Without execution, systems in manuals are
nothing more than ideas on paper. This is where
most companies fail — the execution of these systems.
The two most important
words in the success of implementing systems are consistency and continuity. Nearly every
company has more ideas than it
knows what to do with. Here’s a
scenario familiar in every company: Some executives attend a
fantastic seminar, get dozens of
great ideas, and return to work
all fired up to start executing. A
month later, not one idea is
being executed even 10 percent
of the time. The managers are
either preoccupied with a crisis
or have moved on to a new
focus. Managers are not short
on ideas; they are short on strategy that will result in successful implementation.
Select a path and
stick with it
I can’t tell you how often I
hear the same thing from the
companies I consult: “A few
years ago, our theme was ‘fish,’
last year our theme was ‘raving fans,’ and this year our
theme is your book.”
It’s no wonder nothing
sticks. There’s no continuity
from one generation of
employees to the next
because they joined under a
different theme.
There is nothing wrong
with using any of those
books and concepts as
themes. What I am saying
is pick a path. The world-class customer service
companies focus on one
concept and build their
training program around
it. Over the years, every
new employee goes through the
same training, learns the same underlying concept and theme,
reads the same book, and hears
the same message.
That doesn’t mean the training
doesn’t evolve. But you have a
consistent foundation on which
everyone has been trained. And
it can’t just be new employees
who go through intensive training; existing employees need to
be retrained and re-energized on
at least an annual basis. Beyond
that training, world-class customer service companies advertise superior customer service
to their employees on a daily,
weekly, monthly and quarterly
basis.
Implement slowly
and properly
Let’s assume you have just
successfully completed the
Customer Experience Cycle
Workshop with your entire
organization. You should now
have the buzz.
Stop right there. This is when
the train wreck so often happens. The workshop was easy;
the hard part is implementation.
Yes, you are excited about the
buy-in to being world-class. Yes,
you want to maintain the enthusiasm and the momentum. But
now you must crawl before you
can walk.
A worst practice is to allow
managers to roll out the implementation on their own or to
introduce many new concepts
every week. If you do either, in
about 45 days, all of those great
ideas will be a distant memory
because not one of them will
stick. The only result will be a
loss of credibility. Employees
will feel that all their work was
just a bunch of rah-rah and hot
air because nothing ever came of it. Customers will be disappointed by the inconsistency
between your promises and
their experiences.
Both your front-line managers
and employees already have too
much on their plate to digest
and manage the execution of
more than a few things at once.
You need to create a roll-out
calendar of new customer service systems. Never introduce
more than two or three things
per 120 days to any one department. This may sound like a
slow process, but wouldn’t you
be doing cartwheels if I told you
that a year from now, you will
have introduced 10 new initiatives that are all being executed
consistently?
Manage the experience
It is imperative that every
manager is uncompromising
about the execution of your
standards. Your employees have
to know that they cannot pick
and choose. That is why it is
very important NOT to have too
many standards for every stage
of interaction. Less is more, so
keep it realistic to achieve.
As soon as employees start to
think no one is really paying
attention or cares, the standards go from nonnegotiable
to optional. To avoid this,
managers have to routinely do
audits of the standards and
recognize when they are being
executed and immediately
coach when they aren’t. You
can have the greatest customer experience on paper,
but it is the leadership’s
responsibility to make sure
every employee is well aware
of the importance of consistent, continuous execution.
JOHN R. DIJULIUS is the best-selling author of “What’s The Secret? To Providing a World-Class
Customer Experience.” (Wiley, May 2008). He is also president of The DiJulius Group, a firm specializing in giving companies a superior competitive advantage by helping them differentiate on
delivering an experience and making price irrelevant. Reach him at [email protected]
