20 Universal Laws of Service Excellence
Plus 120 ideas you can use right now to enhance customer experience... and your profits!
Allwell O. Nwankwo
Smashwords Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Allwell O. Nwankwo
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Smashwords Edition, Licence Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
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What others are saying about 20 Universal Laws of Service Excellence
Leaders in the service industry need practical, easy-to-implement ideas and that's what Allwell has given them. I love that each chapter ends with take-away ideas. I've been teaching customer service for years and I learned new things from this book. I love the common theme of the "laws". The 120 ideas aren't fluff (like a lot of the works out there), they're real actionable ideas. I want to see this book on the shelves of major bookstores AND I want to sell it on my website.
--Myra Golden, Author of Beyond WOW
Allwell's book, 20 Universal Laws of Service Excellence, is a well-written, to-the-point summary of those principles that will assure a world-class level of Customer Care. Allwell offers many real-life examples to help the reader visualize the impact of the 20 laws. While the term "laws" may seem a very formal term, each of the 20 laws is very descriptive of those strategies and behaviours an organization seriously needs to consider to assure successful customer engagement. As you study the book and apply its principles, your organization will achieve what my own clients know as Customer Astonishment
--Darby Checketts, Author of Customer Astonishment: 10 Secrets to World-Class Customer Care
20 Universal Laws of Service Excellence gives the "whole" picture - including some things on marketing and leadership - all very important. It's well written, easy to read and easy to put into practice. I can see a company taking a "law" each week and using it as a theme and training session. It's a book to use. I really think it’s a great resource and a "must have" for any company that wants to excel.
--JoAnna Brandi, Author, Speaker and Publisher of The Customer Care Coach®
The 20 Universal Laws of Service Excellence is a highly practical, easy to read, and very useful book. Allwell has succinctly and very clearly distilled the key factors that drive service levels. Use his wisdom and experience to dramatically increase your levels of service excellence.
--Jim Clemmer, practical leadership author, speaker, and workshop/retreat leader
Nwankwo has done a great job in this easy-to-read and - implement book. A must read for anyone who is serious about customer service! I particularly like the take-away ideas at the end of each chapter and the 120 great ideas for improving customer service. I am truly impressed.
--Kemi Adeniran, Managing Consultant, Learning Solutions Ltd
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Contents
Foreword
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. The Law of Sovereignty
The customer is the boss
2. The Law of the Frontline
The frontline is the company
3. The Law of Service Culture
Service orientation is driven by organisational culture
4. The Law of Internal Service
External service mirrors internal service
5. The Law of Experience
Customer experience matters more than company communication
6. The Law of Premium Service
Discerning customers will pay a premium for excellent service
7. The Law of Inequality
All customers are not equal
8. The Law of Significance
Little things matter
9. The Law of Customer Complaint
Most dissatisfied customers won’t complain
10. The Law of Customer Fallibility
The customer is not always right
11. The Law of Customer Egoism
The customer is self-centred
12. The Law of Frontline Knowledge
Frontline employees understand customers most
13. The Law of Measurement & Reward
You get what you measure and reward
14. The Law of Reliability
Reliable service is critical
15. The Law of Total Marketing
Marketing is everyone’s job
16. The Law of Customer Retention
It’s easier to keep current customers than attract new ones
17. The Law of Service Recovery
Excellent service recovery builds loyalty
18. The Law of Leadership
Leaders must lead in service
19. The Law of Insight
Customer insight wins
20. The Law of Continuous Improvement
Great companies always get better
Chapter Summaries
120 Ideas for Improving Customer Experience
Bibliography
The Author
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Foreword
The importance of customer service on the long term success of business is both misunderstood and underestimated. Sometimes, businesses fail to factor it in while crafting their strategies.
As a long time executive at J.D. Power and Associates, I have personally worked with numerous companies large and small to help them harness the power of the customer. And the pay-off for those organizations that take the pains to do it right is usually amazing. In simple terms, customers reward organizations that care about them with loyalty and profits.
It is also important for companies to understand that customer satisfaction is a global phenomenon. The power of the customer is just as strong in emerging markets such as Nigeria as it is in established markets of the United States or Europe; perhaps even more so. It is reasonable to suppose that customer expectations in advanced economies are generally high.
