A FRAMEWORK FOR EXTRAORDINARY SERVICE
Good service is no longer enough to guarantee differentiation, compete on the basis of value without competing for price, motivate employees to improve their jobs or obtain financial returns, since many companies have already reached this level and the degree of competition is very high.
There is the Theoretical Quality that is to talk about it and the Practical Quality that is what the client sees in the service provided. The extraordinary service is to bring Practical Quality to the client, who perceives it and the company is aware of how to achieve it.
In the field of services, as in any business, there is talk of quality, but quality must be broken down in each of its stages to reach Total Quality, this occurs when if and only if it is achieved:
- Expected Quality: it is the level of quality that the company plans seeking to satisfy the needs of the clients. Served Quality: it is the one that each employee transmits to the client according to their own efforts and their criteria regarding what they consider appropriate. Quality Perceived: the one that the client perceives when receiving the service.
When you want to offer total quality, fear of error must be eliminated from employees, which can be achieved by periodically instilling relevant aspects such as the following:
- The client wants suppliers without problems. The quality is not an absolute value, it is in relation to the price, but the quality of the staff towards the client is absolute. The level of demand of the clients has grown due to the competition, so accepts excuses or guilty. The client accepts some mistake if it is rectified and rewarded That the staff is backed by the management, enjoys positive Empowerment and each one will take care of the details to achieve satisfied clients through continuous improvements. The business is a whole not departments independent.
There is a 10-Stage program that can be implemented to achieve Quality in Practice, these stages are:
- Diagnosing the Current Quality Level: What quality does the client perceive? What mistakes are being made and why? How do they affect the business? Are the procedures aimed at the customer? What do the company's employees think? What is the image of the company abroad? Is there competition? Create and Popularize a Strong Culture: That every employee feels part of the quality program and can execute it within their daily activities. Organize and Maintain the School of Quality:Choosing personnel that will be trained to carry out the task of multiplying quality, they must be people with a high degree of service, learning and effort. At the same time implement a training program that will be respected and supported, remember that quality is a process, not an end. Organize and Maintain Communication with Clients: Employees must communicate with clients and take corrective measures or report any observations presented and serve as a contact between the company and the client. Assemble and Maintain the Details Card: Transmit in writing the details that each employee is expected to take care of and execute when service is provided, no one can do something they have not been told to doOrganize ways to Measure Customer Opinion: You can do direct surveys or suggestion boxes to have feedback from customers regarding what they perceive as quality within the organization. Setting Priorities: A program cannot be started trying to cover everything, so it will be necessary to establish priorities, which when reached will generate space for others and thus continue until the entire company works under a continuous quality process. Liberalize the Quick Reconquest: When a customer expresses a wish, suggestion, or complaint, the staff should surprise him with an agile, skillful, and effective reconquest. This process can be dangerous, but you have to learn to use Empowerment as an effective tool.Measuring Progress: That the members of the group can see the achievements made and strive for those not achieved. Reward and Press: Establish mechanisms so that the entire team strives and that there are no pardons that without effort or success come out unscathed, we must reward, recognize and pressure.
If all these stages are carried out systematically, the establishment will have highly motivated personnel and solid knowledge of providing quality service that will be transmitted to each client who visits the business, causing satisfaction and delight in them that will be transmitted to third parties, with This will be achieved not only by maintaining repetitive customers, but by increasing participation in a highly competitive market in which you can only survive if you differentiate.
Little details make big differences
The Quality of Service is the foundation on which value is offered to customers, the strategies incorporated must carry this slogan.
Companies compete on the basis of value, and it must be remembered that Value is not synonymous with Price. Leonard Berry defines the Value as the equivalent of the benefits received in exchange for the inconveniences borne, while Price, just one of the inconveniences.
Cultivate Service Leadership
In the words of Lee Harkins, an executive at Bell South, "leadership is the determining factor in service quality." Employees need to have a clearly established mission and vision that generate commitment, feel part of a team and that it supports them in difficult times (remember the hunt for mistakes), they need people to imitate, they need Service Leadership.
