The secrets of superior service

Giving good service in tough times makes good business sense. But how do you actually achieve it? Here are 8 proven principles you can use.

1. Understand how your customers' expectations are rising and changing over time. What was good enough last year may not be good enough now. Use customer surveys, interviews and focus groups to understand what your customers really want, what they value and what they believe they are getting from your business.
2. Use quality service to differentiate your business from your competition. Your products may be reliable and up-to-date, but your competitors' goods are too. Your delivery systems may be fast and user-friendly, but so are your competitors. You can make a more lasting difference by providing personalized, responsive and extra-mile service that stands out in an unique way your customers will appreciate and remember.
3. Set and achieve high service standards. You can go beyond basic and expected levels of service to provide your customers with desired and even surprising service interactions. Determine the standard for service in your industry, and then find a way to go beyond it. Give more choice than the usual, be more flexible than normal, be faster than average, and extend a better warranty than all the others.
4. Learn to manage your customers' expectations. You can't always give customers everything their hearts desire. Sometimes you need to bring their expectations into line with what you know you can deliver. The best way to do this is by first building a reputation for making and keeping clear promises. Once you have established a base of trust and good reputation, you only need to ask your customers for their patience in the rare instances when you cannot meet their first request. Nine out of ten times, they will extend their understanding and the leeway that you need. The second way to manage customers' expectations is to under promise, then over deliver.
5. Bounce back with effective service recovery. Sometimes things do go wrong. When it happens to your customers, do everything you can to set things right. Fix the problem and show sincere concern for any discomfort, frustration or inconvenience. Then do a little bit more by giving your customer something positive to remember- a token of appreciation, a discount or  free upgrade. This is not the time to assign blame for what went wrong or to calculate the costs of repair. Restoring customer goodwill is worth the price in positive word-of-mouth and new business.
6. Appreciate your complaining customers. Customers with complaints can be your best allies in building and improving your business. They point out where your system faulty or your procedures are weak and problematic. They show where your products or service are below expectations. They point out areas where your competitors are getting ahead or where your staff is falling behind. These are the same insights and conclusions companies pay consultants to provide. But a complainer gives them to you free. And remember, for every person who complains, there are many more who don't bother to tell you. The others just take their business elsewhere and speak badly about you. At least the complainer gives you a chance to reply and set things right.
7. Take personal responsibility. In many organizations, people are quick to blame others for problems or difficulties at work: managers blame staff, staff blame managers, Engineering blames Sales, Sales blames Marketing and everyone blames Finance. This does not help. In fact, all the finger-pointing make things much worse. Blaming yourself does not work, either. No matter how many mistakes you may have made, tomorrow is another chance to do better. You need high self-esteem to give good service. Feeling ashamed doesn't help. It doesn't make sense to make excuses and blame the computers, the system or the budget, either. This kind of justification only prolongs the pain before the necessary changes can take place. The most reliable way to bring about constructive change in your organization is to take personal responsibility and help make good things happen. When you see something that needs to be done, do it. If you see something needs to be done in another department, recommend it. Be the person who makes suggestions, proposes new ideas and volunteers to help on problem solving teams, projects and solutions.
8. See the world from each customer's point of view. We often get so caught up in own world that we lose sight of what our customers actually experience. Make time to stand on the other side of the counter or listen on the other end of the phone. Be a mystery shopper at your own place of business. Or become a customer of your best competition. What you notice when you look from the other side is what your customers experience every day.

Finally, always remember that service is the currency that keeps our economy moving. I serve you in one business, you serve me in another. When either of us improves, the economy gets a little better. When both of us improve, people are sure to take notice. When everyone improves, the whole world grows stronger and closer together.

Time to start now!!!!

Puzzle 8- Tools and techniques

Puzzle 7- Point of view

In challenging times, service matters most!!!

