Suppose service is the bedrock of the infinite stake theory. What should an executive in charge of service focus on to deliver a consistently excellent service? That was the question from a C-level executive in response to last week’s article.
As noted last week, service goes beyond a process to follow to a lifestyle of purposeful engagement, and inspiring communication to serve others and derive fulfilment from being a service provider. Lifestyle, engagement, and communication are the keywords in developing a service culture. Everyone must be moving forward intentionally to create a culture of service to the internal customer first before it impacts the external stakeholders.
A notable example of an organization that excelled with service is Singapore Airlines. Singapore Airlines, like Southwest Airlines, is a preferred airline to many customers not because the aircraft are different, or the in-flight entertainments are unusual. What makes people willing to pay a premium for the airline on the same routes, is the culture of excellent service. The airline successfully had an excessive cash reserve of over USD6billion when the industry was passing through crises. Who are those that provide excellent service for the Singaporean Airline?
There are two touch points of focus for organisations that want to uplift their service and service culture. Focusing on what matters helps to achieve the desired results. What you focus on will be magnified. In Henry Ford’s words, success will take care of itself if everyone is moving forward together.
Focusing on your staff to make them your service points is a journey for any organization that wants to build a sustainable customer base, patronage, and powerful brand
In a stiff competitive world, organisations that want to be different and ultimately productive must focus on two primordial service points: the staff and the internal processes. Changi airport, Google, Microsoft, Costco, to mention a few, focused on developing and imbibing the service’s spirit in their employees to be the leading service organizations. No one gives what he or she does not have. I have said it severally at my various speaking engagements; a happy staff is a happy customer. The investment in your employees through a customized service education and creating an authentic work environment will up your service level and have visible impacts on your brand.
Therefore, focusing on your staff to make them your service points is a journey for any organization that wants to build a sustainable customer base, patronage, and powerful brand. Focusing on the team itself entails many phases, which include creating an authentic, inclusive, and fearless organization, rewarding excellence in service delivery, declaring service as the Organisation’s priority, the appointment of service leaders and champions, and most importantly is an investment in service education for all the staff. I have as a consultant, encouraged my clients to treat and develop all their staff as leaders and service ambassadors irrespective of their roles or level within the organization.
The second touch point for senior executives to entrench service culture is a continuous process improvement mindset and activities. Continuous process improvement is the foundation of Toyota’s success in the automobile industry. A good service-oriented employee working with flawed processes will not meet or exceed the expectations of the customers. I have always considered employees as the owners of their operations. A driver is the owner of the driving process. Your security men are the executive officers of their functions. By continuous process improvement, I mean investing enough in your process owners to the extent that they can suggest improvements to the existing processes without the need for external consultants. It is a game of buy one to get two.
For example, suppose I develop a team to have and exude a positive attitude always. In that case, the attitude will create an atmosphere of friendliness that endears customers. The motivated staff will, in turn, be interested in doing whatever it takes to sustain the service culture always toward providing ‘surprising’ and ‘unbelievable’ services to the customers. A happy customer will repeat his or her patronage and refer others to the company.
One of the critical pillars of the infinite stake theory is the awareness that producing results is not the leaders’ responsibilities. The leaders are responsible for the people that produce results. In most cases, these are the majority, low-level officers whose blood and sweat produces much of the outcome. Focusing on an actionable service education programme that inspires them to live a service lifestyle is inevitable to building and sustaining the company’s brand.
If you are asked to prioritize the two touch points for excellent service, which one must come first? Investment in your people will develop their capacity to improve your process continuously. The combined effects of actionable service education and an inspiring and fearless environment where staff can be vulnerable will produce a motivated team of process improvement experts.
Thus, with no focus on your team and the process they use in serving your customers, excellent service delivery remains a slogan and one of the fancy words among corporate executives.
