Can Leadership Training and Development Improve Customer Satisfaction?
With shrinking customer bases, organizations can ill afford losing existing business to their competitors. Treating customers the way they want to be treated seems like a simple thing to expect from employees. Many companies invest in customer service training for their customer service representatives to help them learn how to deal with upset customers, work through problems, and talk with a smile. It’s common to find that even with this kind of training, customers are still not satisfied.
What could be at the source of a dissatisfied customer base? We need to look at the leadership. When leaders are not leading effectively, customer satisfaction will be negatively impacted. As a team, the top leaders of an organization need to be equipped to lead. Effective leadership training and development designed for an executive team can make all the difference.
First, it is important to determine whether or not the leadership team is on the same page. In other words, are they aligned with the strategic direction of the company? A simple way to see if there is alignment among the team is to ask the each executive to write down the three top objectives of the company. Make a list of the answers. The ideal situation is that after consolidating everyone’s list you end up with only three answers. If you have more than three, then the leadership is not aligned and some confusion exists. This confusion permeates throughout the organization and has a definite impact on your customer.
Establish Basis For Leadership Training and Development
Once the leadership team is aligned with the strategic direction, it’s important to assess how they go about leading their team. Is there a rigid, autocratic approach? Or is there open and empowered atmosphere? There are helpful tools to identify the culture and the leadership style that exists. Climate and 360 degree surveys provide a great way to discover what perceptions exist in the organization and customer base. The information from these surveys provides a terrific basis for a leadership training and development curriculum.
Lastly, leaders need to continually reinforce through their communication and actions that everyone in the company is there for the same reason. Every company and organization has clients. They may not be called clients or customers; they can be students, residents, patients, funding sources, investors, etc. But whatever they are called, it is up to everyone in the organization to make sure they are satisfied. Leadership training and development should reinforce this objective. Leadership training should help leaders learn how to:
- See things through each others’ eyes
- Obtain collaboration
- Gain buy-in from others
Organizations with leaders who have mastered these techniques consistently shine. Mastery of these skills leads to a positive impact on customers because the internal operations mirror what is expected externally by customers. For example, if departments throughout the organization work together then it follows that the departments will work well with customers. The net result is a positive impact on customer satisfaction.
There is no doubt that there are many facets that go into customer satisfaction ratings. But the next time you are thinking of ways to improve, you may want to consider the positive impact that leadership training and development can have on customer satisfaction.
8 Responses to “Can Leadership Training and Development Improve Customer Satisfaction?”
Leadership Training And Development And Client Satisfaction | Books By Christian Authors on May 23, 2010
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Training For Leadership Starts With Taking Responsibility | Seven Communications Blog on May 29, 2010
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Leadership Training And Development – The Foundation For Client Retention | ibusinessmansblog.com on May 29, 2010
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Leadership Training And Development For Revenue Retention | Internet @ Warp Speed on May 30, 2010
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Training For Leadership Starts With Taking Responsibility | Books By Christian Authors on June 3, 2010
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Training For Leadership – Taking Responsibility « sacramentosmallbusinessconsulting on June 8, 2010
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Leadership Training And Development Keeps Clients | My Traffic Business on June 15, 2010
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