Developing The Future Ready Service Professionals

The use of digital technologies in the workplaces has become more pervasive and its functions will continue to dramatically increase. We are living in a digital world that few could have imagined 50 years ago. Technology disruption will lead to the change of the labor market in the way we deliver our service and engage the customers. Interactive software such as virtual assistants, chatbots and analytics platforms has changed the way customers obtain information, decide and make their purchases. The influence of technology has gone beyond new equipment and faster communications. Today’s workers for tomorrow’s service jobs will need to take charge and be future ready.

 The New Realities

The heat is on to continuously reinvent or digitalization and artificial intelligence will outperform the service employees in repetitive tasks e.g. taking orders, doing registration and processing payments. Customers have more choices and exercise more buying power. Organizations need to raise the bar, not maintain it. Success hinges on the deeper customer insights and the creation of greater value for them. With the growing affluence and rising customer expectations, there is this increased desired for buying of experiences verus things. Starbucks has shared “we are in the business of serving people, selling coffee”. Ritz-Carlton hotels with the slogan “ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen” said “If you go to a good hotel and ask for something, you get it. If you go to a great hotel, you don’t even have to ask.” To make a difference, we need to go beyond the transaction, providing superior customer experience. It is our challenge to equip, enable and empower our service professionals to be customer-centric and go out of their ways to ensure customer’s needs are exceeded.

 Are we ready?

 Truth be told, there is a big gap to close. Some service professionals are at the basic level of meeting the minimum expectations. They get by and are happy as long as there is no negative feedback. Some are at the performance level of meeting the full expectations above the minimum standards set by the organization and give the customers a good impression of the service provided. With the increasing competition and the wave of changes, we need to exceed the full expectations and excite our customers to show their appreciation spontaneously. It is crucial to bring all service employees to the “delight level”. All the staff in this service chain needs to envision the difference you make in getting your job done well and our commitment to our customers. The reality is some service staff delight some of the time. Some staff delight most of the time. How do we enable ALL staff to delight ALL the time?

 The Thinking Service Professionals

 It is an art and a science. Zooming in to the T-shaped skillsets of service employees to stay ahead of the learning curve in the service continuum. The broader general knowledge about the market, industry trends and soft skills of communication, networking, teamwork, information technology, time management and presentation ( - ) and narrower specialized knowledge ( | ) to dive deep is a winning combination as the service world becomes more complex. The service professionals can harness the power of intelligent devices to obtain customer insights for a high touch and personalized offering. Anchoring on the domain of customer-centricity, successful service employees will likely be those who can manage to get the most value out of digitalization. A quick win to get us started is to prepare for the different permutation of service scenarios in our customer experiences. Such data can be easily obtain through artificial intelligence. Service employees can explore how customers’ needs and expectations are likely to change; thus the changing response that are likely to work, and for those that might be counter-productive. You can also get a sense of what customers are likely to be thinking and feeling in the different scenarios and develop quick and desirable responses. This means that the thinking and strategic service professionals will respond effectively as situations evolve, rather than becoming overwhelmed by changing events.

To stay competitive, the thinking service professionals taking charge to implement innovative ideas in the workplace become crucially significant. We cannot afford to function like ‘robots’ performing repetitive and thoughtless tasks. Through the multiple intelligences involving emotional, social, interpersonal and intrapersonal skills, service employees can seek to find their job value in the digital economy. When technology becomes an indispensable part of our economy, technical competence will not be enough to compete on par with human intelligence. There is also the service opportunities to give the employees the space to discover and creatively co-create the service outcomes with their customers. The collaboration of creative human resources has the ability to push service ideas into reality within a short turnaround time. They are empowered and take responsibilities for the deliverables. More service evangelists can be groomed to capture their creative energy, pique their interests and encourage proactiveness in exceeding customer’s needs and expectations. With technology as an enabler, the possibilities are endless.

To make a difference in our service, employees will continue to play a crucial role in spheres where high touch and value-adding engagement matters. Let’s take charge, empower ourselves to be future ready, dive deep and constantly improve to stay ahead of the new realities.

Are you ready? The future is now here.