Consultancy Services to improve organisational profitability through customer service

1. Jupiter Management Services
Profit Through Service
From
Jupiter Consulting
Customer Services in the 21st
Century
Your Customer Service operation is probably the major interface between your
organisation and your customers, and it will have a large influence on the way your
customers perceive your organisation.
They determine, to a very large part, the level of loyalty that your customers feel for you.
They are a major source of new sales opportunities, including cross-sales and up-sales.
Historically, customer service organisations were viewed as a necessary expense for
offering post-sales support, a cost centre, not strategically important but tactically
necessary.
At any time, but particularly in the present difficult economic times, the quality of
customer service, as perceived by your customers, makes the difference between high
levels of loyalty and price sensitivity.
Of course, competing primarily on price is generally unprofitable and unsustainable
whereas competing more on quality is far more effective and less costly.
The customer experience that you deliver through your customer services organisation
has a major bearing on the extent that your customers view you as a high quality
organisation.
What’s more, if you are providing a commodity product or service, your customer
services may be an even more significant differentiator in your marketplace.
The Target to Aim For
Imagine turning your customer service operation into a profit centre, not a cost centre.
But how do you do this?
The solution isn’t simple, as the customer service operation doesn’t work in isolation
from the rest of your organisation.
You need to examine the factors “upstream” that cause customers to need your support
and therefore add costs to your business.

2. You need to maximise the efficiency and effectiveness of the customer services
operation in order to reduce the cost of service delivery.
You need to analyse and improve the customer experience that you deliver in order to
improve customer retention.
You need to achieve high levels of staff satisfaction to ensure that they deliver optimal
service quality and that staff attrition costs are minimised.
And, you need to find ways of leveraging extra sales, at low cost, from every contact
between customers and your customer service staff.
How We Can Help You
First, we have years of experience in doing all of these things, through consultancy and
interim management.
We can dedicate the time to focus on delivering improvements without having to worry
about running the operation hour by hour.
We will take an objective view of the status quo because, unlike existing staff, we have no
emotional ties to the way things are.
We have significant experience of best practices in a wide range of customer service
operations and settings and can drive your customer service organisation in that
direction.
What We Will Do Specifically
We work in a very structured way to ensure that we leave no stone unturned, specifically
we:
• Help you to evaluate your current customer service position
• Give you a free initial appraisal with recommendations
• Help you to decide what areas to focus on
• Conduct an in-depth analysis and recommendations for change
• Produce a plan for the management of the agreed changes
• Drive the change programmes to deliver improved service performance
Then, depending on what we find, and what you see as beneficial, we can also help
you with:
• Recruiting new staff using Competency Based Assessment techniques
• Training and Coaching your existing staff
• Providing interim management of your customer service operation
• Providing on-going advice and support

3. The Benefits to You
The aim of our intervention is to deliver:
• More efficient and effective customer services
• Improved customer satisfaction and retention
• Better trained and motivated customer service staff
• Improved staff retention
All of these factors lead to improvements in your profitability through reduced cost of
service and cost of sale.
Our Intervention Model
Using our own unique “9-Component” model, shown below, developed from many years
practical experience; we examine all of the major aspects of your customer services
operation:
1. Your service strategy & programmes
2. Your organisational structure and culture
3. Your service channels
4. The systems that you use
5. The processes you follow
6. Your performance management systems
7. Your recruitment processes
8. The effectiveness of your training and coaching
9. Your levels of staff satisfaction and retention

4. Service Analysis Model
Systems Processes
Training &
Coaching
Recruitment
Organisation
Structure &
Culture
Performance
Management
System
Service
Channels
Improved Customer Satisfaction & Retention
Staff
Satisfaction
& Retention
Service
Strategy
Lower Cost Sales
LowerCostofService
HigherProfitability
The 4 outcomes from the 9-Component intervention, as shown in the yellow bars are:
1. Improved customer satisfaction and therefore higher customer retention
2. Lower cost of sales
3. Lower cost of service and higher staff retention
4. Higher profitability as a result of the previous improvements

5. The Things We Analyse
Some of the factors that we will look at are as outlined below.
We conduct a more in-depth fact-finding meeting with you at the beginning of the
assignment to determine your views on each of the 9 components.
Intervention Analysis – Level 1
Service
Strategy
Is there a service strategy, does it fit within an organisation strategy?
Is the service vision and mission clearly articulated and understood?
Are there programmes in place to achieve the mission & vision?
Organisation
Structure &
Culture
Does the service culture act in support of the vision, mission & strategy?
Does the current culture provide for continuous improvement without blame?
Service
Channels
What are the existing and required contact channels?
To what extent does the organisational structure support the channels?
What use is being made of web based services and IVR technologies?
Do your contact channels reflect your customer demographics?

