Focusing on the Fundamentals of Service Excellence

A few good quotes…

• “We are not in the coffee business serving people… we are in the people business serving coffee.” Howard Schultz, CEO – Starbucks

• “We took our eye off the ball and it damn near put us out of business. We forgot that the customer pays ALL the bills. We are here to serve them, help them, support them. Not keeping that at the front of our minds almost cost us everything.” Lou Gerstner, CEO - IBM

• “The very future of our company hinges on our ability to understand and serve our customers better than any other firm. It is all about customer service, the products are actually secondary.” Jeff Immelt, CEO – GE

• “The only critic whose opinion counts, is the customer” – Mark Twain

T + C x ECF = Success

A Culture of Innovation

Continuous Incremental

Improvements

High-Performance Teamwork

FDA

Kaizen

High-Performance Teamwork

Focus Discipline Action

VERY High Expectations

MOTVOC

Extreme Customer Focus

Moments of Truth

Voice of the Customer

Fundamental Customer Expectations

• Reliability: The ability to provide what was promised, on time, dependably and accurately. (Honesty)

• Assurance: The knowledge and courtesy of employees, and their ability to convey trust and confidence. (Competence)

• Empathy: The degree of caring and individual attention provided to customers. (Concern)

• Responsiveness: The willingness to help customers and provide prompt service. (Attitude)

• Tangibles: The physical facilities, equipment, and appearance of the personnel. (Professionalism)

The Five Levels of Customer Service

I don’t really care

Why try harder

Good enough is good enough

That’s nice

Holy shit – you guys are awesome!!!!!

How do the Best Companies Deliver Superior Customer Service?

• From a study of more than 3,000 companies — narrowed down to the top 101 companies that profit from customer care — here are the top five factors that were the fundament tactics used to build and manage extraordinary levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty.

They listen to, understand, and respond (often in unique and creative ways) to the evolving needs and constantly shifting expectations of their customers. (VOC)

Extreme Customer Focus

They establish a clear vision of what superior service is, communicate that vision to employees at all levels, and ensure that service quality is personally and positively important to everyone in the organization..

Shared Customer Service Credo

They establish concrete standards of service quality and regularly measure themselves against those standards, guarding against the “acceptable error” mindset by establishing as their goal 100% customer satisfaction performance.

Clear Standards + Accountability

They hire the best people, train them carefully and extensively so they have the knowledge and skills to achieve the service standards, then empower them to work on behalf of the customers, whether inside or outside the organization.

Customer Focused Employees

They recognize and reward service accomplishments, sometimes individually, sometimes as a group effort, in particular celebrating the success of employees who go “one step beyond” for their customers.

Deal decisively with mediocrity

Reward and Celebrate Success…

Understanding the Customer-driven Company

• Create a customer-focused Vision• Flood the organization with VOC• Become an expert on delivering

superior customer service• Turn your employees into customer

service champions• Destroy any barriers to superior

service performance• Measure, measure, measure• Walk the talk

Charlie Trotter’s

Hire for Desire

Teamwork: NP

Communication

Highest Standards

Innovation

Truly Delight Customers

Workshop 1 – 10

• Extreme Customer Focus• Shared Customer Service Credo• Clear Standards and Measures• 100% Accountability• Customer Focused Employees• Celebrate Success• Deal Decisively with Mediocrity