Connecting: Pay heed to customer service from inside and outside

The printer lost your order, the plumber never returned your call and your dry cleaner changed hours without a warning. It's easy to notice customer service issues from the outside but what about customer service on the inside? Consider the impact of viewing your employees, your assistant and your fellow worker as your internal customer.

Two Springfield companies, Springfield Remanufacturing and Harter House supermarket, operate under the philosophy of employee as customer. To improve customer service from the inside, consider measuring these three components: commitment, consistency and communication.

Commitment

Springfield Remanufacturing is committed to employee satisfaction, addressing issues of employee morale, education and earnings. SRC is recognized nationally for Chief Executive Officer Jack Stack's revolutionary style of management. Some of SRC's awards include, The National Business Ethics Award, Business Enterprise Trust Award and Top 100 Companies to Work for in America.

According to Training Director Julie Holt, "We take an employee morale survey two times per year, and last year we implemented a new team consisting of a group of people representing each division it's a taking-care-of-people team."

The company gives employees a stake in the outcome and it is committed to improving their earnings based on the financials of the company, she says.

Harter House supermarket, a 2000 semifinalist for the W. Curtis Strube Small Business of the Year Award, gives employees a stake in the outcome as well.

"The owner, Barbara Bettlach, shares the profits with the employees through an annual bonus, sometimes two, dependent upon her AWG Y/E rebate and profits," says Michele Kauffman, the store's bookkeeper Bettlach's daughter.

The purpose of the AWG rebate program is to help businesses with their operational expenses.

"Since we don't have any equipment or huge operational responsibilities, we split that cash refund with our employees."

Consistency

Beware of saying that you have an "open door policy" then acting cranky or unavailable when you get disrupted. Be realistic. Instead of trying to make employees buy into the fantasy, create some guidelines for your "open door." This allows you take charge of priorities and promotes consistency in your behavior.

"Consistency issues impact the good employees most," says Nancy Lahmers, director of the Ozarks Regional Campus of Webster University. For more than 25 years, Lahmers was an employment attorney and HR manager. "I often saw management or supervision being inconsistent with policy, trying to appease the not-so-good employees, yet we have to ask the question: what behaviors are we reinforcing?" she says.

According to Lahmers, creating consistent policies is a three-step procedure: Developing policy, communicating it and implementing it.

"That is your first line of defense in litigation that you have a policy." The best companies have planned strategies and there is counseling available even for small or new businesses at SCORE or the Small Business Development Center, Lahmers says. Secondly it is important to communicate it thoroughly and reinforce it through newsletters, bulletin boards and meetings.

Lahmers adds that implementation is the most important aspect, and it is a continuous process with cycles of evaluation and re-evaluation, making modifications then communicating those changes.

Communication

Keeping employees abreast of issues regarding the business is a must for internal customer service. Harter House distributes quarterly newsletters that highlight their shares of growth in various departments. "The employees know what percentage their department is increasing from last year and from last quarter," Kauffman says.

Along with newsletters in each division, SRC participates in weekly "huddling" meetings discussing financials and other issues, including recognition of people. "We have back and forth communication every Tuesday at 10 and each person is responsible for a number on the income statement," says Alexis Brown, PR director at SRC. It's known as forward forecasting.

Brown emphasizes the communication benefit of huddling: "The communication benefit is that you're not blind sided. I will know that Julie Holt is expecting 30 participants at the next Great Game seminar, and that tells me that I need 30 workbooks, which is an expense." Anderson and Holt agree that SRC's style of open-book management is a great communication tool that fosters teamwork.

(Marlene Chism is president of ICARE Consulting in Springfield.)