Organisations go to great lengths to improve their safety performance through staff training and mandating safety processes to reduce “safety incidents” and associated costs. So why is it they don’t put the same effort into making sure their customer service staff understand and practise customer processes effectively to reduce “customer service incidents” and costly re-work?
There is a direct relationship between a team understanding its core processes and the customer experience. Shouldn’t we be paying the same level of attention to this or do we accept that service incidents are normal in business? Surely, if these incidents are treated as normal, they will inevitability lead to a tarnished reputation.
I’ve made it my number one priority to find ways to improve employees’ understanding of processes. Something as simple as introducing a manual for a Service Desk creates consistency of information which means a better experience for the customer. You can see more examples in Section 2 – Process of my book, Perfumed Steamroller.