Excerpts of an Interview with Dawn Richards
Managers and Supervisors play a critical role in creating a Customer Care Environment within an Organization. Managers are the ones who have to set a climate for people to be kind and compassionate. Here are some important questions that managers need to ask themselves: Do they demonstrate respect to the people who they supervise? Do they treat people with dignity? Do they speak to people in a pleasant manner? When thinking about Customer Care within an organization and the role of the Manager, these may not instinctively be the first questions that come to mind, but through our experience, we have realised that the answers to these questions are critical to the success of any Customer Care initiative.
AILMENTS THAT HAMPER MANAGERS
Sometimes we discover that Managers and Supervisors are suffering from some ailments. Ailments like ego-tripping, overblown self-importance, insecurity and being more task oriented than people oriented. Another issue is outdated Managerial Skills. Some Managers may not have been to a supervisory or managerial development program for years, which results in them managing a current workforce with obsolete tools. They may be using tools that they developed five years ago. If you haven`t been to a managerial development program within the last two years, then it means that some of your skills are totally obsolete because the workforce is changing so rapidly.
A COMMON MISCONCEPTION BY MANAGERS
I have had many supervisors and Managers say “I`m not running a nursery”. I then have to put them to sit down and whisper to them and say “Yes you are”. You`re running a nursery for adults. In the same way that with very young children you run a nursery, and you want them to graduate to go to primary school, you`re running a nursery for adults and you want them to become leaders and managers. So how do you judge a Manager`s worth and their value? You look at the fruit of their labour. You walk into their department, you see how their department is run, and you can tell what kind of department that Manager has.
GREAT MANAGERS LEAD GREAT SERVICE
The Managers and supervisors of a company have a huge mission. That mission is to make people feel energized about coming to work in the first place. They have to create a climate where people are excited to come to work and are looking forward to doing their best work. Managers are the ones who are responsible for the state of service in the department. When you influence Managers then you influence a whole organisation.
CREATING A CUSTOMER CARE ENVIRONMENT- 1 DAY MANAGERIAL WORKSHOP
This article is an excerpt of an interview done by Dawn Richards where she discusses DRA Consulting`s Managerial Workshop : Creating a Customer Care Environment. To see when the next cycle of this program will be held click here. To watch a clip of the video interview click the link below.