The Longest Toe Learns Pain First

By Chen Chunhua

The Longest Toe Learns Pain First

By Chen Chunhua

One winter morning, I could not start my car engine.The hotel guard asked me if I needed any help, and said that he could call the hotel fleet for help.

I said,“It’s early and cold. Will they come to help?”

His answer was really interesting,“I am authorized to call the general manager as long as a guest needs help.”

This is the reason why this 5-star hotel in Qingdao can be ranked as first class. Most problems guests experience can be well solved here,because the hotel has authorized its front-line staff to utilize any resources necessary.

“The longest toe learns pain first.”The front-line staff know the guests’needs best because they are in direct contact with guests.

Being a manager, if you can give the front-line staff easy access to resources when complaints are received, they will be able to give timely solutions.

Hierarchical differences are inevitable for most companies in the process of their development. On one hand, the management layer, which is insensitive to the guests’ needs controls the resources and has the authority of decision-making. On the other hand, though the executive layer knows much better about guests’demands and desires, they have neither access to resources nor the power of decision.

One important reason for the employees’ poor executive ability is that they don’t understand the concepts of administration. The lack of resources or authority makes them unable to realize their own solutions. They have to spend time communicating and negotiating with superiors; this not only leads to a worse customer experience, but also decreases real achievements and end results.

The gap between resources and guests is extremely dangerous.Therefore, administrators should either get closer to guests themselves or decentralize their authorities.

冬天的一個(gè)清晨，我的汽車(chē)無(wú)法啟動(dòng)，酒店的門(mén)衛(wèi)于是上前詢(xún)問(wèn)我是否需要幫助。我問(wèn)他怎么幫忙，他說(shuō)可以打電話讓車(chē)隊(duì)里的人來(lái)幫忙。

我說(shuō)：“這么早，這么冷，你能叫得動(dòng)他們嗎？”

他的回答非常有意思：“只要是客人的問(wèn)題，總經(jīng)理我都可以叫來(lái)。”

這就是這家青島五星級(jí)酒店服務(wù)堪稱(chēng)一流的原因了。它能夠?yàn)轭櫩徒鉀Q問(wèn)題，因?yàn)樗囊痪€員工有調(diào)動(dòng)酒店任何資源的權(quán)力。

“最長(zhǎng)的腳趾最先知道疼?！币痪€員工，因?yàn)樘幵诤皖櫩椭苯咏佑|的最前線，因而他們最清楚顧客的所想所需。

作為管理者，如果你能夠給一線員工充分的資源使用權(quán)，他們就能夠在第一時(shí)間為顧客解決問(wèn)題。

我們很多公司在規(guī)模壯的過(guò)程中，不可避免地產(chǎn)生了層級(jí)。一方面，管理層不能感受到顧客的需要，卻擁有最多的資源和決策權(quán)；另一方面，一線員工最清楚顧客的所想所需，卻沒(méi)有決策的資源和權(quán)力。

員工的執(zhí)行力差，一個(gè)很重要的原因就是，員工不了解管理者的想法，也沒(méi)有足夠的資源和決策權(quán)來(lái)實(shí)現(xiàn)自己的想法，最后只能把大量的時(shí)間花在頻繁的上下級(jí)反復(fù)溝通和協(xié)調(diào)上，不僅犧牲了客戶(hù)的感受，能夠真正創(chuàng)造成果的時(shí)間也少之又少。

要么，管理者去貼近客戶(hù)，要么，管理者把權(quán)力資源下放，資源和客戶(hù)脫節(jié)是非常危險(xiǎn)的事情。

有一次，我與一個(gè)公司的片區(qū)總經(jīng)理一起到基層做完市場(chǎng)調(diào)研之后，分公司經(jīng)理和業(yè)務(wù)員希望這位總經(jīng)理能抽出時(shí)間與當(dāng)?shù)氐囊粋€(gè)大客戶(hù)見(jiàn)面。

因?yàn)樗麄円恢绷D與這個(gè)大客戶(hù)合作，但是談判進(jìn)行了八個(gè)多月，還沒(méi)有打動(dòng)對(duì)方，所以，分公司希望片區(qū)總經(jīng)理能夠親自出面幫忙。于是，我和這位總經(jīng)理一起去見(jiàn)了這位大客戶(hù)。

