INTRODUCTION
"Because we care... " The notice began " our
staff (the notice continued) will visit this Gentlemen's W.C.
on the hour, every hour, to inspect it and ensure that it
is always in a condition in which you would want to find it."
Below this impressive piece of narrative there appeared the
hours of the day and the initials of the staff member who
had carried out this duty. The reader glanced at his watch,
1.20pm, sure enough every hour had been initialled so far
that day.
This
recent experience at a newly opened Country Club is just one
example of the need of organisations to impress the customer,
and draw attention to the fact. There are a number of reasons
to do this, here are some:
1. Competition has scared
many organisations into having to love the customer. The motivation
for customer care is defence of the business.
2.
If as an organisation you want to find your value added niche
market, the chances are you will have to go up-market with
your products and services. To do so you'd better make sure
your staff change their behaviours as well. The motivation
is achievement of the new corporate goal.
3.
If you've always regarded yourself as being an expensive,
quality contender in your market you'd better demonstrate
that fact explicitly to your customers with real value for
money. Facade and veneer are easily discerned these days and
resented. The motivation is maintenance of margins.
4.
Finally, as an organisation, you might have perceived
one essential, core truth - businesses are only people; customers
are people; and the only edge you will ever achieve is through
your people. As your products begin to look much like everyone
else's your business success will increasingly depend on differentiated
customer service, trust and long term relationships. The motivation
is a desire to be different.
The
first three reasons mentioned for implementing customer care
training spring from extremely doubtful and usually short-term
motivations. Their foundation is expediency. Only the last
is worthy of recognition. Why?
Look
at Customer Care Training motivated by the first three desires
and you will find that the result is:
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Cosmetic,
contrived and unnatural employee behaviours. " Good
morning, P & S Retail, Anita speaking, how can I help
you?" Who's kidding who? Anita didn't write, nor
owns, this script. Her "singing" tone of voice
is not hers. The end result is unnatural and distrusted. |
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Managers
and supervisors with double standards who show customers
one set of behaviours and their staff another. The result
of this inconsistency? Organisations which have to dictate
and force customer care behaviours out of their staff,
because the behaviours they are told to adopt are not
being evidenced by their managers' attitude towards them. |
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A
picture that doesn't add up. You will see the credo or
mission statement on the wall. The trouble is nobody understands
it, believes in it, or practises it. How can a national
tyre and exhaust replacement company be taken seriously
when the tyre fitter, within view of such a customer care
statement, overtly fails to fully tighten the wheel nuts
on a car's wheel, and only does so on the suggestion of
the customer? Is there no place for competence and commitment
before issuing customer care credos? |
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Lack
of leadership. Rush into customer care training and you
will waste your money. Staff will only give their best
to customers if the required values and attitudes are
truly modelled by their managers as leaders. If there
is no leadership, no vision, no measurable performance
standard willingly agreed to by staff, forget it - the
timing is wrong. |
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Lack
of resources. Promote customer care within your organisation
without the equipment, materials, premises, systems, people,
time, delegated authority or budget to deliver the required
quality of service and you will fail - the resources aren't
there. |
If
Customer Care Training is to work, and it can work, then certain
things need to happen. All involve the people issue.
Sections
RESEARCH
AND DEFINITION
MANAGEMENT INVOLVEMENT
AND COMMITMENT
FOCUS
AND EXPRESSION
INVOLVEMENT
AND CRITICAL MASS
PARTICIPATION
AND STYLE
TRAINING
AND FOLLOW-UP
EVALUATION
AND REWARD
SUMMARY
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RESEARCH AND DEFINITION
Research is a must. It must be done to determine customer
expectations within your industry sector. It all starts with
the customer. Knowledge of competitor standards within your
industry is also vital. Airlines often put their own "plants"
on competitors' flights to check out their service standards.
Service is about quality, and quality cannot be achieved unless
it is defined and capable of being measured. Best practice
needs to be found and used.
MANAGEMENT
INVOLVEMENT AND COMMITMENT
Customer care must be addressed as a genuine and ongoing issue
or it will not be taken seriously. Managers must confront
and accept their leadership responsibility. If staff are not
treated as valuable individuals in their own right there is
no chance that a change in customer care will occur.
Organisations
need to understand that their staff choose how to treat their
customers. It is how their staff feel that matters above all
else. Employees do not listen to what their managers say,
they watch what they do - particularly TO THEM! If they are
not living the message (modelling) and giving a high profile
(signalling) to the priority of caring for individuals then
their staff simply won't buy-in to caring for customers long
term.
FOCUS
AND EXPRESSION
The design of any customer care programme or concept must
spring from the heart of the business. It needs to be given
an identity and focus right from the top that is unique to
the organisation. Customer care must be seen as a strategic
part of the individual's and the organisation's future. People
relate to image, vision and uniqueness. The customer care
vision needs to be expressed in language and image which allows
staff to buy-in emotionally and be attracted to it. They must
feel a sense of personal pride and personal growth to be involved
in it.
INVOLVEMENT
AND CRITICAL MASS
All employees must be involved in training. This stimulates
healthy peer pressure toward new standards and provides a
shared experience that encourages culture change. The best
programmes go top to bottom. Train managers on leadership
in customer care as well as have them attend staff customer
care training days. A "serving" attitude needs to
become part of the genetic make-up of the business. Cynics
must be out numbered. Critical mass is all important. Expect
your best to get better; your poor not to move at all; your
average to get inspired by your best and become re-awakened.
...READ ON
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PARTICIPATION
AND STYLE
Training must be highly participative and job-related. You cannot
teach customer care, you can only release it. Programme design
must be stimulating, challenging and enjoyable. People are not
stupid. Most employees understand the commercial issues associated
with service and simply need a non-threatening opportunity to
buy in.
TRAINING
AND FOLLOW-UP
Customer Care Training should never be a one-off. The concepts,
attitude and skills need to be reinforced in an ongoing way.
This can be achieved through rewards programmes, competitions,
open communication of successes, advanced training and ongoing
localised team building around customer service issues.
EVALUATION
AND REWARD
There needs to be focused evaluation after the training process
to determine if new attitudes, behaviours and skills are being
evidenced. Methods of evaluation need to be designed and in
place before the training. Post-training evaluation is vital.
Mystery shopping follow-up, customer research surveys, and the
organisation's own quality control mechanisms are all vitally
important measurement tools. Successes must be rewarded. Give
more to your successful and the message will become clear.
SUMMARY
Superficial or ill-conceived customer care programmes born out
of the wrong motive can be at least a disastrous experience,
and at worst a negative marketing ploy which inoculates both
customers and employees for life against the organisation.
Properly
researched, designed, and structured customer care programmes
vested in a corporate culture and leadership which reflects
and lives the values, have enormous potential to release fresh
corporate energy and put an organisation beyond the reach of
its competitors.
On
re-visiting the same Gentlemen's W.C. of the same Country Club
mentioned in the first paragraph at 4.30pm the same day the
writer was dismayed to find no entries initialled after 2pm!
It just goes to show that customer care is as we all suspect
- another broken promise. Nobody really cares at all - or do
they?
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