U of T Customer Service Symposium

1. creating customer service competencies
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO ISCHOOL SYMPOSIUM
Customer Service in Libraries: Upping our Game
andrea cecchetto
manager, learning & growth
markham public library

2. we already provide excellent service.

3. job description
competencies recruitment
service design
evaluation
learning&development
strategy/outcomes
service brand
customer experience

4. part one: what is your strategy?

5. advocates
repeat customers
Potential customers
commitment
interest
awareness
advocacy
customers experience

6. Fill in the blank
[your service goal]: We accomplish X through excellent customer service

7. part two: what is your service brand?
(hint: how do you want your customers to feel)

9. Approachable absurd affable amiable academic anxious adaptable accessible
authentic budget business-like bodacious community-oriented courteous
creative cultured caring cost-effective casual competent cutting-edge
condescending confrontational conservative conscientious directive dynamic
diverse dependable effective efficient expert energetic educative exceptional
engaging easy fun formal flexible family friendly fluid functional genuine
gregarious glamorous happy hip high-quality holistic haughty highfalutin high-
touch innovative inclusive indispensible intuitive interesting informative
ingenious kind loving likeable memorable neurotic nurturing natural open
professional posh playful progressive prompt proscriptive process-oriented
people-oriented patient quaint quiet radical reactive responsive remote risk-
taking risk-adverse respectful relationship-based relaxed restorative superior
stressful stress-free seamless special small-town trust timely transactional
transformational tired traditional urbane unique vivacious well-designed
welcoming warm weird wonderful youthful zesty …
a service brand is not your product. it is about your
customers’ experience .

10. Fill in the blank
[your service goal]: we accomplish X through excellent customer service
[your service brand]: our service is best described as…

11. part three: what competencies do staff need?
(hint: describe the traits and qualities of your ideal library staff)

12. Competencies v. Skills v. Qualifications v. Behaviours
COMPETENCIES
- a natural ability/orientation
- “in-born”
e.g. team-oriented
SKILLS
- a learned ability
- acquired through training and
experience
e.g. ability to work effectively on a team
QUALIFICATIONS
- a quality or accomplishment that
makes someone suitable for an
activity
- acquired through education or
experience or training
e.g. one year experience working in
a team environment
BEHAVIOUR
- outward expression of
competencies or attitudes
- observable, measurable
e.g. organizes weekly team
meetings to review project
status

13. Fill in the blank
[your service goal]: we accomplish … through excellent customer service
[your service brand]: our service is best described as…
[staff competencies]: in order to provide excellent service, our staff are…
[staff skills]: … and capable of …

14. part four: how do I measure staff competencies?
(hint: you can’t. but you can evaluate performance.)

15. translate competencies into behaviours.
e.g. “Uses good judgment” looks like resolves customer issues effectively
“Communicates effectively” looks like uses clear and appropriate
language when communicating with customers
“Is friendly” looks like greets customers when the enter the library

16. Fill in the blanks
[your service goal]: we accomplish … through excellent customer service
[your service brand]: our service is best described as…
[staff competencies]: in order to provide excellent service, our staff are…
[staff skills]: … and capable of …
[evaluation]: which looks like…

17. creating a service culture
1. evaluate behaviours [observe service in action]
2. regular feedback
3. fail together
4. focus on Internal Service too
5. talk (and listen) about service all the time with everyone
6. involve staff in evaluating service
7. TALK/”talk” to your customers
8. share results
9. recognize all the customer service leaders
10. question everything: what would our customer think?
11. develop T-People
BONUS: Hire for service competencies, train for service skills

18. questions/discussion

19. designing service initiatives
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO ISCHOOL SYMPOSIUM
Customer Service in Libraries: Upping our Game
andrea cecchetto
manager, learning & growth
markham public library

20. hello again. let’s talk about design thinking

21. we already provide good service. but do we provide good
experience?
we spend a lot of time and care planning our collections. but
our service (staff) is 80% of our budgets. how much time and
care do we spend planning service?
better service = more active members = more advocates.

22. specific
generic
low loyalty high loyaltyPOTENTIAL VALUE
CUSTOMERNEED
experience
service
product
commodity

23. specific
generic
low loyalty high loyaltyPOTENTIAL VALUE
CUSTOMERNEED
commodity
product
service
experience*
*also a comment to mpl about
our bibilocommons app

24. all this happened
mpl staff told management what excellent service looks like
staff created a customer service promise/
it replaced the crappy and unfriendly rules of conduct
staff wanted to make better service decisions/
so we replaced policies with good judgment
then they rewrote all our procedures/
they keep revising procedures all the time based on customer feedback
we developed some training with Ryerson/
everyone took it
we measured the impact
all our service metrics went up at least a full percentage point (7.5
became 8.5 etc)
we won an award.

