customer service consulting work

customer service consulting work

‘‘I was doing some customer service consulting work with an organiza-tion and everything seemed to be going well. Feedback from the field was positive and customers were positively commenting on the overall service attitude. Employees even commented on how much better everyone within the organization treated each other. I really think one of the keys to the success of the initiative was how much the leadership team embraced the importance of holding everyone accountable for delivering great service. Every leader went through a training class that focused on the subject of accountability.

‘‘I did receive a call from one manager who said that this ‘customer service thing’ wasn’t working with his team and that he was disappointed in the initiative. ‘Just this morning,’ he told me, ‘I saw that our receptionist wasn’t smiling or greeting customers. Nothing is different than it was before this service initiative.’ ‘Regarding the receptionist this morning,’ I asked, ‘what did you do about it?’ There was a long pause on the other end of the phone line before his reply, ‘I called you.’ ’’

Accountability is critical to the success of any service improve-ment initiative. Clearly, the manager in the previous story thought that all he needed to do was send his employees to

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training and their service performance would magically improve. But, without accountability, service excellence remains a good idea, not a reality. As you can interpret from the content of this book, we advocate building a culture in which people want to provide excellent service. Make no mistake about it, however, there must be mechanisms in place that hold people accountable for their service performance. Without accountability it’s easier for employees to just keeping doing things the way they’ve always done them. In fact, we can confidently state that the number one reason we’ve seen service initiatives fail to achieve desired objec-tives is a lack of accountability. Service excellence behaviors must become nonnegotiable.

Keep in mind that the idea of accountability doesn’t only apply to leaders holding frontline employees accountable for their performance. It applies to everyone, including the leadership team. As leaders it seems that there are a million things compet-ing for our attention. Which items do we focus on? We focus on those items for which we are held seriously accountable. Many organizations tell employees to do one thing, while management focuses on something completely different. As leaders, we then wonder why our people are so skeptical of new initiatives. Employ-ees are carefully watching their leaders to see if leadership behaviors truly align with stated values.

Accountability is about aligning behaviors with what the orga-nization says it values, pure and simple. Without such alignment of behaviors, values are simply words on a piece of paper. Sometimes accountability comes in the form of penalties for noncompliance (which isn’t a bad thing, by the way, as you’ll see later). Ideally, however, accountability is about information regarding progress toward fulfilling the company’s values. Anything that provides a member of the team with accurate, objective information about performance in relation to company values is valuable.

This chapter will focus on five areas of accountability:

job descriptions

attention and focus

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coaching

promotions

performance appraisals

Job Descriptions

Every position in the organization should have a job description that outlines key responsibilities, essential job duties, and success measurements. Some job descriptions go into greater detail and include items such as educational requirements, compensation, and growth opportunities. While there are lots of different and effective ways to write job descriptions, our purpose here is to ensure that all job descriptions include customer service criteria.

Job Descriptions for Frontline Positions

Most job descriptions for frontline positions include things like the ability to lift 40 pounds, type 50 words per minute, operate a cash register, fill out order forms, and so on, and they never mention anything about customer service. Is it any wonder that employees say, ‘‘It’s not my job’’? Technically they’re right if service excellence doesn’t appear in the job description!

An ideal approach for developing job descriptions is to use your Service Standards as a framework for describing the majority of employee responsibilities. Some criteria may not fall neatly into the Service Standards and will need to be described under other headings, but the more responsibilities that can be connected to your Service Standards, the better.

Figure 11.1 provides an example of a job description for a full-service gas station attendant (yes, they still exist) based on the Service Standards they had developed. Using their old job de-scription as a starting point, they reformatted it using the Service Standards. During the reformatting process they noticed several customer service gaps in what was expected of employees and added in the behaviors needed to fill those gaps.

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Position: Full Serve Attendant

Responsibilities to Serve the Customers:

CORRECT—Ensure that all aspects of the customer interaction are handled and executed correctly.

