World Class Service
 
Ten Steps to World Class Service
 
Let's face it. The bridge between you and your customer is your employees. Your employees are in the trenches, creating success, communicating with your customers and building relationship equity. They are your point men and women. Make no mistake; they are the ones that create world class service.

Easier Said than Done

Of course it's easy to write about world class service and preach about that being the mantra of success and growth. But how do you really create a team that can become world class service providers? The answer, simply put, is to first figure out exactly what you have to start with. Are they right for their position? Who are the best at what they do and how do you create more of them?

A common opinion often published is that only 20% of your employees are effectively using their personal talent and skill in their respective positions. They are happy in their job and willingly release their discretionary energy when they see the need to excel to meet the demands of the job itself. They themselves believe in providing world class service. But it takes a team to accomplish that objective as a company.

So, why aren't all employees like that? That's a complex question that has yet to be answered effectively. At least it has never been answered to my satisfaction. Maybe we would be better served by focusing on how to create that same attitude; that same level of competence and that same skill set in all of our employees.

The First Step ---- Assess the talent that lies within

Before you go off the deep end and figure the answer is to fire 80% of your employees and hire new, consider what it would take to develop that 80% and make them more effective. To do that you have to know what you have to work with.

The Second Step --- Consider reassignments

Once you have a better understanding of what your employees are best suited for you can do some rearranging to better utilize individual talents. This is not an easy task and it will take some soul searching decision making. Additionally, an assessment should eliminate hiding places and you will recognize that there are certain employees that you may need to throw off the bus.

The Third Step - Identify your most precious assets

Once you identified those employees that are truly your most precious asset you must act accordingly.
Listen carefully, if you don't treat your employees like your most important asset --- Then they certainly will not act nor will they perform like your most important asset. And that means you are missing the greatest opportunity in the world to leverage talent and create world class service and competitive advantage. Make no mistake, it is your employees that create core competencies and core competencies create world class service.

The Fourth Step --- Start at the beginning

Start at the beginning, always be on the lookout for your next employee. Develop a profile of your ideal candidate - attitude, communication, skill, drive and experience. Examine your hiring practice. The first thirty days of employment are critical. Create a buddy sponsor and pay the buddy $X to guide the new employee the first month. Let the new employee choose his buddy after two weeks. Can you imagine the cooperation and help the new person will get that first week. Make sure you have a legitimate documented employee orientation program.

The Fifth Step --- Identify training needs.

Identify training needs throughout the organization. Create a training matrix. Allocate funds. Develop an intern program for candidates that show exceptional promise. Create mentoring programs. Train your managers on coaching and mentoring. Don't forget education. Reimburse tuition; create specific educational curriculum's for specific management level and service employees. Create a company university program.

The Sixth Step --- Encourage coaching and mentoring

Burn the annual appraisal forms. They are worthless. Create an obligation for all managers to spend a minimum of thirty minutes a month discussing performance and opportunity with their direct reports. Record it on a 4 x 6 card. This will make annual performance reviews meaningful because you now have data for the entire year, twelve mini reviews.

The Seventh Step --- Create a culture of fairness

Fairness---- Employees want fairness in all their dealings. This starts with fair pay. Is it your goal as a company to pay at or above market? This includes base pay, benefits, recognition and other non monetary rewards. Fair and consistent treatment is a must. Award and recognize with extra paid days off in conjunction with a weekend.

The Eighth Step --- Hold them accountable

Accountability ---- Employees want to be held accountable. They want to be empowered. They want to contribute. Make sure they understand what their job really entails. What are their responsibilities? Job descriptions, if you have them, are often vague or incomplete. Give them the tools and provide the resources necessary for them to reach a standard of excellence.

The Ninth Step --- Communicate effectively

Communication is the first spark in leadership. It will hold the company together. Nothing else is so crucial to survival and solidarity. It is especially important that the message is consistent throughout the management team. No single factor plays a more precious role in building and preserving trust amongst the employees than communication. It is a make or break issue.

Miscommunication, rumours and garbled messages cause conflict and distrust. Don't settle for second-rate communication, it's too critical to success. Avoiding informing all employees, specifically on matters that affect their lives, is like playing with fire. This kind of action breeds resentment, distrust and paranoia.

