13 Quotes by John Tschohl

Making empowered decisions means taking risks. Many employees fear being reprimanded, or even fired, for making what management might view as a bad decision.

Recognition is another important element of empowerment. Employees who make empowered decisions should be recognized and rewarded. Celebrate them. Feature them in the company publication. Give them a prime parking spot near the front door for a week. Throw a pizza party. By doing so, you are sending a message to the rest of the workforce that empowerment is important.

What we're talking about is improving customer service. Virtually any company can benefit from this.

When a customer has a problem, you must act quickly, take responsibility, be empowered, and compensate the customer. Do that and you will have a customer who will be loyal for life.

Without empowerment, an organization will never be a service leader. Empowerment is the most critical skill an employee can master and a company can drive in order to lure?and keep?customers.

Too many employees want to blame someone else for mistakes. The customer doesn't care who made the mistake; he wants the employee standing in front of him to take care of it. You must own the problem. Apologize on behalf of your organization, and then take whatever steps are necessary to solve the problem.

I've discovered four dirty little secrets of empowerment. And those little secrets are preventing 99.9 percent of companies around the world from providing the superior service customers want. As a result, they are driving many of those customers away.

Advertising will get a customer through the door to your business once, but it is service that will keep them coming back. Advertising is aimed at the masses; customer service is aimed at the individual. Service recovery creates word-of-mouth advertising that is 100 times cheaper and more powerful than traditional advertising.

They think customers are liars and cheats and, if given the chance, will rip off the company. To prevent that from happening, they develop ridiculous rules, policies, and procedures.