Good customer service – we know it when we get it but we know it even more when we don’t. Ask anybody for an example of good service and they will probably be able to come up with one or two. But ask them to remember a time when it was well and truly lacking and you’ll find they have trouble picking one from the endless list etched in their mind.
It’s a question that the facilities management world will be asking more and more as mainstream business support services look to customer centred industries – hospitality and airline travel in particular – to see what can be learned about good customer service. It’s also why a background in one of those customer-centred industries is becoming increasingly sought after by employers – as Terry Welsh, general manager of London’s Tower 42, discovered.
The first thing to say about customer service is that already it has moved on. The issue now is customer experience. For anyone yet to achieve the basic cosmetics of customer service – smiling, answering the phone within three rings and so on – it is already too late. It now goes much deeper. From the first moment a customer comes into contact with your service they are forming an opinion on how well you are performing.
‘Customer service is entirely in the mind of the customer,’ concludes business guru and former head of ICI Sir John Harvey-Jones. ‘It’s all about personal perception and that is formed in a very personal way. One single incident can screw it all up – one missed phone call or an operator who’s having an off day. But then one really good example of customer service can retrieve everything.’
American attitudes to serving clients and customers have often been the butt of jokes in the UK. However, talk to anyone who has spent any time over there and they will inevitably rave about the service standards, from the swanky hotels to the roadside diners. Giving good service is something that you do as a natural part of your job, which means giving a little part of yourself – your attention, your time – to a complete stranger. And it is at that hurdle, says customer service consultant Chris Daffy, where we British have traditionally stumbled.
‘The bit that makes the difference is the bit that UK business has found hard to grasp,’ says Daffy. ‘Old white males are not comfortable with emotion in business. But customer service is not about ticking boxes or ISO scores. It is about enabling and rewarding people for doing things for customers that they normally reserve for their friends.’
The other mistake that British business commonly makes when it comes to customer service is restricting their comparisons to direct competitors. But this is not how customers do it, according to Daffy. Research shows that customers compare each business to every single service experience they’ve ever had. You may be operating a facilities management contract but someone who has been through the Disney Experience will grade your service against this supreme example. British business also underestimates the impact that a single employee can have on public perception. How many people in an organisation does it take for that organisation to be seen as the best? All of them. And to be seen as the worst? Just one.
Having competed heavily on price and then on the range of services that can be provided by a single contractor, providers of facilities management services are now on the look-out for another factor to differentiate themselves. And customer service is the latest tool. Adopting its principles will also, they argue, help them maintain their existing customer base. After all, it costs a small fortune to bid for new work.
Customer service is entirely in the mind. It’s all about personal perception – one single incident can screw it all up
Meanwhile both in-house facilities management teams and external providers alike are recognising that ultimately, as service providers, they are there to make the working environment a more pleasant and hassle-free place for those involved in the core activities of the business. The lines between the contract staff or facilities management team and the rest of the workforce are blurring.
‘The focus in the past has been on buying basic services and little thought was given to the impact of the way those services were delivered on the working environment,’ concludes Keith Pratt, director of Mitie Managed Services. ‘The contractor was separate from the customer they served.’
Now, says Pratt, with the help of a great deal of training in customer handling, the office cleaner, the security guard and the receptionist are all part of a team that is there to ensure the customer is king.
‘You train your cleaners to also be your front office, to say hello, to be empowered, to explain the service to customers if they ask. The people who are seen day-to-day are the sales force. They make or break a job,’ he comments.
At GlaxoWellcome’s head office in Greenford, Middlesex, facilities manager Peter Eldred’s team runs a mix of in-house and contracted-out services. But no matter who is employed by whom to do what, the top priority is to ensure that GlaxoWellcome staff can get on with their jobs. Service providers tend to do their work outside normal working hours.
‘That is what we want. Putting up new roller blinds, reshaping an office space – 99 per cent of it has to go on outside of working hours so that the amount of disruption and inconvenience is minimised,’ explains Eldred.
This is a simple customer service philosophy and simplicity, says customer service expert Gavin Eccles, is the key. Providing good customer service is not about complicated procedures, it is about putting the customer in control.
‘Many will want a service that is tailored to them but the more you move towards customisation the more you lose economies of scale,’ says Eccles. ‘However, in many cases you will find that customers are prepared to pay more for something that is tailored to them.’
Source
The Facilities Business
