”It takes a deep commitment to change and an even deeper commitment to grow.” –Ralph Ellison
All the talk of sustainability and growth seems to revolve around customer service and the kind of improvements made in the initiatives surrounding this realm. Then why are some initiatives unable to produce unfaltering and protracted results? A large number of people would agree with this even though it is not very a pleasant experience especially since huge amounts of resources in the form of time, money, effort and man-hours would have been spent in formulating those initiatives. More often than not, effort or lack of resources or even creativity in these endeavours, is not what is missing. For an endeavor to sustain itself in the long run, it requires long term commitment to hard work and a single minded approach to making it work. Customer service is a long term commitment and so the approach too has to be sustained and focused.
While any such customer service initiative is in its launch phase, it is exciting and invigorating for all those involved. Everyone seems to be contributing and putting their heads together to come with brilliant ideas. All those involved – front line customer service teams, the non-technical teams, the troubleshooting technical teams, senior management and all those who would be directly involved with launching the initiative – would be enthused and upbeat. Undoubtedly an initiative of this scale will take time and would include smaller activities like:
– Putting together a focus group or committee
– Formulating a set of operating and service standards
– Ensuring company-wide buy-in by announcing the initiative to all
– Putting together a robust training schedule to keep all employees abreast with the initiative
– Complete the launch stage with a reward and recognition program
This is the easy part despite all the labour and planning that would be required for the execution of all these stages. The project or initiative has started its journey. The hardest part that has the ability to be searing and unendurable even for the most seasoned professional, is how to keep the initiative going and as fresh as it started out. It requires discipline and hard core persistence to not only keep it going but also make it fruitful. If the level of commitment drops in any of the teams, the customer service initiative (like any other initiative) is sure to fail irrecoverably. Let us look at some of the ways, as part of this exposition, as to how customer service can be improved by having a long-term commitment to it.
– Draw up accountabilities as the first step. Among the causes of customer service initiative failure would be overlooking this vital step. Proper and clear cut accountability must be assigned to various personnel for different parts of the initiative. The onus of success or failure for that particular part must lie squarely with these individuals, failing which they must know the consequences and repercussions. It must be elucidated and stressed that customer service is a long term commitment and it is not a nice to have but a must have and must do. Assigning and realigning roles and responsibilities company-wide would most certainly be a painstaking and arduous process, but proves indispensable to sustain this initiative in the long haul.
– Include the deliverables of the customer service initiative in the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) at an all employee level. The behaviours, targets, objectives and figures agreed on in the accountability stage must be clearly defined. Linking a service initiative with performance appraisals ensures that employees clearly perceive the seriousness and gravity that the company is attaching to ensure longevity and sustainability of the initiative. As a company committed to long term excellent customer service, re-looking at this core company document and making the necessary changes becomes inevitable. Inclusion as a key responsibility area ensures that all employees at all levels understand the importance and crucial nature of this long term commitment.
– As a forerunner to the evolution of the performance appraisals, employee job descriptions would also need a makeover. The new job descriptions would match the expectations from the employees as set by the new customer service initiative launch. The new job descriptions must elucidate that excellence in customer service is a long term commitment and is core and is a given. This will leave no room for doubt or ambiguity. This again is a task that can make even the most stoic leader flinch and cringe and only those really committed to making a long term change to their customer service will venture in to it.
– If job descriptions and KPIs change, then so will the reward and recognition structure. You cannot expect that employees will work harder and more conscientiously and take all the arduous changes in their stride required towards building a customer service culture, without seeing some tangible benefits of the task. A fair and robust process that recognizes efforts and puts employees on the path to success – financially and moving up the corporate ladder – is what will keep this customer service initiative sustainable and long term. Re-organizing roles, having a succession plan and instituting a new recognition system is a rigorous, time consuming and daunting exercise that only the brave hearted through commitment will dare to do. Those looking for quick fix will steer clear of putting in such concerted effort and in the long run will face problems of customer dissatisfaction and employee attrition.
– Ensure that your performance based pay rises and bonus pay-outs too must be linked to customer service. As part of the launch, employees must clear see the significance of the customer service initiative as being one of the criteria for an increase and or bonus. Just as job descriptions and KPIs are changed to match the customer service initiative, this system too must reflect the long term commitment of the company. Again, making these changes may not be seen favourably by some and could cause some unrest. However, for the customer service initiative to be sustainable, it is an improvement that is required.
– Training for all employees irrespective of level and function must be done at the launch stage. However, to instill true commitment for long term, training must become a constant and evolving process. A training calendar must be put in place and a set number of hours per employee laid aside for receiving training pertinent to the customer service initiative. Such streamlined training provides a platform for a uniform and common understanding of the initiative and keeps employees aligned with each other as well.
– Ongoing, informative and timely communication is crucial to the long term success of the customer service initiative. A periodical message from the company President, newsletters, e-mailers, all employee meets must take place to ensure continuity and emphasize the need for a sustained effort from all to make the initiative successful and last long enough to make a deep impact on the level of customer service provided. Such vital communications constantly keeps the initiative in focus and on everyone’s mind at all times.
Just like with any initiative or a new exercise regime or the commencing of anything new, a customer service initiative is exciting and everyone is super-charged to make it happen. However, with time as work pressures and other things become current, they seem to take over and reduce the importance of the customer service initiative. Everyone promises to make time for it or thinks that the next task they do will be focused on ‘the initiative’. Sadly that never happens and all the initial hype with the valuable resources fades away slowly and goes to waste. The success of your customer service initiative lies in the effort and sustenance you put in to it after the initial launch. Even though it is laborious and painstaking the sustaining of it long term is what truly pays off and creates a culture of customer service excellence, the rewards of which are rich and widely visible.
”You have to know one big thing and stick with it. The leaders who had one very big idea and one very big commitment. This permitted them to create something. Those are the ones who leave a legacy.” — Irving Kristol
