Happy People = Happy Service

I love happy people! A few years ago the revelation hit me after I realigned my dispatch/billing/phone answering area. Our one-on-one service was excellent but for some reason I really struggled with our incoming phone service. It wasn't terrible but we we were struggling to keep up with the increasing business and mistakes where increasing.

Over the years, I taught my people the importance of the person answering the phone. No matter how great our quality, one-on-one service, and leadership, one person answering the phone could taint the customer experience for all of this. I beat this into their heads, but I still struggled to raise the standards of our phone service.

Then I realized it was more of a leadership problem on my part. I sat in the troubled area for a full day shutting my mouth, listening and watching to what was going on. First observation, I needed to realign the area. I had everything spread out and out of flow. Too many steps. Too disorganized.

Second, when I talked to the main person answering the phone, she told me she didn't like answering the phone and knew she wasn't that good at it. She was outstanding at administration but weak on the phone. Hello! Mr Manager. Why do you have someone on your phone who doesn't even want to be on the phone!

Third, because of one and two it sure wasn't a very happy place. Unhappy Employees = Unhappy Service to our Customers.

I converted my observations into action by tearing down cubicle walls, the dispatch table and billing stations and rebuilding a circular bar with phones lined up with three people able to interact and communication. Then to top it off, I reassigned the happiest person in the facility to sit in the middle of the bar. Since every employee passed "the bar" multiple times per day they were exposed to happiness all day long.

Even a year later, the phones are answered in one ring, people are happiner, billing/admin is done quicker and we give better customer service. All because we restructured our operations to allow happiness to be contagious.