5. Service Excellence & Customer Advocacy
- Is your Customer Experience : 'intentional, consistent, differentiated and valuable'?
- Is this 'focussed customer engagement' at the forefront of what you deliver?
- Do your mystery shopper scores truly support this view?
- Is this 'memorable experience' routinely competitor benchmarked?
- Is this innovative service/'USP' truly delivering no-one else does - But everyone wants...?
- Is your focus 'all about execution' - and does your "Net Promoter Score" support this?
- If front-line staff matter - is there tangible empowerment and enterprise?
- Has the corporate plan been communicated on a single sheet of A4?
- And has it permeated and been embraced at the front-line?
- Do they understand what the business is trying to deliver...?
- Does front-line staff training and development support this plan...?
- And is there clear career progression for them, from here....?
As we outlined in 'Our Values', we adhere to the oft-quoted line: "You may have developed the most brilliantly crafted corporate strategy known to Man, but if it is not implemented, it is worth nothing... and if you cant get that plan summarised onto one page of A4 and understood on the tills, at the front line - then it is also worthless too..." Our ethos here at AJT Associates may be all about Pace and Detail - as we have aimed to outline throughout our earlier 'What we deliver' pages here... But, if we have learnt anything from working for 25+ years in successful, customer-service led businesses, it is - that IMPLIMENTATION COUNTS MORE!
We have seen that the key differentiator between average 'survivor' businesses - and those that thrive and grow and lead their markets - is a passion for delivery!... Ask : Where do the 'pound notes' actually go into the tills for example, in a retailer?... At the front-line/i.e. in the stores! (Or on the web-site!) It is no use employing lots of clever, senior / strategic people at head office, to refine plan after plan - if your stores, manufacturing plants, or service centres have no clue what the plan is actually asking them to do...? Or - if you are not asking those units how they can help to deliver that plan better? Or - are not asking them what customers want - or what your competitors are doing? (After all who is that is talking to your customers, face-to-face, day-after-day...?)
How often does your senior team actually go 'back-to-the floor' (not just to undertake the pre-arranged 'royal visits...) but to celebrate success and champion delivery...? How often do they 'mystery shop' both your front-line - and those of your competitors? What voice does your front-line have at that 'senior table' - to guide their thinking on everything from customer complaints, to 'people' strategies around training and succession...? And do you measure your customer advocates - and detractors (both lapsed and non...) to calculate your critical 'net promoter score'...?
Some recent AJT Associates projects...
- We have designed and implemented comprehensive customer-orientation/culture-change programmes for a range of businesses across the hospitality, retail, service and financial services arenas... Including front-line staff engagement in mystery shop, market research, complaint analysis, and new product/service development programmes...
- Working with boards and senior HR teams, we have re-aligned organisations' key capability and skills matrices, re-benchmarking their talent and performance management frameworks... Revising staff recognition/reward structures and succession planning as well as job evaluation and remuneration policies... All aligned to defined and differentiated, excellent customer service...
- We have revised retail estate structures and hierarchies and even re-located outlets into J-V's and concessions to 'get to the consumer' where it suits THEM not US...! We have re-defined leadership excellence and management practices all geared around focus on the FRONT-LINE...!
- AJT Associates have worked with many leading customer-focussed organisations to deliver this critical advocacy or 'promotor' status... Let us come and talk to you, about how we can work with you to 'imbue' this culture and thinking within your organisation both with our tangible analyses and scorecarding and then with Implementation and Action...!
More details on how our team can rapidly add to your organisation's skill-base, can be found at Our Capabilities and Who We Are.
And a list of satisfied customers - together with details of some of our most recent commercial projects - can be found at Our Clients...
Call us now on 07974-201605 for more information...