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‘The best organisations never stop learning’

‘The best organisations never stop learning’

Ron Kaufman, the international guru of customer service, learnt the basic principle of good customer service from his grandmother when he was a child.

He said his grandmother taught kindergarten for 40 years and what she loved most was getting the children to learn to be nice to each other.

“Now what is customer service?” he said. “It’s the commercial version of teaching people to take care of each other. The only difference is usually there is an exchange of money involved. But excellent customer service is about understanding what someone else needs and helping them and taking care of their concern. So it really comes down to human beings taking care of other human beings.”

Kaufman is a graduate of Brown University, USA with post-graduate studies in France, London and Berkeley, California. He went on to become the world’s leading educator and motivator for uplifting customer service, partnerships and superior service culture. He is the author of the bestselling book series (14 books) UP Your Service! In 2006, he launched ‘UP Your Service! College’ to help organisations build superior service cultures.

Kaufman was recently in Dubai, where he comes every month, as a keynote speaker at an event titled ‘Share Best Practices’, which was organised in conjunction with Dubai Quality Award (DQA) and Dubai Quality Group (DQG) at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel. Kaufman was brought to Dubai for the event by The Right Selection Group, a Dubai-based organisation that introduces training and development initiatives to companies in the Gulf region (wwwrightselection.com). Ron Kaufman spoke to City Times about his favourite subject, customer service.

How did you start in customer service?

I was invited in 1999 to Singapore by Singapore Airlines and the Singapore government. Their objective was to raise the quality service standard in the whole nation. My speciality at the time, 18 years ago, was in Adult Educational Design. I knew how to make things interesting and engaging for adults to produce required behavioural change. So I moved to Singapore and began to work on the project and, 18 years later, here I’m as one of the world’s leading gurus of customer service.

Once you stated, how did your experiences build up to what you are doing now?

My first client was Singapore Airlines which is in a very competitive industry where everyone travels the same airplanes, from the same airports etc. So how do you stand out from the rest? So what I really learnt was that when you differentiate your organisation based on the quality of your service that people buy, you create an emotional connection with your customers that makes them want to be loyal with you. And this translates to much better business success. The challenge is you must build an entire culture where people who serve the customers are constantly supported, encouraged, reinforced and educated to give this wonderful service, not only to the customers but also to each other. This is what we call a superior service culture. And in the past 18 years I have worked with over 1800 organisations and I have seen the good, the bad and the ugly. So I have learnt what it takes to build a superior service culture.

What has customer service become so important now?

Well, products have become commoditised. Whether I buy an apartment from you or someone else, an apartment is an apartment. Whether I buy a shirt from you or someone else, let us face it, a shirt is a shirt. And price competition is the last place where you want to fight. So what customers, who are spoiled for choice, are now looking for is not just a product but an experience where they get value from the experience. Now that experience is partly made up of the product, of the delivery system, whether on the web or over the counter or the phone or through the ATM machine…whatever. But here, even these things can be easily copied. So the third category where companies can really stand out is what we call the service mindset. Now that is classical service quality. For example, body language, eye contact, saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’, proper grooming. But there is one more category beyond that: developing an ongoing relationship. And if you can develop a relationship with customers, they won’t even be sensitive about the price.

So, as you teach it, briefly what are the critical elements of good customer service?

The critical elements are: first of all you must understand what your customer values, which will be different for different customers. Then you need to design a service experience so that the customers get what they value and their opinion about the service experience value is a high one. So you have to know what they expect first. All service is delivered in a sequence. For example, at a grocery store, you start to form an opinion at the parking lot, which is the first place. Then as you go inside the store, you begin to see: is there a basket for you; is the store clean; is the staff friendly; does the store have what you want and it is a good price. Also, when you are looking around, are there people around and if you ask any question do they know the products. If a staff says, “I don’t know’ to your question, it doesn’t change the product or influences the prices but it changes your experience. Then when you go to the check out, you see whether they are friendly, do they move quickly, do they have the technology to help you go through in a convenient manner etc. And when you are leaving, do they say, ‘Thank you very much. We look forward to seeing you again soon.’ Most stores don’t do that. Then if a store started adding value, improving their services, you would go shop there even though it is not the cheapest prices.

