Up Your Service; Up Your Spirit!

How would you usually rate a service that you received from say a waiter/waitress of a restaurant, cashier of the supermarket etc? I believed you will usually rate them as "Good", "Excellence", "so-so" or "terrible" etc... These are common adjectives associated with services. However, there is a problem here, the subjectivity of these terms. As all these adjectives are very subject to interpretation and thus one person's "good" might be another person's "so-so" and vice versa. That's where the common language of service come into picture

I've just attended a service quality training course provided by Mr Ron Kaufman over the weekend called "Stepping Up Your Service!". I must say that it's an very interesting and participative training program, it should be a fundamental training course for any company who want to inject the service DNA in their company culture. Also, with the highly energetic and explosive style of Mr Ron Kaufman, I guarantee you will enjoy every minute of it. If you like to sneak preview his delivery style, just type "Ron kaufman" in youtube and there is a list of his training video clips for your viewing pleasure. He is also an author of a few service related books, some of them are:
 


Just a brief highlights of what I've learned:

6 Levels of Service (This is the common language that I am talking about):

• Unbelievable (Best: Wow factor)
• Surprising (Something special)
• Desired (what the customer prefer)
• Expected (Average)
• Basic (Bare minimum)
• Criminal (Worst: below minimum)

The concept of Levels Of Service is a downwards escalator whereby we need to constantly stepping up the levels. Or else, the service that deemed Unbelievable today might be just surprising or even desired in 3 or 6 months' time.

The concept of Perception Points, The Big Pictures and the Service Styles (Direction, Production, Education, Motivation and Inspiration) also play an important part of the overall service delivery.

So why is the topic of service appear in the inspirational blog like this? I do agree and believe that whenever we are receiving an unbelievable service, we will feel upbeat and happy and positive energy will be spreading around. It is a chain reaction and the people around you will feel upbeat and happy as well in no time.

Also, service is a two ways process (yes, you hear it correctly), we (as a customer) can influence the level of service that we received by practicing some "service" back to the server e.g. by addressing them by name whenever possible (waiter/waitress at the restaurant usually do wear name-tag on their uniform) and treat them as a "profession" and not "servant"! So, everyone play a part in ensuring providing/receiving unbelievable service.

I've learned quite a lot from the course and viewed that this common language of Levels of Service is applicable to all kind of business (online or offline, service-oriented or non-service oriented industries) and even for non-businesses.
 
Just curious, basing on these 6 levels of service, how would you rate my blog? (you can rate it from the angle of my writing style, the graphics/photos used, user interface etc...). Feel free to rate it and be honest! ;-)

Cheers!

Copyright, Ron Kaufman. Used with permission. Ron Kaufman is the world’s leading educator and motivator for uplifting customer service and building service cultures. He is author of the Uplifting Service and founder of UP! Your Service. For free customer service training articles and video, visit UpYourService.com