In the Assessment stage you assess and develop a
shared sense of current reality of the service culture. Identifying the perceptions of where you are now heavily influences the implementation of the rest of the initiative. Expectations for the future need to be anchored in an accurate understanding of current reality. If not, you are setting yourself up for misunderstandings and possible failure—budgets, timelines, people and resource allocations may end up way off.
The key question is: Do you have enough data to form an accurate and relevant picture of the service culture and service standards, or do you need to do more assessment?
Communico has researched and designed an assessment tool based on the 20 competencies that drive an exceptional service culture. It is called the MAGIC™ Service Culture Assessment and stands on the following Five Pillars of Sustaining Exceptional Service:
- Shared Service Vision and Values
- Service-Focused Leaders
- Consistent Service Delivery and Measurement
- Developmental Training and Coaching
- Constant Systemic Improvement and Reinforcement
Each of the 20 competencies rest under one of the five pillars. The assessment can be done through interviews, focus groups and/or surveys.
The reason for beginning with a genuine assessment of the service culture is so that front line staff feel that someone in a senior role has listened to them. They each have a view of current reality that influences their everyday performance. They must feel their reality and their voices are heard. Without this, the likelihood of people adopting and assimilating new communication skills and attitudes is low.
Critiquing Service Interactions
Assessment may also include critiquing service interactions using The 33 Points of MAGIC. This assessment tool can let you know if your customer interactions (phone, face-to-face, or written) are making or costing your organization money.
The data gathered form the benchmark for your measurement of the success of the initiative. It can give decision-makers, and all participants, the answer to two key questions:
- Why are we doing this?
- What does winning look like?
Next Page: Stage 2 - Alignment