One of my favourite training programmes involves exploring the ‘tangible’ aspects of customer care for organisations, businesses or firms. My work in this field has covered government departments, hospitals, specialist doctors, law firms, banks, hotels, car dealerships and a wide range of other businesses. Often we address the organisation and sometimes just the customer’s perceptions when dealing with a specific individual. The results are excellent when the participants are committed to improvement.
What do we mean by ‘tangible’?
These are aspects which cannot easily be articulated. For example, what the customer (patient, client, member, parent etc.) sees, hears, smells and touches adds or detracts from their experience in dealing with you. I tell a story about how a grain of rice in the wrong place in a restaurant could destroy their reputation. This forms part of the workshop but can be a ‘stand alone’ keynote or motivational talk of 40 minutes.
The four physical stages
I find it effective to divide the phases that the customer (again, adapt to read patient, client, member parent etc.) goes through into four phases:
- What happens before they enter the premises
- Their reception and waiting
- Their interaction with the person they have come to see (doctor, lawyer, CEO, general manager etc.)
- Their departure
What are we looking for?
We consider what the customer is smelling, tasting, seeing, hearing and feeling during each of the four phases. We have provided an outline for you (please scroll down.)
The next step
From the lists above we facilitate the participants building a checklist appropriate for that specific organisation, practice, firm, hotel, dealership etc.
How do we implement the programme?
- Usually a team within the organisation will be delegated to do an ‘audit’ based on their unique checklist (developed during the workshop).
- From that an action list will be developed and implementation prioritised. ‘Take action’ is the key phrase.
- Six months later a new team will be appointed to walk around and complete the checklist again, review previous actions and build a new action list based on unfinished or new observations. Obviously there needs to be some overlap between team-members and decision makers and in some cases it is more appropriate for the same team to do the review each 6 months.
Generic Checklist
If you would like a copy of the checklist developed by a team of specialist doctors in Durban, South Africa, you are welcome to contact Candice candice@warr.co.za That forms a good prototype for developing your own list. However, once you have developed your list, you need to implement a sustainable programme and you can do this following the procedure outlined above.
This simple system for introducing a sustainable, effective programme and monitoring and improving the tangible aspects of customer service is one of our main training programmes. You can develop this system yourself, but it definitely is more effective using our facilitation. You are welcome to contact us for further information on our training programmes covering this topic.
Checklist of 'tangibles' for Customer Service in your organisation, business or firm:
1) Before customers enter the premises, they could evaluate these tangible attributes:
i) ..
ii) ..
iii) ..
iv) ..
v) ..
vi) ..
vii)
2) As they walk through the front door, customers make further judgments:
i) ..
ii) ..
iii) ..
iv) ..
v) ..
vi) ..
vii)
3) Once customers arrive at your office (or the person who will be serving or advising them), they evaluate a new set of tangibles:
i) ..
ii) ..
iii) ..
iv) ..
v) ..
vi) ..
vii)
4) After the customers leave your office, there is still more tangible evidence to be weighed:
i) ..
ii) ..
iii) ..
iv) ..
v) ..
vi) ..
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