Three ways to entrench culture of service excellence

Many of our organisations miss out on the full benefits of service excellence by presuming that it is the responsibility of frontline staff. 

They fail to recognise that service excellence must be fully entrenched as a culture across the entire organisation.

A few organisations, though, know too well that service excellence is everybody’s responsibility. They recognise that to realise the full benefits of service excellence, it must be their way of life.

Today I share with you three sure ways that will help make that happen.

INVOLVED LEADERS

First, the leadership must get involved. Leadership involvement goes beyond identifying service excellence as a core value, a strategic pillar, or one of the organisational objectives.

A leadership that is involved constantly communicates its commitment to service excellence. This commitment is not only seen in what the leaders say but also in what they do.

Such a leadership also leads the way by being daily role models. They become an inspiration and a living example of what service excellence really is and together with their teams, they continuously look out for opportunities to improve the service.  

Second, the service standards for both internal and external service must be clearly defined. Defining service standards is seen by many as a tedious process, yet it is simple and straightforward.

SET STANDARDS

All that one needs to do is understand customer expectations, set standards that meet those expectations, and live out the standards as a daily promise. I consider this a great milestone when working with my customers.

Once we jump this hurdle, I finally feel that we are headed in the right direction. Service standards are not adequate as a stand-alone; they must be supported with mechanisms for accountability and incorporated in the procedures and policies.

Once the standards have been set and it is clear who is accountable for what, measurements must then be put in place. 

HELD ACCOUNTABLE

The measurements must include feedback from both the internal and external customers. The leadership must take special interest in figuring out if the expectations are being met or, even better still, being exceeded and if those responsible are being held accountable.

Finally, the people aspect is crucial. Without the right persons holding the right jobs and performing to the required standards, it becomes difficult to drive a culture of service excellence.

It is easy to make promises but difficult to keep them because everyone is involved in service delivery, whether internally or externally.

Any employee that does not show the desired attitudes and behaviour should be a key concern to the leadership and action must be taken.

My advice is that employees should not be allowed to stay in a job they are not suitable for or which they are performing below standard.

With a plan of action that involves these three elements, many organisations have been able to make a culture of service excellence grow and thrive across the organisation.

The key question is — is your organisation one of them?

Lucy Kiruthu is a management consultant. She can be reached on: [email protected]; twitter @kiruthulucy