1. Adhere to safety regulations.

Adhere to emergency response plan.

Adhere to all safety regulations when pumping gasoline. Maintain a safe environment and handle emergencies. Complete a visual check of grounds for snow and ice.

Keep driveways, walkways, and pump islands clear of snow and ice.

Clean up all spills.

Keep lights in good operating condition.

Inform manager of any lights not in good working condition or if supply of bulbs is low.

2. Ensure that all exchanges of products, services, and compensa-tion are fair and accurate.

Pump the amount of gasoline requested by the customer at the full-service island.

Accept payment in the form of cash, credit card, debit card, and loyalty card.

Provide correct change, receipts, and all appropriate docu-ments that are due to the customer.

Answer customer questions with correct information. Provide accurate directions.

Recommend car care products (oil, windshield fluid) only when levels are low and in need of replenishment.

Complete shift end and balance cash/tender.

3. Create and present an appropriate image to customers.

Dress in an approved uniform, and present a well-groomed, clean, and fresh appearance at all times.

Figure 11.1     Sample Job Description

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Maintain site exterior cleanliness and orderliness.

Keep the lot, yard, and pump islands clean and free of debris.

AVAILABLE—Ensure that products, services, and attendant assistance are available to customers when they want and need them.

1. Ensure that materials and supplies associated with all offerings are stocked and available to customers at all times.

Keep windshield service units stocked and well maintained.

Keep washrooms stocked and clean as per site housekeeping schedule.

Maintain displays.

Keep merchandise clean and stacked neatly in displays. Keep pumps, signs, and glass clean.

2. Assist customers in obtaining the products and services they want and need.

Acknowledge each driver as they pull into the full-service island with a verbal greeting or a wave.

Demonstrate appropriate ‘‘hustle,’’ and approach each driver as quickly as possible.

Offer to check oil, fluid levels, and to clean windshields.

ATTENTIVE—Look for opportunities to proactively make the customers’ experience at the site smooth and hassle-free.

1. Build relationships with customers by being proactively friendly and helpful.

Proactively engage customer in friendly conversation.

Learn regular customers’ names, and address them by name when they visit.

Sell products that will be of benefit to the customer.

Advise customers of any specials or promotions that are being offered inside the store.

Thank every customer and invite them back.

Figure 11.1    (Continued )

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2. Engage customers in participating in loyalty programs and offers.

Ask customers if they have a loyalty card. If not, explain the benefits of the card and assist them with registration.

Inform customers of the number of loyalty points they have accu-mulated, and how their points could be redeemed immediately.

Advise customers on the best use of loyalty points.

WOW—Exceed customer expectations by providing assistance and service that is ‘‘above and beyond’’ what they expect.

1. Provide special assistance to customers with special needs.

Offer to obtain products from inside the store for mobility-impaired customers or adults with small children.

Offer to obtain products from inside the store on rainy days. Ask customer if they need any directions before they leave.

Provide directions and map when necessary, and obtain direc-tions that you are unsure about.

Advise customers if tire air pressure seems to need attention and offer assistance in filling tires.

Be aware of the nearest car repair facilities.

2. Interact with self-serve customers and offer assistance.

Greet customers at the self-serve pumps.

Offer ‘‘full-serve attention’’ to self-serve customers whenever the full-service pumps aren’t busy.

Creatively solve customer problems, whether site-related or not.

Figure 11.1    (Continued )

The descriptors developed for your Service Standards, as described in Chapter 4, can provide a starting point for job description content.

Job Descriptions for Management Positions

The best approach that we’ve seen for crafting job descriptions for leadership positions is using the popular ‘‘three-legged stool’’

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as a guideline. The three-legged stool suggests that leaders should be accountable for three broad areas:

the customer experience the employee experience business results

The customer experience section may include such expect-ations as satisfaction results, retention results, or new products/ services introduced. The employee experience section may in-clude items such as turnover rate, training expectations, and employee satisfaction scores. The business results section may include such things as sales goals and cost management. These points, of course, are just examples. The specifics of the job description must depend on the specifics of the job.

