By Sarah Nicastro, Creator and Editor in Chief, Future of Field Service

Last week, I recorded the first episode of our soon-to-launch podcast called Frontline UNSCRIPTED. For years I’ve heard service leaders speak of the importance of listening to the frontline and have seen how those who are committed to sustainable growth truly invest the time, effort, and energy to do so on a regular basis. These service leaders realize how the unique perspective the frontline holds can help shape strategic decisions.

However, in other businesses, the voice of the frontline remains an untapped source of intelligence. I suppose in some instances, leaders may pay lip service to the value of frontline feedback without genuine conviction (and therefore follow-through). More commonly, I believe, various circumstances converge that prevent the investment of action aligned to the understood importance of frontline voice.

A mid-2025 Gallup survey showed that only 28% of employees in the U.S. strongly agree that their opinions count at work. Whether this reflects a gap in effort or effectiveness, it would behoove any leader to work to ensure the response in their organization would be far higher.

Personally, I learned so much just in this very first conversation for Frontline UNSCRIPTED; I was taken aback by how interesting it was to consider this new viewpoint. My hope is that these podcasts will give service leaders an opportunity to hear perspective beyond their own organizations in a way that will help broaden understanding and spark new ideas for how best to support, empower, equip, and nurture frontline talent. As well as serve as a reminder of the wealth of perspective that lies within your frontline.

The Inherent and Strategic Benefits of Listening

Companies that are applying ample effort in listening to the frontline are doing so not only because listening is a crucial leadership skill (which it is!) that helps employees to feel valued and respected (which is reason alone), but also because they recognize that the frontline holds a treasure trove of insights that help improve the business. Here are four key areas where the perspective of the frontline can prove invaluable:

1. Identifying the next most important problem to solve
2. Deciding the most beneficial next technology investment to make
3. Understanding true customer sentiment and uncovering where expanded value/growth can come from
4. Determining how to improve employee retention

In a recent podcast, I welcomed Jeffrey Yip, Associate Professor of Management and Organizational Studies at Simon Fraser University, who teaches leadership in the Executive MBA and Management of Technology programs, conducts research that addresses managerial challenges in work relationships and leading change, and has contributed to resources like HBR and Psychology Today. Our conversation centered around Jeff’s focus on helping leaders to listen to organizational pain through a process called “painstorming” and how doing so can significantly improve change management. This is another area where better listening can both define direction and ease transitions.

A Real-World Example from Walmart’s New CEO

One of the first actions of Walmart’s new CEO, John Furner, when he took the reins as CEO in February, was to encourage employees to share their struggles with him. He is reported to have sent a memo to the company’s 2.1 million employees saying, “Simple ask: Tell me one thing that slows you down or makes it harder to do your job.”

Furner has expressed plans to follow up his memo with time spent gathering employee feedback by visiting stores, warehouses, and offices around the globe. This combination of a memo that lets everyone know their input is not only welcome but sought, followed by investing the time to prove its sincerity by collecting different perspectives in person is impactful.

My inclination is that having been a Walmart employee for more than 50 years and having risen through the ranks himself to the company’s most senior role, Furner understands the wealth of knowledge that resides in the minds of the frontline. He is wise to illustrate the company’s commitment to listening to employee sentiment, as well to recognize that such a ‘simple’ ask is likely to uncover some of the best areas of focus for the company’s continued journey.

Leveraging the Frontline Perspective to Inform Service Innovation

In an episode of UNSCRIPTED that featured Tim Spencer when he retired after more than 35 years in service, having held leadership positions in companies such as Interblock Gaming, BUNN, and Scientific games, I was struck by his sentiment that echoed Fulner’s approach described above.

“Staying put is the same as moving backwards. So, I tried to find something, always, that needed a fix. And I looked to others to help me figure it out,” said Tim. “Then you iterate or innovate on that or find the next business problem to solve. A leader is always on the hunt for the next problem to solve, because every business has a problem somewhere. If you think you don’t, well, there it is.”

It’s to the advantage of service leaders to realize how familiarizing yourself with the daily lives, and particularly daily challenges, of the frontline is an excellent source of uncovering opportunity for transformation or innovation. Where are the bottlenecks in the processes that were ‘optimized’ for what service looked like three or five years ago? What manual processes, cumbersome systems, insufficient knowledge, or conflicting priorities are causing your employees the most frustration?

It’s also important to realize that while listening to the sentiment around the existing service operations will likely surface issues that could benefit from technology investment, that’s just one lever or tool to consider. Employee feedback will likely help you realize what next digital capability you should prioritize but be sure you’re also listening for the areas where you need to reimagine process, governance, incentives, and even leadership.

Solidifying Your Understanding of Customer Sentiment & Service Growth Potential

Another impactful area where frontline insights are helpful is in validating your understanding of customer sentiment. We’re all familiar with the debate around best customer sentiment measure – NPS, CSAT, or otherwise – as well as their validity. The volume of customer interactions the frontline has, and relationships many of them have developed, offer an anecdotal avenue to add context to your data.

Further, their day-to-day experiences in customer environments offer the frontline a unique view of customer challenges, needs, and opportunities that could serve as your next path to service growth. Perhaps they hear a recurring theme of where additional training or support could be beneficial, or they see potential for an adjacent service to consider expanding into. While you may focus your listening on uncovering where to focus efforts for operational improvements, don’t overlook the ability to call on a perspective that can be strategically valuable as well.

Address Vs. Ignore Retention Woes with Frontline Input

For many service organizations, retention of frontline employees is a struggle. While it may feel easier to try and brush by this reality by either hoping it away or making some generic high-level ‘improvements,’ those willing to dig in to the truth of today’s talent’s needs will have greater success in this crucial area.

There are five generations in the workforce today, all with their own desires, preferences, and goals. What enabled long-term tenure among field technicians for a long time isn’t valid in today’s landscape; there’s an imperative to evolve. No better input than that of the frontline to help understand the perception of your employee value proposition, what should change, and what drivers are most important to the employees you want to keep.

Of course, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to be expected. But having conversations regularly vs. avoiding them because the change feels overwhelming allows you to discover commonalities both in what’s working well and what needs to be reimagined.

For Service Leaders Who Want to Improve Listening

In an HBR article that stands the test of time, Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman explained six levels of listening. To become a better listener, consider how to put these steps into practice and which you may need to put effort into improving:

• Level 1: Create a Safe Environment: Establishing a psychologically safe space where the speaker feels comfortable discussing complex or emotional issues.
• Level 2: Remove Distractions: Focusing entirely on the speaker by eliminating distractions to show respect and improve concentration.
• Level 3: Understand Substance: Actively seeking to understand the core message by listening for facts, asking clarifying questions, and summarizing to confirm understanding.
• Level 4: Observe Non-Verbal Cues: Paying attention to body language, facial expressions, tone of voice, and other subtle, non-verbal signals, which often carry significant meaning.
• Level 5: Empathize with Emotions: Identifying and acknowledging the speaker’s feelings and emotional state regarding the topic, demonstrating empathy and support without judgment.
• Level 6: Provide Constructive Feedback/Perspective: Acting as a "trampoline" by asking insightful, guiding questions that help the speaker see issues in a new light, fostering collaborative problem-solving

If you’re interested in taking your personal development a step further, give the podcast with Zach Mercurio, PhD organizational researcher and author of The Power of Mattering a watch below. Whether you're struggling with engagement, turnover, or the gap between the results you want and the results you're getting, Zach’s framework reveals that the magic happens not in programs, but in the daily interactions where leaders show people they matter.

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