It's About Service Excellence

Paul Jones, CIO City of West Palm Beach at City of West Palm Beach, FL

Paul Jones, CIO City of West Palm Beach at City of West Palm Beach, FL

To measure the true value that is earned using technology, we must look beyond the technical aspects and benefits, and ultimately determine if the users are effectively using it. It is important to understand that IT management encompasses more than just “Information” and “Technology”; it is as much about service excellence and adopting a strong business-based management platform. If you take a holistic view of an IT department, it becomes apparent that IT is a service organization, in the purest sense. What we provide are the tools and equipment for people to successfully complete their jobs, and it is important that we keep service excellence at the forefront of everything we do.

Without a doubt, this is an overly simplistic view of IT, as we know IT leadership is a multi-faceted, very challenging endeavor. We are constantly balancing goals such as rapid delivery without sacrificing quality, implementing security measures that minimize impact on the end user, providing innovation and maintenance, prioritizing demands with limited budgets, and so on. The list can be endless.

As IT Leaders, we must be adept in many roles, and we are required to be specialists in a myriad of areas, including business law, vendor relations, project management, performance management, governance, security, finance, purchasing, risk management, inventory management, operations, and service excellence. However, these roles are not just indicative of the high level services we must provide our users, they also ensure our users have the tools, equipment, guidance, support, maintenance, infrastructure, and a safe and secure working environment to perform their jobs.

IT, in the purest sense, is a service-driven organization, and therefore we must build a culture of service excellence and incorporate customer service skills in all activities. This ranges from design, testing, and deployment, through support and project management. It is important to understand that IT does not just exist because of technology; IT exists to support and facilitate the use and users of technology. Therefore, building a culture based on providing service excellence at all levels is a required element for success.

Some basic considerations are:

Treating the End User with Respect - The users must feel valued, leaving no room for the “IT is smarter than you” attitude in customer support roles. In the true sense, if we treat our users how we would want to be treated, our goal for user satisfaction would be better serviced.

Eliminate Technical Jargon - There are multiple languages but one common goal. No one, especially senior leadership, enjoys a conversation, or wants to be provided with information, he or she can’t understand. Speak in plain English and leave the technical jargon for peer group conversations. Establishing a common language predicated on the desired business outcome is required.

“What is not measured cannot be managed. It is important to establish performance measurements based on customer service processes and business outcomes, not just component performance.”

Establish a “Design first, fix once” Mentality - Our successes can easily become failures if we’re not careful to provide complete and thorough service. Too many times, challenging but successful installations or issue resolutions turn negative because some minor issue was overlooked. There is no excuse for callbacks, as they are easily eliminated with the implementation of checklists, user reviews, good communications, and enforcement of a policy of non-acceptance.

Service Excellence Performance Measures – What is not measured cannot be managed. It is important to establish performance measurements based on customer service processes and business outcomes, not just component performance. This is accomplished by establishing key performance indicators (KPIs) based on business-driven success factors and customer-service metrics such as the number of callbacks, response times, and customer satisfaction surveys.

Communication - Communication is a key element in every aspect of IT management. Appropriate communication must take place at all levels of the organization and be tailored to reach all stakeholders. Consistent, targeted communication designed to keep all stakeholders updated while also setting user expectations is a must for establishing strong customer relationships and building positive business value.

Follow-up, Then Follow-up Again – The most important aspect of follow-up is meeting all agreed requirements and satisfying user expectations. We must ensure that a follow-up occurs if there is a change, an incident, or a service request. Users should be kept updated with the most recent information as good customer service demands this level of communication. Members of our IT team are frequently asked about how they would feel if someone commits to following up with them but then never does, or if they request service and never receive updates. Good communication starts with establishing a relationship with the user.

Continual Service Improvement (CSI) - Ensuring long term success requires establishing a culture of CSI. Anything and everything that is to be done must be measured and continually evaluated at key points along the way. One of the biggest challenges in making this happen is the fact that not only must we establish solid metrics based on goals and objectives for all activities, but time must be allotted to continually monitor and evaluate progress against these metrics and a change process must be implemented. CSI must become part of the IT culture and ingrained throughout the IT organization.

There are many other management practices that need to be implemented, as the above is just a starting point and only scratches the surface of creating service excellence. The key is to build a solid foundation centered on service excellence, thus creating value-driven delivery to the user, as well as to the organization. Ultimately, we are bringing about a change in culture, and this is never easy. However, this change is no longer a “Nice-ty” – it is a necessity that is being demanded at all levels of the organization