Josh had only been a waiter for two weeks and tonight was going exceptionally poorly. He was overwhelmed with managing orders and feared the repercussions for his long-term job prospects. That evening, a family had arrived to celebrate their grandmother’s 82nd birthday. The kitchen was running way behind when Josh submitted his ticket, and he informed the family that things were taking a little longer than normal. He brought out some fresh bread.
“Here’s some fresh bread sticks, your food should be out shortly. Can I get you anything else to drink?”
The patrons indicated they ordered from the bar and their order had not arrived yet, for which he apologized and disappeared.
He reappeared shortly after, white as a ghost.
“I am afraid there has been a mistake, and the kitchen did not see your order, so they are getting on it now. It was my mistake; I am so sorry.”
Nearly 50 minutes had already passed. The patrons smiled but seemed to be struggling to hide their irritation.
A short time later a young man a few years older than Josh appeared. He explained that he was the manager, he was extremely sorry, and everything but the alcohol would be comped this evening. He said the food should be out in a few minutes.
Josh eventually appeared with the food and delivered it with a smile, but you can tell he was utterly defeated. He was lucky to keep his job, let alone get a paycheck.
The patrons left shortly after, skipping dessert, as it was nearly closing time at that point. Josh did not see them leave but did see the billfold with the signed receipt sticking out on the top. He opened it to make sure the signature was there, expecting nothing else.
A small note was scrawled on the receipt: “Hang in there, we all have bad nights.”
They also left a tip of $500.
The Customer as Part of the Experience
So often in Customer Experience, we see the customer experience flowing one way. As practitioners, we ideally design an experience setting, staff it with the right people, products, and processes and activate it. The customers are seen as the recipients of the experience.
Good experience designers will solicit input from customers during design, but once it’s show time, they are now the targets of the experience. It does not have to be that way. You can create a virtuous cycle by inviting customers to participate in the experience. You can design them into the experience, empower them, and make them accountable. Here’s how.
Tips
The easiest way to provide positive feedback is to provide a tip. Many professions depend on tipping to make close to a livable wage. Tips in the post-COVID world have been facing some backlash, however. To reduce the number of contacts some providers move the tip to be given before the services were rendered via the POS system. This has led to many customers to tip less or not at all. Moreover, the tipping culture seems to have spread to other areas. This net situation to just a bunch of confusion as to when it is and is not appropriate to tip.
While tips can be effective and are important sources of compensation, by themselves they do not pack the motivation punch they once did… except under extraordinary circumstances.
The Power of Kindness
The restaurant business is rough. Long hours, demanding customers, demanding managers, and many things that can go wrong. This creates a high-pressure and high burnout job, with annual turnover rates in hospitality averaging over 80%. That’s a massive amount of marketing, recruiting, and training cost that goes right out the back door.
Josh’s messed-up order happens thousands of times, thousands of places, every single day. What is not common is the reaction of the patrons. Yet it likely made a huge and lasting impact on Josh and others around him. While not everyone can afford to donate $500 to a college kid on a random night, everyone can afford to recognize employees who do an exceptional job, or perhaps need a lift during difficult times.
Earlier this year, a colleague of mine[1] and her spouse took a leisure weekend trip, visiting a local restaurant for dinner. Upon arrival, they noticed a teenage boy greeting and seating customers. While waiting for their food, the teen was busy bussing tables, picking up litter from the floor, assisting servers, bringing a water pitcher around, and more. It might seem like just doing his job, but he did it with such focus that it was truly impressive.
Upon paying the check, the diners asked the waitress to speak with the manager. The waitress looked concerned and asked if there was anything she could help us with. The diners explained they wanted to pay a compliment, not a complaint, and reflected on how sad it was that requesting a manager is always synonymous with an angry customer.
When the manager arrived, she had a similar wariness on her face paired with a friendly smile. The diners relayed their admiration for the hard-working teen and commented that he was an asset to the restaurant. Her relief was visible. She explained they really valued him and that he was reliable and well-liked, before wishing the diners a good evening.
