Former General Electric CEO, Jack Welch, when asked what he did, he replied that he developed people. Welch understood that the organizational or cultural environment reflects people development and this in turns affect the bottom line. The following questions may help to quickly assess the customer service within your workplace. This easy assessment could be re-administered every 6 months to ensure a consistent movement towards developing a high performance, exceptional customer service organization.

1. Do all my employees know what is expected of them?

2. Do all my employees have the most current and necessary equipment needed to perform their expected tasks?

3. Does the environment including all policies, allow all employees the opportunity to work at the highest level of performance?

4. On a weekly basis, has each employee either through verbal or written communication received recognition or praise for good work?

5. Does management including supervisors encourage the development of all employees?

6. Does the organization support a mentoring or coaching structure for all employees?

7. Are there opportunities for employees to (a) voice their opinion and (b) are opinions shared and valued?

8. Are the vision mission and value statements in alignment with the outcomes produced by the employees?

9. Do all employees have the same, positive attitude and commitment to performing quality work?

10. Are new employees referred from existing employees?

11. Are performance appraisals scheduled on a six-month basis with a focus on improvement through both personal and professional goal setting?

12. Are there opportunities for all employees to grow and learn?

13. Please identify any behaviors that you feel promote this organization or that may hinder the growth of this organization.

This assessment tool should be used as a survey with all responses to be anonymous. Surveys should be tabulated by a trusted, independent third party. The initial survey should stand as a benchmark with a second survey distributed within the following 6 months. All results should be publicized and a call for volunteers to help understand the result of the survey specific to customer service.

Remember, customers can quickly observe employees both front line customer service representatives and management whom are walking the talk. Exceptional customer service happens when repeat customers (loyal) not only continue to spend money, but they bring others to spend money as well.

Copyright 2005(c) Leanne Hoagland-Smith, M.S.