indeed very easy to say things , to promise them , and to indicate they will be done , but where the actual work lies , is in delivering these promises . The writing may be on the proverbial wall , beautifully crafted writing to boot , but the tipping point is converting concept to reality , paper to practice and creation to actualization .
The fact that all kinds of organizations have made the important effort to patch these together and to rally behind their launches counts for a lot in terms of awareness and sensitivity that customer promises and commitments to customers , are an important and strategic thing to do .
The efforts to deliver on the brand promises captured in the customer service charters can be significantly augmented by converting customers into feedback channels , who continuously agitate for change . With numerous auditors on the ground in the name of customers , brands will be put to book and have their ear towards the customer pulse point at all times . This can only be achieved if there is a strategic intent to consistently communicate the charter and its promise to the customer . Beyond it being prominently displayed , customer education must happen all round .
Staff at all levels in the institution need to play a part in the charter development , seeing as it is that the bottom-up approach is the best and surest way to get ownership and buy-in . Teams need to be aware of the interlinked departmental processes leading up to the promises captured in the charter . A cascading exercise is needed to ensure that everyone is on the same page and in full understanding of their individual and collective roles towards service delivery . Internal customers need to be ardent and passionate proponents of the charter .
Charters need to be dissociated from being ‘ boardroom ’ and ‘ leadership ’ agenda items that are obligatory , but as the true representation of the staff ’ s promises to both internal and external customers . Just as with any other strategic item that needs to be internalized , every effort needs to be made to ensure that the charters are spoken about often and discussed and deliberated at staff gatherings . Be they during the onboarding process for new staff , appraisals for ongoing staff , routine departmental meetings , town halls and any other communication platform of choice .
It is in repetitiveness that culture roots itself and the more staff hear and interact with the customer service charters , the more the opportunities for delivery reinforcement . The more staff believe in the service charter importance , the more they will endeavor to actualize the promises therein .
The major stakeholder in the customer service charter process is the customer for whom this initiative has been put in place . It then follows that for successful delivery , the voice of the customer must be sought continuously , and comparative analysis conducted based on the outcome of the feedback process versus the charter promises .
A customer service charter needs to be an almost live document that is permanently under scrutiny . The process involved to amend and edit it , needs to be very nimble and devoid of red tape . Using customer feedback as a good source of inputs for charter adjustments will ensure that adaptation to ongoing change is achieved . The feedback needs to come from both internal and external customers using both formal and informal methodologies , to ensure that service delivery levels are adequately captured for comparisons . Given that the service charter is a fluid document , continuous measurement is key because in line with the famous words of William Thompson the great physicist 1824-1907 “ If you can not measure it , you can not improve it .” The monitoring and evaluation framework for the service charters needs to be simple and easy to implement . Assessments should be regularly conducted and the outcome of this exercise in terms of gap analysis reporting , needs to be shared with internal stakeholders to spur change . The simpler the exercise , the more sustainable in terms of internal understanding of improvements required and stirring the impetus to do so willingly .
Each institution should develop the framework by which to audit their customer service charters , and it would add value to have industry specific ones to enable different players within the same sector benchmark for continual improvement . Institutions should also not shy away from publishing the improvements made to their service charters and how far they have come in a bid to effectively serve customers , as this will serve to inspire positive sentiment . Customers are always seeking to understand the impact and value of the feedback they keep being solicited to give .
Brand promises encapsulated in customer service charters provide brands with the opportunity to entrench a culture of focusing on delivering results for the customer and not only for the brand . It shifts the mindset from one of a navel gazing inward looking vision , to one that is anchored on holistic customer experience excellence . Publishing a customer service charter is a brave and courageous thing to do and customers are looking for brands that can stand up to be counted in the race to effectively ‘ put their money where their mouth is ’. The public sector currently runs with this as a matter of obligation and the main challenge is to move from coercion to inspiration , and for other independent brands take up the mantle and not only transform from charter developers to successful implementers .
Carolyne Gathuru is the founder and director of strategy at LifeSkills Consulting . She has several years of experience in customer experience strategy development and training . You can commune with her on this or related issues via mail at : CGathuru @ life-skills . co . ke .