Customer management excellence

13 What customer service excellence means to an organisation 19 How do service personnel keep touch with the changing... 29 Case study: Sun Life Financial of Canada 31 Case study: Legal

CUSTOMER MANAGEMENT EXCELLENCE

MIKE FAULKNER

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Dedicated to Jacqui, for her inspiration, determination and belief With grateful thanks to Sara for her unstinting help

For Sheila, my Mum, to whom I owe a huge debt of gratitude

And to the other important people in my life

Katie, Hannah and Samuel

Introduction 1

PART I

1 Evaluating a Customer-Centric Approach 11

Are you price-, product- or customer-driven? 13

What customer service excellence means to an organisation 19

How do service personnel keep touch with the changing

C O N T E N T S v

What makes customers important enough to have a director? 29

Case study: Sun Life Financial of Canada 31

Case study: Legal & General Assurance Society 33

3 Recognising the Cultural Needs of a Service

Recognising the culture within different organisations 36 Marrying a culture of profit to a service excellence ethic 37

Top-down approach to service culture 41

Case study: The Royal Bank of Scotland 45

4 The Shift from Call Centre to Contact Centre 47 The emerging multichannel call centres 49 Managing change while maintaining service levels 51 Multitasking CSRs and keeping staff on-message 52 Linking the data with the rest of the enterprise 55

Case study: Loop Customer Management 57

PART II

5 Dealing with Lifetime Values 63

LTV is a key requisite to realise the full customer value 68

Is LTV being realised by companies and if so, how? 70

Case study: Zurich Financial Services 74

6 How to Deal with Unprofitable Customers 77 Evaluating your customers’ value, segment by segment 78 How to differentiate the service offering to your top

Should you continue to serve unprofitable customers? 82 How to offload the customers that cost you money 83 Creating a knowledge-base about serial complainers 84

7 Complaint (Feedback) Management 91

Predicting service shortfalls to reduce complaints 94 Establishing transparency in terms of organisational culture 96 When to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but … 97

Communication as a tool to deal with disgruntled customers 100

8 Reputation Management 107 Executing effective damage limitation 108 How to distance yourself from third-party actions 109 Communicating with customers when you are powerless 111 How companies are addressing third-party issues 112

9 Managing Expectation 121 Customer service excellence increases expectation 122 Customer service excellence becomes the norm 125

Should service be paid for to reduce customer expectation? 125 Reducing expectation can lead to reduction in

How organisations are dealing with customer perceptions

Case study: International Rectifier Company (GB) Ltd 130

PART III

10 Empowering Customer-Facing Staff 137 How empowering staff impacts on staff retention 138 How empowerment impacts on customer retention 139 How to empower staff and to what level 141 Building staff confidence to ensure ownership of complaints 142 Developing a set of discretionary awards 143 Defining exactly how long that ‘extra mile’ should be 145

11 Service Personnel Adopting the Sales Role 151

A satisfied complainer will remain loyal forever 152 Cross-sell and up-sell opportunities with a satisfied

complainer 154 How to gain a 360-degree view of the customer 155 Identifying when a customer is satisfied 157 Interdepartmental communications: internal

Can service personnel see themselves as sales people? 160

C O N T E N T S vii

12 Caring for Your Carers 167 Avoiding jadedness in front-line staff 168 Avoiding inconsistent service levels 169 Taking a meaningful interest in your staff and their problems 170 Promoting openness and discussion in the workplace 172 Incentivising staff to go that ‘extra mile’ 173 Acknowledging service excellence through benefits 174 Understanding what motivates your staff and rewarding

Case study: National Westminster Bank 177

The Final Chapter – A Summary 181

6 Case studies featuring main category winners from National Customer Service Awards

The past decade has seen a vast upsurge in the importanceattached to customer service from businesses operating in both theB2B (business to business) and B2C (business to consumer) fields.This increased activity has paid major benefits to early adopters.Differentiation through service is rapidly becoming a vital addi-tion to any business process Organisations that are at the fore-front are reaping benefits in terms of customer loyalty, customerretention and employee satisfaction Yet this is just the tip of theiceberg

Three years ago Quest Media introduced the National tomer Service Awards The philosophy behind this was to recogniseand reward organisations that were pushing the barriers of service

Cus-to new limits; Cus-to recognise those organisations and individualswho were going that ‘extra mile’

The awards were also designed to lay down some marks, so that others could measure their own achievementsagainst the best of breed The pursuit of best practice can be a longand arduous one Through a tough selection process, rigorousjudging and explicit entry criteria, the National Customer ServiceAwards help organisations achieve best practice levels

bench-This book will reflect some of the current thinking behindtoday’s front-runners in the service excellence environment Itwill highlight some current trends and give realistic timeframes

for implementation and adoption of those trends It will challengesome thought processes and it will celebrate the achievements ofsome of the most innovative organisations adopting the customerservice excellence mantra.

