Implementing a service culture

THE hardest thing about implementing a service culture, according to financial adviser Sylvia Dickson from Dickson Bonacci, is defining what a service culture actually is.

Speaking at the convention on Wednesday, October 8, Dickson says that ‘service’ means different things to different people and, in trying to formulate a description, she came up with 10 or more definitions.

The definition she finally settled on was: “A business-wide attitude that recognises fulfilling clients’ needs as a primary objective.”

People are prepared to pay for service, Dickson says, and they will prove loyal to good providers of that service — in other words, it pays to deliver good service.

“Clients who are well serviced are not only getting what they want and need — they will also recommend your services to others,” she says.

Dickson says that because “service is a very personal thing”, it is difficult to systematise the introduction of a service culture. However, she also says good systems are a key element in implementing a service culture because they produce efficiencies.

“The first thing advisers need to do is identify what their clients’ service needs are,” she says.

“Every client is looking for something different, but there is always a lot of common ground.”

The next thing advisers need to do, according to Dickson, is think about the things they do well and how those things can meet their clients’ service needs.

“They then have to embrace these things and articulate them to their personnel as the way they are going to do business,” she says. “It is about attitude and cultures.”

Her top tips include “listening to clients, trying to tap into what motivates them, striving for really good communication and always trying to see things from the client’s point of view”.