Service Measure - Barbados Premier Customer Experience Rating Launched
June 17, 20162 min read
Customers will soon be well aware of what local and regional businesses give the best service.
Saying that these companies are being presented with the foundation to operate at world class standards, head of the National Initiative for Service Excellence (NISE), Kim Tudor, announced that her organisation has developed a service excellence model particularly tailored for local and regional businesses.
Launching the Barbados Premier Customer Experience Rating, she said that some of the benefits include the establishment of national and regional benchmarks and award systems for customer service based on international best practices, but on the current conditions in the Caribbean.
"So for companies who feel that they deliver good service, there will be an objective measure that says yes, you deliver a good service" she stated at NISE's office in the Harbour Road Industrial Complex yesterday.
Ten local businesses ranging, in size from micro to large, are already involved in the pilot project, which runs from June to September, and are being evaluated on two key components â customer experience and service delivery framework.
"Those businesses were very eager to come on board because they could see the benefits. First it tells the world, your customers and competitors that I have an objective rating from a reputable organisation that says here is the level of service I deliver'. So it increases credibility in the market place, it increases customer confidence and customer loyalty so the customer seeing that excellence in service stamp can walk into that business with confidence and expect and receive a certain level of service," Tudor pointed out.
The levels of service excellence ratings will come tellingly on a scale of Pride of Barbados flowers, ranging from a medium three to an exemplary five.
Those scoring lower will be given a corrective action report to highlight areas of improvement.
Commending NISE on the initiative, Ian Kenyon, Chief Executive Officer of Harris Paints, one of the companies participating in the venture, insisted that "you can't manage what you don't measure".
Describing the rating as one which will give an "independent, credible, and objective comparison" he pointed out that businesses with the best product in the world can be ruined by bad customer experience.
"We are pretty good now, but with this rating from NISE we can be better," he highlighted. (AP)
