The subject of service has been addressed by many specialists, for a long time now, and it has traveled an interesting conceptual path that has touched the doors of business management through designs that have allowed us to understand that the permanence of organizations in the lists of Competitiveness involves the implementation of a culture where SERVICE is part of the organization's comparative strategy.
The issue ceased to be a concern of a few to become a determining factor when formulating and establishing priorities and strategies in the organization, as well as the ability to integrate relevant aspects of the SERVICE in the formulation of oriented action plans. for sale of the different products of the company.
The daily encounter with an increasingly creative and innovative competition, capable of proposing improved and different experiences to customers, has led us to understand that the challenge is not only to stay in the market but also forces us to think about future scenarios where we can still be protagonists of customer preferences.
Since the times of K. Albrecht, passing through T. Peters and all the plethora of gurus that have allowed the topic of SERVICE to position itself as a factor of business success, we have come up with new designs that involve, among others, the incorporation of technology in the consolidation of comparative service strategies, I am not referring only to specialized software but also to models such as ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) that have managed to become a viable alternative for organizations of any type to implement the SERVICE as a winning strategy and in this way you can begin to understand that it is a challenge that involves developing specific skills in the organizationand in its collaborators, in such a way that the consequences are recognized in the maintenance and increase of clients and sales, in the loyalty of clients and in their ability to multiply the results of their SERVICE experience to other companies and people.
Now, while it is true that for a few years those responsible for management strategies have been thinking about the best way to move business management to the “blue ocean” (W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne), the evidence shows that not all They have been able to develop a design that meets this expectation and that we finally continue to be immersed in the red oceans where market laws oblige us to generate actions that ensure that, at least in the short term, we are able to maintain ourselves and generate the profitability that partners wait. In this sense, SERVICE has become the incentive that will lead us to obtain the preferences of our clients.
In business terminology we almost always find the word SERVICE with the name of: TO THE CLIENT, which can have many interpretative scopes due to what you want to express, it is then, above all, an action that shows subjection and dependency (DRAE) in relation to an activity that meets the need of a third party. In this sense, the combination of SERVICE with CLIENT what it does is determine the recipient of this action and strengthen the character of understanding that finally a care model can be designed that meets the expectations that are generated in the face of a certain need.
I want to briefly refer to the expectation that the client may have regarding the provision of the service, specifically emphasizing the importance of recognizing that the need refers specifically to a lack or at least an absence that wishes to be filled with a tangible or a particular intangible, however said product can only be attended to satisfaction as soon as the expectation is fully recognized.
A client, in general, will declare himself satisfied only if his expectation is satisfied according to his own evaluation parameters, that is to say that it is not enough to meet his need for a specific product, for example, but that said product must have the attributes and qualities expected at the time of making the request which leads the service provider to become a skilled interpreter of that expectation to recognize if what the customer expects refers to quality, quantity, opportunity and / or cost.
In each of these elements the customer satisfaction factor may reside, in any one of them the SERVICE EXPERIENCE can occur where not only is the need expressed tacitly or directly by the customer, but also where the expectation is identified and personalized. In this sense, it must be remembered that, as H. Goldman says, “ the only thing we can be sure of is that if we do not recreate the customer experience, they will look for another place to do it.”And the same insinuates J. Kotter in his text“ the true work of the leader ”insisting that customers know how to recognize what is happening within the organization, in such a way that the need for those responsible for the management are the first to incorporate the SERVICE as a challenge that can make the difference between staying or disappearing, time is not relevant if the destination is written by a bad decision that will anticipate the end when customers begin to abandon us.
It is important to make a brief comment here about the service indicators that are traditionally reviewed, in a classic way we have heard some also associated with sales, marketing, customer service, etc., such as for example: Volume of purchases, number of complaints, increase in sales, number of clients, loyalty percentage, etc., for the moment I want to return to the four basic indicators that I mentioned before and which in some way are the expression of the results obtained by the rating made by the client when fill out our report card. The evaluation of the client on our service can be explicit or implicit, direct or indirect, discreet or indiscreet, in any case it will not fail to do so and it is our responsibility to implement systems and tools that allow capturing,collect, classify and systematize all these expressions for the benefit of the client and of course the organization.
