Are your company policies in alignment with your brand and mission?

Industry experts have been dissecting the recent high profile issues plaguing airlines. They point to onerous rules that prevent well-trained workers from problem solving. Instead, they hold fast to policy. In the long run, it ends up costing the company in a big way.

Rules and policies are attempts at controlling human behavior and maintaining safety and order. Many do just that. Those, we need. Yet, some policies can also box employees in and lead to bad customer service that goes viral. They backfire because people, and situations, are less predictable than the rules account for.

And, we can’t ignore the unfortunate situation where employees use their discretionary interpretation of company policy to exert power over customers. Though it may not be readily apparent, the insidious damage from such interactions, undoubtedly hits the bottom line.