This is exerpts from a piece written in the Politico by Louis Soares.
Service jobs are America’s future — and jobs in that sector pay less and less every year. Are we destined for a future of low-wage, high-turnover jobs where few make it to the middle class and stay there? Or is there an alternative?
Regardless of the service sector — retail, health care, hospitality, financial services or consulting — companies that develop value-creating relationships with their customers on the front line are leveraging technology and human capital to gain customer insight, redesign customer experience, innovate and lead their sector in lifetime customer value. This new thinking will be beneficial to workers as they enhance their skills and move up the pay ladder, to managers as they add more value with given resources and to customers as they reap better experiences and services.
But there is a different business model that can be used to add value to entry-level workers. Called “value maximization,” it recognizes that a company’s frontline employees interact with customers 100 times more often than senior management. As products and services become more complex, consumers are starved for trusted guides to help them figure out which among diverse products and services will meet their needs and exceed expectations. They want value-creating relationships.
Companies that understand this are investing in their entry-level workplaces, not cutting them back. Best Buy, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Starbucks, Mandarin Oriental, Southwest Airlines and Toro all invest in key relationship strategies: customer centricity and team-based service delivery. This one-two punch is deceptively simple, yet it has a profound impact on business productivity, corporate profitability, and employees’ paychecks. By putting relevant customer and performance information in the hands of entry-level workers and providing a foundation for building relationships, these companies are paying more and growing faster.
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