“The levels of service that employees are expected to provide have to be measured constantly against changing customer demands and the competitive marketplace. We constantly survey our customers and make sure that we understand what services are required and adapt accordingly. You have to do a tremendous amount of research in understanding what your customer profile is.” Bill Fatt, CEO, Fairmont Hotels Customer service levels vary from one organisation to the other. Last year, some friends organized a surprise birthday party at Citronellas in Sugar Beach Hotel for me; At the entrance, the security guard greeted me by my name, I was served a delicious cocktail as I entered the restaurant, had personalized menu cards, was attended to by smiling and relaxed waiters and ate an exquisite 5-course meal amidst a beautifully kept garden. The whole experience lasted nearly four hours and I went home mesmerised forgetting that I was one year older.

Last week, to calm down my famished kids, I went through Kentucky Drive Thru in Jumbo Phoenix, was relieved to find a swift queue and got burger meals for the whole family. The whole experience took me four minutes. Which of these two organizations has a higher level of customer service? To answer, one must be sure to compare like with like. In each case, the service was up to the standard.

Customer service is about satisfying and exceeding customer expectations, which vary greatly from organisation to organisation. Getting a grasp of what customer service means to your organisation is a critical first step. How do you define your Key Performance Indicators? Simply by asking your customers. Informal or formal surveys can help gather valuable information about them. Experience has taught me that customers will hardly ever be unreasonable.

Also, there are international norms worth taking note of. For instance, for telephone service, it is recommended to answer the phone within three rings equaling 15 seconds. Moreover, be careful of having approapriate services for different segments of customers. HSBC has understood that by being one of the first banks to have Asset Vantage service designed to cater for the needs of high-income earners. Similarly, McDonalds has launched the Dial-A-Mac Express. The FAIL group has surveyed the market and intelligently launched Chantefrais.

Over time, customers’ needs and values change and, as such, the customer experience must change to satisfy them. Those leading organisations that fail to stay in touch simply die – think of PanAm, Wang or C&A.

To sustain consistency of delivery is paramount. To achieve the latter, your business must significantly expand its measurement systems, anticipating and measuring customer needs. You must produce accurate, ongoing assessments of your capacity to fulfil the evolving brand promise. Sophisticated customer research allows you to uncover what customers really value, determine your performance gaps and then track your progress in closing them. This ensures that you stay ahead of changing customer needs and can shape your offer to appeal to emerging customer groups. More basically, it involves really listening to the customer on a regular basis.

<B>Mystery shopping exercise for this week:

STAR OF THE WEEK:</B>

The wonderful job done by those men and women cleaning our beaches and roads. Too often, we tend to take for granted the fact that Mauritius has become much cleaner over the last decade and this is largely due to private contractors. These people help keep our environment clean and they deserve our utmost respect for the generally impeccable service they offer.

<B>CABBAGE OF THE WEEK:</B>

I have not had any bad experience this week but destiny has it that I am usually the one who gets ATMs which says, “This machine is temporarily out of service!!!” Can anyone invent ATMs that need reloading once a year?