I’m sure many of you have been glued to the Olympics in recent weeks, cheering on and celebrating our nation’s top athletes – and it’s of course been great to see Team GB doing so well.
No doubt, these athletes are under pressure to perform on the biggest stage, with the world watching, and positively represent their home countries.
As one of the world’s greatest spectacles – not just in terms of sport but also for bringing together the global and the local – the Olympics is also an opportunity to unite people from all over the world, to emphasise shared values, and to deliver a lasting experience. Something that we are in short supply of, so taking these opportunities to find reasons to unite behind a common goal is important.
Reflecting on the positive impact an event like the Olympics can have, there are some parallels between the values of the games – respect, striving for excellence, recognising peak performance, demonstrating the commitment and energy taken to achieve and a sense of collectedness and community – that could help businesses become more service-led.
Applying the Olympic values to our ways of working
At the heart of Olympism is the pursuit of excellence – as it should be for business, too. However, yet another decline in service standards across the UK, as revealed by our latest UK Customer Satisfaction Index, should tell us to set our sights higher and prioritise service excellence if we are to see an improvement – in business and in our economy.
Looking at our data from previous years, it becomes clear that at the core of the organisations that perform consistently well in customer satisfaction is an unwavering desire to be the best. Not just in terms of outputs and delivering for customers but also by putting in the yards to improve – investing in service, training and development, and attracting and nurturing talented people.
These organisations also track their standards and utilise reliable data to ensure they are measuring the right things. They benchmark against not just their peers and direct competitors but against the best-performing businesses across all sectors.
The second value we can apply to service is respect. Whether it’s acknowledging differing consumer demands and catering to the needs of vulnerable customers or acting in the interest of broader society and the environment, respect is synonymous with service excellence.
As customers, we can also play a role in upholding basic respect in service engagements. While the Institute is committed to better-protecting service workers by raising awareness through its Service with Respect campaign, consumers can help by simply remembering that it’s another human on the other end of the phone or behind the till.
Last is the celebration of friendship, community, and building that connection to something greater than the individual.
When it comes to service in business, for me, this translates to cooperation and support between organisations and across sectors whereby experiences, examples of best practice, insights and connections are shared for common benefit.
If organisations were to do so more frequently, this would be a welcome step towards building the Service Nation, in which businesses and regulators could work together, no matter their product or sector, to improve service standards and the service experience – in turn, bolstering the bottom line and boosting the economy.
At a time when our society is under intense pressure, it is incumbent on all of us – as individuals and organisations – to come together for the greater good.
Building an Olympic legacy: strengthening communities by planning for the long term
As with the Olympics, staying true to our values and getting all this right comes with clear benefits, not least the sense of belonging and togetherness, which is critical to a positive culture that drives results and enhances employee retention.
And it’s important to remember that these moments of success – both for athletes and the organisers – are borne out of years of unglamorous and largely unseen hard work and focus.
And more than the short-term, the Olympics is about legacy – leaving behind lasting achievement and delivering enduring benefits to local infrastructure and economies.
Businesses can and should think in the same way. By prioritising service excellence today, organisations can prepare for the future through building a solid reputation underpinned by customer service, growing a loyal community of customers with a focus on customer lifetime value, and establishing trust amongst all stakeholders – which ultimately boosts the country’s economic performance in both the immediate and long-term.
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