Ignite! Newsletter—September 2008 Article
Take care of the people who take care of your customers
Most organizations agree that customer service is an important area of focus, but only 44% have a formal process in place for achieving desired service improvements according to a survey by The Ken Blanchard Companies. That might explain why Kathy Cuff, a senior consulting partner with Blanchard who specializes in customer service, believes that in spite of increased attention, customer service still seems to be average at best.1
In Cuff’s opinion, exceptional service providers remain few and far between. “There is so much opportunity out there to wow the customer and we are still not seeing it very much.”
Everyone Is Responsible for Delivering Customer Service
In her work with clients, Cuff believes that the biggest challenge companies face when they work toward becoming an exceptional service provider is recognizing that everyone in the organization is responsible for delivering customer service. As she explains, “In the best companies, it's not just a customer service department, it's not just management or leadership, it's every single person.”
While some people in the organization may deal with external customers—front desk personnel for example—others may have primarily internal customers—such as human resource professionals. And some people, like those in the accounting department, have both external and internal customers—they send bills and invoices to external customers, and they provide reports and information to internal customers. The point is, everyone has a customer.
“If we can change the mindset,” Cuff says, “and get everyone to understand that customer service is a part of their job, and realize the importance of it, and believe in it, that's going to be a huge competitive edge for the organization.”
Or, it can be the beginning of a negative spiral down.
“If you don't address it in time, revenues start to go down. You lose good clients; you lose good employees—because people want to work for a good company. And if the company is not delivering good service and is having to constantly generate new business out there because customers are not happy with the way they are being treated, then their work gets even harder. They just feed off of each other.”
In Cuff’s experience, the trouble begins when people within organizations don’t recognize that how they treat each other within an organization is just as important, if not more so, than how they treat external customers. When employees get tired of the way that they feel they are being treated, or that they are not valued by that organization, they are going to try to find a place where they feel that they can make a difference. Or worse, they stay and pass that attitude on to the customer.
Ken Blanchard had an experience while shopping at a department store a couple of years back that really illustrates this point. He normally shops at Nordstrom’s but found himself in a competitor’s store.
Realizing that he needed to talk to his wife, he asked a salesperson in the men’s department if he could use their telephone. “No!” the salesperson said.
He said, “You have to be kidding me. You can always use the phone at Nordstrom’s.” The salesperson said, “Look buddy! They don’t let me use the phone here. Why should I let you?”
When employees don’t feel valued, it starts eating away at morale of people.
“There are so many missed opportunities,” says Cuff. “The buck gets passed. You start hearing people saying things like ‘it's not my job.’ When that starts happening, and fingers get pointed, it starts to create silos in organizations because people don't want to work with each other anymore. When it starts breaking down internally that's when the external customer starts feeling it.”
Creating a Culture of Service
To combat this tendency in organizations, Cuff recommends that leaders who are serious about creating a culture of exceptional service start by getting everyone on the same page believing first of all that service is important. She suggests that leaders ask themselves questions such as, “What does good customer service look like in our organization, what does it feel like, and what does that mean?” The goal is to get really clear on a service vision. Once that is in place, Cuff recommends that leaders take this one step further by identifying the values and articulating the behaviors that you are expecting from employees.
Next, turn vision into action by putting structures in place designed to help, instead of hinder employees’ efforts to serve customers. In lower performing organizations, the systems and structures derail people. The organization may want to serve customers, but policies and procedures make getting the job done harder instead of easier. In these organizations, systems or structure steer employees in the wrong direction.
In exceptional service organizations, on the other hand, all systems are set up to wow the customer. Structures are organized in ways that allow employees to respond quickly to customer needs, anticipate trends and get in front of them. Operating practices, market strategies, products, and services are developed to make it easier for employees to serve customers.
And then finally, Cuff recommends getting everybody to understand their role in delivering on the service vision—whether it is just a little piece or a big piece.
“Everybody's a spoke in that wheel. And we all need to be going in the right direction.
“Service truly is the competitive edge. Your products and or services only get you in the game. It's the service, how you deliver those products—the interactions you have with your external customers—that keeps people with you, wanting to work with you.”
1. The Ken Blanchard Companies, June 2007, “The Key to Customer Loyalty”. Available online at: http://www.kenblanchard.com/thoughtleadership/leadership_perspectives/key_to_customer_loyalty/
Would you like to learn more about creating a culture of service within your organization?
Then join us for a free webinar on September 18.
Creating a Customer-Focused Company
Thursday, September 18, 2008
9:00–10:00 a.m. Pacific Time, 12:00–1:00 p.m. Eastern Time
5:00–6:00 p.m. UK Time, 4:00–5:00 p.m. GMT
In today’s competitive business environment, if you don’t take care of your customers, someone else will. Organizations looking to attract and retain loyal customers have to constantly improve their level of service. In this webinar Senior Consulting Partner Kathy Cuff will show you how to create loyal customers by consistently delivering Legendary Service. You’ll learn that the keys to attracting and retaining loyal customers are:
- Recognizing the importance of ideal service and its value to the organization
- Developing a personal service vision
- Communicating with customers more effectively
- Expanding the power of front line employees
- Creating an action plan
Don’t miss this opportunity to discover what everyone in your company can do to provide better service and retain customers.