Do you have a Balanced Scorecard?

Back in 1992, Robert Kaplan & David Norton introduced the concept of a balanced scorecard in the Harvard Business Review and their follow up book The balanced scorecard: Translating strategy into action. One of their points was that “hard” financial data was a lagging indicator, while the “soft” human performance data was a leading indicator. Specifically, identifying issues on the human side allowed companies to take action before sales started to drop off as a result of the problem.

I’m going propose a different kind of balanced scorecard.

If we generally agree that that happy employees = happy customers = improved business results (I have heard this referred to as the 3-legged stool of great customer service), then would it not make sense to measure based on those 3 categories.

Rather than hard and soft data, why not employee, customer and business data. If each of these 3 measures (made up of a couple key indicators) are healthy, then business is good.

When any one of these measures starts to show weakness, you can be sure there is a problem with the others.

However, often employee data is owned by HR, while customer and sales data is owned by sales or marketing and operational data is owned by operations.

I would suggest that these measures should be the responsibility of one department. I don’t mean compilation, I mean measuring, analysing and reporting. I think only when the full view is owned by one department do we get a clear picture.

I realize that this may require re-thinking how data is gathered and shared, but given that the employee is usually the closest to operations and to the customer, tracking their data by a department that has limited experience to either doesn’t make sense.

In the past I have worked with organizations that have a single team (Information & Insights) that manages all of this. This team must also have the authority to work with all aspects of the organization to identify changes needed to improve the employee/customer relationship.

Let me know what you think.

Cheers!

Bill's passion is branded customer service that exceeds expectations. He works with clients to activate a “customer-focused” culture where engaged employees internalize the brand promise and deliver an intentional Branded Customer Experience -- internally and externally.

As well, he is a dynamic, results-oriented speaker on the importance of a customer-focused culture, either as a guest speaker or acting as a facilitator of a group discussion/workshop.

For more information please contact (905) 841-3191
Email: bill@billhogg.ca, Web: http://www.billhogg.ca/

Great Customer Service Doesn’t Cost -- it pays (Part 3)

Okay, one last quick post about The Ritz Carlton for awhile.

Once they hire for character, here are 3 things they do to ensure competence.

1. Every employee goes to a mandatory 2-day orientation before they spend any time on the job. The focus is culture and expectations. As well, this is when they teach core job skills and take care of issues such as timesheets, uniforms, pay cycles, etc.
2. Each new employee is teamed with another employee who has demonstrated a high level of performance who acts as a mentor/coach. This is huge, because it not only ensures that the new employee learns from a high performer who sets the standard by their actions -- but it also provides recognition for high performers. It is an honour to be chosen as a mentor/coach.
3. Hourly employees participate in 250 hours of learning each year. Salaried employees participate in 320 hours. Much of this is self-directed or online.
   

Shoot me an email if you would like a copy of their 1999 application for the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award - it’s great reading

Cheers!

Bill's passion is branded customer service that exceeds expectations. He works with clients to activate a “customer-focused” culture where engaged employees internalize the brand promise and deliver an intentional Branded Customer Experience -- internally and externally.

As well, he is a dynamic, results-oriented speaker on the importance of a customer-focused culture, either as a guest speaker or acting as a facilitator of a group discussion/workshop.

For more information please contact (905) 841-3191
Email: bill@billhogg.ca, Web: http://www.billhogg.ca/

Great Customer Service Doesn’t Cost -- it pays (Part 2)

I thought I would share a couple more gems learned from The Ritz Carlton that I think are “must do’s” at any organization looking at improving their customer-focus.

The first one that really stands out I call hiring for character versus competence. I understand the initial hiring process at The Ritz Carlton is a telephone interview conducted by someone outside the HR department. This is done to ensure that the focus is on character versus competence (skills). They use a standardized set of questions that focus on character attributes such as; work ethic, self-esteem, empathy, and team-orientation. Only if they successfully pass this initial screening are they evaluated on the basis of their ability to do the job.