As the wind of economic cycles blows hard, some businesses try to contain costs by cutting corners on customer service. This is exactly the wrong thing to do, because service matters now more than ever. Here is why:

1. When people buy during an economic downturn they are extremely conscious of their hard earned money that they spend. Customers want more attention, more appreciation and more recognition when making their purchases with you, not less.
2. Customers want to be sure they get maximum value for the money they spend. They want assistance, education, training, installation, modifications and support. The basic product may remain the same, but they want more service.
3. Customers want firmer guarantees that their purchase was the right thing to do. In good times, a single bed purchase can be quickly overlooked or forgotten, but in tough times, every expenditure is scrutinized. Provide the assurance your customers seek with generous service guarantees, regular follow-up and speedy follow-through on all queries and complaints.
4. In difficult economic times, people spend less time travelling and wining and dinning, and more time carefully shopping for each and every purchase. Giving great service enhances the customer's shopping experience and boosts your own company's image. When times are good, people move fats an sometimes don't notice your efforts. In tougher times, people move cautiously and notice every extra effort you make.
5. When money is tight, many people experience a sense of lower self-esteem. When they get good service from your business, it boosts their self-image. And when they feel good about themselves, they feel good about you. And when they feel good about you, they buy.
6. In tough times, people talk more with each other about saving money and getting good value. Positive word-of-mouth is a powerful force t any time. In difficult times, even more ears will be listening. Be sure the words spoken about your business are good ones!!!

The above shows that good service actually matters the most during the tough times but must also maintain during the good times as well. This will bring about higher competitive advantage in both good and tough times.

Puzzle 6- Build better service culture

Are you a real professional?

The customer was just leaving the service counter and said to the young man who had helped her,' You are a real professional. Thank you.'

The young man blushed. To be called 'a professional' is a very powerful compliment. It's not easy to achieve. Real professionals perform well in 5 key areas:

1. Knowledge: Real professional understand what other people want and need, what their own products and services can provide, where and how to get assistance, what's changing in their own company and in the world of those they serve. How good is your product, process, service and industry knowledge? Want to improve? Read more, listen better, discuss with others, get mentoring, get coaching, get going.
2. Skills: Real professionals are proficient and skilful. they know how to do the right thing at the right time and in the right way. How good are your hard skills and soft skills? Need to improve? Study and practice new techniques, watch the masters in action, get more training, get more qualified. Be really good, then get better.
3. Attitude: Real professional are more than technically bright. Their enthusiasm is motivating and infectious. Customers feel assured by their confidence. Colleagues are touched by their compassion. How powerful is your attitude? Need to improve? Get clear about what turns you on and why you care to serve. Align your values with your company's goals, your customers' needs and your colleagues' shared commitment. And watch your mindset like a hawk. No whining when you should be shining.
4. Effort: Real professionals have a strong will and ambition to succeed. They may be humble, but they are not shy about striving for spectacular performance. These winners go the extra mile and help others along the way. They push themselves and drive their teams to greater achievement. And customers reinforce their effort with well-earned praise. How strong is your effort? Want to increase it? Then set big, bold goals and high, stretching targets. Do something every day to move on, move up, move forward.
5. Relationships: The greatest professionals help other people move into the future. They make suggestions to solve your immediate problem and then give guidance to take you further. They anticipate your questions and prepare answers in advance. They think about your success and give advice that's packed with value. Want to strengthen your relationships with others? Learn to listen more closely for real concerns. Make offers without being asked. Network with others in your company, your industry, your town. Lend a hand whenever you can and be willing to receive one.

Real professionals are well-rounded in their ability, approach and actions. They are always improving, uplifting themselves and motivating those around them.

Puzzle 5- How much difference do you make?

Pain in the neck Customers

Everyone has customers who complain. Complaining customers tell you what you have done wrong and how you can improve. If you work to keep them happy, they will keep you in business.

But some customers complain and complain and complain. They never stop complaining. No matter what you do, they still complain. If you work too hard to keep these 'pain-in-the-neck' customers happy, they can run you right out of business.

