I have been watching the television show ‘Undercover Boss’ for several years now. CEO of well-known company dons uniform, overalls and disguise and goes and works in the front line of their business for a few days. They invariably discover that their front line people are under-resourced, unappreciated and frequently go the extra mile out of pure conscientiousness.
What happens next is that the CEO’s go back to their comfortable offices, have meetings with their senior team in which they say that ‘things have to change’, make a few token gestures for the handful of people they have worked with on the front line, and that’s the end of the show.
I would like to see the television company go back in to these companies a year later, and ask some front line employees what has changed since the company was on ‘Undercover Boss’. I wonder what we would find out.
Perhaps ‘Undercover Boss’ could also go in to a few companies where there is great employee engagement and customer service happening too, just to provide an example to everyone else. Some might say that wouldn’t make such good television, but I disagree. I know there are companies out there who are doing it right, and I think they should be celebrated and held up as positive role models more.
So…let’s see a ‘one year later’ show and I would be happy to share the names of a few companies who are getting it right, such as Bourne Leisure, Restaurant Associates and Ford Retail, all of whom have coincidentally won Customer Service Training Awards this year.