In our business there are not many ways to measure customer service because we do not deal directly with the people that use our services. In the B2C world, a customer or client is the person receiving the good or services. In this situation, it is a straight forward process to get a customer to rate a customer experience. For example, after a person stays in a hotel, the company can leave an evaluation form in the room and ask customers to rate the service they received during their stay. These forms can be left in the room for the maid to pick up or to be dropped off at the front desk. Simple, straight forward and effective.
In our business, it is not so easy. The HR department or government agency does not use our service directly. They may get test results quickly or be satisfied that the billing is accurate but be unaware of what is actually happening at the point of service.
So how do we get a customer service rating from our client (people receiving testing services)? More importantly, how do we use this information to influence the perceptions of decision makers within companies and agencies to appreciate the quality of our services and differentiate AccuDiagnostics from our competitors?
One tactic: When a client comes into our office for testing services and after the test is completed one of two things could happen.
1. The lab tech could ask the client if they have an email address. If they do, the lab tech could explain that we would like to send them an email survey on their experience during their visit.
2. If they do not have an email address, a prepaid postcard could be given out and the client asked to fill it out and drop it in the mail.
The lab tech would also explain that if the survey is completed they would be eligible for a drawing and the opportunity to win a weekend trip to Las Vegas, San Francisco or Catalina – or some other equally exotic an interesting place, all expenses paid. This would probably cost $500-800 for the entire year. This would be a CAMPA expense. The drawing would be for all locations in our region. After the drawing all clients notified of the winner.
The benefit of this type of program is the accumulation of a significant amount of data that can be compiled to show decision makers in companies and agencies the level of excellence of our testing services and that we are indeed a different breed of testing service. After all, what other company focuses on efficiency, fast turnaround of drug tests and making sure their employees or clients are treated so well.
If you have other ideas on how customer service can be measured, please go to the FranConnect Marketing Forum - Survey – Your Ideas and share your ideas there.
I am confident that if we start accumulating metrics on our customer service now, not only we will learn how to improve our operations directly from the clients that are using our services but we will be able to reward our lab techs that are delivering the service. CAMPA might consider an annual award given to the lab tech that is rated the highest in customer service survey rankings.
This recognition will enhance the amount of attention that is paid by each Lab Tech to clients receiving testing services throughout the region.
Most of all, we will learn how to influence the decision makers and have the data that will show how we are different to our target companies and agencies.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Making Customer Service Our Culture
In my last posting on this blog, I shared some thoughts on customer service. Advancing this discussion, I would like to discuss what CAMPA can do to begin to make sure customer service is not just lip service but becomes a vital part of our value proposition and a significant differentiator between AccuDiagnostics and the rest of the drug testing industry.
In the future, we do not want to compete exclusively on price. Yes, we will be able to offer competitive prices but we also want to create value added services and a great client experience. In my opinion, these factors are the biggest single differentiators we will have in the future. Also, more dollars will be added to the bottom line than from any other single product, program or advertising/marketing strategy. The Big Question: How do we execute on this vision?
If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it. This axiom applies to growing sales, rating employees or improving customer service. If we are going to measure customer service, who are we going to target for gathering measureable data to create metrics that can be reviewed and managed?
Since our client (the person being tested) is not the actual business, court or agency that makes the decision to send their employees, enrollees or participants in for testing, who do we get data from on our customer service? Let’s step back and look at this issue and ask the question, “How do we influence decision makers that will use our services now and in the future?” I want to partially answer this question with an experience that was shared with me when was doing my due diligence of AccuDiagnostics.
One of the franchisees back east shared this experience with me. His local competition had been in business for nearly 10 years without any significant competition. They basically had the market to themselves and acted like any company that did not have to provide anything but a basic level of service - and they didn’t.
When AccuDiagnostics opened up, as you would expect, they bent over backwards to take care of their clients (those receiving testing services). They made sure they and their staff talked to every client and made them feel at home. If they did a collection for a hair test, they did not take the entire sample from one spot on the head but in five or six different locations. Their competition never said “Boo” to their client and took the hair sample from a single spot on the head leaving a bald spot.
It did not take long before some of the agencies and courts who referred their clients for testing to get feedback on why they did not want to go to their competition to get tested and insisted on going to AccuDiagnostics. Why? Because of how they were treated at AccuDiagnostics lab vs. the competition. The clients were influencing the decision makers.
If we are going to differentiate ourselves in the market place, we need to focus on those elements of our value proposition that can be measured.
Our value proposition includes:
1. Unparalleled customer service
2. Treating clients with respect
3. The unqualified experts our field
4. No waiting
5. Convenient hours
6. Convenient locations
7. Faster results
8. On site testing.
9. Policy development
10. Cost savings
The above value propositions that are highlighted in bold and italized are ones that can be realistically measured. So, how do we measure these specific value propositions?
Stay tuned for my next blog posting to answer this question.