Pain-in-the-neck customers do not want to be satisfied. They like being unsatisfied. They frustrate your staff and irritate your customers.

Pain-in-the-neck customers are not normal. They are distracting and disturbing. And yet they do exist.

So what should you do when a pain-in-the-neck customer complains and complains and complains?

1. Recognise that most complaining customers are not a pain in the neck. On average, about 2% of your customer base will complain, but only 2% are truly nuts. The rest of your complainers are legitimate customers with specific problems. Solve those problems quickly and you will regain their goodwill and repeat business.
2. If your customer is a persistent pain in the neck, your immediate focus should be damage control. Isolate a pin-in-the-neck customer away from your staff, your other customers and your brand. Only famous theme park uses conveniently located, air-conditioned, pastel-coloured rooms first to isolate and then care for, the occasional pain-in-the-neck. In these rooms, specially trained staff soothe the savage customer with comfortable chairs, cool drinks, healthy snacks and calming music. Only when they regained their sanity, they re released back into the park.
3. When damage control does not work, protect your staff and limit your legal liability. If a pain-in-the-neck uses threats, abusive language or makes potentially harmful gestures, immediately contact Security and let them work it out with your lawyers. Never let a pain-in-the-neck create an unsafe or dangerous situation.
4. If a pain-in-the-neck is not abusive, but remains persistently unhappy, unpleasant and disruptive, consider passing this special customer to your competitors. Maybe they can do a better job.
5. Finally, and most importantly, don't let pain-in-the-neck customers take what they really want from you- which is more and more of your precious time and attention.

If pain-in-the-neck customer throws a tantrum on your floor, do what you can to appease him, but if necessary, show him the door.

Puzzle 4- Will you go the extra mile?

What are the little things that mean a lot? Puzzle 3

Customer discrimination? We do it all the time!

Nowadays, in any industrial, organisations tend to use systems to automatically route customers to higher or lower levels of service based on the loyalty and profitability of the customer. Casino membership, banks and even insurance uses this kind of system.

This happens every day with gold and platinum customers enjoying faster telephone service and shorter lines while everyone else waits an waits.

Isn't this a case of discrimination? And of course this is customer discrimination. It is totally appropriate. After all, customers do this with companies all the time. This is why; customers are constantly choosing which companies to patronise, how frequently and with what amount of their available budgets. Companies must do the same: choose which customers to serve, how quickly and with what amount of their available budget.

In both directions, the intention is the same. Customers spend more where they perceive they are getting better service and value. Companies invest ore where they see they can obtain better value and long-term 'service' (loyalty) from their customers.

When the matching is done right, it's a win-win situation for both parties. Customer are given an incentive to consolidate their spending, patronage and loyalty behaviour with those companies that 'treat them right'. And companies have incentive to increase their service and special recognition for customers who 'treat them right' with their buying and referral decisions.

What about those who complain an say, "All companies should give all customers the same service level regardless of how much a customers the spends"? To simplistic and righteous view, the reply is:" Wake up and enter the real world. As a customer you insist on your right to choose who to patronise, right? Companies should also have the right to choose which customers they want to attract, retain, cultivate and appreciate."

Please take note: this principle may not apply to government services, charitable organisations or companies in a monopoly situation. In these instances, a more uniform level of service may be appropriate.

Partnership in business is a 2 way street. If you are a customer and want more service from the companies you choose, give them more of your purchases, budgets, frequency, constructive input and quality referrals. If you are a company and want more profitable business from customers you choose, give those customers more of your time, speed, improved systems, well-trained people and other special attention.

How to avoid competing on price

The global market is flooded with commodity products, and with companies eager to sell them.
They asked me, "How can we avoid lowering our price when other supplies are always ready to drop their price lower than ours? How can we cultivate customer loyalty without discounting ourselves right out of business?"

The answer to this dilemma was to deliver more value than companies who compete only on price. But how do you add more value when the product is a commodity?