Using the three-legged stool approach helps to ensure that balanced expectations are built into a manager’s job description. You want managers to create an excellent customer experience, right? You also want managers to select, train, and retain excellent employees. Finally, you want managers to achieve specific busi-ness objectives. Spelling out these three areas in job descriptions ensures you don’t leave to chance that managers know what’s expected of them. This assumes, of course, that managers have seen their job descriptions and that the descriptions are used in the interview, appraisal, promotion, and other accountability processes.

If you find that job descriptions are lacking in customer service elements, you are missing the foundation of the accountability process. Every member of the team, at every level, must know what is expected of them if they are to perform effectively!

Attention and Focus

In most cases, leaders have more control over how they spend their time than frontline employees do. Frontline employees are

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told specifics like when to work the register, bus the tables, or drive the truck. While leaders are pulled in many directions, they can control what they focus on while being pulled. Is it bottom line profitability? Customer service? Employee retention? Granted, no leader’s job is easy, but what’s paid attention to and focused on in any circumstance is up to the leader.

Your focus and attention regarding the service improvement initiative is critical if the initiative is to work. You can’t delegate this focus.

‘‘Our company started using a scorecard for holding managers account-able for balanced performance. We all attended what seemed like a gazillion meetings to hammer out the components of the scorecard. A lot of hours went into creating these things. What a joke. The only thing our VP cared about was the financials. He never even asked about any of the other stuff. If you hit your financial numbers you were golden. If you missed your financial numbers it didn’t matter what other factors were strong; you were toast. And everyone knew it.’’

All levels of leadership must make customer service a priority and demonstrate that priority through behaviors. When you meet with employees, what do you talk about? As you walk the shop floor, what do you comment on? As you interact with customers, what do you ask them?

A manager at a financial institution became an ‘‘early adopter’’ of the company’s service improvement initiative. He went through the initial training and enthusiastically brought the information back to his department. One evening he and his fellow managers decorated the entire department to communi-cate the focus on service. When employees arrived the next day they were blown away by the efforts of their management. They were very proud of being on the leading edge of the initiative. This manager’s behaviors demonstrated attention and focus. However, what happened next was really interesting. The presi-dent of the company heard what this manager had done and

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made a special trip to the department to see the result and congratulate the team for their efforts. You better believe that word spread quickly throughout the organization that the presi-dent paid attention to what this department was doing in regard to service improvement. Other departments started visiting the location and instituting their own support mechanisms. Focus and attention make a real difference.

You need to go beyond individual initiative, however, and implement accountability structures to ensure focus and atten-tion. One such mechanism is management meetings. We’ve all been in countless meetings secretly planning our retirement to Tahiti or choosing just the right words we’d use to tell the boss what we really think of the meeting. The only time we really pay attention is when someone is talking about our department or when we have to contribute content to the meeting. So make contribution regarding the service initiative a mandatory part of your management meetings. Put service issues first on the agenda. Word will get around about what’s important to you.

As a leader, do your direct reports know that you hold them accountable for service excellence? Do you ask your direct reports about satisfaction ratings, customer defection statistics, and employee performance? A hospital CEO we know schedules a hospital walk-through every month with his senior management team. The group is looking for anything that detracts from the image of the hospital. The engineering manager has work orders in hand as they walk the hospital. You can be sure that attention is focused on getting the noted work done before the next month’s walk-through because the CEO will have the previous month’s work orders in hand. Some work, of course, requires longer than 1 month to complete, but everyone knows they’re held accountable for making sure progress is made. The CEO is also accountable for making on-the-spot decisions regarding resources necessary for the fixes. His credibility is on the line if he’s not willing to put forth the resources to create an excellent environment. Everyone’s accountable. What do people see you paying attention to?

