Going above and beyond!

Remember the bank I spoke about over the past three weeks? The bank that made me go through so much inconvenience and played Ping-Pong with me to retrieve and activate my credit card. I thought of squeezing one more article about my bad experience and here it is. “I am customer service speaker and an author. I will write an article about your bank. You will be in the news next week” I cautioned the bank’s customer service agent. I repeated the same caution to several employees over the phone.

They all gave me the same response. SILENCE. Not a single employee tried to discourage me from writing. They could have engaged better with me. They seemed careless. The bank’s reputation was not a concern to them at all. I think it was a case of employee disengagement.

This means the employees were not motivated to fulfill their duties. They only showed up every day to make sure they get their paycheck at the end of the month. In essence, they were doing just enough not to get fired. According to Gallup, 87% of employees around the world are disengaged.

In the U.S. alone, the yearly cost of actively disengaged employees ranges from a staggering $450 to $550 Billion. On the other hand, employees with high level of engagement will often go above & beyond their required duties. As a leader, this is important to you because numerous studies showed that engaged employees, compared to disengaged employees, are more productive, serve the customers better and close more sales.

This means profitability can go only one way: Up! And when the profits are up, everyone is happy especially the shareholders. If I were responsible for Customer Service in this bank, I would team up with Human Resources to conduct an Employee Engagement Survey and make sure the responses are confidential to ensure we receive frank and open answers from our employees.

Then, in light of the results, devise action plans to improve the level of engagement. Generally speaking, the bank or any company may consider using my 3 R’s Formula for Employee Engagement: (1) Recognize your employees. Pat them on the back when they do a task exceedingly well. Be specific about it. Do this frequently. (2) Reward them well, whether financially or non-financially. Yes, everyone loves to have more cash but they will remember their incentive trip to Hawaii forever! (3) Recreation. Make it fun for them. How about surprising them ice cream in your office on a hot summer day.

You should strive to engage your employees in inspiring them to go above & beyond their duties when they serve your customers. This is a worthwhile investment. It will pay you huge dividends. And that’s a promise.