Of course you don't give all the information to every customer or prospect all at once. Rather, you should trickle it out over time, keeping your company top-of-mind throughout the year and first-in-mind when their prospects and customers are ready to buy.

Focusing on product and price keeps you in the same arena as every other vendor, scratching each other with deep discounts until everyone bleeds red ink. Don't go there. Instead, build a better reputation by informing, educating, managing and motivating your customers to think frequently about you and then to take their buying actions to you.

How can you add more value? Puzzle 2

When service goes wrong, bounce back!

We all try to do things right. No business sets out to do wrong when servicing customers. But life is full of unexpected moments and, inevitably, mistakes do happen.

While many people in business focus on doing things right the first time, very few seem to take a powerful interest in setting things right when things do go wrong. In those moments, a passion for 'zero defects' often gives way to 'Let's get this mess cleaned up fast and pretend it never happened'.

Because of this attitude, business miss an important opportunity to build customer loyalty and valuable goodwill. It is exactly when things go wrong that customers are most sensitive about how they are treated, most likely to share their experiences with friends and colleagues and most likely to make lasting decisions about whether to bring their future business back to that company, or to its rival.

We all know mistakes will happen. What we do not know is how we will be treated when we go back to get the mistake corrected. In these unpleasant moments, customers' sensitivities are heightened. If they were casual shoppers before, they become discerning now. If they were discerning shoppers before, they become hypersensitive when things go awry.

You can make that sensitivity work in your favour. When service errors are quickly and professionally handled, customers loyalty can actually 'bounce back' to greater heights than if the problem never happened. That's why service recovery situations can be described as 'opportunities you wish you never had'.

"Bouncing Back" with SERVICE recovery:
Say You are Sorry
There is nothing like a sincere apology, delivered right away, to let people know you really care. There is no need to grovel or apologised forever. One honest and heartfelt apology will suffice.
Expedite Solutions
The faster you can fix the problem, the better. This is not the time to calculate the cost of repairing the damage. Do what it takes to set things right. Costs will be forgotten or absorbed over time, but benefits last forever.
Respond to the Customer
Remember people are involved, not just products, dates and orders. Take the time to empathise. Be a listening ear. Keep personal contact; use the phone, send a fax, stay in touch. And when it's all over, thank personally with a note, small gift or some other special gesture.
Victory to the Customer
Build higher levels of customer loyalty by giving more than they expect. Refunds, discounts, special assistant, extra services; it doesn't have to be money. But whatever it is, do it fast. No loyalty is gained from a refund or gesture that takes months to negotiate, authorise or discuss.
Implement Improvements
Change your processes and improve training to avoid the same problem next time. Institutionalise improvements.
Communicate Results
Spread the word so that everyone can learn from what had happened. Provide full information about consequences and improvements.
Extend the Outcome
Don't stop working when they stop complaining. Stay in touch until you are sure the customer comes back and their long-term loyalty is assured.

Bouncing back through generous service recovery is a proven strategy for building repeat business and long-term sustainable profits. It's not a cost, it's an intelligent business investment.

How spectacular is your service? Puzzle 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

Creating convenience for the customer

If you travel by air, you know how stringent security can be in airports around the world. Many items previously allowed on-board are now banned, confiscated and , in many cases, discarded by security personnel.

Losing a nail file or a pair of scissors may not seem like much, but hairdressers pay a lot for professional scissors; a letter opener may be a sentimental gift from a friend; a pocket knife could be an heirloom handed down from grandfather to father to son.

What can be done to keep these items out of the aircraft cabin, but safely delivered back to owners?

Some airlines will put the offending item in a small pouch, store it in the aircraft's baggage hold, and give it back to the passenger at the destination. But this service takes precious time before departure, and some airports simply don't allow it. As a customer you have only 2 choices: give up the item forever, or give up your seat on the flight.

Many airline customers have become confused about which articles may be detected and rejected by security as they board domestic and international aircrafts.

