I often hear standardization and consistency used in the same sentence, and my response is to take a deep breath and first get to the bottom of the mission behind these qualities. Every organization needs both – but your mission and objectives determine how you implement. Many organizations are focused on high standardization and a consistently elevated customer experience. These aren’t in conflict, but need to be considered thoroughly to meet customers where they are, especially in omni-channel or consultative environments.
Standardization is critical in repeatable processes and how services are delivered to customers. We can standardize workflow and process steps, and with the use of systems, we can force certain elements to be identical. We can also measure how each element or the end-to-end is performed compared to the standard – identical is the goal.
Consistency is about coherence, whether a process or service is delivered with the same spirit and possibly in the same way each time. If our benchmark is delivering a great customer experience, ideally we want a standardized process to drive a consistent customer experience. But experience can be elusive, especially with complex products and services. With our clients we use a different take on consistency: when we want a consistent experience, we need to make sure that all teams serving clients come to work with critical thinking skills ready to go, along with the empowerment to do what is right for the customer. This may mean additional training, additional freedoms to deviate from norms, and especially the EQ and IQ to understand what a customer is asking for and how to satisfy the need in a way that matches the company’s values.
In order to deliver consistency in experience, process standardization is required along with a common understanding of the flow, end-to-end. We recently collaborated with a client interested in driving a fantastic customer experience and increasing understanding of the value the client was providing, which the client felt was not fully appreciated based on recent experiences. Our approach had 3 components:
· Understand the current culture and context of how the client delivered their service
· Drive process standardization through a clear understanding and flow of the work and careful attention to how the work is communicated to the client
· Focus on consistency of application of the process with the goal being an incredible client experience
In practice, what that means is that there is now a standardized process to follow in terms of flow, but individual team members have the freedom to adjust things as the client requires, with appropriate conversation and approvals. To get at consistency, standards around intervals in the process and process compliance are not set at perfect. Instead, they’re set at 80-90% with a goal of very high customer experience and repeat purchase performance.
The puts and takes are already paying off with this client, who reports markedly improved client feedback one month into implementation, as well as progress on repeat purchases and signing contracts. Their next challenge is to keep up the consistency of the customer experience moving forward, and we can’t wait to partner with them on that journey.
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Melissa Copeland is the Founder and Principal of Blue Orbit Consulting, a firm that specializes in effective strategies, targeted metrics and tailored programs to drive transformation in customer service and IT environments.