If the word "excellence" is to be applicable in the future, it
requires wholesale redefinition. Perhaps: "Excellent firms don't believe in excellence--only in constant improvement and constant change." That is, excellent firms of tomorrow will cherish impermanence--and thrive on chaos. --Tom Peters
As Tom points out in the quote above, Excellence is a state of mind and a journey and not a destination.
For “Perform Businesses,” those firms that depend on the daily performance of their people, instilling a culture of service excellence is paramount to both near-term profitability and long-term value and wealth creation.
Here are a few thoughts on developing and improving your service excellence principles, programs, and practices:
- Apply for “Best Places To Work”, Inc 5000, or your local Business Journal awards; it will inspire your employees while simultaneously forcing managers to improve processes.
- Create Constituency Alignment by improving role clarity, every single job description's definition of success, alignment of variable incentives and compentsation with corporate objectives. Top performing businesses constantly reinforce their service philosophy via the following mediums:
- Define Communications Rhythms at team, function, location, and corporate level
- daily pre-shift meeting
- quarterly departmental meetings (which are required, not optional)
- Internal bulletin boards, posters, and/or Intranets
- Wallet cards that display the service philosophy
- Define what “Service Excellence” means to your firm – ask employees! Then create Principles, Programs, and Practices to bridge the gap between executives and employees.
- Instill Accountability from front-line to the boardroom by using dashboards and simple scorecards to help employees keep track of the organization's success or failure in driving excellence. Measurement is what helps establish credibility in the process.
- Gather Intelligence on what rivals, alternatives, and substitutes are doing to create service excellence.
“Excellence.
Always.
If Not Excellence, What?
If Not Excellence Now, When?”
--Tom Peters