The Key to Customer Service

ANTIDOTES TO BUREAUCRATIC
BEHAVIOR
Create a customer-focused vision to get the real mission of the organization back in focus.
Delegate decisions and authority as close to the customer as possible (will flatten the
organization).
Develop guidelines to replace rules and empower employees to use good judgment in
administering them.
Re-create procedures taking the customer's point of view.
Train, coach and empower employees to be flexible, responsive, friendly and
caring,
Train managers to coach employees, to support and facilitate their work, and to
remove barriers to work accomplishment.
Make all non-strategic information widely available.
Link promotions to feedback collected from peers and customers.
Reward a participatory management style.
Replace in-focused standards with customer-focused indicators. Collect customer
feedback continuously.
Enlist everyone in the fight against the negative attributes of bureaucracy.
Place a premium on trust, risk-taking.
Constantly look outside the organization for models of good practice.
Federal Quality Institute