Creating a Best-in-Class Customer Service Organization

1. Creating a Best-in-Class Customer Service Organization John P. Willi MBA, CPCM, C.P.M., A.P.P., CMRP Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA

2. Creating a Best-in-Class Customer Service Organization Agenda Traditional vs Best-in-Class Customer Service Assessing your Current Organization Keys to building a Best-in-Class Customer Service Organization

3. Creating a Best-in-Class Customer Service Organization What is a Customer? • A customeris a person or organization that depends on a service provider’s performance to achieve success in his/her/its own effort(s). • Why people buy? NEED SOLUTION BENEFIT! + =

4. Creating a Best-in-Class Customer Service Organization 1. Traditional vs Best-in-Class Customer Service • Traditional Purchasing Organizations • Tactical in nature - Aim to deliver the right goods/services at the right time at the right price. • Customers often fail to see or are not convinced of the benefits of involving purchasers in their acquisition processes and engage in maverick buying. • Best-in-Class Organizations • Understand their role as professional resources/consultants: focus on results and creating value to products and processes by contributing expertise in strategic sourcing, negotiations, and technology. • Provide constant dialog with their internal customers, bringing them new ideas and opportunities from the supply marketplace, and involving key suppliers in this joint value creation effort. • Identifies its customers, understands their needs, and delivers best –in-class service that meets or exceeds customer expectations.

5. Creating a Best-in-Class Customer Service Organization 2. Assessing your Current Organization

6. Creating a Best-in-Class Customer Service Organization 2. Assessing your Current Organization (cont’d)

7. Creating a Best-in-Class Customer Service Organization 2. Assessing your Current Organization (cont’d) Next Steps: 1. Answer all the questions. Check “Yes” only if the answer is unequivocal. If the answer is “sometimes” or even “most of the time”, mark “No”. 2. Prioritize the top ten “No’s” in their order of importance. 3. Develop an action plan to aggressively address your organization’s biggest weakness in meeting customer expectations.

8. Creating a Best-in-Class Customer Service Organization 3. Keys to Building a Best-in-Class Customer Service Organization • Determine who your customers are (existing and potential) • 2. Develop Customer Marketing Materials • 3. Assign the Right People for Customer Interaction • 4. Build “Outstanding” Customer Service Levels • Streamline the Ordering Process • Schedule Regular Customer Interactions • 7. Market the Organization

9. Creating a Best-in-Class Customer Service Organization 1. Determine Who Your Customers Are (Existing and Potential) • Perform an enterprise-wide expenditure analysis – Data Mining Activity • • Interview senior stakeholders • Visit and spend time with customers at their locations • Know the customers needs and why they have them • Happy customers means continued business and referrals • The more you help the more opportunity you will receive • Be prepared to provide answers/results

10. Creating a Best-in-Class Customer Service Organization 2. Develop Customer Marketing Materials • Create department brochures (electronic and/or hard copy and social media) • Post and share a roles & responsibility matrix • What are customers looking for? • Determine what you provide to customers? • Value Creation • Results • Total Cost Reduction • Service Quality • Relationship Management • Risk Management • Contract Management

11. Creating a Best-in-Class Customer Service Organization 3. Assigning the Right People for Customer Interaction • • Match personalities • • Train or hire the right people • • Cross-train job functions • • Manage relationships at multiple levels of interaction • • Make relationship management part of employee performance reviews • Motivate and empower your employees to deliver outstanding service • Recognize, reward, and celebrate exceptional performance

12. Creating a Best-in-Class Customer Service Organization 4. Build "Outstanding“ Customer Service Levels • • Listen to your customers, incorporate feedback, and listen again • Create a service “brand” • - What happens when someone says, Purchasing? • Continuously perform assessments to determine gaps between customer expectations and perceptions of the service received. • -Empathy - Providing caring and individualized attention to the customer • -Assurance - Ability to convey trust and confidence • Responsiveness - Providing the customer prompt services • - Reliability - Consistency of performance and dependability • Avoid Losing a Customer!

13. Creating a Best-in-Class Customer Service Organization How to Lose a Customer • • Treat your customer as if they are one of many. • • Make the customer feel inferior. • Say “I don’t know.” • • Don’t give your customer your full attention. • Don’t solve the customers’ problem. • • Let the customer know you are too busy to help them. • Have the customer do your work. • Decide yourself what’s important to the customer. • • Ignore your competition (…Not using procurement). • Don’t respond in a timely manner. • Don’t follow-up after making a commitment. • • Tell the customer it’s not your job. • • Tell the customer they’ll have to calm down. • Make sure your voice sounds bored and uninterested. • • Blame or accuse the customer. • The words, “you’ll have to”. • • Over promise and under deliver.

14. Creating a Best-in-Class Customer Service Organization 5. Streamline the Ordering Process • Simplify the requisitioning process • Create “super-user” technology forums • Utilize eProcurement, PCard, and other automation tools (i.e., supplier catalog punch-outs) • Provide visibility to order status (i.e., cycle times, backorders, stock-outs, etc.) • Create innovative solutions (i.e., store fronts, consignment, RFID, etc.) • Engage them in ERP upgrades • Post on intranet – “How to get things done”

15. Creating a Best-in-Class Customer Service Organization 6. Schedule Regular Customer Interactions • • Understand the customer’s “prior” experiences • • Seek to understand the customers short/long term needs • • Meet key stakeholders on a regular basis • • Include customers in cross-functional teams • Utilize “evidence-based”data • Be highly visible – “out of sight, out of mind”

16. Creating a Best-in-Class Customer Service Organization 7. Market the Organization • • Post “success stories” on your intranet and use social media • • Include articles in your internal organizations’ publications • • Make your organization a welcomed/respected partner • Understand who or what is your competition • Offer internal service guarantees to customers • Include customers in every step of the procurement process • Communicate staff credentials and awards to customers

17. Creating a Best-in-Class Customer Service Organization Customer Service – The “Win-Win” Proposition • Team Members • Are challenged and supported and can live up to their potential, receiving appropriate recognition and rewards. • Customers • Their needs are met and their expectations exceeded by valued support for and contributions to their own performance. • The Company • Employees in a variety of functions are cooperating creatively and involving supplier resources to enhance strategy, mission, vision, competitiveness and bottom-line performance.

18. Creating a Best-in-Class Customer Service Organization Contact Information John Willi john_willi@dfci.harvard.edu 617-632-2637