Service Leadership is having the qualities that promote the desire of the organization to offer outstanding service. To excel in service there are 4 essential qualities:
- Service Vision: One of the mistakes of companies is that they sell only the product they have on the shelf, when the customer looks for more than that, he will really make the difference of going to buy from X company for the service they provide. Employees must be made to believe in the mission and vision of the company, this vision is easy for those who provide services and defend the business as if it were their own. Believe in Others: the leader or administrator will not be able to do everything, he must trust his employees, setting goals for them, providing them with the necessary tools and promoting leadership behavior throughout the organization. Every employee is capable if properly taught and motivated. It is forgotten that leaders are leaders to become instructors.Love of Business: When you love the work you do, the enthusiasm and vitality that characterize service leaders flourish. Love of business is the fuel of high standards for service leaders. The leader must not only teach how the business works, but by example he must show his style, values and excellence, there is nothing more motivating than this. Integrity: Peter Drucker mentioned in 1988 “Trust is the essential requirement for effective leadership. Without it there are no followers and the leader is the one who has followers ”
There are 4 ways to cultivate leadership potential
- Promote the right people: use the criterion of leadership to promote people, making them broaden their horizons, help the company and be an example to their employees in terms of leadership. There are tests to determine who to promote, among them we can mention:
- The test of the footprints in the sand The test of the defense of something The test of external leadership
The voice of the client must guide efforts to improve the service, remembering that all strategies must be directed towards the client and not the product.
Every company has a Mission, and they carry it out through their strategies, which must be service-oriented, this will generate competitive advantages.
GROW LEADERSHIP IN SERVICE
Five dimensions that customers use as criteria to judge quality of service
- Reliability: ability to deliver the promised service with accuracy and seriousness (high responsibility) Tangible Things: the appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel and communication materials (that the client feels support) Readiness of Response: translated into Willingness to help clients and provide them with a timely service Safety: knowledge and courtesy of employees, as well as their ability to transmit security and trust Empathy: achieve the match with the customer, that the attention be personalized.
Of all these, which are not mutually exclusive but complementary, the most important is Reliability.
Now the Reliability of providing a good service is very complex, remember that in service companies, the product must be paid before being received, in addition to the fact that during the process there is a large amount of and therefore the risk of error is fairly tall. For all this, it is necessary to establish some criteria that will help achieve the goals:
- Service reliability is an attitude: everything is born from the old adage "Wanting to be able", if all employees want to provide excellent service, this is possible. It should be instilled as an attitude, not just another task. Service reliability is a matter of design: not only can everything be achieved with an attitude, but procedures must also be designed to achieve good service. Service Surprise: it is to exceed expectations of the client, not only make visible what necessarily must be done to provide a service, but that added value of the company. Part of the reliability of the service is the recovery of dissatisfied clients, most companies do not pay attention to this area, without knowing that little by little his system will be weakened and confidence will be lost in the end.The essential steps to recover the service are
- Teach the importance of recovery service Identify service problems Effectively solve problems Improve service system
Clients tend to do business with trustworthy companies, whose Interactive Service (company-client) is excellent, who are willing to Respond when the Service fails and who are eminently Fair. These principles are the essence of excellence in service.
Reliability, Recovery and Equity are the pillars of the service.
Service Quality is an integral part of value and therefore emphasis must be placed on the service strategy so that customers perceive this and generate trust and loyalty in them, which in the long term will give the company the basis for their survival..
BUILD A SERVICE QUALITY INFORMATION SYSTEM
Service Leadership, by itself, does not reach an extraordinary level of service, is a complement within the direction that leaders set for the business. The way to know the right path is to continually listen to the customer's voice.
The Customer is the one who ultimately defines Quality. Remember that the company may have established guidelines which can be reached and exceeded, but this is not quality. Quality will be reaching to satisfy the guidelines of the clients.
Businesses should establish a service quality research process to obtain timely and relevant data on trends, and managers should become accustomed to using that data in their decisions: Businesses need to build an information system on service quality. service, not just do a study, stipulates Leonard Berry.
