The difference between standards and service and where you go wrong.
'That's not what we do!' she exclaimed 'Well it was yesterday' I offered.
This
was part of a really interesting discussion I had last week with a
senior customer service representative from one of the large rail
companies. I'd been
communicating via Twitter about their brilliant (sometimes) and could be
better (often) service. They asked if I'd be willing to talk to
Customer Relations about my experience.
I proposed to do more than that.
I offered to point out their number one challenge. There would be; no
consultancy, no fee, no hours of research and no reams of reports - just
five minutes on the phone.
I can sum it up in two words - Service Consistency.
Simple isn't it? Consistency in service is one of those things - it's simple but not easy.
Simple because you have a set of service standards, a detailed way of
working and a process which should combine the two together. Not easy because it has to be delivered by people and more importantly, via a face to face interaction.
And this is where many companies fall over.
On my train, ensuring all boarding passengers are offered tea and
coffee within 15 minutes of departure is a standard. Having someone
serve it with a pleasant tone, a smile and a little finesse is service.
To grunt 'Tea, Coffee"
before slopping brown goo into your cup with no customer interaction
may enable you to hit the standard but it leaves Johnny Passenger
feeling less than impressed.
And the challenge is this. In my experience, it's more often the grunt and less often the smile.
It's not consistent. When I gave this feedback to Customer Relations I
heard words like 'highest standards', 'procedures' and 'policies', which
are all designed to make my journey better.
I
would have loved to hear a little more about: making sure our staff are
happy, care of our passengers and ultimately making travelling at
125mph fun. |
