When Leaders Don’t Listen
In any service-driven culture, there will be a strong emphasis on the voice of the customer. Equally, there needs to be a focus on the voice of the team. One of the best ways a service leader can engage their team is by listening to them. Begin by asking your team a simple question, “How can I help you do your job better?”
In the 2021 Qualtrics XM Employee Experience Trends Study, 92% of those surveyed believe it’s important that their company listens to feedback. Yet only 7% say their company acts on feedback well. Listening to employee feedback and translating it into action has a direct, positive effect on the employee experience. As the number of employees who feel their company takes action on feedback increases, so does their intent to stay and their engagement. When employees feel a company acts well on feedback, their engagement is more than double that of workers who feel it’s not acted on or acted on only slightly. Further data from the Qualtrics study shows that listening without taking action results in worse engagement than if you don’t have a listening program at all.
If people are not listened to, this can impact attrition. One famous example is Eric Yuan, co-founder and CEO of Zoom Video Communications, who used to work with Cisco WebEx. As he expressed, he was embarrassed to learn that not a single user was happy with the Cisco service. He tried to rebuild the platform yet his feedback was ignored. That is when he decided to leave the company and start Zoom. His goal was simple, ‘a better service bringing happiness back to these customers’. At the time of writing, Zoom is worth US$21.19 billion.
“Leaders who don’t listen will eventually be surrounded by people who have nothing to say.”
Leaders who listen have an immediate impact. When Chris Kempczinski took on the role of McDonald’s CEO in 2018, he began reaching out to employees for feedback about the company. In an open invitation, Kempczinski asked employees to reflect on and share things they were proud of in their working life and what the CEO could do to make them prouder to work for the business.
David Abney was nineteen years old when he joined the shipping and logistics company UPS, loading packages onto vans at the local depot at night to make extra money while he was studying. Forty years later, Abney had risen through the ranks to become CEO of the company. He credits much of his success to listening intentionally to employees.
One of the first things Abney did upon being named CEO was to go on a worldwide listening tour. He invited the company’s employees and customers to tell him what they thought the company should focus on going forward. One anonymous employee shared, ‘When David issued a call for ideas, many of which were actually implemented, it was almost earth-shattering. We couldn’t believe leadership was finally listening and taking action on our recommendations.’
Listening can also impact profitability and cost savings. The Audi ideas program resulted in US$133 million in savings in 2017 alone from listening to employees’ ideas. The benefits of the voice of the team include improved productivity, efficiency and profitability, as well as improved employee retention and engagement, improved job satisfaction and improved customer experience.
The team often has many brilliant ideas for improving the customer experience. Make ‘employee listening’ a cultural value and create a place of psychological safety where people know it is safe and are encouraged to speak up. Ideas may be generated in the moment, post-call or conversation, or after a team meeting. Capture these moments as they arise.
Service leaders who listen show that they care.
How well are your leaders listening?