Systematic listening
A service quality information system relies on various approaches to systematically capture and disseminate service quality information to inform decisions. As it is well known, new things always generate anxiety and insecurity and many times they go as far as resistance to change, which is why two very powerful tools can be used to avoid it: Communication and Education.
It will be necessary to use various research approaches, to achieve the greatest amount of inputs that serve us for adequate decision-making. By achieving continuous data collection and dissemination, we may have better alternatives to identify patterns of change, a broad picture of service quality, which service attributes are important to current and potential customers, which company systems They work well and which do not and finally which are the investments in service that are producing results and which are not.
Another benefit of an information system is that it can serve as the foundation for a front-line employee reward system by identifying who is providing excellent service and who is not.
Ways to collect information on service quality
Among the research approaches to consider are:
- Transactional surveys: They are carried out with clients once the service transaction with the company has ended. The purpose is to measure customer satisfaction with their service experience and the reasons for their perceptions while the experience is still fresh. Transactional surveys allow companies to track quality in a timely manner, that's its main benefit. Total market surveys:These types of surveys are less frequent but more complete than the previous ones, which measure satisfaction regarding your recent service experience. Market-wide surveys measure how customers assess a company's global service and is based on experiences accumulated over time. This type of survey provides extensive information, impossible to obtain with any other method. Among the data to be collected are the expectations and perceptions of customers regarding the service, the relative importance of the dimensions of the service; and the intentions of the clients (repeat the purchase and desire to recommend the company). A critical facet of total market surveys is measuring the quality of service from competitors.Like transactionals, they can also track service over time.Incognito buyers: It is a variation of the transactional survey. Incognito shoppers are researchers posing as customers to directly assess the quality of the service provided. After the meeting, the researchers use a rating form to record their evaluations in a complete and systematic way. An advantage over transactional and market, is that with incognito buyers if they can identify who provides the service. Service reviews: These are periodic visits to customers to discuss the service relationship. They are personal interviews with clients to thoroughly evaluate their satisfaction with the various aspects of the service and to identify priorities for the necessary improvements.Advisory client meetings: They are a way of listening to the voice of the client. The company hires a sample of customers to periodically receive information and advice from them. The only thing that this approach requires is that the company can identify and contact its customers. Surveys with new clients, with less assiduous clients and with those who are no longer clients:One way to focus management's attention on service improvement is through surveys that reveal the impact of service quality on profits. This type of survey allows us to identify the consequences of company performance in the field of service quality. These types of surveys are easier in businesses where customers use the services continuously or periodically, and it is possible to identify transactional activity by customer. Interviews with focus groups:They are carried out through questions to a small group, usually made up of 8 to 12 people. The questions revolve around a specific topic or problem (hence the focal term). They are the preferred method of investigating service quality because of the ease of execution and because interviews can be conducted in a short time. Unfortunately, by themselves they do not replace quantitative research, they are complementary. Focus groups are actually brainstorming sessions. Field employee reports:Many companies do not record what staff in contact with the public learn about customers because there is no systematic means of collecting and disseminating this type of information. The primary purpose of field employee reports is to provide a formal mechanism to capture and share this market information. Employee surveys:Another way is to study the experiences of employees as internal customers, to improve service. To some extent, employees are the service to customers. This type of research makes it possible to measure the quality of the internal service, since in the end, the internal quality will directly affect the external quality of the service. Conducting employee surveys also serves as an alarm system. By constantly being exposed to the service delivery system, employees are able to see the deterioration of the system before it is perceived by customers.
Which method to use should be according to the agreement between them and the existing research program. Three of the methods are essential to any quality of service information system: transactional surveys, market-wide surveys, and employee surveys.
