Achieving service excellence is no longer a luxury today—it's a necessity that requires constant growth and innovation. For service organisations striving to build a culture of service excellence, it is a complex and multifaceted process that requires a deep level of organisational education and continuous development.
For instance, while some service organisations may focus on the tangible elements such as the upgrading of an existing delivery and touchpoint to improve retail store interiors or providing return gift coupons with every online purchase. However, there are also the softer aspects to consider that are often overlooked, such as staff training to shape proactive problem solvers who can anticipate and address customer needs.
As businesses push the boundaries of service excellence, customer expectations and behaviours are also constantly evolving.
What was once a strategy for competitive advantage has now become a business imperative. Staying stagnant will only result in a backslide, even as those that prioritise it enjoy an additional 4% to 8% revenue growth above the market.
So, while in many ways the path to service excellence is riddled with challenges in the new era of business, it is from these same obstacles that come an opportunity to shine. Here are 8 ways to leverage service trends and excel in them.
1. Behind the Brain: Achieving Service Excellence by Anticipation
Service excellence begins with a deep commitment to understanding the customer. While big data offers valuable insights into consumer behaviour, smaller companies may lack resources to gather the same level of information as the larger counterparts. Instead, if one taps into the fundamentals of behavioural science, a business can more effectively relook at existing strategies to turn them into a competitive edge by anticipating and meeting their customers' needs effectively.
Regardless of demographic, there are basic patterns of behaviour that can be leveraged to create positive customer experiences. By understanding how customers think, businesses can craft engaging and memorable interactions that not only meet but often exceed expectations. Brands that provide a positive customer experience - from online touchpoints and physical staff interactions, to appealing store design and flow - can expect to earn almost six times more revenue than their competitors.
2. Introduce Design Thinking for Service Innovation
Challenges in service delivery often stem from outdated processes or a misalignment between customer expectations and operational capabilities. This is where design thinking can be a game-changer.
An extension of understanding behavioural science, design thinking helps employees to identify personas in their space and map out a customer experience journey that is both seamless and enjoyable. This goes beyond the price and quality to provide a visceral link to customers, and can be a strong part of branding as well.
By placing the customer at the heart of problem-solving, businesses can turn pain points into opportunities for innovation. Starbucks demonstrated this approach when they introduced mobile ordering to its services, addressing issues such as long wait times, order accuracy, and payment hassles. By embracing a digital platform, they transformed these challenge into a growth opportunity.
3. Operational Excellence: Behind the Scenes of Great Service
Naturally, it is essential to ensure that the operational departments can effectively support the innovations being introduced. After all, as in the previous example, there's no point in having the users order digitally only to have them wait another 30 minutes for their coffee because store staff cannot match up in its efficiency.
To have a seamless service experience, there must be a robust operational strategy. And at the heart of that is productivity. Methodologies like Lean Six Sigma can evaluate and introduce more effective process management principles to organisations - ones that can scale even as you grow.
Amazon’s renowned example of operational excellence has allowed them to be leaders in the market, introducing impressive promises like same day delivery - an early strategy that differentiated them from others. By investing heavily in automation and data analytics, they’ve turned traditional logistical challenges into a competitive advantage.
4. Employee Engagement: The People Behind Service Excellence
To drive operational excellence, stellar employees are essential. An engaged and agile workforce is the backbone of service excellence, and building that culture will ensure all your well-laid plans will have a strong, steady driver. In an increasingly dynamic market, enabling employees with strong, independent thinking that is people-centric can have a powerful effect on customers.
A great example of this is Ritz-Carlton, a leading hospitality brand known for its service excellence. Many are familiar with their high standards, as well as their unique policy of empowering employees to spend up to $2,000 per guest to resolve issues. This approach is built on trust and a proactive attitude, turning issues into positive experiences. This reflects the company’s commitment to handling unexpected challenges while allowing the staff to be act quickly and be in alignment with organisational ethos and priorities.
5. Empathy: Connecting the Human Dots
The most poignant engagements have a key element at its core - empathy. By instilling a work culture that welcomes and nurtures empathy, an organisation is able to foster trust and strengthen relationships - not just between staff and customers, but between employees as well. Ultimately, this can have a profound effect on the well-being and communications between each person.
As engagements become increasingly digital, the connection between two individuals remain something that machines cannot replicate. This can become a great strength for brands when trying to solve problems or strengthen loyalty. After all, business support service provider, CSG, found that 58% of those surveyed stated customer service is more important than price, and the same would pay more to receive great customer service. And even more importantly, when it comes to solving problems, customer engagement software company, Khoros, 83% of customers readily admitted that they feel more loyal to brands that respond and resolve their complaints - something that requires the delicate sensibilities of empathy to achieve.
6. Building Resilience Through a Growth Mindset
Inevitably, despite all the best intentions, an organisation will fail a customer at some point. However, service excellence isn’t about avoiding challenges, but rather, approaching them with a problem-solving mindset to build a resilient culture. By adopting new approaches like essential thinking, one can better harness the tools available to create opportunities and drive innovation.
It helps the organisation distinguish between ‘Industrial-Age Thinking’ and 'Digital-Age Thinking’, and to reassess what is most relevant to today's processes in the context of the business. This approach enables leaders and teams to prioritise projects, improve workflows, and manage resources effectively, while on a personal level, aid one in overcoming distractions and achieving goals to add to productivity.
7. From Acquisition to Retention: Fostering Customer Loyalty
Customer loyalty is the goal of service excellence. Market leaders like Adobe have been putting more effort in customer retention, driven by the fact that loyal customers have a wide spectrum of positive impact to the business. Not only is investing in new customers between 5 and 25 times more expensive than retaining existing ones, existing customers will make more purchases (71%), be more likely to recommending the business to friends (61%), and share that finding on social media (40%).
Apple, known for its innovation, does this exceptionally well. They were among the first to create a closed ecosystem that keeps users engaged within their platform, and this strategy has allowed them to maintain a competitive edge, even as some of their features now lag behind their competitors.
8. Averting Crisis and Winning Hearts with Strategic Communication
Crises test an organisation’s ability to deliver service excellence under pressure. While mismanagement can erode trust, a well-handled crisis can also strengthen loyalty. In 2023, PricewaterhouseCoopers revealed that companies that handle crises well see a 22% increase in customer loyalty post-crisis.
By having a good crisis plan and leaders that are trained in strategic communication, professionals can guide their businesses through challenging, high-pressure situations with poise—and even gain new loyal supporters in the process.
In today’s fast-paced economy, service excellence isn’t just an option—it’s a competitive necessity. By adopting holistic strategies, organisations can transform challenges into opportunities, deepen customer relationships, and stay ahead through innovation.
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