The Tenth and Most Important Step --- Trust and Respect

Statistics and surveys prove that the majority of employees that leave their employers do not leave due to pay. Employees want to be treated like people. They want respect and trust. Employees will not start respecting their leaders until their leaders start respecting them. They will not start trusting their leaders until their leaders start trusting them. Ask yourself how you would want your managers to treat your son or your daughter if they worked for them?

It's not impossible

Creating world class service is not impossible if employee development is a priority.

Every employee wants to feel that they have a voice and can be heard. They want to know that management knows they exist and what their contribution is. They want the satisfaction of doing a good job. They want to prove their talent to achieve the desired results. If they are challenged, they will become self- motivated. Recognition and praise raises self-esteem. Positive feedback and ample communication allow employees gratification and a newfound confidence in the organization.
 
Organizations in the 21st century that provide world class service have characteristics that often create a large and incredibly complex set of independent relationships between highly diverse groups of people. They recognize the value of their employees.
 
Organizations experiencing problems with staffing and retention may find it extremely valuable to perform assessments not only on potential new hires but on all their existing employees as well. If you are currently not providing the level of service that meets your expectations, consider following the ten steps listed in this article.
 
 
The Keys to Delivering World-Class Service

Every so often, I’m hired by a company to develop a marketing plan for its business. Yet after conducting my initial assessment, I discover that the company’s lack of a marketing plan isn’t the problem. The real problem is the company’s poor service. For these companies, spending any money at all on marketing is like pouring fine wine down a sinkhole; a complete waste.
 
If your company’s service stinks, fix that first. Then, worry about promoting your company.

The Pillars of Service Cool

Without great service, your company is doomed from the start. But what exactly constitutes great service? There are three basic elements; my Pillars of Service Cool.
 
They are:
     Timeliness
     Follow-through and
     Integrity.

1. Timeliness
In today’s “I want it now” society, timeliness can be your company’s trump card. Yet, too many companies don’t seem to respect their customers’ time.
 
Witness:
In a recent study by Jupiter Research, 33 percent of all Internet companies surveyed took three days or longer to get back to customers that had e-mailed for help.

A study by Portland Research Group found that the average consumer must call a company 2.3 times before having their issue resolved.

2. Follow-through
What is a golf swing without follow-through? Accumulated energy without an outlet. A beginning without an end. Effort without results. The same is true of a company’s marketing.
 
“You can have a terrible logo and pathetic signage, but if you are known for your incredible commitment and follow-through, you will be successful” says Jim Logan, marketing consultant. “Reverse the formula and you’ll fail every time.”
 
With diligent follow through, your company will demonstrate its commitment, beyond a shadow of a doubt.
From this, you can expect to reap repeat purchases, positive word-of-mouth, and referrals; the trifecta of successful marketing.

3. Integrity
Today’s buyers are a distrustful bunch. Is it any wonder? Just look at the ethical lapses seen in today’s market:

In 2005, Sony Pictures Entertainment quoted the praise of a nonexistent film critic to promote several of its films. For A Knight’s Tale, The Patriot, and several other films, plaudits were attributed to David Manning, a supposed film critic at The Ridgeview Press.
 
But at the time of the reviews, The Ridgeview Press, a weekly in Connecticut, did not even have a film critic on staff. Sony was ordered to pay $1.5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit.

In August 2001, McDonald’s and the FBI revealed that an employee of Simon Marketing, one of McDonalds’ marketing agencies, had distributed winning game pieces for the “Monopoly” and “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” promotions to a network of accomplices.
The accomplices then claimed prizes ranging from $100,000 to $1 million.

In 2005, Abercrombie & Fitch, a favourite clothing brand among teenagers, launched a T-shirt line featuring such alcohol-related slogans as “Don’t Bother, I’m Not Drunk Yet,” “Bad Girls Chug, Good Girls Drink Quickly,” and “Candy Is Dandy, But Liquor Is Quicker.”
The T-shirt line was quickly withdrawn from the market when complaints from the media and advocacy groups surfaced.

Marketers for these companies all showed an alarming lapse in ethics.
To avoid blunders like these, I recommend holding your marketers to a higher ethical standard; that’s why I’ve created the Lipe Code of Marketing Ethics:

The Lipe Code of Marketing Ethics:

    -We will always be clear and truthful in our marketing communications.

    -We will never intentionally deceive or mislead our customers.
        If we do, we’ll apologize—immediately.