And they could add even more values, like keeping recipes available near the food. Or asking customers if there is anything else that they want the store to stock. If they act on it and start stocking what you desire, you are going to be very loyal to that store. This is what I mean by identifying the many different points which I call ‘perception points’ - the overall service transaction. A transaction that began in the parking lot and ended when you got back to your car. So to provide a superior service you need to understand all these points.

Can an organisation improve its services without paying its staff more?

Money is what we call the ‘hygiene factor’. Of course you must pay people. But if you have a strong service culture people enjoy working there. People give good service to each other, which means going to work is not a chore. It is a place where they feel uplifted and inspired. So you will get better service even if you do not pay more. But then you must become the kind of place people enjoy going to work. And that means the culture must be attractive.

So what is your opinion about the service performance in Dubai?

I have been coming to Dubai for the last 16 years. So I know Dubai. And I love Dubai. I admire Dubai. And Dubai has a big problem. There are some companies here that are working very hard to raise their service standards, which I think every company in Dubai must do. Business leaders here must make a commitment to build a strong service culture. And they must commit the time and the investment to build that culture. They can’t just say, ’sell sell sell.’ Because in the long run those companies will get a reputation only for sales and no service.

Dubai has become famous for its novel initiatives, like Performance Excellence awards, Quality awards etc. How far do you think these are helping to raise service standards here?

That is very very good. I’ll give you an example. The best organisations never stop learning. They always keep improving. For example, Xerox. In the Emirates, Xerox has won the Dubai Quality award twice. It has won the Sheikh Khalifa Abu Dhabi Award. And they are my customers. It means even though they are already so wonderful they want to do ever better. So they use our course 100 in Up Your Service College. So, you cannot just talk about it, you have to act upon it.

And who are your other clients in Dubai?

One of them is Dubai International Financial Centre. And their service vision is: ‘elegant, educative, elite service’. Others are Dubai Properties and CECOM. Also, Dubai Internet City, Dubai Media City and Knowledge Village, with their service vision: ‘committed to your success.’ Also, Dubai Bank, with their service vision: ‘your choice’ and Emirates NBD, with their vision of ‘Service you can count on for life.’

Why must companies in Dubai build a service culture?

Every single government organisation and every company working in Dubai must become an institution that educates its staff about customer service. And when that happens, if you educate every single person in Dubai on how to give good service, they are also the customers of someone else, so they base their own service expectations on others, which is also good for Dubai.

What was your best service experience in Dubai?

The great service experience happened to me in one of Dubai’s hotels. I checked into the hotel and realised that I had forgotten to bring my laptop charger with me. It was evening and I wondered how I was going to work. Anyway, this person in the hotel found out what my laptop was, contacted a friend in Dubai who had a similar laptop, went to his home, got the charger and brought it to me. And I returned it the next morning. Now, this service was not part of his job but still he did it, because it was part of the passionate culture of providing excellent customer service.

And what was the worst?

The worst I can think of is the bad service experience I have had in some of Dubai’s malls. The staff there are not making any eye contact; they don’t really care if you buy anything or not. They don’t understand that the service experience that I have had with their brand will determine whether or not I buy from that brand ever - anywhere in the world.

What is your vision for Dubai?

My passion in life is to help people learn, improve and grow. My company’s passion is to help companies worldwide build superior service cultures. Dubai is a wonderful place in the world. I have great emotional connection with Dubai. I want Dubai to take up the challenge to become one of the best service cities in the world. I come here every month and I know how to do that. And I’m committed to help Dubai make it happen.

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Fundamental principles of customer service, as taught in Kaufman’s

• Giving Superior Service course
• Six levels of service
• Transactions and perception points
• What the customer values
• Styles of service
• Education, teaching the customer
• Motivation, encouragement and inspiration
• Eliminating blame, taking personal responsibility

Roles of leaders in organisation in building superior service culture

• Enforcing a clear service vision
• Recruitment of good staff
• Orientation of new staff
• Communication about service
• Training of staff
• Rewards and recognition for good service
• Listening to the voice of customers
• Measures and metrics to measure service
• Service process improvements
• Recvery, if things g wrng
• Service benchmarking, learning frm ther cmpanies
• Service rle mdelling, leaders walking the talk

About the Author

Right Selection - Event Management invites professional speakers, trainers, and consultants to share their expertise in various fields of learning with the corporate community. The Events division organises:

* Success Seminars inviting participation from the corporate community.
* Customised Workshops for individual companies

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