FROM 3 RING CIRCUS TO 5 STAR SERVICE ATTRACTING

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FROM 3 RING CIRCUS TO 5 STAR SERVICE ATTRACTING
RECRUITING GREAT PEOPLE OCTOBER 9 2009
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A Customer Service Charter

• CUSTOMER SERVICE CHARTER
• This charter is to demonstrate the Essendon
  Football Club's commitment to ensuring you will
  always receive the best service. It defines the
  level of service you can expect from your
  association with the club.
• 1. Customer ServiceThe Essendon Football Club
  will.1.1 provide honest, friendly, courteous
  service and treat you as a valued customer.
• 1.2 provide employees with the necessary
  knowledge and training to ensure that our
  customer service standards are met.
• 1.3 maintain a level of technology that will
  assist us to continually improve the standard of
  service we provide.
• 1.4 survey a random selection of our customers on
  a regular basis to assess our performance. The
  results will be published in the club yearbook.
• 1.5 ensure that any concerns or complaints about
  your service are dealt with promptly and to your
  satisfaction.
• 3. Customer Enquiries The Essendon Football Club
  will3.1 return telephone messages before the
  end of the next working day. All issues will be
  resolved in accordance with the timeframe agreed
  by both parties.3.2 acknowledge receipt of all
  written communication within three working days.
• 3.3 for more complex issues that require further
  investigation, provide regular progress reports
  to ensure that you are kept informed.
• 3.4 keep an accurate record and monitor your
  query on our customer service database.
• 4. MembershipThe Essendon Football Club
  will4.1 offer a wide range of membership
  packages.4.2 provide easy to understand
  brochures and renewal processes.
• 4.3 offer customers multiple payment options.
• 4.4 mail membership tickets and fulfillment packs
  to members within 4 - 6 weeks of receipt of
  payment. (Members who request seat changes may
  not receive their tickets within this period.
  This will depend on seating availability).

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Customer competencies

• Serves customers with compassion, creativity and
  competence
• Is friendly and responsive when dealing with
  customers
• Follows through on any undertakings made to
  customers
• Undertakes research to better understand customer
  needs
• Acts on customer feedback to improve service
  quality
• Acknowledges the cultural and personal diversity
  of our customers
• Strives to think from the customers perspective.
• Advocates for customers inside the council

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Great and dreadful customer service experiences

• In table groups share GREAT and DREADFUL customer
  service experiences
• What do these experiences tell us about great
  customer service people?

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The pillars of customer service
Great customer service
Great systems processes
Great culture
Engaged staff
Great people
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Dissatisfied customers are an interesting group

• For every one that complains there are at least
  25 who do not.
• By word of mouth dissatisfied customers will tell
  eight to sixteen othersabout their
  dissatisfaction. 
• With the web some are now telling thousands.
• 91 of dissatisfied customers never purchase
  goods or services from the company again.
• A prompt effort to resolve a dissatisfied
  customer's issue will result in about 85 of them
  as repeat customers.
• Depending upon the business, new customer sales
  may cost 4 to 100 times that of a sale to an
  existing customer
• Local government doesnt lose customers they
  stay and complain like crazy.

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Telling a story
Great place to work
Learning
Results
An organisational Core Theory of Success
Relationships
Service
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Getting it right
Understand expectations
Service standards
Respond measure
A virtuous cycle of customer service
Recruit develop
Listen
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Closing the service gaps
Customer service expectations
Gap 5 Service Gap
Customer perception of service provided
The quality of service promised to customers
The quality of the service delivered
Gap 1 Knowledge Gap
Gap 4 Communication Gap
Gap 3 Delivery Gap
The service standards set as company policy
Gap 2 Standards Gap
What you perceive your customers expect
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Best and worst interview experiences

• Working in pairs describe your best and worst
  experiences as an interviewer
• Working in pairs describe your best and worst
  experiences as an interviewee

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Types of interview questions

• Closed
• Yes/no responses
• Open
• Explanatory responses
• What if
• Imaginary
• Behavioural event-based
• Actuality-based

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Behavioural-event based questions

• Based on actual event(s)
• Requires a structured approach to the question
  and answer
• C - Circumstances
• A - Actions
• R - Results

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Creating interview questions

• Create interview questions to assess a
  candidates suitability for a customer service
  role

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The interview

• Relaxed and comprehensive
• Designed to capture information about the
  candidate
• Give candidates the chance to talk about
  themselves and to listen (to find out about the
  organisation)

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Interview setting

• Table setting alternatives
• Round table - cosier, more relaxed style
  interview, less intimidating
• Large rectangular table - potentially daunting
  and uncomfortable. Could be used in situations
  where candidates performance while under stress
  needs to be assessed.
• Small square tables - also quite cosy. More
  official than a round table setting and possibly
  less relaxing.
• Long table for committee open chairs for
  candidates - candidates may feel exposed and
  uncomfortable. Quite daunting.