In this groundbreaking book, Allwell Nwankwo has done an exceptional job of discussing these key universal principles in a way that focuses their attention on the local market. I hope that every business leader listens closely to what Allwell has to say so that they can profit from the message.
Allwell draws his illustrations largely from the African context – but then are the issues discussed in any way dissimilar to the challenges that confront organizations in the US and Europe? Are we not daily assailed by issues of employee engagement and motivation, organizational culture as a prop for service excellence, leadership, continuous improvement, service recovery, making everybody in the organization marketing-savvy, alignment of brand promise with actual delivery, customer retention, etc? These are all universal business issues that transcend continental boundaries.
It is perhaps the focus on global service issues that underscores the unique appeal of this book. And I don’t think these issues are going to leave us in a hurry. So here’s a book that will remain relevant for a long time. But beyond this, Allwell has cut through the clutter of tomes of research and presented to business managers – who are understandably pressed for time – some time-tested, practical nuggets that can transform every business into a customer champion.
I dare say that although the book concentrates on 20 Universal Laws of Service Excellence, the careful reader is probably going to dig up more than forty principles that will help his business. Moreover, the take-away ideas offer quick, actionable points of excellence.
Take my word for it. There are so many books out there on customer service. But it’s not every time you come across one that cuts through the morass of theory and jargon to deliver real value. This is one of such rare books.
If you consider service excellence a key element of your business strategy, the time you spend reading and marking up points of interest in this book – for later application – is time well spent. Once you get a copy of this book, I suggest that you also get one for each of your top executives (at least) so that you all could literally be on the same page on issues of service excellence.
Chris Denove
Vice President, J.D. Power and Associates
Co-Author, Satisfaction: How Every Great Company Listens to the Voice of the Customer
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Acknowledgements
Soon after my first book, How To Serve & Keep Your Customers, was published in 2006, a friend and colleague, Val Otiono, challenged me to write a “book of laws” on the key principles that drive excellence in service. I took up the challenge. But he seemed to doubt my seriousness. He kept asking whether the book was ready. Well, here’s the book at last? Thanks, Val, for the challenge and the gentle but constant nudge that followed.
Many people helped bring this book to life. They’re too many to be mentioned. But I want to thank those who took time off their busy schedule to review the book. The list includes Myra Golden, JoAnna Brandi, Darby Checketts, Jim Clemmer and Kemi Adeniran. Chris Denove went through the book and willingly wrote a Foreword. Other friends who supported this work are Banji Hammed, Richard Eno and Tunde Animasaun.
No doubt, members of my family bore the brunt of my late-night writing. I thank my wife, Gold, and my children – Favour, Emmanuel and Wisdom – for their forbearance. My thanks also go to my younger ones, Ngozi and Chinenye, who were all supportive while I wrote.
I praise God for making this work possible.
Allwell O. Nwankwo
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Introduction
What’s this all about?
20 Universal Laws of Service Excellence. That sounds a bit too bold. But…why write a book of laws? Who needs it anyway?
This book is the distillation of some of the key principles that have propelled many customer-focused organisations to success. These principles – or laws – are universal for two reasons.
First, organisations that have consistently applied these laws in their operations have been successful in terms of business growth, customer loyalty and profitability (read shareholder value). It doesn’t matter where such an organisation operates. Second, it is difficult to imagine of any part of the world where these principles will not work! Organisations from different parts of the globe – US, Europe, Asia, Africa – have applied these principles with resounding success.
One must admit though that there are, of course, more than twenty laws or principles of service excellence. Suffice it to say that we are focusing on twenty major ones in this book.
20 Laws discusses principles as varied as customer fallibility, service culture, internal service, rewards and measurements, service recovery, reliability, focus on the customer, leadership, customer complaints, among others. Each chapter comes with six take-away ideas that can be applied right away to improve customer experience.
The purpose of this book is to offer those who serve customers and those who make policies that impinge on service a foundation of principles on which to build their service delivery systems. It is a no-frills, bare-bone book. It is not intended to offer a strait-jacket set of suggestions on the minutiae of customer service strategy. No. Each organisation will ultimately decide the exact details of programmes to be executed while, of course, taking due cognisance of these laws.
It is hoped that all those whose activities have a bearing on the internal or external customer experience will find this book useful. If you’re a CEO, Chief Customer Experience Officer, Customer Service Manager, Human Resources Manager, Accountant and sales and marketing person you will no doubt find this book valuable.
