Mike Clark's Business Bites: Do your team know how to look after your precious cargo?

Whether the cargo is people or products they have put their trust in you and you exist to serve them. It is essential to get the whole experience right. Photo / Freepix

OPINION:

After a diversion to the wonders of Art Trail Manawatū, I want to finish my analogy of a business being an aeroplane by looking at the most important part of the plane - the cargo! Whether the cargo is people or products they have put their trust in you and you exist to serve them. It is essential to get the whole experience right.

Your plane will have been designed to effectively carry your ideal cargo. If it is people over a long distance, you are likely to have comfortable chairs, legroom and entertainment units.

If it is cargo, you are likely to have a wide/tall fuselage cross-section, a high-wing, numerous wheels, and a high-mounted tail.

Your crew, likewise, will need to be trained to manage your cargo. There is more than training though. Your plane holds the culture. Your internal culture is directly reflected in the external customer experience. You need to get this right.

How do you treat your team? Do they act like they have a vested interest in ensuring the customer experience is the best it possibly can be, or is their attitude more like a person who's coming to work because they have to pay the bills?

What is your attitude like? Are you warm and welcoming, friendly and happy, or a bit cold and efficient? Are your systems set up to serve you and your clients or do people feel like they are a constant slave to processes and systems? Your customers can tell the difference!

I know. I fly a lot. A number of years back I flew Air New Zealand, Jetstar, Virgin and Rex Airlines over two days while training in Australia. I had front-row seats and chatted with the flight attendants. The difference between teams with good culture, where people felt valued, and those where they felt treated like a cog in the wheel was stark and it showed in the service they gave.

Airlines set clear expectations every time you fly. If you fly regularly this can often feel a little boring but, because you know it's coming, if they didn't do it, it would probably be a little perturbing.

How clear are your expectations? Do people know why you do what you do and what you ask them to do? Do you have a clear set of values and protocols you follow under all circumstances? Your values set your culture. Your processes and systems can reinforce this culture. It is important to ensure they make people feel safe, that team members can depend on each other, they have clear roles, and know the impact and difference they make to the team and the company.

A real-world case study to land this point home. British Airways was struggling in the late 70s. The failure to keep the customer experience (both internal and external customers) as its core focus led to multiple problems.

Sir John King (later Lord King) turned the organisation around by focusing on the key performance indicator of flight departure times. It seems obvious that this is important, but, if you have connecting flights or people waiting or somewhere you need to be, then a late plane has a disproportionate impact on your experience.

Focusing the team on ensuring customers could rely on them made the team address inherent process, system and mindset issues. Individuals took responsibility and years later British Airways boasted it was "the world's favourite airline".

Where do you need to focus if you are to fly with excellence?

• Mike Clark is director and lead trainer and facilitator at Think Right business training company.