Category Archives: Service Excellence

Conversation, Customer Service, Leaders, Leadership, OTM Service Strategy, Service Excellence, Service Gaps

Gap 4 – The Market – Communication Gap

If you say that you will respond to online customer feedback within 24 hours and you consistently take 48 hours to do it, then you have created a Market – Communication Gap.

The local barber who cuts my hair has two signs out the front of his barber’s shop. One sign says that the shop will be open at 8:30am. The second says 8:45am. The barber is rarely there before 9am. He has no idea how many people have looked in his window when he wasn’t open when he advertised that he would be.

My expectations are consistently not being met. One day a new barber/hairdresser will move into an empty shop in the shopping strip. What do you think I will do?

What Market – Communication Gaps are you creating?

Why not use this article to catalyse Conversations That Matter® within your team or organisation.

Copyright Gary Ryan 2011

Quote from the barber

Sorry mate. I know that I said sorry the last couple of times but my car broke down and I had to wait for my wife. Sorry mate.
Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
Customer Service, Employability, Employability Skills, OTM Service Strategy, Service Excellence

Human error drives the service – delivery gap

Gap 3 – The Service – Delivery Gap
Even after all the systems and processes have been created, both the automated and human elements of the system must do what they are supposed to do. System errors or breakdowns and humans not doing what they are supposed to do can create immediate service gaps. No system or human is perfect or infallible. As such your organisation must continually focus on minimising system and human errors. In addition, know what you will do if a Service Delivery Gap does occur. 
A local small business operator has a sign on his door that he will open at 8am. His staff are never there by 8am despite being employed to be there at that time. Consistently being late on a personal level creates a service delivery gap for an organisation.
What are your service-delivery gaps?
Copyright Gary Ryan 2011
Quote from a research participant
Ultimately your staff have to do the right thing. It’s important to have the best systems and processes that you can, but ultimately your staff have to do the right thing. They have to properly implement what they are supposed to do.
Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
Employability, Leadership, OTM Service Strategy, Service Excellence, Service Gaps

What is your service-quality gap?

Gap 2

It is one thing to be able to understand the expectations of those you serve. A gap can emerge if your translation of those expectations into service standards is inaccurate.

Service standards are effectively the systems and processes that you put into place to ensure that you can consistently meet the expectations of your customers. This is very easy to get wrong and requires a high understanding of the expectations of your customers, as well as a high level of understanding of how your organisations works if you are to minimise this gap. Hiring the right people with the passion to serve, and supporting them with appropriate service standards is critical for minimising this gap.
Copyright Gary Ryan 2011
Research participant
The members said that they wanted the gymnasium to open at 6am. So I employed the staff to start their shift at 6am. The members were still not happy. I was confused. When I asked them again why they weren’t happy they said, “We told you that we wanted the gym open at 6am, not ‘opening’ at 6am. There’s a difference!” Finally I understood. The staff would be paid to start at 5:45am so that the gym would be truly open as had been requested. I had been wrong. I had misinterpreted the expectations of the members.
Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
High Performance, Leaders, OTM Service Strategy, Service Excellence, Service Gaps

How large is your Management Perception Gap?

This is a post in a five part series, each of which will explain one of the gaps.
Over two decades ago Parasuraman, Weithaml & Berry (1988) introduced the concept of Service Gaps. Each gap contributes to an organisation’s capacity to meet or exceed the expectations of its customers and the cumulative effect of the gaps have the potential for significant performance failures. The gaps are as relevant today as they have ever been.
The first gap is known as the Management Perception Gap.

Gap 1 The Management Perception Gap

A gap can exist between managements understanding of customer expectations and the actual expectations of customers. If management get this wrong, everything else they do will be wrong and the service gap is likely to grow exponentially. Organisations must do everything in their power to minimise the chances that Gap 1 exists. When was the last time your checked your perception of your customer’s expectations against reality?

