039: Does Employee Empowerment Work?

SPONSOR MESSAGE Customer Experience is hot… but are you taking advantage of its huge potential to make your services business more prominent and profitable? Join Service Strategies for an informative Customer Experience Workshop in San Diego on October 27th. You’ll learn how to create customer success while generating profitable revenue for your services business. The workshop is part of the Service Industry Summit event, which bring together leaders from companies like Cisco, Dell and others to discuss the challenges of a changing service landscape. Visit servicestrategies.com to learn more. Employee Empowerment: Is it a Fad or a Winning Strategy? Employee empowerment is a term we hear a lot these days, but how do you define it? The answer can make a huge difference for your business. Adam and Jeannie discuss how true employee empowerment means more than just giving employees a budget and a set of rules. How easy is it for employees to actually use that power? Culture plays a huge role! Adam shares a story about cutting out some of the barriers employees needed to get through before actually resolving customer service issues, and the impact it had on his own business. This is real-life evidence of how a few small changes can make all the difference! Hear Adam and Jeannie discuss how empowered employees can deliver solutions that actually increase customer loyalty, rather than just resolving an issue. Companies like the Ritz-Carlton, Zappos, and JetBlue have developed winning strategies for employee empowerment, and Jeannie clues us in on why those strategies work so well. When approached from an idealistic point of view, employee empowerment can be just a “buzz phrase” no more effective than a motivational poster on the wall. But Adam's concept of “smart empowerment” can lead to enormous customer service success. What’s the difference between employee empowerment and “smart empowerment?” Adam and Jeannie have some powerful examples. Listen in to cut through the hype and see how empowerment can work for your organization! Episode Resources The Ultimate Starter Guide to Employee Empowerment Common Mistakes in Organizational Culture The Ritz-Carlton’s Famous $2,000 Rule Take care of yourself and take care of your customers.