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10 common sense strategies that move
service from Woe to WOW!
WOODIE PERKINS
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Agenda
• Who We Are
• Our Desk-Side Business Problem
• Our Desk-Side Vision
• Our Journey
• Were We Successful?
• Timeline of Events
• Question & Answers
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Who We Are
• Largest casket manufacturer in the US
• Award winning casket and urn manufacturing facilities
• Batesville, IN – metal & urns
• Manchester, TN – metal
• Chihuahua, MX – veneer
• Vicksburg, MS – wood processing
• Batesville, MS – wood
• Efficient customer demand pulled, mixed-model
production system
• ~ 500 unit transportation fleet
• ~ 100 warehouses throughout North America
• Next day delivery service to 2/3 of our customers
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The Business Problem
• We outsourced desk-side support to a tier one service
provider in June 2003
• Huge customer service issues
• 5 day resolution on desktop issues
• The “Help-Less” desk
• Tickets fell into the “Black Hole”
• Internal customers voiced concerns about the help-desk
• Lack of flexibility with the team
• Impacted customers from getting their jobs done
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The Business Problem (continued)
Contributing Factors:
• Individual performers did a very good job, however there
was no management oversight
• Remote management - providing no discipline,
accountability, guidance or vision to the team
• Performance reviews and feedback were rarely given
• Monthly measurements looked good on paper, but did not
meet the business needs
• The team was not allowed to work on any issues without
having a ticket
• No process improvement mentality
So…Desk-side support was in-sourced in June 2006
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We Know Bad Service
When We See It
Customer Service Magic
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We Know Good Service
When We See It
• The Pickle – Give ‘em a pickle
• The Fish Story - Tough Job, but people have fun
• Johnny the Bagger - Make a persons day
Customer Service Magic
• Secret Service – John Roberts Spa – Great processes -when a failure happens
• Customers for Life – Sewell Cadillac - Under-promise over deliver
• Airline Baggage Handler- Mailed fallen off luggage tags to customers
• Wally the Taxi Cab Driver – Offers coffee/tea, newspaper, music
• Ritz-Carlton Associate – Customers PC, flew it to Hawaii
• Nordstrom Associate – Perfume from another store, no additional charge
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The Desk-side Vision
Become a customer centric organization. Provide a new
and improved focus on Customer Service.
• Drive value for all business partners
Customer Service
Magic
• Make desk-side support a great place to work
• Never forget that we are a service organization
• Support the mission of seamlessly integrating enterprise business
solutions to create a competitive advantage
• Provide a stable and user-friendly environment where information is
easily obtained and accessed
• Create an extraordinary end-user computing experience for all
Batesville Casket associates
• Implement continuous process improvement activities to turn the
vision into reality
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Our Journey
• The vision for the team was boiled down to one
word….WOW!! We wanted to WOW our customers
• We started by getting rid of all the rules and making only
one rule…Focus on getting customer issues resolved as
fast as possible.
• Along the way we learned what
worked and what didn’t work!
Today we are still on the journey
to improve.
• We used the existing team that
was outsourced…old team – new
leadership.
• Looking back, 10 key themes or
steps contributed to our success.
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The 10 Step Plan For
Customer Service Magic:
10 Have Fun
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
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Listen To The Customer
Give Them What They Want
Easy To Do Business With
Over Communicate
Measure – Measure Everything
Continuous Improvement
Great Execution – Under Promise, Over Deliver
Customer Service Delivery System and Processes
Create A Passionate Customer Service Organization
Create a Passionate
Customer Service Organization
Step 1
• Hire people that are passionate, can teach the technical
• When a customer asks, the answer is always YES!
• Discussions and meetings with our associates on the
soft issues:
– Expressing the idea that true customer service must come from
the heart because you care about your business partner’s
needs
– Making a difference in someone’s day has a great impact
– The team was challenged to find their own unique ways to
provide stellar customer service
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Create a Passionate
Customer Service Organization
Step 1
(Continued)
• Promote positive attitudes that become contagious for
others
• Each month an associate from the team is given a
special award for their extra effort in providing
enhanced customer service…WOW Award!
• Each associate is empowered to do whatever is
necessary to get the job done to meet the customer’s
needs
• Monthly living the ideology series…Never forget that
we are a service organization!
• Performance Management - Build the best team
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Step 2
Develop Service Delivery
Systems & Processes
• Poka-Yoke (Mistake-Proof) processes and systems
• Refined processes – removing time out of the process
• Developed process/systems to ensure that no issue falls
through the cracks
• Develop proactive recovery strategies
• Don’t leave customers in limbo, developed processes
that enforce timely resolution to issues.
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Step 3
Great Execution
• Create a noticeable difference between the old and new
desk-side support on Day 1 for our customers
• Doing the Right things at the Right time in the Right way
• Set Clear Goals and Priorities
• Exceptional Follow-through
• Recognize and reward performance
• Under-promise and over-deliver in a consistent manner
• Rapidly respond to issues and over communicate with the
customer
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Step 4
Continuous Improvement
• Often pleased, seldom satisfied!
