10 Strategies to Create a World Class Culture of Service Excellence By Manoj Sharma

January 6, 2009

While many leaders at the top of organizations are aware that service excellence is their lowest cost and highest return investment, almost all do “next to nothing”, of any true significance about it. Instead they usually chose to…

a) Ignore the need for their organization to deliver superior service,
b) Relegate the need to improve their service standards to the important but not a present priority category, and/or
c) Conduct some ill-conceived service training and development program with no heart, poor depth, little follow through and absolutely no commitment from senior leadership.

By doing so, they fast lose share of heart with their customers and then wonder why they are losing share of wallet to their competitors too.

Often times when they do actually get involved they mostly delegate the task to subordinates or human resource staff at lower levels to address their service related issues. This is often done with a, “it is them who need to improve their level of service, not me!” thinking.

This is not the mind set of organizations that fully reap the rewards of a world class culture of service excellence.

If you are interested to create a world class culture of service excellence, do consider the following best practices factored strategies and take action to implement them in your organization immediately.

1) Engage a professional strategic consultancy

It is virtually impossible for you to coach yourself, and it is therefore virtually impossible for you to be objective about your service standards. So engage a professional strategic consultancy and get the professional strategic consultancy to do a thorough analysis to benchmark where your organization is at when it comes to service excellence and where your organization needs to consistently be when it comes to your service mind sets, skill sets and business sets.

2) Get a 360º internal and external service perspective

Get your professional strategic consultancy to organize focus groups to get a 360º internal and external perspective of your organization’s present service standards. Factor in all points of views, uncover all preconceived notions and scoop out relevant service needs, wants and desires. And ensure that senior leadership is involved right from the start.

3) Design a fully customized service initiative for your unique needs

Factor in the service perspectives gathered and get your professional strategic consultancy to design a fully customized world class service initiative specifically for you. Check to ensure that it is aligned to your organization’s strategic vision, mission, values and targets.

4) Arrange for a strategic senior leadership service session

In this session communicate the findings of your 360º internal and external service perspective groups and introduce your fully customized world class service initiative to selected key stakeholders with the intention to…

a) Get top to bottom appreciation for the need to have your new world class culture of service excellence succeed.
b) To modify and enhance your fully customized world class service initiative.

5) Implement your fully customized world class service initiative across all levels of your organization

Start to implement your service initiative from the top down. As you do so, ensure you are getting buy-in across all levels of your organization by assisting people to clearly appreciate “what’s in it for them” when your world class service initiative is successfully implemented.

6) Ensure senior leadership gets special service coaching

While rolling out the initiative give senior leadership special professional service coaching to ensure they appreciate their role in “walking the talk”. This should involve having them certified as professional service champions to make it easier for them both now and in the long run to keep improving your organization’s service standards.

7) Draw up a post service initiative continuous development plan

Once your initial series of service initiatives are completed, you need to make sure the service initiatives becomes steeped as part of your organization’s culture.

How do you do that?

By ensuring there is ongoing personal and team service coaching in the real world work-based environment. Keep service fresh in mind through a series of service keynotes on a bi-monthly basis to highlight the various facets and benefits of service. Place reminders everywhere to ensure your service initiative is kept visible and foremost in mind for everyone.

8) Create new service business sets

Your fully customized world class service initiative should have adequately created the right service mind sets and skill sets throughout your organization. To support these service mind sets and skill sets you need to also create very clear operating standards, processes, systems, guidelines, rules and regulations that involve people within their job scopes, roles and responsibilities. This is what service business sets are all about.

9) Publicly reward service excellence

Arguably little will assist you to create a world class culture of service excellence more than rewarding great service publically and punctually. When you do so, your organization will start to create service legends and legacies that have a wonderful effect of promoting service continuity.

10) Embrace continuing service improvement mechanisms

Create a system for both internal and external service suggestions. Establish a service feedback mechanism and designate service champions that are tasked to enhance your service standards on a quarterly basis.

And most importantly restart at number 1) every single year because service is not a one time event. Know that what was great service last year will become the expected norm this year! Service excellence, at heart, is about delighting your internal and external customer in unexpectedly and surprisingly pleasant ways and that entails upping your service standards continuously.

I trust the above 10 strategies gives you a great structure to get started on creating your own world class culture of service excellence. So, get started right now, take the first step and reap the infinite tangible and intangible rewards that come with living a life in service.

Posted by Manoj Sharma | Filed Under Manoj Sharma 

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