If I were to ask each of your managers to rate how well they and their teams are being served by other departments within your company, which of the eight options listed below would they choose?

1. We receive excellent service from every colleague and/or department with which we interact.
2. We receive excellent service from select colleagues and/or departments.
3. We receive good service from every colleague and/or department with which we interact.
4. We receive good service from select colleagues and/or departments.
5. We receive less-than-desired service from every colleague and/or department with which we interact.
6. We receive less-than-desired service from select colleagues and departments.
7. We receive poor service from every colleague and/or department with which we interact.
8. We receive poor service from select colleagues and/or departments.

If your managers are selecting any option other than #1, you’ve got work to do. If your managers and their teams are not consistently receiving excellent internal support and services, you’ve got leadership problems, you’ve got quality control problems, and you’ve got a culture problem.

If your managers and their teams are not consistently receiving excellent internal support and services, you’ve got leadership problems, you’ve got quality control problems, and you’ve got a culture problem.

Tom Peters famously said,

“I can think of no company that has found a way to look after external customers while abusing internal customers. The process of meeting customer needs begins internally.”

If we want our customers to say they receive excellent service in every interaction with us, how is that even a remote possibility if internally our teams don’t consistently go over and above to help one another and deliver the best service possible to each other? How can we expect our teams to deliver excellent service to our customers, when they don’t consistently receive excellent support themselves?

My company recently provided training to leaders of several customer service centers. In the course of the discussions, without fail, every manager stated they consistently receive poor service from select colleagues and/or departments. And, it’s been that way for years. When they have a customer sitting in front of them who needs technical support, the leaders will call the internal support desk only to be put On Hold – for hours; transferred repeatedly; told it’s up to them to figure out; or the one that really burned me: heard the Technical Support Representative put the phone down then used her cell phone to order a birthday cake! Poor internal service such as this is indicative of poor leadership, poor quality control, and a poor culture.

If you or your managers selected option #3 above, ask:

What specific actions would it take to raise the level of service from Good to Excellent?

If you and your managers selected options #2, 4-8, ask the following after the option they selected:

From whom or which department(s) and describe what you experience?

To be more effective leaders, improve your quality control, and enhance your company’s culture, do some fact-finding. However, only do the fact-finding if you intend to take action on what you find.

Show your team respect. Act on what you learn.

Copyright MMXVIII – Liz Weber, CMC, CSP – Weber Business Services, LLC – www.WBSLLC.com +1.717.597.8890

Liz supports clients with strategic and succession planning, as well as leadership training and executive coaching.