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The interview structure

• Opening
• Designed to set the scene and ensure the
  candidate is comfortable
• Greet
• Explain the purpose of the interview
• Describe the process to be followed
• Probing the candidate
• Finding out if they are the right person
• From easy to tough
• Assess fit, capability, self-awareness
• Closing the interview
• Opportunity for candidate to ask questions
• Where to from here

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What to look for in the interview

• Question responses
• Relevance
• Depth
• Consistency across questions
• CAR format used
• Gives what if answers to CAR questions
• Language
• I/we
• Jargon
• Acronyms

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What to look for in the interview beware of

• Bagging a former employer/colleague
• Nothing to ask at the end of the interview
• Candidates asking stuff they were too lazy to
  find out themselves
• Candidates who know nothing about your
  organisation
• Body language
• Hand shake neither Mark Latham nor a wet fish
• Personal space
• Eye contact
• Posture

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Some referee questions

• In what capacity do you know name ?
• How long have you known name ?
• How did you find name as an employee/work
  colleague?
• What was name relationship like with fellow
  workers?
• How would you describe their attitude to customer
  service both with internal and external
  customers?
• How did name respond to management and
  receiving direction?
• Was name reliable - attendance, etc?
• Do you know of any problems name would have
  working in an environment such as I've described?
• Would you employ name again? If not, why
  not?

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Interview practice

• Work in groups of three. There are 3 roles,
  interviewer, interviewee and observer coach.
• Each interviewer takes one question from the pile
  and asks the question.
• The interviewee takes a scenario from those
  available.
• The observer/coach gives the feedback at the end
  of the interview to both the interviewer and the
  interviewee

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So now you have them should you keep them?

• What do you currently do to assess the customer
  service competency/attitudes of staff?
• If the answer is We do nothing why focus on new
  hires?
• What do you currently do during the probation
  period to assess the customer service
  competency/attitudes of probationary staff?

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Assessing during the probation period

• Regular meetings with the new person to discuss
  how they are going and highlighting the needs of
  customers by asking
• What are you finding out about our customers?
• What have you done recently that has delighted a
  customer?
• What have you discovered since you joined us
  that will help us serve customers better?
• How are you treated by colleagues when you are
  their customer?
• If you could change anything about the way we
  deliver customer service what would you change?
• Sometimes the new chum sees things others dont.
  Tap into that.

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Assessing during the probation period

• Ask the new person to seek service feedback from
  colleagues and customers
• Create a customer feedback card along the lines
  of
• I am a newly appointed person at X Council. Can
  you please give me some feedback about how I have
  helped you today and how I could have done things
  better.
• This sends a message not just to the new person
  and your customers, but also to other employees
  that you are serious about customer service.
• Half way into the probation period ask the new
  person to give a short presentation at morning
  tea to their colleagues about what they have
  found out about how you do customer service.
  Invite the senior management team to come along
  but be careful a new hire might be intimidated by
  senior staff coming along.

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Three month conversation a different approach

• Has your customer service position with us met
  your expectations? If yes, how? If no, why not?
• What has been the highlight of the past three
  months?
• What training have you attended in the past three
  months?
• How do you think that the operation or structure
  of your area could be improved?
• How informed do you feel you are kept of what is
  happening here?
• What type of interaction have you had during the
  past three months with other business
  areas/units?
• What have you learnt about us in the past three
  months that you didnt know when you started
  working here?
• Are we maximising the full potential of your
  skills, abilities and experience in the job you
  are currently performing? If so can you tell me
  how?
• How can your job be made more rewarding and
  stimulating?
• What do you think about our approach to customer
  service and how we apply it? How would you talk
  about our customer service approach to other
  people?
• Do you have any comments or suggestions you would
  like to make?

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Changing what you do

• As a result of what we have done today
• What is the MOST IMPORTANT thing to change about
  how you recruit and retain the right people?
• What is the MOST URGENT thing to change about how
  you URGENT and retain the right people?
• What will be the MOST DIFFICULT thing to change
  about how you recruit and retain the right people