Question

Evaluate when a laissez-faire style of management might provide an opportunity to provide customers with better customer service?

Answer 1

A laissez-faire style of management can provide better customer service especially in decentralized, highly variable, and personalized markets. A laissez-faire style of management imposes minimal restrictions of formalized guidance for the customer services representatives to adhere to and thus allows for more freedom to allow for a personalized approach to the customers problems. This could be demonstrated in a simple example where a customer service representative responds to a customer's issue with product satisfaction. In a laissez-faire style of management the representative could employ more time costly but empathetic approaches to the customer and perhaps have a greater chance at uncovering, mitigating, and solving the customer's issue. This personalized and empathetic approach would have a higher chance of conveying to customer that they are not "just another number" and could potentially result in positive word of mouth advertising as well. Lastly, not all problems or issues are simple straightforward affairs. A laissez-faire style of management allows for increased flexibility and a greater overall chance of achieving customer satisfaction.