Here is a suggestion: have a self-service mailboxes near security screening that can dispense stamped and padded envelopes. If an article such as a penknife or nail file is rejected, the traveller can go immediately to the mailbox and quickly send their items out.

This mailbox idea can sell as franchise to coffee house or even bookshops at the airport. This would help security resolve distress innocent travellers suffer when they must surrender personal items of great sentimental value.

Customers are emotional creatures and may have concerns not addressed by your focus on speed, accuracy, price, security, size, weight or location. Helping customers comply with procedures is important. But helping them feel good about their compliance is very important too. Find ways to do both and you will gain customers' appreciation, recognition and respect.

To be distinctive, you got to be different

There are many ways for a business to 'stand out from the crowd'. One approach is to give your customers more of what they ask for. If others are fast, you go faster. If others are clean, you be cleaner. If others are cheap, you can discount deeper. If your competitors offer a lot, you offer even more.

This approach has obvious problems. First, your top position can be overtaken by anyone else offering 'even more'. Second, the cost of escalation can become overwhelming. You need happy customers but healthy profits too.

A different approach is worth your time and effort: Find completely new and different ways to surprise, intrigue, support, nurture and delight your customers.

For example, international airlines compete on big seats, quality service, good wine and movies. But Virgin Atlantic was first to offer neck and shoulder massages on all long distance flights. they stand out in the airline crowd.

Most quick-service restaurants provide clean counters, fast delivery and low prices. But McDonald's put enormous, colourful slides for children inside their restaurant buildings. McDonald's French fries are made from potatoes, much like everyone else's. Their play space stands out in the fast food crowd.

How many times have you left your tube of toothpaste wet, wrinkled and gooey on the bathroom sink? Proctor & Gamble helped solve the problem with the first stand up toothpaste tube. Their toothpaste container stands out from the crowd.

The Garden Café in Dubai serves many customers who are bachelors, always on the move and short of time. So the Café provides a lunch and dinner buffet of good food and drinks, but also irons your shirts and shines your shoes while you eat.

You can do this too, stand out from the crowd. Anyone can compete by doing 'more' of what's already expected. But there is another way to be distinctive: Be different!

Make a list of all the 'usual ways' your organisation offers good customer service. Now think of totally different ways you could surprise, intrigue or delight.

Uplifting service champions

Uplifting Service Champions choose a different approach, taking responsibility for difficult situations- and taking action to improve them. They solve problems that arise everyday, and then look for more problems to solve. When a customer is dissatisfied, they say, " I will fix this for you." If a project is running late, they take ownership to make it right. Instead of blaming or shaming inactive colleagues, they empower and inspire them to action. Service Champions don't blame circumstances; they look for steps forward. They create empowering perspectives in positive experiences each day.

Uplifting Service Champions build teamwork, increase pride, improve communication, and make our world a better place by serving others. They are people, just like you, who take responsibility and make real improvements. When you see something that could be better, you recommend it. When you see an opportunity to step up and serve, you don't hesitate- you take it.

Service Champion take personal responsibility for other people's experience of the service they provide. This point of view recognises that service is not only what you say or do, it is what someone else values from your actions. Service champions modify their style to suit the other person and the situation, using the 5 styles of service.

1: Direction: Direction is telling other people exactly what to do, giving them clear instructions and expecting them to follow.

2: Production: This style of service focus on getting the job done efficiently and quickly. It's common between colleagues who are both familiar with the work. It's also the right style to use when someone is in a hurry. But to some customers this can appear robotic and bureaucratic- more focused on your procedures than on the experience you are creating.

3: Education: This style of service teaches and informs. It helps people learn more about what is happening and appreciate why you are serving them the way you do. The education style of service makes other people information-rich. It empowers them to become better customers for you. You may not be a teacher, but consider how many opportunities you have to serve others well by helping them understand a range of products, prepare for steps in a process, or get more value from the choices they have made. In any arena where products are commoditized and prices are easily matched, the service provider who teaches and informs can earn a competitive edge.

