Delivering Quality Service: Only Leadership Counts!
Business Sphere, June 2006
Quality of customer-service is a function of employees’ attitude more than that of the high-tech systems employed in an organisation. It is the organizational climate that spurs an employee to take that significant extra step, which makes all the difference in a customer feeling all-too-happy or otherwise. Creating such a climate is the exclusive responsibility of the top leadership. Period.
Employees’ sense of commitment can suddenly vanish if management’s day-to-day behaviour on customer related issues is inconsistent with the company’s public posturing. Conviction is replaced by mere compliance of the rule book. Practice at the operating level departs from what the company’s stated policy dictates. What pleases the boss takes precedence over what is right for the customer. Finally, what the customer gets is no more than mere lip service. A cultural swing can take place in a double quick time.
A new medical practice was scheduled to open on July 21, last year, in a small American town and a highly acknowledged, ‘best-run’ hi-tech American multinational contracted to deliver three high-end computers to it by July 7, Murphy law hit the whole project in full fury. Shipment was delayed and arrived with short supplies. Responsiveness and empathy were at their palpable worst. The office of the CEO promptly deputed some one – twice – to ‘solve’ our problem. Imagine the irony! Two persons exclusively trying to tackle a single problem; one not knowing what the other was doing; and both unaware of what some one else in the organization was doing. With this, totally lackadaisical approach, the company failed to meet the customer’s expectations and the opening of the medical practice had to be postponed at considerable cost and embarrassment.
Not too long after, I had another encounter with the Company. It was a brief interaction but it amply reflected the contrast in the employees’ attitude. A small, but well meaning, value-adding gesture revived the hope in me as an ardent admirer of the Company. That retrieval took place in India.
I called the Company’s service-centre to help me restore into service, an erratic home office printer. A customer associate (CA) got on the line and having understood my problem proceeded to give me step by step instructions. For some compelling reason I had to terminate the telephone session abruptly and the printer had to stay out of use. A lesser company would have expected me to call back again. This CA did otherwise. She called the next morning to find me too busy. She again called the next day and repeated the corrective instructions from the beginning to the end and got the printer going.
I found myself comparing the two experiences. In a total talk time of about 25 minutes the following attributes came across very loud and clear. The problem ownership – no respite till the customer’s problem is finally solved; quiet efficiency – clear, step by step instructions; empathy in full measure – not even the slightest hint of irritation at any time during a fairly longish session of repetitive instructions.
What explains the contrast? I investigated. IT systems used in the Indian company are almost a replication. But by careful use of the elements that sustain an organisational culture – measures and controls; rituals and routines; myths and stories – the local leadership has ensured that cultural schizophrenia is not allowed to occur. They have sustained a climate in which the front-line employees derive considerable satisfaction themselves while they walk that significant extra step for the customer. It is this attitude that creates competitive differentiation for the companies to excel.