If you care about the customer experience, you know excellence is all about consistency. But how do you embed amazing service across an organization? Here, I'll walk you through the steps for creating meaningful service standards based on deep insight into customer expectations. In the process, you'll learn how to identify performance gaps, and you'll develop a plan for bringing your service into line with customer expectations. You'll learn how service guarantees come into play, and how to include realistic, but achievable targets in your service standards. We'll also cover off what to do when you finalize your service standards; how to make them an intrinsic part of your culture, and your marketing. This process was developed through my work as a senior management consultant. It has been tested and perfected. Get started creating service standards today!

1. Stand for Something
A Service Standards How-to Guide
D e l i v e r o n w h a t m a t t e r s . Wo w y o u r
c u s t o m e r s . Re p e a t .

2. Raving fans leave
rave reviews.
But how can you standardize amazing
service, to get it right each time?

3. Service standards bring
focus to what matters –
so that you can hit the
mark, again and again.

4. No more guessing at what
makes customers happy. No
more surprises.

5. But aren’t service
standards just words,
words, words?

6. No. Service Standards
done right can be
intensely meaningful.
Image: copyright HBO, screencap from "A Man Without Honor."

7. Good service standards
put customers at ease.
They know what to expect.

8. When you set good service
standards, you also help
employees achieve.

9. Here, I’ll show you how
to create service
standards that do all
this – and more.

10. Get Insight
Find out what really matters to
customers.
1

11. First, gather any and all
customer feedback.

12. Look at behavior data,
complaints, testimonials,
surveys, industry
benchmarks.

13. Use the data to glean
insight on what matters
to customers.

14. Are they talking about
timeliness? Friendliness?
Quality? When and where
do they say these matter?

15. Download this Deck
Click the button below to download an editable version of this
slide deck, plus a workbook to walk you through each step
of creating service standards . These resources come courtesy
of Upstream Meetings.
Any questions, please email info@upstreammeetings.com
Give me the
goods!

16. Map the Journey
It’s all about the Customer Experience.
(#CEX)
2

17. Visually map the customer
experience for each
service and each channel.

18. Identify and name every
customer service touch
point.

19. This is basically process
mapping, but only
including customer touch
points.
Inquiry Booking Service Billing Follow-Up

20. For each touch point, choose
one ‘expected attribute’ that
matters most: timeliness,
friendliness, accuracy, for
example.

21. Go back to the Insight
phase if you aren’t sure
what customers want at
any given touch point.

22. What have they told you in
surveys, complaints,
interviews, testimonials and by
their buying behavior?

23. Now, for each expected
attribute attach a target. If
timeliness is the key thing,
how fast must you be? (Look to
your data.)

24. Now, compare customer
expectations with your actual
performance at each touch
point.

25. All done? You now have a map of
customer expectations,
experience and actual
performance.

26. Try capturing it in a handy
reference table.
Touch Point Expected Attribute Target Actual
Performance
Inquiry Timely Reply in 15 minutes 95% on target
Booking Accurate 99% accuracy 80% accuracy
Service Friendly Average 5 stars on
customer feedback
Average 5 stars on
customer feedback
Billing Accurate 99% accuracy 99% accuracy
Thank You Friendly Average 5 stars Average 5 stars
Follow-up Offer Helpful 40% re-book
service on offer
20% re-book on
offer

27. Try it yourself?
Click the button below to download an editable version of this
slide deck, plus a workbook to walk you through each step
of creating service standards . These resources come courtesy
of Upstream Meetings.
Any questions, please email info@upstreammeetings.com
Give me the
goods!

28. Focus on What
Matters
Create Service Standards that hit the
mark.
3

29. Use what you now know to write
meaningful service standards.

30. Where the data shows you’re
meeting expectations, write
standards that enshrine this
awesome level service.

31. Where you’re falling short,
work on internal improvements
before you publish standards.

32. Use the ‘expected attributes’
in the very language of your
standards.

33. Add targets. For example, “Our
wait times are never more than
20 minutes, guaranteed.”
(We’ll get to that ‘guaranteed’ point soon.)

34. Now, you may have dozens of
touch points. Do you need a
service standard for each?

35. No. Often, you’ll have
repetition. Write a broader
standard that covers several
touch points.

36. And by all means, focus on the
touch points that make the
biggest impact.

37. Now, check: Are your standards
written in the customer’s
language?

38. Is each standard data-based and
measurable?

39. Is each standard challenging,
but attainable?

40. Good. Now what about those
areas where you aren’t meeting
expectations?

41. Write ‘to-be’ service
standards: standards you can’t
meet now, but that you will
realistically achieve when
you’ve made improvements.

42. Next Steps
How to make standards come alive.
4

43. Test draft standards with staff
and customers. Are they
motivating, realistic,
meaningful, impressive?

44. Decide how you’ll back up your
standards. What recourse do
customers have? Will you offer
guarantees?

45. Make a big deal internally
about your new standards.
Communicate like mad, and train
your people to deliver on every
standard you set.

46. Gamify it. Create friendly
competition among staff to make
meeting standards fun and
rewarding.

47. Go public. Post your standards
everywhere. Be bold. Explain
why your standards matter and
set you apart.

48. Monitor performance against
standards scrupulously.

49. Keep that balance of
challenging, but achievable. If
your standards become too easy,
set your sights higher.

50. Brag a bit. Let your customers
know when you’re over-
delivering on your standards.

51. Be transparent. Let customers
know when you haven’t quite hit
the mark. Tell them what you’re
doing about it.

52. Simply telling customers the
story of your service journey
goes a long way to winning
their love.

53. And when you do get rave
reviews, it won’t be a chance
occurrence: it will be earned,
understood, and repeatable.

54. Want More?
Click the button below to download an editable version of this
slide deck, plus a workbook to walk you through each step
of creating service standards . These resources come courtesy
of Upstream Meetings.
Any questions, please email info@upstreammeetings.com
Give me the
goods!

55. Love what you’ve
learned here?
Facilitating the process of developing
Service Standards is one of the things
we do at Upstream Meetings.
Find out more at
www.upstreammeetings.com

56. Love what you’ve
learned here?
Love what you’ve learned here?
Keep in touch, and we’ll keep you in the
loop as we publish new resources.
Drop us a line at
info@upstreammeetings.com.
Connect on social media. We’re there too.