When things go wrong, the most challenging and the most beneficial actions are to make things right and to understand why things went wrong.
Check out Parts 1 and 2 for a review.
A true leader also helps her team correct course and provides the necessary training to ensure that they’re equipped to deliver a great customer experience next time out.
Training serves multiple purposes: your team members can step away from the emotional aspect and into the practical aspect through an objective assessment of what happened and a discussion of what’s necessary to do a better job. It gives you an opportunity to elevate the employee experience, and make it about customer service, your company’s brand, and how your team member has an integral role to play in improving your processes.
Training also gives you, the business owner or manager, the opportunity to assess where you may have failed in your initial communication or training of your staff. This goes to the premise that everything that happens is coaching. The good, the bad, and the ugly. There are lessons to be learned if we’re willing to let go of the upset, take responsibility, and make the necessary adjustments.
Make sure that whatever training you do with the team members that were impacted is also shared out with all team members, along with the lessons learned, and how those lessons apply to the company more broadly. Update any training or policy and procedure manuals that you have which may be affected.
In addition to giving your team member the technical training necessary, make sure that they have the confidence to step back out onto the floor, or get on the phone, or engage online. Role play can be extraordinarily helpful, as it gets your team members out of their heads and into their bodies, which is where you want them to be. Know your team. People process breakdowns in different ways, and all the training in the world won’t be as effective as it could be unless you rebuild confidence.
Next installment: get back on the horse.