Under Cover

One of the more interesting television shows on the air today is Undercover Boss (CBS, Friday evenings). It is fascinating because it portrays the chasm that often forms between senior management and the happenings at the ground level in an organization. The show is a bit overdone and the large sums of money awarded to employees for doing their basic job is appalling; huge bonuses like this are divorced from the realities of organizational life. Hoorah for the drama of television! That aside, I applaud the concept – managers and leaders need to know what is going on in their respective organizations.

Therefore, I think most bosses should figure out a way to “go undercover” in their businesses. This is because it is extremely beneficial to learn what a customer experiences when calling a call center or what it feels like to represent a company as a center rep; similarly, it is valuable to understand how it feels to walk into the business. It is also important to learn what employees feel and experience as the climate of the organization.  Nevertheless, I have observed bosses spending so much time developing strategy or running the business that they have forgotten the people who have to carry it out. Ron Johnson’s tenure at JCPenney can serve as an example of how customers responded to his “same day low price strategy” (they dramatically slowed buying) or the resulting demoralized employees who were caught up in the crossfire.

I recently visited a large home improvement retailer (to go unnamed) and had a very interesting experience. The metrics for this organization have been trending downward and all I can say is “no wonder.” Had the folks I had dealt with been on Undercover Boss, there would have been firings. I am certainly not out to defame this company, and one incident does not break an organization, but imagine what happens over time if hundreds of customers experience something similar. It does not take long to understand why customers willingly turn to the online behemoth in the U.S for their purchases – by doing so one can avoid rude or mean store clerks who don’t care.

In the course of about 45 minutes I spent in this organization, I observed the following variables:

• Training: It is hard for people to do good work and be productive if they are not properly trained in both the mechanics of their job but also in dealing with customers. When the “system” did not work, the cashier had no idea what to do.

• Motivation: No one was motivated to assist. The store clerk’s response was “this is not my problem” and then when the store manager became involved at my request, he said it was Sunday and there was nothing that could be done. Motivation is linked to the willingness to exert energy toward a goal (e.g. good customer service) and stay with it.¹ It is vital for a leader to understand how motivated the workers are toward the goals of the business, and since all behavior is motivated in some way, there should also be an understanding of what motivates an individual. 
• Attitude: The attitude conveyed to me was “you are not important” and “why are you bothering me.” Job satisfaction is an attitude toward one’s job and the employment situation.¹ Job satisfaction is not the same thing as being happy or being in this state of mind 100% of the time; however, it matters when a person’s behavior is negative most of the time.
  
• Conflict Management: No one seemed to even have an understanding of how to handle a dispute with a customer. Instead of trying to learn the facts of the situation, they assumed I was in the wrong (or at least this is how they behaved). Escalation of conflicts can result from the sense that the other party does not care.¹ Store personnel also need to focus on what is a desirable outcome in a conflict. In this situation, the goal could have been to have me walk away feeling like I was important and they wanted me back – instead, the interaction was about them and their “win.”
   
•  Satisfaction: The entire group I met seemed unhappy to be at work; studies have revealed a connection between customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction – it tends to feed on the other.¹ When the transaction was finished there was no attempt to smooth things over or to say “I am sorry for the difficulties.” In fact, there seemed no interest in making sure I returned (should I spend the next thousand dollars at a competitor?).

This leaves leaders in a quandary about what to do. I believe that the first step is to understand the connections between how employees feel and customer satisfaction. If employees feel good and are satisfied, this is more likely to translate into customer satisfaction.¹ Here are some other connections of importance: 

• When a leader understands the needs and interests of the employee, then people are more motivated. For example, if a young person is a cashier, he or she may prefer not to feel stupid when a customer asks questions and/or she or he is confronted with an odd sequence of events; this can be resolved with training. There is also greater motivation if a person sees the connection between the outcomes of their work and what is also of interest to that worker.¹
  
• Satisfaction is an attitude and there are a range of variables directly linked to this important attitude. This includes the work one is doing, pay, people one works with, supervisor, etc. ¹A person’s own disposition toward life in general is also of importance.
  
• Satisfaction is also linked to other important outcome variables. For example, as satisfaction decreases, voluntary turnover, absences, and workplace deviance (stealing time or things) increases. Alternatively, as satisfaction increases, citizenship behavior (going beyond the minimum requirements of a job) and performance increase.¹ One could argue that if managers/leaders focused on satisfaction, the benefits could be substantial for the business. The manager I met did not seem to have any concept of these issues. There is evidence that managers often have a different view of what employees feel rather than what they actually do feel; this ignorance gap can be costly.

The message for leaders is clear: There may be some serious issues going on in your organization and you must learn what they are. What you don’t know can hurt you and your organization in the long term. Unfortunately, businesses are spending so much time trying to hire inexpensive labor and not giving them the training that all of these issues are lost. No wonder the online seller “elephant in the room” is taking over; customers love not having to deal with the nastiness of shopping in a bricks-and-mortar establishment. This applies not just to retailing but all business establishments, including health care, insurance, etc.

Please feel free to make comments.

References

¹ Robbins, S.P., Judge, T.A. (2012), Essentials of Organizational Behavior, 11^th edition, Boston: Pearson