Service with a Smile
When thumbing through the latest business books, coming upon the title "Why Is Everyone Smiling?" (Brown Books) might cause one to look around his or her office and reply, "Uh, everyone ISN'T smiling."
But if that's true, your company might learn a lesson from the book's author, Paul Spiegelman, co-founder of healthcare-exclusive customer interaction center The Beryl Companies, who firmly believes that happy employees lead to happy customers -- and has the figures to back it up.
"Focus on people, and everything else comes after that," he told me. "Everyone talks about how customer loyalty and customer satisfaction are the # 1 goals, but you can’t have that if your own people aren’t happy first."
Beryl's "Circle of Growth" philosophy maintains that employee loyalty will lead to customer loyalty, which in turn will lead to profits which you can then invest back into the tools and resources to allow your employees to grow and hold onto their jobs. While Spiegelman admits that, "As a privately held company we can afford to do that," he still thinks that many of the same principles can be applied to larger public companies answerable to shareholders.
The book illustrates various methods of making work a pleasant experience, with numerous morale-building initiatives included. A company CEO who buys a plane ticket for an employee to visit his dying mother, or who gives away his car to a staffer who was walking several miles to work -- both of which Spiegelman did -- may not seem outrageously beyond the pale, but it's also the little things that count.
"As a leader I came to recognize the unique position I’m in, that I’m under tremendous scrutiny and observation by those who work with me," he says. "The smallest thing can touch an employee in a big way. Writing a personal note and sending it to their home, which takes me 30 seconds, or stopping someone in the hallway and asking about their family ... I never felt that those things were all that important, but I came to realize that they can be very important."
Spiegelman's efforts also include a healthy bit of self-directed humor designed to prove he's "just like them," ranging from dressing up annually as Santa Claus to doing duty in a dunk tank during employee-appreciation events. "It helps lighten everything up a bit, and makes everyone more comfortable," he says. "It's something you need to do, whether it comes natural or not. I’m usually a pretty reserved guy."
The company-wide attitude seems particularly relevant to a call center. "We take inbound calls all day long, and it’s centered around healthcare, so we have certain issues we’re looking at -- people have a sick child, they’re looking for information, they’re emotional and need help," he says. "Empathy and compassion are critical. The very basics of what we do are to make sure that the people sitting there eight hours a day feel happy and comfortable, and that that comes across on the phone."
Spiegelman reports a 97% customer retention rate, and a similarly high employee retention rate. The Society for Human Resource Management recently named Beryl the second-best medium-sized company to work for in the U.S.
"It's really very simple," he says. "If people enjoy their jobs, they do a better job for the customers."
It also begs the question: Why ISN'T everyone smiling at your company?
not sure. i've worked for this company and it was not the same story in management as they portray for front-line employees (aka call advisors). their retention numbers are definitely inflated, if you look at how their compile their data.
Thanks for the comments Fatima! The whole concept seems intuitive, but many (most?) companies don't seem to grasp the "Happy employee = Happy customer" equation. Too much time being spent on driving sales? If so, Spiegelman argues that happier reps will drive sales.
I couldn't agree more with Paul Spiegelman. I'm a National Sales Manager and my first objective are the people. Speak with them, pushing, helping and showing them how important they are for the business is paying back and we are now profiting of this. People are happy and enjoy to work on a Company that cares and where they are a person and not just a number. This attitude boost the sales due to the need of success that everyone has. Feeling happy and enjoying work makes them excel their capacities and performing well. However, this takes time due to the fact that changing behaviours is tremendous difficult and also credibility takes time to set. One has to be really committed and be genuine. I do believe on it and try to do it every day.
Martha and I have just finished the draft of our next book, "Rules to Break and Laws to Follow" (due out in November in the US, from Wiley). One of the points we try to make in this book concerns this very issue - how important "positivity" in workers is to the success of your company.
LOTS of research now shows that people who are genuinely happy with their lives will be happier and more effective employees - more resilient, more creative, more productive all around.
And Carlson now has an employee engagement tool to help companies increase their employees' "positive engagement," which has to do with not only their state of mind at work, but their state of mind in life, as well.