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Coaching

Whenever you see opportunities for improvement for any employee, take the time to coach. Coaching is real-time training and can have a greater impact on actual performance than any seminar or training class.

If, for example, you notice an employee displaying negative physical posture or using a bored tone of voice on the telephone, taking a moment to correct the behavior and stressing why it is important to present a welcoming image is more effective in chang-ing behavior than any training program. The immediacy of the coaching is the key. Waiting until performance appraisal time to give feedback is not only ineffective in changing behavior, it’s unfair to the employee. The question uppermost in an employee’s mind when finding out about an ongoing performance problem during an annual appraisal is, ‘‘Why didn’t you tell me any of this before?’’

Oftentimes leaders don’t address an employee problem be-cause they’re concerned about offending the employee, or the leader is simply uncomfortable with confrontation. But holding employees (at all levels) accountable for service excellence is vital if you are serious about service improvement. Avoiding the situation undermines a leader’s credibility and potentially the credibility of the entire service initiative.

‘‘During a hotel stay, I found the service of the staff to be mediocre at best, but nothing to complain about. Except for one employee. She was beyond rude and I found her attitude completely out of line. And it wasn’t just me; I saw how poorly she treated everyone she came in contact with. I got her name from her nametag, ‘Sarah,’ and did something I rarely do—I called the manager to complain. He invited me to have coffee with him in the hotel coffee shop to discuss the problem. He was dismayed by my experience and asked me the employee’s name. ‘Her name is Sarah,’ I replied, ‘she works in the gift shop.’ ‘Oh yeah, Sarah,’ he said, ‘she’s kind of that way.’ I couldn’t believe it! They knew how bad she was and allowed her to keep ticking off the guests!’’

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Intolerable service exists when intolerable service is tolerated. It’s worth reading that line again. When we turn our heads from problem performance, we’re actually condoning that perform-ance. We’re telling our employees that, while we wish they would treat customers well, it’s okay if they don’t because there won’t be a consequence. ‘‘That’s just the way she is’’ really means, ‘‘I’m not going to do anything about the problem.’’

Figure 11.2 provides a process that works extremely well when coaching an employee about a customer service issue. The process sets the tone for the discussion, clearly outlines the problem along with the performance changes expected, outlines the consequences if improvement doesn’t occur, and communi-cates that there will be a follow-up discussion. Figure 11.3 is a template that can be used for planning a coaching session so that leaders can go into the discussion fully prepared with what they want to communicate and what outcomes they expect.

Promotions

Countless books and articles make the important point that just because someone is a great salesperson or great technician doesn’t mean that person will make a great leader. Effective leadership requires a unique set of skills and talents. We agree completely with this point and won’t belabor it here. We will ask, however, who is being promoted in your company? Are they the people who get good business results but leave the bodies of their employees littering the hallways or seeking stress therapy? Are promotions going to the people who don’t have the respect of their peers and subordinates? Or are promotions going to those who truly model the values of the organization, while achieving stellar business results? There is probably no single decision that more clearly communicates what an organization values than deciding who gets promoted up the corporate ladder.

A colleague worked for a large organization for many success-ful years. She led a department that showed stellar customer

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1. Position the discussion—This step lets the employee know why the coaching is occurring. Too often leaders will begin discuss-ing the performance situation (Step 2) without providing con-text. The best way to position the discussion is to refer to the organization’s objectives, values, or standards that connect to the performance issue you are addressing.

2. Discuss the performance situation—Based on the perspective of Step 1, what is the current performance? What is happening (or not happening) that is causing a problem? It’s important at this step to discuss observable performance and not pass subjective judgments such as, ‘‘You have a poor attitude.’’ The best ap-proach is to discuss outcomes that have been agreed upon, but not satisfactorily accomplished or an organizational performance standard that has not been met.

3. Set a plan of action—At this step, the employee and the coach agree on what behavior(s) must change. A rule of thumb is that the employee should do the majority of the talking, with the manager guiding the discussion. The employee must own the solution. Keep in mind that the employee will not always agree that there is a perform-ance problem. While it is most helpful that they do agree there is a problem, it is more important that they understand you expect a change in performance and that they are clear on what that change is.

