A Case for Service Excellence

Joyce M. Coleman

Money dignifies what is frivolous if unpaid for
Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own, 1929

If you are charged with handling dissatisfied customers or manage those who handle dissatisfied customers,  or if your responsibility includes customer loyalty issues, you have been down the slippery slope of customer advocacy.  You make an argument for additional training, but it gets turned down;  too much money.  You make another argument for improvement in your product or service delivery and/or follow-up process, but – yep – it gets turned down.  The average tenure of your frontline customer interface group is six months, and they constantly whine about the lack of support shown by you and the company in general.  You asked for more money, more training, and products or services that actually work.  Turned down again.  In the meantime, your company has invested in a multi-million dollar Customer Relations Management technology scheme that has not begun to solve your problems.

You have to make a decision.  Either you learn to live in your work hell, or decide that you are going to do something about it that will be of value to both you and your company.

 It is a waste of time to begin a discourse about customer service unless it is linked to a business strategy.  Build a solid argument that your plan will ease the (cost of) pain, fulfill the wishes of the person who holds the purse strings (money, power, recognition), or add money from low-hanging fruit (something you can do fast) to your company’s coffers, and chances are good that you will get the money necessary to make improvements in your customer service unit.  You might even begin to make inroads in improving your company’s overall customer service culture.  If your argument is simply “it’s the thing to do,” forget about it.  It, and you, will be perceived as frivolous.  

So, each argument for a customer service improvement plan should begin with the money.  What will your plan do for your company in the very near term?  

In order to make a reasonable argument for the money (how much you’re going to make or save),  you could find yourself running in circles unless you have access to your company’s  data.  How much is each customer worth to your company?  If you don’t know the answer, how are you going to calculate the value of keeping one, or one hundred?  Which ones should you target?  Do you really want to spend a bundle to save someone who is a customer in name only?  I think not.  How many customers has your company lost lately?  None?  Then you’re going to have an uphill battle trying to justify a need for change unless you can prove that a bunch are secretly planning a massive defection.  Even if you can prove that some have left, can you say why, for sure?  I hope that there is an information trail somewhere.

Savvy organizations will have the data.  It may not be perfect, but it will be there.  It many not be sorted in a way that tells your story, but it can be done.  Here’s a hint:  make friends with the data people.  Most will welcome you because others within the organization won’t really appreciate their value.  Data people are critical members of your team, your new partners.  Play around with the data.  Make sure you have a devil’s advocate on your team, someone who is comfortable challenging you, in a business-like way, of course.  Sometimes we see what we want to see, and our tunnel vision leads us right over the edge of a cliff.  Someone who supports you, who can also  pitch hard questions and a different perspective at you before you have to face your boss or the Board of Directors is an invaluable asset.  Listen to him/her.  Research opposing positions.  Be prepared.  

At the end of the data analysis, you should be able to say for certain that your company is bleeding valuable customers, and you know why they’re leaving.  From the data, you can list  some specific shortfalls in your company’s product and/or service.  

You’re on a roll, but not quite out of the woods.

What kind of service solution are you going to offer?    What are direct and indirect costs associated with your solution? Is it worth spending the company’s resources? How long will it take to enjoy the benefit of your plan?  How do you know it will work?  Why should anyone believe that your plan will work when perhaps others didn’t?  Corporations and other large organizations are by nature conservative.   Is there evidence that this kind of thing has worked before?  

Can you facilitate your plan’s implementation?  How many toes will you step on in order to implement it?  How are you going to overcome objections within the organization’s politics?  

Are you beginning to get a picture of the areas of expertise critical to you team?  You need people who have information and expertise to help you answer all these questions, and more.  You’re going to have to be a diplomat and major politician in order to bring them solidly on board.  Make sure that each gets one or more pet problems solved during the course of the project.  Make sure that each gets recognized for what they bring to the table.  Make sure that each gets the three V’s: vindication, validation, and value.

If you have followed each step and answered each question, and the preponderance of information points to an unequivocal “yes”, your argument should be sufficiently compelling to gain valuable team members, support from money people (Chief Financial Officer) and blessings from the top.  If your research indicates that your plan is unnecessary or flawed, abandon it, and either fix the flaws or find another cause to keep you busy.

The next step is write your “white paper”, your case for improved customer service improvement.  

Congratulations.  Your project gets a green light.  Get ready to roll up your sleeves as you move to the next phase of making service excellence at your company a reality.

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Joyce Coleman has inspired her readers and audiences to achievement and excellence through her books, articles, speaking and consulting.  She consults online and offline, and has been writing for the internet for over 2 years.   Email Joyce at: mailto: info@locusthillpublishing.com.