The missing link in service quality (and what my grandmother taught me about it)
An excellent service is difficult to achieve, but much more difficult to sustain in the long term. There is a flaw that is repeated in these developments, which makes their sustainability fail. It is the missing link in service quality.
How to make service quality a sustainable project? How to sustain a momentum for improvement over time?
Most companies have to be constantly encouraging, motivating each collaborator to provide an excellent service that is so difficult to achieve, but much more difficult to sustain in the long term.
What I have noticed is that there is a flaw that is repeated in these developments, and this omission causes the sustainability of the project to fail. It is the missing link in service quality. And I'm going to tell you what my grandmother taught me about him.
The fundamental cycle for achieving quality continuity and growth is made up of three links.
First link: Design
Quality is designed. It is not an improvisation. Work processes that produce a satisfactory result for the client must be established.
This link, although sometimes omitted, exists in most organizations. Simply for a matter of order, to be able to convey to the collaborators what their function is, the service must be scheduled, sequenced, and this requires that someone has taken the design work.
In some cases, it is the experience of many years that establishes a determined work system, which at some point, or gradually, is formalized.
Second link: The execution
Execution is a daily challenge. It consists of putting the design into action. No system, no matter how excellent, can produce satisfactory results if there is not a team willing to put energy and willingness to serve, committed to the quality of the service it is delivering.
This is the concern of many managers, to transmit that tension to excellence in their team, and keep their motivation high to satisfy the customer every day.
Third link: Feedback (the missing link!)
However, good design and good execution do not guarantee consistent customer satisfaction (this is quality of service).
My grandmother was an excellent cook. She gathered us around the family table and transmitted to us through food the most exquisite love, that which is not forgotten. Her recipe book consisted of dishes that she had perfected over the years and were a guaranteed success, but she also liked to innovate.
One day he made us a pate pudding that he had recently discovered, in a recipe from a renowned chef.
However, it was far from being a success. Neither could finish their portion, and there was a particular silence, until an uncle broke it. "Mom, it's delicious… but don't do it again!" Of course we all laughed and she accepted with humor, as she always did, the suggestion of her audience.
This phenomenon, which happened in the family, in an environment of simple trust, may sound so natural… and yet, it is so difficult to replicate it when we talk about "organized" services!
Note that the design was good (the recipe had been tested by a professional chef), the execution was in the hands of those who knew how to cook, and put soul and life into their task. But something did not fit with the public. The family didn't like that recipe, and the only way to find out was to do it, try it, and fundamentally be open to the result, which this time was a thumbs down.
What happens in organizations, which is why the fundamental link of feedback fails so many times?
Let's think about what made it possible in my grandmother's case:
1. She was encouraged to innovate, but presented her innovation with caution. She announced that it was a new recipe, almost as if asking to be told if there was acceptance or not.
A company does not have such a degree of trust with its customers as in a family relationship, and therefore the request for feedback must be made explicit. Do you want to know what your customers think? Ask them!
2. My grandmother was open to receiving opinions, whatever they were! In fact, this time, there was no applause for the cook.
We all like to receive good opinions, but if you ask, you have to be willing to learn from the answers you get (and you learn from mistakes). If this provision doesn't exist, don't ask. Stick with your own idea of what you think is right.
3. My grandmother never did that food again. This I think is the most difficult step. To really learn is to show it in fact. It was very simple in this example, but it is usually more complex. Why?
An important point is that the information reaches those who have to take action based on it. Who should change their way of working so that dissatisfaction does not recur? Curiously, they are usually the last to know.
Another condition is that there is a space to generate improvements based on feedback. The maelstrom of everyday life does not allow us to react to generate changes in which we have to agree different people, sometimes with different functions.
If there is no scope to discuss them, the improvement ideas are stored in a drawer. And the worst thing is that all the resources you have invested in generating this feedback cycle, which has been sterile, are wasted.
In your organization, feedback is the missing link? What if they start generating scopes to work based on the information they get from customers? It is, in short, what will make your service system dynamic, always adapting to the changing needs of your market.