4: Motivation: This style of service is an acknowledging pat on the back. It is also a style to use to make an upset customer feel right, even when they are wrong. Sometimes customers mix up the facts, don't understand the policy, or have exaggerated beyond belief. These responses make your customer feel right without making you wrong. By actively agreeing on the importance of what someone else values, you give them an emotional pat on the back. This makes him or her feel better, and makes it easier for you to work together too.

5: Inspiration: It is a style of service that makes a genuine person-to-person connection. It lets people know you are interested in their well-being, not just in their wallet. This style sets the tone for caring about others, welcoming others into your world, and appreciating the opportunity to enter theirs. This is the heartfelt human spirit that uplifts other people, in the process uplifts you.

The style you use will depend on the situation. Who are you serving, what do they want, and what style will they value? People in hurry want production. The curious customer appreciates education. Someone who is confused may value clear direction. Those who are just learning will enjoy a shot of motivation. And everyone from time to time simply wants to be seen and heard as a unique or special person, a service you can provide with a moment of inspiration.

The joy of customer complaints

When things go wrong, customers complain. And that can be good for you and constructive for your organisation because complaints can:

• highlight area where your systems require improvement
• identify where your procedures need to be improved, updated, or revised
• reveal information that is lacking, is erroneous, or is simply out of date
• identify team members who need more training or closer supervision
• help highlight inconsistencies among shifts, departments, or locations
• get important news and information straight to the top
• educate everyone what your customers experience and expect
• help prevent complacency in a successful organisations
• help focus your attention, priorities and budgets
• work as a trigger for new action, catalysing positive change
• keep you in touch with emerging trends and changing customer expectations
• present new opportunities for raising revenue and solving problems
• provide competitive intelligence by telling you what others are doing
• identify which customers to invite into pilot runs, focus groups and beta tests
• give you content and current case studies for your service education programs
• provide feedback for you to publish, with your replies and actions steps

Most of all, complaints give you an opportunity to reply, respond, and win back customer loyalty. Most upset customers just walk away and complain about you to their friends and colleagues. The few who do speak up are giving you another chance. Take it and appreciate it. They are the next loyal customers.

How to attract and recruit the right service talent

Start by making it easy for candidates to consistently see, hear and understand what your organisation thinks about service. Those who align with your vision and values will be drawn closer and want to learn more about your spirit and purpose. Those who think, feel or believe differently won't be attracted, and will naturally select themselves out. Both are positive outcomes for your culture and your future.

1: Share your engaging service vision
Use every opportunity to explain your engaging service vision to prospective candidates. Place an uplifting message about your company culture on the website, in your employment ads, and in all the literature. Stress the importance of your service vision with your staff when you ask them to make new employee referrals and recommendations.
When job seekers apply, ask them to share in their own words what your service vision means to them. You can quickly check if candidates are aligned with your service vision by asking good questions and listening carefully to their answers.

2: Involve your culture leaders
As the service in your organisation grows stronger, some of your team members become culture leaders. These people are like tuning forks- vibrating strongly, keeping everyone else in key, and helping your symphony of employees, managers, and departments serve more smoothly and skilfully together. In a recruitment situation, these tuning forks can easily assess who will resonate with the culture and should be hired, and who is far off key.

3: Ask your candidates to get to know your service
For real insight into your applicants' service mindset and understanding, ask them to experience your service, evaluate your competitor's service, and then make suggestions to improve your current service. If they can't see anything you might do better, you might be happy with their performance for awhile. But if your candidate comes back with constructive ideas, or suggestions for a new practice, you will be more successful- and for much longer when that person joins your team.

4: Involve all of your staff as recruiters
Your people already know and understand your service culture. Ask them to make recommendations of people they know, or who they worked with in the past, who would be great additions to the team.

5: Be patient
Having a staff position vacant can be uncomfortable and costly. But don't let the "empty seat syndrome" drive you to fill that position with the wrong person too early. The impact of a misfit climbing onto your bus can make the ride unpleasant for everyone. And when that person ultimately quits, or stays on and others quit in frustration, you will go through another round of disappointment. You only want to hire the people who make your service culture even stronger.