You are free to begin reading this book from any chapter you like. Here’s one book you don’t have to read from the front cover to the back cover in order to get the message. You may start from the end, flip to the beginning, then rush to middle of the book. Each chapter is complete on its own even though it’s part of a much bigger picture.
If you disagree with any of the laws, well….you may go ahead to break them. But I’d like to warn that those who break these laws are taking a great risk! If you can afford it, take it!
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Customers come first. If you focus on what customers want and build a relationship, they will allow you to make money.
-Jeff Bezos
Be everywhere, do everything, and never fail to astonish the customer.
- Macy's Motto
Your customers expect your entire operation to revolve around them.
- SAP Advertisement
Chapter One
The Law of Sovereignty
The Customer is the Boss
Sam Walton – the legendary founder of the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart – knew what he was talking about when he called the customer the “boss.” Hear him: “There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.”
Walton was clearly echoing the cliché – “the customer is king” – which even those unschooled in the soft science of customer service are wont to mouth at the very moment they’re being rude to the customer!
Whether we choose to refer to him as boss or king (queen won’t be out of place!), the customer is, without any shadow of doubt, the most important person in an organisation. At least, that’s the way it ought to be.
Once this kind of thinking permeates the entire fabric of an organisation and finds expression in the behaviour of every employee, one thing is certain: the organisation can only grow both in sales and profit.
In customer-focused companies, the products (services) and processes are tailored to suit the needs of the customer. Whatever the organisation does is geared to pleasing her. This, no doubt, is the first law in business. Business exists only when there is a customer for the organisation’s products and services. Otherwise, it’s just a hobby. But then, even hobbies have aficionados.
Too many times, organisations and their employees get carried away by the sophistication of their systems, processes, technologies and even quality improvement programmes. They indulge in self-adulation without giving a thought as to how the entire structure supports the basic goal of serving customers and doing it so well that they keep coming back.
The automatic teller machines (ATM) for which some banks beat their chest are mere road-side decorations unless a customer can get money from them at 10:00 pm on a Saturday. The interactive customer care centre is a waste of time if the customer’s complaint about his cellular phone remains unresolved. An e-ticket bought online on an airline’s website (within the comfort of a customer’s cosy office) is a useless piece of paper if it cannot guarantee a seat on the plane for that customer. The ability to track packages via the internet is a waste of everybody’s time if packages still end up being delivered to wrong addresses.
We can go on and on. The point being made is that it is the customer that can say how good or poor your service is. She is the ultimate quality auditor; no wonder some people have smartly defined quality as whatever the customer says it is. After all, the customer pays for the service and consumes it. She is in the best position to assess the extent to which it satisfies his needs.
Because the customer is the boss, he deserves the courtesy of everyone in the organisation – from the janitor to the CEO. He deserves prompt and efficient service at all times. He also needs to be appreciated and thanked for his business. While many organisations honour employees who have worked for them for at least five years, few actually have a clue about appreciating long-standing customers.
In organisations where the customer is regarded as the ultimate boss, the convenience of the customer takes precedence over that of the organisation. But most of the time, the reverse is the case in other companies.
For about
five years, a customer patronized one of Nigeria’s pioneer
fixed wireless telephone companies. But in September 2008, she had a
need to change the phone terminal from the box type to a more
portable one. After series of enquiries on the phone, she was told
by the company’s customer service agents that the service she
needed required a simple process that would take barely two hours.
She was also told she could buy new handsets with price tags ranging
from N1,500 to N8,000.
When the
customer got to the office of the telco to effect the change, she was
told she had to complete two lengthy application forms (the same ones
she completed five years earlier as a new subscriber), write an
application letter and pay N20,000 for the new
handset. The customer was as angry as she was shocked. There and
then, she bid the company farewell and switched to another network.
The moral of the service encounter just narrated is that many organisations still place their convenience above that of the customer even when their advertisements portray them as paragons of service.
Virtually everyone mouths the customer-is-king cliché, but it’s rather surprising that so many organisations and their employees treat customers more like scruffy beggars than the royalty they’re supposed to be. In fact, those who use that statement most appear to be the greatest culprits for shoddy service. I warn you: next time you hear anybody repeat that worn expression, watch out. He might be up to some mischief. But that doesn’t mean the expression is out of place.
