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.

冬天的一個清晨，我的汽車無法啟動，酒店的門衛于是上前詢問我是否需要幫助。我問他怎么幫忙，他說可以打電話讓車隊里的人來幫忙。

我說：“這么早，這么冷，你能叫得動他們嗎？”

他的回答非常有意思：“只要是客人的問題，總經理我都可以叫來。”

這就是這家青島五星級酒店服務堪稱一流的原因了。它能夠為顧客解決問題，因為它的一線員工有調動酒店任何資源的權力。

“最長的腳趾最先知道疼。”一線員工，因為處在和顧客直接接觸的最前線，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，他們就能夠在第一時間為顧客解決問題。

我們很多公司在規模壯的過程中，不可避免地產生了層級。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；另一方面，一線員工最清楚顧客的所想所需，卻沒有決策的資源和權力。

員工的執行力差，一個很重要的原因就是，員工不了解管理者的想法，也沒有足夠的資源和決策權來實現自己的想法，最后只能把大量的時間花在頻繁的上下級反復溝通和協調上，不僅犧牲了客戶的感受，能夠真正創造成果的時間也少之又少。

要么，管理者去貼近客戶，要么，管理者把權力資源下放，資源和客戶脫節是非常危險的事情。

有一次，我與一個公司的片區總經理一起到基層做完市場調研之后，分公司經理和業務員希望這位總經理能抽出時間與當地的一個大客戶見面。

因為他們一直力圖與這個大客戶合作，但是談判進行了八個多月，還沒有打動對方，所以，分公司希望片區總經理能夠親自出面幫忙。于是，我和這位總經理一起去見了這位大客戶。

極富戲劇性的是，當片區總經理了解這個大客戶的需求后，當場就答應了對方的要求，并在20分鐘內就簽下合同。大家一片歡呼，稱贊總經理能力過人，而我卻非常難過。

我在想，如果這個片區總經理能及早地貼近客戶，或者放權給下屬，就不會白白浪費大家8個月的寶貴時間了。

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)

很多企業的經理人員常常停留在財務領導層面，總是在不斷地分析財務報表，不斷地進行數據分析，對于市場卻沒有實質性的感覺。而我們的營銷人員又只是停留在提成管理層面，只關心銷售收入和銷售政策，只關心提成管理而不關心顧客需求。

這對企業長期生存與發展是非常危險的。組織管理的關鍵就在于，把權責對等，把員工和資源做組合。如果你僅僅給了員工責任，卻沒有授予他對應的權力，極有可能會造成員工執行力差的表象局面。

山姆·沃爾頓曾經說過：“與你的員工分享你所知道的一切，他們知道得越多，就越會去關注；一旦他們去關注了，就沒有什么力量能阻止他們了。”

讓組織的專業運作優勢成為員工的競爭力，這是一個企業非常關鍵的能力。

很多企業非常在意能人，非常在意超級營銷員，這在早期營銷中是一種好方法，但是在現在非常激烈的競爭中，并不存在特定的超級營銷員，更不能夠過分依賴業務員自身的能力，一定要傳遞組織能力來幫助一線員工。

（摘自《商界》2017年第5期）

最長的腳趾先知疼

文|陳春花