Before any company can reach the highest recognition foroffering service excellence they will have undertaken several ofthe following steps Only then will they be positioned suitably tooffer exceptional service Just because a company has incorpor-ated certain philosophies, success is far from guaranteed Theservice culture is an on-going phenomenon, it is not a destina-tion, it is a journey All of the organisations featured in the pages

of this book have decided to adopt a service culture For thatalone they should be acknowledged

EFFECTING CHANGE

To adopt a service culture means major organisational change

To drive forward a customer-centric approach needs buy-in fromthe very top echelons of management It then needs follow-upfrom a designated manager and ultimately buy-in from employees.Much has been written about that hackneyed phrase ‘employeeempowerment’, but for a customer-centric approach to workyou really do need to empower your employees Staff must havethe ability to take ownership of problems, they must feel able tomake decisions to rectify those problems, and they must feel thatthey are contributing

None of this happens easily Regardless of the size of theorganisation there are always the ‘doubters’ Determined organisa-tions will think of ways to encompass the ‘doubters’, to bring them

on side and involve them The ‘what’s-in-it-for-me’ cultureabounds in many established businesses and it is not until manage-ment can tangibly show the benefits of a new culture that the

‘doubters’ will start to soften The real hardliners, however, maynever change Therefore it is sometimes necessary to be prepared

to let people go The benefits to the business through effective

customer service are far greater than the loss of a few minded employees.

The direct opposite of this will be the case if the customerrelationship has not been effectively managed The customer willfeel no loyalty, have no emotional bond and will actively lookelsewhere for the services and goods that the original company isoffering

For the organisation this means another round of customeracquisition with its inherent cost implications Therefore it is farmore beneficial to retain the customers that you have and look toinvest a limited amount in keeping them

Buy wisely; treat well.

USE ALL AVAILABLE DATA

There is a plethora of information available to businesses todayrelating to customer behaviour Whether it is buying patterns,buying sequences, product purchase or complaints, data is beingcollected and stored The sad fact is that too often this data is not

I N T R O D U C T I O N 3

being utilised Offering excellent service does not have to start atthe complaint desk Too many organisations collect data aboutcustomers and use it only for internal purposes without seeing the bigger picture If a certain segment of customers uses yourservices on Wednesdays only perhaps it would be wise to offer

‘rewards’ on Wednesdays to that customer segment – make thosecustomers feel valuable

Recognising your customers’ habits is often the first step tooffering them outstanding service Look at today’s supermarkettrade Perhaps inadvertently, because of Internet shopping andthe need to deliver, supermarkets are returning to the original

‘corner shop’ mentality where they take orders and deliver free ofcharge The customers that use this service like this service Thefact that these customers are probably marginally more affluentthan some others (by virtue of the fact that they have access to theInternet, computer and telephone line) might mean that they are more valuable to the organisation and worth retaining Whenthese customers next go on-line to place an order, they have theirlast shopping trolley on screen to reorder or remove items This

bears more than a passing resemblance to Arkwright in Open All

Hours – but the important message is to use all the available data

and start thinking of customer service from a proactive point rather than a reactive one

stand-Analyse data; implement findings.

MEASUREMENT

A fundamental in embarking upon a service culture is knowingwhere you are at the start and planning where you are aiming toget to Measurement is itself a leveller for many organisations.Knowing what to measure, how to measure and how to interpretfindings can be difficult and disappointing To embrace a serviceculture, the organisation – from the top down – needs to beprepared to accept failings Mistakes happen and when they do,

they must be addressed A rewarding occurrence is when anorganisation suddenly recognises that the service culture is beingdriven from the bottom up This is a real measure of success.

Measuring customer satisfaction is another necessary exercise

It should be measured at the outset, then continually monitoredthroughout the process This will afford early indicators of suc-cess It will highlight the implementations that are working andalso those that are less effective

Measure everything; act on results.

COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES

Be prepared to communicate your intentions in several differentways to several different audiences The embracing of a serviceculture requires communication at many levels At the outset theinitial decision has to be communicated at board level A businesscase for the pursuit of customer excellence must be conveyed sothat the highest echelon of management embraces the decision.Managers then have to have the decision conveyed to them.They need to know how it will pan out, what responsibilitiesthey will have, how it will be measured, what powers they will have, and in some cases, what’s in it for them The decisionthen needs to be conveyed down the ‘food chain’ so that everyemployee has the same understanding of what the organisation isaiming to achieve

Then it is important to convey – in yet another way – themessage to the customer You cannot sit back and hope that thecustomer will notice your service culture changes You have totell them You have to let them know what your aspirations areand tell them how quickly you aim to get there

Say it often; say it proud.

I N T R O D U C T I O N 5

is the fact that great customer service doesn’t just happen.Training is an integral part.

In Lessons from the Nordstrom Way by Robert Spector

(pub-lished by Wiley), the author takes us on a spectacular journey,coast to coast across the USA, discussing fantastic customer service.But behind each and every single success story, training played amajor part Through effective training, great customer servicebegins before the customer comes anywhere near the organisa-tion Word of mouth recommendations can flood in because the staff are trained not to question the ethics of the company.Customers then gain confidence in using the company, secure inthe knowledge that they understand the culture of that organisa-tion

Effective training will also serve to ensure that employees buy

in to culture change sooner rather than later Training can be used

as a communication channel that involves people rather thanconventional communications channels, which often tend toleave people feeling distant and bemused

Train hard; train harder still.

These are just a few of the fundamental steps that a companyadopting a service culture will have undertaken Those that havehoned the art of good service are celebrated within this book.That should not detract from the efforts of other organisationsthat are currently making great strides towards a customer-centric approach To achieve best practice status is not somethingthat is achieved quickly or easily Service excellence is, and must

always remain, just one small part of the overall business strategy.

It must be submitted to the same processes as any other part of thebusiness plan It will need to be cost-effective and beneficial onthe balance sheet

For this book I have researched over 200 companies who are

at the forefront of the pursuit of customer excellence in the UK.From this research I have been able to identify key trends andimplementations that are at the leading edge of customer serviceexcellence I have also spoken to eminent thought leaders in thecustomer service field and from these findings I have been able toassess the timeframe between concept and implementation I hopethat this book will serve you well in your pursuit of customerservice excellence

I N T R O D U C T I O N 7

P A R T I

C H A P T E R 1

EVALUATING A CUSTOMER-CENTRIC

APPROACH

therefore we must be customer-focused, right?’ Wrong

Customer focus is, at best, only one element of the ship between a company and its customers At worst it is a board-room buzzword, which makes every board member feel a little more secure Not unlike the phrase ‘working towards equalopportunities’, it is showing an awareness of a need but it is notaddressing the issues Customer focus must lead to somethingmeaningful, will probably require sacrifices and is just one of thesteps necessary to become truly customer-centric

relation-A customer focus puts your customers high on your list ofpriorities When you put your customers into the heart of yourbusiness, make customers part of the culture, then you start tobecome customer-centric

up in the organisation has to take complete control of the totalcustomer experience for a true customer-centric approach to work.This person should assume the role of communicator, championand relationship developer Not all organisations are ready to dothis Some companies rely on individuals ‘who are good withcustomers’ to assume this role It has limited effect.

To evaluate an organisation’s readiness to become centric is simple To become customer-centric is a far more arduoustask Having addressed all the points in the ‘readiness checklist’ inthis and every chapter, it is time to see where the shortfalls lie,and identify how to overcome them Identifying the shortfalls isrelatively easy; overcoming them is far more difficult If you need

customer-to undertake cultural change in order customer-to adhere customer-to the readinesschecklist then the task ahead takes on magnificent proportions.Educating an entire workforce to change in a way that is generallycustomer-centric is time-consuming and can cost the company

an awful lot more than merely the financial costs

One of the most established customer-centric approaches inthe retail sector must be Marks & Spencer’s policy of exchanginggoods regardless of reason This was, at the original time of imple-mentation, quite phenomenal Although it was later to prove open

to abuse, it was mimicked by many other retailers and, beforelong, the differentiation value diminished with it This is a factor

to try to avoid when implementing a customer-centric approach

If it is possible to avoid your service offering being mimicked

or copied, then do so, even if it pushes your costs a little higher.The value of differentiation through service is featured in furtherdetail later in this book but it is, needless to say, a very, veryvaluable, powerful and cost-effective business process

On the plus side, there will be many elements implementedwithin your current business processes commensurate withadopting a customer-centric approach It is important that havingembarked upon the journey, which is customer service, organisa-tions look inward and establish all those elements that are positive.

