By Caroline Watson, Reward Panda & Voucherline
I do love a challenge. When Hadie asked me the question “Can you keep customers and employees engaged at the same time or are they mutually exclusive?” and then set me the challenge to write a piece, I must admit it got me scratching my head to start with but sorry, the words then flowed!
The answer has to be a resounding yes you can and should keep both engaged at the same time, otherwise you will have a very troublesome business indeed in my humble opinion. Happy customers usually equals happy staff, so it is advisable that they go hand in hand.
I started my first company in 1995, and boy was it a shock to the system employing our first team and learning to trust them with our treasured customers.
The first lesson we had, is how we can install in the team, our passion, drive and kindness that we need them to show to our customers, along with accuracy and attention to detail we so loved providing?
Being brutally honest, it has taken us probably about five years to properly work this out and we are still learning today!
Today, we start at the top with our managers and team leaders, and also with every mistake that their team makes, as they will make them! Instead of telling off constantly, or getting heated, use any mistake as a driver for improved processes and support for the team so they are confident not to make that one again ideally.
Staff then realise it is how we deal with a mistake that then enables them to keep the customer as they pass this same assurance on to them, and also how we treat the staff member who made the mistake in the first place.
No one makes a mistake deliberately. It is usually a mixture of not understanding a process, misusing a platform, or a wellbeing issue that causes them. Occasionally it is sad, but you have to give a working plan to an employee and go down the warning route, but we try and then support that employee with a true monthly support package, so that we try and manage them into the business rather than manage them out ideally. If the employee decides it is not for them, at least they realise support was there and can leave happily as it is truly their decision.
Support, and communication.
All of our team leaders have worked alongside our ops team working their jobs, and jump in to support when staff absence occurs. Listening to suggestions for improvements, and allowing the team to make those improvements themselves and test that they work well.
Our staff are told that we work to live. We do not live to work. It is a passion of mine. We spend more time with each other than we do our families, so we have to leave the office and disengage at the end of every day. We do not phone each other out of hours unless there really is an emergency. We do not expect our team to take work home with them if we can help it (maybe apart from Christmas – that is our one time of year that it is all hands to the deck!). It means the team has no issue in giving 150% when they are at work. And they do. Give and take.
In lockdown, we changed our opening hours as our phones were off due to remote workers, and it has been life changing. When fully back in the office, the team presented a case to the business to retain these hours (Monday to Friday 8-4pm) and it has been one of the best decisions made. We leave work as if it is a Friday every day. Our business has not been impacted at all, in fact it has grown.
For a CEO/Founder, who then engages me and inspires me to work harder?
Well, after 2 years of trying, I reduced my working week to 4 days last year knowing that my business runs efficiently. I have been able to fully engage with my other life which is charity led. I find that being a trustee of a charity (a dog rescue in Bucks), and volunteering at events and fundraising, engages my mind further, impacts positively with my mental health as I am happy to be volunteering, and keeps me learning new practises and ideas from my counterparts. Ever evolving! Try it! It is great.
Caroline Watson owns and created Sound Solutions Marketing,
Voucherline, Voucherline Corporate, Reward Panda and part owns TheGiftCardCentre.
Life is never boring!