極富戲劇性的是，當(dāng)片區(qū)總經(jīng)理了解這個(gè)大客戶(hù)的需求后，當(dāng)場(chǎng)就答應(yīng)了對(duì)方的要求，并在20分鐘內(nèi)就簽下合同。大家一片歡呼，稱(chēng)贊總經(jīng)理能力過(guò)人，而我卻非常難過(guò)。

我在想，如果這個(gè)片區(qū)總經(jīng)理能及早地貼近客戶(hù)，或者放權(quán)給下屬，就不會(huì)白白浪費(fèi)大家8個(gè)月的寶貴時(shí)間了。

Once I served as a consultant and conducted some grass roots marketing research with an area general manager. When the research was done, the branch manager and the salesmen said that they hoped that the area manager could arrange to meet with a potential big customer.Our local team couldn’t impress the customer and negotiations had continued for more than eight months. The general manager granted their request and I went along with him.

It was a dramatic event when the contract was signed within twenty minutes after our area general manager had understood and satisfied the demands of this major customer.Everybody cheered and praised him for his excellent ability;however, I felt sad about it.

I was just wondering: if the general manager of this area could have gotten closer to the guests earlier, or if he could have delegated some of his powers to subordinates,those precious eight months could have been saved.

Many managers stay at the leadership level, analyzing financial statements and other data forever.They have no substantial feeling of the market. On the other hand,our marketing staff just stays at the performance analysis level.Concentrating on their salary and the relevant policies, they actually care little about the guests’ real needs as well.

Such a situation is very dangerous to an enterprise’s survival and development. The key to managing an organization is to make the authorityequivalent to the responsibility, and combine the workers with the resources. If you make your employees responsible for something without giving them corresponding powers, you will only find that they have seemingly poor executive abilities.

According to Sam Walton, you should share whatever you know with your employees. The more they know, the more they will pay attention to; and once they do that, they will become unstoppable.

It is crucial for an organization to transform its advantages on professional operations into healthy competition involving its employees.

Many enterprises think highly of talents, especially “the super salesmen”. This was a good concept in the early stages of marketing; however, in the fierce competition nowadays, any speci fic super salesman no longer exists. Instead of counting on the personal capabilities of the salesmen, an enterprise would better off exploiting its organizational ability to help its front-line staff.

(From Business, issue 5, 2017. Translation: Wang Xiaoke)

很多企業(yè)的經(jīng)理人員常常停留在財(cái)務(wù)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)層面，總是在不斷地分析財(cái)務(wù)報(bào)表，不斷地進(jìn)行數(shù)據(jù)分析，對(duì)于市場(chǎng)卻沒(méi)有實(shí)質(zhì)性的感覺(jué)。而我們的營(yíng)銷(xiāo)人員又只是停留在提成管理層面，只關(guān)心銷(xiāo)售收入和銷(xiāo)售政策，只關(guān)心提成管理而不關(guān)心顧客需求。

這對(duì)企業(yè)長(zhǎng)期生存與發(fā)展是非常危險(xiǎn)的。組織管理的關(guān)鍵就在于，把權(quán)責(zé)對(duì)等，把員工和資源做組合。如果你僅僅給了員工責(zé)任，卻沒(méi)有授予他對(duì)應(yīng)的權(quán)力，極有可能會(huì)造成員工執(zhí)行力差的表象局面。

山姆·沃爾頓曾經(jīng)說(shuō)過(guò)：“與你的員工分享你所知道的一切，他們知道得越多，就越會(huì)去關(guān)注；一旦他們?nèi)リP(guān)注了，就沒(méi)有什么力量能阻止他們了?！?/p>

讓組織的專(zhuān)業(yè)運(yùn)作優(yōu)勢(shì)成為員工的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)力，這是一個(gè)企業(yè)非常關(guān)鍵的能力。

很多企業(yè)非常在意能人，非常在意超級(jí)營(yíng)銷(xiāo)員，這在早期營(yíng)銷(xiāo)中是一種好方法，但是在現(xiàn)在非常激烈的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)中，并不存在特定的超級(jí)營(yíng)銷(xiāo)員，更不能夠過(guò)分依賴(lài)業(yè)務(wù)員自身的能力，一定要傳遞組織能力來(lái)幫助一線員工。

（摘自《商界》2017年第5期）

最長(zhǎng)的腳趾先知疼

文|陳春花