DOCUMENT THE CUSTOMER SERVICE PROCESS Chapters 10,11,12 Customer Service: Career Success Through Customer Loyalty

IMPORTANCE OF SERVICE DESIGN  Service is essential to business success  Service design impacts quality, cost, and organizational image.  Service design is too important to be left to chance.  Our competitive advantage depends on effective customer service  Our goal for long-term loyal customers depends on addressing their needs in the 3 categories: value, people and systems. A good service design will prevent customer turnoffs in these 3 areas.

STEP 1: REVIEW CUSTOMER NEEDS SYSTEM NEEDS-POLICIES AND PROCEDURES PEOPLE NEEDS VALUE NEEDS  Knowing and delivering what they value and expect is only the first step  Must know what turns them off when we attempt to meet their needs  Must always work to exceed expectations  Developing policies and procedures is the next step! Sound Familiar?!

STEP 2: GOAL IS TO EXCEED CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS (VALUE)  Perception  Product purpose-Intrinsic value  Associated value-Extrinsic value  Reliability, packaging, guarantees, warranties, customization, experience, uniqueness, credibility, add-on  Must be attuned to internal customers too!

STEP 2A: GOAL IS TO EXCEED CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS WITH INFORMATION  Proper forms  Consistency in message  Professionalism in message  Monitor feedback and adjust

STEP 2B: GOAL IS TO EXCEED CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS WITH CONVENIENCE AND TIMING  Perception, expectations  Simplify  Plan

USING THREE “T’S” TO ASSIST IN EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS  What tasks are needed to deliver the service promise?  What series of events will make up the service process?  What tangibles will be part of the service or product?  Delivery of our service includes our floor layout, location of items in store, atmosphere  Glass v paper cup to serve; instructions included?  Get the idea?  What treatment are we wanting to deliver to the customer? We must consider what we want to deliver, what promises we want to keep and how we want to treat our customers.

STEP 3: DEVELOP POLICIES AND PROCEDURES First write the policies (rules) you will need to make sure your employees fulfill the 3 broad strategies, the customer service philosophy and hopefully (some day) the vision of the company. Use these policies to set the framework for the procedures. Procedures will be the actual steps that employees will be trained on. Write a brief job description for the main employees in your company, ie, chef, waitress, bartender, manager or key managers, etc. When we do the training unit, you will show me how you will train a given employee on the procedures you’ve written.

RESOURCES TO HELP YOU WRITE JOB DESCRIPTIONS, SALARIES ETC    