In the future, we do not want to compete exclusively on price. Yes, we will be able to offer competitive prices but we also want to create value added services and a great client experience. In my opinion, these factors are the biggest single differentiators we will have in the future. Also, more dollars will be added to the bottom line than from any other single product, program or advertising/marketing strategy. The Big Question: How do we execute on this vision?
If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it. This axiom applies to growing sales, rating employees or improving customer service. If we are going to measure customer service, who are we going to target for gathering measureable data to create metrics that can be reviewed and managed?
Since our client (the person being tested) is not the actual business, court or agency that makes the decision to send their employees, enrollees or participants in for testing, who do we get data from on our customer service? Let’s step back and look at this issue and ask the question, “How do we influence decision makers that will use our services now and in the future?” I want to partially answer this question with an experience that was shared with me when was doing my due diligence of AccuDiagnostics.
One of the franchisees back east shared this experience with me. His local competition had been in business for nearly 10 years without any significant competition. They basically had the market to themselves and acted like any company that did not have to provide anything but a basic level of service - and they didn’t.
When AccuDiagnostics opened up, as you would expect, they bent over backwards to take care of their clients (those receiving testing services). They made sure they and their staff talked to every client and made them feel at home. If they did a collection for a hair test, they did not take the entire sample from one spot on the head but in five or six different locations. Their competition never said “Boo” to their client and took the hair sample from a single spot on the head leaving a bald spot.
It did not take long before some of the agencies and courts who referred their clients for testing to get feedback on why they did not want to go to their competition to get tested and insisted on going to AccuDiagnostics. Why? Because of how they were treated at AccuDiagnostics lab vs. the competition. The clients were influencing the decision makers.
If we are going to differentiate ourselves in the market place, we need to focus on those elements of our value proposition that can be measured.
Our value proposition includes:
1. Unparalleled customer service
2. Treating clients with respect
3. The unqualified experts our field
4. No waiting
5. Convenient hours
6. Convenient locations
7. Faster results
8. On site testing.
9. Policy development
10. Cost savings
The above value propositions that are highlighted in bold and italized are ones that can be realistically measured. So, how do we measure these specific value propositions?
Stay tuned for my next blog posting to answer this question.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Customer Service-Core to our Philosophy?
There are very few companies around that will admit to not being customer service centric. However, the reality is that most customer service is predominately lip service. There is a pattern on how customer service evolves in a company and either becomes a part of the culture of the company or eventually disappears from the routine of the day to day operation of the business. This is not planned but because there is not any forethought given to this issue – it just happens.
New businesses just getting started always provide outstanding customer service. The main reason for this high level of customer service is there is a lot time to devote to paying attention to customers and their needs. More often than not, after a few months in business, the first sign of atrophy in customer service begins to appear. Business picks up and there is less time to spend with customers than there was when the business got started. This is compounded by the fact that there is no systematic methodology to train, reinforce and insure through measureable metrics that customer service is being delivered in a high quality manner. Management’s time is absorbed in other more important (or at least immediate) concerns. Over time customer service becomes a vague concept with the staff responsible for delivering it to customers.
Generally eroding customer service is ignored until there is a problem. This was dramatized last year with a story that was picked up by the national media and got significant traction to the embarrassment of the company creating enormous negative PR.
Mona Shaw walked into her local Comcast customer service center one day last summer swinging a claw hammer. The feisty 75-year old clobbered every piece of office equipment she could find before she stopped. “Now do I have your attention?” she demanded.
A few weeks earlier she had switched to Comcast’s phone-Internet-TV package, but after days of spotty service, a botched installation attempt, a missed service appointment and rampant indifference to her plight, she decided to visit the Comcast customer service office to talk to someone. She made no progress with the front line Customer Service Representative so she requested to see the Manager. After a two hour wait to see the Manager, she was told that he had gone home for the day. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. She went home got her claw hammer and headed back to Comcast to get someone’s attention. I’m sure the negative publicity generated from this avoidable incident significantly re-enforced many other of Comcast customer’s feelings about the company.
Recently, Jeff and Carol had a client so impressed with their experience during a collection that she unsolicitedly wrote a letter of recommendation. I am sure there are other such things going on in your locations. The question to ask ourselves now is “What is our customer service going to look like in a one, two or three years from now?” If we want it to stand out and become known for our unparalleled customer service, what do we have to do today to make that happen tomorrow?
Stay tuned for my thoughts on this in my next post on this blog.
New businesses just getting started always provide outstanding customer service. The main reason for this high level of customer service is there is a lot time to devote to paying attention to customers and their needs. More often than not, after a few months in business, the first sign of atrophy in customer service begins to appear. Business picks up and there is less time to spend with customers than there was when the business got started. This is compounded by the fact that there is no systematic methodology to train, reinforce and insure through measureable metrics that customer service is being delivered in a high quality manner. Management’s time is absorbed in other more important (or at least immediate) concerns. Over time customer service becomes a vague concept with the staff responsible for delivering it to customers.
