Customer Service Reader

Remembering World-Class Courtesy

In February 1998, the National Partnership for Reinventing Government released its report on Best Practices in "World-class courtesy". Long since consigned to the dustbins of bureaucracy, the report (prepared with the cooperation of USAA, Nordstrom, and Ritz-Carlton, among others) deserves to be exhumed. We paid for it, we may as well use it.

Some key findings:

Each of the organizations studied exhibited these characteristics

• The organization's cultural climate reflects a commitment to meeting and exceeding customer expectations.
• Senior leaders demonstrate by example the organization's commitment to exceptional courtesy.
• Employees are empowered to fully meet the needs of their customers.
• Courtesy is practiced by everyone throughout the entire organization.
• Specific and ongoing training in courtesy is provided.
• Formal and informal screening techniques are used to hire employees with exceptional skills in courtesy.
• The organization establishes systems to measure the value of its services to customers.
• Services are provided seamlessly from the customer's perspective.
• There is zero tolerance for discourteous service.
• All the organizations found that courtesy improves customer loyalty.

Courtesy & Behavior

Courtesy is expressed as a wide range of respectful behaviors and positive attitudes. Personal characteristics and behaviors that were repeatedly expressed by our partners as essential elements of courteous behavior are:

• a willingness to discover opportunities to exceed the customer's expectations,
• sincerity,
• a friendly smile (even over the phone),
• using the person's last name (unless the customer indicates otherwise),
• a neat appearance,
• proper use of the language,
• exceptional listening skills (attentiveness),
• a relaxed and natural tone of voice,
• appropriate eye contact,
• clear communication at the customer's comprehension level, and
• knowledge about the product or service.

Quick tips for improving courtesy

• Be flexible. People's expectations regarding courtesy vary. Learn to take your lead from your customer. Quiet, reserved people tend to appreciate a more reserved and dignified sort of service. Loud, spirited people often like to know that the person they are talking to is "getting it." Use good judgment always, but be ready to stretch a little to make your style better match your customer's expectations.
• Take some risks to delight and surprise the customer. Consider the chef who, upon realizing he sent a dinner to a table with the meat slightly overcooked, immediately went out to the table, sat down, took a bite from the overcooked meat and said, as the surprised couple looked on, "Hmm...I thought so, a bit overcooked. Please forgive me. The next one will be perfect and on me!"
• Practice servant-leadership. Develop a passion for service and then put that passion to work in whatever position you now hold. If you are already a recognized leader in your organization, then serve as a mentor for others who wish to become servant-leaders.
• Smile your best smile. Customers appreciate a pleasant atmosphere. A smile always helps. Use your smile frequently when dealing with the public. You will come to enjoy the many benefits it will bring you and your customers.
• Listen as if you mean it. The greatest compliment to another person is listening to them. Really listening. You have to listen as if you mean it. Sit up, take a few notes, ask clarifying questions, show some reaction to what is being said.
• Call people back. If you must use voice mail, update your message daily, check it at least twice a day, and get back to people within one day at the latest. Returning calls has a direct relationship to dependability and dependability is the cornerstone of good customer service.
• Demonstrate phone courtesy. The tone and pitch of your voice can assure the caller that you are sincere, friendly­and that you are listening. Create a vision for your caller that you are responsible and dedicated to resolving his or her issue.
• Develop a team focus. Team work is definitely needed when it comes to improving courtesy. Demonstrate your team commitment on a daily basis.

Developing Strategies For Implementing World-Class Courtesy

The following strategies are a composite of the ideas worked out by the team members for implementing world-class courtesy in their own agencies. Depending on your individual circumstances, these suggestions will hopefully serve to stimulate interesting and practical ideas.

Remember: Your journey toward world-class courtesy begins from where you are, not from where you wish you were. The important thing is to get started.

