A recent blog from Eric Herrenkohl, author of “Hiring A Players,” hit a nerve with me about a subject that I am very passionate about — Customer Service! He stated, “When it comes to creating a customer service culture, accountability without coaching breeds fear, and fearful employees will never provide world-class customer service.”
Developing a culture of providing world-class customer service has to be woven into the very core of an organization. In order to do that, everyone within an organization needs to understand what is expected of them to support the company’s mission. In other words, everyone in the organization has to “walk the talk.”
| When you think of the organizations that provide world-class customer service — Ritz-Carlton Hotels, Nordstrom, etc. — the hallmark of these organizations is consistence of service. This can only be accomplished by:
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Customer service is a core value of AH, and something we have built into all that we do in support of our client partners. All of the staff are clear on the importance of providing outstanding service to our clients. As a company we set the expectation from the moment we interview individuals for employment opportunities, and then reinforce what we expect on an ongoing basis.I am proud to say that we are the first Association Management Company in the world to receive our Customer Service Certification from the Customer Service Institute of America (CSIA). This puts us in an elite class of organizations that not only say they will deliver great customer service — but deliver on that promise!
In order to obtain our certification, we had to meet the criteria developed by the CSIA which included among several requirements, providing clear documentation on the level of service we expect of every individual within the company, and the final step was a representative from CSIA came onsite and conducted interviews with staff to ensure we were delivering on what we documented.
AH, living in the world of professional service companies, puts us in a class where our clients expect that they will receive the service they deserve. By obtaining third party validation of the world-class service we deliver, we are doing more than simply “walking the talk.”
