Creating a Proactive Service® culture throughout your service team is one of the most effective ways that a service company can grow their business and create a distinctive competitive advantage. By Proactive Service®, we mean a technical service team that is engaged not only in maintaining and fixing equipment to the highest levels, but in actively looking for ways that their firms can help their customer meet their own business goals. It is proactive because the technician takes the initiative to identify opportunities to help and proactively addresses these with the customer. Read more
Tag Archive for: how to provide excellent customer service
In this blog, we will consider what we can do to transform the service experience by demonstrating our responsiveness. Responsiveness shows our competence and this creates Assurance. Responsiveness shows that we are Reliable and demonstrates that we have Empathy for our customers.
Recall that the name RATER[1] is an acronym with each letter representing the first letter of one of the five key dimensions of service quality. They are:
R eliability: Our ability to provide what is promised, dependably and accurately
A ssurance: Our knowledge and courtesy, and our ability to convey trust and confidence
T angibles: Our physical facilities and equipment, and our appearance
E mpathy: The degree of caring and individual attention we provide to customers
Responsiveness: Our willingness to help customers and provide prompt service
To demonstrate responsiveness, consider what your team can do to demonstrate responsiveness through every customer touch point. For example, does everyone on your team know that responsiveness means being accessible? Do they understand the importance of getting back to the customer in a reasonable amount of time? Are they aware of what accounts for “reasonable” when getting back to customers, colleagues and suppliers?
In my last post on the five key dimensions of service quality, we considered what we can do to transform the service experience through the tangible aspects of the service we provide. Here we consider what we can do to transform the service experience by clearly communicating to our customers that we care about them. Our customers will have little regard for us until they know that we have empathy.
Recall that the name RATER is an acronym with each letter representing the first letter of one of the five key dimensions of service quality. They are:
R eliability: Our ability to provide what is promised, dependably and accurately
A ssurance: Our knowledge and courtesy, and our ability to convey trust and confidence
T angibles: Our physical facilities and equipment, and our appearance
E mpathy: The degree of caring and individual attention we provide to customers
R esponsiveness: Our willingness to help customers and provide prompt service
In a previous blog post, Transforming the Service Experience – 5 Dimensions of Service Quality, we introduced the RATER Model[1] of customer service as a tool to help us transform the service experience into one that is valued by our customers and creates a sustainable competitive advantage. The model represents the five key dimensions of service quality and provides service providers with a template for defining and creating their unique and valued service experience. Today we will consider how a service company can define the dimension “Reliability”.
As you may recall, the name RATER is an acronym with each letter representing the first letter of one of the five dimensions. They are:
R eliability: Our ability to provide what is promised, dependably and accurately,
A ssurance: Our knowledge and courtesy, and our ability to convey trust and confidence,
T angibles: Our physical facilities and equipment, and our appearance,
E mpathy: The degree of caring and individual attention we provide to customers,
R esponsiveness: Our willingness to help customers and provide prompt service.
Do you want to increase Revenues Generated by your Techs? Tell them to Stop Selling (and Start Serving)!
Our field service technicians represent a huge opportunity to generate revenues. They have a special relationship with our customers based on a high level of trust. Through that relationship, they have gained a unique understanding of our customers’ goals. They have a practical understanding of the latest in technology and they know our company’s capabilities. Who better than them to recognize and explore opportunities for your company to add more value through more services?
Despite this truth, we have found that most service firms are not fully capitalizing on the unique relationships that their service people have. This is unfortunate for both the service firm and the customer. When we do not fully leverage the special relationships that our service technicians have, we are missing a tremendous opportunity to grow our business, reduce competition and increase customer satisfaction levels. But there is more to it than that. The customer is being denied the opportunity to run their plant or facility better. The customer is not benefiting fully from the knowledge and expertise of our service technicians.
Imagine opening up a reputable trade magazine and reading an article that states that you should stop maintaining your mechanical and electrical equipment. You read the following:
Engineers have just discovered that maintenance of mechanical and electrical equipment is not needed to keep equipment running at peak performance. “You’ll get better performance by ignoring the equipment altogether. The equipment will run better and you will save money on not having to pay those service bills!” This is great news for building owners and process managers. They can now take a hands-off approach and while getting excellent performance from their equipment.
Welcome to my new Baston’s Blog – Transforming the Service Experience! Baston’s blog is a regular resource of ideas, tools and strategies to help you transform the service experience you are providing to your customers and reap the resulting rewards – rewards that include higher revenues and profitability and increased customer satisfaction and retention.
Thank you for signing up. I understand that your time is precious and that there are lots of blogs out there to choose from. My goal, therefore, is to make this a valuable and entertaining resource that you will look forward to receiving and hopefully pass on to your friends and colleagues. Your input will help me keep on track and relevant to the challenges that you are facing at the moment. You will find the signup for the blog in the side widget to the right. Please make sure you follow the instructions carefully to ensure you receive your posts in your inbox.
I hope you find this blog of value and I look forward to your comments. Don’t forget to leave a link back to your own blog if you have one, via the commentluv feature you’ll find in the comment section.
Beyond GREAT SERVICE – The Technician’s Role in Proactive Business Growth
“The essence of competitiveness is liberated when we make people believe that what they think and do is important – and then get out of their way while they do it.”
– Jack Welch
I wrote a book this year called Beyond GREAT SERVICE. It is written as a fictional account about Charlie, a service manager, as he discovers the secret of successfully engaging technicians in conversations with their customers – a conversation that transforms the service experience and results in increased revenues and customer satisfaction. Many people have asked me why I have written the book and, to answer that, I will need to take a small step back.