Characteristics of an effective service quality system
The service quality information system must have certain characteristics, regardless of its design. It is essential to collect data continuously through different research modalities. Transactional surveys, total market surveys, and employee surveys should be included anyway. Additional must have the following characteristics:
- It is necessary to measure the expectations of the clients regarding the service: the expectations of the client provide the context for the evaluation of the service. It is critical to measure the relative importance of the attributes of quality of the service: determining which are the attributes of the service most important to With some target customer segments and in which attributes there are performance deficiencies compared to the main competitors and in relation to customer expectations, it is possible to establish a solid base of priorities to improve service. Remember that the client uses his expectations as a comparison standard. Clients evaluate service performance according to 2 standards: what they want (desired service) and what they are willing to accept (adequate service).It is essential to measure the impact of service quality on the market: a service quality information system should reveal the benefits and harm to the market attributable to service quality performance. service must be more than a system to capture data; it must also be a communication system: a system is useful only to the extent that it is used by decision makers. A service quality information system should communicate relevant information about the service to everyone within the company. Information about quality of service is to be shared.a service quality information system should reveal the benefits and harm to the market attributable to service quality performance. A service quality information system should be more than a system for capturing data; it must also be a communication system: a system is useful only to the extent that it is used by decision makers. A service quality information system should communicate relevant information about the service to everyone within the company. Information about quality of service is to be shared.a service quality information system should reveal the benefits and harm to the market attributable to service quality performance. A service quality information system should be more than a system for capturing data; it must also be a communication system: a system is useful only to the extent that it is used by decision makers. A service quality information system should communicate relevant information about the service to everyone within the company. Information about quality of service is to be shared.a system is useful only to the extent that it is used by decision makers. A service quality information system should communicate relevant information about the service to everyone within the company. Information about quality of service is to be shared.a system is useful only to the extent that it is used by decision makers. A service quality information system should communicate relevant information about the service to everyone within the company. Information about quality of service is to be shared.
CREATE A SERVICE STRATEGY
Service leadership generates a service mindset within the organization. Listening to the voice of the client, it will be possible to know their expectations, what happens with the performance and why, and what must be done to improve; it is also the basis for establishing a global strategic direction - A Service Strategy.
With a clear and compelling service strategy, decision makers form a better idea of which initiatives to approve and which to reject. Strategy is your guide. With a clear and compelling service strategy, service providers know how to best serve their customers; strategy is your guide.
The service strategy allows identifying what represents value for the customer. To forge the path to extraordinary service, company leaders must correctly define what makes service compulsory.
Characteristics of a service strategy
The primary role of a good quality service as part of the service strategy involves committing to 4 principles:
- Reliability: it means exact service and seriousness; It implies keeping what was promised. Surprise: it is something that happens when more is given than expected. Recovery: involves earning the customer's trust again in case the service has been poor; it involves supporting the service. Fairness: it translates into equal rules of the game for the client and the company; Business is done in an ethical context.
These 4 principles of service quality form the basis of a service strategy.
A company must live its service strategy. Words do not give life to the service strategy; The strategy comes to life when it coincides with the criteria for selecting employees, with their training and education, with technology, performance evaluations and remuneration systems. The company's philosophy must be incorporated into the service strategy.
How to identify the service strategy
To identify the strategy, it is necessary to answer 3 fundamental questions:
- What service attributes are and will continue to be the most important for our target market? In which important service attributes is competition weakest? What are our company's current and potential service capabilities?
The service strategy must incorporate both the essential attributes to meet customer expectations and the surprising attributes to exceed those expectations.
Identifying the service strategy is reduced to looking for an equivalence between what should be done and what the company excels at.
Defining the service function
The service strategy defines the general parameters of the function of the people who provide services. When there are explicit service standards there is clarity about service work and a benchmark against which employees can judge their performance and managers judge the performance of employees and the organization.
COMMIT TO THE PRINCIPLES OF AN EXTRAORDINARY SERVICE
Commitment to the Principles
Customers use 5 dimensions as criteria to judge the quality of the service and these are:
- Reliability: ability to provide the promised service with accuracy and seriousness. Tangible things: the appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel and communication materials. Promptness of Response: translated into the will to help clients and provide them with a timely service. Security: that the knowledge and courtesy of the employees are possessed, as well as their ability to transmit security and confidence. Empathy: achieve the match with the client, that the attention is personalized.
