Improving service management skills

Since service is a process of simultaneous production and consumption, no matter how well-planned the service is, it is impossible to achieve a perfect ideal state. Employees will make mistakes, systems will malfunction, and some consumers may not know how to participate in the service process or request changes in the service content provided during the service process, resulting in consumers not getting the service they expect. . Therefore, service failures are inevitable.

Research results show that service errors are a second opportunity for service providers to improve consumers’ perceived service quality. The way companies deal with service failures becomes a fundamental platform for weakening or strengthening relationships with consumers. Proper handling of service errors will help establish a good trust relationship between consumers and enterprises, and will also increase consumers' dependence on enterprises. Therefore, service recovery is an important factor in improving consumer-perceived service quality. Service recovery is closely related to service process quality, which will affect consumers' perception of process quality.

Some scholars have found through research that consumers who have experienced service errors but received timely and effective remedies have a higher satisfaction rate than those who have not encountered service errors. The purpose of introducing the concept of service recovery into service quality management is to help service companies effectively manage service errors and consumer complaints, improve consumer perceived quality, and thereby establish long-term service relationships with consumers.

Case 1: ge company

The ge company in the United States has changed from 85% of its revenue from selling products to 75% of its revenue from services today. The company has a comprehensive service recovery strategy . Its complete repair reporting system can ensure that the company responds to customer complaints in a timely manner. For example, the online service with an average response time of 2 hours allows engineers to arrive at the site as soon as customers need it, and use superb maintenance diagnosis technology and powerful Backend technical support to promptly and accurately determine faults and solve problems. After receiving customer complaints, service personnel can quickly analyze and solve the problem through customer and product information in the company's database, thus improving response speed.

In the appeal service recovery process, the company applied the Six Sigma standard of quality management on the production line to its customer service and set strict standards for the service. The company actively encourages and supports customer complaints and strives to open complaint channels for customers. For example, the company spends $100 million a year on a General Electric response center that operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The center handles 3 million calls a year. All ge products have an 800 number printed on them, encouraging customers to seek support directly from the company when they encounter difficulties. At the same time, the company pays attention to the training of employees. Engineers regularly receive maintenance technology training that is in sync with the world. Service personnel also receive training in service skills and the company's service philosophy, in order to strive to meet the company's Six Sigma service standards. The company has selected a large number of high-quality employees and stimulated them to continuously learn the company's spirit, propositions and the basis for survival, which of course includes the dissemination and learning of the service recovery concept.

Case 2: Hilton Hotel

Hilton Hotel’s service recovery measures mainly include: the hotel first conducts CRM introductory training for employees, informs them of the importance of service recovery, and makes the service recovery concept Integrate into corporate culture. The hotel has also formulated strict and unified service standards and established the position of guest file manager, who is responsible for summarizing customer information and establishing a database to ensure that a customer and his or her personal preferences can be identified at every guest contact point. Continuously improve the customer information database based on customer feedback information, so that after an error occurs, targeted remedial measures can be taken based on the guest's personal preferences, special requirements, and past service errors at various touch points.

During the above-mentioned remediation process, the hotel actively developed customer complaint channels and established a "service recovery toolbox" for customers to complain and provide feedback to ensure the effectiveness of service recovery and eliminate the problems caused by service errors. unhappy. At Hilton hotels, employees are authorized to spend XX dollars to solve customer problems.

Although the money is rarely used, the company's incentive allows employees to exercise their remediation rights without fear of penalty.

Summarizing the above cases, we can see that these first-class companies all realize that service recovery is a process that includes pre-sales, sales and after-sales services. They all implement service recovery behavior as a cyclic process. Yes, there are several key steps in service recovery. First, enterprises use databases or service error warning systems to predict the possible occurrence or occurrence of service errors. Once a service error occurs, the company takes quick action to solve customer problems as soon as possible and make up for the service error. Secondly, actively analyze the reasons for service errors and improve them. Afterwards, collect, classify and organize relevant information from customer feedback and establish a service recovery database. Through the information reflected in the database, we can improve internal working procedures and predict possible service errors in the next service stage. That is, predict potential service errors→take remedial actions→analyze the causes of service errors and improve them→collect and organize customer feedback information→build a database→predict potential service errors in the next stage based on database information.

At the same time, the teacher believes that in addition to the necessary service recovery steps, there are also several factors that affect service recovery in each case. They are the formulation of service standards and service recovery standards, employee training and Empowerment, opening up channels for customer complaints and organizing learning.

