"Be more managerial, or you're fired!"

The director issued this ultimatum to his two managers. There had been some customer service issues within the department. The director wanted to see change, now.

The managers stared at their boss in disbelief.

I stared, too. The director had brought me in to meet with his leadership team and help create a strategy to improve the service culture. This was our first meeting, and it felt like a set-up.

The director looked to me for validation. What I said flummoxed him instead. "What exactly does 'be more managerial' look like?”

He didn't have an answer.

Leaders try all sorts of approaches to get their employees to do good work. Some try to be tough, like that director. Some try to be compassionate and let employees do what they want. Others offer incentives or try to make it fun with games.

Yet one strategy consistently works better than them all. The best customer service leaders make it easy. Here are three ways you can do that.

Step 1: Provide clarity

Think of a company well-known for legendary customer service. Whichever one you pick, you can bet that employees know exactly what they're supposed to do to make your experience so exceptional.

Many employees don't have that.

A Customer Service Tip of the Week subscriber recently wrote to describe her struggles understanding what was expected of her. She sent me one of her performance goals so I could see for myself.

That single "goal" was multiple pages of nonsense and corporate-speak about productivity and efficiency. It was one of four similar goals she had to meet.

Like the director's two managers, this employee lacked clarity.

1. What exactly is the goal?

2. What behaviors are most likely to achieve the goal?

These employees are not alone. A recent poll on LinkedIn showed just 57 percent of respondents knew what they had to do to achieve the goals on their performance review.

Employees need clarity if you want them to do great work.

This starts by creating a customer experience vision—a shared definition of outstanding service that gets everyone on the same page.

Employees also need to know how they personally contribute to the overall vision. You can test this by asking any employees these three questions:

1. What is the vision?

2. What does it mean?

3. How do you personally contribute?

You don't have clarity until employees can consistently and confidently answer those questions.

The director struggled to define what "be more managerial" meant. He couldn't explain it to his managers, no more than he could explain exactly what great service should look like.

Step #2: Empower employees

Think about a time when you had an unusual request or encountered a small problem with a customer-focused company. Chances are, a friendly and helpful employee was empowered to help you immediately.

It's not enough to give employees clarity by defining great service. Employees need to be empowered to actually deliver it.

Most people think of empowerment as giving employees free rein. The true definition of customer service empowerment is a bit more sophisticated:

A process of enabling employees to deliver outstanding service to their customers.

Empowered employees generally have three things:

1. Resources: the right tools to do the job.

2. Procedures: best practices to follow.

3. Authority: the ability to do what's right when needed.

If you hire right, your employees naturally want to provide great service. That's exactly what they'll do if you empower them to do it.

The director didn't empower his employees or his managers to do a good job. Instead, he micromanaged, shot from the hip, and frequently contradicted himself.

Eventually, doing nothing became less risky than getting reprimanded for doing something.

Step #3: Be a role model

Think of a company you admire for great service, and you'll probably think of a leader who embodied what that company stood for.

You don't have to be a famous CEO to be a role model. Employees watch their manager carefully to see what behaviors are encouraged and what behaviors to avoid.

If you want your employees to do great work, you need to show them how to do it. (I can think of at least seven ways.)

This where the director really struggled.

He was a jerk to his employees, yet somehow he expected them to be kind to customers. And how could he expect his managers to "be more managerial" if he couldn't demonstrate the qualities of an effective leader himself?

Conclusion

Your job as a customer service leader is to make it easy for employees to do good work.

Employees need three things from you:

1. Clarity: what does good work look like?

2. Empowerment: are they able to do good work?

3. Model: do you provide a good example to follow?

The director did none of these things. The best he could think to do was hire a consultant, which can be a surprisingly bad idea.

I felt fortunate when I left the meeting after pulling the director aside and making it clear we wouldn't be working together. I didn’t have to come back, but the two managers and their teams had fewer options.