Take-away Ideas
Build your organisation around the customer. Let your people, systems and processes serve the customer. Don’t make it difficult for customers to do business with you.
From time to time, find out what your customers think about your organisation, people and products.
Before you launch that brilliant idea as a product, give your customers an opportunity to contribute.
Always ask: “How will this (whatever it is) serve the customer?”
Keep reiterating it until the least person in the organisation realizes that the customer is the boss and treats him as such.
Lead by example. Show by your own attitude and actions that the customer is Number One.
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All too often service companies view a frontline worker as a disposable resource rather than an economic resource. A company cannot expect its employees to delight its customers unless the company delights its employees.
- Ronald Henkoff
Without great employees you can never have great customer service.
-Richard F. Gerson
Chapter Two
The Law of the Frontline
The Frontline is the Company
Customer perceptions are made one day at a time. Hardly would any single customer meet everybody in an organisation, unless the business is indeed a very small pop-and-mom shop. Most times, the customer interacts with a few employees. Yet, she doesn’t need to meet everyone before she makes up her mind on the kind of company she’s dealing with.
Why is it so? In service, as in many other things in life, the part represents the whole. Whoever the customer meets does not merely represent the company, but is the company. To the customer, if you’ve seen one, you’ve (probably) seen them all. The pitfall, however, is that an otherwise excellent service organisation may have its reputation sullied by the indiscretion of just one employee. This is what I like to refer to as “the power of one.”
At times, we all wonder, what can one person do? A lot. The Power of One is a simple recognition of the fact that no matter how insignificant people think they are in a world of six billion people, each person can wield an enormous power for good or ill in his sphere of work or influence. One person can make or mar the image of an organisation.
After all, in the world of business, we tend to remember the names of individuals who have recorded great achievements. Names like Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Lee Iacocca, Jack Welch, Sam Walton, David Packard, Bill Hewlett, Tom Peters, among others, continue to resound worldwide. Even here in Nigeria, some names won’t be easily forgotten – names like Aliko Dangote, Subomi Balogun, Fola Adeola, Jim Ovia, Tayo Aderinokun, Tony Elumelu, Samuel Asabia, Cosmas Maduka, Mike Adenuga Jnr., Jimoh Ibrahim, among others.
Certainly not all of us will be as well-known and recognised as those mentioned in the foregoing paragraph. But when we stand in front of the customer, these individuals named don’t represent their organisations more than we do.
Let’s rephrase that. Tony Elumelu, the Group Managing Director of UBA, is as much the face of the bank as any faceless and unnamed teller interacting with a customer in any of the bank’s 700 branches. I guess this drives the point home. Not every customer will meet the CEO to hear his great plans and commitment to deliver exceptional service at all times. But each customer meets an employee that demonstrates this commitment – or the lack of it – right on the spot. And this happens when and where it matters most!
In every encounter with a customer, each employee has an opportunity to project a favourable or an unfavourable image of the company.
Stories abound of how organisations have lost business because of the action or inaction of a low-cadre, poorly paid frontline staff – receptionist, sales officer, telephone operator, service technician or even a secretary.
A Nigerian CEO received the shock of his life when he had a telephone conversation with one of the secretaries in his organisation. The lady could hardly give any reasonable response to the CEO’s questions; instead, she was busy making popping sounds with the chewing-gum in her mouth. Well, she didn’t know her CEO was the one on the line. There is no telling how many customers had quietly taken their business elsewhere after receiving a similar dose of rudeness. Of course, the CEO fired her right away.
It is just amazing that so many organisations out there unleash half-baked employees with poor attitudes on their customers. There is little effort made either to train the people or measure customer satisfaction. It’s therefore not surprising that such organisations keep losing customers.
Organisations clearly have the opportunity to make a powerful impression on customers, using everybody that comes in contact with the customer. Each point of contact with the organisation – Jan Carlzon calls it “a moment of truth” – should make a positive impression on the customer. Every organisation is as good as its frontline – those who interact with customers. Commonsense suggests that organisations should people their frontline with only those employees who have friendly and helpful attitude, excellent manners and great communication skills. In organisations that offer services as their core product, the need for customer-friendly employees becomes acute because people are part of the entire product and customer experience.
