The Learning Organisation
The undeniable – but often ignored – link between training and service excellence.
Before progressing through this article, it is important to acknowledge this simple point: All of the world’s best service businesses spend time, effort and resources on training. They know that employees do not automatically know how to – or do – the right thing for customers. Training is a critical step in significantly raising the odds the employees will have the right attitude and know how to serve customers.
In my last piece I introduced readers to the “Service-Profit Chain”. I received a number of calls and emails from interested readers – which suggests that the ideas contained in the service-profit chain resonated with QSR readers…. This article picks up on an important ‘link’ in this chain.
A quick refresh. The Service-Profit Chain is a concept devised by a group of Harvard academics who after studying some of the world’s greatest service businesses, proposed a conceptual chain which seemed to operate in most great service companies. The chain suggests that profit should NOT be the main focus in a service business, but rather the focus should be on employees first and customers second which will cascade into financial benefits. When a business provides the right work environment, a training culture, the right people and strong, consistent managers and leaders, customers will be naturally looked after and the financial benefits will follow (there are of course other important assumptions about product, business model, location etc.).
FIGURE 1 - The Service Profit Chain
(by Heskett, J. L., Jones, T., Loveman, G., Sasser Jr., E., & Schlesinger, L. (1994). Putting the service profit chain to work. Harvard Business Review, 72(2), 164-174.)
Although logical, we find that few businesses apply the principles of this chain effectively.
In this article, I focus on a critical part from the left side of the chain (called “Internal Service Quality”), the aspect which drives employee effectiveness, retention and motivation. Here I refer to training. Training in general is one of those activities that is easy to say but hard to do, particularly for small businesses where time and resources are most significantly limited.
But I ask, how can you not engage in an activity which feeds and nurtures the very ingredient necessary to ensure that your customers are having a great experience and likely to return as a result? My experience is that small business owners want to train but feel overwhelmed about how to do it and how to fit it into tight rosters and tight budgets.
It is interesting to reflect on the word training, which has its origins from the Middle English word of the 1500s, “traynyn” – which literally means to pull or drag. Interesting in the context of training as we know it today – to pull or drag a person toward new knowledge, understanding and skills (to get them onto the right track!).
Training is vital for so many reasons, some of them less obvious than others. For example, we know today that ‘engaged’ employees are far more likely to act in the organisation’s best interest and to care. We also know that one of the important drivers of higher levels of employee engagement is the amount of time and effort an organisation spends on employee training. Investing in employees through training makes employees feel valued and improves motivation (particularly Gen Y!). And when employees treat customers well by using proper customer service skills, they are more likely to be treated well in return. These factors can help to increase employee loyalty and reduce turnover, thereby lowering costs.
Nearly all great service organisations make ‘organisational learning’ a part of company culture. Organisational learning means that learning and training becomes an embedded activity in a business. In such a business, employees expect to learn regularly, and they value the opportunity.
There is enormous evidence that service excellence relies heavily on the learning organization principle – the consistently great service does not happen by accident! (it might happen by accident on occasion but it will never be engrained in the organisation).
It is helpful to think about training needs across a number of levels. At the most basic, training should take place at a minimum of these two levels:
1. The company – it’s culture, values and vision. This should be for every employee and needs to be done from the very beginning and followed up regularly. This covers aspects such as the founding principles of the business, its purpose, discussion about the the focus on customers, why service is so important, the concepts of customer lifetime value and the like.
2. Specific skills and knowledge. Typical in food service businesses, such as introduction / awareness to new products and services. In the context of customer service training, you can focus on understanding customer needs, conveying a positive attitude, emotional intelligence, as well as the specific steps of service which comprise the ‘perfect’ customer experience.
In my experience, specific skills and knowledge training is done to some extent by many businesses, but rarely is the broad company level training done or done very well.
Bill Marriott, CEO of Marriott Corporation says, “You start with good people, you train and motivate them, and you give them an opportunity to advance, it is only then that your organization succeeds…”
So I ask you to reflect, and ask yourself what you are proactively doing to train staff, to instil the vision of your company into everyone and to create engaged, interested, cared for employees?
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about this article or wish to discuss any aspects of it further.
In service,
David Solnet
Dr David Solnet is a Senior Lecturer in Service Management at the University of Queensland’s School of Tourism, and co-owns Shift Directions, a consulting and training company specialising in service excellence and Balanced Scorecard implementations. Prior to his academic career, David enjoyed an 18-year career in the restaurant and club industries where he held senior management roles in both the United States and Australia. He has authored many academic, peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and currently partners with a number of Australian businesses helping create a service culture through improved employee attitudes and through a range of programs designed to learn from and listen to customers.
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.shiftdirections.com.au
