abrahams academy customer service 11.12

Fundamentals of Superior Customer Service

FRPA Abrahams Academy

(T + C + ECF) x DE = Success

Extreme Customer Focus

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

Nine Elements of Organizational Health

From: Beyond Performance by Keller and Price

Key attributes of winning cultures

• High aspirations and a desire to win

• Extreme customer focus

• A “think like owners” attitude

• Bias to action

• Individuals who team

• Passion and energy

Bain & Company

1 - 10

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 #@%& – you guys are awesome!!!!!

How the best get better… 6 key factors

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

Own the VOC

1. Extreme Customer Focus

How Many of these do you employ?

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.

2. Shared Customer Service Credo

3. MOT: Process = Repeatable success

• They create systems, processes and protocols to ensure that service delivery is flawless… without stifling the creativity and initiative of their employees.

Moments Of Truth

MOT Practice Round

Dry CleanerHair SalonTailorPlumber

Moments of Truth: Workshop

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.

4. 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 to build very high levels of TRUST

5. 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

6. Reward and Celebrate Success…

The Rule of 3

• Wow – breakthrough teams commit to a clear and specific standard of world-class performance.

• No Surprises – all team members are accountable for openness and honest debate, and each knows what to expect from the others.

• Cheer – team members support, recognize, appreciate and cheer each other and the group to victory

From: The Orange Revolution by Gostick and Elton

Understanding the Customer-driven Organization

• 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

Web of Value: VOC + MOT + WOM

43% - 74% of purchasing decision = WOM

WOM = Your BEST form of advertising!

78.9%23.4%

You MUST have a Referral PROCESS

Identify Ideal

Customer

ReferIdeal

Customer

From John Jantsch: The Referral Engine

THANK YOU VERY Much!!!!

If you have any questions at all please do not hesitate to send a note or call. My email address is: john@johnspence.com

My twitter address is: @awesomelysimple

Also, you might find value in the ideas I share in my blog. You can sign up for it at:www.blog.johnspence.com

Lastly, these slides and a BIGGER workbook have already been uploaded to:

www.slideshare.net/johnspence