    -We will fully disclose, in the large print, all pricing information.

    -We will always respect the privacy of our customers.

    -We will always give buyers the ability to opt-out; quickly honouring their desire to do so.

    -We will stand behind our products if they fail to deliver on their promises.

    -We will listen to our customers’ needs and concerns, and make every effort
       to incorporate their input.

    -We will not use strong-arm tactics to get people to buy.

    -We will always document claims, testimonials and comparative statements.

    -We will always accept responsibility for the consequences of our actions.

Don’t let years of creating your company identity be wiped out in an instant by an ethical lapse. Circulate this Code of Marketing Ethics to all your marketers, and then hold them accountable for sticking to it.

The Top 7 Customer Service Mistakes

Before learning how a company can offer world class service, it might be helpful to point out the most common service problems in business today.
 
Fix these and your company’s reputation may well be the only marketing program you need:

7. Not adequately training your staff – Financial services call centres in the US that enjoy the highest customer satisfaction levels, routinely invest 180 hours of initial training and seven hours of ongoing training every year into each agent. Does your company take its service training this serious?

6. Trying to win an argument with a customer – Arguing with a customer is bad business. You may win the argument, but you’ll probably lose the customer. Instead, show empathy. Tell the buyer you understand how they feel and that together you’re going to find a solution to their problem.

5. Over relying on voicemail – Customers who take the time to contact your company want to know there’s a face behind your company. Work hard to get customers talking to your company’s humans, not its technology.

4. Spending too much time with chronic complainers – Some people will never be happy with your service. If you’ve received at least three complaints from the same customer, it’s time to get rid of them, and focus on those you can help.

3. Taking criticism personally – Most callers don’t want to attack you personally. Although they may be lashing out at you, they’re really most frustrated by the problem they face. Take their attention off you and place it squarely back on the problem.

2. Not acting like you care –68 percent of buyer defections take place because customers feel they’ve been treated poorly. Most customers don’t expect an immediate resolution to their problem, but they do expect your concern.
Routinely use terms like “sorry to keep you waiting” and “thanks for contacting us today.”

1. Not delivering what you promise – Because some buyers are continually misled by companies, they’re understandably distrustful. For world class service, deliver exactly what you promise. If it’s “I’ll call you by tomorrow with the answer” or “I’ll put that in the mail today,” do it.

Concierge marketing: How to turn information into a marketing tool
 
At the root of it, a concierge marketer—much like the hotel concierge who dispenses invaluable information about restaurants and local happenings—tries to simplify a buyer’s life by providing helpful information.
 
The first step in being a successful concierge marketer is to provide passive marketing tools which are printed or online informational products.
 
Using any of these, buyers can quickly get answers to their nagging questions:

    -Tip sheets
    -Booklets/pamphlets
    -White papers
    -Checklists
    -Buying guides
 
Another set of concierge marketing tools are called buyer involvement tools. These are designed to create dialogues with your market and include:

    - Post-installation follow-up calls
    - Online customer forums
    -Interactive dialogue tools

One of my favourite buyer involvement tools is Amazon.com’s “Wish List” program. Using this tool at the Amazon site, I can develop my own “Wish List” of books, and then email it to members of my family. That way, my family knows what to get me for Christmas without having to ask, I get the Christmas presents I want, and Amazon gets the sales. Everybody wins.

Next steps for concierge marketers

To become a concierge marketer, first identify the most common information voids your buyers face.
 
Ask yourself these questions:

    -At which stage in the buying cycle are our buyers confused?
    -What information do they lack?
    -What customer questions does our service staff repeatedly field?

Then, design tools to address the highest priority ones. If for example, your buyers are confused about which elements of your service are outsourced and which are performed in-house, you could develop a PowerPoint slide that covers this topic in greater detail.

In closing…
Milton Hershey once said that quality was the best kind of advertising in the world.
For your company identity to be successful, the service provided must be of the highest quality possible. Focus on delivering world-class service first, then, and only then consider marketing it.
 
 
Providing World Class Service As a Small Company - Tips and Pointers

Competing with the big dogs is tough when you are just starting out.
 
As a small business owner, I found that the greatest advantage of being small is the flexibility we offer and the rapport we build with our customers. Good service is another key factor in retaining customers and gaining new ones.