If the positive elements within current business processes onlyrequire an almost imperceptible change of emphasis, then look toutilising them within your customer-centric approach If certaindepartments are more customer-orientated – either during cus-tomer facing situations or in handling customer complaints – thenbuild on and utilise that expertise In some organisations, owner-ship of the customer can be a clouded issue Some sales peoplewould like to say they own the customer, some accounts peoplewould also say that they service and own the customer; for acustomer-centric approach to be effective, the reality is that owner-ship of the customer should not be the domain of any one depart-ment and all departments should shift in unison

The customer has to be central to most of the decisions made

by the company The payback will be high, but the cost can behigh also Will you ever be in a position to credit yourself as acustomer-centric organisation? The answer to that is doubtful Thereality is, it becomes a way of doing business rather than a goalthat you achieve

ARE YOU PRICE-, PRODUCT- OR

CUSTOMER-DRIVEN?

Most commercial relationships can be broken down to three tinct categories: price-driven, product-driven or customer-driven.Price-driven organisations, not surprisingly, compete on price,look at price as a differentiator and are forever concentrating onmargins That does not mean to say that organisations in the othercategories do not look at margins but it is an ethos within anorganisation that makes everything surround the product price

dis-E V A L U A T I N G A C U S T O M dis-E R - C dis-E N T R I C A P P R O A C H 13

This will require those organisations to cross out the value oftheir customers They find themselves in a precarious position interms of customer service because when somebody else comesalong with a lower price the customer feels justified in switchingbecause no loyalty has been built.

Product-driven companies differentiate on their particularproducts; sometimes this can be an ideal solution especially if the product is unique However, unique products can be eitherfranchised – as in the case of Wimpy – or copied, creatingunexpected competition Product-driven companies rely uponthe product to keep the customer If the product is particularlygood, efficient, cost-effective and economic to run, then cus-tomers will acknowledge these facts and remain loyal However,sometimes competitors can mimic goods and customers can betempted to buy your competitor’s stock

Customer-driven organisations do not necessarily need tocompete on price or product – although it is important that theprice and product are of an acceptable standard It is not animperative always to be cheaper or for the product to be unique.The customer-driven organisation will look at its customers as part

of the overall business process A true customer-driven tion will want to go that extra mile (a cliché, but a valid one) toplease the customer and to ensure that they enjoy the experience

organisa-of being a customer organisa-of that organisation

It is well documented that the top 10 per cent of your tomers can represent as much as 120 per cent of your profit.Therefore, it becomes vital to be able to see who your valuable cus-tomers are It is an on-going dilemma whether you should deal withthe 10 per cent in a way that is different from how you deal withthe remainder of your customers Obviously you want to retain the top 10 per cent because of the value that they add to yourorganisation, but you will not always necessarily want to lose any ofthe other 90 per cent because of economy of scale It is important

cus-to evaluate exactly how much you are prepared cus-to invest for theretention of the 90 per cent of the customers in relationship to howmuch you are willing to invest in the top 10 percent

How you communicate with your most valuable customers is

a dilemma If you treat them in a favourable way, offer theminducements that are not offered to the rest of your client base,you risk being ‘found out’ If you are ‘found out’ by some or many

of the rest of your customers they may feel alienated and defect;your economy of scale will diminish and therefore the true value

of your top 10 per cent will diminish with it Communication is animportant tool but it can also be a minefield

A customer-driven organisation will have data supporting itscustomer relationship This data will be analysed, either by trans-action, by value, by location or geography The data will havebeen collected, maybe by the sales or the marketing departments,but it will be shared Shared data is valuable data Data that is notused is of no use Data that is out of date is also of no value, so theinformation that is held on the customer must be shared through-out the organisation and must be able to be updated from varioussources

Loyalty marketing is a way of making sure that the customerswho are repeating business on a regular basis benefit from theirloyalty – thus engendering further loyalty Collecting data andnumber-crunching are vital for the process to be successful Theexplosion of loyalty cards in the retail grocery business from theearly 1990s was nothing short of phenomenal Differentiationwas quick to diminish Each of the big five supermarket chainswere employing the same tactics Two things occurred: massivedata collection on a scale unknown before about the customer,and none of the supermarkets maximising the collected data to its full extent Therefore, ‘customer loyalty’ became a total mis-nomer Shoppers (customers) had ‘loyalty cards’ from all of thesecompanies The lessons learnt took a veritable age to filter through.Loyalty marketing needed to ‘become of age’ and only customer-driven organisations are able to employ today’s sophisticated loyaltymarketing processes

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TRANSITION TOWARDS CUSTOMER FOCUS