6. Intervention Analysis – Level 2
To what extent are your systems supporting the delivery of excellent service?
Do the systems empower or limit front line staff?
Do the systems maximise first contact resolution?
Are your processes designed to delight customers or for internal efficiency?
Do your processes support first contact resolution?
Do they actively gather customer feedback?
Are they part of a continuous improvement programme?
Do you have a clear and simple complaints handling process?
Do your Key Performance Indicators capture meaningful information?
Are they acted upon in pursuit of customer satisfaction, efficiency or both?
To what extent does the staff performance measurement system support
customer satisfaction?
Are staff measured against a balanced performance scorecard of
qualitative and quantitative measures
How is customer satisfaction measured?
Systems
Processes
Performance
Management
System

7. Intervention Analysis – Level 3
Does your recruitment process include competency based assessment?
Are the competencies measured consistent with your performance
management system?
Are your recruitment competencies aligned with the balanced performance
Scorecard?
Are your performance management systems driving your staff development?
Are your team leaders focused on coaching or command & control?
Are you dedicating enough time to staff training & development?
Would you rather lose a well trained motivated person or retain a poorly
Trained de-motivated one?
Do you suffer from high staff attrition?
What can you do differently to reduced this?
How do you measure staff satisfaction?
How can you improve satisfaction levels?
Recruitment
Training &
Coaching
Staff
Satisfaction
& Retention

8. Our Consultancy Process
Our consultancy process comprises 10 steps, of which the first six are always carried
out, and 4 are optional and depend on our findings and your specific requirements.
The first two steps, coloured green are free of charge
We start by asking you to complete a relatively simple questionnaire to help you to
evaluate the extent of the support that you need
Then, if you decide that you need our assistance, we will spend one day at your premises.
During this visit, we will conduct an in-depth fact-finding meeting with you, during which
we ask you to complete a 40-point questionnaire.
Then we will spend time observing facets of your operation.
Following this visit, we will compile a report on our preliminary findings, and
recommendations for areas that should be fully analysed.
There is a standard fixed fee for this preliminary report, but this charge is fully refundable
against our initial invoice when you contract with us for our consulting services.
Consultancy Engagement – Stage 1
1.
Free Client
Self
Evaluation
To determine the scope of the intervention required
2.
Free
Preliminary
SWOT
Analysis
3.
Preliminary
Report on
Findings
Preliminary Written Report on findings and
recommendations for intervention
(Charged but refunded against first consultancy invoice)
Initial fact finding meeting with client and
On site observational visit

9. The next 3 steps, coloured blue are chargeable services.
With your agreement, we will contract with you to undertake the major intervention,
comprising steps 4, 5 and 6 to conduct an in-depth analysis, develop a plan of changes
and manage the change programmes.
Consultancy Engagement – Stage 2
5.
Consultancy
Work on the agreed intervention areas and
produce a plan for agreed change programmes.
6.
Change
Management
Management of the agreed changes
4.
In Depth
Analysis
Analysis of agreed areas of intervention, and report on
findings and recommendations for change

10. The final 4 steps coloured orange are optional chargeable services.
Either during or following the intervention, requirements may emerge for other follow-on
support items as outlined below.
With your agreement, we can develop and deliver training and coaching programmes and
manage the selection of further staff.
In addition, we can provide interim management and on-going consultancy support.
Consultancy Engagement – Stage 3
8.
Competency
Based
Assessment
Where required, design, develop and manage
recruitment assessment centres and development
centres
9.
Interim
Management
Where required, take over operational leadership of
the service operation
10.
On-Going
Consultancy
Where required, provide on-going advice and support
7.
Training
&
Coaching
Where required and agreed, develop and deliver training
and coaching programmes

11. About Jupiter
Jupiter offers management consultancy and interim management solely to customer
service operations – we are experts in this field.
Our principal consultant and founder, Norman Huckerby, has been working in the
customer service sector for over 25 years, and since 1997 has been delivering customer
service consultancy and interim management to a wide range of clients.
As a partner in the Synogis network of consultants and interim managers, we are able to
call upon hundreds of carefully selected and highly experienced freelance experts in a
variety of specialist areas.
You can contact us on 01242 515086 or 07798 670077
njh@jupiter.gb.com