Rewards
can be as simple as “great job” as profound as a “Thank you” or as
materialistic as you wish to be. But they should almost always be
contemporaneous with the event. Timing is important.
There
is little as powerful as someone saying “well done” when someone does
something that delivered good customer service. If for example, you
observe an employee walking a student from one office to another to get
her the service and help she needs at the correct office, That’s when
you should tell the walker “well done. That was just great.” That is a
reward that comes right at the event and is strong and positive. The
walker gets the satisfaction of someone having observed and giving a
reward. And that’ll come with a smile so it is a double reward. An
“attagirl”is always a good thing to give. It recognizes the person, the
event and good customer service. When someone provides good customer
service, recognize and reward.
One of the strongest rewards a manager can give is a simple, powerful “thank you.” People
in general seek both attention and recognition. Little provides both as
well as a thank you from the boss. If a supervisor sees someone doing
anything to help another, student or colleague, the supervisor should go
up to the provider and say something like “I just want to say thank you
Elizabeth for the great way you helped that student. That was just
wonderful. Thank you.” That is recognition and reinforcement of the
value of good service to the culture of the school that will be
remembered for quite a while. It also reinforced the value of the
service provided and odds are very good, it will be given to numerous
others in the future. Thank you is just such a powerful communication
and reward.
Another
very strong reinforcement that good service is valued is through
communicating a bit more formally with the person. Supervisors and
administrators should have small engraved single fold cards like those
used to write thank you’s for gifts. The cards should be engraved on a
good stock too since the card will then state a value to the recipient
if it seems “expensive” even though these cards really are not. A person
should take one out and write a note to someone who has provided some
good customer service to another at the school, especially students. A
short note stating the service provided along with an appreciation for
the person plus a written thank you is mailed to the person’s home.
Getting it at home makes the thank you even more effective. This is
because few things from the school, especially the administrators are
mailed home. Moreover it says you have taken the time and effort to
write it by hand and mail it rather than the usual email which just does
not have the impact of a note mailed home. Furthermore, it can be, and will be shown to everyone in the house and even beyond.
There can also be formal programs set up to recognize and reward customer service all year long with a big payoff at the end. At
one school I was Chancellor of, I created a system called the bucks. We
printed up college dollars in various point denominations. One of them
is above. We customized them to have photos of people and places at the
school on the point bills. Senior administrators (who could not get
bucks) had the bucks to give out on the spot. When someone provided good
customer service they were given a buck with as point domination that
seemed appropriate. The bucks were an immediate reward.
We
also had a form that could be used by colleagues to nominate another
colleague for bucks for good service. They could also indicate the level
of the service and what demonization they felt could be appropriate.
The nominations went to the presidents’ office for review. Then at the
monthly all-college update meetings where we not only told the campus
what was going on and what would be going on, we gave out the bucks from
colleagues. The minor ceremony was greatly anticipated as we read the
name of the recipient, the nominee and the rational and gave out the
appropriate bucks. The winners were also noted in an email that went out
to the entire college following the monthly all-college meeting. People
put great stock in the bucks and even had a competition going to
compare total point totals. Others taped them across the wall or tacked
them up in their offices or work area. And since the bucks were for good
customer service to students (an automatic ten bucks) and to colleagues
(one to five bucks) we were constantly rewarding good service and
making that part of the culture.
The
bucks would be used in an auction of things like cameras, palm pilots,
and a lap top as the bigger prizes and lots of smaller goods as well as
services like hotel weekends and dinners. Some would be donated others
we bought for the auction which took place the afternoon of graduation. We
set aside a fund of two thousand dollars or a dollar a student for the
event whichever number would be greater. If there were more than 2000
student retained into the week just before graduation, we would put more
money into the fund. This also put the focus on retention as a value
for the school and the people who worked there. The only money that
could be used to bid on the auction items were the bucks. So the more
bucks a person earned, the more he or she would have to bid for items
for services at the auction. This of course encouraged people to provide
good customer service so they could get more bucks to buy more things
through bidding.
The
good service bucks provided immediate rewards when they would be given
to a person immediately upon providing good service. They also became
part of the culture as they were given out every week and the winners of
the bucks were recognized. The bucks also grew a culture that saw that
providing good customer service as a goal of the school had and would
support all year culminating in some really good rewards. It imbedded
good customer service as part of the culture of the college and even got
more people to attend graduation to be there for the auction that
immediately followed.
IF
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