How To Motivate Our Staff To Provide Great Service?

Keeping your support employees happy and motivated is disquisitional to your business' success. Here'southward how to practise it.

The battle for a customer'southward lifetime loyalty is, very often, won at the margins.

The company whose team showed that customer that they're willing to go but that footling scrap extra for them.

That feeling that a company cares? Customers will pay more than for that.

86% more, in fact, co-ordinate to a 2011 Oracle report.

Delivering that little bit of actress service requires a little bit of actress work.

Part of making sure that extra work gets washed is hiring amazing customer service employees.

The other part is keeping them motivated.

Hither are iii easy means to keep your support team happy (and happy to work hard).

one) Appreciation

Glassdoor, a career site, asked more than two,000 people about what motivates them to work harder.

The leading answer?

Appreciation. In fact, appreciation was cited more than twice as ofttimes equally the 2nd about mutual response.

81 pct of employees said that they're motivated to piece of work harder when their dominate shows appreciation for their work.

And while we might think we'd work harder if we were more appreciated, is it really true?

Another study suggests that the answer is admittedly.

In 2010, researchers from the Universities of Pennsylvania and North Carolina prepare out to study the touch on of gratitude on people's behavior.

Participants were asked to requite feedback on a fictional pupil'due south ("Eric") comprehend letter.

After the feedback was received, the participants got a reply asking for feedback on a 2nd embrace letter.

Half of the participants got a directly, to-the-point email with the second request, while the other half got an email expressing gratitude for completing the first review.

The results?

32% of the "No Gratitude" group provided feedback on the 2d comprehend alphabetic character, while 66% of the "Gratitude" group sent more feedback.

Gratitude more than doubled the response charge per unit.

Gratitude and appreciation don't just experience good; they can motivate your employees to perform.

ii) Foster (Friendly) Contest

When used properly, contest can deliver tremendous results for a team's performance.

To see what I mean, check out this story about steel magnate Charles Schwab motivated his employees (excerpted from Dale Carnegie'due south How To Win Friends and Influence People).

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

Charles Schwab had a mill managing director whose people weren't producing their quota of work.

"How is it," Schwab asked him, "that a manager every bit capable as you can't brand this mill plow out what it should?"

"I don't know," the manager replied. "I've coaxed the men, I've pushed them, I've sworn and cussed, I've threatened them with damnation and being fired. But nada works. They just won't produce."

This chat took place at the cease of the mean solar day, just before the night shift came on.

Schwab asked the manager for a slice of chalk, and then, turning to the nearest man, asked: "How many heats did your shift brand today?"

"Half-dozen."

Without some other discussion, Schwab chalked a big figure six on the floor, and walked away.

When the night shift came in, they saw the "vi" and asked what it meant.

"The big boss was in hither today," the 24-hour interval people said. "He asked us how many heats we made, and we told him 6. He chalked it down on the floor."

The side by side forenoon Schwab walked through the factory once again. The night shift had rubbed out "six" and replaced it with a big "7."

When the mean solar day shift reported for work the side by side morning, they saw a big "7" chalked on the floor. So the night shift thought they were better than the 24-hour interval shift did they? Well, they would show the night shift a affair or 2. The crew pitched in with enthusiasm, and when they quit that night, they left behind them an enormous, swaggering "x." Things were stepping up.

Before long this mill, which had been lagging style behind in product, was turning out more work than whatsoever other mill in the found.

One important takeaway for managers that's non to be missed: note Schwab'south tact. He didn't set a new production quota (which can actually demotivate employees), or tell the squad that their jobs depended on how they performed compared to their peers.

He only prepare the stage for some friendly competition, and permit human nature have over and practice the rest.

3) Get Your Hands Muddy

Customer service is not an easy job.

But it's an absolutely essential part of your business, and one that tin brand or break the manner your customers feel almost you.

Want to motivate your back up squad and get deep insights about your customer feel?

Get your hands muddy and spend time on the front end lines.

Many companies, including Zappos, Amazon, Craigslist and Rackspace exercise "anybody does support," a model that calls on all employees to spend time responding to support tickets and engaging with customers.

You'll non only get a ameliorate appreciation for what your client service team does — and build a better relationship with your support employees — but you'll get potentially business-changing insights about your production that you'd never get from hearing customer concerns second-hand.

We all benefit from existence in touch with customers. For example, every bit an engineer it tin be very powerful to see first-hand a customer struggling with a bug.

Keeping Your Team Motivated

Your support team is the first point of contact for your customers, and often the only contact they take with the concern.

Keep your team motivated and happy, and you'll exist rewarded with happier, more loyal customers who love doing business with you lot.

Question: What'due south the best way a manager or boss has e'er motivated you? Let me know in the comments.