Training is a key feature of the coaching style of project management, which encourages employee self development. To paraphrase Jeff Bezos, your customers are like guests to a party, and your business is the host. Your job is to make every critical aspect of their experience better every day.

service excellence definition

As the term rightly suggests, service excellence means excellent treatment and excellent service quality to your customers. In my previous piece on this topic, I discussed that the customers of the service desk, in most cases the employees of the organization, thrive most when they are in the “zone.” The same is true for your service desk employees. So, it is important to know who has which skills, values and what their preferred skills are so you can challenge them with learning and growth opportunities. I think leadership behavior like that is truly important to build a team that is also service excellence-focused. Leadership in service excellent needs to be friendly, accessible, truly interested in customers and employees, and passionate about the service excellence vision. For example, if your company operates in a highly technical field, make sure that your team shares the same technical skills and know-how so that they can serve your customers effectively.

Service

When a customer complains, you have a brief window of opportunity to make or break all chances for satisfactory resolution and, ultimately, loyalty. Focused discussion on procedures and policies exposes weak links and misalignment, and enables organizations to devise collaborative and cross-functional solutions.

I have long ago learned that tight waterproof agreements and clauses in the contract do not always work best. Asking, for instance, for a fixed pricing agreement usually means the supplier is also going to put in very detailed and specific clauses about what is and is not included. Whether you are an entrepreneur, manager, consultant, (Vice-)President, CxO, etc…. This seven-step process, you will have all the tools you need to make Customer Service Excellence work. By way of this article, I will try and throw light on a few relevant steps that an organization can take to embark on this journey. Most of us learned the importance of saying “I’m sorry” as young children.

#1 Higher customer loyalty

They should be familiar with your company’s products and services, understand customer needs and expectations, and be able to provide helpful advice and solution in a timely manner. The ability to provide excellent customer service will set you apart from other businesses in your industry and give you an edge over competitors. And since competition never sleeps, each organization has to strive to stay ahead. When customers have a positive experience with your business, they are more likely to become loyal customers who come back time and again.

#1 Service excellence can become a key differentiator you can leverage to get ahead of the competition. If you focus your efforts on being great at customer service you’ll convert customers into loyal advocates. Service Excellence doesn’t just want to satisfy, it wants to delight. This can happen through unexpected additional services, but also through the development of innovations.

Value as the lead indicator for Service Excellence

Employees know exactly what they are expected to achieve and should be encouraged to determine the best way to deliver what’s required. This involves finding employees who are flexible, open-minded and innate problem-solvers. They should excel at communication skills, and have a natural ability to turn complex problems into simple solutions, while satisfying both the needs of the customer and the business. Any business looking to embed a Service Excellence strategy needs to look beyond excelling just at customer service, and instead, develop a mindset where important decisions begin and end with the customer.

Basically, the guideline describes a cycle of planning, implementation, measurement and adjustment. The strategy should always be adapted to current circumstances in order to achieve a target-oriented fixed Customer loyalty and to generate an economic advantage from it. I am a Digital Marketer and an Entrepreneur with 12 Years of experience in Business and Marketing. Business is my passion and i have established myself in multiple industries with a focus on sustainable growth.

management

This document applies to all organizations delivering services, such as commercial organizations, public services and not-for-profit organizations. These are some of the key elements that play a pivotal role in achieving Service Excellence. Simply training or instructing your staff to be hospitable with the customer will not work, it has to be imbibed within the culture of the organization. Service Design helps align internal service provisions including all roles, front stage and backstage actors, processes and workflows. With Service Design, information provided to one agent should be available to all other agents who interact with the same customer. Well-planned, achievable goals provide business direction and a sense of accomplishment when attained.

  • It is the action a service provider takes in response to service failure.
  • Industries around the world depend on a variety of services and products to fulfill their respective missions.
  • Any viable business is based on employees being aware of the importance of the buyers of their products and services and always taking their needs and wishes into account in their interaction with them.
  • Anticipating means understanding and preparing for customer expectations at key points along the consumer journey.

This will help you stay on top of customer needs and ultimately increase the level your customers are satisfied with your support, solution, or brand in general. You should review customer feedback regularly, ask for surveys and make sure that you are taking all the necessary steps to make sure that customers are happy with their experience. It can be a single sentence during a support call, it can be a brand message that has that “click” to it. No matter what – focus on providing some personalization to your customers. I’d like to talk about what makes service excellence the tool that helps a business stand out from the competition.

All feedback is valuable

You should design a service that caters to the client’s expectations and adapts to newer ways of working. There is a team of people working on it, and then, there is a network of stakeholders, including clients. Empathy understands what the other service excellence definition person is feeling and what he/she is going through. In this case, if you try and empathize with the consumers, they will get friendlier with you and become easy to handle. Hence, the service should be excellent to minimize negative feedback.

service excellence definition

When customers evaluate a product or service they will compare their perception with the actual delivered product or service to what they think it should be. Successful companies proactively engage with customers, not only in order to provide exceptional service but to receive their feedback on product or service development and improvement. They have a comprehensive system in place for receiving this feedback, and empower their employees to operate autonomously in the fulfillment of their customer service duties as well as resolution of conflicts or complaints. We compare the company’s or individual’s service to the service criteria as outlined in the International Customer Service Standard (ICSS). The ICSS is based on a balanced scorecard methodology and evaluate service, finance, operations and employee development.

Delivering Service excellence requires specific skills

To give you an example of excellent customer service powered by creativity we’ll mention Zappos. It was the delivery company’s fault but Zappos is the one who found a perfect solution. Since the man needed those shoes urgently since he was the best man, they’d sent him free shoes and that came the night before the wedding. To truly reach a standard of service excellence you have to give your customer service team the freedom to do whatever it takes for final resolution -whether that’s making compromises or spending a little extra.