Perhaps the greatest challenge for a small business is providing the type of professional customer service big firms offer. You are always short handed. You can't necessarily afford qualified staff. You don't have fancy database to store customer data. You don't have million dollar intranet to access key product information. Heck you may not even have a receptionist to answer the phone when you are having lunch. But do not despair.
 
Here are some tips that will make your life easier:

#1: Get a good small business accounting system:

QuickBooks is what I use! I am not at all related to Intuit in anyway, but the program is great. Invest in the premier version, and you can even link up computers in your office to share the same database. Your can store tons of information, do searches by customer name, and store job details. This puts your customers' information right at your fingertip, and eliminates a lot of unnecessary paperwork.

#2: Get a voice mail system:

- As soon as you can afford it, get a voice mail system so you won't miss any critical calls. A voice mail systems gives the illusion of size instantly. Setup up a mailbox for each department, even if you are the only person working in the office. A voice mail system is much cheaper than hiring a receptionist.

If you really can't afford a voice mail system, rent a mailbox with your phone service provider. The cost is minimum, but the voice quality is much better than an off-the-shelf answering machine. Alternatively, forward your office phone line to your cell phone. Make sure to sign up for a reliable service with the best reception in your coverage area.

#3: Get a company email address:

- An email address ending in "@aol.com" just does not look professional enough. For less than $10 a month, you can get an email address ending in "@yourcompanyname.com". Remember, it's the small things that give you away as a small company.

#4: Have a well-designed web site:

- A well designed web site not only induce confidence, it also provides crucial information you want your customers to know. You can put your entire sales pitch on your web site: your products, your prices, your delivery, your guarantees, your expertise, and so on. The world wide web can level the playing field between you and a Fortune 100 company if you know how to market your company in the right way.

#5: Give the best customer service:

- This is really what makes and breaks a business, in my humble opinion. And great customer service doesn't require a lot of money, just a lot of determination and a bit of hard work. Here are some tips:

- KNOW your products: Know them better than any of your competition. Know the good and the bad. People want to do business with someone who knows what they are doing. This gives them confidence in you and your company.

- Be helpful: Ask the question "How can I help?" instead of "What's in it for me?" If people can feel your sincerity, then they will feel comfortable enough to buy from you. Train your staff so they share the same attitude.

- Be organized: File your customers' and their order information properly. Use a professional accounting system made for small business. It gets really annoying for a customer if you or your staff can't find their information.

- Be your customers' friend: Big companies with call centres most likely than not are not user friendly. As a small company, it is vital you develop a relationship with your customers, big or small. People switch jobs so frequently these days you never know where they might end up tomorrow. Never burn any bridges.

- Be flexible with your policies and prices. Big companies are not.

And finally, always put your customers first. If you do right by them, you WILL make money.
 
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Ten Steps to World Class Service http://www.ProfitHunters.biz We are Rick Johnson's Partner in Providing Innovative Solutions and Services to Enhance Success. The Assessment Tool.Mention Promo Code: Wolf231 to receive 10% off your first order. E-mail TonyDiRico@ProfitHunters.biz
http://www.ceostrategist.com - Sign up to receive "The Howl" a free monthly newsletter that addresses real world industry issues. - Straight talk about today's issues. Rick Johnson, expert speaker, wholesale distribution's "Leadership Strategist", founder of CEO Strategist, LLC a firm that helps clients create and maintain competitive advantage. Need a speaker for your next event, E-mail rick@ceostrategist.com Don't forget to check out the Lead Wolf Series that can help you put more profit into your business. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rick_Johnson
The Keys to Delivering World-Class Service Author BioJay Lipe is the president of Emerge Marketing LLC, a firm that helps growing companies focus their marketing. He is the author of the books The Marketing Toolkit for Growing Businesses (Chammerson Press, 2002) and Stand Out from the Crowd: Secrets to Crafting a Winning Company Identity (Kaplan Publishing, Sep 2006). He is also a sought after speaker and seminar leader, and can be reached through his Smart Marketing blog or through his website http://www.emergemarketing.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jay_Lipe
Providing World Class Service As a Small Company - Tips and Pointers Jackie Or is the owner of The Promotion Factory, Inc. Her company provides custom logoed corporate apparel, embroidered shirts, and custom baseball hats at wholesale price points. The Promotion Factory also provides overseas custom apparel and custom hats outsourced manufacturing services.Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jackie_Or