Often, customer service training is not enough because: it is brief (typically 2-3 hours in duration); not tailored to the culture of the organization; does not include link the organization’s service philosophy (its vision, mission, and values); and often does not have not documented processes or standards to back it up.
More specifically, when there are no processes to reinforce a culture of service excellence, IT IS NOT SUSTAINABLE. Therefore, here are the ten key processes you must have in place to drive excellence. If they are not interwoven into your organization, your customer service training will be an expense that is something that is “nice to do,” but there will be no sustainable return on investment or guarantee of enhanced customer satisfaction and loyalty after employees have attended.
Outlined below are the 10 Key Processes for Driving Excellence. If you answer “no” to any of these questions, consider them building blocks to strengthening and sustaining your organization’s service culture.
1. New Hire Selection – does your organization have a structured interview and hiring process that guarantees that every employee selected to work within the organization is aligned with the vision, mission, core values, and key business priorities?
2. New Hire Orientation / On-Boarding – is your new employee orientation program immediate (starting on the first day of a employees’ career with your company) and is it used as an opportunity to educate them on the organization’s key priorities, where it is going, what is expected of new employees in their job, and what they can expect from the organization?
3. Department and Job Specific Training – do new employees receive thorough training for their job, as well as information on how the department operates; also, do veteran employees receive recurrent training to ensure their job skills stay sharp and they do not become complacent in their work?
4. Internal Communication – does your organization encourage regular Department Meetings and schedule semi-annual All Employee General Sessions, to ensure everyone stays up-to-date on what’s going on in the company, what is expected of them, and how we're doing at meeting customer needs and expectations?
5. Reward and Recognition – are there multiple ways for employees to receive recognition for a job well done by senior leaders, their immediate managers, peers, and customers?
6. Customer Problem Resolution – are employees regularly taught the basic problem resolution process (LEAP - Listen, Empathize, Ask, and Produce), so that they are comfortable and competent in handling customer issues as they arise?
7. Employee Empowerment – are your employees regularly made aware of the alternative that they are empowered to offer customers when a problem arises, before they need to get a manager involved?
8. Verbiage – is there a standard language, do’s and don’ts that are used when interacting with customers to create a warm, friendly and inviting experience?
9. Communication Etiquette – are there written telephone, voicemail, and email standards that everyone throughout the organization uses to ensure consistency in communicating with external customers and each other?
10. Employee Accountability – are employees and leaders aware of the consequences of non-compliance with established company standards (i.e., retraining, coaching and counseling, job reassignment, progressive discipline), and is accountability for driving excellence reinforced at every level from the boardroom to the storeroom?
Bottom-line, while our 10 key processes are not all inclusive, hopefully it will fill in some of the gaps in your roadmap to achieving and sustaining a culture of service excellence.
If you are interested in obtaining specific details for refining some of the processes we have cited in this article, feel free to check out our website at http://www.psbydesign.com/.
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