Astute business people simply don’t underestimate the power of one frontline person. Customers don’t either.
Take-away Ideas
Your company is as good as your frontline. Train your team to serve well.
Show your frontline people how much they matter. When they interact with customers, they might just seem to wield more power than even the CEO.
Don’t keep rotten apples; replace employees who refuse to learn.
Use mystery shoppers to feel your service. Mystery shopping may also reveal the real stars of your frontline who deserve special recognition while throwing up those who need further training or outright redeployment.
Phone your office and hear what your customers hear all the time. If you like what you hear, it is either that your organisation has a great service culture or that your personal service standards are somewhat low.
Find out why customers leave. Don’t be surprised that many of them would point to rudeness or indifference on the part of some employees.
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There’s no avoiding it. The eternal search for sustainable competitive advantage is leading us straight into the squishy softness of culture and character. Many business people won’t like it. They won’t be comfortable talking with colleagues about trust, honesty, purpose, values, and other topics out of the self-help section of the bookstore. They will have to face the fact that they will likely be eaten alive by competitors who confront these issues with relish.
- Geoffrey Colvin
Successful leaders spend a lot of time creating the identity of the organization – what our values are, what our mission is, what our purpose is, how we are going to act together as one. Those are agreements of how we are going to be together. You can actually get a whole team or a whole group to hold one another accountable. The team self-regulates and members call each other in a much more immediate way than a leader can ever do.
- Margaret Wheatley
Chapter Three
The Law of Service Culture
Service Orientation is driven by Organisational Culture
Culture is a powerful and pervasive influence on the behaviour of any group. Although scholars may not always agree on its precise definition, there is a loose agreement that culture is “the way of life” of a people. In other words, culture defines the world view and behaviour of a people. In their book, Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind, Geert Hofstede and his son, Gert Jan Hofstede, describe culture as “the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from others.”
Culture manifests in many ways: language, dress code, lifestyle, values, and behaviour, among others. Culture helps to clarify the expectations of a group of people and what is regarded as acceptable behaviour. At a more general level, it also helps to determine what is important and what is not. It is indeed, the “software of the mind” – to echo the Hofstedes – simply because it starts with the mind. Generally speaking, people with the same cultural background view certain things in a particular way because of their cultural similarities.
In an organisation, culture is what binds the members together and sets the norms of acceptable behaviour and performance. Through repeated use and practice, organisations ultimately begin to acquire a certain “personality” that tends to distinguish one from the other. Organisational culture is acquired over time but tends to get easily fossilized. This is probably why it is difficult to change organisational culture in spite of all the talk about culture change. At least, it cannot be change overnight!
The culture of an organisation obviously influences so many facets of organisational life such as relationships between employees, acceptable mode of communication, degree of formalisation, dress code, business ethics, values, teamwork, performance appraisal, level of worker empowerment, corporate social responsibility, volunteering by employees and, for our purpose, service orientation. Over time, every worker tends to be able to say with certainty: “This is the way we do things in this organisation.”
Whose job is it to craft the organisational culture? It should be the responsibility of the leaders of the organisation, as custodians of its heritage, to mould the kind of culture they wish for the organisation. Ironically, when leaders fail to do so, a culture will still develop – but it may not be what they would have wished for!
In customer-focused organisations, there is a deliberate effort to create a culture that is conducive to service. For instance, it is going to be very difficult to deliver exceptional service if the organisational culture dis-empowers employees such that for every single decision they must seek approval from superior officers. It is also going to be difficult to serve customers well if people see marketing and customer service as departments rather than roles for every employee of the organisation.
Recently, a customer tried to set up a meeting with a marketing officer of a Nigerian FM Radio Station in Lagos. The marketer told the customer she could not meet with him earlier than 11.00 am because she must get to the office before seeing any customer. She made it clear that even if the customer’s office was on the way to her office, it would still be inappropriate for her to drop by to see him before reporting at the office.
We may not be able to say whether the situation was as bad as the lady tried to paint it, but we can safely assume that organisational culture was at work in that encounter. Bureaucracy can easily become a culture such that it stifles employee initiative.