1. Establish credibility. Unless you are the CEO in your organization, you may want to first establish some credibility on this topic. Develop a good knowledge base of what world-class courtesy is, or could be, in your organization. You can start by reading this study thoroughly, marking those sections that look interesting , and taking some notes as you go along. You may also want to read several of the articles listed in the selected bibliography.
2. Determine your organization's attitude toward courtesy. Determine what your organization's current mission, vision, strategic plan, or value statements say about courtesy. With the issuance of the President's Executive Order 12862 on setting customer service standards, the enactment of the Government Performance Results Act of the 1995, and the National Performance Review's publication of customer service standards, you probably have a good basis for assessing your organization's current level of and attitudes toward customer service.
3. Take a "snapshot". Determine where in your organization might be the best place to take a "snapshot" of how courtesy is currently being practiced. Choose an office or section that already has an interest in knowing more about its customer service capabilities. If its not obvious at first where to start, arrange a meeting with an appropriate official or committee to which you can provide a short briefing on the benefits of looking at organizational behaviors leading to world-class courtesy.
4. Publicize, promote, and popularize. Through information, actions, and tools, help your organization journey toward world-class courtesy.

The report also includes an extensive bibliography.

Southwest's "Customer Service Commitment"

In The American Customer Satisfaction Index at Ten Years, Claes Fornell et al cite Southwest Airlines as having consistently been the leader in customer satisfaction among airline companies. The study also notes that Southwest is the only major airline that has been consistently profitable, and that its market value is greater than the value of all other major airlines combined.

The trend continues. Southwest's net income in 2005 rose to $548 million, from $313 million in 2004. While other majors are in bankruptcy, Southwest capped 33 consecutive years of profitability with a 75% increase in net income.

Southwest seems not to be content with that, as it revised its "Customer Service Commitment" (now 28 pages) in January 2006. Some excerpts:

Our Mission Statement

The mission of Southwest Airlines is dedication to the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit.

Foremost, we want you to know that it is never our wish to inconvenience our valued Customers. We tell our Employees we are in the Customer Service business - we just happen to provide airline transportation.

The Employees of Southwest Airlines understand our mission, and we are happy to share it, and the following information, with you, our valued Customer. Our Customer Service Commitment was designed and written in such a way as to clarify many of the most commonly questioned terms and conditions of our Contract of Carriage and provide you with insight into some of our policies and procedures. For that reason, it only made sense to make it a part of our Contract of Carriage. And, Southwest is proud to incorporate its voluntary Customer Service Commitment in its official Contract of Carriage reinforcing our pledge to provide safe, affordable, reliable, timely, courteous, and efficient air transportation and baggage handling service on every flight we operate, as well as produce a fair return on our Shareholders' investments.

Few companies bother to explain to their customers why they do things, much less go into detail about their standards, or how they deal with problems. Southwest bothers. Some examples from the Commitment:

• Overbooking - What Is It and Why Do It? “Overbooking” means that airlines do not necessarily stop accepting reservations when they have taken enough to fill a particular airplane on a particular flight. Airlines overbook to compensate for passengers who neither cancel reservations nor show up for their confirmed flights. For example, on a flight that offers 137 seats, we may accept a small percentage of “extra” reservations because, historically, that has been the number of previously confirmed passengers, who, without notice, did not show up for the flight. If, instead, we allowed “no-show” seats to go unfilled, we would have to raise our fares in order to offset lost “no-show” revenue.
• ... when a flight does oversell (again, it is rare), the first thing our CustomerService Agents do is ask those who have checked in if they are willing to volunteer to take a later flight. Typically, the incentives we offer result in a number of volunteers sufficient to free up the seats needed ...
• ... If your alternate flight is scheduled to arrive at your destination or stopover point more than two hours later than your originally scheduled flight, your compensation will increase to an amount equal to twice your remaining one-way flight coupon ...
• ... if uncontrollable circumstances cause ground delays of more than two hours, we will endeavor to: 1. Make refreshments available on request. If necessary, operationally feasible, and safe to do so, remote provisioning will remove trash and replenish depleted onboard snack and beverage service items ...
• Our Airplanes. Southwest Airlines is the world’s largest operator of Boeing 737s. It is the only type of airplane we fly! This means that all of our Pilots, Flight Attendants, and Mechanics are expertly trained and thoroughly familiar with every airplane in our fleet. We believe our skilled professionals and our consistent, state-of-the-art fleet are two primary reasons that Southwest Airlines has one of the best operational safety records in the worldwide airline industry.
• Baggage Handling. Southwest has maintained one of the best cumulative baggage-handling records in our industry. We do everything humanly possible to ensure that the items you entrust into our care are loaded onto the same plane you board and returned to you promptly at your destination. We know that your belongings are important and valuable to you.
• Infants and Toddlers. Currently, federal air safety regulations allow children younger than two years of age to be held in the lap of another person who is at least 12 years of age. If you wish to hold your child under two years of age, we will not collect a fare ... While the decision to hold your little one is certainly up to you, our governmental safety agency the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and most airline professionals strongly recommend that children under 40 pounds are safer and more comfortable when secured in an approved, hard-sided car or safety seat. Southwest Airlines offers deeply discounted infant fares to make travel more affordable for Customers who reserve and purchase seats for small children. 

