Disempowered Employees at Work

How many times have you found a problem with something you use or own? You determined the problem, looked up the telephone number for the customer service department, and made the call. After getting through the maze to finally talk to someone, you identify yourself and explain your problem. Have you ever then been asked to hold, and then been transferred to someone else, only to have to start over with everything? If you answered, “Yes,” you are among the millions who experience this frustrating example of lack of empowerment every day. No one wants to experience this situation, but far too many companies allow it to happen all the time What these companies don’t realize is that they must have an empowered work force to provide outstanding service.

Let’s look at another, hypothetical example of the lack of empowerment.

You purchase a PDA from a well-known electrical store. A sales rep helps you out; you give him your credit card and go home with the PDA. Excited with your new purchase, you get home and notice a scratch on the screen of the PDA. It is not major, but it’s a flaw nonetheless.

You return to the store and find the sales rep. You tell him about your problem. Instead of exchanging the product, you offer to take a partial refund and keep the scratched PDA. This is a perfectly legitimate request, which will save you some money, but also allow for your inconvenience. The store will keep the sale (even if for a bit less money), avoid the hassle of returning the product, and create a happy customer in the process. The sales rep says he’ll have to check with his manager, but that he thinks this is reasonable. He doesn’t have the authority to make this happen, he explains. (It should be noted here that if the rep had been empowered, the deal could have been made, and you would be out the door and on your way home while the sales rep helped another customer.)

The sales rep comes back in a few minutes with a department manager. The manager is polite and asks you to repeat your situation to her. You go through the story again, and the manager agrees that this is reasonable, but she needs to check with the store manager to make the deal.

The store manager is located, comes hurriedly to greet you, asks you to explain the situation again, and asks for your receipt. He says the offer is reasonable but that he has never done it before. He asks whether you’re sure you don’t just want to exchange the product, and you say, “No.”

The store manager explains that he will have to call “somebody” and get approval to do this. It is a fair deal, one that you want, but the store manager has to get approval.

Finally, after a long wait, the store manager returns with approval and instructions. You get a partial refund and leave the store, thinking it is the last time you will shop there. Your time has been wasted, the salesperson’s time has been wasted, management’s time has been wasted, other customers have been made to wait, and they’ve lost you as a customer. Not a very good outcome.

If the sales rep operated in an empowered environment, he either would know what the policy is for this example or would feel comfortable making the refund and explaining it to his manager later, in order to learn what should be done the next time.