You can’t lead from your office with your feet on the desk.

One of our listeners works under a boss who is likely leading that way. That listener recently asked how to bring up to their manager that their customer service was poor.

Ideally, the owner of an organization would have clear expectations for providing feedback. Bosses should make it clear that they are willing to hearing employees’ ideas for how the business can be better. It is the boss’ job to create an environment and culture where employees want to, can, and have the resources, training, and trust to do a great job.

If this isn’t the case, the boss may be afraid of the extra work or cost that changes will create for them. They may need training on better customer service or more experience with brave employees telling them what needs to be fixed.

Without improving customer service, you will lose out on a variety of things. You may lose customers as there are countless other companies (with better customer service) where they can go to get what they want. You could also lose market share and even your reputation.

If you don’t know how your service is perceived by customers, you have to get out and about. Walk the operation as your customers do.

At Disney, I would schedule time in my day to get out and talk to customers, stand in lines, go to restaurants, observe what was going on, and have casual conversations with customers.

This is the only way you’ll see what needs to be fixed. Once you recognize those things, that is what you need to work on for the rest of the day.

If you want to learn more about customer service, there is an entire course on it in The Cockerell Academy. Find out more at https://www.cockerellacademy.com/.