Standards in Squidoo

This Squidoo lens is focused on Customer Service Standards. Standards define what customer service means, and what behaviors are expected of the members of the organization. They form the backbone of the customer service program. Without enforced standards, the program is spineless.

Also using a CSR lens in Squidoo to organize material in this blog.

Service standards

Excerpts from
Unleashing Excellence, The Complete Guide to Ultimate Customer Service
Dennis Snow and Teri Yanovitch, Ch 4 The Service Philosophy and Service Standards

Imagine telling 5,000 bank employees: “Go build life-enhancing relationships with our customers,” providing no other guidance. There are many ways to build life-enhancing relationships, some of which may not be appropriate for a bank. There must be behavioral guidelines that provide direction on how employees are expected to build these life-enhancing relationships. Providing that guidance is the role of Service Standards.

Service Standards are the rules of engagement for providing customer service. Service Standards provide the behavioral template that leads to consistent service. They help employees at the moment of truth; those times they have to make a service decision.

Developing the Service Standards

• Look for the no-brainers. In healthcare, for example, something like accuracy or safety better be pretty close to the top of the hierarchy.
• Use your research to discover dissatisfier themes. What are those behaviors, oversights, etc. that seem to irritate customers? Most industries have core dissatisfiers that are common to that industry. Identifying potential customer dissatisfiers and implementing processes, systems, and behaviors that eliminate them is a wonderful way to gain a competitive edge.
• Look for those behaviors that wow customers.

Disney guidelines

Excerpts from Be our Guest: Perfecting the art of customer service
Disney Institute, Chapter 3, The Magic of Cast

Disney University has spent a good deal of time defining courtesy in action and exploring how courtesy contributes to a positive guest experience. The result of these efforts is embodied In a list of actions called performance tips, which every Walt Disney World employee learns.

Performance tips are a set of generic behaviors that ensure that cast members know how to act courteously and respect the individuality of each guest. While the phrase “performance tips” may sound relatively innocuous, these tips pack a punch. At Walt Disney World, they have been translated into a set of behavioral actions called Guidelines for Guest Service.

The guidelines are summarized in seven sentences and serve a variety of purposes. First, they define behavior in terms of the guests. They create a common baseline for interaction with guests and demonstrate the elements of performance that perpetuate courtesy. Second, the guidelines communicate employee responsibilities. They make the company’s expectations for service delivery clear to new cast members and they provide a basis for accountability. Fulfilling the performance guidelines is a condition of employment at Walt Disney World. Cast members who do not use them are subject to progressive disciplinary actions.

Walt Disney World Guidelines for Guest Service

• Make Eye Contact and Smile!
• Greet and Welcome Each and Every Guest
• Seek Out Guest Contact
• Provide Immediate Service Recovery
• Display Appropriate Body language at All Times
• Preserve the “Magical” Guest experience
• Thank Each and Every Guest