by J.D. McKay

Created on: August 16, 2008   Last Updated: July 14, 2009

Empowering your staff like a Special Forces Team or Combat Pilot (from basics to self-management):

The key to great customer service is empowering and training your staff along with constant improvement and evaluation of the strategies and techniques they use. Surprisingly a military combat pilot and/or Special Forces style debriefing is a fantastic way to review, adjust, and hone their customer service skills within the parameters of the company plan; it's not what you might think of the military.

In such a meeting, there is no commander, rank, titles or even names. All are encouraged to speak freely and frankly as they analyze and review, before the group, their honest individual successes, near misses, failures, and alternative suggestions for executing their customer service strategies into the future. This type meeting levels the field and helps pass along the very best from your Boomers, Generation Xers, and Millennials alike!

Resume rank and position when the debriefing is concluded. There are never retaliations during or after a debriefing. The purpose is self-improvement and professional group synergy; this is not an open complaint session by any means although you can expect to uncover individual and system challenges and obstacles that will need addressing. Try this concept on a regular basis and watch their customer service skills skyrocket along with your customer's satisfaction. This is the essence of self-management and professional pride, but let's looks again at some of the basics.

When we hire an employee, we have already empowered them to represent the company whether we have properly trained them in the nuances of customer service or not. Training is paramount whether you are a large, medium, or small business. There is a plethora of great training options, aids, and methods to fit your particular budget and situation.

Now, if we delegate limited power or authority to them without training and without clearly setting standards designed to handle the greater percentage of customer service challenges we have done far less than half the job of empowering them. Our training goals should always keep Maslow in mind and we should never release the 'Unconscious Incompetent' or the 'Conscious Incompetent' upon unsuspecting customers, even if we tag new employees with a "Trainee" badge.

I hope that you hire the best you can afford and someone with experience or natural attributes. We are also responsible to introduce them to

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