Great Customer Service: Changing the Culture
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"I don't know ..." was the response I received to my question about whether or not it was supposed to rain a few years ago. My kids and I went to the roller coaster mecca of the United States: Cedar Point, the tourist attraction in Sandusky Ohio. If you're familiar with the location you know a strip of hotels is located on the road right outside of Cedar Point; the hotels' entire business is dependent upon the traffic brought in by the amusement park. Weather is of utmost importance to their guests, and yet the hotel employee who worked at the front desk not only didn't know what the weather forecast was, she didn't seem to believe she should know.
If you don't want this to be the experience of your clients, you need to take a multi-pronged approach to customer service, and realize great customer service is really about changing and influencing the culture. Delivering excellent service is complex; one key element is constant reinforcement and a comprehensive training and communications program that includes a combination of the following:
Formal professional skills training: employees within the organization should have baseline training that trains employees on the firm's service philosophy, customer service, difficult clients and proactive service training. Note: It's important to not only train your current employees but new employees as well.
Informal training: this is the 'training' that occurs on a department-level i.e., during staff meetings and through various corporate communications. Employees should be communicated with frequently in a variety of ways, so that service permeates existing and stand-a-lone venues.
Impacting the culture requires everyone in the firm and every conversation, decision made, and product or service offered reflects a client-centric mentality. Formal and informal training and communications is necessary in order to ensure clients have a consistently excellent experience. When this occurs, even when something is not within an employees' formal job description, they still know what to do to impress clients. We're planning to stop again at Cedar Point again this summer, on our way out west. Hope we have great weather.
"I don't know ..." was the response I received to my question about whether or not it was supposed to rain a few years ago. My kids and I went to the roller coaster mecca of the United States: Cedar Point, the tourist attraction in Sandusky Ohio. If you're familiar with the location you know a strip of hotels is located on the road right outside of Cedar Point; the hotels' entire business is dependent upon the traffic brought in by the amusement park. Weather is of utmost importance to their guests, and yet the hotel employee who worked at the front desk not only didn't know what the weather forecast was, she didn't seem to believe she should know. If you don't want this to be the experience of your clients, you need to take a multi-pronged approach to customer service, and realize great customer service is really about changing and influencing the culture. Delivering excellent service is complex; one key element is constant reinforcement and a comprehensive training and communications program that includes a combination of the following:
Formal professional skills training: employees within the organization should have baseline training that trains employees on the firm's service philosophy, customer service, difficult clients and proactive service training. Note: It's important to not only train your current employees but new employees as well.
Informal training: this is the 'training' that occurs on a department-level i.e., during staff meetings and through various corporate communications. Employees should be communicated with frequently in a variety of ways, so that service permeates existing and stand-a-lone venues.
Impacting the culture requires everyone in the firm and every conversation, decision made, and product or service offered reflects a client-centric mentality. Formal and informal training and communications is necessary in order to ensure clients have a consistently excellent experience. When this occurs, even when something is not within an employees' formal job description, they still know what to do to impress clients. We're planning to stop again at Cedar Point again this summer, on our way out west. Hope we have great weather.
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Posted by Susan Hoekstra at 2/19/2010 9:00 AM 
Categories: Customer Service Training, Leading Customer Service
Tags: Good Customer Service Cedar Point Susan Hoekstra Customer Service Communications Attitude of Indifference Service Training Proactive Service The Service Journey client experience Competitive Advantage Dealing with Difficult Clients
Categories: Customer Service Training, Leading Customer Service
Tags: Good Customer Service Cedar Point Susan Hoekstra Customer Service Communications Attitude of Indifference Service Training Proactive Service The Service Journey client experience Competitive Advantage Dealing with Difficult Clients
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