Commits to meeting the expectations and requirements of internal and external stakeholders; acts with stakeholders in mind; values importance of providing high-quality customer service.
Describe a time when you made meeting and exceeding customer requirements a driving force behind your activities and decisions. Who were the customers and how did you clarify the needs? To what extent did you involve others? What were the results?
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Share a time when you actively gathered information to measure stakeholder satisfaction. How did you gather the information? How did you use it to improve customer service?
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Describe specific methods you’ve used to build relationships and gain the trust and respect of key stakeholders.
Learning on your own: These self-development remedies will help you build your skill(s).
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Keep in touch: Keep in touch in various ways: phone, face-to-face, mail, e-mail, etc. Ask customers what they need, want, and expect.
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Be ready for the good news and the bad news: Listen and be responsive to legitimate criticism; make a note of the rest. Resist getting defensive and overwhelmed.
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Anticipate customer needs: Meet on a regular basis to develop rapport, relationship, and understanding. Anticipate what they need before they do, and be ready to fill the gap.
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Put yourself in their shoes: Gain perspective from the other side of the fence. Respond to communication in a timely way, and deliver what you promise.
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Arrange and design what you do considering your customers’ point of view: Design and manage your interaction from them in, not from you out.
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Create an environment of experimentation and learning: Drive for continuous improvement.
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Look at your own personal work habits: Design your behavior for effectiveness and efficiency. There is always room for improvement.
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Think of yourself as a dissatisfied customer: Do unto others as you want them to do unto you. Study ways your performance is less than stellar, and try to eliminate the cause of at least half of them.
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Think of yourself as a satisfied customer: Consider the ways you perform with excellence, and reinforce or institutionalize them. Study what others do well and incorporate their methods.
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Play detective: Study work flows and processes around you (airports, malls, restaurants). Note changes you would make or good points you see, and incorporate those principles into your activities.
Learning from develop-in-place assignments: These part-time develop-in-place assignments will help you build your skill(s).
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Do a customer satisfaction survey.
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Represent your organization at a conference, convention, or workshop.
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Launch a new procedure, process, or curriculum.
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Troubleshoot a performance or quality problem.
Learning more from your plan: These additional remedies will help make this development plan more effective for you.
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Learning to learn better:
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Monitor yourself more closely and get off your autopilot. Think freshly about each situation before acting.
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Pre-sell an idea to a key stakeholder. Identify those whose support you need. Collect information needed to be persuasive and try to pre-sell your solutions.
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Sell something to a tough group or audience. Understand opposing viewpoints; find common ground. Prepare yourself with your best data and arguments.
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Learning from experience, feedback, and other people:
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Use multiple models. Select role models of towering strengths (or glaring weaknesses). Learn from characteristics rather than from the whole person.
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Learn from those in authority. Distance yourself from your feelings, and analyze what they do and do not do well. Choose to imitate the successful behavior.
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Get feedback from those in authority. Communicate that you are open to constructive criticism and are willing to work on issues they view as important.
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Be open to feedback. Ask for examples and detail; listen, take notes, and keep a journal.
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Learning from courses:
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Take a course to brush up on or refresh your job skills.
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Take a course designed to offer feedback, such as how to develop negotiating skills or influence people.
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Take a survey course designed to give a general overview of an area of interest.
Bell, Chip R. and Billijack R Bell. Magnetic Service. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 2003.
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Blackwell, Roger and Kristina Stephan. Customers Rule! Why the E-Commerce Honeymoon is Over and Where Winning Businesses Go From Here. New York: Crown Business Publishing, 2001.
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Branham, F. Leigh. Keeping the People Who Keep You in Business. New York: AMACOM, 2001.
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Brock, Richard. Inside the Minds: Profitable Customer Relationships: The Keys to Maximizing Acquisitions, Retention, and Loyalty. Boston: Aspatore Books, 2003.
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Buckingham, Richard A. Customer Once, Client Forever: 12 Tools for Building Lifetime Business Relationships. New York: Kiplinger Books, 2001.
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Griffin, Jill and Michael W. Lowenstein. Customer Winback. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Inc., 2001.
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Gutek, Barbara A. and Theresa Welsh. The Brave New Service Strategy. New York: AMACOM, 2000.
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Hall, Stacey and Jan Brogniez. Attracting Perfect Customers: The Power of Strategic Synchronicity. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 2001.
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Heskett, James L., W. Earl Sasser, Jr., and Leonard A. Schlesinger. The Service Profit Chain: How Leading Companies Link Profit and Growth to Loyalty, Satisfaction, and Value. New York: The Free Press, 1997.
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Johnson, Michael D. and Anders Gustafsson. Improving Customer Satisfaction, Loyalty and Profit. New York: Jossey-Bass, Inc., 2000.
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Keller, Ed and Jon Berry. The Influentials. New York: The Free Press, 2003.
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Nykamp, Melinda. The Customer Differential. New York: AMACOM, 2001.
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Prahalad, C.K. and Venkat Ramaswamy. The Future of Competition: Co-Creating Unique Value with Customers. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2004.
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Reichheld, Frederick, Loyalty Rules. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2001.
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Reichheld, Frederick F. with Thomas Teal. The Loyalty Effect: The Hidden Force Behind Growth, Profits and Lasting Value. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2001.
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Seybold, Patricia B., Ronni T. Marshak and Jeffrey M. Lewis. The Customer Revolution. New York: Crown Business Publishing, 2001.
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Sobel, Andrew. Making Rain: The Secrets of Building Lifelong Client Loyalty. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2003.
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Solomon, Michael R. Conquering Consumerspace. New York: AMACOM, 2003.
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Solomon, Robert. The Art of Client Service. Chicago, IL: Dearborn Financial Publishing, 2003.
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Tate, Rick and Josh Stroup. The Service Pro: Creating Better, Faster, and Different Customer Experiences. Amherst, MA: HRD Press, 2003.
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Thompson, Harvey. The Customer-Centered Enterprise. New York; McGraw-Hill, Inc., 2000.
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Zaltman, Gerald. How Customers Think. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2003.
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Zemke, Ron and Chip R. Bell. Service Magic: The Art of Amazing Your Customers. Chicago, IL: Dearborn Financial Publishing, 2003.
