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10
Steps to Improving Your Service
by Gary
Heil and Richard Tate
Improving
the quality of your customer service takes commitment and
consistent effort — company-wide.
Since
creating a product that is unique in the eyes of the customer
is becoming increasingly difficult, more companies are relying
on service to achieve competitive advantage. Outstanding service
companies share some basic similarities, but they also customize
systems, structures, management styles and employment practices
to suit their strategic goals. To improve the quality of your
service, follow these 10 steps.
1.
Make a commitment to service. The return on investment
for companies that impress their customers with value-added
service can be staggering. These returns are not the result
of providing excellent service but of customers perceiving
that a company delivers service that is unique. Achieving
quality service takes a serious commitment from every employee
in the organization to remove the "s" word (satisfy) from
service goals and instead work to exceed customers' expectations
to the point that customers are willing to tell others.
2.
Develop a proactive recovery strategy. The quickest way
to improve your service reputation is to improve your recovery
process. Customers are impressed by companies that make a
empathetic, hassle-free effort to recover when customers perceive
that they received less service than they expected. These
efforts dramatically communicate to customers that the company
cares, that it's sensitive to the customer's business and
that it will stand behind its product or service — no
matter what. An effective recovery strategy requires that
a company go all out to find disgruntled customers. Most companies
attempt recovery only after a customer initiates a complaint
and then focus 100% of the resources allocated for recovery
on the 5% of the disgruntled customers who ordinarily complain.
3.
Ensure continuous improvement. Effective service improvement
is the cumulative effect of a thousand small improvements
made daily at every level in the organization. It often requires
changing the culture from one that accepts the status quo
to one that is excited about change and continuous improvement.
Innovating service practices and redefining service delivery
must be everyone's job. Start small and demand improvement
from everyone.
4.
Listen to customers. Listening is the foundation of all
good relationships and a prerequisite to business success.
But surprisingly few companies systematically listen to customers,
suppliers, employees and competitors. The radical service
improvements needed in this decade will require better customer
information systems. The more we know about a customer's business,
the easier we can form strategic partnerships. Because service
professionals spend so much time with customers, they must
be the primary source for developing and updating the system.
Have each customer-contact employee ask one customer per day
for one improvement idea; and then share the responses, analyze
the information and make improvement mandatory.
5.
Facilitate change. Service problems are leadership problems,
often resulting from management's unwillingness to change
structures, reduce the number of inflexible policies and procedures,
set higher service goals for themselves and their work groups
and spend more time on customer-related issues. Service improvement
efforts fail more from ineffective management practices than
from lack of front-line effort. Yes, the front-line people
are often unwilling or unable to take risks necessary to embrace
their changed role and enthusiastically deliver service that
consistently exceeds customer expectations. But this happens
because leaders fail to ensure that: 1) desired service outcomes
are well defined; 2) the service delivery process is clearly
communicated and perceived to be flexible; 3) guiding principles
and core values are established; and 4) everyone understands
their role in the show.
6.
Define the playing field. Front-line employees must understand
the rules of play and how to win before they can successfully
customize service for the customer. There must be a clearly
defined direction (a goal-line that indicates how to score)
and predefined parameters (the "rules" or boundaries) that
outline the limits of responsibility and decision making.
In the past, outlining boundaries has been accomplished primarily
by correcting mistakes. Unfortunately, this does not communicate
what is desirable, only what is out of bounds. When employees
are not secure, they focus on avoiding problems and mistakes
and not on creativity and customization.
7.
Provide autonomy. Creative, enthusiastic service professionals
who routinely make business decisions and improvise when necessary
are the foundation of excellent service. Yet, many companies
ignore the benefits of engaging the talents of their work
force. Serious service improvement involves people meaningfully
in every aspect of service delivery, including service planning,
innovation and process improvement. It means replacing many
"rules" with judgment, allowing for greater flexibility in
front-line decision making within well-defined parameters.
It requires more trust between managers and employees, a greater
sharing of information and an unprecedented commitment to
continuous education. The heroes in a customer-focused culture
must be highly trained, enthusiastic front-line service pros
who make hundreds of decisions daily to deliver a customized
product faster than every before.
8.
Measure performance. Managers must educate everyone to
routinely measure all of the responsibilities crucial to success.
Cost-reduction measures should be balanced with measures of
service, quality, leadership, employee flexibility and continuous
improvement. The most valid measures of service quality are
the subjective opinions of customers. Only customers can evaluate
service in light of their unique expectations. Consequently,
responsibility for measuring and demonstrating continuous
service improvement should be focused closer to the service
professional. Only when service teams are actively involved
in every facet of the service business, including measurement
of service quality, can organizations hope to capture the
creativity and enthusiasm that is needed to radically enhance
service delivery.
9.
Hold everyone accountable. Ask a business owner who's
responsible for service improvement in his or her organization,
and he or she will usually reply with the names of several
people whose responsibilities cross many functional areas.
When a service problem surfaces, these people point out that
the root cause of the problem exists with another group. This
"fragmented accountability" is no accountability at all. Until
a single person is accountable for service improvement and
until serious personal consequences are set for failing to
achieve service goals, continuous service improvement is unlikely.
Lack of individual accountability allows leaders to avoid
focusing on ineffective managerial practices, such as adhering
to time-wasting routines, attending endless meetings, failing
to set goals that test their talents and failing to change
ineffective reporting and promotional structures. If all employees
were held personally accountable for influencing the perception
of the customer, customer service would be perceived as a
part of the strategic plan instead of a "slogan" or "theme
program."
10.
Celebrate success. Every organization must develop a culture
of celebrated discontent — a simultaneous feeling of
accomplishment and a desire to improve. Too often, though,
organizations create an almost schizophrenic "either/or" mentality
— celebrate one minute and be emphatically discontent
the next. People find these environments confusing and uncomfortable.
They begin to discount true celebration as an introduction
to the real agenda — usually a push for more productivity.
Most cultures have far too few celebrations and few measures
focusing on improvement. Organizations must celebrate often,
making the celebrations sincere and spontaneous. Those who
consistently demonstrate improvement must become the heroes.
Gary
Heil and Richard Tate are associates of Blanchard Training
& Development, Inc., in Escondido, Calif.
Copyright
© 2001 Executive Excellence Publishing
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