Therefore, if an enterprise wants to design a successful service recovery strategy, in addition to formulating an efficient service recovery mechanism, it should also consider the impact of the above factors on the service recovery effect and strictly formulate service standards and service recovery standards. , focusing on employee training and authorization, actively opening up complaint channels for customers, and striving to integrate organizational learning into corporate culture.

The process of service recovery is the process of transforming consumers’ bad perception of the services provided by the company into a good impression. To make consumers feel that they have been treated fairly, fairness in three aspects is indispensable. Particular attention should be paid to procedural fairness and meticulous care for consumers in the remediation process. If consumers believe that the interactive process and procedures of service recovery are fair, consumers will lower their material requirements, thereby saving companies high recovery costs. During the training process of Teacher Tan Xiaofang, some students will ask - what is the difference between service recovery and complaint management?

The teacher believes that the difference between service recovery and customer complaint management is:

First, service recovery is real-time.

This is a very important difference between service recovery and customer complaint management. Customer complaint management generally must wait until the end of a service process, while service recovery must occur when service errors occur. If you wait until the end of a service process, then the cost of service recovery will rise sharply and the effect of recovery will be greater. discount.

Second, service recovery has proactive characteristics.

Customer complaint management has a very obvious feature, that is, only when a customer complains, the company will take corresponding measures to appease the customer and make the customer leave with satisfaction. But according to a survey conducted by an investigative agency called Trap in Washington, only 4 of the customers with problems complained or complained to the relevant company departments, while the other 96 customers would not complain, but they would report to 9 to 10 people came to express their dissatisfaction (bad reputation).

The principle of "no complaint, no resolution" in customer complaint management will seriously affect customer perception of service quality and customer satisfaction, thereby affecting customer loyalty and putting enterprises at a disadvantage in competition. But service recovery is different. It requires service providers to proactively discover service errors and take timely measures to resolve them. This forward-looking management model is undoubtedly more conducive to improving customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Third, service recovery is a full-process, all-staff management work.

Customer complaint management is a staged management work carried out by specialized departments.

Generally speaking, service recovery has a distinct on-site nature. Service companies authorize front-line employees to take timely remedial measures at the site where service errors occur, instead of waiting for specialized personnel to handle customer complaints.

In the book "Service Marketing and Management" published in XX, gronroos proposed the concept of "enabling employees to have the ability to solve problems" and regarded it as a prerequisite for the success of authorization. Empowering front-line employees gives them a certain degree of autonomy in resolving customer issues. Authorization can increase employees' sense of responsibility, improve their initiative, enthusiasm and creativity in work, and solve customer problems quickly and timely.

In the entire service recovery process of an enterprise, organizational learning is extremely important. Enterprises should use organizational learning to comprehensively and continuously innovate in various aspects such as service methods, content, and scope. Enterprises should combine service recovery with organizational learning, instill the concept of "learning from service recovery" into all employees, and integrate this concept into the corporate culture.

The teacher once saw a magazine report that the Leeds Hotel is world-famous for its excellent service. The hotel employees can make unimaginable efforts to satisfy customers. For example, they provide employees with a "Service Satisfaction Scale" that lists frowning faces, unhappy faces and angry faces. When a customer complains to an employee, the employee can first assess the extent of the customer's dissatisfaction, then take out a discount coupon from the toolbox and give it to the customer to solve the bad situation.

For example, for a frowning customer, the employee can give him a lunch discount coupon to compensate for his dissatisfaction with the long wait; for an unhappy customer, the employee can give a movie ticket or a McDonald's lunch coupon; Customers with a good face can get a $20 discount coupon for Wal-Mart Department Store. These actions to make up for the service do not require the approval of the supervisor, and employees can choose the method of making up for the problem according to the severity of the problem.

For example, the teacher suggested that our travel agencies and the management of scenic spots can design a "Tourist Service Satisfaction Scale" instead of the original hard and cold table with a lot of text descriptions, which can only satisfy tourists. Think you're trying to deal with them - just list frowned faces, unhappy faces and angry faces on the list. Our tour guides and marketing staff are authorized to first assess the degree of tourist dissatisfaction, and then give them discount coupons, discount cards, tickets, or even a pair of promotional poker cards for scenic spots to solve the current terrible situation.

In short, the teacher hopes that through training and learning, you can truly do a good job in service recovery and truly improve customer satisfaction.