Strategy&Leadership
Feature at a glance:
all the key elements
Mind the gap
Service heritage
Key questions
All too often there is a gap
between the claims an
organisation makes on the
importance to it of providing
good quality service and the
quality of service provided
Service heritage is the outward
sign of the accumulation of
service-related decisions. Service
levels being offered to customers
will be a consequence of the
organisation’s service heritage
How do we justify investment
in service? What is our current
strategy for service? How do
we develop a better strategy
for service? How do we take
people with us?
Look back to move forward
Executives responsible for service need to be drivers of strategy, not just deliverers. The way forward
is to start by asking some searching questions, particularly about the organisation’s historical priorities,
and then talk the language decision makers understand say Dr. Bob Lillis and Steve Macaulay
All too often there is a gap between
the claims an organisation makes
on the importance to it of providing
good quality service and the quality
of service that it then actually
provides. Why is this so? Is it because
the organisation doesn’t really want
to walk the talk or because it doesn’t
know how to walk the talk? Well,
the answer may lie in a combination
of both; within the organisation’s
resource allocation routines and in
particular its ‘service heritage’.
Competency in the provision of
service, as with all competencies,
develops in the organisation over
time and in a particular way. Service
competence will be embedded in
the culture and be the result of how
things have historically been ‘done
around here’. Service heritage is the
outward sign of the accumulation of
service-related decisions. Whether
high, indifferent or even poor levels
of service are being offered to
customers will be a consequence of
the organisation’s service heritage.
This historic route by which
competency or incompetency in
service has arisen makes it difficult
to discern and especially difficult
to change. As a consequence, the
organisation that believes itself
committed to improving the service
it offers may well mean what it says
but be unable to deliver the goods,
however well-intentioned. It may
even devote resources and designate
customer service delivery executives,
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and charge them with pushing the
service agenda forward.
However, these executives can
frequently get frustrated and lose
heart because they are up against the
firm’s service heritage. They may be
faced with an uphill task and lack a
true understanding of what is holding
the organisation back. Whilst they
themselves are service enthusiasts
committed to improving service
performance in their organisation,
they could be confronted by fence
If service
performance
improvement
projects commonly
get turned down in
favour of others
such as ideas
advocating
development into
new markets or
financial cost
saving proposals
then the overall
strategy for the
organisation will
begin to be formed
around the latter
sitters, or worse, maybe executives
sceptical about the real value to be
gained from even making ‘service’
tomorrow’s nice to do objective.
The result? Little more than
a paper service charter and
disappointed customers, as well
as frustrated service delivery
managers. Service managers, with
whom we’ve spoken, have asked
us to be more specific on how to
break out of this trap. In response,
we’ve put together the ‘Service
Performance Workshop: Developing
a Compelling Case for Service,’ which
hones in on some telling questions.
Cracking the heritage code
Service delivery executives who
really wish to push the service
agenda forward and develop
a compelling case for service
provision in their organisation need
to consider how they would answer
these key questions:
l How do we justify investment
in service?
l What is our current strategy for
service?
l How do we develop a better
strategy for service?
l How do we take people with us?
l What do I need to make this
happen?
To improve competency in service
provision, and to make the
improvements made last, the service
delivery manager should begin by
examining the ‘service heritage’ of
their organisation. This forms part
of consideration of how the firm
justifies investment in service. This
is achieved by tracking and then
reflecting on those key decisions
relating to ‘service’ that have taken
place in their organisation in the past
three to five years.
These decisions when viewed
cumulatively will have informed the
development of service competence
or incompetence in the firm.
Techniques that use questionnaires,
interviews, mapping and timeline
exercises can be used to capture
valuable information to reveal the
service heritage. Knowing this, and
figuring out a way to work with this
heritage, an appropriate improvement
plan can then be devised that best
utilises the resource allocation
routines in the organisation.
Walking the service talk
All firms have within them such
routines for undertaking day-today business. Strategy including
service strategy develops as a
consequence of the outcomes of
these resource allocation routines;
in effect, walking the talk. After all,
what the organisation truly values
will be where it allocates its scarce
resources. So, for example, the
service delivery manager may wish to
pursue a service improvement project
and puts forward a proposal.
Perhaps the project forms part of
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Building a case for service
An action-based, diagnostic approach to service improvement is far more
effective, and will pay dividends, through the creation of a stronger case
for service:
l By clueing into the company history of priorities and understanding how
decisions are made, service improvement can be effectively driven by
service executives.
l Understanding an organisation’s service heritage and the strengths and
weaknesses of its current strategy will help put a far more suitable and
compelling case together.
l Given that understanding the company is so critical to success, there is
no universal template that can be carried from one service improvement
initiative to another.
l Above all, be candid, be analytical, and address realities – but present
your arguments in a way that is compelling.
the advocacy of a more compelling
case for service provision. The case
would be argued and financial data
and metrics included. The manager
would in reality be competing
against other projects for available
resources. Top management will
have established context and
guidelines for acceptance and
rejection of proposals.
Yet, decisions on which proposals
go forward and which do not usually
take place at middle levels and even
lower. Again it’s the cumulative
effects of outcomes of the decisions
that shape service strategy and the
development of service competency.
Getting others on board
Another element to successfully
building a compelling case for
service provision will require the
service delivery manager to push
for organisational attention to be
paid to it to support the project
proposals. The manager will need
to influence other managers and
develop coalitions around the issue.
Only when a lobby or critical mass
of supporters has evolved that
recognise and are willing to support
the development of improved
service competency will it become
an element of the organisation’s
strategic agenda. Clearly this agenda
building is an informal process and
much will depend on the personality
of the service delivery manager, the
context in which managers may
interrelate and the sheer allocation
of allowable time to it, given all
other issues requiring managerial
attention. But reflection on ‘how
to take other people with me’ in
advocacy of improvements to service
competency and answers to ‘what I
need to make it happen’ is vital.
Managers should revisit their
thinking to delve deeper into how
well their service strategy has been
devised, and the effects of the
heavy footprints of history that
their service heritage gives them. It
involves a measure of honesty about
the true state of the provision of
service that is being offered by their
organisation and just how well they
have been able to build a compelling
case for service in their firm.
Service managers need to find
their voice in driving strategy and not
just delivering it.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Dr. Bob Lillis is a Lecturer in
Service Operations Management
and Steve Macaulay is a Learning
Development Executive at
Cranfield School of Management.
They may be contacted by
telephone on ++44 (0) 1234 751122
or email bob.lillis@cranfield.ac.uk,
or s.macaulay@cranfield.ac.uk
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