Everyone Has A Story
About Customer Service Chaos . . .
About Customer Service Chaos . . .
. . . about supposedly reliable people and companies who have failed to keep their promise - bringing chaos, wasted time and
money and general disruption into your work day. Whether you're a dissatisfied consumer or a manager trying to
keep your promise through other people's efforts, it's become an all-too-familiar experience.
Workforce Leaders struggle to hire, train and retain high-performers; authentic people who will be faithful
to their duties. If you've tried "almost everything" you know by now that the problem is not rooted in the tools or resources you've provided, nor in the failure
of policy's and procedures, nor in providing enough benefits. It's who you're hiring - and why. It's what your employees are doing - and how.
A Help-Scout research article describes 75 important
customer service issues including a Harris Polls study which notes that 50% of customer service agents failed to answer customer's questions.
A Forbes
article describes "situational tyrants” as employees who have the power to say “no” within their tiny little customer service fiefdom,
and who exercise that power every opportunity they have to tell a customer “No.”
A Gallup Poll has discovered
that 70% of the workforce are not actively engaged in their work; or worse yet - are actively disengaged and hate going to work. It
explains some of the mission-destructive behaviors we've observed.
An Inc.com article breaks down the
Gallup Workforce Poll and describes the enormous benefits of resolving employee disengagement; 22% Higher Profitability; 25-65% Lower
Turnover; 37% Less Absents; 28% Lower Shrinkage/Theft, etc.
A University of British Columbia study reveals that envious
employees are more likely to undermine peers if they feel disengaged . . . "by spreading negative rumours, withholding useful information, or
secretly sabotaging their work.”
A Journal of Business and Psychology
article defined organizational sabotage as any employee behavior which is intended to inflict a production or profit loss.
There are four methods: slowdowns, destructiveness, dishonesty, and causing chaos.
An American Institutes for Research study reveals
that 75% of the people with a two-year degree (or less) are lacking literacy and cannot perform basic clerical functions accurately.
With a four-year degree it's still an astounding 50%.
A Huffington Post article reports that a Gallup poll
indicated that 96% of college chief academic officers believe that they're effectively preparing students for the
workplace. Only 11% of business leaders and 14% of consumers agree.
Articles by The Boston Globe and Study.com report that
college students admitting to cheating has increased significantly over the last 60 years (from 20% to now 75%) and students aren't just cheating to pass,
they're cheating to get ahead.
CBS News Money Watch reports that
the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Shulman Center reveal that 75% of employees steal from the workplace and most do it repeatedly; and that
30% of all corporate bankrupticies are a direct result.
Harvard Business Review reports that
rude, vulgar, condescending or aggressive behaviors have created an expensive culture of incivility in the workplace with
lost time and productivity and a negative effect on customer service.
An article in the Harvard Business Review asks
"Should Leaders Focus on Results, or on People?" The surprising answer is revealed in a study conducted by James Zenger which
asked employees to choose between these leadership styles.
A Forbes article reports that a survey of American Executives
found only 35 percent of Americans are happy at their job and that 65% would take a better boss over a pay raise. The writer cites the inability
of bosses to "walk the walk."
The American Society for Quality states that many
organizations will have poor-quality costs as high as 15-20% percent of sales revenue, some as high as 40% of total
operations. In a thriving company it will be about 10-15% of operations.
Philip Crosby wrote that companies lose as much as 20% of their
operating budget through errors, rework, customer service problems, etc. That’s why he said “Quality is Free.” It’s much less expensive to
train people to do things right.
A Journal of Organizational Behavior study showed that
workers with a stronger sense of psychological ownership have higher job satisfaction and organization-based self-esteem and take
pride in their enterprise/mission.
A Journal of Management article
connected an absence of organization-based self-esteem with feelings of uncertainty and that it had negative impacts on
motivation, organizational commitment, and absenteeism.
An article by Entrepreneur.com indicated that high-performers are 116% more likely to
stay with their current company than low performers. They are also the best prospects for leadership if given
the opportunity to develop their skills.
