My favourite campus coffee shop had a technical issue other day, meaning that for an hour or so, no one could pay by card. But instead of turning people away, they happily said “you can just owe us”! They didn’t write down names or keep any record of who owed what. I was slightly stunned - and of course very pleased – at this display of trust and have since found myself going there more often than usual. Their simple discretionary act of trust has resulted in greater customer loyalty.
Many organisations claim that customer service is their top priority and are often so concerned with standardising the experience that there is little room for employees to exercise discretion. Yet an interesting recent study highlighted the importance of encouraging customer service employees to tailor their interactions to the individual customer. The study showed that people who experienced a more customised service felt grateful and delighted and were more likely to be loyal to the organisation.
And there are benefits for the employees too. Customer service roles require a lot of emotional labour and can be quite stressful, but research shows that having more autonomy in their work reduces this negative effect of emotional labour on employee well-being. So enabling employees to respond to customers in a personal and individual way may be better for the organisation than efforts at standardisation: improving employee well-being AND customer satisfaction and loyalty.