Nobody Likes Rules

Summary

• Always give clear guidelines to your team on how to handle unexpected situations.
• Values provide a framework for decision-making in scenarios that haven't been encountered before.
• When someone understands the values, they can apply them to new situations without waiting for specific rules.
• This ability to decide based on values also helps the team move faster.
• Lack of rules can make it hard for an employee to respond properly when something unexpected happens.
• It's frustrating when customer service can't address your issues due to a lack of clear guidelines or decision-making rules.
• Train your team to use values as a basis for decision-making to avoid delays and confusion.
• Effective training in values ensures that your team can handle customer queries more efficiently, even when a manager isn’t available.

Video

How To Take Action

I would suggest implementing clear and simple guidelines for your team to handle unexpected situations. Start by defining your core values and presenting them in an easy-to-understand manner. Explain to your team how these values can guide their decision-making when they encounter a situation for the first time.

A good way of doing this would be to create a small handbook or a single-page document listing your core values. Add examples of different scenarios showing how these values can be applied to make decisions. For instance, if integrity is a value, an example could be "If a customer is unhappy because we made a mistake, offer a refund or a replacement to show that we stand by our service quality."

Training sessions don’t need to be time-consuming. Schedule short, regular meetings where you discuss these values and how they can be applied to various situations. Role-playing exercises can be effective. Have team members act out different customer service scenarios and practice using the values to find solutions.

Encourage your team to share any experiences where they successfully used the values to handle a situation. This rewards problem-solving and helps others see practical applications of values.

When new rules or policies are necessary, ensure they are simple and directly tied to the values. For instance, "Customer satisfaction is paramount: If we make an error, we correct it immediately."

Effective training on values ensures your team can handle customer queries efficiently, even when a manager isn't available. Emphasize that using values for decision-making will not only help avoid delays and confusion but also enable the team to move faster and provide better service.

Full Transcript

can I get a refund you put cheese on my chicken and I wanted no cheese and they're like we don't give refunds great but you did it wrong so I should get a refund it's not me it was you and they're like H I don't know we said we're not supposed to give refund so I don't know what to do I have to guess I have to get my manager but my manager's not in so I don't know they don't have a frame to make decisions that are not foreseeable and so values give you a framework to make decisions that have not occurred yet and so when someone steps into a new scenario they can apply that value or decision-making framework to that scenario rather than have to wait for a rule it also allows you to move faster the difficulty is that if you don't have a rule for something that comes up the person just like cannot compute isn't able to answer your question like I'm sure that you've inquired with customer service before and you've been like