Standards of Customer Service
Standards of Customer Service: the sum of all the little details and interactions between a business and its customers..
Every business has them. They all sound great, too. In fact, if you listened
to all of the mission statements pertaining to serving the customer that
echo throughout the halls of commerce, you’d think you were on some strange
utopian planet, where the customer is king.
The problem lies in the difference between the talk and the walk. There is
no doubt that the executives at McDonald’s know how to serve customers. They
know how to dress neatly, and smile courteously, and listen carefully to
their customers. Unfortunately, it’s not the executives who are flipping
burgers and serving the sodas; it’s the local 16-year-old high school kid,
earning minimum wage in his first part time job. And quite honestly, he is
much more interested in a) his car; b) his girlfriend; c) his buddies; and
d) everything else in the world than ensuring that your dining experience at
McDonald’s is a pleasant one.
So the executives can honk and flap through employee manuals that describe
in detail just how each customer is to be treated, but unless they find a
way to connect with the kid working the counter, McDonald’s standards of
service remain theoretical. And friends, theoretical service ain’t no
service at all.
I don’t mean to pick on McDonald’s here; I am using them as an example,
based on their status as an American icon throughout the world, and because
their mission to serve their customers is well known. But I could be talking
about almost any other business. Maybe yours. Do you have customers? Do you
have people other than yourself dealing with those customers? Then I am
talking about your business, so here are a few things to consider.
1. Make your service initiatives relevant to your employees.
Typically, it is the executives in the nice offices that create the policies
and procedures that guide your customer interactions. These people often
have advanced degrees in business, or at the very least, years of practical
experience serving customers. They’ve probably been through a number of
service-related seminars, workshops, and conferences, and probably read
business books and newsletters. Understand that this is not always the case
with your front line personnel. You need to distill not only the “hows” but
also the “whys” of good service delivery. One thing you can count on is that
every person delivering customer service for your company is also a customer
of other businesses, so they already know what good and bad service is all
about from the customer perspective. It’s up to you to help them translate
that inherent knowledge into practical service application.
2. Providing good service to customers is not a natural or instinctive
thing. It has to be carefully taught, and there has to be incentive for
learning, and executing what is taught. In order to get the front line to
treat customers well, they need to feel well treated themselves. They need
to know that the company respects them and values the work that they do,
providing them with a structured environment, clean work area, and fair
compensation. You do get what you pay for, almost every time.
3. Some profound person once said, “Success is in the details.” In
business, this is very true. In every service organization, there are
procedures that are repeated from customer to customer. The organization
should establish how they wish every nuance of those repeated tasks to be
executed, and the personnel should be trained to execute those tasks like
second nature. This specifically means the things they say/write to
customers, including greeting and valediction. The things your people does
over and over again can and should be practiced to perfection, so that the
typical interactions between your customers and your staff will be executed
exactly the way the executives theorized it could be.
4. Positive reinforcement works. If you want something done a certain
way, make sure there are rewards for doing it that way, and make equally
sure that there are no rewards for doing it any other way. Remember, rewards
are not always money. Many of the best companies ask their employees what
type of rewards they would like for meeting certain targets. The responses
are usually pretty reasonable, and most involve time off, or tickets to an
event, rather than money. And a little bit goes a long way. If you are a
manager, and your company has not yet embraced the idea of sponsoring such
awards, you can be creative with what you’ve got to work with. Let him leave
an hour early one day, or give her an interesting special assignment that
utilizes a skill or interest of hers. Or take the whole team to lunch. But
most importantly, let them know why you’re giving them this, and how much
you appreciate their efforts. Mark Twain said, “I could live for a month off
of a good compliment.” Sometimes a few sincere words are the best reward of
all.
5. Incentive bonuses. When I was a young manager, I was against them,
for myself as well as for my staff. I thought that the whole idea of hiring
someone, and paying them a salary to do a job was motivation enough for them
to do the job to the best of their abilities. Naïve young chap, wasn’t I?
The fact is, incentive bonuses have great value beyond the money involved. A
bonus is a gesture of appreciation, saying that, thanks to your efforts, we
made a boatload of cash, and here, we’re peeling a little off the top for
you. However, such bonuses need to be administered fairly and consistently,
and the rules governing them should not change in mid term. One of the
problems with bonuses is that when things are going well, people come to
expect them regularly. Then, when things aren’t going so well, and the bonus
doesn’t get paid, it seems like a real gyp, man. Like they’ve cut your
salary! And that is de-motivating, any way you look at it. Moral of the
story: handle incentive bonuses with care.
Your company’s standards of service are what get remembered long after your
product reaches its limit of usefulness, or your service has been delivered.
How those products or services were delivered is what will determine whether
the customer comes back for more, and whether they bring their friends and
colleagues back with them. In order to ensure that your employees understand
this, make this fact relevant to them.
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