How to transmit to each employee what the management wants to achieve with the service they provide? Omitting this communication, these guidelines that must reach all corners of the organization will make the result that is achieved with the service very far from what they have strategically defined as a business idea. The concept of service plays a fundamental role in this downward communication.
It is amazing how many organizations have “brains” working up there at the top and promising with their marketing communications, but where none of those on the front lines are very clear about what they have to achieve as a result. in front of the customer.
He read in a book by Michael Gerber: "Expecting an employee to be able to read the boss's mind is not only an absurd expectation, it is also unfair."
How much of what the managers of your organization have in their minds is communicated to the employees that day by day they have to make these strategies a reality?
Let's talk about the concept of service
One of the definitions that constitute a service strategy is the concept of service.
In the book "Marketing and service management", Christian Grönroos says that "The concept of service is a way of expressing the idea that the organization aims to solve certain types of problems in a certain way." And also: "if a service concept has not been agreed and largely accepted, the risk of inconsistent behavior is evident."
The worst thing is that these inconsistencies are perceived by the client, who has been promised a certain experience (through the marketing communication they have received), but then receives a service that is far from those promises.
This evil affects many organizations. I was speaking a few days ago with a manager of an important hotel, and she told me how frequent these internal communication failures are, which put the marketing department on a sidewalk, promising what it considers necessary to attract its clients, and the department. of operations in the other, ignorant of those promises that, it is supposed, will have to make reality.
The consequences are serious: dissatisfied customers, because their expectations (fueled by attractive promises of service) cannot match what they finally receive.
The concept of service is a definition that talks about the experience that we want to make our clients live. And, as Grönroos said, it must be agreed and accepted by the entire organization.
A couple of service concept examples
A car rental company has written the following service concept: "Offer immediate and accessible solutions to temporary transportation problems."
And the iconic Disney, well known for developing a successful service strategy: "Creating happiness by providing the best in entertainment and fun for people of all ages."
I would like to emphasize in these two examples of the concept of service, that when expressing them, these organizations have not only taken care to indicate what need they are satisfying (problems of temporary transport in the first case, and entertainment and fun in the second), but also the particular way in which they will satisfy that need, and that differs from any other proposal on the market, because it is unique for each organization.
It is the experience that they want to make their clients live: “immediate and accessible solutions”, and “create happiness”. This "how" expressed in the concept of service is what your customers will experience. A customer with temporary transportation problems needs an immediate solution. If this company promises immediacy to the client, but when it comes to hiring a rental car, they take 30 minutes to attend to it, another 20 to assign a vehicle according to their needs, another 40 to complete the paperwork… that is not an immediate solution.
In each service process, in each service position, employees and managers must tend to provide this experience to the customer: an immediate and accessible solution.
Hence the importance of the concept of service. That experience that is contained there must be reflected in each contact, in each operation, in each employee visible or not in the eyes of the client.
In your organization, is the concept of service you want to offer clear? Have you managed to transcend the minds of managers, to appropriate the operations that build the service that the customer receives? Is each employee clear and in agreement with that unique experience that clients must live?
If this concept is not so clear to everyone, you have identified an opportunity for improvement today. Get to work writing and communicating your service concept!
