The development of service and operational standards is an integral part of any customer service measurement programme. The development of these standards is seen as the starting point in the customer service strategy of any company.

Once the standards have been set, they must be made very clear to the staff that has to implement them. The communication of both the service and operational standards to staff is important and needs to be done in a clear and concise manner. The standards also need to have the following qualities to be effective:

• OBJECTIVE rather than subjective in their definition. Standards should define what should be done, not how well it is done.
• COMPREHENSIVE in coverage so that the full range of service performance may be measured.
• CONSISTENT in application, so that all assessed staff have an equal opportunity to perform.
• ACCEPTED by participants, such that no residual feeling of unfair evaluation remains once evaluations are reported.

To achieve these standards, REACT Surveys would recommend the consideration of the views in four key groups:

• CUSTOMERS: In order to achieve what they expect in the way of service.
• STAFF: To ensure that their commitment to the measurement is assured, and that any perceived barriers to delivering the required service levels are identified and where possible eliminated.
• MANAGEMENT: Ensure that the management drivers, inherent in the successful operation of the business, are taken into account.
• REACT SURVEYS: The experience gained from the development and operation of service measurement programmes across a wide range of industries can be made available in the development of this programme.

Once the staff has accepted the standards, a measurement process is put into place. It is important that the surveys are completed in the following manner to be effective.

• INDEPENDENT of the commissioning company, so that no internal bias can influence the findings, either in fact or in perception of participants.
• OBJECTIVE in their measurement so that the opinion of the assessors, has no effect on the measurement.
• CONSISTENT in application by using trained assessors, so that direct comparisons can be made between assessments over time.
• ACCURATE in completion so that the resulting reports and analysis are believed and accepted by participants.
• COMPREHENSIVE in coverage so that the full range of service opportunities are assessed.
• COMMUNICATED in the most appropriate manner to the participants and to management.
• REPEATED regularly over time so that the improvement in performance may be measured.

Professional memberships
IMM, MSPA (Asia/Pacific), ESOMAR (Europe), SAMRA