• Ran “Kaizan” sessions to improve service offerings
• “Spare in the Air” Program – 5 days to 1 day
• New Hire process – PC,Phone,Name-Plate,Email,etc is
ready when a new hire starts instead of waiting a
week or more
• Warm-Transfer to the appropriate support
organization instead of waiting for a return call
• 7X24X365 Desk-side Support instead of 8 to 5,
Monday - Friday support
• Expert Support for shrink wrapped software
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Step 4
Continuous Improvement
(continued)
• Provide “White Glove” treatment
to each business partner by wiping
down monitors and keyboards
during their support visit.
• Technician’s leave their business card attached to
stationary listing the details of the work performed
during their support visit.
• Equipping each technician with the right tools
(stationary, business cards, cleaning wipes, tools, etc)
to do their job ensuring they can fix the issue during
the first visit
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Step 5
Measure
• Measure Everything!
• Implemented a customer satisfaction survey
• Share weekly and monthly statistics with associates
to ensure the team is focused on the proper goals
and aligned correctly.
• 4 monitors are updated daily with current statistics of
all technicians, which is in the open and available for
all to see
• Report results monthly to team, department, CEO
staff
• “You Can’t Manage What You Don’t Measure”
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Step 5
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Measure (continued)
Step 6
Over Communicate
• Eliminate the “Black Hole” effect - timely updates
• Customer Satisfaction Survey’s - disguised as a follow
up call for any additional outstanding issues
• “Face to Face” communications, it has a calming effect
and portrays a higher sense of urgency - (non-verbal)
• Call the customer before they
know they have a problem
• Additional communication
mechanisms: email, text message,
web portals, monitors, etc.
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Step 7
Easy To Do Business With
• “No Tickey..No Worky”
• Provide multiple ways for a customer to access service
• Don’t make a customer wait!! Answer the call quickly
• First call resolution – Eliminate or limit transfers
• IVR Hell
• Own the problem - Single point of contact, warm
transfers, etc
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Step 8
Give Customers
What They Want
• Find a way to say…
• Provide memorable service
• Under promise over deliver
• Reliability & Responsiveness
• Assurance
• Empathy
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Step 9
Listen To The Customer
• Stop Talking!
• Listen to the customer and understand their business
• Be “In the Moment”… Focus! – total attention to the
customer
• Complaints are a wonderful gift
• Hold your judgment
• Ask questions… a lot of questions to fully understand
the issue
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Step 10
Have Fun
How to motivate people to work faster, harder and better:
1.
Over pay them
2.
Threaten them
3.
Make it fun
• If a fishmonger can have fun,
Why can’t you?
• Tell your associates you appreciate them
• Reduce stress
• It is okay to make a mistake
• Help each other out – Happiness is a choice
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10 little but BIG Things That
Create Customer Service Magic:
10 Have Fun
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
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Listen To The Customer
Give Them What They Want
Easy To Do Business With
Over Communicate
Measure – Measure Everything
Continuous Improvement
Great Execution – Under Promise, Over Deliver
Customer Service Delivery System and Processes
Create A Passionate Customer Service Organization
Were We Successful?
You judge from the unsolicited remarks from our customers…
“Professionalism”
“Delivered as Promised”
“Phenomenal”
“Your Prompt Attention is Greatly Appreciated”
“Thank You”
“She is Truly an Asset To Your Department”
“Thank You!, A Happy Internal Customer”
“Consummate Professional”
“Fantastic Job”
“Wonderful Service”
“Wonderful Service”
“Thanks For All Your Help!”
“Very Pleased”
“You Were Great!”
“Blown Away” “I am immensely appreciative of their customer service courtesy
and professionalism”
“I Appreciate Your Responsiveness”
“EXTREMELY Helpful”
“Very Cheerful”
“Sincere Appreciation”
“This is Perfect!! WOW!!”
“Pat On The Back”
“Excellent Customer Service”
“A Super Team Effort”
“I Was Blown Away…”
“You Never Fail to Respond”
“WOW Service”
“Much Smoother”
“Your customer service and follow-up were exceptional”
“Phenomenal Job”
“Tremendous Help”
“Keep Up The Great Work!”
“Patient and Positive” “Far Exceeded My Expectations”
“You Are The Best!”
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“Awesome Service!!!”
“Fantastic Job”
“GREAT Help”
Timeline of Events
• Insourced Desk-side Support on June 1, 2006
• Insourced the Service Desk (Help Desk) on June 17, 2008
» Very successful
» Improved service levels while reducing overall cost
• Insourced Intel support on December 1, 2008
» Includes Intel, Citrix, Active Directory, VMware support
» Reduce overall cost
» Increased service level
• Insourced Oracle DBA support on January 1, 2010
» Cost neutral
» Improved service
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Questions
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