Manage a customer service award programme
Overview
This standard is part of the customer service competence area related to Customer Service Delivery. It covers managing a customer service award programme. It includes customer service behaviours and processes that have most impact on the customer experience during Customer Service Delivery. Remember that customers include everyone to whom you provide products and services. They may be external to your organisation or they may be internal customers.
A customer service award programme can make a valuable contribution to your organisation's customer service strategy. It serves the dual role of motivating team members and displaying your commitment to customer service to customers. You plan a customer service award programme, identifying the most suitable scheme. You implement your award programme to motivate team members and manage judging, announcement of the results and evaluation of its effectiveness to meet its objectives.
The standard is for customer service professionals on supervisory or managerial levels who manage a customer service award programme for individuals or teams within their organisation.
Performance criteria
You must be able to:
- set customer satisfaction and team motivation objectives for a customer service award scheme
- review internal and external customer service award programme options
- select customer service award programme options that meet your organisation's needs
- compare the advantages and disadvantages of each option you have selected
- choose the option that best matches your customer satisfaction and team motivation objectives
- identify the benefits and costs of your chosen programme in relation to the objectives set
- develop the business case for introducing or further developing a customer service awards programme
- agree the objectives and activities for the programme with decision-makers
- plan your chosen customer service award programme
- inform and motivate customers and team members when launching the customer service award programme
- check that the criteria for the customer service awards are transparent and fair
- publicise the customer service awards programme to customers to demonstrate your organisation's commitment to excellent customer service
- organise the judging of individual and team awards
- announce the results and present awards in a manner that aligns with your organisation's culture
- evaluate the effectiveness of the customer service awards programme on customers and team members to identify future improvements
- follow the legal, organisational, codes of practice and policies relevant to your role and the activities being carried out
Knowledge and Understanding
You need to know and understand:
- how to define the objectives for a customer service award programme covering customer satisfaction and team motivation
- the different motivation theories and how recognition can act as a motivator for customer service teams
- the different options available for customer service award programmes that are used by your own and other organisations
- how to review and select options that will work in your organisation
- the importance of comparing options to select the approach that will meet the objectives set
- how to develop a business case and present it to decision-makers to secure their agreement
- how to make use of customer service award programmes as promotional tools to give added value to customer satisfaction
- the advantages and disadvantages of the different rewards associated with award programmes
- the aspects of your organisation's culture that may support or detract from the value of a customer service award programme
- the methods that can be used to publicise customer service award programmes
- the importance of ensuring that awards programmes are seen as transparent and fair by customer service employees
- how to approach potential judges for awards programmes and the skills that they need
- the ways that judging can take place and how to brief judges
- the legal, organisational, codes of practice and policies relevant to your role and the activities being carried out