For a change, let’s move over to Marriott Hotels, an American hospitality chain that has distinguished itself for its level of service orientation. A Nigerian motivational speaker, Ubong Essien, recently narrated his positive encounter with the hotel. He was visiting the US for a conference and happened to have booked into a Marriott hotel. When he got to the hotel, he missed his way to his room and had to seek the assistance of some contractors (yes, contractors) working for the hotel. He was pleasantly surprised when one of the contract staff stopped working and walked him to the correct room, instead of just giving him the direction.
Essien also observed that a customer could hardly move any distance without encountering a Marriott employee who would smile sincerely, greet him and express how pleased she was to meet him. Of course, the gentleman has sworn to always stay at Marriott whenever he is in the US. At Marriott, even a contractor must behave the way an employee would be expected to. That’s the power of culture.
Have you noticed the subtle differences between one organisation and another? As soon as you step into some organisations, you may notice a fast-paced, fun-filled atmosphere with everybody wearing pleasant looks that indicate total enjoyment of the job and a willingness to serve. Yet, as soon as you step into others, you’ll notice an unmistakeable lackadaisical, foot-dragging and cloudy ambience. The real difference? Culture.
Interestingly, the culture of an organisation tends to attract a certain kind of people. But those organisations that wish to build a culture of service go out of their way to hire, train and retain employees whose values, attitude and behaviour match their expectations. Such organisations continue to reinforce the desired culture through corporate stories, rituals, reward systems and other symbolic gestures.
You need to take a critical look at the things your corporate culture emphasises. For instance, does it emphasise corporate superstars above teams; profit above people; results above integrity; winning above principles or sales above service?
In the final analysis, excellent service is never an accident. It does not come as a result of isolated instances of customer focus exhibited by quixotic employees. It is usually the result of a deliberate collaborative effort of organisational members driven by shared values, purposes and approach to business – culture. You cannot have a customer-focused organisation unless your culture supports it!
Take-away Ideas
Seek to build a culture that encourages service excellence. You cannot stifle employee initiative and hope for superior service delivery.
Do not allow the culture of your organisation to develop by default. If you lead the organisation, you also need to painstakingly mould the kind of culture you desire.
Reward behaviour that is in line with the desired corporate culture
Take an inventory: how would you describe the culture of your organisation?
Compare your understanding of your corporate culture with what your customers think it is.
Create fun activities that reinforce the desired culture
***
Organizations have more to fear from lack of quality internal customer service than from any level of external customer service.
- Ron Tillotson
Without great employees you can never have great customer service.
-Richard F. Gerson
If you don’t understand that you work for your mislabeled subordinates, then you know nothing of leadership. You know only tyranny.
- Dee Hock
Chapter Four
The Law of Internal Service
External Service Mirrors Internal Service
“Charity begins at home” is a thread-bare expression. In the world of service excellence, however, this cliché still has its place. The best place to begin the quest for excellent customer service is right inside the organisation. The bane of most service improvement initiatives is that they are too externally oriented. Employees begin to think mainly in terms of the external customer without seeing one another as customers. Everything is wrong with this kind of thinking; employees need to understand the nexus between internal service and external service.
In the best customer-focused organisations, people within the organisation see one another as customers. The production people see the marketing people as their customers. The marketing people see the field sales people as their customers. The purchasing people see the production people as their customers. People in the human resources department see everybody else as their customers and try to create a work environment that encourages optimum performance. Everybody in the organisation knows just how the performance of their job function facilitates or hinders that of someone else in service delivery. Everybody knows precisely how they contribute to customer satisfaction.
This is perhaps just one side of the coin. The other side has to do with the value the organisation places on its employees. In those organisations that rise above corporate gimmickry and truly regard people as their “greatest asset,” it is not unusual to see employees go beyond the call of duty to serve customers.
The reverse is equally true. Organisations that treat their employees like filth end up having their customers treated the same way.
The point is that if you treat your employees well, there is no guarantee that they’ll treat your customers well – but you have a chance of getting them to mirror you. But if you treat them badly, you can bet they will take it out on your customers!
It is up to you to create the kind of work environment that encourages excellent service. How do people relate to one another? Do they see one another as partners working toward the same goals? Or are there (suspicions of) hidden agenda? Do people talk to one another with respect or are they always hollering to have their way? The way people relate to their colleagues won’t be much different from the way they relate to their customers.
