My new pair of Rockport shoes were even more comfortable and I looked forward to many years of work, fun and travel. But recently after about 9 months of ownership I noticed some unusual wear that led to a thread sticking out of the side of them signalling an issue that questioned their longevity like my past experiences with the brand.

Luckily, a visit to my local Rockport store proved to solve my issue. Without much fanfare I was given a new pair. No need for a receipt thankfully since that puppy is long gone by now. No long list of questions or need to show my ID. The friendly person behind the counter asked my name, apoligized for the problem and  took care of the issue and giving me a brand spanking new pair of shoes.

This is the way service is meant to be. Thank you Rockport and great jobs empowering your employees and developing policies that deliver world class customer experiences.

Empowerment = better customer service and a better bottom line and from past leadership experience, happier and more productive employees.

One service company we worked with had about 300 trained technicians in the field. Each technician was measured by average revenue per customer, overall revenue and quality of service. Each technician was provided the same training and were under the same incentive based compensation program. We were brought on to figure out why the top technicians had an average ticket of $400 while the worst had an average ticket of $125. What we found and implemented is a valuable lesson for any company.

Before BizElevate

Initially our job was to determine the current metrics across the company. The company had most of the necessary reporting in place that allowed for the ongoing measuring of these key metrics. We helped the company to refine their methods and determined the following.

Revenue:
Per Customer: $203
Per Technician Weekly: $1,926

Customer Service:
Average Technician Ranking: 84%

After BizElevate

After working with the company for about 3 months, we were able to acheive the following results.

Revenue:
Per Customer: $278
Per Technician Weekly: $3,141

Customer Service:
Average Technician Ranking: 93%

How We Did It

While I can’t share every aspect of what we did, the core of the improvements were accomplished in the following steps. Evaluation of top technicians, process development, testing, introduction and training, buy-in and compliance, recognition and reinforcement. We also had some testing phases where we used small groups to evaluate the processes we developed to validate the potential results of a system wide introduction as well as to understand what areas still needed improvement.

Evaluation:

The first thing we did was evaluate and study the best technicians in the system that helped us to understand what they did differently and what characteristics these top performers possessed.

Process:

We took the ideas that the best performing technicians used and created a process map that was integrated into teh service invoice used by technicians for each service call.

Introduction, Training & Buy-In:

After a thorough testing phase where we refined processes, we were ready to introduce and train all service technicians on the new service systems. Since this was a significant change from how technicians were used to working, we spent a lot of time on how to get buy-in. Just throwing a new process or policy without these steps will typically lead to adoption failure. Combined with a well thought out introduction and buy-in strategy coupled with thorough training, our launch was a success.

Recognition

Part of our buy-in strategy was a very strong recognition program. Recognition can come in several flavors that may include additional money, prizes (trips, products, services) or public recognition within the company through newsletters, emails, award ceremonies, parties or other forms. The latter can be the most powerful motivator since recognition amongst peers is a highly valued by most employees. The company featured in this blog used a combination of these ideas.

Reinforcement

Elevating performance should not be about short term improvements but long term gains that are sustainable. Just like going on a diet doesn’t work for long term weight loss, a lifestyle or culture change within a company is needed to sustain and support long term improvements. Things that become part of your culture will require very little time to manage the enforcement side of a process. These changes become engrained into the fiber of your corporate culture.

Is It That Easy?

Obviously I skipped over some of the steps in the process that are quite important but this gives you a high level view of how you can elevate the performance of a group of employees all performing the same tasks.