Recognition and the Service Industry

Good service is good business. But for companies that derive revenues from both sales and services, it is interesting to note that service margins are generally much higher. Service personnel also drive repeat business. Service teams intersect with the customer frequently and can provide a foothold for customer longevity.

So how can firms exploit services for competitive advantage? By realizing that for services to reach its potential as a profit center, learning and knowledge must be leveraged to fuel employee growth and overcome impediments to change.

We have talked before about the role recognition plays in promoting a shared vision of customer care. When someone on your team displays an innovative approach to solving  a customer's problem or goes beyond the call of duty when supporting a colleague, telling their story can help "normalize" this effort. In essence recogntion helps promote a new standard, while raising the bar for everyone else that touches the customer. 

So many of the firms I talk are eager to translate corporate goals into individual action. The first step should always be to define the desired outcome from the customer's point of view. Recognition helps do that. By acknowledging actions and behaviors that helped a client overcome adversity you are kick starting and then sustaining a customer centric culture.

Companies that do this report a higher level of mutuality across the ranks. Their employees understand and buy into what the enterprise is trying to do and, better yet, their customers feel like they (and their needs) are at the center of everyone's attention.

Comments

[Howard]

By recognizing your staff you focus upon the 5% - the people. Systems Thinkers know that 95% of performance is down to systems conditions (IT - e.g. CRM, policies and procedures, management thinking).

To truly transform your service, study your organisation as a system, and at the same time change how you think about work forever.

The Systems Thinking Review - counterintuitive knowkeldge learnt by seeing from a systems perspective:

http://www.thesystemsthinkingreview.co.uk/