continued from page 93
The answer may be surprising. Make sure everyone in your organization knows that exceptional service is part of his or her job description, and as a leader you need to “walk the talk.” When working with organizational leaders, I try to bring home the concept that you have to say it’s important - but also act like it.
Leaders are role models and mentors, and the first step is to take care of your employees who take care of your cus- tomers. Creating an environment that encourages organizational members to speak up when they see things that aren’t working will help create the consistency needed when servicing customers. As we are now entering a time of constant organizational change, engaging employ- ees in revitalizing the “passion for serv- ice” can lead to powerful results.
The next step is to answer the question: “Are we doing the right things?” Start by determining the efficiency of the process- es being used to design, produce, deliver and support your products and services. As a practitioner of organizational psy- chology, I work with leaders to produce questions for their customers that can identify potential problem areas and suc- cesses.
• What are you getting that you need?
• What are you getting that you don’t need?
• What do you need that you are not getting?
• What are you still unable to accomplish?
External customers purchase the product and/or service, financially supporting the organization. Therefore, it just makes sense that leaders would want to satisfy these people. Customers are the people who receive your work, so they are the ones with whom you need to be in touch.
There are several ways to obtain cus- tomer information. Knowing your cus- tomers will determine how the data will
Mid-Atlantic EVENTS Magazine 97
be collected and what forms of data will be used. The goal is to collect meaning- ful data. Data collection has to be done with a clear purpose. A customer service survey questionnaire can be designed to provide insight into how your customers feel about their interactions with the employees that service them. Surveys also can provide information on how customers use your product or service, what problems they may have experi- enced, and what they are getting that they need, and what they need that they are not currently receiving.
Surveys can be an online tool that is sent to customers, or they can be used as part of a customer visit. It is imperative that, when setting up customer visits, the client is aware that you would like to take the time for the survey. Teams need to be in touch with customers to understand what they want and how they want it.
Focus groups can be another valuable tool to help you understand whether your process and service is consistently meeting customer requirements. When a company wants to know how people feel about its products and/or services, it often turns to focus groups, a collection of people participating in a group inter- view.
The benefit of a focus group is that it gives customers an opportunity to pro- vide more in-depth responses and expla- nations of their feelings. Small groups of eight to ten participants’ work well, allow- ing businesses to receive input from real- life customers.
Ultimately, the goal is to exceed customer expectations. Doing a good job is no longer good enough. Good customer service is no longer good enough. It has to be “WOW.” That means doing what you say you will, when you say you will. As a meeting management company, we had client debriefs after every event.
No company is perfect, and everyone makes mistakes, but showing the client that our goal was to have the outcome they desired expressed our motivation to be results driven and service-orientated.
After all, leaders should always be look- ing for ways to improve their service and systems.
With a master’s degree in organizational psy- chology along with 20 years of experience as an entrepreneur, Linda Davis provides her clients with a broad perspective through her new company recognizingpotential. 609-706-1607,
linda@recognizingpotential.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100