Adopting the points set out here will set you on your waytowards achieving a customer-centric approach However, orderneeds to be maintained The primary process that has to be under-taken is management buy-in Have the board appoint someone ascustomer director or at least appoint someone to be responsiblefor the total customer experience (TCE)

It will be necessary to establish to which of the three ‘driven’organisations you belong – product, price or customer Thenecessity then is to become, if you are not already, customer-driven, which will involve looking at the entire business to enableyou to evaluate how easy or hard the task is going to be to make afull transition If the entire culture needs to change then beprepared to implement over an extended timeframe to allow forfull adoption Training and communication are all-important withregards to your existing staff Often a customer-centric approachcan be driven from within an organisation, by its staff The staffmust be truly empowered, though

Look at your internal procedures: Is your organisationemployee-centric? Do you take account all of those people aroundyou and their individual problems, concerns, fears or worries? If

so, you are well on the way to being able to commute that to your customer service offering If, however, your managementapproach has been somewhat different, then set yourself a time-table and look at how to change processes; get feedback fromthose people who are on the front line; be prepared to empowerstaff and trust them Promote buy-in from the staff through aprocess of training, communication and a top-down involve-ment from senior management

Access, update and utilise all the data that you have on thecustomers Assess your existing customers, evaluate and specifywhat your customer values are Ascertain what your customers’lifetime values – how much money a customer will spend overthe lifetime of the relationship – are, and how valuable eachcustomer segment is to the organisation Estimate the average

existing lifetime of the relationship with your customers, howmuch loyalty you are achieving now and set yourself targets for the future The essence of transition to customer focus is toencompass all departments within the organisation, whethercustomer facing or not If you can achieve maximum amount ofbuy-in from all departments, the transition will be smoother.

DIFFERENTIATION THROUGH SERVICE

Today’s economic climate ensures that all commercial isations are striving for differentiation No one wants to merelyreplicate what someone else is doing Customers are spoilt forchoice, with a plethora of alternatives open to them Choice existseverywhere today – whether it is where to buy groceries, whichairlines to use, which rail company – the list is endless Therefore,differentiation ultimately filters down to service levels, and servicelevels alone Consumers can go into any one of the big fivesupermarkets and purchase an identical shopping basket One ortwo of the brand names may differ but the reality is that theproducts are the same Likewise, a traveller can make a journeyfrom London to New York on any number of airlines; the flighttimes will be similar and the destination the same The onlydifferentials will be the price and service So achieving differenti-ation through service is becoming more and more important

organ-Differentiation through service is a win-win situation for allinvolved The customer benefits because the service levels arehigher than would otherwise exist The organisation benefitsbecause the customer is made to feel special and is more likely toreturn and use the service or buy the products again The organ-isation further benefits through retaining customers and not having

to invest in attracting new ones A customer who feels they havebeen treated particularly well by an organisation will talk about it.That word-of-mouth recommendation, referral or written letter

of reference can benefit an organisation both in financial termsand through the kudos that is attached to offering great service

E V A L U A T I N G A C U S T O M E R - C E N T R I C A P P R O A C H 17

As you look around the commercial world today you will seemany forms of differentiation, many different services; and many

of them represent good practice The good practice, however,must remain unique This is when differentiation becomes dif-ficult because you cannot copyright an idea or a level of service.Therefore, you must always achieve and look to achieve theextraordinary True differentiation is when the ‘wow’ factorcomes into play

The ‘wow’ factor is a mechanism that has crept into Britishand European commerce and is now recognised as a bona fideservice measurement A customer will always recognise the ‘wow’factor Most customers experiencing it will probably remain loyalfor a considerable amount of time; such is the effect of the ‘wow’factor To achieve it is not so difficult; quite often a simple requestcan, when carried out effectively and efficiently, present the customer with the ‘wow’ factor Going the extra mile, surprisingthe customer with a level of service greater than that expected,will also create the ‘wow’ factor Perhaps one of the most common

‘wow’ factors to hit the majority of consumers is when the maitre’d

of your favourite restaurant remembers your name; this gives aninstant feeling of warmth tinged with tendencies toward loyalty It

is a simple task and can be something that pays massive dividends

It can be taken to the extreme though, as in the case of thehotel in the USA where the bell-boy at the front of the house wasnoticing the luggage labels and on a discreet radio microphonerelaying the information to reception When clients arrived atreception they were greeted by name Innovative perhaps, but alsovery insincere and open to error This type of customer service isnot generally seen as being of great value; however, for thosewho knew no different and were exposed to the ‘wow’ factor thevalue was probably extremely high Was it cheating? I suggest thejury is still out on that one

If you can achieve the ‘wow’ factor in a genuine, meaningfulway then your customer loyalty levels will increase accordingly.Many of the case studies featured in this book have the ‘wow’factor as an inherent ingredient You will see that it is not

necessarily major achievements that create the ‘wow’ factor butquite often it is the simple, easy-to-achieve tasks that are just notnecessarily the company’s normal procedure.

