What sets call center operations that win multiple awards for customer service apart from those that don’t? One differentiator is the way they empower their frontline customer service representatives to handle customer issues without the need to consult with upper management.

Jeanne Bliss, in a recent blog post for the Productivity Plus Blog took a look at the issue of frontline agent empowerment within the call center operations of renowned catalog-based outdoor equipment producer and clothier L.L. Bean to emphasis that the “permission” given to frontline call center agents to offer amends to customers really does make a difference.

Bliss attributed L.L. Bean’s achievement of growing from a one-man operation in 1912 to its current $1.5 million in sales in part to respecting its employees and trusting them to honor customers, to “do what’s right,” and giving them the tools to do so.

Bliss quoted the company credo established by the founder of L.L. Bean, Leon Leonwood Bean, at the company’s inception: “Sell good merchandise at a reasonable profit; treat your customers like human beings and they’ll always come back for more.” Bean also reportedly said, “A lot of people have fancy things to say about customer service, but it’s just a day-in, day-out, ongoing, never-ending, persevering, compassionate kind of activity,” according to the blog.

One of the ways L.L. Bean has been “compassionate” and treated customers like human beings is its guarantee of 100 percent satisfaction or one’s money back. According to Wikipedia, the story goes that in the company’s start-up days a design flaw in the L.L. Bean outdoor boots resulted in 90 percent of the products being returned and all of those customers received their money back.

That tradition is still exercised today. Bliss told a story of an L.L. Bean customer whose order which was intended as a surprise holiday gift to a friend that was supposed to be delivered on a certain date was delivered at an incorrect time, thus spoiling the surprise. When the customer called L.L. Bean’s call center operations to report the mistake, instead of being met with resistance by the call center agent, the agent immediately without needing to check with a supervisor offered a full refund or a second delivery of the same merchandise that would this time arrive on the appropriate date. In addition, the agent was reportedly apologetic and did something that most other call center operations would never do—she offered to have L.L. Bean contact the gift recipient to explain what had happened.            

It is examples like this that have led L.L. Bean to be honored in the last three years alone with at least five different awards from leaders such as Women’s Wear Daily, Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Index and BusinessWeek.

Leon Leonwood Bean probably would have thought those awards to be “fancy,” but he would probably also have been appreciative of others seeing the value of his pioneering vision of empowering his frontline to treat customers with compassion on a day-in, day-out basis.    

 If you want more information on how to create great agents and exceptional customer experiences, be sure to visit the Productivity Plus blog found here.