12 Building Blocks of Service Culture by Ron Kaufman

1: Common Service Language
Widely understood and frequently used by service providers throughout the organisation, a Common Service Language enables clear communication and supports the delivery of superior internal and external service.

2: Engaging Service Vision
Eagerly embraced and supported, an Engaging Service Vision energises everyone. Each person sees how the vision applies to his or her work and takes action to make the vision real.

3: Service Recruitment
Effective Service Recruitment attracts people who support your service vision and keeps out those who may be technically qualified but not aligned with your vision, spirit, and values.

4: Service Orientation
Service Orientation for your new staff members must be welcoming and realistic. New team members should feel informed, inspired, and encouraged to contribute to your culture.

5: Service Communications
Vibrant Service Communications inform and educate. Creative communication channels reach everyone with relevant information, timely customer feedback, uplifting service stories, and current challenges and objectives.

6: Service Recognition and Rewards
Service Recognition and rewards motivate your team to celebrate service improvements and achievements. Acknowledgment, incentives, prizes, promotions, and praise- all help to focus attention and to encourage greater results.

7: Voice of the Customer
Voice of the Customer activities capture your customers' comments. compliments, and complaints. These vital voices must be shared with service providers throughout your organisation.

8: Service Measures and Metrics
Measure what matters to focus attention, design new actions, and create positive service results. Your people must understand what is being measured, and why, and what must be done to hit the bull's eye.

9: Service Improvement Process
A strong Service Improvement Process ensures that continuous service improvement is everyone's ongoing project. Keep your methods vibrant and varied; keep participation levels high.

10: Service Recovery Guarantees
When things go wrong, bounce back. Effective Service Recovery and Guarantees turn upset customers into loyal advocates and team members into true believers.

11: Service Benchmarking
Discover and apply best practices from other organisations inside and outside your industry. Service Benchmarking reveals what others do to improve service and points to new ways you can upgrade yours.

12: Service Role Models
Everyone is a Service Role Model. Everyone is watching. Leaders, managers, and frontline staff must walk-the-talk with powerful personal actions everyday.

7 rules of Service Leadership

Leaders can't just tell people how to serve; everyday they must show people how to serve and teach them why it's so valuable. But how it works? People in every level of an organisation will not engage in making a service vision come alive unless their leaders are living it.
In my experience working with leaders in a service organisation, I have discovered 7 essential rules these leaders always follow. Some leverage the power of one rule more than another, and you may do the same. But each of these rules is essential to lead your team to success.

Rule 1: Declare Service a Top Priority
Declaring service a top priority means senior leaders understand that focusing on service improvement leads to commercial results. Profit is the applause you receive for serving your customers well. When middle managers declare service a top priority, the message to everyone is clear: procedures, and budgets surely count, but creating value for others counts the most. And when frontline employees declare service their top priority and delighting others becomes their goal, they uplift customer satisfaction- and job satisfaction too.

Rule 2: Be a Great Role Model
Leaders are the people who others choose to follow, not those who simply tell other people to do. By their own example, leaders inspire others to do what they do, too. It can be a small gesture but it could make a big impact that held them together.

Rule 3: Promote a Common Service Language
Everyone talks about better service from a perspective that makes perfect sense to him or her. What's missing is a common language to enable listening and understanding, clear distinctions to appreciate what other people want and value. To build a culture of uplifting service throughout an organisation, leaders must promote a Common Service Language everyone can apply. Asking your team to upgrade service without enabling language is unwise and inefficient. Giving them a Common Service Language but not using it yourself would be foolish. If you want everyone on your team to deliver uplifting service, you must speak fluently and frequently about it. You must demonstrate your understanding and commitment with observable admirable actions.

