Universal Orlando Resort On Guest Services: If You Satisfy Agents, Customer Loyalty Is All But Guaranteed

This article features comments from Universal Orlando Resort's Deborah Colangelo, the 2016 CCW Award winner for "Call Center Leader Of The Year."  She will be speaking during CCIQ's Next-Generation Customer Engagement online summit.  It's a free event - register here!

Universal Orlando Resort takes employee satisfaction seriously.

How seriously, you ask?

“I am held every bit as accountable for my team member satisfaction as I am for revenue generation and guest satisfaction scores,” explained Universal Orlando Resort's Deborah Colangelo in a recent interview with CCIQ.

Deborah, it should be noted, is not the vice president of human resources or director of talent management.  She is the director of guest services.

Universal and Deborah are nonetheless so confident in the link between agent and customer satisfaction that they wholeheartedly focus on the former.  They truly believe that doing so is the surest pathway to the customer satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy that all businesses crave.

“If you focus on team member satisfaction, customer loyalty is all but guaranteed,” says the brand.

The approach is a successful one.  Universal is developing satisfied, loyal customers.  Colangelo’s efforts, meanwhile, earned her the “Call Center Leader of the Year” trophy at the 2016 CCW Excellence Awards.

Universal’s strategy works because the company commits to walking the talk when it comes to agent engagement.  To elevate your customer experience, it is not enough to simply acknowledge that happy agents yield happy customers.  You must passionately create that agent happiness.

“We do a lot of crazy, ad hoc things,” noted Colangelo. “We have car washes where all the management team will wash all the team members' cars.  We have barbecues.”

Agent happiness, of course, is not simply a product of fun, celebratory events.  It also comes when the business invests in its employees.  Do not just make your workplace valuable; show that you value your individual agents.

“We really try to focus on all aspects of what's going to make somebody happy,” added Colangelo.

That includes aiding agents in their career development, even if their career trajectory involves moving out of the contact center.

“We do career-pathing, helping them with their interview skills and resume writing.

“We also ‘right-fit’ people.  If we have someone in the contact center that's just not a good fit for us but has other good skills, we try to place them where they might be successful.”

Customer-centric brands see employees for more than the individual tasks they will fulfill.  They recognize them as critical components of the company, working tirelessly to accentuate their strengths and correct their weaknesses.

If you’re aiming to empower your agents to satisfy customers, look no further than CX Impact.  Taking place September 27-30, 2016 in Chicago, North America’s premiere customer experience event will feature sessions like Create a Customer First Culture and Embed it in the Organization, Recruit, Retain and Develop the Best Talent on Earth, Create Moments that Matter – It Starts with your Frontline,