Internal Customer Service

“I am so sick of the people at this place!”

You never hear this so much as whispered in great organizations. One great thing about working with many different organizations in many different sectors is that I have the opportunity to see and hear a lot of different workplace experiences. Many of these experiences, while always slightly different, have a similar theme. One of the most disturbing to me is the breakdown of internal workplace relationships.

Workgroups, departments, and organizations that are the most accomplished seem to be those who place high value on each other. These organizations are different because the energy of the organization is focused on seeking opportunities, building on success, solving problems, and most important – helping the customer. This mindset starts within the organization and is demonstrated in its message to both the internal and external customer. Who is your customer? If there is any doubt, consider everyone your customer!

Organization leadership needs to demonstrate the commitment to building a positive and motivated culture. This begins internally with a commitment to serve each other. Do you answer your internal telephone extension? Do you respond promptly and appropriately to email? Do you demonstrate consideration, respect, and caring? Great organizations are healthy on the inside, they waste little energy on internal politics and soap operas, they are focused on the most important thing – the customer. 

Listening Barriers

Listening is not the same as hearing, listening tends to be a developed skill while hearing is much more instinctive. Often when we think about a great friend we identify one of their strong points to be that of a great listener. We probably could cite their feedback and interactions, including allowing us to rant or vent as strong points to their listening skills. Workplace listening may have similar strengths but what we may not stop to realize are some of the barriers that prevent us from listening effectively.

While there are many barriers here are few that make the list:

• Noises that attract our attention (elsewhere)
• Room temperature too hot or too cold
• Voice volume or faulty sound system in training sessions
• Interruptions (phone calls, people moving about)
• Clock watching, time constraints, work overload

Listening tends to be a developed skill and by identifying external barriers we can help to improve the quality of any listening and feedback exchange. Most of the items cited above represent external distractions or barriers, what can you add to this list?

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Decisions, Decisions

How are high impact decisions made in within your team or workplace? Decision making often seems like a straight forward activity and one that leaders typically manage with authority. Does this result in the best decisions? Going one step further team or organization leadership will often express that it was a “team” decision, or sell the outcomes by suggesting that “everyone” agrees. Is this how it really works?

 

While every decision and every workplace will have its own unique circumstances here are a few things to observe the next time you see decision making in action:

• Does the behavior align with the words
• Is feedback utilized, or is it only presented
• Is input truly considered, or is it only propaganda

Many workplace leaders feel that they include and utilize others when making high impact decisions, however in many cases their ideas and conclusions are predetermined and the process of including others may just be an exercise to create buy-in. It often appears that many well meaning leaders do not realize the impact of their behaviors and words on the process.

Have you considered how you manage high impact decisions? How are high impact decisions made in your workplace?

Technorati Tags: decisions,behavior