Lead While Serving: An Integrated Approach to Managing Your Stakeholders and Customers

Lead While Serving: An integrated approach to managing your stakeholders and customers

By Stuart SW Lim

© Copyright 2015

Stuart SW Lim

Smashwords Edition

All Rights Reserved

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to dedicate this E-book to the teams I have worked with over the years, delivering millions of meals, creating thousand hours of happiness and ensuring miles of safe journeys for the thousands of people we served.

Special Thanks to Jerry Weaver and the late Ian White who trusted my leadership for being my friends and mentors. Thanks to Ben Goudy who coached me when I was wet behind the ears in the technical business of building maintenance.

To my family who understood when the calls came on weekends and our plans had to be changed.

Thank you.

Stu

CONTENTS

Introduction

PREDICTIVE SYSTEM SETS THE PLATFORM

Establishing a Strong Brand

Getting the Right Support and Structure

Securing Premium Information

Behaving Like a Partner

Audits: You Can Expect what You Inspect

The Mystery Buyer Program is another Proactive Measure

PREVENTIVE ENGAGEMENTS ALIGN EXPECTATIONS,

ELIMINATE SURPRISES

Engaging Customers and Collaborators in Service Design

Getting the Influencers on Your Side

Analyzing Your Service Cycle for Weak Links

Managing Customer Expectations through SLAs

Use Benchmarking Data to Convince

Work with Focus Groups and Informal Leaders

Proactive and Regular Updates

Use Positive Language

CORRECTIVE ACTIONS TO QUICKLY RECOVER FROM A

SERVICE FAILURE AND REGAIN CUSTOMER CONFIDENCE

Face H.E.A.T. and Keep Cool

Understand How Best to Communicate with your Customers

The Service Recovery Process

Don’t be Self-Centered, Make People Accountable

Closure through Recognitions

INTRODUCTION

You will not get overloaded with voluminous dissection of business school terms and theories, nor will you be overwhelmed with complex behavioral studies and assumptions. This e- book is designed to provide you a compact and workable approach to secure proactive, first mover advantages when trying to maintain your sanity and control while serving demanding stakeholders and customers. The integrated approach proposed will give you a comprehensive roadmap of processes and programs, to address the stakeholder and customer management concerns of a service provider, you. It is offers a systemic way to make your harried career as a service provider tenable.

All of us who work anywhere have internal stakeholders and customers. Whether we are in Purchasing, Human Resources, Finance or Facilities, we provide services to internal customers. We are all service providers. The stakeholders are the sponsors for our services. They are part of the management group that agrees to our annual budget which funds our resources. The internal customers are the end users of our services such as training classes (HR), quality air (Facilities) or the reimbursement system (Finance).

Our peer departments actually ‘buy’ our services. Our budget and spending are usually allocated back to them as the cost of doing business. The usual allocation quantum is usually based on the headcount end users, but there may be other mutually agreed accounting methods such as pay per use or real estate. We are measured and rated at least, like any other services provider. My experience is that we are rated even more critically as our stakeholders and customers do not have the freedom of choice. You are the internal service provider group, they do not have the luxury of dropping you and walk across the street for another option. Not