By Mary Sandro, ProEdge Skills

The only thing harder than delivering excellent customer service consistently is motivating someone else to do so. Customers are more demanding than ever, and service professionals are more difficult to hire and retain. Splitting an atom might be easier than rallying an entire organization to wow customers. Yet some organizations manage to succeed.

The following four motivation strategies can help your organization succeed — one professional at a time.

Get excited

As managers, the first service professional that we need to motivate is ourselves. If we lack motivation, our employees lack motivation.

Motivation comes from the inside out. Feigning excitement is often unsuccessful, however, because many people are equipped with infallible phony-detection systems. Are you genuinely excited about the work that your team produces? Whether we manage rocket scientists or custodial staff, we need to invest in our team's contribution and become passionate about their work. One enthusiastic manager can inspire and mobilize an entire team toward success simply by example.

Hire motivated service professionals

It's easier to hire motivated service professionals than it is to motivate them. As the experts say, "Hire smart or manage tough."

Do you believe that there are service professionals who would revel in the kind of work that your team produces? The answer is yes, they do exist. But if we are not excited about the work our team produces, we can't expect to attract and hire people who are excited to do it either.

Measure

Are you keeping score? When two people are hitting tennis balls back and forth, how long does it take for one of them to suggest playing a real game? What happens to the level of play as soon as the game begins? Is your department perpetually warming up, or are you playing for real?

Measure something, but make it relevant to your employees, your customers, and your bottom line. If we measure performance by highlighting only the essential responsibilities, we can ensure attention to the highest priorities.

Performance measurements motivate employees for different reasons. Some employees are very competitive and thrive on distinguishing their performance from others. Some focus on distinguishing their future performance from their past. In other words, they compete with themselves. And some employees are not competitive at all. They are dutiful and focus their energy on whatever is highlighted for them.

Institute a reward system

Tie the performance measurement to a reward. As the adage goes, "What gets rewarded gets repeated." If you want to motivate employees even more, provide a reward incentive.

Sales professionals receive commissions based on their measured results, such as sales and repeat business. But what about everyone else? A printing company manager told me that he sets a goal for waste by measuring the amount of wasted paper. If the production employees meet or exceed the goal by producing less waste, the company splits the profits with them. My auto service center informed me that their sales, service, and auto body departments administer customer satisfaction surveys to every customer. As a team, if they hit or exceed a certain predetermined satisfaction rating, they all receive enhanced benefits and bonuses.

Rewards can inspire motivation. If we want salespeople to simply make sales, we emphasize the first sales commission. If we want salespeople to create business relationships and long-term accounts, we emphasize the back-end commission. By rewarding team performance measurements, we can influence internal customer service in addition to individual service efforts.

Be an exemplar

Being an exemplary employee enables you to attract and hire highly motivated employees. Focus employees' energy through performance measurement, and maintain their commitment to success with reward strategies. Then listen for the "Wow"s.

About the author   Mary Sandro, founder of ProEdge Skills, helps companies and professionals achieve results through effective presentations, exceptional customer service, and innovative hiring techniques. She speaks professionally on a variety of topics related to customer service.