Standardize or leave the employee freedom of action? The chosen path can determine the quality of the services. Therefore, it is advisable to analyze the type of service with good criteria, in order to make the right decision.
It is true that personnel who provide a service require special training. On the other hand, on the other hand, it is possible to standardize the tasks that make up the provision of the service. This limits the liberties of action to the personnel who are developing them, since, with a standard, they are given a known and effective way to carry it out.
Then the question arises, to standardize or leave the employee freedom of action ?
As Schefer and Lanati say, the answer depends on the type of service. Here is an excerpt from his book "The Service Compass":
"In services where high standardization cannot be achieved, such as a tourist service, a guided tour, it is recommended to work with trained personnel, with the same set of skills and beliefs common to all of them, consistent with organizational values.
In high-rotation services, the process can be limited, transformed into a set of successive, repetitive and measured tasks in its performance, where standardization is the base.
The characteristics of each service make it necessary to evaluate the model required for each type of organization. ”
I have come across this concept on past vacations. We visited with my family a town in the south of our province, which has natural wealth of high tourist and scientific value. The municipality of this town is working intensively on tourism development, as one of its strengths.
On an all-day excursion, we were surprised to see that our tour guide had a solid understanding of the topics he conveyed. Speaking with him later, he told us that all the qualified guides within these tourist circuits have continuous training, provided by international scientists, hired by the municipality to train them.
The results were evident. It was this characteristic that made a big difference between a normal visit, where the guide learns and repeats the same speech, and at most is prepared for some more or less frequent questions, and the learning experience we had that day.
The training of the staff means, in these cases, that they have the ability to navigate providing the service where the client requires it. This is a differential value for the client. But not all services require this same quality.
Imagine an office cleaning service, where each employee has their personal and creative method of cleaning carpets. Unlike the previous service, in this type of service the versatility of the staff to make their service a unique and different experience from the others is not of great value to the client. It is enough that everyone applies the same cleaning method, which is the one that has given the best result for these rugs, and the customer will be satisfied.
This does not mean that the employee cannot and should not make his personal contribution. But if, as a result of this contribution, it is possible to improve the current method, the natural consequence should be to incorporate that discovery into the standard that everyone will then apply.
So, I propose the following for the analysis of your own service:
• Identify the aspects of your service that are possible to standardize, and where standardization helps to provide quality service in a consistent way. In the case of the excursion that I mentioned to you, clearly the transport service, the route, the travel times and permanence in each site, the organization of lunch, etc. they will be more satisfactory if they are well standardized to result in efficient service.
• Identify those other aspects where staff training is necessary to give greater value to the client. It is typical the case in which the employee must provide personalized information, such as advice, answers to technical queries, etc.
• It establishes training plans for both aspects: standardization, since each employee must recognize and implement a standard in their daily tasks, and it is also highly desirable that they participate in its definition or improvement; and training to give value in the specific aspects of the service, where the employee must move freely in relation to the dynamic needs of customers.
