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Customer Service Excellence

January 6, 2015 by Brenda Leave a Comment

I appreciate really good service and I’m sure you do, too.  And I like to draw attention to those organisations and individuals providing exceptional service.  ‘Catching some-one doing something right’ is the way I operate and I take great joy in actively following through and giving those individuals and their superiors specific examples as to why I’m praising their efforts. 

In the last few days I have been pleased to receive outstanding service from three different groups of people and I’d like to share these examples with you.  It is interesting that the first is one of the top hotels in South Africa. The second is a company offering an ambulance service.  And the third example is a group of family and friends whose informal support meant a great deal to my husband and to me.  

So what do the three diverse examples have in common?  They all gave us exceptional service. 

Example 1:  The Oyster Box Hotel

My first example involves the Oyster Box Hotel, Umhlanga, Republic of South Africa, part of the Red Carnation Collection of Hotels.  We are regular guests at the hotel which is our favourite place for holidays, business functions and also exceeds expectations for celebrations like my husband’s 70th birthday where we hosted an outstanding breakfast function for 70 people in May 2014.  We value the wonderful ambience, attention to detail, professionalism and exceptionally high levels of service. 

However, the calibre of an establishment can often be tested more stringently during trying times rather than under ideal conditions.  This hotel became my place of refuge during my husband’s recent medical emergency described in the second example below.   I needed to be as close to the hospital as possible during the time he was in ICU and being a very busy time of the year, I didn’t want to travel backwards and forwards to Pietermaritzburg on a daily basis.  Although the Oyster Box Hotel was fully booked, being the Christmas week, they ‘found’ me accommodation in their customary charming manner.  

The story unfolded on a daily basis and they adapted accordingly to suit my needs.  I had not had time to pack clothing properly before following the ambulance to Umhlanga and they attended to my laundry.  They also provided drivers to take me to and from the hospital and this was very much appreciated as the traffic was very heavy during the Christmas rush.  The management and staff were always ‘there’ to support me.  I highly commend Wayne Coetzer, the General Manager, his management team and staff at all levels individually and collectively for their kindness, sincere concern and their efficiency.  The levels of service went way beyond what could ever have been imagined.   They got the job done, yet put people first. 

Example 2:  ‘ER24’ – Emergency Rescue 24

In the second example, the two individuals are accustomed to dealing with crises.  However, as the primary customer, I had the impression that their emphasis was not only on getting the job done.  They showed compassion and a strong service ethic.  

On Sunday, December 21, Ndumiso Khoza (Intermediate Life Support) and Yenziwe Olifant (Basic Life Support) of ‘ER24’ (Emergency Rescue, 24 hours) gave exceptional service when they transported my husband by ambulance from a hospital in Pietermaritzburg to the Intensive Care Unit at the Umhlanga Hospital, a journey that took well over an hour.  Some of the reasons (just a few of the many) for my commending them on their attitude and behaviour are as follows. 

They were:

  1. It was a pleasure dealing with them.
  2. The paperwork was enormous and the wait before we could leave the hospital in Pietermaritzburg was ridiculously long.
  3. Appropriately humorous.  While we waited endlessly for forms to be filled in, other forms to be copied downstairs, envelopes to be collected, Ndumiso made light of a tedious situation with his humorous comments.
  4. They followed procedures required by ‘ER 24’ and by both hospitals, but at all times considered the patient.
  5. Polite to everyone. I noticed that they treated the patient, the spouse and the hospital staff at all levels politely and with respect.
  6. Able to inspire confidence.  I knew that my husband was in good hands.
  7. Exceptionally caring and compassionate.
  8. Considerate of all participants, including me, the spouse.  They kept me informed and knowing that I was following the ambulance (for more than an hour) in my car, made sure that they kept me in view while on the road.  That is just one of the many examples.
  9. It was interesting that when we finally were able to leave the first hospital and travel to the second, a great deal of time had passed and I was concerned that Ndumiso and Yenziwe hadn’t eaten lunch.  I offered them money to buy food at the hospital.  Yenziwe politely refused explaining that they weren’t allowed to accept money and that permission would have to be granted.  I like dealing with organisations where honesty is valued. 

I commend the company, the management team and the individuals on the exceptional service that these two young people gave us on Sunday.  Well done!

Ndumiso Khoza and Yenziwe Olifant of ‘ER24’ on arrival at Umhlanga Hospital.

Ndumiso Khoza and Yenziwe Olifant of ‘ER24’ on arrival at Umhlanga Hospital.

Example 3:  Family and friends

We often forget that by supporting each other we are informally providing a service. During Ed’s recent stay in hospital, family and friends made regular contact and were always ‘there’ to support us in so many different ways.  Some even braved the rigours of ICU (aprons, gloves, spray, only one-at-a-time allowed into the ward and only for a few minutes).  There were also the cousins and friends who came and visited me at the hotel.  Thanks everyone!   At a time like this we really appreciate positive relationships and those who actively show support either in person, by phone or electronically.

Cousin Sean McGladdery and fiancé Amy from the USA who braved an ICU visit.

Cousin Sean McGladdery and fiancé Amy from the USA who braved an ICU visit.