I think this maybe the single most important step when building a culture of customer-focus. This ensures that members of the team are like-minded in their commitment to delivering an exception customer experience.

John C. Maxwell is credited with saying, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” I couldn’t agree more.

The second gem is that each employee must sign an agreement that clearly sets out expectations. This is both cultural as well as job related. It is also signed by their Manager.

I think this is important for 3 reasons.

1. It sets expectations which can be measured against and therefore exceeded. Something we generally agree needs to be done with external customers -- so why not internal customers.
2. It balances job performance tracking with cultural behaviour measures. Too often companies are good at the job measures, less disciplined with cultural measures.
3. An agreement indicates that both parties have responsibilities for success. Implicit in the signature by the Manager is their commitment to helping the employee be successful.

Third gem, employees are required to use the same standards when dealing with their colleagues as with external customers.

I love it -- 3 easy steps that add no cost to improving customer service!

Shoot me an email if you would like a copy of their 1999 application for the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award - it’s great reading

Cheers!

Bill's passion is branded customer service that exceeds expectations. He works with clients to activate a “customer-focused” culture where engaged employees internalize the brand promise and deliver an intentional Branded Customer Experience -- internally and externally.

As well, he is a dynamic, results-oriented speaker on the importance of a customer-focused culture, either as a guest speaker or acting as a facilitator of a group discussion/workshop.

For more information please contact (905) 841-3191
Email: bill@billhogg.ca, Web: http://www.billhogg.ca/

Great Customer Service Doesn’t Cost -- it pays

The Ritz-Carlton hotel company is often referenced as an example of a company that gets customer-focus. In fact, every employee carries a pocket-sized fold-out card with the company’s Credo:

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel is a place where the genuine care and comfort of our
guests is our highest mission.
We pledge to provide the highest personal service and facilities for our guests who will always enjoy a warm, relaxed yet refined ambiance.
The Ritz-Carlton experience enlivens the senses, instills well-being, and fulfills even the unexpressed wishes and needs of our guests.

Plus, in large, bold type, is the company’s motto: “We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.”

Additional information includes three essential steps of service (greeting, anticipation of needs, fond farewell) and a summary of their 20 basics of good service.

By my count, only 2 of the 20 basics of good service have a financial cost -- training and resolving customer issues. And even those don’t necessarily cost anything.

Also, these 20 basics could easily be adopted by virtually any service business in the world. Yet I think you would agree each of these basics would improve your service experience. (Shoot me an email and I will send you a copy if you don’t have one)

So it begs the question; why aren’t more companies doing it? Something to think about.

Cheers!

Bill's passion is branded customer service that exceeds expectations. He works with clients to activate a “customer-focused” culture where engaged employees internalize the brand promise and deliver an intentional Branded Customer Experience -- internally and externally.

As well, he is a dynamic, results-oriented speaker on the importance of a customer-focused culture, either as a guest speaker or acting as a facilitator of a group discussion/workshop.

For more information please contact (905) 841-3191
Email: bill@billhogg.ca, Web: http://www.billhogg.ca/

Make it easy for your customers to talk to you?

Quick shout out to Eric at customerservicenumbers.com. He's recently launched a site where customers can quickly find company and product customer service telephone numbers.

This places me in an interesting quandary. On one hand I wish him the best, because obviously it is a service that is needed. But isn’t it a sad state of affairs that a site like this is even needed.

So make sure you are listed -- and then if you do a good job with your own customer service programs, no one will need to visit it for your numbers.

Cheers!

Bill's passion is branded customer service that exceeds expectations. He works with clients to activate a “customer-focused” culture where engaged employees internalize the brand promise and deliver an intentional Branded Customer Experience -- internally and externally.

As well, he is a dynamic, results-oriented speaker on the importance of a customer-focused culture, either as a guest speaker or acting as a facilitator of a group discussion/workshop.

For more information please contact (905) 841-3191
Email: bill@billhogg.ca, Web: http://www.billhogg.ca/