Great customer service: Remembering the little things

Today's struggling economy means many employees are feeling overworked, over-stressed and under-appreciated. A pharmacist for a busy drug store chain in Florida found a way to get her employees engaged in a new incentive, in spite of the challenging economic environment. Susan was charged with managing a program called "emotional connections" that the corporate office has been promoting to store employees. Taking a compassionate approach helped her get buy-in from her staff.

"The 'emotional connections' program suggested doing extras, like giving new customers a bottle of water and a business card to welcome them to the store and let them know that the pharmacist is available to them," she described. "But the employees perceived it as 'blah blah blah' because they feel that they're spread so thin trying to do more work than they can do in a shift already, many being $9 an hour employees with no perceived upward mobility."

Susan didn't really completely understand the program herself, until she was nominated as "Pharmacist of the Year" for her district and was sent to a corporate convention.

"They spent a lot of time explaining how emotional connections will cause people to pass all other stores and visit ours even when they aren't in our area," she said. "We were given a lot of solid examples and hearing it was like getting a big education. I became enamored with the program and explained to our staff how it would make their job more fun as they would begin to have a relationship with the customer and not just the cash register. I explained to them that doing this would make what was really important to them — having a great life beyond work - easier! Well, the store has become very friendly and the staff all do their part for the emotional connections program. And, of course, now the customers say they enjoy coming into the store. I've actually been hearing that when I am on shift, it's a bit zen-like in the pharmacy and both the employees and customers like the feeling we've created."

With the large corporate management of a national chain, Susan admits that she struggles with the warmer human element of customer service. Some of the required targets for her department involve technical things like answering the telephone within a certain number of seconds, scanning items in pick-up bins within a specified time frame, selling high volumes of high-profit medications and accurately verifying pill counts on a standardized schedule. The targets must be met for managers to receive their bonus pay. One specific target is based on customers calling in on a survey hotline.

Susan told us, since people are more likely to initiate a call to complain, "the idea is to reach out and make emotional connections asking the customer to call. Furthermore, only customers whose receipts show a request for a call with the 1-800 number can do so and those come out sporadically. Only the engaged employee is going to take the time to notice the bottom of the receipt and make a personal plea for the customer to make that call."

To entice her employees to make personal requests for the call-in survey, Susan has what she calls a "surprise sack," which she gives her team members when they do well on the survey scores.

"This sack comes out whenever the department attains the monthly 92 percent score," she said. "I put little prizes in there for everyone. The last Sack prize was an Arizona Blueberry Iced Tea, two Key Largo postcards stamped and ready to mail, and a plastic pen in the shape of a palm tree. The card said 'time to enjoy the knowledge that we live in the fabulous Florida keys!'"

Other prizes have included a mini-lava lamp, a purse with pink poodles clipped on it, a baby venus fly trap plant — all items that Susan finds on clearance. "I always include a small card with some appropriate little sentence. The pink purse with the poodle said, 'girls rock and we don't care who knows.'

"It works, too. I do not ask any staff if they have done something relating to the survey. They just do. The next time we attain 92 percent I have the gift chosen — a marble incense holder with incense sticks. The card will read, 'we are really smoking now.'"

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Susan, in a truly above-and-beyond effort, divides her personal bonus, after taxes, with her pharmacy staff. "I don't know of anyone else who does this but last year, the cut was $157 each. It may seem like a pittance but I experienced great joy from the staff."

What do you think? When a large corporation has to downsize, picking up additional responsibilities can make employees feel overworked, over-stressed and under-appreciated. If you're a manager, what can you do to keep your employees focused on delivering great customer service? What small, yet meaningful, rewards can you create?

Lori Jo Vest is the co-author of "Who's Your Gladys? How to Turn Even the Most Difficult Customer into Your Biggest Fan."