4. Communicate the consequences of non-performance—This step is often left out because discussing consequences can be un-comfortable for the employee and the manager. Without conse-quences, however, there is little incentive for the employee to change his behavior. The consequences aren’t always extreme, like termination of employment—not every situation is that bad. But consequences must be discussed. The consequence may be to the organization or to the customer experience, but there is always a consequence. The employee should clearly understand the consequences of his or her actions.

5. Set a follow-up plan—Pull out the calendar and schedule a follow-up discussion. This step communicates to the employee that the coaching was not just a chat—changes are expected and he will be held accountable for those changes.

Figure 11.2 5-Step Coaching Process for Customer Service Issues (Go to www.UnleashingExcellence.com to download a customizable copy of this form.)

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Employee Name:

Step 1: Position the discussion

Step 2: Discuss the performance situation

Step 3: Set a plan of action

Step 4: Communicate the consequences of non-performance

Step 5: Set a follow-up plan

Figure 11.3 Coaching Planning (Go to www.UnleashingExcellence .com to download a customizable copy of this form.)

satisfaction scores, employee satisfaction scores, and had the best financial results in the division (remember the three-legged stool?). The division went through a massive restructure. Our colleague fully anticipated being promoted into a new and expanded key leadership spot. She was not. The person that received the promotion was nowhere near as qualified to lead the new department. The division leader said he was doing ‘‘what was right for the business.’’ Our colleague wanted to know how such a

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decision was right for the business but received no satisfactory answer. Three weeks later she turned in her resignation.

Sounds like sour grapes, right? Our colleague did her re-search, however. The previous department of the promoted manager had dismal customer satisfaction results that were going nowhere fast. He was not respected by his subordinates or peers and his employee satisfaction scores showed it. Finally, the finan-cial performance of his department was poor at best. Our col-league pointed out these discrepancies to her boss and was told, ‘‘You can’t really go by those measures.’’ What other measures are there? As we mentioned, our colleague left. The promoted manager lasted another 9 months and was let go during a subsequent restructure. Morale was left in the dust during this time. Think about it: How many times have you seen an un-deserving person promoted and then proceed to wreck the morale of a workgroup?

In determining individuals for promotion, be sure to evaluate them on their overall performance in relation to the three-legged stool:

the customer experience the employee experience business results

Subordinates and peers will almost certainly respect those who score highly in all three categories. Promoting these high-performing individuals will communicate an important message: ‘‘We value each of these factors in this organization.’’ Promoting someone who is weak in one or more of these areas communi-cates a very different message.

Performance Appraisals

Performance appraisals—how we all hate them. They are the big necessary evil in the accountability process. Any manager who says

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he loves conducting performance appraisals is either lying or is a masochist. Appraisals take a lot of time and are almost always uncomfortable to give. We will make no promises here that our suggestions will change your opinion or feelings about appraisals. You may still hate them. But if something is going to be painful, it may as well be effective.

Performance Appraisals for Frontline Positions

Because of the typical company structure, many managers con-duct a lot of frontline performance appraisals. Just for one manager, 20 to 30 appraisals or more on an annual basis isn’t unusual, and the situation becomes even more challenging in organizations in which appraisals are conducted every 6 months. We’ve seen instances in which managers, because of the volume of appraisals they were responsible for, developed a handful of favorite phrases to use in the written section of the appraisal form, trotting out these predeveloped, standard phrases to fit standard situations. One manager we know of even numbered his prede-veloped phrases, gave a copy to his administrative assistant, and would simply hand her a page with the appropriate numbers for creating an employee’s appraisal. While this manager might get credit for his efficiency, we can’t give him any credit for effectiveness.

