I have been blogging recently about the challenges with finding companies who are prepared to stand out with their customer service – and they are few and far between. Lots of companies talk about it, but very few deliver.
I came across this excellent interview recently featuring international customer service expert Ron Kaufman, who is being interviewed by Verne Harnish. It’s short, only 4 minutes, but well worth a look. Ron talks about the challenges every company faces with globalisation and commercialisation making business highly competitive. How to you stand out in the crowd? – A company needs to create an intimate experience (there’s that word I always talk about – Experience).
You may be asking who is Ron Kaufman? I did, but if you have ever landed in Singapore, you’ll know what he has helped create. Changi airport is ranked the number one airport in the world and has received many awards for its high level of customer service. Ron went to Singapore for a week’s consulting back in 1980 and stayed 25 years and has been instrumental in helping a lot of Singaporean businesses move from a manufacturing, factory mentality to one of serving the customer as these two major industries went offshore to China and India.
He came up with a great definition of what customer service means – “Service is taking action to create value for someone else”. This applies externally and internally and I think is a brilliant definition.
Ron is passionate about helping companies deliver the top level of customer service – Unbelievable customer service. Ron talks about the 12 building blocks that you need to align to create a culture that enables, inspires, encourages and educates people every day to live and breathe the culture.
Here are Ron’s 12 Building Blocks:
- Common Service Language.
- Engaging Service Vision
- Service Recruitment.
- Service Orientation
- Service Communications
- Service Recognition and Rewards
- Voice of the Customer
- Service Measures and Metrics
- Service Improvement Process
- Service Recovery and Guarantees
- Service Benchmarking
- Service Role Models
A great video, well worth sharing with your team – enjoy.
Roger Simpson – CEO, The Retail Solution and Author of “The Retail Solution” With over 35 years’ industry experience, Roger Simpson is recognized as Australia’s #1 Authority on customer ROI in the retail industry and as a global expert on staff coaching, customer service and selling skills.
