Creating a Motivating Work Environment - Assignment Example

Paper Lecturer Introduction It is axiomatic to squabble that the growth of the company is connected to the performance ofthe staff members. When the employees are discouraged and de-motivated, it is high unlikely that the company will perform. The customer service employees, who are the immediate face of the company plays an important role in customer attraction and retention. Businesses men hold that an organization is only in business if it retains its customers. As the firm grows, it is important to ensure that the employees grow with them. A myriad of businesses usually focus on other expansion areas without taking into consideration the feelings and the psychological growth of its staff members. Management must always ensure that staff members are motivated. The empowerment of employees has been delineated from different perspectives, but generally means the process of making it possible for the employees to have input and control over their roles and responsibilities. It is also the ability of sharing ideas, suggestions about the daily running of the organization. Research proves that employees, who are empowered, are often empowered, conscientious and committed to the performance of the organization. They usually care about the future missions, vision, objectives and long term goals of the firm. The discussion in this paper will focus on the importance of empowering customer service employees. Discussions The customer service management is one of the central points that dictate the performance of the company. A repeated business is only possible if the customers are treated well and given reason to do business with the organization again. Some of the importance of empowering customer service employees includes; Employee satisfaction It is proved that when customer service employees are satisfied, it is likely that they will embrace their job. The satisfaction of the employees will enhance the performance of the staff members, ensure their retention and adopt superb customer skills when handling organizations clients. Satisfied employees will feel that they are part of the organization and that they are important to the daily operations of the company. Satisfactions of the employees will make them feel comfortable and confident in their daily routines. The sense of pride when associating with the organization can be easily sensed. Given that customer service employees are the face of the company, the impression they give to the customers will impact customer-company relationship. Poor services from the team will drive the customers away. Therefore a high retention of the customers can only be ensured through the satisfaction of the customer service employees. A rude response or poor treatment from the customer service is likely to send a negative signal to the customer, which might result to customers cutting business links with the company, or avoid any future transaction. (Mayfield, & Mayfield 2012) Employee loyalty Training and empowering employees is one of the best ways to retain hardworking staff members. A number of employees are work in progress and therefore they require constant support from the senior management or company owners. Employees who are de-motivated are likely to quit the firm the moment they get better opportunities in other organizations. (Robertson 2012) Good employees often have a number of employers to choose from but it is likely because of reasonable treatment that they decide to stick with a particular company. Irrespective of their position and status in the company, management must ensure that all staff members are appreciated and make them feel as part of the company by giving back to them. Good employees are likely to bring good and reliable business, besides advising other good staff members to join the team. Loyal customer service employees are likely to be positive about the future prospects of the company. A customer is unlikely to do a repeated business if he/she gets a negative impression from the customer service. Outsiders tend to trust the personnel who are already in the business. Therefore any negative statement from disloyal customer service employees is likely to impact negatively on the operations of the company. (Tudor 2013) Employee creativity Every firm intends to recruit staff members who are creative and can handle any complex situation when they face any. A number of managers rarely love to work with employees who are dependent. When the focus of the employees is only on their pay, it is unlikely that they handle something beyond their scope. They will only do the bare minimum. It is unlikely that an employee will do something out of their terms of reference when they are not creative. When employees feel that they are part of the daily running of the company and that they are worth considerable infrastructure of the firm, it is likely that they will apply critical thinking when faced with any challenges ( Nelson, 2014). The employees are the main asset that a company has and therefore they must always be given fair and good treatment. Just like machines, which cannot operate without service, a fair consideration to the employee’s welfare will negatively impact the company’s operations. It is through good treatment that the firm will be able to know great ideas that employees have to improve the customer service. In the course of their duty, customer service employees meet both loyal and