Dimensions of Service Excellence – Part 1

Service Excellence is a term that generates many debates because there is not a single company on this planet that does not believe its service levels are the best in the world.  Interestingly, though, companies find it very hard to clearly express their understanding of service excellence.

One can speak many words about “delighters”, “detractors”, “satisfiers”, “hygienic factors”, or other terms that are so richly bandied about.  In our experience over the last 28 years, we are often surprised by the reaction we get when we tell our clients that service excellence could be measured against:

v  Eight service excellence indicators; and

v  Seven service efficiency indicators;

When clients are told about these indicators, the majority response from clients is that the indicators are “too simple to use”.  Others view these indicators as gimmicks thought our by some guru whose book is the hot flavour of the day.  Clearly, people who take such a view cannot be blamed because there are many books and speakers that promise a magic recipe without saying that it takes an awful lot of work to turn the magic promised by the gurus into reality.

Service Excellence simply means that the customer will be left with an impression that everything possible has been done to meet the customer’s demands.  There are some who believe that this simple definition means that best prices and a big smile from sales staff translate into service excellence.  Unfortunately, the true test of service excellence happen before the sale and in the months or years after the sale has been concluded.

Let’s consider the eight service excellence dimensions with actual examples:

1         Time

How long must a customer wait before actually being attended to?

v  Recently, the author and a client had to go to a financial institution to finalise paperwork for a client.  Upon arrival at this institution, the reception desk was unmanned.  For the next fifteen minutes, staff of this financial institution walked past the people in the reception area and pretended that they did not see anyone.  “Ask Once”?

v  At a retail store with a red square in its logo, staff working the cosmetics department seems to take a view that customers are invisible.  A wait time of thirty five minutes was recorded during an experiment done at six different locations;

2         Timeliness

Timeliness refers to services being performed when promised.  Timeliness affects big Corporates and small entrepreneurs alike.  Examples include but are not limited to:

v  A financial institution that has taken six years to respond to a need expressed by a potential large corporate client;

v  A plumber promises to be on site on “Wednesday, ten o’ clock” but shows up six hours later with no explanation or forewarning about being late;

v  A company receptionist/switchboard operator promises that Mr. X will call back by “the end of business today”, and four weeks later, there is still no word from Mr. X.

3         Completeness

Completeness refers to the delivery of all aspects of service that were promised to the client.  As an example, were all the parts that the client ordered actually delivered?  In our practice, we often encounter examples such as:

v  Financial institutions that are very keen to help with financing clients’ businesses, and assuring clients “that we have all that we need”.  Two or three weeks later, clients are informed that more paperwork must be completed “to satisfy credit”.

v  A cell phone company recently promised to help with the set up of the synchronization between a desk top and the smart phone because the client had no idea how to do it.  After three hours, the client was informed that “it is not possible to do this set up here.  You have to go to Midrand for that”;

v  A caterer discovered that some ingredients that was needed on the day of a function were missing.  The client was very surprised to find that a four-course meal suddenly turned into a three-course meal at the function;

v  A painter was asked to waterproof a roof, and used half of the quantity that the client actually paid for.

4         Courtesy

Typically, courtesy refers to frontline employees who greet customers cheerfully.  But courtesy can also refer to something as simple as being spoken to in the language one uses.

v  A large South African university’s call routing system provides clients with two options: “Press 1 for Afrikaans”; “Press 2 for English”.  Afrikaans clients, who dutifully press 1, find that they are answered in English;

v  A very large telecommunications company’s staff does not make eye contact when dealing with clients.  The same company’s staff are not seen as friendly;

v  A small hardware store owner in a modest neighbourhood greets every customer as he or she enters the store;

5         Consistency

Consistent service means that service delivery is always the same for every customer, and every time the same for the same customer.  In one of our service excellence interventions an executive jokingly stated that her company’s service levels are consistently bad all the time.  This executive was responsible for service excellence in that company.  Consider examples such as:

v  “Sorry, our policies and procedure have changed since you were here last week”;

v  A licensing department who issues a license against incomplete documents to one client, and refuses to do the same for another client “because that case was different”;

v  A financial institution that provides sterling service today but is not able to handle the same request the next day;

v  A restaurant that serves a hot meal to one guest and a bland, cold version of the same dish to another guest at the same table;

6         Accessibility and Convenience

Many companies use call centres for the sake of handling as many cases in a day as possible.  Unfortunately, there are times where customers want to communicate by email, letter, or a personal visit to a business enterprise.  How easy is it for a customer to communicate with a company without having to dial a call centre?  How easy is it to have a face to face meeting with a service provider to discuss a particularly thorny issue?

7         Accuracy

Is the service performed right the first time, or must the customer:

v  Repeat the same request multiple time (hopefully to the same person):

v  Keep on asking what would be done about the rest of a query or request?

v  Keep on asking a bank to fix an error that was corrected by passing a correction that was also the wrong type of entry or the wrong amount?

8         Responsiveness

Can service personnel react quickly and resolve unexpected problems?  Moreover, can your service personnel:

v  Respond to a customer request in the time that the customer asked?  For example, if the customer asks for a call back at 09h00, will the call back indeed happen at 09h00?

v  If a customer sends an email and asks for a written response by end of business, will such response actually be received?

v  If a customer enters as store and asks to speak to X, how quickly will someone find X, and how quickly will X be available to help the customer?

Skopus Business Consultants specialises in helping organizations achieve service excellence.  Contact us on info@skopus.co.za for a consultation.

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