Building and Sustaining Customer Service Culture

The fact that successful organizations also have the most satisfied customers makes intuitive sense, and finding examples of such organizations is a simple matter. Names like Apple, Samsung, Virgin Airlines and Emirates Airlines pop up immediately into mind. But which came first, the successful organization or the happy customer?

Unlike in the proverbial chicken and egg story, there is strong evidence that in the case of organizations and customers, one definitely has to come before the other. Peter Drucker, the father of modern management, said it best: “The result of any business is a satisfied (external) customer”. Drucker and other influential business thinkers clearly showed us where to direct our efforts.

It is by building a customer-centric culture first that an organization will develop the products, processes and services customers want, which will in turn result in a successful world-class organization. By taking inspiration from the most innovative companies and customer service gurus of modern times, this course will show you how to create this coveted ‘award-winning’ service culture.

Following short lectures by the consultant, participants will be asked to join in group discussions, analyze relevant cases, present results and develop plans focusing on the creation of a healthy customer service culture. Video clips, and individual and team exercises are also used.

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

•         Explain why a superior customer service strategy has become of such critical importance in any organization
•         Defend the idea that without an all-encompassing service culture an organization will eventually struggle to remain relevant
•         Design a comprehensive set of plans, initiatives and systems touching all the vital departments of the organization to promote a superior service culture
•         Analyze the forces that will unquestionably resist the new culture and create strategies to overcome them
•         Evaluate the success of the service culture transformation strategy by identifying the Key Result Areas (KRAs) relevant to this transformation and how to measure them with the right Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)  

This course is designed to help people of authority such as managers, supervisors and all decision-makers, at all levels of the organization, create a customer-focused atmosphere in line with the scope of their responsibilities.

Whether you are concerned with the external or the internal customer, this course is for you. Whether you work for, own or manage a private for-profit organization, a non-profit government services institution or anything in between, this course is for you. 

•         Customer Orientation
•         Establishing Focus
•         Fostering Teamwork
•         Managing Change
•         Improving Performance
•         Analytical Thinking

• The case for service excellence
  • Famous quotes about ‘service’
  • Definition of ‘service’
  • Numbers to remember: the wake-up call
  • Famous examples
  • Service culture comes first
  • The cost of service: striking the right balance
• Understanding corporate culture
  • Definition of corporate culture
  • Impact on the organization
  • Design versus nature
• Areas to tackle and actions to take
  • Leading from the top
    • Mission and vision
    • Being a role model
    • Training and coaching
  • Recruitment of employees
    • The importance of recruitment
    • Who and how to recruit
      • A word about ‘competencies’
      • Service competencies
    • Internal customers
      • Types of internal customers
      • The silo mentality
    • Processes and procedures
    • The voice of the customer
      • Focus groups
      • Questionnaires and surveys
    • Complaints system
    • Service improvement tools
      • Kano model
      • RATER model
      • The ServQual model
    • Reward system