If They Can't Help Me, They Can't Help You: What Disempowered Employees Cost You

TL;DR

Disempowered employees create friction that customers never forget. When staff can't or won't solve problems, it sends a clear message: internal priorities matter more than customer experience.

These are not training issues; they are culture issues. Empowerment, ownership, and cross-functional collaboration must be built into your organization's operations, not bolted on.

Your culture is your brand. The Four Seasons succeeds by aligning employee behavior with brand values like empowerment, accountability, and anticipatory service, while most companies don't.

Empowerment is a leadership strategy. Audit your organizational structure for customer pain points, coach your people to own outcomes, and reward behaviours that put the customer first, even when it means challenging internal systems.

Few things erode customer loyalty faster than interacting with employees who are not empowered to help.

In the past few weeks, I've experienced many examples, from luxury hotels to financial institutions, revealing the same issue: cultures prioritizing internal control over customer experience.

Scenario One: 5 Star Resort, 2 Star Experience

I hosted a retreat for 10 executives at a 5-star resort. When I arrived, I had stuff to go into the meeting room for the next day, and I did not want to carry it all to my room.

When I checked in, I asked the front desk person if I could get access to the room. She clicked away at her computer for a few uncomfortable minutes, having trouble reaching someone with the authority to open the room.

Being the problem solver I am, I told her I would walk over to the room to see if it was open while she located the right person.

Ultimately, all the stuff ended up in my room.

Mini Lesson: The front desk person should have said, "Leave it with me; I will ensure it gets put in the room securely." Service cultures don't happen through processes and procedures; they are created by the behaviours you reward.

Scenario Two: That is not my department

At the end of day one at this retreat, I wanted the room locked so I could leave everything there. 

I entered the service corridor, where several employees were sitting around a table, clearly on a break. I asked if one of them could coordinate to lock the door. They looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders, and said I would have better luck figuring that out myself.

I went back to the front desk to interact with the same agent. It did not go any better this time.

Mini Lesson: A simple response of "I will take care of that for you right away" shows ownership of my experience. They may not have known who had the key or where that person was, but I didn't need to know that.

Scenario Three: Push the Problem

I checked in at a different hotel a few weeks later and asked if I could have a late check-out the next day. I had an early tee time and wanted to shower after my round and before checking out.

The front desk person stated I would have to ask in the morning. 

In the morning, heading out for my round, I stopped at the front desk and asked for a late check-out. I was told that housekeeping would need to decide, and they don't start until 7 a.m. My tee time was at 6:44, but I left anyway.

Mini Lesson: The best solution is to give the front desk authority during the hours when housekeeping is unavailable. Alternatively, the front desk could have taken my cell number and texted me once housekeeping arrived, confirming their decision. Either way, the front desk needed to own the problem on my behalf.

Scenario Four: Make my problem your problem

Dealing with institutions is necessary to run my business. In this particular instance, I needed to coordinate the wiring of funds, and it kept failing. 

While I could find many people to talk to, I could not find anyone to help. I needed the proper wiring instructions and someone to trace the wire to determine why it failed. 

I finally found someone to help, but this was not their department. When management discovered the cross-departmental overreach, they considered blocking the wires.

Management was choosing to deny service to a client to reinforce an internal dysfunction. 

The final chapter of this experience has not been written yet. There is still a chance for them to redeem themselves.

Mini Lesson: One of the best pieces of advice I have ever received was" Don't make our problems our customers' problems." Every company has dysfunction. The best companies don't let their internal dysfunction affect their customers.

What is the pattern?

In each case, frontline employees were either unable or unwilling to solve the customer's problem, not because they didn't care but because the system wasn't built to let them.

These are not training problems; they are culture problems.

When this pattern appears repeatedly, it sends a clear message to customers: "We're not built to make things easy for you. We're built to protect ourselves."

From Product to Experience: Why Empowerment Is the Differentiator

Switching costs continue to go down across almost every business sector, and products are essentially interchangeable, so what differentiates many organizations is their service orientation.

Great service organizations empower their employees and realize that those employees are the embodiment of their brand.

They teach decision-making consistent with their culture and brand so that problems can be solved as close to their origin as possible. 

They encourage ownership of the customer's experience. Each employee is encouraged and rewarded for solving problems for the benefit of their customer, even if it means challenging internal processes.

They organize for the convenience of the customer, not themselves. 

Who gets it right? 

The Four Seasons. 

The Four Seasons gets it right because they've worked hard to align their culture to their brand promise. At every level, employees are trusted to act on behalf of the guest because that's the brand.

Their service philosophy is rooted in the Golden Rule: "Treat others as you wish to be treated". The pillars of their philosophy are:

Golden Rule Culture: treat your employees well, and they will treat your guests well

Personalized, Anticipatory Service: anticipate the needs of guests, empower employees to act

Empowerment at all Levels: all frontline staff are trusted to make decisions, and there is a culture of accountability and autonomy

Uncompromising Quality: the experience is a warm and genuine luxury, not stiff or overly formal

Employee Experience = Guest Experience: they invest in employee training, retention and morale; they believe excellent service starts with a workplace where people feel valued and inspired

So what should you do?

Whether you serve business or consumers, the strategy is the same.

Easy and Near-Term Strategy:

Level of Empowerment:

Ask your key leaders if they feel empowered to make decisions that benefit their customers and teams. Importantly, have your managers ask their teams. Keep this pattern going until you reach the individual contributors, who are often closest to your customer.

Ask for specific examples. Have one or two scenarios to illustrate the behaviour you want.

Be ready to coach for empowerment.

In a coaching conversation, the coachee was frustrated that their team kept coming to them with problems they thought they should solve. The insight we gained was that she kept giving them answers.

For these problems, her reframe is a simple response of "I trust you to solve that problem."

Organizational Connivence:

Review your organizational structure. Is it easy for your customer to navigate?

I had to speak to four different departments in the retreat examples above. I was the quarterback. 

I am sure their internal structure has separate P&L's and a manager responsible for hotel rooms, conference facilities, catering, etc. 

While convenient for them, it was a terrible experience for me, the guest. I don't view the organization of a retreat as four departments; I view it as one experience. 

Experience your organization as your customer might. Hire a secret shopper. Follow the customer journey through the lifecycle. Is the credit and invoicing experience the same as the original sales touchpoint? Is it clear who owns the whole client experience? How are you measuring it?

Hard and Long Term

Culture

Sustaining an excellent customer experience is cultural. Cultural shifts are challenging and take a long time, but they can be done.

They start by determining the experience you want your customers to have and what behaviours are consistent with that experience. Any other behaviour can not be tolerated.

Driving cultural change requires consistency, perseverance, grace and patience. The rewards are a differentiated culture that will win you business.

How can I help?

I offer several leadership courses on decision-making, service orientation and how to coach for success. These are practical and engaging and help your team adopt skills that drive results.

I also offer executive coaching and team-based leadership facilitation that crystallizes strategies that will lead to success.

If you need help, you know how to reach me. 👇