How to Provide Customer Service Excellence

1 How to Provide Customer Service Excellence A guide to help you on the Excellence journey, to constantly push the bar to get even better at what you do Service Excellence cannot be achieved in the short-term, nor can you ever truly say that you have achieved' Excellence because it's a journey not a destination; the quest for Excellence will mean that you are constantly pushing the bar to get even better at what you do. This journey clearly requires a great deal of commitment on your behalf, but also from those who work with and for you. That is probably the real challenge in seeking to strive for Service Excellence : how can you get all your employees to really care, to really want to go that extra mile, to really believe in what you are trying to achieve? How to Provide Customer Service Excellence This guide is intended to help you strive for Service Excellence in your business and is prepared in line with the Service Excellence model.

2 The content here will help you to reflect upon what you do already, and from that you will find areas where you can enhance your existing approach. 1. The External Customer .. 3. Commitment to Service Excellence .. 4. Get as close as you can to your customers .. 5. Design your products and services to meet defined needs and expectations .. 6. Deliver those products and services in a way that consistently exceeds expectations.. 6. Introduce informal and formal feedback systems .. 7. 2. The Internal 9. Clearly Define Roles and Responsibilities .. 9. Provide appropriate and continuous training for all employees .. 9. Create a working environment which engages employees to the fullest extent .. 10. Measure employee satisfaction at regular intervals .. 10. 3. Standards of Performance .. 11. Developing operational standards .. 12. Implementing the standards .. 15. Evaluating the 15.

3 Improving the standards .. 17. 4. Conclusion .. 17. 2. The guide is based on the Service Excellence model shown: The External Customer Achieving Service Excellence Standards of The Internal Performance Customer 1. The External Customer It is perhaps a clich today to talk in These questions might seem to be terms of achieving total Customer focus verging on navel gazing', but such but if you want to strive for Service issues are vital if you really want to set Excellence that is precisely what you your business apart from others in must attain. A good reflection point as terms of Service quality. There are you start to analyse this particular many average businesses in all sectors process is to ask yourself some of tourism, but the number of truly though-provoking questions such as: outstanding companies is few. Would your customers miss your Therefore, the journey to Excellence business if it were no longer around?

4 Requires you to think' as much as it does to do', and reflecting on what What would they miss about you? makes (or can make) your business special and unique is not time wasted, Would they easily find a replacement but time saved because based on the offering? answers you find to such questions, Does interacting with your business you will do more of the right things in make a real (and noticeable) difference future. to their lives? In terms of practical steps you can take Why do they choose you over others or to achieve total Customer focus, others over you? consider the following points: 3. Commitment to Service Excellence The starting point in any attempt to situation where you have some people rise above the norm' is to demonstrate who are truly committed to Service a real commitment to that aim. Excellence and others who care Undoubtedly, you are committed to moderately, or worse still, little at all.

5 That end, but are each and every one of your employees equally as If you find this is a problem in your determined, no matter how many you business, then you need to address have? Of course, commitment levels that concern urgently. Some things you will vary but you cannot tolerate a can practically do here: Quality in a ! Sit with your employees to discuss what your business and Service goals are, Service or how they can contribute and what the likely benefits are to all concerned for trying to be better at what you do. product is not what you put ! Together with them, develop a Service Promise', or similar, which captures a into it. It is shared vision of what you all want to achieve in terms of Service quality. Communicate that promise widely to employees and customers. what the client or ! Allocate individual responsibilities for elements of the drive towards Service Customer gets Excellence .

6 For example, you might appoint an ideas team' which would explore things that you could do to enhance Service , or you could have another group out of it.. working on how to reduce complaints in the business. No passengers allowed on Peter Drucker, the journey. management ! Set clear Service goals (collective and individual) to Provide tangible targets consultant related to your Service Promise; for example, you could have a target to reduce complaints, increase repeat business volumes, raise Customer satisfaction levels and so on. And yes, by all means reward people when those challenging targets are achieved, but don't fall into the trap of rewarding your employees for what they should be doing anyway only above the norm performance should be rewarded. ! Discuss Service quality at every meeting or briefing you ever have, make it the norm to talk about the Service Promise, and don't only focus on Service issues when something goes wrong'.

7 Talk a lot about the journey, the promise, the goals, the achievements make it part of everyday life. Finally on this point, never tolerate individuals who do not share your commitment and that of the wider team. By all means coach and support them to see if they can improve, but do not allow them to tarnish the efforts of others indefinitely. 4. Get as close as you can to your customers This again sounds like an obvious point Even harder to discern are individual but Service Excellence demands that needs, but if you are serious about you first know your customers' needs Excellence then at the very least your and expectations better than anyone regular or repeat customers will expect else. Yes, some common needs you to remember their likes and are obvious, but needs by segment dislikes. Practical things you can do are less so. here include: The more ! Define your key Customer segments and attribute an overall value to each in you engage terms of what they generate for the business.

8 Which segments deserve most with attention? customers the ! Hold regular focus groups with customers from these segments to better clearer things understand their needs. become and ! Conduct wider online/email surveys with larger number of customers to get a the easier it is broader view of needs. to determine what you ! Have effective feedback mechanisms, for capturing complaints, and for gathering general satisfaction data; analyse this information regularly in a should be meaningful way to identify areas for improvement. doing.. John Russell, ! Have systems for capturing and sharing the preferences of existing customers so that you can wow them with your tailored Service . President, It is only by taking proactive action that you can get closer to your customers and if harley you don't do so then striving for Service Excellence is impossible. davidson 5. Design your products and services to meet defined needs and expectations Of course, there can be challenges for and products you currently have are of small businesses in terms of product the highest quality and not looking development, but even without jaded or tired.

9 On the Service side, it's spending large sums on capital often the little things that matter, so investment you can still enhance tailoring your Service to different your offering. On the product side, segments doesn't have to be a costly at an absolute minimum, you undertaking. Some practical actions should ensure that whatever facilities here include: The first step ! Get staff directly involved in this area. They interact with your customers every in exceeding day and they can often identify small but meaningful product or Service enhancements. your Customer 's ! Explore what other businesses are doing, both direct competitors and even those in other industries. However, be careful here that you don't end up being a expectations follower rather than a leader when it comes to new ideas. is to know those expectations.. Roy H. Williams , author and marketing consultant Deliver those products and services in a way that consistently exceeds expectations No matter what your specific offering when it comes to Service delivery; are entails, it's how you deliver it that they truly proactive and anticipative of really matters.

10 The issue of Service Customer needs, or do they simply standards will be addressed later react to Customer 's requests? What but for the moment you should might you do to improve on the current reflect on the mindset of your people situation? 6. Introduce informal and formal feedback systems As touched upon earlier, achieving comment cards, which in reality are Service Excellence is dependent upon never truly analysed. That is not to you truly understanding how you are infer that comment cards cannot be an doing in terms of Service quality, and effective tool, but only as part of a acting upon that feedback to resolve wider feedback system, and certainly problems and enhance what you offer. only when analysed and acted upon on Some companies pay lip Service to this a daily basis. Some practical points to area and use token gestures such as bear in mind here include: !