Through my studies, travels around the world and my work in the service sectors I’ve probably had more time to dwell over service philosophies than most. That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t affect you in your every day. You may not have a name for it, but it’s there.
Service philosophy is defined as “an organization’s attitude towards its customers.” Some of them are well known and you’ll recognize them by a catch phrase like “the customer is always right” by Harry Gordon Selfridge, the founder of Selfridge’s department store in London in 1909 or Radisson’s jacket lapel pin “Yes I can!” others are more hidden in a mission statement somewhere or even worse not spoken at all.
As a matter of fact it’s impossible to NOT have a service philosophy based on that definition. There is always some kind of attitude towards your customer whether it’s written down somewhere, addressed at employee introduction days or just seeping through in everyday interactions. And keep in mind that the written down “company policy” may not be what you’re delivering.
A lot of studies show that companies that score high on customer satisfaction also fare well when employee relations are tested. There is a strong correlation between employee relations and customer relations. Shouldn’t be surprising after all, it’s all about how you interact. However, keep in mind that changing attitudes don’t always guarantee a change in behavior. Frontline staff makes judgment calls constantly based on the resources that they have been provided with. Even if Joe the receptionist understands and agrees with the underlying philosophy of “Making prompt service to the customer is a priority over other work” when the phone is ringing and there is a line at the front desk, he will prioritize based on the resources he has available.
Behavior is determined by attitudes and circumstance. It’s not enough to just deal with one you need to address both.
I am sure your local post office has a conscious service philosophy in place they might even have it on a plaque somewhere. Keeping that in mind when was the last time you left a post office thinking to yourself this was exceptional customer service?
Executive and senior management in the companies that get this right understand that employees must witness the commitment of management to customer service before they are willing to change their own attitudes and only by allocating sufficient resources will employee behaviors change.
One major company has these three statements as part of a mission statement of sorts:
• Focus on the user and all else will follow.
• It's best to do one thing really, really well.
• You can be serious without a suit.
These statements say a lot about how they interact with customers. When I tell you that the company in question is Google (part of the Google “ten things we know to be true”) I guess you can recognize the way they interact with you in those three statements. The second statement certainly sets them apart from the competitor Yahoo. And there we were thinking Google didn’t really have customers in the traditional sense.
Unlike some of my contemporary scholars of service I am not saying that there is one philosophy that will work for everyone. However, it is important to be conscious of what your philosophy is and how it affects the way you work. The choice of service philosophy determines your path to excellent customer service, and if you’re not conscious of what your organization’s philosophy is you will never achieve it.
Here are three different statements and how they determine different paths to excellence;
• “Yes I can” requires lots of empowerment of frontline staff. If they don’t have the power to make things happen then “No they can’t.”
• “The customer is a priority over other work” requires smaller workloads per employee so that they are able to drop everything and assist the customer. Perhaps more staff is needed to deliver excellence.
• “We are proactive where others are reactive,” demands better planning and anticipation of what the customer wants and needs before he knows it himself. Dedicated and systematic data collection enables you to make better decisions. And for this path experienced staff is hard to beat.
All three are valid service philosophies and a commitment from management combined with an allocation of the right resources for your chosen path will enable you to provide your customers with excellent service.
Think for a second about what your organization’s service philosophy is;
• Is it stated or underlying?
• Is management committed to you and to the philosophy?
• Does frontline staff believe in the spoken philosophy of your organization?
• Do you have the right resources to follow your chosen path?
• Are you providing excellent customer service?