Copyright Gary Ryan 2011
“Service. If you haven’t got it, don’t even bother getting out of bed if you want to be a senior leader.  It’s such an entry level requirement it isn’t even worth talking about it.”  (Jack Welch, ex GE CEO)
Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
American Express, Hire, OTM Service Strategy, Recruit, Recruiting, Recruitment, Service Excellence

American Express discovered that their hiring processes matter. Have you?

Gary Ryan explains how American Express recently changed its hiring processes for its Call Centre. They discovered that they hadn’t been treating their hiring processes with the respect they deserve.

Several years ago American Express re-evaluated its hiring processes for call centre staff. Why? Because they realised that their call centre staff were the front line contact for most of their customers. Therefore having people behaving like ‘robots’ was not going to create the high level of service that American Express both desired and advertised.

You can read an article that appeared on the HBR blog here, posted by Jim Bush,  the executive vice president of World Service at American Express.

Recruiting staff, and developing appropriate processes to ensure that you have the highest possible chance of recruiting the right people to represent your organisation is one of the seven critical elements for createing a high performing organistion as advocated by the OTM Service Strategy.

How are you ensuring that your recruitment processes are appropriate for ensuring that you have the right people representing your organistion?

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
Customer Service, Leadership, OTM Service Strategy, Service Excellence

5 Star and 2 Star service can both be great, or not!

Gary Ryan provides a practical example that highlights how 5 Star and 2 Star service levels can be both good and bad. How good is the level of service that you are providing? Is it great?

Many people think that good service is only provided ‘at the top end’ of the service star scale. In other words, if I’m running a 2 star motel then only a low level of service should be provided. In the context of WHAT is provided and WHAT is paid, this is true. But the service experience can still be above expectations. 
For example, the person greeting me may be genuinely happy to check me into my room. When provided directions to my room I am asked if I am interested in knowing where some cheap but good quality food can be found. In responding yes to that question I am provided with the appropriate information, which includes a range of discounts should I choose to eat at those places. (Later, when I do choose to eat at the place, my discount is honoured and the food is reasonable for what I have paid for it).
I go to my room, the key works and my room is fresh and clean. I have asked for a non-smoking room and there is no evidence that the last person who used it smoked like a chimney. The information booklet is up to date and includes relevant information about public transport, taxis, health clubs and eateries. When I check out the staff member is courteous, quickly processes my payment and bids me farewell.  If you wish to consider a poor ‘2 Star’ experience, simply go back over this story and reverse each experience that has been described.
It would not be very difficult to translate this ‘2 Star’ story into a ‘5 Star’ story. The differences in the experience will relate to what we have paid and what we then expect to receive in return. The room may be bigger. The location may be more convenient. The bed may be bigger with higher quality linen. Internet access may be available. The fixtures and fittings may be of higher quality. An on-site restaurant and 24 hour in room service may be available. Laundry services may be available and a concierge service may be available to assist us with any needs or enquiries that we may have regarding the hotel of surrounding area. 
Each ‘Moment of Truth’ (MoM) can contribute to our expectations not being met if the experience of the MoM is not up to our expectations. In this way, 2 Star service can be great service and 5 Star service can be poor service. It all depends on the perceived experience of the customer.
Copyright Gary Ryan 2011
 
“Visits are not limited to the public areas. I head for the heart of the house, too. There’s method to my madness. If I see smiling faces and well-scrubbed surfaces behind the scenes, I know that the rest of the hotel more than likely is doing just fine.” 
J.W.Marriott Jr from his book, ‘The Spirit to Serve’
Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
Customer Service, Leadership, OTM Service Strategy, Service Excellence

If you want to provide great service, exceed expectations!

People expect good service. Period. Often, their expectations are not met. Too often. Just think about your own experiences as a customer. How often are your expectations met? How often are they exceeded? 

Customers expect their expectations to be met. You expect your pay to arrive when it is due. You expect your food to be delivered as ordered within a reasonable timeframe and at the appropriate temperature when you order food at a restaurant or cafe. You expect finance reports to be delivered and inclusive of all appropriate information as scheduled. You expect to be treated as a human being when you visit a government agency, education institution or medical facility. 

