Your Fast Guide to MOTIVATION VERSUS MORALE We focus too much on motivating the frontline, and not enough on improving morale among customer-facing employees. Think of it this way: the slaves in a galley were highly motivated to row. But, I doubt their morale was particularly high. Jeanne Bliss has a nice example of incentives (motivation) versus involvement, and how the latter boosts morale and engages people. Here it is: “Here’s a high level summary of how Royal Bank of Canada changed compensation and reward to ensure that people took the (customer) focus seriously: Monetary Motivators Salary and long-term incentives focus on sustained organizational and individual contributor successes. Short term incentives motivate people to do well in company-wide performance areas in addition to their own business goals. There is a very well studied balance between motivating people to excel in their business function and also prioritizing and contribution to the cross-company priorities. Non-monetary Motivators I call this sitting at the adult’s table. It comes down to what motivates people in a significant way – and that’s being included in the important forums and being asked to participate in the next big thing. People now clamour for invitations to high level discussions and dialogues. And cross-company groups are established to solve pressing issues. There is a cachet involved in becoming a participating member of a cross-company project. To become proficient at enterprise work is considered a heralded skill in the company and is recognized openly. To recognize the importance of developing this skill, key senior leaders are publicly tapped as role models.”

Source:  Jeanne Bliss’ book Chief Customer Officer

Your turn. In the spirit of raising performance thresholds in customer service, if you have a Fast Guide of your own to share with eCustomerServiceWorld's Best Practice community, email it to PhilDourado@eCustomerServiceWorld.com.