REAL SERVICE - Part 2

Welcome Back!

Continuing from where I left off in Part 1, organizations and teams need to adopt a more honest view of service – essentially, a move away from the manufactured, templated processes that no longer improve service.

Real Service is “the giving of what you have in order to ensure the satisfaction of a person or entity that you have a free will desire to serve – thereby engendering a reciprocal feeling of satisfaction that comes from giving”.

• Real service does not pretend to be what it is not – manufacturing a giving image in order to entice “customers” is unsustainable. As the legendary singer, Bob Marley once said, “you can fool some people some time, but you can’t fool all the people all the time...”

• Real Service does not give what it does not have – much like running life on “credit”, organizations face the risk of “running on empty” if they believe that service is about making people work extra hours in order to appear helpful (risk of staff burnout, disillusionment and disenfranchisement) or giving unaffordable deals to woo clients (risk or financial meltdown).

• Real service derives satisfaction from the act of giving – It is not the “proceeds” of giving that inspire and sustain real service. There is an inner, deeper satisfaction (okay, it may not register on the smart graphs produced by Analysts) that individuals get from real service.

• Real Service is not a manufactured process – the more organizations try to outdo each other by manufacturing and then streamlining complicated “service processes”, the more robotic, insincere and ineffective such processes become.

If organizations desire true greatness, real service is the key way forward. Real Service is the birthplace, nurturing spring and maturing home of real greatness. If each individual in an organization is encouraged to take on real service – the passion and dedication of this service will see the “end game” proceeds will follow as a natural progression.

I believe organizations should teach and encourage the heart of real service – not for the protection of the franchise, but for the joy of service – and watch how the sincerity, energy and power in such a culture can move the organization forward in more ways than the “bottom line”. Staff will take the well-documented “extra step” out of free will rather than as a means of pleasing the manager or scoring more points on feedback.

If each individual understands their value to the organization, and how engaging in a culture of true service can be ultimately satisfying on many fronts, organizations will have within their ranks, a more powerful, more influential and more successful workforce – because of the shared value of service.

Shared values between organizations and their constituent members (staff) are much more powerful than the carrot of bonuses and the stick of sanctions. Too many organizations (strangely enough) are stuck in the tired culture of the carrot-and-stick.

Get real, and live real service.

Yomi Odukoya

REAL SERVICE - Part 1

 

Service is - or should be - at the core of every organization.

Service is - or should be - at the core of every team.

Service is - or should be - a core driver of every individual working as part of an organization.

 

The good thing today is that practically everyone knows this. I am therefore never surprised to see – all over adverts and other promotional and motivational literature a reference to “first class”, “superb”, “customer oriented” or “extra value” service!

The reality though, when reviewing independent feedback from customers of many organizations, is far wide of the rhetoric in the literature. A closer look into the definition of service given by some of these organizations – as well as “highly respected” contributors to studies on service – throws up a chronic lack of understanding of what service is all about.

Service should NOT be what you do to -

• Ensure Customer Loyalty
• Win New Business
• Improve Business Profitability
• Gain Competitive Advantage

Too many organizations woo prospective clients with classic “at your service” spiel – and then turn internally to “school” employees on how to use service to manufacture loyalty, repeat business, profitability etc...

Therefore, the perfect smile becomes a bait to reel in the unsuspecting fish – in the same way as answering the phone in less than three rings becomes a gimmick to play on the prospect's mind. Stats on almost everything pervade the environment and bonuses drive staff to look for the “end game targets” rather than serve to satisfy.

Many of these organizations – in perfect “hydra-mode” also have a total disconnect between what they stand for corporately and what individuals and teams do within that “identity”. The concept of service and how it is delivered is effectively imposed on workers. These workers thus become actors in a movie in whose script they neither fully understand nor believe.

The bottom line is that the insincerity of the scripted movie known as customer service shows itself so glaringly that customers can see it a mile off. They are not impressed, but still do the “dance” with the “customer services advisor” or whatever fancy title the person may carry. This is much more laughable when your telephone, utilities or banking providers ask you to grade each call. The “How well did I serve you today” question is slotted in irrespective of the quality of service, after all, it is an automatic part of the “process”!

In my next post [Real Service Part 2] I will write about getting real with service...

Yomi Odukoya