Before the pandemic began, I had just started volunteering to do trail maintenance at Mission Trails Regional Park in San Diego. (The pandemic has shut that down for now.)

Mission Trails is a large, open-space park with miles of hiking and mountain biking trails. Trail maintenance volunteers clear brush, control erosion, and otherwise make trails safer and more enjoyable to use.

I'll never meet most of the people who hike on the trails I helped maintain, but I met a few while I was working. People inevitably said "hello" or "thank you" as they passed by. 

Those interactions helped me feel the impact of my efforts.

They also revealed a way to get back-of-house (BOH) employees to be more customer-focused. Here's how to do it.

Who is a back-of-house employee?

BOH employees typically work behind the scenes to serve customers, but don't often have direct customer contact. The term is often used for certain positions in restaurants, hotels, and other hospitality industries:

• Hotel housekeepers

• Restaurant cooks

• Dishwashers

E-commerce has its own group of BOH employees, even though that term isn't typically used for these workers:

• Order pickers

• Order packers

• Delivery drivers

In the airline industry, employees who handle baggage, fuel planes, and cater flights are known as "below wing."

Here are a few other terms used for BOH employees in different industries:

• Administrative employees

• Support staff

• Internal partners

Why BOH employees need customer contact

BOH employees impact the customer experience even though direct customer contact is rare. For instance, you'll notice if you order something online and receive the wrong item. Someone you’ll never meet made that error.

Several studies show business results improve when employees who don't traditionally have direct customer contact can see, meet, or learn about the people they serve.

Researchers at the University of Michigan found that fundraisers increased alumni donations by 171 percent after they met with a scholarship recipient. The fundraisers learned that the student's scholarship was made possible by the alumni donations they were soliciting.

Another study found that diner’s satisfaction with their food improved by an average of 10 percent when cooks could see diners from the kitchen via a one-way video feed. Satisfaction with the food went up 17.3 percent when diners and cooks could see each other.

BOH employees can easily dehumanize their customers if they never see them. Putting them into contact helps them better understand the impact of their work, just like the hikers I met while clearing brush on the trail.

How to connect BOH employees with customers

There are a number of ways to give BOH employees more customer contact. It typically takes just a pinch of intentionality.

Customer service software provider, Help Scout, runs a program called Whole Company Support where employees outside the support team spend time responding to customer emails. I interviewed Help Scout's Katie Thompson who gave me the low-down on how the program runs.

A medical device manufacturer I worked with had posters of patients hung throughout its offices. Employees would also get to meet patients who visited as part of regular public relations tours.

I profiled Clio, a company that makes legal practice management software, in The Service Culture Handbook. Clio ran a program where everyone in the company interviewed a customer to learn more about them and their needs.

You don't need a formal program to help BOH employees meet customers. Just make it part of their job responsibilities to occasionally meet the people they serve.

Here are a few examples I've seen:

• Hotel housekeepers greet guests they see in the hallway.

• Restaurant cooks bring food to guests when it’s slow.

• Airline baggage handlers greet passengers who check luggage at the gate.

The important thing is giving employees the opportunity to understand the true impact of the work they do.

Take action

It's easy to help BOH employees become more customer-focused.

1. Make a list of BOH employees you work with.

2. Determine ways to give them direct customer contact.

That's it! Try running a pilot program to see what changes you can achieve. I'll be curious to know how it goes, so please drop me a line to share your story.