Customer service levels are at an all time low and organisations of all types are facing high customer churn, serious customer antagonism, loss of consumer confidence and plummeting customer satisfaction. Focus on the customer has been lost. The time-honoured business axiom that: “People do business with people” is being dangerously ignored.
Truly customer-satisfying service is not just about training staff in service skills. You cannot simply bolt on ‘customer service’ to an organisation that is unfit to support and sustain it. The whole organisation needs to be positioned to deliver a meaningful experience to the customer, as well as a valuable product or service.
Designing efficient service processes is not the answer either. Service skills and well-designed service processes can only be effective if they can draw their meaning, their power, from overall SERVICE-ABILITY, otherwise they are sterile and will wither on the vine.
True customer service is about a depth of relationship that extends from the very centre of the organisation: to the loyal, satisfied customer through the loyal, satisfied employee. It is a culture as much as it is a function, and that can only come from an organisation that is in its very essence, ‘service-able’.
Based on a 4-element diagnostic model, SERVICE-ABILITY is about trust in leadership, pride in the job, trust in colleagues and belief in the cause, combined to create high organisational morale in the people and:
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INITIATIVE
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PROFESSIONALISM
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INVOLVEMENT
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ENGAGEMENT
Organisations with SERVICE-ABILITY will stand out from those that continue to offer indifferent, de-personalised relationships with their customers. They will be more stable, and they will be more profitable because they will not only attract more customers, they will keep their existing ones longer.
SERVICE-ABILITY separates the best from the rest. It is the very key to sustainable competitive advantage in the 21st Century.