Recognition
Employee recognition has been shown to be connected to employee engagement, retention, absenteeism, and burnout. While most recognition programs focus on top-down recognition using points, dollars, or just plain attaboys, it doesn’t have to be that way. There are some recognition programs where customers can provide rewards directly to employees. American Airlines offers the “Many Thanks” program (previously known as Above & Beyond) where top tier frequent fliers are issued certificates which can be given to employees who provide exceptional service.
I was always confused as to why more companies did not use programs like this. Like giving a gift to someone, it makes both the giver and recipient feel good about themselves. A well-designed customer-to-employee program can go a long way in making people feel good, and motivated, about their job. Moreover, these types of systems are easily connected to existing CX trackers and mystery shopping programs.
Creating the Right Environment
I live in a small town. I know most of the folks at the local grocery store, the bank, and restaurants. We don’t hang out on the weekends, but we are friendly and respect one another. When customers make the jump from “employee” to consider someone a “person,” work can become more fulfilling. This can happen organically as it does in our burg, or you can create circumstances to increase the likelihood of this dynamic.
Southwest Airlines is well known for setting a friendly and casual tone. They build relationships with customers through the use of humor and it has paid off. This sense of intimacy is easier to build in local areas than it is on mass-market levels, which is evident in every CX survey I have ever seen. Rural and smaller entities almost always outperform urban and larger entities. That’s why it’s easier to achieve intimacy.
The second rule in creating a positive environment is not tolerating employee abuse by customers. We have all been in a situation where we have overheard an angry customer mistreating some helpless waiter, call rep, or entry-level position. Empowering managers and front-line employees to quash this quickly is critical in creating a positive and motivational environment for everyone.
Simplicity
Probably the easiest way to motivate your employees through customer feedback is to encourage your customers to provide that feedback formally or informally. I am a bit conflicted about using the word “feedback” as that sometimes gives license for “criticism” or “give me a 10 or I will get fired” type of transactional relationship.
What I am talking about is filling employees’ cups, not nitpicking about the untidy restroom. In the race for reviews and ratings, it is nice to have someone say “thank you” or write a brief email. If someone tells the manager about exceptional service, make sure that information trickles down in a personal and specific sense. This can also be helpful in interdepartmental relationships where one group is a “client” of another. Some sincere kind words cost nothing and can go a long way.
Walk the Walk
The CEO of a company I used to work for always encouraged us to “eat our own dog food.” I thought that a very odd saying until I figured out it meant that you should always use the services and products that you want your customers to buy or use. The same goes for recognition. It takes very little time to write a quick note of gratitude or better yet, tell their boss what an excellent job someone did. While more common in B2C, this practice has largely been lost in a B2B context. At Curiosity, we are only as good as our business partners, and so we always try to go out of our way to recognize and praise our folks that help us look good every day. I would encourage readers in a B2B context to make it a habit to authentically thank those who help them succeed.
That means you too Bob Thompson! Thank you!
A Virtuous Cycle
Encouraging customer recognition of employees is yet another underutilized lever to drive customer engagement. If you have positive feedback flowing to employees from both the organization and from customers, you are going to turbocharge the power of employee engagement. You will create a place where people want to work and want to stay. They will be less likely to leave because of pay and be more resilient in tough times. I have found that once you encourage positive recognition, it acts like a contagion in the organization, spreading with little to no cost and with very positive organizational outcomes.
[1] That colleague being Michelle Tunney and her husband Dave who contributed to this story
Dave, another great post and stories … thank you! Recognizing frontline staff performance is so important yet not followed nearly as much as it ought to be. The restaurant business (and the hospitality industry in general) has so many moving parts that could go wrong, and need to go right, that we tend to dwell on the negative. Some service businesses that survey me ask if I want to name someone who stood out, but that’s too late — I usually don’t write down or remember their names. Doing it in the restaurant (or hotel, or airline) produces much more impact.