Think Customers: The 1to1 Blog

Recently several of my own personal experiences as a customer has helped me understand that one part of the problem is where we have placed the mantle of CEM responsibility: customer facing staff and the C-suite. There needs to be more emphasis placed on top and middle management accountability for CEM initiatives and results. With the possible exception of having voice-of-the-customer scores as part of compensation, most supervisors and managers do not understand their role in the process. We have forgotten that being a manager does not automatically mean that person has the skills and knowledge required to interpret the CEM mandate and guide the staff through the process.

Example 1 - Going to the Movies
On a recent Monday I took a day off to spend with my husband. Snow and ice kept most people close to home, so when we arrived at the movie theatre for the noon show the parking lot was almost empty. There was no one in line to purchase tickets, so we walked right up to the window. The agent was on the telephone and did not look up or acknowledge us for several minutes. I could see her making notes that appeared to be a refreshment order and could hear her talking with someone who was inside the theatre giving her the instructions. Still being ignored I asked the agent if we should go inside to make our purchase, to which she said no yet still made no effort to help us. Finally, I reminded her that we were customers. At this point she became flustered and responded that her manager was on the phone and she had to finish with him first. I was floored because I know the manager could hear the entire conversation and still insisted that the agent finish taking his request.

Example 2 - Can I Please Buy This Sweater?
Armed with my one-day-only savings pass I eagerly went to my favorite department store determined to spend, spend, and spend. After browsing a bit I found the perfect sweater and then set out to buy it. I finally found the one register location that was being manned and settled into my place in line. After five minutes it was my turn and a very pleasant cashier started my transaction, but suddenly her supervisor appeared with another customer in tow and with no explanation or apology aborted my sale so that she could do a refund for the other customer. The cashier looked very uncomfortable and told me she was sorry, but not a word from the supervisor who completed the transaction and walked away.

What do these examples have in common? In both cases the manager became part of my customer experience and in both cases failed to consider how their actions effected my impression of the experience.

Time and time again I have witnessed managers walk into a customer experience, not acknowledge the customer, and proceed to disrupt the interaction between the staff member and the customer. More often than not the interruption is made to handle an internal business need. When managers are not busy doing the work of the business, interactions with the customers are often limited to protecting the company policy that the customer has the nerve to question. Clearly we have forgotten to make the role of management an important ingredient in our customer's routine interactions with us. In the 1980s businesses realized the positive effect of managers being a visible part of day-to-day activities with the adoption of MBWA, manage by walking around, where managers engaged in the staff's work. I think it is clearly time to adopt MBWA as part of our CEM efforts.

To do so we need to include managers in the very same training and development activities as we give our front line staff and C-suite. And don't stop with front line managers; go all the way to department heads. Remember, when a customer asks for help they don't care what your level or title is; they only care that they received what they needed.

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Toni Hendrix is chief customer officer of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center