In many occasions the information of the customer experience is collected but, intentionally or not, the key aspects that may be indicating to the company the route to follow in the design and improvement of the service it offers to the customer are ignored. It is then about recognizing that the SERVICE PROMISE, as a manifestation of the commitments, is not an empty formulation or that it is only fulfilled when it benefits the organization, that its content (that of the promise) represents the responsibility that the organization has with its customer to ensure all the factors required to provide an experience that invites the customer to buy back to want to repeat and to be our promoter and ally against those who are still potential customers.
The indicators of quality, quantity, opportunity and price must be developed and operationalized and, from them, implement a dashboard that shows in its results the route of the SERVICE traveled and to be traveled, a group of indicators that show the impact and achievement that they are having the strategies carried out for the fulfillment of corporate purposes. It is also, then, to invite all officials to recognize in the service an opportunity to develop a management that adds value and not only that it is the execution of a contracted task.
The service can then be interpreted in a different dimension, it is no longer just about the instantaneous action of the SERVICE that could be explained as that moment of truth where the company comes into contact with the client, but on the contrary, it is the recognition that the SERVICE experience begins long before the client has the first contact with the organization, it is about identifying and recognizing that everything I am promising the client through the web, advertising and all other communication mechanisms, they are a realitythat you can enjoy and obtain when you contact the company. The design of the service experience begins then from when all those involved in the company contribute with their work to create, strengthen and ensure the conditions of satisfaction of the expectations and needs of the client that has not yet arrived.
SERVICE, as an added value, then contemplates the recognition that the people who serve the customer do a job that cannot necessarily be described as customer service, for example; Perhaps we have met people who have treated us poorly or who, due to their attitude, lead us to think that they are a person who is not in the right place and the consequences will not be for the service provider but for the organization because they will receive a qualification that He did not take the precaution of caring.
Service providers must show, not only that they have received adequate training to serve the client, but must comply with the three characteristics of the service provider: That they know, that they can, and that they want. This last characteristic is the one that will make the difference because knowledge is acquired depending on the type of training you receive, the capacity is given in terms of your physical abilities, but whoever you want is what will really show that you are a person. that he enjoys what he does, that he understands SERVICE as a vocation and that therefore his attitude is born from the authentic desire to recognize in his client an opportunity to contribute and to feel that he does something for others.
The service is then the envelope of the task, it is a layer that covers the trade for which we have been hired and it is the added value that allows individualizing customer service, whether internal or external.
On the subject of internal and external client, it is worth at this point a few words to show the discussion that exists about this double surname for the word client; for some it is only a customer who pays money for the product or service, for others the customer is one who satisfies the need for another without money as a form of payment, it is a discussion that will not be resolved here but I raise it so that Those who consider it appropriate can go deeper into this debate: I particularly take the position that recognizes that there is also an internal client, in fact, quality management systems, for example, have it as the central protagonist of the entire model.
Finally, I want to mention that the SERVICE cannot be reduced to the work carried out by the service provider or to the so-called "smile operation", it is something much more complex that involves balancing the six components that make up the SERVICE: a. The product, b. The procedures, c. the facilities, d. systems and equipment e. The information and f. People.Each of these elements is a fundamental part of what in the end will be called CUSTOMER SERVICE and therefore it is not just the effort of the service provider who is the visible face of the organization when serving the customer, but it is intended to invite, motivate and recognize that senior management must be involved in this process by investing sufficient and necessary resources to ensure the real conditions of the service that the organization intends to offer its clients.
Finally, recognizing that the issue is hardly exhausted, I consider it important to emphasize that the good intention of organizations to offer a good service is not enough, service providers should feel part of the organization, understand and defend the brand they represent; good intentions must be reflected in the commitment to the entire system that assures the client that it is worth buying from this company, that it is worth returning and that it is worth perhaps paying a little more for an experience that you know is unrepeatable elsewhere..
I hope that these reflections lead us to strengthen SERVICE to our current clients in such a way that they become a reason for all those who are still potential and even better for those who for some reason left us and now believe that it is worth returning.