Rule 4: Measure What Really Matters
Many people get confused when it comes to measuring service. This is understandable because you can measure so many things: complaints, compliments, expectations, levels of engagement, relative importance, recent improvements, performance to standards, customer satisfaction, retention, intention to repurchase, referral, share of wallet, share of mind, etc. A service leader cuts through this confusion to measure what really matters. Start by recalling the definition of service: Service is taking action to create value for someone else. The ultimate objectives in business is revenues, profits, market share, reputation, shareholder value and growth. One way to achieve these: when satisfaction scores, loyalty scores, share of wallet scores, and employees engagement scores are all improving, your ultimate objectives will improve, too.

Rule 5: Empower Your Team
Empowerment is a buzzword in business, and many leaders and employees seem to fear it. What they really fear is someone who is empowered making a bad decision. If a leader is not confident in her people, she doesn't want to empower them with greater authority of a larger budget. And if an employee is not confident in his abilities and decisions, he often does not want the responsibility of being empowered. In both cases, what's missing is not empowerment, but the coaching, monitoring, and encouraging that must go with it. If you knew your people would make good decisions, you would be glad to give them the authority to do so. And when your people feel confident they can make good decisions, they will be eager to have this freedom. Empowering others cannot and should not be decoupled from the responsibility to properly enable those you empower.

Rule 6: Remove the Roadblocks to Better Service
Most frontline staff members are taught to follow policies and procedures. Often they are hesitant to "break to rules". Yet some rules should be broken, changed, or at least seriously bent from time to time. What roadblocks to better service lurk inside your organisation? What gets in your people's way? What slows them down? What prevents them from taking better care of your customers? What stops them from helping their colleagues? Service leaders ask these questions and remove the roadblocks they uncover.

Rule 7: Sustain Focus and Enthusiasm
It's not difficult to declare service as a top priority. What's challenging is keeping service top of mind when other issues clamour for attention. It's not hard to use a new language for better service; what's hard is using language day after day until it becomes a habit. It may not be hard to track  new service ideas and actions, but it can be difficult to keep them top of mind in the thinking of your team. Sustaining focus and enthusiasm for service is vital when building an uplifting service culture, and world leaders seize every opportunity. It is also critical- in business, in life, and in service. This is not something leaders should view as a soft and therefore less important rule. Nor should it be entirely delegated to others.

Service Star

There are hundreds of thousands of stars out there, but we need millions more! All of us can be stars. There are some very specific things we can do that will help us become a Service Star. And we can help our team be viewed as a real service-oriented team that stands out from other organisations and other businesses.

You all have them in your organisations. What they have in common is an intense desire to exceed the customer's expectations. They want their customers to walk away dazzled. Stars give everyone else goals to shoot for and a benchmark to be measured against. It's important to remember that everyone can become a star just by taking on the challenge of being exceptional.

Characteristics of a Service Star:

• All Service Stars share motivation- actually a passion- to serve and help others. Stars realise the great personal satisfaction and reward from serving. They feel a genuine need, want, and desire to help others.
• Flexibility- It is the key to being able to manoeuvre through all the craziness, all the customer demands, and all the challenges that get thrown at you everyday. Customer Service Stars seem to be able to rise above negative situations and adapt their behaviour based on the events going on around them.
• Energy and Enthusiasm- No matter who the are, they just plain fun to be around. Service Stars seem to radiate energy and enthusiasm. If you are having a bad day or are down in the dumps, just being around these people gives you a shot in the arm. Imagine the impact you could have on your customers by radiating energy and enthusiasm.
• Ownership- Service Stars take ownership of customers, situations, and problems. They use every bit of the power and authority they have been given by management. They make you feel like you are the only customer they have helped all day, even though they may have seen hundreds before you. empowerment is a word that's a bit overused. But the meaning behind it is very powerful, especially as it relates to customer care. Stars take the power that they have been given to serve customers and to take ownership of their problems. In fact, true Service Stars find ways to help customers even when the letter of the law or policy prevents it.

I am sure I am the Service Star. Are you also? Think about it and write comments on how you feel.