Author: Patty Cisco, Creative Catalyst, September 1, 2010
Is your senior service care team feeling overwhelmed and a little de-motivated? Or perhaps your customer service has fallen by the wayside in light of trying to reach your census or occupancy goals. Maybe you can reinforce customer service by celebrating Customer Service Week, which is October 4-8th. I know it’s a few weeks away, however being the planner I am, I wanted to be sure you had time to get ready.
Customer Service Week is a national event devoted to recognizing the importance of customer service and to honoring the people who serve and support customers with the highest degree of care and professionalism. When was the last time you recognized your staff for delivering exceptional service? (There is a direct correlation between customer satisfaction and census/occupancy…so don’t minimize this recognition!)
Why bother? Because, in today’s marketplace, quality service is expected! What determines whether a lead chooses to do business with your organization versus a competitor usually comes down to relationships …how you make him or her FEEL. Bottom line (figuratively and literally): Excellent customer service is your one, true business advantage!
Engage Your Staff
So, what can you do to recognize your staff for excellence in customer service and ratchet-up the quality of service that your team provides at the same time? Start by engaging them with questions! Even if you currently do customer satisfaction surveys, this exercise provides a totally different perspective on how your service is perceived and what actions you can take to improve it. Bring everyone together for a meeting to answer and discuss the following:
1. Do you feel good about representing our organization and its services? Why / why not?
2. Why should customers invest their time and money with us?
3. If we were the customers, would we want to do business with us? Why / why not?
4. What can we do to improve the experience our customers have with us?
5. Why should we bother? What are the benefits for us?
6. What do we need in order to make that improved experience happen?
7. What can we do to help each other be more successful in that effort?
8. How would we recognize exceptional customer service within the services we provide?
9. What can we do during Customer Service week, using the answers to these questions, to recognize customer service “champions” and improve our service?
Close the meeting by reviewing the various strategies / action items that were identified, and ask for everyone’s commitment to implement them – starting immediately. Don’t take for granted the key ingredient to your customer service: your dedicated staff that works hard to make a difference every day in someone’s life. You’ll be amazed at what a little recognition can do! Oh and don’t forget to recognize other customer service champions from your contracted vendors…what a “wow” impression you’ll leave with them, and you know they’ll leave your campus or building telling others what you did!!
Need ideas for Customer Service Week? Visit:
http://www.csweek.com/customer_service_week.php
http://www.instituteofcustomerservice.com/1746/National-Customer-Service-Week.html
http://www.ask.com/questions-about/Customer-Service-Week
What ideas can you share for recognizing customer service “champions”?
If you’d like to use this article in your own newsletter or on your web site, you are welcome to reprint it in its entirety with an active link to our web site and the following author info:
“By Patty Cisco, Creative Catalyst for CISCO & CO. For effective marketing, sales and customer strategies that connect you with your customers visit www.ciscoco.com.”
