by Brianna Crandall — April 17, 2013—Global facilities services provider ISS has published a white paper in cooperation with human resources consulting firm Aspector discussing what role service has in organizations today and what constitutes excellent service. Delivering excellent service is important for all companies today, but most struggle to deliver basic services of a decent quality, says ISS. In this white paper, ISS and Aspector find that the companies who do deliver excellent service are superior in the areas of people, processes, leadership and culture.
According to Service Management 2.0—The Next Generation of Service, companies must be careful when designing their service delivery system. A great service management model is built on a thorough understanding of what creates value for the customer and how the organization can engage its employees in the delivery process. The four key elements in such a system are:
- Service Culture
- Employee Engagement
- Service Quality
- Customer Experience
According to the report, leadership and culture play a greater role in effective service organizations today than ever before. By creating a common vision, mission and values, the organization has a common goal towards which to steer. Value-based leadership is an effective way to make the values and vision become meaningful and relevant, when communicated and supported by first-line management and frontline employees.
People processes should be at the core of any service organization, according to the paper. The successful execution of the service delivery model reportedly requires the right people with the right competencies, all motivated and engaged to work towards a unified set of goals. Getting engaged employees requires a focus on the right human resources (HR) processes. But it also requires that employees have a higher purpose in their work other than what is simply dictated by the job profile, finds ISS. Attitude, behavior, commitment and ultimately quality are outcomes of having sound and robust people practices, and leadership is the enabler, concludes the report.