Exceptional service can be offered routinely.  I like being able to share examples of where organisations or individuals have ‘shown their mettle’ by continuing to provide high levels of service even under unusual circumstances.  Thank you to all of those who have given me these excellent examples.  Well done! 

For more information on Customer Service training or any of the other services offered by Brenda Eckstein International, please contact brenda@146.66.90.172 or phone +27 82 4993311.

10 Step Document Review Best Practice

May 7, 2011 by gary Leave a Comment

Gary Eckstein is a Business Analyst based in Sydney, Australia. Gary can reduce your organization’s costs and improve quality by implementing and managing document review processes. Gary may be contacted at Gary Eckstein, +61 (0)4-1092-3445, gary@eckstein.id.au, http://eckstein.id.au

In large corporations the review of documentation comprises tens of thousands of labour-hours per year. In this article a best-practice approach to document review processes is offered; this document does not describe authoring documents but rather the document review process between a Customer and Supplier.

The Advantages of Review Process Best-Practice
There are numerous advantages to adhering to a best-practice document review process:

  • Quality: The quality of documents is enhanced through clear guidelines and defined roles and responsibilities.
  • Costs: For the Supplier, documentation costs will be reduced through reduced rework and less documented ambiguity.
  • Ongoing relationships: As documentation is often one of the first times operational people from the Supplier and Customer engage, being professional from the start sets a positive ‘tone’ for ongoing business relationships.
  • Customer care: The Supplier, through review process best-practice shows that they are serious about meeting the Customers’ needs. This results in enhanced Customer care for the Customer.

Context
Most major contracts between organizations involve some form of documentation creation and delivery (i.e. a contract deliverable). For example, suppose that an I.T. service provider has been awarded a multi-million dollar contract to provide networking services to a government department. The government department (the Customer) will typically specify during contract negotiation what documentation they expect to attain from the I.T. service provider (the Supplier).

The documentation required will usually include some form of operational documentation which describes how the contract deliverables will be provided to the Customer by the Supplier. The responsibility for authoring the documents will be with the Supplier and the Customer will be responsible for reviewing the documents.

It is assumed for this article that the documentation to be delivered by the Supplier to the Customer is of an operational nature i.e. how the contract is to be delivered from an operational perspective.

Key Supplier Considerations
The documentation requirements are usually legally binding upon the Supplier. This obviously means that great care needs to be taken to ensure that ambiguous detail is avoided and that only items in the contract are included in the subsequent documentation.  Often Suppliers and/or Customers will purposefully attempt to create ambiguity in the documentation in order to gain an advantage over the other party.

Creating documents is very costly and therefore the Supplier must attempt to manage the document process as effectively and efficiently as possible with both quality and costs being key considerations.

Key Customer Considerations
As with the Supplier, the Customer also needs to ensure that they understand exactly what is in the documentation and that it corresponds to what is in the agreed contract/s. Again, unclear detail must be avoided. The Customer must be able to clearly understand how the contract is going to be delivered per the text in the document/s and that the operational delivery will compliment and support the Customers business.

So, from the Suppliers perspective, what is best practice in a document review process?

The Document Review Process
The following Ten Step document review process works well.  Organizations should customize this process as they see fit:

  1. Documentation Review Plan. This documented plan is created to define, document, agree and communicate the process; the scope, format, limitations, process, responsibilities, timings, people involved and so on should all be agreed before any document writing commences. Templates should also be created at this step and agreement with all stakeholders attained. Communicating the documentation plan is vital to the success of the documentation process.
  2. The ‘first draft’ document is created and given to the Customer for review.
  3. The first review by the Customer will typically involve a conceptual and high-level review i.e. is the concept of the document correct, the content relevant, the scope correct ...?
  4. The feedback is considered and entered in the reviewed document by the Supplier. Any debated feedback is communicated and agreed with the Customer.
  5. The second review by the Customer is a more detailed/low-level review by the Customer e.g. is the detail in fact correct, is the terminology correct etc. No high-level feedback or scope changes should be accepted from the Customer as this should have been given in the first Customer review.
  6. The feedback is considered and entered in the reviewed document by the Supplier. Any debated feedback is communicated and agreed with the Customer.
  7. The third review by the Customer: there should be very little feedback by the Customer as they have had two previous reviews to air their concerns.
  8. The final feedback is incorporated by the Supplier.
  9. Supplier Document Owner sign-off: the owner of the document must agree to, and sign-off on, the document.
  10. The final step is the Customer sign-off.

Of course reviewing the process is necessary so that it may be improved for the next document review needed.

Process Management
It’s all good and well to have a clearly defined and successful process however there is a missing ingredient. Adherence to the process through management by a single process manager is vital. Because Customer and Supplier management is required, an experienced and disciplined approach to process management is needed.

As an example, if there isn’t good management, it is more than likely that review comments by the Customer will be returned to the Supplier in an unordered and haphazard way. It takes a good manager to ‘push-back’ on the Customer to insist that all review comments be returned to the Supplier in a single review document (even although the means of communicating feedback should be defined in the first step of the process).

Summary
Suppliers often produce inadequate documentation for Customers. This is usually as a result of the Supplier not being professional in their approach to documentation delivery. Following the ten step documentation review process is sure to greatly enhance the quality of documentation produced, will reduce costs and will give the perception of the Supplier being professional.

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