Situation
Our client was struggling with several factors, including staff turnover, lack of clear goals and metrics, employee complaints, and lingering questions about their service delivery processes. They knew that improving these areas was crucial for their long-term success and growth but they weren’t sure where to start.
Solution
Many leaders believe they should start with service delivery. We are believers in the Service-Profit Chain – a concept developed and written about by Jim Heskett, a longtime Harvard Business School professor. The service-profit chain shows the link between employee satisfaction, customer loyalty, and financial success in service-oriented businesses. For this client, we started with employees to ensure we had a solid foundation for service delivery.
We conducted a quantitative employee engagement survey to determine the areas needing improvement in the employees’ eyes. This survey provided a broad view of the engagement levels and highlighted specific areas of concern. Following the survey, we conducted brief, quick, qualitative one-on-one interviews to gain deeper insights into the issues and gather ideas for potential solutions from the employees themselves.
Armed with this information, we collaborated with the client to develop targeted improvement efforts and processes. Over the next year, we helped them implement changes to their training program, ensuring it was more engaging and effective. We also assisted in refining their key metric tracking to ensure they were measuring the most relevant KPIs accurately. Additionally, we introduced a new goal-setting framework that emphasized clarity and achievability, along with enhanced accountability measures and recognition programs to motivate and reward employees. From here, we dove into customer journey mapping to identify all the touchpoints, then honed or developed processes for each interaction.
Outcome
As a result of these comprehensive efforts, the client’s Employee Engagement score increased from 50% to 75% within one year. This significant improvement in engagement levels also led to better employee retention, as employees felt more valued and invested in the company’s success. Furthermore, the company’s profitability saw a noticeable increase, driven by the enhanced productivity and morale of the engaged workforce.
Through focused and strategic interventions in service design, encompassing customer journey, management methodology, KPI tracking, and employee engagement, the client was able to achieve remarkable improvements in overall business performance with consistent revenue and EBITDA growth year over year for the next three years.
