Use Recognition and Rewards to Improve Customer Service Reps' Performance

April 9, 2010 - PRLog -- Managers are always looking for ways to improve frontline reps' performance -- not just for the short-term but for the long haul.

In the April issue of "Customer Service Newsletter," author Dennis Snow suggests that three distinct types of recognition are necessary to accomplish this goal. These are:

* Company-to-employee recognition. This includes programs like Employee of the Year and Employee of the Month, and longevity programs such as ten-year pins, and the like. These are the big, organizational programs that recognize and reward employees who model desired behaviors or corporate values over the long-term.

* Manager-to-employee recognition. This involves the day-to-day acknowledgment of strong performance. But it requires that managers be on the floor, attentive to what reps are doing, and looking for people who are doing the right thing. "It's what a good coach does," Snow says, " acknowledging and reinforcing the effort while helping the rep to tweak the technique."

* Employee-to-employee recognition. An important third type of recognition is for reps to recognize each other. "Whether it's for covering a shift or always being ready to help out with a difficult customer," says Snow, "there should be some mechanism in place so reps can recognize each other for special efforts, and then evidence of that effort goes into the rep's personnel file."

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