Performance appraisals are important to employees. In many cases, it’s the only opportunity they get to sit down with their leader one on one for any length of time. They also know that the appraisal can impact their pay as well as their chances for advancement. Leaders owe it to their employees to invest time in putting together a thoughtful, complete appraisal.

As in creating job descriptions, using your service standards as a framework for creating a frontline appraisal form is an excellent strategy for hardwiring your service standards into the organiza-tional culture. Figure 11.4 is a section from the Naugatuck Savings Bank performance appraisal. Notice how the majority of the appraisal is structured around their Service Standards of: Safety

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Copyright © 2010. Wiley. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

Reprinted with permission from Naugatuck Savings Bank.

Copyright © 2010. Wiley. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

Is able to effectively perform assigned work in the allotted time frames and understands work procedures.

Reviews work for completion and accuracy prior to submission.

Listens, asks clarifying questions, and provides feedback to ensure accurate understanding of needs.

Complies with federal and state regulations and completes forms accurately and on time.

Works effectively with minimum supervision.

Uses good judgement in absence of detailed instruction, appropriately obtains supervisor’s help.

SCORE                    COMMENTS

Answers phone promptly and pleasantly.

Assumes responsibility for all work undertaken, follows up on assigned tasks.

Figure 11.4     (Continued )

Copyright © 2010. Wiley. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

Outputs work in quantities necessary to meet department needs.

Offers prompt and accurate responses to requests, inquiries, questions and concerns.

Completes work in allotted time, meets deadlines.

Has learned the appropriate level of knowledge for time in this position to effectively perform job.

Helps other team members when assistance is needed. Uses ingenuity in creating solutions for problems.

SCORE                    COMMENTS

Smiles and greets internal/external customers.

Understands and responds to the needs of the customer. Strives for ‘‘WOW’’ level of service.

Recognizes and routinely demonstrates the importance of looking through the ‘‘lens of the customer.’’

Figure 11.4    (Continued )

Copyright © 2010. Wiley. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

Maintains a pleasant, helpful attitude in overcoming difficulties and obstacles. Routinely performs the Everything Speaks Checklist.

Modifies behavior and approach in dealing with different situations.

Participates with staff to determine ways to continuously improve customer satisfaction and ensure department goals are met.

Figure 11.4    (Continued )

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and Security, Accuracy, Responsiveness, and Friendly, Personal-ized Service.

Other areas of performance will likely be included in your appraisal form, but be sure that the elements of your service initiative are significantly represented.

Performance Appraisals for Management Positions

While the term ‘‘management by objectives’’ has gone out of vogue, the MBO approach to performance appraisals still yields the greatest results. If appraisals are a look in the rear view mirror only, with no guidance regarding what to look for, it’s no wonder that many appraisals are close to useless. On the other hand, if the appraisal system is used to assist managers in setting specific, measurable, and relevant goals and help track progress toward those goals, then the system becomes a useful tool for all involved.

The three-legged stool approach to management performance appraisals is effective. At the beginning of the year the manager and his or her leader agree on three to four specific, measurable goals under each of the three categories of the customer experience, employee experience, and business results. This provides a total of 9 to 12 goals that the manager is held accountable for. Please make sure that customer service goals are strongly reflected. The rest of the appraisal depends upon your organization’s preferred system and may include ratings on specific leadership competencies, develop-mental goals, and so on.

One company we know of migrated to such an approach a few years ago and it was amazing how things started getting done because ‘‘it’s on my performance appraisal.’’ Leaders knew that they would be accountable for delivering on objectives under each category and that bonuses and promotions would be based on performance around these agreed upon goals. Not that every-one loved the system. Sometimes, as the end of the year ap-proached, many would bemoan why they set a certain objective on their plan. But they would do everything in their power to achieve the objective!

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Performance Objectives

Develop a minimum of 3 personal objectives for each category.

Personal objectives should be linked to corporate and business

unit objectives.

