Embrace Excellence To Override Nonchalance

Embrace Excellence To Override Nonchalance

I continue to wonder when excellence will become the most powerful force that drives stellar customer experience across the majority of businesses. My experience with service delivery continues to be a mixed bag, with some businesses hitting the high-water mark and the majority coming in at the bare minimum…an exchange of money and merchandise.

A society’s generic culture seeps into its business and service culture. If the wider society is lackadaisical and tolerant of sloppiness in the way things work, then the overarching service delivery and customer experience footprint, in turn, will be defined by a general malaise that creates people who are nonchalant in the way they respond to customers and their needs.

 

I believe that one of the weapons in the arsenal for elevating change in customer experience, notwithstanding the prevailing adversities, is to elevate the appetite for excellence, at both business and individual levels.

 

Businesses do have a choice to not follow the standard set by society, so that they will not succumb to the service rigor mortis that will follow sustained nonchalance. The challenge for customer experience to be elevated and to thrive, is sharpened by the fact that we live in a society burdened by issues that include a high crime rate, domestic violence, gender-based violence and other circumstances that assail the human spirit. It’s a challenge to put on a happy face when the mind is preoccupied with day-to-day fears.

I believe that one of the weapons in the arsenal for elevating change in customer experience, notwithstanding the prevailing adversities, is to elevate the appetite for excellence, at both business and individual levels. We’ll consider the business end only, for now.

 

As a service transformation consultant, my mandate for effecting change in client engagements always involves transforming the people, ahead of transforming the mechanics of how service is delivered.

 

One of the first areas that should be spotlighted for change in the business environment, is the performance management effort. As a service transformation consultant, my mandate for effecting change in client engagements always involves transforming the people, ahead of transforming the mechanics of how service is delivered. One of the areas that comes under scrutiny, is the people performance profile that tells the story of the employee effort in executing work, otherwise known as the performance management system.

What is unnerving, is that on a typical overall performance rating scale of one to five, where five is the highest and one is the lowest score on the scale, far too many employees score a three. This is the mid-range of the scale, that indicates a satisfactory overall performance and says that people are doing just enough to keep themselves from being fired.

When cycle after performance cycle and year after year, employees continue to clock in at satisfactory levels, what does this say about the business? It says that mediocre and satisfactory levels are acceptable within the value system. When doing just enough becomes the norm inside of the business, it is only natural to expect that doing just enough to keep customers satisfied, not elated or even thrilled, will become the norm on the outside, eventually.

 

When doing just enough becomes the norm inside of the business, it is only natural to expect that doing just enough to keep customers satisfied, not elated or even thrilled, will become the norm on the outside, eventually.

 

Another area where a dent can be made, is in communication science. Far too many collisions occur in this area. In this country, where business is largely conducted in person and to a lesser degree, online, there is still so much imprecision in the speed, urgency and correctness of information being communicated to customers. What’s even more aggravating to customers, is that with a little effort, the missteps in communication can be avoided.

I encounter often, significant hesitancy by employees to commit to specific times when making promises to follow up with customers on matters. Businesses have to leave this archaic practice behind if they intend to build customer trust. Give customers specific times, but call to advise, if the delivery time has to be revised. We just need to stop saying that we will get back to customers, “As soon as possible.” That’s not a time, nor is it a predictable timeframe.

 

The best thing that a business can do for itself, is reject nonchalance, the best thing that it can do for its customers, is empower excellence.

 

Another thing about communication. How often do customers use those sad little comment cards and lonely suggestion boxes, that businesses like to display?  You’re right…..not often. Typically, only the very angry, or the very thrilled customers fill out comment cards. When you combine these two groups, it’s usually twenty percent of customers.  What about those customers who are neither angry, nor sad and who may not touch those cards ever? How does the business discover what the majority of its customers are thinking?

Often, it’s only when a business begins to feel a sense of foreboding, a terrifying sense of discomfort with inertia and the dire consequences of inaction, that the motivation for resetting the compass to head north to embracing excellence and rejecting nonchalance, becomes a serious trigger for action.

The best thing that a business can do for itself, is reject nonchalance, the best thing that it can do for its customers, is empower excellence.