High performers: key to a great customer experience

Mat Wylie delivers a winning formula for creating high performing teams who provide increasingly exceptional customer experience.

We all know how high performing teams help a business succeed. Yet for some reason, we often focus our efforts on those who are struggling. But what would happen to your customer experience if you focused on building up your high performers instead of just trying to fix those who aren’t up to scratch?

A dental practice is currently in the early stages of using our customer feedback platform. Most businesses start off getting a mix of good and some not-so-good feedback – but this team has blown us away. Nearly every piece of customer feedback has been good – and many of them mention by name staff members who do an amazing job.

Now, you might think that would enable the team to become complacent. But in reality, the opposite is happening. Staff have asked to wear name tags so they can get mentioned by name more often. They’ve set up an internal challenge to see who can show up biggest in the word cloud (this measures how often a specific word is used in feedback, so being bigger means they’ve been mentioned more often).

In other words, a group of already high performers are using customer feedback to get to the next level.

It’s a reminder that improving customer experience doesn’t just mean fixing the bad experiences customers have – it means consistently trying to outperform yourself; to make the experience EVEN BETTER than it already was. And your high performing people are the ones who make all the difference.

So how can you create high performing teams who provide increasingly exceptional customer experience?

To start with – hire friendly.

Virtually every business we’ve ever worked with has seen the word ‘friendly’ trend across their positive feedback. Instead of hiring for specific skills or industry experience, start with the way that a candidate comes across. Their attitude, and the way they make people feel, is what customers will most remember. You can train the rest of it.

Secondly, equip your A players.

Instead of spending your time trying to improve your lowest common denominators (which can drain your time, energy, and resources), give the people who are doing a good job the tools and support they need to do a great job. Not only will they continue to do better, but they’ll also set the standard for the rest of the team. You may soon find your B players strive to become A players and your C and D players either shape up or ship out.

Next, train your team on how to handle different situations while also giving them the autonomy to make their own decisions about how best to turn unhappy customers into happy customers. Most people want to solve problems – they just need to be given permission to do so. And don’t forget that training should include training management on how to use feedback as a coaching tool. A bad piece of feedback shouldn’t be used to call someone out or make them feel bad – it should be used as an opportunity for learning.

Finally, recognise and reward your top performers – even in a small way.

We work with a retailer who suddenly noticed one particular name trending in their feedback. A new employee had started just six weeks earlier and customers felt she was doing an incredible job. The CEO acknowledged this by sending out a company-wide email congratulating her and telling her she was doing a great job. That employee was blown away, and since then has continued to earn glowing feedback.

Recognising and rewarding the behaviour you want to see more of doesn’t have to be a big gesture – something as simple as an email can have a big impact on how that person feels and keep them wanting to do more.

Mat Wylie is CEO of Customer Radar.