Service Culture

Dear Business Leader,

Are you poised for service this week?

Believe it or not, regardless of your industry, you are in the service business. And you need to prepare your team for this as you begin the new week.

🔔 Who is your customer or patient?

🔔 What do they need?

🔔 How are you setup to meet this need?

🔔 What arrangement do you have in place for the support they will need? What kind of customer service setup do you have? Do you expect your patients or customers to meet with live representatives or do you have a contact center in place to handle interactions with them?

🔔 What channels have you provided through which customers can engage with you?

These are just some of the questions you need to consider as you move into another week of serving your customers or patients.

Please give careful attention to them. Your business growth depends on it.

Have a productive week ahead!

Dear Healthcare Leader,

Here are some vital stats you need to consider:

💡 60% of customer interactions take place online (Statista)

💡 Almost 80% of customers still prefer to engage an organization through the phone (Calabrio)

💡 57% of customers still prefer to engage through digital channels (Salesforce)

These, and a lot more stats, imply one thing: you need to have a functioning contact centre in place to manage your customer interactions. Without this in place, you are neglecting a huge chunk of interactions and engagement from your customers.

With more patients seeking information through digital channels, it is crucial to provide a means for both your patients and enquirers to engage with you on at least the most common ones. This is not about being trendy; your patient experience depends on it. Your growth and the sustainability of your business beyond 2024 also requires it.

A contact centre is also a vital tool for effectively smoothening your operations, especially through management of appointments and information.

So, how are you implementing this for your facility?

For further guidance, please feel free to reach out to me.

As a provider, why do you need to bother about customer service (or patient care)? Isn't it enough to focus on ensuring that the right diagnosis is made and the correct medication is prescribed?

Many facilities will have this mindset, and it is not unreasonable, considering the challenges they already face in trying to deliver the right treatment outcomes.

But below are the reasons why you should take customer service more seriously within your healthcare practice.

1. Improved customer loyalty

Customers will keep going to where they are treated well. Many patients would rather go to a hospital several kilometres away, even though there is a comparable one on their street. Why? Because of the quality of service and care received.

2. Strong brand reputation

A genuine orientation towards customers will enhance your reputation as a healthcare facility. And this has a lot of benefits, especially in winning you even more customers who trust you to meet their needs.

3. Employee satisfaction

Where customers feel appreciated and properly served, even your employees will benefit from the positive atmosphere it generates. The customers are more pleasant to interact with and your team members do not have to go through so much stress to get their challenges addressed. It creates a thriving work environment for everyone leading to better employee retention.

4. Referrals

Satisfied customers are your best marketers. They will broadcast your facility to the world!

5. Increased profit

And, of course, when a patient is pleased with the service received in your facility, they won't mind paying more for the treatment they are given. To their minds, a higher price for excellent service is not a bad deal. And this is simply good for the long term health of your business.

Thank God It's Monday!

Who is a Servant leader?

'It is someone who...refuses to use people as means to an end - who always asks, "Am I building people up, or am I building myself up and merely using those around me?"

A servant leader creates an atmosphere of "transparency" in which all relevant information is shared openly, so that everyone has an opportunity to make responsible decisions.

Finally, a servant leader lets go of command-and-control methods, and creates a culture that allows everyone to grow into leaders, stretching their own God-given talents.'

(from 'Total Truth' by Nancy Pearcey, p. 375)

Have a flourishing week ahead!

As we wrap up another work week, it is helpful to ponder: What exactly is your purpose?

Is it about making money?
Is it about building a career?
Is it about making a name for yourself?

While there are valid points to all the above, they are inadequate as one's ultimate purpose.

That is because they all focus on YOU.

The ultimate purpose of work—any work—is to gladly be of service to others. Without this, you will not find fulfillment.

So, take a moment to reflect:

• Whom do I serve?
• How well am I serving them?
• How can I do better?

This is what a customer orientation is about, whether your customers are internal (colleagues in other departments) or external (patients and customers).

Review your approach. Read something over the weekend. Have a discussion with another professional, and see what you can learn to become better at what you do.

Have a fruitful day ahead.

Dear Leader,

Seek to be a person of conviction and not a slave to trends.

Trends are fleeting; convictions are lasting.

Trends may attract followers; convictions birth disciples.

Trends are tracked by social media; convictions are etched in history.

Visionary companies are built on convictions; they are not driven by trends.

A worthy career is a journey on the wheels of conviction. Trends are bystanders on the way.

Great leaders have convictions and defy trends. But in so doing, they often shape history and birth new trends. So why follow trends when you can create one?

A sense of ownership is a pre-requisite for problem-solving in customer service. What I mean is this: if your representatives do not have a sense of ownership in their roles, they will not be moved to go all out to solve a customer's problem. And you won't be making your team as formidable as they could be.

Great customer service is not produced through a rule book. For years, employees at Nordstrom, the legendary American retailer well respected for its customer service culture, were expected to follow only one central rule in all they did:

❗ "Use good judgment in all situations" ❗

Exceptional customer service is the result of a thousand little initiatives taken by representatives in serving customers, many of which may not be by the books. These corporate servants make these moves because they feel responsible. A sense of ownership has been nurtured in them.