Rating Scale: E=Exceeds Expectations; M=Meets Expectations; B= Below Expectations

Figure 11.5    Sample Performance Objectives Section of Management

Performance Appraisal (Go to www.UnleashingExcellence.com to down-

load a customizable copy of this form.)

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Figure 11.5 is an example for structuring the goals section of a management performance appraisal. As with the frontline ap-praisal, you’ll have other performance elements on the form, such as leadership competencies, but structuring the appraisal around the three-legged stool is an excellent way to hold leaders accountable for balanced leadership performance.

When All Else Fails

Some people don’t get the hint. You do all that you can to create a culture in which everyone is energized about excellent service. There will always be those, however, who refuse to get on the bus. Those individuals can make everyone’s lives miserable, especially if the ‘‘non-rider’’ is in a leadership position. What do you do?

As children, we all promised ourselves that we would never say certain things that our parents said to us, such as, ‘‘Because I said so!’’ or ‘‘because I’m the parent and you’ll just have to do it as long as you live under my roof!’’ Later in life, when we have our own children, we all find ourselves saying some of these same things (and it secretly feels good). Why do we sometimes end up saying ‘‘Because I said so’’? Sometimes it’s the only way to get the necessary behavior from our sons or daughters. And so it is in business. Management theorists (like child psychologists) have made us all afraid of offending someone by saying, ‘‘Because I said so.’’ And we end up with a nonperforming employee, disillusioned fellow employees, and our own ulcers. There are those employees, frontline and management, who need an ulti-matum. Either get on the bus or it’s time to move on. And if these individuals don’t get on the bus and have no intention of ever getting on the bus, show them to the door.

A CEO of a mid-sized organization we are acquainted with agonized over what to do about one of his top executives. This executive had been with the company for 17 years and had become a friend of the CEO. The CEO recognized that, in order for his company to achieve the next level of performance,

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teamwork and service would have to play a prominent role and would require a change in the behaviors of everyone in the company, especially the executive team. This long-time executive refused to buy in and became quite divisive in the organization. He sometimes played one member of management against an-other and caused frustration for everyone. After lots of coaching, he still didn’t change. The CEO made the agonizing decision to let this formerly effective executive go. He knew that the change effort didn’t stand a chance with one of his key lieutenants actively derailing the process.

When all else fails it’s okay to say, ‘‘As long as you are under my roof . . .’’

Concluding Thoughts

Accountability is a critical component of the service improvement process. So many times we’ve seen organizations hold a customer service initiative kickoff rally, send hundreds or thousands of employees through service training, and then never hold anyone accountable for service-oriented behaviors. Employees and man-agers who work hard to embrace the change see no consequences for those who do not. Employees hear their leaders talk about how important service is, and then see those same leaders walk right by a customer who clearly needs assistance.

Accountability mechanisms help to ensure that behaviors match stated values. As you review the stated values of your organization, how are people held accountable for demonstrat-ing those values in practice? How are leaders held accountable for leading service excellence?

Service Improvement Team Action Steps

Review and revise all job descriptions to include the organi-zation’s Service Standards.

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224                            UNLEASHING   EXCELLENCE

Review and revise all management job descriptions to bal-ance responsibilities regarding the customer experience, employee experience, and business results.

Work with the Training and Education champion to develop leadership training modules focused on coaching skills.

Ensure that the organization’s succession planning process includes customer service criteria.

Review and revise all performance appraisals to include customer service elements.

Ensure that all other performance management tools, such as merit pay structure, include customer service criteria.

Pay attention to and recognize the ‘‘early adopters’’ of the service initiative.

Use the ‘‘three-legged stool’’ approach to management accountability.

Pitfalls to Avoid

Don’t let naysayers, especially in leadership positions, poi-son the service initiative.

Don’t promote individuals who do not model the values of your organization.

Don’t ignore substandard service performance—address the issue immediately. Intolerable service exists when in-tolerable service is tolerated.

EBSCO Publishing : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) – printed on 1/26/2020 6:16 PM via AMERICAN PUBLIC