Customer Service: A John Lewis perspective. Victoria Simpson

Transcription

1 Customer Service: A John Lewis perspective Victoria Simpson 1

2 The Partnership s primary goal is not profit Principle 1 states: The Partnership s ultimate purpose is the happiness of all its members through their worthwhile and satisfying employment in a successful business. Because the Partnership is owned in trust for its members, they share the responsibilities of ownership as well as the rewards which come from it; profit, knowledge & power. 2

3 But the business is not a charity or a social enterprise.. just a pragmatic business taking great care to align employee, customer & business interests 3

4 What does great customer service mean? Great service is about figuring out what the customer values most of all and delivering it consistently Good service can be employee led, through personal service Good service can also be process led, right every time and with minimum touch points with the customer Truly great service combines both personal service and the right systems and processes designed to support the experience every time 4

5 Can it be done? Empowering employees requires flexibility Processes need to be followed, costs increase exponentially when processes are not robust and are not followed consistently Retailing is becoming more and more complex, more touch points with the customer mean more potential for failure 5

6 John Lewis service strategy is holistic Partner, customer and profit outcomes are founded on great service Leadership develops talented, happy Partners empowered & supported to deliver great service We drive sales and profit through consistently great, hassle-free & knowledgeable service We want to make our customers life partners 6

7 We strive to ensure we have the best team in UK retail Our recruitment processes value service skills Everyone in JL believes that Partners are the key to success Our No.1 priority is to provide what Partners need to fulfill their potential Leadership capability is key Employee satisfaction drives retention which in turn drives service due to knowledge and skills 7

8 Critical to outstanding service is the happiness of your employees 8

9 First Point Resolution (FPR) Achieving FPR is the aim of successful complaint handling, this requires a focus on the following: Developing confidence and skills Demonstrating empathy and care Building a broad knowledge of the business Encouraging ownership of problems Developing systems and processes that support action Creating measurement & targets that support the desired outcomes 9

10 A holistic approach to complaints management PRO ACTIVE MANAGEMENT COMPLAINT HANDLING EXPERTISE COMPLIANCE & CONSISTENCY Analysis of root causes and action to fix the problems Structures set up to incorporate insight into practice Universal skills to prevent and manage complaints Management willingness to get involved Common understanding of approach, processes & procedures Targets that encourage compliance VISIBILITY Reporting to relevant & empowered owners of service and contributors to the root causes Providing compelling reasons to act 10

11 The gift of feedback Customer feedback can be regarded as a gift if you are in a position to do something about it and to fix it for others Make it easy for customers to give feedback: face to face, comment cards, online, text, phone Encourage Partners to receive feedback by targeting them on quality and not quantity Allow Partners to feedback and shape the fixes to bigger problems: development project working parties trial new practices and include Partner review and recommend open channels of feedback and challenge, e.g. democratic forums, The Gazette 11

12 A case study: In store service improvement based on customer feedback Using Net Promoter Score (NPS) we determined the top drivers of recommendation amongst our target customers The top three drivers that are wholly owned by the stores now form their key performance indicators for service Continuous feedback through customer interviews (and other feedback channels) is shared weekly, monthly and quarterly to track progress against the top drivers Closed loop feedback is owned at department level to ensure customers are reassured we are acting on their comments Half yearly and annual feedback summaries indicate where external factors impact on the ability of stores to meet customer expectations 12

13 Creating solutions to drive improvements in service Cross industry collaboration groups, competitor intelligence, innovation seeking tours spark ideas to generate new solutions to customer feedback A best in class central development team work in conjunction with other central teams to develop service propositions that will work in our business Critical success factors include: Early and ongoing communication with affected and non-affected Partners Collaboration with end-user Partners throughout the development phase Strong and coordinated stakeholder/influencer management Review and recommend processes to be integrated into roll out plans 13