Be Different or be dead

May 24, 2010

6 important people programs for a successful customer service strategy

Source: Unsplash

6 important people programs for a successful customer service strategy.

The people programs component of your business plan makes customer service plans successful. in fact the relationship between HR programs and the ability to deliver a service strategy is critical.

Why are people programs so important? Because programs built for people have an automatic influence on how they behave on a day-to-day basis which, in turn, has a profound impact on delivering dazzling service experiences to customers.

Here are six critical people programs to effectively implement your service strategy.

▪️ Recruitment - people that love other humans are critical to building stand-out service experience. Re-shape the career postings to look for these people; morph the interview guides to explore this attribute in potential candidates.

▪️ Recognition and reward - imprint these programs on the behaviors and outcomes demanded by your service strategy. Employees need to see when the right stuff is happening; seeing others get the plaudits will drive this home.

▪️ Leadership development - develop servant leaders; establish a strong thrust to get people asking “How can I help?” rather than “Do this!”

▪️ Mentorship - encourage connectivity with others in the organization that personify the skills and competencies valued to deliver mind-blowing service.

▪️ Union working agreement - this is HUGE… the terms and conditions of the Agreement must facilitate not impede the execution of your service strategy. Seniority and other parochial expectations have nothing to do with dazzling customers.

▪️ Internal communications - ensure all employee communications is heavily focused on talking about service - successes, failures, service ’heros’ and customer feedback. Keep service alive with the people that make it so, 24X7.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 5.24.10 at 12:00 pm by Roy Osing
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February 15, 2010

Why internal customers are as important as external ones

Source: Pexels

Absolutely true. If the way people treat fellow employees is memorable, the customer experience will be delightful as well.

If the service provided among employee groups sucks, service to external customers will follow suit.

Employees need to WOW! one another if they in turn are to be able to WOW! a customer.

Organizations are a mosaic of customer - supplier relationships. Marketing serves Sales; Engineering serves Marketing and Marketing/Sales/Administrative functions serve the Customer Service Organization.

If external customers are to be dazzled, the delivery process needs to operate seamlessly and all delivery units in the organization need to dazzle each other; providing their piece of the service delivery chain and going the extra mile for their internal customer.

If one link in the chain fails then the chain breaks and the external customer is ‘de-dazzled’. If on the other hand every link not only plays their expected part but also goes the extra mile for their internal customers, the service provided to the external customer will most likely blow them away.

How do you know what level of service quality is being provided?

Constant measurement of the service quality provided to customers must be done; the use of internal report card Is the method I successfully used as the leader of many different types of organizations.

Service stories should be told. And service heroes should be honoured.

We need, however, to take this a step further and apply the report card process to measure internal service quality. Sales should rate the level of service Marketing provides them and Marketing should rate Engineering.

Every internal customer-supplier relationship needs to be measured to see if the customer has been dazzled in an engagement with another employee

How to build a report card

Its really not that difficult to do and it doesn’t have to be complicated.

Pick six deliverables Sales expects from Marketing, for example, and have Sales rate on a 1-5 scale how effectively and consistently Marketing delivers each.

Have monthly joint review meetings to discuss the results and strike action plans to address any shortfalls.

Include internal service quality in the bonus compensation plan. I assure you that if part of Marketing’s bonus is based on the report card from Sales, the marketing folks will definitely pat attention to Sale’s needs, wants and desires.

The payoff: the service delivery process gets better and better over time; internal customers get dazzled.

And, the external customer both reaps the rewards of having a delightful service experience and returns the favour with continued loyalty.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 2.15.10 at 03:31 pm by Roy Osing
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January 22, 2010

How to empower employees and serve customers in an amazing way

Source: Pexels

How to empower employees and serve customers in an amazing way.

Let me be clear: when I speak of empowerment I am referring to it as it applies to customers, and how to use it to serve a strategic purpose.

Many organizations unfortunately fear the notion of empowering people.

A common myth is that if you allow people to do what they believe is necessary they will ‘give away the farm’; they will break the rules; they will disrupt the rhythm of the organization and create needless stress and strain.

Nonsense. These beliefs come from a misunderstanding of what empowerment really is.

Empowerment is the provision of specific degrees of freedom to employees consistent with the strategy of the organization.

What it is and what it’s not

▪️it is bending the rules of the organization in specific circumstances for specific customers; it is not allowing rule bending for all circumstances and for any customer.

Rule bending is a critical component of the Service Strategy of an organization and results in dazzled customers with deep loyalty to the firm. It must be allowed but only under controlled circumstances.

▪️it is a planned course of action with its own set of rules in terms of the process an employee is to follow and the options available to them; it is not doing whatever an employee thinks is right at the time.

▪️it is being a few things to selected customers; it is not being anything to all customers.

▪️the actions allowed are defined directly from the strategy of the organization; they are not invented on the run.

▪️ the effectiveness of empowerment is measured against the desired outcomes; it is not ‘winging it’ and let the chips fall where they may.

▪️it is a proactive set of activities; it is not an unplanned reactive event.

▪️empowerment is contained within a ‘box’ with rigidly defined parameters and behaviors expected of an employee; it is not unfettered activity with no boundaries.

Critically examine your business plan and define the critical operations areas where empowering employees would be helpful to achieving the results expected.

Create an empowerment plan: which customers are to be included; what operations activities are ‘empowerable’ (like service recovery, service sign-up etc.); what measurable outcomes are expected and what behaviors must an employee exhibit - i.e. what is the empowerment process to be followed.

Honour your empowerment champions.

Tell stories of what they did to paint a picture of what success looks like.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 1.22.10 at 03:48 pm by Roy Osing
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