more technologically-savvy than so should lines of communication with their favorite brands and service providers. Open up the lines of communication with your guests and build a relationship stronger than that of just a customer. Improve the accessibility of information to the guest before they make their decision about where to eat and where to stay. It’s called leasing the greatest sign in the world: “Top of Mind” recognition. I agree that marketing is important and that all of these previous arguments are valid and have a place in today’s business landscape, I just don’t want it at the most critical point in a business relationship: The conflict.

When I have an issue, I would like to speak to somebody who cares if I have an issue and is genuinely concerned with resolving it. I do not want a program or an iPhone app to make things run smoothly. I don’t want to tell a computer to tell someone else that I have an issue. I want a human being to care enough about my business to check on me personally. Building face to face, real relationships is far more important and lasting than the latest tool to “help” my experience. I will drive past 10 places of business to go to a place where I have a relationship with a service provider and spend my money their regardless of price.

I am sure there is a GPS that can find that place for me.