8 ways to motivate a support service

    How to motivate support staff?

    The real battle for lifelong customer loyalty is quiet and invisible. She is led backstage, away from sparkling shop windows and ceremonial facades. Often battles are won not by top managers, but by support workers. Therefore, a motivated support service is one of the key components of success.

    86% of customers are willing to pay more , but enjoy excellent service (Oracle, Customer Experience Impact Report , 2011). Moreover, it is one thing to find talented employees, and another to motivate them to work effectively.

    To make your task easier, we’ve provided eight proven methods to increase the motivation of support staff. Be sure to use them: employees who are satisfied with their work show much better results than their colleagues who “sit out” the set hours.

    1) Evaluate merit


    81% of 2,000 respondents ( Glassdoor study 2013) said they were motivated by a high rating of work. Executive appreciation is the cornerstone of employee performance . How you express this appreciation - morally or financially - is up to you. However, another study showed that even the usual gratitude expressed in words can double the response.

    Scientists conducted an experiment: people were asked to give feedback on the cover letter of a fictional student. After sending feedback, they received a letter from the "student". Half of the participants received a dry request, and half received a letter where the same request was preceded by gratitude for the recall. Result: 32% responded from the first group, 68% from the second.

    Encourage workers for their achievements, and they will work even better.

    2) Communicate


    Customer Support - Front Line. Do you know how many battles the troops lost only because the connection between the front line and the headquarters did not work? Do not make this mistake: the exchange of information should be two-way.

    To provide excellent service, management should regularly communicate with customer support . Moreover, communication does not mean listening “for show”. Sapporter conveys the wishes and problems of customers, so take this issue seriously.

    To get comprehensive information, let the employee feel at ease. An additional nuance is the right to vote and the attention of management increase the employee’s self-esteem and positively affect work .

    3) Take part


    Many companies, including Amazon, Zappos, and Buffer, use a shared customer support model. Each employee devotes a certain part of his time to work in support . This shows the support staff how important what they are doing and allows other departments of the company to be closer to customers to directly learn about their needs.

    Do not be afraid to get your hands dirty . Communication with customers is an opportunity to learn about bottlenecks and improve the level of service.

    4) Trust


    Personnel, which are constantly monitored closely, work worse than employees who feel the trust of superiors. If an employee understands that they do not trust him, he does not wait for praise for the work done and, as a result, does not give all the best.

    Remote work and the massive use of online tools have led to the fact that the separation of "home / work" is more blurred than ever . Therefore, it is important to encourage independence: employees are able to determine how and when to do the work. Turn off the paranoid mode and learn to trust .

    5) Encourage competition


    Covert competition and friendly competition work wonders. The point is the predisposition to competition, which is inherent in the human character. Create conditions, give a little impetus and get comfortable :)

    An example from the popular book by Dale Carnegie “How to win friends and influence people”. At one of the plants, the manager inspected the lagging area. He asked the finishing day shift how much they had done in a day. The resulting figure was written in chalk on the floor. Having arrived at the workshop, the night shift asked the day shift what the figure was. They were explained to them. Toward the end of the shift, night workers erased the old number and wrote another in the same place - they increased output and boasted of the result. A few days later, the workshop began to fulfill, and then exceeded the norm.

    Note that the element of “random” competition is much more effective than threats of dismissal, fines and abuse.

    6) Provide tools


    It’s easy to destroy motivation, forgetting about the quality of equipment and applications to do the job. You cannot equip a support service on a residual basis . Complex, inconvenient and breathable tools will discourage the desire to work even with a talented employee.

    Do not skimp and provide support with everything you need. This will kill two birds with one stone: make it clear to support workers that they are not the last people in the company, and increase productivity.

    7) Train


    When hiring support staff, you bring them up to date and upgrade basic skills. However, this cannot be stopped. Regularly conduct trainings, master classes and courses.

    Refined skills will certainly bring dividends - remember about 81% of customers from the beginning of the article. Employees have inspiration, and they increase the level of service. The shown care shows your desire to invest in a support service, instills in your staff confidence in your own importance, and makes it clear that they will be able to build a career in the company.

    8) Distribute the load


    Avrules are not uncommon in business, but the work of support staff in itself requires high voltage and takes a lot of effort. Regular processing leads to reduced productivity and even breakdowns . The employee “burns out” and ceases to show previous results. Do not bring it to this.

    Lunch break, sick leave, days off and transfer of working hours are necessary for proper load distribution. When employees manage to replenish their strength, they serve customers at times better .

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    Support is the first and often the only point of contact between a client and a business. The time you devote to caring and motivating employees helps them to open up and directly affects the number of satisfied and loyal customers.

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