What can your business do to cultivate this? How can you nurture a sense of ownership in your customer service team?

I will offer 3 non-negotiables.

✳ Set a clear organizational ethos (purpose, mission, vision, values, etc.). Your staff need to know what the organization is about. It needs to be clear and we need to believe you. Don't tell us you value integrity when we don't trust the CFO.

✳ Have clear job descriptions. Your agents need to know EXACTLY what is expected of them. What does their job entail? Are they in sales or in customer service? Or, like many organizations do, are they performing sales, account management, and customer service functions, yet are being paid as customer service representatives? At the end of the day, what are the metrics that really matter to the business?

✳ Empower them. Give them the freedom to use their heads. One of the tragedies of the modern work world is that people are hired for their abilities but are prevented from engaging them. The only reason you need people on the frontlines is for them to fight with the enemy! How then would a business have a set of frontline agents who have to escalate 80% of complaints? Your CS team should be empowered (with a budget, tools, access to information) to resolve at least 90% of complaints, including refunds, without escalating to anyone. It's simple: if you don't trust them, don't hire them.

When these are in place, then we can resume the discussion.

Leadership is built on love and nurtured by humility.

Leadership aims for excellence.

Leadership can ride on a position but is not tied to it.

Leadership is the gift of oneself for the good of many.

Leadership is a tree inviting multitudes to sit under its shade.

Leadership exalts others.

True leadership is the need of the hour.

YOUR CONTACT CENTRE NEEDS AN OMNICHANNEL STRATEGY

'Omnichannel' is a term which has emerged in the business world since the early 2000s. In retail and marketing, it is usually identified as the drive to make a customer's experience or engagement across different channels seamless. Whether the customer checks out your business online, on social media, or via a visit to your store down the road, you want them to have the same quality and ease of interaction.

This omnichannel way of thinking has spread to several fields, including banking, government and healthcare. The goal is the convenience of the customer, the citizen, or the patient, who is at the centre of all these interactions. In a highly competitive world, you want to hold on tightly to your audience. And what do you do? You design the interaction to suit their preference and not the other way round. You want to ensure that they can transact with you or engage your product or service in the way and via the channel that suits them per time, without disruption.

This mindset has even become crucial in contact centres because of the need to provide several channels for customers to interact with a brand Most contact centres today have transitioned from a single channel point (calls only) to a multi-channel unit. So, they are aware of the need to provide multiple channels.

However, it is not enough to simply maintain several channels. It is essential to integrate the different channels such that interactions made via live chat can be concluded via mail or transactions that commenced through email can be wrapped up with a call and perhaps with a further comment on social media. And these transitions are expected to be seamless. Information shared over phone is expected to still be available to the agent who is responding over chat. One of the most common frustrations of a customer is having to relate information repeatedly to different representatives. And you can only solve this when you have the technology in place to adequately blend the various channels together.

Beyond the technology, it is important to prepare your team to adapt to this reality. It is an orientation to work which anticipates that customers will be making use of different channels in engaging the brand. And they need to be flexible and agile enough to consider what was going on with that customer on other channels before the current interaction. You should also develop processes with this reality in mind.

Such preparedness is essential if we are going to provide customers with a truly omnichannel experience. After all, every business exists for the customer and we must serve them on their own terms.

True, an omnichannel experience can be challenging to create; it is simply not business as usual. But any business that adopts such a way of thinking and puts the right tools and training in place, will have an edge over its competition.

Thank God it's Monday!

Dear Leader,

Love your people.

What normally comes to mind when you hear the word 'leader'?

Results. Targets. Process. Policy.

We often think of as getting people to deliver results. We imagine that the leader is one who achieves results through his team of employees. And yes, there is a place for results. No leader can or should be satisfied if his team is not meeting their KPIs or achieving their targets.

But it does not end with that.

People thrive when they sense they are valued and loved. As children, we desire this in our relations with our parents. Every child develops well in an atmosphere of love, respect and appreciation. And it does not go away when we become working adults. We generally perform better in an environment where tolerance, care, respect and dignity are valued.

As the leadership expert Dr. Emmanuel Toye Sobande wrote in his BusinessDay opinion piece of 23rd August, 2024:

"People are wired to respond positively to care and empathy. When leaders demonstrate love through actions that show they genuinely care about their team members' wellbeing, it triggers a sense of safety and trust. This emotional security is crucial for creativity, collaboration and sustained effort."

And this is simply at work.

So, dear leader, love your people. They need it to flourish. And your business needs it to thrive.

Service is not tied to a particular unit or function we call 'Customer service'.

Service is not limited to non-profit organizations or religious ministries.

Service is not restricted to pro bono work or the help we render to the less fortunate.

Your work as an accountant is Service.

Your work for the top retail or manufacturing organizations is Service.

Your strategic, analytical or creative task for which you receive a salary is Service.

See it as such.

You are not merely building a career; you are meeting the needs of others, whether they are external or internal customers.

You are not merely crunching numbers or forecasting demand or managing risks. Your role is helping humans to flourish in God's world.

There is a purpose to it: the glory of God and the good of your neighbour, whether seen or unseen.

Engage in it with the skill of a professional and the heart of a servant. For that is how work was meant to be.