Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s project of national renewal, coined at this week’s Labour Party Conference, made me reflect further on what this means for us as consumers, businesses and our wider society. Not least, because this programme is driven by a rediscovered emphasis on service. In the Prime Minister’s own words: “Not a return to old ways, nor a new path entirely. But a rediscovery, in the full glare of the future, of who we are.”
To me, service and rediscovery go hand in hand. We are a service nation – a reality which today often feels forgotten. If we are to restore the UK to higher ground and a brighter future, both socially and economically, rediscovering the fundamentals of good service will be essential.
Taking responsibility by leading through service
By reaffirming the government’s intention to be one of service – and by recognising that “service is the responsibility and opportunity of power”, the Prime Minister this week set a clear precedent for businesses to follow.
In business – much like in government – service excellence comes from the top. It is the responsibility of boards and leaders to prioritise service and to use measures that go beyond simple, transactional ones to capture service performance and embed a culture of service excellence throughout their organisations.
There needs to be customer service expertise in the makeup of the board, particularly non-execs who not only have a responsibility to oversee service performance but also have genuine customer service experience and understanding.
Once the right board members are in place, they need to incorporate comprehensive service metrics into regular review cycles, avoiding reliance on easily gamed, single metrics. It’s vital that boards are collecting, analysing, and acting on a wider basket of measures which encompasses the whole service proposition.
Finally – and crucially – boards need to hold each other to account for delivering service excellence, including, where practical, linking remuneration (from board to frontline) to the service performance outcomes, which lead to long-term business success.
It is the responsibility of business leaders to ensure that a service culture and attitude permeates all levels of their organisation, providing regular and up-to-date training for their people, while investing in the right technology to enhance the customer experience.
Perhaps most important is engaging with and listening to colleagues to understand their perspectives better. This allows businesses to empower staff, not least to help protect them from the issues of abuse I highlighted last week, but also to engage and motivate them in their day-to-day roles. According to our research, empowering staff and enacting changes to processes based on their concerns is seen by the majority of employees as the most effective way to improve customer service standards.
Reaping the rewards
As we look to the next few weeks and months and the long-awaited budget as business leaders, we must seize the opportunity to lead through service – not just as a matter of principle, but to ensure our organisations can grow and contribute more to the economy.
There is a clear link between customer satisfaction and a company’s bottom line. Our research shows that companies with better-than-average customer satisfaction ratings see an average EBITDA of 20.3%, in stark contrast to 10.5% for those who perform poorly. This alone should be enough for boards to sit up and take notice.
In short, emphasising service in leadership empowers and enables staff to deliver excellent standards of service and allows businesses to realise the benefits of higher levels of customer satisfaction on the bottom line – a combination that can quickly breathe life back into our service economy.
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