In order to be able to consistently meet expectations, your organisation must aim to exceed expectations. It is likely that there will nearly always be a lag between when you last checked the expectations of those you serve and the actual service that you are providing them. The lag time may include a change in the level of expectations of those you serve. 

Unless you are aiming to exceed the expectations at the level that you understand them to be, you may not achieve a consistent level of meeting the expectations that you do know exist. This never-ending journey means that exceeding expectations is a challenge. A real challenge. A challenge worthy of your commitment. Is your organisation currently worthy of your commitment?

Managing expectations is part of the OTM Service Strategy®

 “Consistently exceeding the expectations of the customer, personalizing his or her service experience, and continuously improving your product or service so that it creates greater value for the customer produces a level of customer loyalty that cannot be matched by your competitor.” 
Theo Gilbert-Jamison, service excellence expert/author

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
Customer Service, High Performance, Leadership, OTM Service Strategy, Service Excellence

Rocket scientists beware, good service is good business!

It really isn’t rocket science, but in highly competitive times it makes sense that good service is good business. Even though customers are not particularly loyal, providing great service consistently and over a long period of time makes it all the more difficult for your competitors to attract your customers away from you. 
While your customers will try out the competition, if they do not receive a higher and consistent standard of service than your organisation provides, then your customers will come back and be less inclined to try out the competition again. Implicitly your customers will trust you (just as you, in turn, trust your staff). 
It is however, good practice to maintain a healthy tension about your customers trying out the competition. The day that you either think that you don’t have any competition, or the day that you stop providing good service on a consistent basis, is the day that your organisation will start to decline.
No job is secure. But good, consistent service increases the security of every job, every department and every organisation. Good service IS good business!
Good service is good business
Quote from a research participant
Great service actually feels good. It feels good for me, it feels good for the people I’m serving and it keeps the business humming along. To me, good service just makes sense.
Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
Employability, Employability Skills, Leadership, OTM Service Strategy, Service Excellence

Why developing your people is at the heart of service excellence

Existing staff need to be developed so that they have the capacity to implement your Service Strategy. This will result in them having the capacity to understand the expectations of their customers and being able to develop appropriate service standards from that understanding.

New staff need to be recruited through processes that identify their alignment with your Service Strategy. This means that the organisation’s recruitment processes must reflect a process that is seeking the best possible people that it can find so that its Service Strategy can be implemented.

Quote from a research participant
Our recruitment policy used to be, “Do you know anyone who has a heartbeat and is available?”. Me, I’d been here 20 years and had never been on any training. I never realised how bad we were until I honestly thought about whether I’d like to be a customer of my own team. My answer was no!

How are staff recruited and developed in your organisation?

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
Customer Service, Employability, High Performance, High Performing Teams, Leadership, OTM Service Strategy, Service Excellence

Service standards exist to enhance your capacity to meet and exceed customer expectations

Service standards are the in-house systems and processes, policies and procedures that your organisation has created to give it every possible chance of meeting and exceeding the expectations of its customers. They create the possibility of consistency while allowing the people in your organisation to make decisions that lead to improved service outcomes. It is not always necessary to create new service standards; many of them already exist in operating manuals, rules, procedures and policies.

The challenge is to determine whether they support or hinder great service. The ‘bureaucracy busting’ of the GE Workout program (Ashkenas, Ulrich, Jick, & Kerr, 1995) is an example of a process that at its very heart was about ensuring the company’s systems and processes remained aligned to serving people and achieving the organisation’s goals.

Quote from a research participant
We think that it is great when a new person starts work here. We encourage them to ask questions. So they do. “Why does this policy and that policy exist?” That’s what they ask. And if we haven’t got a genuine answer, then we seriously look at the policy or procedure and change it if it is no longer helping us to serve our customers.

How do your systems, policies and procedures enhance your capacity to meet and exceed the expectations of your customers?

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com