The Client-Centric Organization

Many companies talk a big game when it comes to putting clients first and improving client satisfaction. But talk is cheap. Action and results are what count. Since coming to ServiceChannel, I’ve been really impressed with the natural way in which everyone on our team is responsive to client needs and does everything they can to exceed client expectations. We don’t always succeed, but we are always striving to improve. And we do it without all the corporate sloganeering.

I think ServiceChannel’s spirit of client responsiveness comes directly from our founders, Steven Gottfried and Serge Lubensky, who grew up (to the extent they have grown up at all!) in the contractor world, where great service makes all the difference. We’ve also watched our facilities management clients handle (internal and external) customers in a tough retail environment. We’ve been up to that challenge as well.

A while back, I had the opportunity to meet Jim Clifton, Chairman of the famous polling organization Gallup, who had some ideas on how we can better meet the challenges of our retail environment. As you may know, Gallup practically spawned a whole industry around measuring employee satisfaction with one of their employee’s books, Now Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham. Less well known is Gallup’s work around client satisfaction. Gallup scientists have found that you can measure client engagement for clients in any industry and any country by asking them just 11 questions, which are as follows (I inserted our company name as an example):

1. Taking into account all the products and services you receive from them, how satisfied are you with ServiceChannel overall?
2. How likely are you to continue to do business with ServiceChannel?
3. How likely are you to recommend ServiceChannel to a friend or associate?
4. Is ServiceChannel a name I can always trust?
5. Does ServiceChannel always deliver on what they promise?
6. Does ServiceChannel always treat me fairly?
7. If a problem arises, can I always count on ServiceChannel to reach a fair and satisfactory resolution?
8. Can I feel proud to be a ServiceChannel client?
9. Does ServiceChannel always treat me with respect?
10. Is ServiceChannel the perfect company/product for people like me?
11. Can I imagine a world without ServiceChannel?

The first few questions are quite standard, but questions 6-11 have a “softer,” “touchy-feely” aspect. They are all great questions to keep in mind in every interaction we have with our clients: both facilities operators and contractors. As we grow, our challenge is maintaining our ability to drive your answers to these questions to be in the positive. We might start measuring client satisfaction more scientifically – we won’t do much sloganeering about it – but mainly we are just going to try to take actions consistent with these principles.