WHAT CUSTOMER SERVICE EXCELLENCE

MEANS TO AN ORGANISATION

To a truly customer-centric organisation, customer service lence means simply doing business the right way To companiesstriving to improve their service levels to what is something ofHoly Grail level, it is an imperative To those organisations, many

excel-of whom are featured in this book, who have been recognised andwon awards for customer service excellence, it is the highestaccolade that a customer-centric organisation can have bestowedupon it

READINESS CHECKLIST

1 Is the customer at the centre of your business?

Make every major decision that is made in the boardroom impact on your customers.

2 Do you have the necessary systems in place to afford thecustomer the best possible service?

Be certain that you can deliver on your promises; make sure that your customers are served by well-informed, knowledgeable, interested staff; have your delivery infrastructure best suited to your customer, not your company.

3 Are your customers valuable enough to communicate with

on a regular basis?

A detailed analysis is required to ensure that your customers are valuable enough to invest in This process will also ensure that the level of investment is set early on and does not spiral out of control.

4 Are your customers an inadvertent part of your sales force?

Customers who give word-of-mouth recommendations assume the

E V A L U A T I N G A C U S T O M E R - C E N T R I C A P P R O A C H 19

role of sales professionals for your organisation If this is already prevalent in your organisation, harness it and exploit it If it is not evident, it needs to be created.

5 Do you have a board willing to achieve these goals?

A customer-centric approach to commerce cannot occur without buy-in

at board level It is necessary for the organisation as a whole to embrace the ideals inherent in achieving customer service excellence.

Unipath

Type of Company: Limited

Nature of Business: Manufacturer of diagnostic products

No of Employees: 470

Specific Challenge: Maintaining service levels and creating

relationships to improve existing products and to aiddevelopment of new products

Overview of Action: Unipath recognises that building

relation-ships with customers is a worthwhile course of action because

of the customers’ potential input into the design process forproduct development The customer service department hasforged relationships with customers, medical professionalsand distributors All communications are closely monitored,and data gathered as a consequence is fed into a knowledgepool, which is used as a reference for product developmentand training needs The in-depth knowledge that the serviceteam has makes it easier for them to empathise with customers

in times of dissatisfaction This intimate knowledge of theproducts and customers also puts the front-line staff in aposition to make reasoned judgement calls One suchinstance was the day before the Christmas shutdown when

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CONTINUED Unipath

a customer from Ireland called because her goods were

faulty The local pharmacy had no supplies and the local

distributor had recently been disengaged and not replaced

The seriousness of the customer’s plight was instantly

recog-nised and a replacement item was sent by courier to arrive

next day and in time for Christmas Key actions that aided

success were:

䊏 A sound product knowledge;

䊏 Empowerment enabling unilateral action and

decision-making;

䊏 Proactive relationship-building

Outcome: After identifying some distribution shortfalls, a

remedy was put in place Interdepartmental communication

meant a pooling of resources and knowledge-sharing

Regu-lar and meaningful communication with customers and

stockists gave the opportunity to collect data relating to

products and service levels This helped in identifying

geo-graphical pockets where the company was under represented

Key points:

䊏 Using communication as a two-way process;

䊏 Using customers as part of product development process;

䊏 Identifying customer as ‘king’;

䊏 Empowerment can accelerate the ‘wow’ factor

London Borough of Newham

Type of Company: Public sector

Nature of Business: Local authority

No of Employees: 7000

Specific Challenge: To equip staff with the key skills they will

need to succeed in the new millennium, and allow Newham

to achieve its vision

Overview of Action: A programme was designed, titled ‘The

New Century Managers Programme’ in order to meet thespecific challenge The programme relates not only to staff

on the front line who have a direct interface with the localcommunity, but essentially with all other members of staffwith internal customers, as well as working in partnershipwith external agencies and other stakeholders One of thechallenges faced was with people being uncomfortablewhen pushed beyond their usual ‘comfort zone’ Also, some

of the varied and unconventional learning techniques oftencaused some anguish Many participants were startled tofind that they could have productive ‘fun’ at work A morebalanced understanding was evident by the end of the train-ing The complex and intricate design of the programmemeant that the team number swelled to around 100, with amix of academics, facilitators, mentors and coaches Keyactions that aided success were:

䊏 One-to-one briefings at induction;

䊏 Existing learning materials were utilised but with a verbalexplanation to assist staff inclusion;

䊏 Support given by departmental mentor;

䊏 Support from peer colleagues within project group

E V A L U A T I N G A C U S T O M E R - C E N T R I C A P P R O A C H 23

CONTINUED London Borough of Newham

Outcome: The New Century Manager Programme has been

a success It has had a significant impact on all council services

The project team monitors and evaluates each event very

carefully to ensure that they can build on the success of

previous events and to ensure that each module achieves its

original aims and objectives

Key points:

䊏 Large-scale training and implementation can promote a

service ethic

䊏 Communication and training across managerial levels;

䊏 Measurement of training outcomes;

䊏 Customer-centric approach changes conventional habits

an organisation both an element of differentiation and also a level

of customer awareness that many organisations today cannotattain An organisation employing a customer service director will

be an organisation that is determined to put the customer at thecentre of all its transactions This level of commitment shows thevalue being attached to customers in today’s business climate.The customer service director will also be a champion of the causesfor ground-level service personnel and customer service repres-entatives (CSRs)

For this tranche of the workforce to have representation in theboardroom is a move away from the normal processes that prevail.The information gleaned at the ‘coalface’ can now be transportedalmost without question directly to board level and acted upon.This process will serve the company very well in adapting itsservice offerings to suit the customer needs, it will also engender a

‘feel-good’ factor among the service personnel who will feel thattheir input will have a direct bearing on the organisation’s overall

performance The customer service director will have little or noresistance from fellow board members because they are alreadycommitted to the needs that the director represents.

Appointing a customer service director has far-reaching tations, which go beyond the obvious: from a communicationstandpoint for instance, being able to transfer raw data to theboard room simply, quickly, can have a positive impact on theperformance of the organisation as a whole Over the nextdecade more and more national and multinational organisationswill implement the new role of customer service director

conno-INTRODUCING THE ROLE OF THE CUSTOMER DIRECTOR

The customer service director is predominantly concerned withservice strategies His role is to evaluate the service offeringcurrently in existence; he will need to assess the data and develop

a strategy that enables the organisation to prosper, utilising theservice ethic The customer service director should also be thedriving force behind the empowerment of the service personnel,devising strategy and guidelines for the empowerment to be effec-tive The role will also entail the process of measurement andbenchmarking and the pursuance of best practice methods Thecustomer service director role cannot be immersed in singular,one-off activities; organisation and personalisation issues need to

be addressed by empowered line managers The role has to bemore strategic and ‘big picture’, so that the patterns and habits ofcustomers and customer behaviour can be assessed, managed andmanipulated Measuring the value of the service offering will bepart of the role and must be all-encompassing, so that the cost isoffset against the gains, and the gains have a financial value Anyfinancial values need to be communicated to the rest of theorganisation to highlight that good service can contribute tobottom line All of these functions will serve to benefit the CSRsand develop an overall more complete customer service Of

course, this is not a definitive job description of the customerservice directors; these are just some key elements, which willdifferentiate that person from other directors.

CUSTOMER ELEMENTS OF A COMMERCIAL

BUSINESS

Everyone knows what the customer elements of a commercialbusiness are: the people who buy the goods or services While this islargely true, there are other elements of a commercial business thatfall under the umbrella title of ‘customer’ The sales department has

a customer-facing role and therefore comes into contact withcustomers, potential customers and non-customers on a daily basis.The service personnel deal with customers when there are anyissues to be dealt with (returns, refunds, complaints, etc.), so theyare customer-facing Other areas of business, which are not neces-sarily customer-facing but have to consider customer elements,permeate throughout the organisation, especially if the organisation

is customer-centric The recognition of the customer elementshould be throughout the organisation from the top down, fromthe boardroom, which in terms of having a customer servicedirector will be represented, right through to the shop floor

The customer should be considered in the boardroom but,even with the services of the customer service director, shouldnot only be considered by that one board member It is importantnot to install a person in the role and assume that they have soleresponsibility for the customer The sooner an organisation caneducate its workforce that the customer is the vital link, thesooner customer service excellence will prevail in that organisa-tion The necessary message to convey to all departments is thatthe customer is important to the company and what each indi-vidual does within the organisation is important to the customer.This should inject a certain amount of pride into the roles thateach of the operatives undertake and instil in them a feeling ofresponsibility This ‘in their shoes’ approach to service levels will

E N T E R T H E C U S T O M E R S E R V I C E D I R E C T O R 27

enable everyone in the organisation to comprehend how theyshould be treating their customers The customer service directoradopting this approach, professionally and with sufficient training,will enhance the profile of his directorate and the profile of theorganisation simultaneously.

