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Incompetent Managers Responsible For Poor Customer Service
Incompetent managers who fail to interact and guide their teams in their day to day roles are the major cause of Britain's culture of poor customer service, according to a new UK report.
A report by a UK Consultancy Group found that more than six out of ten people employed in customer facing sales and service roles say that their managers behaviour towards them affects the level of customer service they deliver.
The research based on a survey of more than 570 front line workers, found that the behaviour of UK line management has a direct impact on the quality of service and brand experience that is extended to customers.
Almost half went so far as to claim that the relationship with their manager 'always' impacted on the customer experience they delivered.
The relationship between managers and their teams is so bad that one in ten customer facing workers consider it to be the biggest threat to their job security - as big a worry as the possibility of their jobs being outsourced.
But although front line workers place a major emphasis on relations with their manager, it seems that the managers themselves may fail to take note.
The research highlighted a host of indications that line managers are not fulfilling their responsibilities towards their teams. In short, managers are not managing.
The extent to which managers are reneging on their responsibilities is illustrated by the fact that four out of ten managers communicate with their teams for just thirty minutes or less in an average day. Just over half the managers were found to converse with their teams for an hour a day or less.
Compounding this, 60% of respondents said they are not praised each time they do something well, and 10% said that they were never praised by their managers at all, regardless of their achievements.
Praise, something that is then central to a host of business issues, from retention to performance, appears to be in scarce supply in the UK's sales and service sectors.
Earlier this year, the fourth National Complaints Culture Survey (NCCS) found that whilst bosses said that customer satisfaction were one of their top priorities, this contradicted with what their own employees said about their experiences.
Just like the other consultancy research, the NCCS found that customer service staff felt frustrated at the lack of support from their employers, both in improving training and acknowledging any suggestions they make to improve procedures.
They also felt that their management did not give them the autonomy to resolve problems effectively. As the consultancy report concludes, given the apparent general lack of communication between manager and team, is it any wonder that the common perception of front line workers in the UK and beyond is of individuals ill equipped to resolve customer issues and unable to effectively communicate an organisations products, services and brand values?