We talk to and help many companies about their: engineering service excellence, practices, desires, and ambitions.. When we first meet with a client to discuss and plan customer service initiatives, it is not uncommon for them to be overwhelmed with the scope of work that they want to be done. we often see the ‘rabbit in the headlights look’ on their faces as the owners and directors wonder just what have they got themselves into.
The problem is that most people, and including us, tend to overcomplicate things by thinking that all of the patrs of the plan – need to be done right now. And they don’t – as Stephen Covey says in his book ‘The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’, we need to put first things first, and the first thing is to agree to KEEP THINGS SIMPLE. Overcomplicate service ideas or any initiatives, which is very easy to do, and you are setting yourself up (and the client) for burnout and disappointment.
So one of the ways to keep things simple and on track is to continually reflect on what the service focus is all about. It is taking a step back, taking a few deep breaths, as you put everything into perspective. So at the risk of oversimplifying things, we would like to provide a perspective of customer service from a customer’s point of view. And while this viewpoint might sound simple. We think that you will find that it applies to most companies’ customers. When you get to the essence of what they want from you.. So as your customer – what do they want from you?
- We want you to know what you are doing.
- We want you to be efficient, while you’re doing it.
- We want you to be nice to me.
So when you really look at it, peeling away all of the stuff that confuses the issue, these are the things that we want as a customer, and so let’s take a look at each one again from the customer’s perspective.
Number one, know what you’re doing. We expect you to do the job right and if for some reason you do the job wrong. I expect you to fix it with little or no inconvenience to me. We expect that you’ve had the proper training and that you can accurately answer my questions, or find someone who can – and we expect you to do what you said you were going to do.
Number two, be efficient. Our time is valuable. We should not have to put up with processes that are designed for your convenience, at the expense of mine. So please understand that it is inconvenient for us to be on hold for 20 minutes, as we listened to a recorded voice that says how important your company is, leaving me sitting in a waiting room, while 30 minutes passes by! And waiting for a home delivery, that might occur sometime between 12:00 and 17:00 takes us away from our job. On the other hand, when we can tell that you’re concerned with my convenience, you move a few notches up on the customer loyalty scale.
And number three, be nice to me. We are already giving you our hard-earned money (or we have already given it to you). Please act as though you appreciate it. It just takes a smile or sincere tone of voice to show that you care. We feel much better when we deal with an employee who clearly enjoys his or her job and seems happy that we are there. Now, we know that this view of customer service is stripped down to its basics, and it’s meant to be. We would ask you to look at your operation, through the lens of these three elements. We think that you’ll find that the service behaviors you are looking for, or that you are re trying to achieve fit nicely into this basic view. Whether you are at the beginning of a service improvement initiative – when everything appears kind of daunting, or you are in the middle of an initiative that has become confusing or bogged down. It helps to be reminded of what you are trying to achieve – and to remove all of the things that take you off target. Getting back to the core of excellent service is re-energizing, and it makes it all seem achievable – it also increases the likelihood of success.
We hope you found the ideas on the ‘basics of engineering service excellence’ in this post helpful. If you would like more information about how Mills Consulting Group could help your company, or you would like to learn about our free ServiceM8 engineering forms, implementation guide, and money-back guarantee – please visit our website. Thank you for reading.