HOW DO SERVICE PERSONNEL KEEP TOUCH WITH THE CHANGING CORPORATE

STRUCTURE?

Service personnel who have the benefit of a customer servicedirector will have fewer challenges keeping in touch with corpor-ate policy than those without A board director will have a directchannel through to the service personnel on the ground, whowill be able to implement and understand the corporate changes

as they develop In the absence of a customer service director,service personnel will benefit from the usual internal commun-ication vehicles Newsletters, intranet and staff updates are allvery useful tools, but the difficulty with this type of commun-ication is that it is one-way It is written and effectively dictatorial

in tone; therefore it is prone to (mis)interpretation While servicepersonnel tend to be more subjective, misinterpretation still exists.Direct communication, where individuals can have interactionand/or conversation will reduce the incidence of misinter-pretation and will result in a smoother adoption of any changesrequired In large organisations this is not always practicalespecially if it is a multinational company, but it can be beneficial

to have a conference call or video conference where all servicepersonnel in turn have the opportunity to discuss and understandthe underlying motives of any change in corporate structure

It is necessary to recognise the need for service personnel toboth understand what is required and why it is required Because theservice personnel will have a certain amount of empowerment, theywill also have a certain amount of inquisitiveness This inquisitive-ness is not through idle interest It is turned into a fuller under-

standing of the organisation’s needs and requirements, which theythen convey to the customer, which serves the customer better,and the organisation prospers The customer service directorshould nurture this inquisitiveness, feed it and watch it grow Themore informed the customer service personnel are, the betterservice they will offer The service personnel’s thirst for informa-tion will serve as a bottom-up reminder for the board If the board

is aware that the service personnel will need a fuller understanding

of their decisions, it will consider more fully the decision itself

The internal communications within a multinational tion are difficult enough and should, as a rule, be all-encompassing,regular and informative Because CSRs will be relating to thecustomer at all of their touch points, it’s vital that they are given more concise information and for that information to beconveyed to them sooner This puts them into a position to driveforward the changes that are taking place within the organisationmore seamlessly and with less negative effect on the customer

organisa-WHAT MAKES CUSTOMERS IMPORTANT

ENOUGH TO HAVE A DIRECTOR?

Money It may be crude, it may be ethically wrong, but wheneverything else is stripped away, the only reason that customersare deserving of a director is money The cost of acquiring newcustomers is an ever-growing strain on resources, and if anorganisation is able to retain customers for longer the savings willfall straight to the bottom line There is so much known aboutthe customer today, from how long the customer is likely to stayyour customer, to how much that customer is likely to spend overthe lifetime of her relationship with the organisation Minute,intricate details such as where she is most likely to go on holiday

or even what she prefers for breakfast are collected and collatedbut seldom used It is not a resource that organisations are happy

to let disappear Having a customer service director who canharness this data, grow it, utilise it and disseminate it through the

E N T E R T H E C U S T O M E R S E R V I C E D I R E C T O R 29

organisation means that the customer has more value than merelythe physical cost of what she buys This amount of data in the righthands could result in a change of direction for the organisation, achange of product or indeed, just a change of design.

Organisations that are at the forefront of the service offeringwill appreciate that the customer has both a financial value and anintangible value The intangible value is the customer’s marketingvalue – effectively, where a customer sells your services throughword of mouth or recommendation Because this value is largelyintangible, too many organisations are reticent to recognise it.The reality is that, like advertising on the BBC, no money in theworld can buy word-of-mouth recommendations The sophist-ication of customers is evolving and many analysts and expertsbelieve that over the next two decades customers will becomeeven more powerful than they are today

The advent of vigilante consumers, and also of customerunions – collaboration between like-minded people to purchase

or not purchase en masse – will effectively empower customers

to such an extent that it will impact heavily on commercialoperations These customer unions will need clever managementand a customer service director will be in a strong position tocounterbalance the effects of the unions As these unions grow,

so their buying power will represent a large proportion of businessfor any organisation and the customer will increasingly becomemore important The fact that many organisations now can only differentiate from one another by service also means that the customer becomes an important link in the welfare of thatorganisation The phrase,‘The customer is king’ is no longer true

It now must be replaced by ‘The customer is God.’

READINESS CHECKLIST

1 Do you have one single person responsible for TCE?

An appointment (preferably at board level) should be made that is effectively a quality control role A customer-focused, driven individual