Beyond the relational aspects of service, there is the need to look at the internal systems, processes and structure. Is the organisation flat or bureaucratic? Is it easy to get things done – or are employees bogged down by layers upon layers of signatures and approvals? Are people empowered to use their initiative, make mistakes and learn? Or is the sword of corporate sanctions always dangling over those who err? Do employees have the necessary tools for their work? Are employees adequately rewarded? What does the company do to retain its best employees?
Just as it is important to retain your current customers, it is necessary to retain your good hands. Getting competent employees that fit your organisational culture is not generally easy. Even when you get good employees, it takes a lot of time to train them to meet the standards of excellence you’d like to see.
This whole idea of treating employees (internal customers) well and making it easy for them to perform has been aptly tagged “internal marketing” by services marketing scholars. The best place to start marketing is in-house.
To put the spotlight on internal customer service, organisations may find it a great idea to measure internal service quality and customer satisfaction. In addition, they should consider rewarding employees who excel in delivering internal customer service.
Nobody can give what he doesn’t have. Until employees have a taste of good service within the organisation, it is a tall order to expect them to deliver it to customers. If you care for them, they most likely will care for your customers. If your organisation is a great place to work, employees are more likely to make your customers feel great too. Truth is that you cannot get excellent service from a bunch of poorly paid, overworked, maltreated, untrained and unmotivated employees. There is usually a correlation between the way employees feel about their place of work and the kind of service they render to customers. If they have positive feelings, they’re more likely to serve customers with enthusiasm.
Take-away Ideas
To improve external service, improve internal service first. Fix the kinks in your internal service delivery. Identify the bottlenecks and do away with them.
Show that people matter. Concrete actions matter more than highfalutin proclamations. If you believe that people are your greatest asset, show it in the way you hire, train, motivate and reward them.
Treat your staff the way you want them to treat customers. Give your employees a taste of what you want them to give to customers.
Make it easy for your people to serve. Cut off the red tape! Allow for employee initiative; otherwise, use robots.
Measure internal customer service and reward excellent performers. Unless you measure internal service, there’s no way of knowing how well you are doing.
Have inter-departmental service key performance indicators (KPIs). KPIs help set agreed performance expectations which can always be measure against actual performance.
***
The customer’s perception is your reality.
- Kate Zabriskie
If the shopper feels like it was poor service, then it was poor service. We are in the customer perception business.
- Mark Perrault
If advertisers spent the same amount of money on improving their products as they do on advertising then they wouldn't have to advertise them"
- Will Rogers
There is a great deal of advertising that is much better than the product. When that happens, all that the good advertising will do is put you out of business faster.
- Jerry Della Famina
Chapter Five
The Law of Experience
Customer Experience Matters More than Company Communications
In the modern world, organisations have almost limitless ways of reaching prospects and customers with communications about the company. New technologies have significantly increased the available options. Today, organisations don’t have to rely only on the traditional media such as radio, television, newspapers and magazines; they also have additional tools such as email, company websites, newsletters, blogs, and social networking sites, among others.
These options offer the company opportunity to communicate with customers and prospects in order to create the desired image for the company or mould the customer’s perception of the company. After all “image is everything,” to quote a once popular Nigerian product advertisement.
It is not, therefore, surprising that with the multiplicity of the available options, brilliant marketing communications chaps get themselves busy by coming up with new advertising campaigns, new brand logos, new brand colour schemes and new slogans. At the corporate level, it does appear that top management easily buys into the idea of corporate re-branding with even the possibility of a structural make-over in the look of offices to align with the new brand strategy.
A case in point is the wave of corporate re-branding and image make-over that swept over the Nigerian banking industry after the consolidation in the 2005-2008 era. There has been a rash of corporate re-branding exercises occasioned by the merger of different banks with their different cultures. Of course, this did not happen without a lot of logo re-designs, advertising campaigns, slogans and razzmatazz. At the time of writing, a particular bank had re-branded twice within the consolidation period. Even some banks that had no post-merger image issues to contend with still felt a need to redesign their logos to portray a better image.
This is good thinking as long as it is also supported by concrete steps to give customers great experience each time they interact with the company. Great communication, re-branding and logo redesigns cannot be substituted for excellent service. The efforts will make much more sense and create the right impressions with customers if they are coupled with palpable and measurable improvements in the quality of service.
To remain competitive in the long run, organisations must go beyond the superficies and redesign their service delivery processes from the customer’s perspective. Doing so will attract more customers than all the media hype.
