Service Excellence is a holistic management strategy in which an entire organization is geared towards inspiring customers at every point of contact with the company and encouraging them to make repeat purchases. The principles for this are specified in DIN SPEC 77224.
Addressing the needs of customers and convincing them of your own offerings has always been one of the main tasks for a company. The concept of service excellence should provide the basis for aligning the entire structure of a company with this maxim.
Service Excellence encompasses the entire company
Every sustainable business is based on employees being aware of the importance of the buyers of their products and services and always taking their needs and wishes into account when interacting with them. Going one step further means realizing cooperation between different departments for this purpose. The efforts of all areas of the company should interlock in order to not only satisfy the customer, but to inspire them for their own organization. This is the core element of any service excellence strategy.
Excellence needs management! The requirements that a successful service manager must fulfill have already been described elsewhere. More info>>
Quality assurance is also an important factor in service in order to guarantee the consistent and excellent quality of our own services. More info>>
Building an effective service unit is the prerequisite for service excellence. We have already described 5 success factors for expanding the service business. More info>>
The development of DIN SPEC 77224
The German industry standard for the definition of excellent service was developed by the KDL 435-01 AK working group and published in July 2011. It is a guideline for the implementation of framework conditions in the company, not a strictly prescribed standard. Nevertheless, it has developed a far-reaching concept for reviewing a company's service orientation.
The Champions League in service
Service excellence is intended to set the company apart from previous standards and competitors in the area of customer orientation. The levels for this are illustrated in the service excellence pyramid in accordance with DIN SPEC 77224. While the base of the pyramid represents the standard for every company, outstanding companies should also reach the top. To offer an excellent service, you have to be prepared to make the necessary investments.
- – Core performance promise: Deliver to the customer what was promised.
- – Proactive Complaints management: Effective Feedback management and proactively approach customers in the event of mishaps.
- – Personalized service: Responding to individual customer needs.
- – Surprise performances: Going the extra mile and surprising customers with additional services.
With excellent feedback management, you can create an environment where employees effectively communicate feedback to management to drive service excellence. More info>>
Proactive complaint management also includes dealing with difficult customers. You need to give dissatisfied buyers back a sense of control over the interaction. More info>>
Guide to the implementation of service excellence
The procedure for realizing service excellence is described in the following plan. The chosen strategy should of course be developed to suit the company in question. This is another reason why the DIN standard developed should not be seen as a fixed standard, but rather as a guideline for implementation.
In principle, the guidelines describe a cycle of planning, implementation, measurement and adaptation. The strategy should always be adapted to current circumstances in order to achieve a fixed Customer loyalty and to generate an economic advantage from this.
Alignment of top management with service excellence
The decision to implement service excellence in the company must first be made by management. It should also be aware of the efforts involved and provide the necessary resources. Management must define the goals of the excellence strategy, plan its implementation, provide resources and communicate the philosophy of service excellence to all employees.
The scheduling of resources
The holistic approach of service excellence requires all areas of the company to be geared towards creating enthusiasm among customers. This requires resources to be planned and made available. The company's relationships with suppliers and partners may also need to be reconsidered.
Error avoidance
Mistakes or mishaps annoy customers. For this reason, concepts and tools must be developed to ensure effective error prevention. Management must also strategically define follow-up processes that are effective in the event of damage. Among other things, this involves guidelines or training in the area of determining the amount of Goodwill formulas or also to Compensation negotiations.
The employee side should not be neglected either. In order to inspire customers, employees must first be inspired. Think about how you can get employees involved who frequently deal with Problem customers have. In the long term, these customers also need to be motivated to approach the next customer with an open mind, despite any annoyances.
Recording the customer experience
It is necessary to gather sufficient knowledge about the experiences that customers have with your company. Only then can you strategically plan and effectively implement the surprise services described in the service excellence pyramid. Precise planning of the additional services mentioned is also important because a habituation effect towards your bonus service can develop over time.
Service innovations and additional services
Service Excellence doesn't just want to satisfy, it wants to inspire. To achieve this, you have to surprise the customer. This can be achieved through unexpected additional services, but also through the development of innovations. Especially in the area of Value Added Service offers excellent opportunities for this. For example, the Implementation of predictive maintenance-solutions may convince some customers of your customer service.
The following steps can be used to plan innovations:
- Categorization of existing services
- Determination of customer target groups to be convinced
- Definition of the objectives of innovations for each target group
- Definition of the characteristics of inspiring innovations
- Evaluation of innovation ideas
- Implementation of innovation ideas
Measuring enthusiasm and its impact
Regularly measuring the results of a service excellence strategy is important so that further measures can be planned in a targeted manner. The relationship between service provision and customer satisfaction must be precisely determined. Employee enthusiasm should also be measured.
Profitability analysis
The measures taken should benefit your company economically. For this reason, the profitability of each individual measure used to implement service excellence should also be measured.
Service excellence as a strategic tool
The implementation of Service Excellence involves a number of efforts for a company. A half-hearted implementation is not possible due to the holistic approach. In some cases, employees also have to accept considerable changes to the way they work. Nevertheless, achieving long-term customer loyalty is usually reflected in far-reaching economic success. Service excellence is a sensible strategy for achieving this goal.
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