Generally eroding customer service is ignored until there is a problem. This was dramatized last year with a story that was picked up by the national media and got significant traction to the embarrassment of the company creating enormous negative PR.
Mona Shaw walked into her local Comcast customer service center one day last summer swinging a claw hammer. The feisty 75-year old clobbered every piece of office equipment she could find before she stopped. “Now do I have your attention?” she demanded.
A few weeks earlier she had switched to Comcast’s phone-Internet-TV package, but after days of spotty service, a botched installation attempt, a missed service appointment and rampant indifference to her plight, she decided to visit the Comcast customer service office to talk to someone. She made no progress with the front line Customer Service Representative so she requested to see the Manager. After a two hour wait to see the Manager, she was told that he had gone home for the day. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. She went home got her claw hammer and headed back to Comcast to get someone’s attention. I’m sure the negative publicity generated from this avoidable incident significantly re-enforced many other of Comcast customer’s feelings about the company.
Recently, Jeff and Carol had a client so impressed with their experience during a collection that she unsolicitedly wrote a letter of recommendation. I am sure there are other such things going on in your locations. The question to ask ourselves now is “What is our customer service going to look like in a one, two or three years from now?” If we want it to stand out and become known for our unparalleled customer service, what do we have to do today to make that happen tomorrow?
Stay tuned for my thoughts on this in my next post on this blog.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Welcome to the New CAMPA News Blog
Doug Wins Accounts
In order to share information on daily/weekly basis, I have created this blog. The purpose and mission of this blog is to share information your support team becomes aware of that will be useful in growing your business. This blog does not take the place of the FranConnect or the forums on FranConnect because you will not be able to respond to specific postings. It does not replace the monthly CAMPA meetings which is a forum for regionally oriented projects. It does not replace any field support or sales support training. Most importantly, it does not replace picking up the phone and calling a partner franchisee to ask a question or to just chat.
What I learned today from Doug Kimball:
Doug signed up a couple of new accounts this week. One account was a cable company that he and Scott Jenkins called on a few weeks ago. It took several follow up calls to win the account. Persistence wins the day.
Another account Doug signed up was a paving contractor. This company is a subcontractor on a project which requires employees of any contractor to be drug tested. This lead came from the Yellow Pages. Doug was able to get into the yellow pages a week before his yellow page book closed in his area. He is listed under drug testing, DNA testing and employment screening.
Doug’s Lab Tech Gloria is a winner. He is very pleased with her attitude because she tackles anything that is new and needs to be figured out. Having confidence in your staff is critical because it enables an aggressive field sales effort.
Golden Nugget: As sales activity in the field increases, operations creep always emerges. This is a slow and gradual process that begins with small and insignificant operationally oriented tasks that take seem to take precedence over make sales calls. This insidious operations creep has a gravitational pull that grabs any effort to increase sales by dragging the salesperson into the black hole of operations. Sometimes the salesperson is never seen in the field selling again. Doug acknowledged the danger of operations creep and knows that it is up to him to stay out in the field and keep selling in order to win new accounts every week and eventually every day.
Betty, Doug’s better half, is working on getting out into the networking world.
In order to share information on daily/weekly basis, I have created this blog. The purpose and mission of this blog is to share information your support team becomes aware of that will be useful in growing your business. This blog does not take the place of the FranConnect or the forums on FranConnect because you will not be able to respond to specific postings. It does not replace the monthly CAMPA meetings which is a forum for regionally oriented projects. It does not replace any field support or sales support training. Most importantly, it does not replace picking up the phone and calling a partner franchisee to ask a question or to just chat.
What I learned today from Doug Kimball:
Doug signed up a couple of new accounts this week. One account was a cable company that he and Scott Jenkins called on a few weeks ago. It took several follow up calls to win the account. Persistence wins the day.
Another account Doug signed up was a paving contractor. This company is a subcontractor on a project which requires employees of any contractor to be drug tested. This lead came from the Yellow Pages. Doug was able to get into the yellow pages a week before his yellow page book closed in his area. He is listed under drug testing, DNA testing and employment screening.
Doug’s Lab Tech Gloria is a winner. He is very pleased with her attitude because she tackles anything that is new and needs to be figured out. Having confidence in your staff is critical because it enables an aggressive field sales effort.
Golden Nugget: As sales activity in the field increases, operations creep always emerges. This is a slow and gradual process that begins with small and insignificant operationally oriented tasks that take seem to take precedence over make sales calls. This insidious operations creep has a gravitational pull that grabs any effort to increase sales by dragging the salesperson into the black hole of operations. Sometimes the salesperson is never seen in the field selling again. Doug acknowledged the danger of operations creep and knows that it is up to him to stay out in the field and keep selling in order to win new accounts every week and eventually every day.
Betty, Doug’s better half, is working on getting out into the networking world.
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