IN PURSUIT OF CUSTOMERSERVICE EXCELLENCE

ROY ATKINSON – SENIOR WRITER / ANALYSTBREW CITY HDI - OCTOBER 20, 2011

About HDI

•Serves global community of 110,000• 55,000 HDI Certified • 60+ local chapters, including Brew City

Topics

•Customer Service Excellence –what is it?• Is there a framework for it?• New media considerations

Customer Service Excellence

• There is a framework!• Those same, fine folks who gave us ITIL®

http://www.customerserviceexcellence.uk.com/

Customer Service Excellence

CSE

Insight

Organizational Culture

Information and Access

Delivery

Timeliness and Quality

Customer Insight

CSE

Insight

Organizational Culture

Information and Access

Delivery

Timeliness and Quality

Customer Insight

What is a customer?• One who purchases good or services•“A person one has to deal with”

Customer Insight

• How do you gain Customer Insight?• Try to see things the way customers do (“customer lens”)• Gather available information• Listen to them (OMG!)

Customer Insight

What do you learn from Customer Insight?

• What they need – so you can deliver it• What they expect – so you can exceed it

Customer Insight

• Identify – who are your customers?• Key word: Engage• Learn• Review• Improve

Customer Insight

Who are your real customers?• Internal

o IT employees (think “OLA”)o Non-IT employees (think “SLA”)

• Externalo Your company’s “public”o Your company’s “public’s public”

Customer Service Excellence

Insight

Organizational Culture

Information and Access

Delivery

Timeliness and Quality

CSE

Organizational Culture

The foundation of Service Excellence is a customer-focused organization

It’s the culture, man.

Organizational Culture

• Commitment to putting the customer at the heart of service delivery• Supported and sponsored by the organization’s leaders• Policies and procedures support the customer

Organizational Culture

“Everything speaks”• Be aware of customer perceptions• Each person, each thing that’s part of a customer interaction sends a message*• What’s your message?

* Everything is part of the customer interaction

Organizational Culture

Organizational Culture

• Recruitment, training and developmento Customer-focused

• Staff attitudes and actionso Polite, friendly, understanding

• Team performanceo Recognition, rewardo Linked to customer feedback

Organizational Culture

“Roy’s Famous”Four Elements of Customer Service Attitude

Listening – Hear what they sayEmpathy – Understand what they sayClarity – They understand youConsistency – They hear the same thing no matter who they talk to

Customer Service Excellence

Insight

Organizational Culture

Information and

Access

Delivery

Timeliness and Quality

CSE

Information and Access

• Information about services is available (Service Catalog)• Clear contact information• Up-front statement of any charges or requirements• Use a variety of channels• Allow flexible responses and input

Information and Access

According to the 2011 HDI Support Center Practices and Salary Report…

More than half of support centers are now using social media in the course of providing support.

Information and Access

… but only a tiny percentage are actually using social media as a channel.

Somewhere between 3 and 6% are using it to create tickets…Most use it only to “push” info out.

Information and Access

• Allow customers as much access as you can• Consider having them contribute to knowledge and solutions as subject matter experts

Delivery

Insight

Organizational Culture

Information and Access

Delivery

Timeliness and Quality

CSE

Delivery

• Make agreements with your customers about what they can expect (SLA)• Deliver according to targets that you have set (metrics)• Develop and learn from best practices identified within and outside

Delivery

• Say what you’ll do• Do what you say• Admit mistakes• Continually improve

Timeliness and Quality

Insight

Organizational Culture

Information and Access

Delivery

Timeliness and Quality

CSE

Timeliness and Quality

•Handle dips in performance swiftly and openly with your customers•Have a clear, easy-to-use feedback / complaint system• Monitor quality•Learn from your complaints – they give you more customer insight

Timeliness and Quality

• Set measurable standards for response across access channels• Inform your customers about your standards – and meet or exceed them• Share what you learn across the organization – cut down customer need to contact you

Timeliness and Quality

• You cannot measure and manage everything – select the key info• Don’t gather data because you can –gather the data you should• Use the information you obtain to drive improvement

Timeliness and Quality

Act on customer feedback.

Customer Service Excellence

• Define your “true customer”•Insight•Culture

• Create a language of serviceInsight / Culture / Information and Access / Delivery / Timeliness and Quality

• Simplify the customer experience• Learn, share, improve• Variety of channels

Customer Service Excellence

Excellent service is rare because it takes real commitment to make excellence “business as usual.”

- Unleashing Excellence

Customer Service Excellence

Insight

Organizational Culture

Information and Access

Delivery

Timeliness and Quality