But in a world where everyone at last recognises the importance of customer service, how does an organisation stand out from the crowd? How can it offer something even better and more attractive than just serving people well?

Many companies focus on enhancing their employees’ knowledge and skills of the products or services they are offering, in order to turn them into better customer service representatives. However, the ‘icing on the cake’ is the intangible element that actually makes for successful customer interaction – employee engagement. Put simply, staff who are passionate about what they do, and who choose to give the best, will deliver a great customer experience.

The most iconic brands are not defined by the products they produce or the level of service they are associated with. They succeed because their customers’ experience of them is one that is special and which they can appreciate, enjoy and remember. If a customer is more than happy with the service they receive, they will more than likely use that company again. Furthermore, they will recommend it to others.

Conversely, if a customer is dissatisfied they are likely not to use the company again and will tell others about their bad experience, which damages the reputation of the company.
In these recessionary times, as much as in brighter ones, employee engagement is vital to the survival of a business. In spite of this, it is often fatally overlooked by employers, as attitude is something which cannot be taught, and traditionally organisations are used to teaching people to do things. I can use the most effective methods of training to provide colleagues with the knowledge and skills they need to understand and deliver this, but if this is all I do, it is very unlikely that my customers will experience anything different.

A great customer experience can only be delivered by someone who wants to give it. A greater knowledge and understanding of your company does not necessarily make you care any more about it. You need more.

Employers can only achieve engagement by tapping into their employee’s emotions and getting them charged up about the product or service they are offering. This is such an integral issue to the successful running of a business, that many advanced companies now even have in-house teams that look after this issue.

At Grass Roots, we create learning programmes that address employees’ attitudes and emotions, as well as their knowledge and skills. These include blended learning courses, incorporating face-to-face interaction with virtual computer based training and group-based, action learning.

The objective of any training is for employees to gain experience which enables them to provide better levels of service. Start by understanding the fundamentals of that experience – what it looks and feels like and how to make the experience real for the people who are learning how to deliver it.

We created ‘Xcite’, a programme aimed at improving customer service by exciting store staff with knowledge and options about their customer’s potential purchase for GAME Stores Group, a video and PC game specialist retailer.

We started with an assessment of the customer experience and the sales process in their stores. This can be achieved through a mystery shopping programme or customer survey that assesses, for example, whether a customer service representative greeted the customer in the correct way, or offered them the right product. They can also assess whether the service was delivered with passion and not by rote – there is a vast gap between just doing your job, and delivering great service with purpose and passion.

Working closely with GAME’s retail team we established opportunities to improve sales techniques and confidence among store staff. We identified that the company’s service model was oriented more towards customer service than sales and together we agreed that adopting a stronger loyalty-orientated culture in store could help drive top-line growth.

Training focused around a fun, interactive DVD which appealed to the company’s young workforce and was presented in the style of a video game, including in-store scenarios where the service received was scored by the user, who could select from an array of customer profiles. Staff were able to identify their own personal commitments and action plans and everything was communicated and delivered in a motivational way.

Significantly, the customer service and sales model used here was not prescriptive – it did not dictate phrases or body language store staff should use. Employees should be encouraged to share their own passion for the products, to give customers clear advice and information. This can help to create a cascade effect as staff are influenced by their peers and immediate managers far more than they are influenced by any trainer.

Therefore, it's important that managers take some of the responsibility for getting the rest of the staff involved and then recognise individuals who have already taken the training on board. They can then equip them to engage others.

Extending this further, another good technique is to encourage staff to bring their personality to the role and find methods that work best for them, so that they understand the Benefits to themselves, as well as the customer, of employing these training techniques.

When delivering training I always keep in mind ‘people will learn if they want to learn’. Generating interest and promoting curiosity about what staff can do to give a great customer experience opens people’s minds to the kind of learning they need.

The ‘Always Happy to Help’ programme for major retailer ASDA was rolled out to coincide with new mystery shopping Results, helping staff to understand the context of the training they were about to receive. The learning element of the programme was based around three target behaviours – Always Warm, Always Interested and Always Willing – the attributes of which were communicated to ASDA colleagues through training sessions.

People will only engage with a subject if they are able to take actions and feel in control. Blended learning provides opportunities for involvement and interaction, which enables people to get inside the subjects they are expected to know about and allows learning to continue way beyond a learning event such as a course. The more closely learning can be related to actual work, the more effective this will be. The ASDA training is supplemented by posters and reminders in store, and motivational ‘huddle cards’ used at team meetings. Successful employees are presented with rewarding scratch cards revealing on-the-spot prizes such as extra tea breaks, and colleagues are able to nominate each other for 'Service Hero of the Month' – effective yet easily implemented methods of keeping up morale and interest in the training they originally received.

The mystery shopping element of the programme continuously measures customer service in stores, the Results of which are communicated to staff in store, enabling staff to clearly identify action points and maintain ASDA’s high service levels and customer satisfaction.

There is no formula for making the customer experience happen, but allowing every level of a workforce to play some part in shaping the way the experience can be delivered leads to a well-developed solution. More importantly each individual employee feels valued and is given a sense of worth, making them more inclined to perform and help the customer.

Research has proven the links between engagement, performance, motivation, advocacy and staff retention levels, so when employees are fired up to deliver a great customer experience, the benefit to the employer, employee and the brand are endless.

Taking into account the outstanding effects of engagement, there is every incentive for managers to promote and improve levels of engagement among the workforce. Staff play a powerful role in promoting their organisation as an employer of choice, as well as endorsing the product it offers. At the very least, employers should ensure each of their staff has a voice that is heard by their colleagues and managers, developing internal communications to ensure staff are well-informed and the role model effect that they themselves can deliver as a committed manager. Managers could also consider carefully what is most important to their own staff, as this may differ from team to team.

Employers that strive to charge their employees up will reap the Benefits, and customers will notice the difference.