In fact, while prospects may sometimes rely on corporate communications and physical evidence to form impressions about the organisation, actual customers rely more on their previous experience. To real customers, their experience with the company counts much more than the carefully crafted communications from the company. Their perception of service quality and the value delivered by the company carry more weight than anything the company has to say. Advertising and other forms of communication merely gets the customer to look in; it is the experience that will determine how long the customer stays.
I do not wish to suggest that communication and other symbolic things should be de-emphasized. They are all necessary. But organisations must pay even greater attention to their ability to deliver the promised service. There ought to be a clear alignment between the promise the company makes in its communications and the service it offers customers.
As a rule, using great advertising to promote a decidedly weak service can only hasten the demise of the company because those who experience the service once would not like to go back for more. Customers can only be deceived once, unless they are confronted with a monopoly situation – in which case they have little or no choice.
If organisations could give their service the same level of attention they pay to advertising, they will probably need to spend less on marketing. Customers will help them spread the word!
Take-away Ideas
Find out what is important to customers. Then focus on it.
Ensure the marketing and operations people agree on what is possible before communicating to customers.
How do customers perceive your brand? Find out through brand studies.
See communication as part of packaging. Service is the product. No matter how good the packaging is, it is the product inside that wins and keeps customers.
Leverage on your corporate re-branding to improve service. An image make-over combined with greater customer focus and improved service will deliver better results.
Deliver quality service at every customer touch point.
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When you serve the customer better, there's always a return on your investment.
- Kara Parlin
Profit is the applause you get for satisfying customer needs and creating a fulfilling work environment.
- Ken Blanchard
Chapter Six
The Law of Premium Service
Discerning Customers Will Pay a Premium for Excellent Service
If you knew a service provider with excellent services but generally higher prices would you shop there? If you said “yes” you are in good company. A lot of discerning customers are usually willing to pay higher to receive superior service. Mark my words. We’re talking about discerning customers, not the cash-strapped ones whose main purchase criterion is price.
Discerning customers are those who know and appreciate superior service. They perceive value in the service you render. They know that cheap service may not be up to much. To such customers, value includes convenience in terms of business hours and locations, response to enquiries, speed of service recovery, attention to detail, personalized service, ego-boosting and empathy shown by employees.
People who fly first-class sometimes pay about double the fare of the economy class. They obviously find the service worth the price. Those spectators who buy the higher-priced tickets for football matches see value in the convenience and orderliness of the VIP section in comparison with the pell-mell of the popular stand. It is not surprising that in major cities like Lagos, some people shop in supermarkets although they know they could buy the same products much cheaper in the local market across the street. It’s all about convenience. It’s all about perceived value. It’s all about the reputation of the supermarket versus that of the scruffy trader.
The case of Silverbird Cinemas in Lagos further illustrates this point. While most Nigerians thought that home video had dealt the cinema a fatal punch (a lot of the cinema houses were being bought over by churches), the Silverbird Group took the business by storm when they set up the Cinemas in May 2004. Overnight, cinema once again became a social phenomenon to reckon with. It once again became the talk of the town. Indeed, no one in Lagos can claim to be a movie-lover until he has been to the Silverbird Cinemas. What happened?
Obviously, the Silverbird Group transformed the image of the cinema house from that of a dingy, stuffy structure to that of an elegant building with state-of-the-art facilities for shopping and relaxation. Whereas the old cinema houses were no longer attracting decent members of the society, the Silverbird Cinemas was positioned to attract the crème-de-la-crème. The Cinemas simply added exceptional service – comfortable environment, refreshment, convenience, etc. – to the pastime of movie-going. Fortunately, there are enough discerning customers to pay a premium for such service.
The long-distance bus service in Nigeria offers another interesting case. Most of the transport companies use similar vehicles; yet, some of them charge premium fares on the same route. A very clear example is ABC Transport Plc. Why? The company obviously offers services that some customers find valuable – such as meals, on-board conveniences, complimentary copies of newspapers, etc. Even the company’s bus service from Lagos to other major West African cities is called a “Coach” service, conjuring the image of real travel luxury that could virtually compete with air transport.
By the way, why should a night at a five-star hotel cost as much as ten times the rate of a run-of-the-mill hotel? It’s all about the perceived quality of service.