difficult customers. Since the challenges are not same for all customers, a creative thinking from the customer service employees will help deal with the problem and in turn leave the difficult employees satisfied. (Muo 2013) Better Decision makers The contemporary society is associated with a daily growth in technology. Majority of the customers are aware of the growing technology and therefore they expect the same to be applied in the company. Customers often want to associate with a firm that adopts high technology, which helps in reducing cost. Employees must always be taught to remain dependent and learn how to make some of the main decisions on their own especially when dealing with customers. Learning new technologies is therefore vital when it comes to taking some of the decisions. The independent thinking brings the ability to technologically act quickly to come of the challenges and respond to some of the changes. Customer service are often faced with a number of challenges and questions from customers most of which require an immediate and urgent response. An empowered customer service employees are likely to quickly make reasonable decisions especially when they face the questions. Customers always perceive customer service employees who consult on everything as incompetent and undependable. (Cross 2013) Collaborate instead of competing A number of organizations are faced with instances where customers often fight instead of collaborating. An organization should create an environment where staff members should work towards learning from one another. The key focus should be on depending on another’s strengths and building on weaknesses to come up with unbeatable team. When employees are not empowered it is likely that they will keep the vital information for themselves and use them to get promotion. Staffs who are not empowered will always think of promotion to get monetary terms and not to perform. Empowered customer service personnel are likely to collaborate and share vital information especially those to be shared with the customers. When a customer approach collaborating employees, it is likely that they will read from the same chapter and the probability of satisfaction will be high as compared to competing employees. (Govindarajulu, & Daily 2010) Communicate respectfully and deal with the root cause of the problem A number of customer service staff members waste a lot of time because of poor communication. It is likely that decisions will be delayed and the morale of the staff members will be poor when there is poor communication. Superb and clear information will enhance the relationship with the customers. They will not shy away from making inquiries about new company products. If the frontline staff members are not in a position to communicate properly and deal with some of the root causes, they end up creating more problems instead of solving existing ones. The perennial front door problems wastes a lot of time and in some instances cost the company money. Well empowered staff members are likely to tackle some of the basic problems and deal with them as they come. In most cases customers will rarely feel wasted and they will have a reason to make more inquiries. (Clark 2009) Conclusion The growth of any organization is directly connected with the customer satisfaction. A business entity can only survive if the customers trust its goods or services offered. Customers mostly judge the services rendered by the business going by the first treatment they receive. The management must therefore ensure that all the necessary support is granted to the customer service to ensure that they offer the best to the customers. Some of the ways to enhance customer service satisfaction includes; connecting the frontline to the company’s mission, train staff how to think independently, grant the customer service personnel a latitude to experiment break down tedious process and ensure that all the required resources are availed. In a nutshell, an empowered customer service employees will adopt unique ways to perfectly handle client’s observations, concerns and queries. References Clark, R.M. 2011, "Are we having fun yet? Creating a motivating work environment", Industrial and Commercial Training, vol. 41, no. 1, pp. 43-46. Cross, L. 2013, "Motivating a companys best assets", Graphic Arts Monthly, vol. 75, no. 11, pp. 38-40. Govindarajulu, N. & Daily, B.F. 2010, "Motivating employees for environmental improvement", Industrial Management + Data Systems, vol. 104, no. 3, pp. 364-372. Mayfield, J. & Mayfield, M. 2012, "The benefits of leader communication on part-time worker outcomes: a comparison between part-time and full-time employees using motivating language", Journal of Business Strategies, vol. 23, no. 2, pp. 131-153. Muo, I. 2013, "Motivating & Managing Knowledge Workers: Evidences from Diverse Industries & Cultures", Journal of Management and Sustainability, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 119-131. Nelson, B. 2014, "Importance of Motivating employees with informal awards", Management Accounting, vol. 77, no. 5, pp. 30 Robertson, K. 2012, "Secrets to motivating your employees", The Canadian Manager, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 14-14: Page count = 3. Tudor, T.R. 2013, "Motivating Employees With Limited Pay Incentives Using Equity Theory And The Fast Food Industry As A Model", International Journal of Business and Social Science, vol. 2, no. 23. Read More