ORGANIZE TO PROVIDE EXTRAORDINARY SERVICE
According to Leonard Barry, the structure must facilitate the following:
- Cultural leadership for continuous service improvement Guidance and coordination of service improvement initiatives Knowledge and technical resources to support the service improvement effort Solutions or recommendations regarding specific service quality issues Service delivery that meets or exceeds customer expectations Day after day Excellent recovery when original service fails
Service Quality Guidance Group
- Provides the strategic direction, coordination and drive to improve the service. Controls the overall performance of the company in the field of service and tracks the effects of each of the initiatives taking the appropriate measures. Senior executives can participate but basically they should of turning around the line managers.
Service Quality Support Department
- Its main role is to facilitate the service improvement process, its function is not to improve the service but to help all members of the company to achieve it. The support department is not a substitute for the guiding group, but a complement, since who will provide you with information, monitor problems and implement your initiatives. It is important to establish that quality improvement is “everyone's responsibility” and the role of the support department as facilitator. Project for Quality Team Service Teams made up of employees who come together temporarily to analyze a specific problem and recommend the measures to be taken, this team disintegrates when it has completed its work. Project teams should be used to solve important problems.Success depends on a clear mandate and a concrete timeline, selecting members, team leadership, appropriate training, and visible support from superiors.
Service Delivery Teams
- The previous 3 are facilitators, delivery teams are an alternate mechanism to actually provide the service.The service they provide to a client is usually the product of a chain of related services. Some occur outside of the customer's view and others experience them directly. Deficiencies at any point in the chain can influence the customer's impression of service quality.
EMBRACE TECHNOLOGY
In the same way that the Service Strategy must be the basis of the Organization Structure, it must also determine how to use technology.
Technology is a tool, a means to achieve the desired strategy. Like the strategy, the question to ask is: What is the best technology for our strategy?
Technology can be applied to materials, methods, and information. The service companies that benefit the most are those that combine technologies to simultaneously improve the materials, methods, and information that support the service.
The success of the technology depends on the hand that handles the tool. In the hands of an unqualified user it is useless.
Managers can improve the probability of success by following the 6 guidelines for using technology as a tool to improve service:
- Take a holistic approach Automate efficient systems Solve a genuine problem Provide more control, not less Optimize basic technologies Combine high technology with lots of personal contact.
Automate Efficient Systems
First of all, it must be made clear that technology does not solve the problem of a poorly designed service system. Operations need to be redesigned to regain efficiency and effectiveness before integrating technology.
Steps in the service process that do not add cost-consistent value, add unnecessary delay or complexity to the service, must be redesigned or eliminated, not automated.
Solve a Genuine Problem
All technologies must have a client. To invest wisely in technology, it is necessary to identify that client, probe their needs and know their impressions.
Offer More Control, Not Less
Technology must be the servant, not the master. For this reason, you should give strong users more control to achieve what they want, not less.
Technologies are divisible. Severability means being able to test technology on a limited basis without fully adopting it.
COMPETE FOR TALENT
Just as the structure and technology of the company must be linked to the service strategy, so must the human resources strategy. Fundamental aspects such as who to hire and how to recruit the best applicants.
Structure and technology are essential to implement the service strategy. However, they do not allow you to go very far without people with the attitude, knowledge and skills necessary to turn the strategy into reality.
The starting point will be to pay special attention to attracting the right people because the input determines the product.
False assumptions
The mediocre results that so many companies get with their recruiting and hiring efforts stem from false assumptions:
- High turnover is a fact of life that cannot be changed. People are no longer as before. It is neither necessary nor practical to have a sophisticated method of recruiting and hiring for lower-level non-managerial positions. All essential service skills can be taught with training, so selection is not crucial. The positions that are at the beginner level are only for young people.
How to compete for talent
Extraordinary service becomes an illusion when there is no agreement between the type of people hired and the type of people from whom customers expect to receive service.
In order to compete for a share of the talent market, the company must want to become the employer of choice, have high eyes, employ multiple recruitment and selection methods, and know how to think like a marketing expert.