25. principles of design thinking
1. user-centred
2. co-creative
3. sequenced
4. evidencing
5. holistic
“to value your customer you need to spend
times understanding the interactions they
have with your service. that means two
things: first viewing your service from
customer eyes. second, designing in such a
way that customers receive consistent
experiences over time that they consider
valuable”
- ??

26. user-centred: challenge our thinking about users
we think user, we think: adult, children, teens… but is this helpful?
case study
my customer is a man born in 1948. He is British. He is
successful and very wealthy. He is married and has
two children.

29. co-created: who are your stakeholders?
how can they be involved in the design process?

30. sequenced: customers experience service in order. consider the “before,
during, after” of a service.

31. evidencing: perfect example

32. holistic: consider al your touchpoints
what’s the relationship between people+people, people+things, etc

33. the design process: explore, create, reflect, implement

34. don't flinch.

35. one approach to service initiative design
A
T
O
N
E

36. A is for actors
who is involved in delivering the service?
who needs to collaborate to design the service?
e.g. iPod – collaboration between payment, engineering, marketing
these people are your project team

37. T is for touch-points
what’s the service, start to finish? [sequence]
what are the customers’ points of access?
have we considered all our service channels?
this will tell you the scope of the work you need to do

38. O is for offering
what do we stand for? what are our core values?
what is the function/price/utility of what we offer?
what is the promise we make to the customer?
what we think we offer and what the customer thinks we offer is not
always the same thing.

39. N is for need
what do your customers want?
what need exists in the community that this service will meet?
what are the expressed needs/what are the latent needs?
the best way to find out what customers want is to ask them

40. E is for experience
how will customers describe their experience?
what will they remember about your service?
do customers like/dislike the service?
how does your customer feel about you?

41. how to AT-ONE
A
N
O
T
E
1. Workshop
these lenses
2. choose the most
promising approaches
3. develop a
holistic concept*
actors
touch-points
offerings
needs
experience
customer service
revolution project
• which looks like:
a) establish a common base of knowledge
b) explore options (divergence)
c) Synthesize, rank and select option (convergence)

42. you try
let’s plan a dinner party for our friends.
A – who will help us with the dinner?
T – what are all the touch-points between the meal and our friends?
O – what will we serve our friends?
N – what should our guests expect from the evening?
E – what will our friends remember about our dinner party?

43. other design tools
stakeholder maps
service safari
shadowing
customer journey maps
5 whys
cultural probes
Etc

44. questions/discussion

45. staff engagement
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO ISCHOOL SYMPOSIUM
Customer Service in Libraries: Upping our Game
andrea cecchetto
manager, learning & growth
markham public library

46. a new revolution is happening.

47. customer experience strategy at City of Markham
a tall order…
• internal services are a big deal
• excellent service cannot be one size fits all
• perception of government (staff)
• perception of government (public)
• engineers
… and also…
• centuries of collective experience
• in the community, and everywhere
• endless passion for service

48. why customer service in the public service?
better service
positive experience
improved trust
increased engagement
Increased civic participation
Stronger Democracy

49. staff have the solutions.
this reminds me of…shrimp.

51. this is called positive deviance. It works because:
• its community based/so its always appropriate
• provides “social proof” that the change is effective
• it comes from within/ so it avoids “immune response to imposed change”

52. principles of positive deviance can be used to engage staff:
• the community has the solutions
• collective intelligence and distributed leadership
• sustainability
• act the change first, then change your thinking

53. gallup drivers of engagement
1. do I know what’s expected of me at work?
2. do I have the resources to do my job?
3. do I have the opportunity to do what I do best everyday?
4. have I received recognition in the last seven days?
5. does my supervisor care about me as a person?
6. does someone at work encourage my development?
7. does my opinion seem to count?
8. does my org’s vision make me feel my work is important?
9. are my coworkers committed to quality work?
10. do I have a best friend at work?
11. has someone talked to me in the last six months about my progress?
12. have I had the opportunity to learn and grow in the last year?
a good service initiative achieves every driver

54. questions/discussion

55. andrea cecchetto works for mpl
acecch@markham.library.on.ca
905 513-7977 x4997
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreacecchetto
let’s keep in touch.