In this 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 conducted research on organizations that have been able to create and sustain exceptional service. We have found that a true service culture is only sustained when the following Five Pillars of a Service Culture are present:
1. Shared Service Vision and Values. Clear, compelling shared vision and organizational values support the expression of service excellence. They emphasize an exceptional experience for employees and customers.
2. Service-Focused Leaders. Leaders at all levels model the service mindset, value the contribution of employees and strive to continually improve the customer's experience.
3. Consistent Service Delivery and Measurement. The standards for service delivery are clear, consistent and integrated in the organization's systems. Established measures for face-to-face, phone and e-interactions are shared by all and practiced with employees and customers.
4. Developmental Training and Coaching. Training is provided to all employees so they can develop the attitude, communication skills and knowledge to provide an exceptional customer experience. Developmental performance coaching, versus punitive or evaluative, identifies and promotes service contributions and individual growth.
5. Constant Systemic Improvement and Reinforcement. Systems and processes are constantly improved and aligned with the service vision and values.
Choose an assessment tool that provides insights into your service culture, not just classic organizational performance measures.
The reason for beginning with a genuine assessment of the service culture is so that front line staff feels 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 is understood and their voices are heard. Without this, the likelihood of people adopting and assimilating new communication skills and attitudes is low.
The assessment data becomes 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: Phase Two: Alignment