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Southern Crescent Technical College

Enhancing the Internal Service & Teamwork from Your Dept.

Pete ToshThe Focus Group

pete.tosh@thefocusgroup.biz

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The real objective of any business is to:

Attract and Retain Customers

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Everybody Has a Customer

“If you’re not serving the customer, you’d better be serving someone who is.”

Karl Albrecht/Ron Zemke

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When a member of a relay team passes the baton to a teammate, they are engaging in an internal customer interaction.

What does the supplier need to make sure he/she does and/or knows? Why? _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________How will this interaction affect the results of the meet? Why? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________What are the similarities between this analogy and your department’s functioning?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What’s an Internal Customer?

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The “Default” Strategy:

Keep Doing What We are Doing & Hope It’s

Good Enough

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What’s the Difference Between Manufacturing

and Service Jobs?What Comes to Mind When We Analyze Manufacturing Job A vs. Service Job B? (Consider Skills Needed, the Type of Employees Who Will or Will Not Be Successful, the Impact of the Jobs On Customers, and What Is Required for Satisfactory Performance)

Manufacturing Service

Job A Job B

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Products vs. ServicesProducts

1. The customer owns an object.2. The goal of product production

is uniformity.3. A product can be put into

inventory.4. The customer is an end user

who is not involved in the production process.

5. Quality control consists of comparing output to specifications.

6. If improperly produced, the product can be pulled off the line.

Services 1. The customer owns a memory.2. The goal of service is

uniqueness.3. A service happens in the

moment.4. The customer is a co-producer

who is a partner in creating the service.

5. Customers compare expectations to perceptions.

6. If improperly performed, planned recovery is usually the only effective means of recourse.

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How Do Your Internal Customers See You?

A Customer Report Card

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1. Name your or your department’s primary customer(s).

_________________________________________

2. List the five (5) most critical factors this customer uses in evaluating your products and/or service:

A. _______________________________________

B. _______________________________________

C. _______________________________________

D. _______________________________________

E. _______________________________________

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3. Using the factors identified in #2, weigh each factor in terms of importance to this customer (the total needs to add up to 100 with the number increasing as the importance to the customer increases):Factors Weight

A. _________________________ ________B. _________________________ ________C. _________________________ ________D. _________________________ ________E. _________________________ ________

Total: 100

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4. How would this customer evaluate your performance on each of these factors? (A through F and why)

Factors Weight Customer Evaluation Why?

A. __________ ________ ______________________ ________

B. __________ ________ ______________________ ________

C. __________ ________ ______________________ ________

D. __________ ________ ______________________ ________

E. __________ ________ ______________________ ________

Total: 100

5. Your conclusions & strategy?

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IMPORTANCE

Improve ExcelPerformance

PERFORMANCE

Insert one item in each quadrant

1 5

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Low Priority Redirect Low Attention Resources

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The Gaps Model of Service Delivery

Quality Service is:Closing the Service Gap

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Your Customer’s Definition of the Quality of Your Service:

The Discrepancy Between The Discrepancy Between Their Their ExpectationsExpectations and Their and Their

PerceptionsPerceptions

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Customer Expectations1. Understand your customers’

expectations2. Develop standards of performance in

line with their expectations3. Perform/supply service in line with

your standards4. Avoid creating unrealistic expectations/ over-promising

Customer Perceptions

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Questions Upon Which to Build Your Service Improvement Plan

1. How Can You Know What Your Customers Expect?

2. How Can You Ensure that the Proper Standards Are Set?

3. How Can You Ensure that Your Standards are Met?

4. How Can You Avoid Having False Expectations Sent?

Do Your Customers Get What They Expect?Do Your Customers Get What They Expect?

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The Most Important Dimensions of HR Service Quality

Tangibles - Appearance of office, personnel, products, materials, etc. (What the Customer Sees)

Reliability - Ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately (Keeping the Promise)

Responsiveness - Willingness to help customers and provide prompt service (Readiness to Serve)

Assurance - Knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence (“I Made the Right Choice.”)

Empathy - Caring and individualized attention provided to customers (Commitment to the Customer)

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What Do Your Customers Use to Evaluate Their Experiences with Your Dept?

Tangibles:

Reliability:

Responsiveness:

Assurance:

Empathy:

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____ Tangibles Why?______________________

____ Reliability Why?______________________

____ Responsiveness Why?______________________

____ Assurance Why?______________________

____ Empathy Why?______________________

Evaluate the Service from Your Department: As You Think Your Customers Would & Why?

1 2 3 4 5 Poor Less than Average/ Above Outstanding

Satisfactory Satisfactory Average

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You Are Constantly Creating Experiences for Your Customers

What Feelings & Reactions Have You Had When You Were a Customer?

Buying a Car?Ordering a product or service from a supplier?As a patient in a doctor’s office or hospital?Having dinner in an up-scale restaurant?

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When Do Your Customers Have Experiences When Interacting

with Your Department?

What Feelings are Created? How Can You Know?

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Improving Any Moment of Truth

Standard Expectations: expectations that must be met to receive a passing grade from a customer

Experience Detractors: incidents that leave a customer with a less-than-positive assessment

Experience Enhancers: organizational initiatives that would cause customers to feel that their expectations were exceeded

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Cycle of Service Map

Moments of Truth - in the Sequence in Which Your Customers Experience Them

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Designing Service Standards for Your Customers’ Experiences

1. Agree on a Cycle of Service that your customers experience

2. Flow chart the Cycle of Service3. Identify within the Cycle one Moment

of Truth where there is likely to be misery created for your customers

4. For this misery point write Standards of Performance which define quality service performance

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Means of Providing Value to Your Customers

• Interpersonal: interactions your customers have with your team

• Procedural: processes you ask your customers to go through when doing business with your dept

• Informational: providing customers the information they want & need

• Environmental: the tangibles & physical setting around which your customers experience your service

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Which Means of Providing Value Can You Enhance & How?

• Interpersonal: interactions your customers have with your team ____

• Procedural: processes you ask your customers to go through when doing business with your dept ____

• Informational: providing customers the information they want & need ____

• Environmental: the tangibles & physical setting around which your customers experience your service ____

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Individually write a question that you’d like to ask.

As a team decide on a spokesperson & agree on two of the questions that your team wants to ask.

and

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Enhancing the Quality of Service from Your Department

What you do is more important than what you say.

Do something. Start somewhere & follow your nose.

Providing quality service is a process – implement many small initiatives vs. big events.

Keep up your efforts. Cultures change slowly. Think of how long it took to develop the culture your dept. has now.

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Please outline the Action Steps you plan to initiate.

Action Steps:

Date to Date to Specific Step How Measured Begin Complete1.___________ _____________ ________ ________2.___________ _____________ ________ ________3.___________ _____________ ________ ________4.___________ _____________ ________ ________5.___________ _____________ ________ ________

Signed________________________ Date_________________

Your Preferred Future

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Pete ToshThe Focus Group

Pete.tosh@thefocusgroup.biz478-746-6891

www. Thefocusgroup.biz