It’s interesting when working within new homes organisations to see first hand how the behaviour of people in leadership roles impacts the delivery of great customer experience.
Boardroom Speak
Whilst no one person is bigger than a brand or company it is evident on a day-to-day basis that the leader’s behaviour is noted and reflected to customers. The board who complains that ‘Mrs X is kicking off again’ is the same board who cannot understand why it is so hard to get site-based teams to improve their customer satisfaction and service behaviour.
When language devalues a customer e.g. ‘Mrs X is kicking off again’, it becomes the signal for how people perceive the leader will respond to them as well. A customer who speaks up is seen as a nuisance. Therefore an employee who hears that attitude is reluctant to positively solve a customer’s concerns because they know their actions won’t be valued internally. The negative spiral this creates takes a very short time to cast how service is delivered.
Candid feedback to the board can help them to consciously change their use of language picked up on by others. This in turn ensures that those in leadership roles reflect the levels of service they expect to be delivered to the customer. This starts with individuals and the collective modelling of the behaviours that reflect the real brand; the one the customer feels through everyone’s actions.
Emotional Intelligence
One aspect of culture that impacts customer experience is emotional intelligence. Not being emotionally intelligent hinders how people deal and respond to others; inside the company as well as external customers. Most leaders we meet know how to deal with obvious behaviours, conflict and apathy for example, but a leader who isn’t finely tuned to emotions will often not recognise more subtle emotions in the first place.
When a leader doesn’t have a handle on their own emotions and reacts inappropriately, this leads to people around them feeling nervous about speaking up, contributing ideas and suggestions for fear of how the leader will respond. Great leaders who have a superpower in their emotions show clearly that they know how to lead people through the day-to-day challenges with understanding and empathy toward customers.
Superpowers need attention and without a solid handle on our own emotions, it’s nearly impossible to respond well to others. Developing strong emotional intelligence skills is vital to those who interact with customers; that’s everyone. By working on developing your own emotional intelligence skills as well as choosing team members who are emotionally intelligent, you will set your teams up for better relationships with customers, and a more satisfying customer experience overall.