Being the employer of choice
The best way to attract extraordinary employees is to offer extraordinary jobs. The competition for talent revolves around a supply of positions worth buying. Recruit well and hire well, offer a viable and growth-capable position, and expect most people to become productive employees for a long time. Invest in those people instead of saving on those who leave.
DEVELOP SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE TO SERVE
As Leonard Berry mentions, in order to provide an extraordinary service, it is necessary to put the skills and knowledge to work for the clients.
People who provide services must have the necessary skills and knowledge, and the desire to use them for the benefit of clients. Preparing people to perform the service role contributes to both purposes: skills and knowledge are developed and the desire to serve is fostered.
The self-confidence of the person is one of the most important motivators. We all feel good when we can complete tasks.
Training alone is insufficient. Service employees must know the what and why of service provision (knowledge), as well as the how of it (skills). Learning is a process, not an event; The continuous learning of the people who provide services contributes to the continuous improvement of the service. Developing skills and knowledge is a journey that never ends. It is a trip for all employees, since they all provide services. All employees have a "customer", either inside or outside the company.
EMPOWER EMPLOYEES TO SERVE
Empower Employees
Empowering does not mean removing hierarchy, direction, or personal responsibility. It does not simply mean giving them more freedom to do their job as well as discretion.
There is no point in hiring talented people, investing in their training and education, and then stifling their flexibility and creativity to serve clients.
Empowering employees to serve is a necessary condition for providing extraordinary service.
Empower Managers
Empowering is beneficial at all levels, so managers must be empowered to administer, just as people who provide services must be empowered to serve.
Line organization must be a source of innovation and inspiration.
Line managers must have: authority to act; the skills, knowledge and tools to do it; and ability to respond to the results.
DEVELOP TEAMWORK
Teamwork
Another crucial aspect within the scope of Extraordinary Service is Teamwork. Given that each step in the service chain must be carried out correctly, seeking for an excellent customer experience.
Teamwork is not the same as Team. Teams are structural. Teamwork is about values, attitudes, feelings and skills. True teamwork involves a gathering of people who work collaboratively to fulfill a very important purpose: total customer satisfaction.
Among the feelings that prevail in teamwork are that of bonding with peers, commitment to group effort, and pride in joint accomplishments.
Teach Teamwork
Teaching teamwork is an investment. Investments range from informal tutoring on a personal level to formal courses on teamwork.
EVALUATE PERFORMANCE, REWARD EXCELLENCE
Extraordinary service companies evaluate the performance of their service employees and reward their excellence.
They know that they will be evaluated according to the way they do their job, and they know that it pays to work well.
Some companies place too much emphasis on rewards to improve service quality, assuming they can induce all employees to do the same and respond like robots to it.
Evaluations should include behaviors and outcomes that are critical to delivering excellent service. The rewards should stimulate those behaviors and those results. Authentic rewards foster and celebrate excellence; Basic pay and performance rewards are different concepts.
To achieve maximum impact, the rewards and evaluations on which they are based must agree with others of inspiration for excellence:
- Service LeadershipHigh-Purpose MissionPersonal GrowthMental State of Being EmpoweredFellowship and Teamwork
Guidelines for Evaluating Performance
To effectively measure service performance, a fair process is necessary, accompanied by many measurements, sources of information, simplicity, individual and group evaluation, and an approach where everyone participates.
An evaluation based on these principles forms the basis of an effective remuneration system.
Guidelines for Rewarding Performance
Based on solid information, a good reward system focuses on excellence, uses many elements of reinforcement, and recognizes the performance of both the individual and the group.
THE ART OF EXTRAORDINARY SERVICE
Extraordinary service is serving, defining mutually beneficial goals and showing confidence throughout the process, striving to improve the quality of life by creating a work environment that is meaningful to employees, and delivering an authentic service product to customers..
The quality of the service forges relationships with customers, employees and with other stakeholders in the business. Extraordinary service companies cultivate these mutually beneficial relationships. It is a profitability strategy.
The extraordinary service is knowingly making decisions: it is knowing what is important to customers, to non-customers, to employees, and to other interested people.
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