DEVELOP JUST-IN-TIME INFORMATION TOOLS

From FAQs to SOPs to one-pagers, just-in-time information tools are among the best supports you can offer front-line service personnel. If your organization already has developed them, your job is simple: Ensure they’re

up-to-date and that your team uses them consistently.

If there are gaps, your job is to engage your team in creating their own. In either case, revising, creating, and using these tools is an essential part of your intervention.

Realistically, you and your team will probably spend several months developing the materials in this stage.

Even with the help of peer leaders, there’s no shortcut to creating excellent information tools. The payoff, however, is worth the time. You end up with knowledgeable, confident front-liners who know where to go for the information they need—just-in-time.

Training Options

You have several options for developing these tools:

• Present the tools in a series of 30-minute modules.

Describe one tool in each, offer examples, discuss a step-by-step development process, and assign intensive “homework.”

• Offer a series of 60- to 90-minute workshops during which your team engages in lots of hands-on work.

• Combine topics into several half-day programs.

Whatever approach you take, count on holding short follow-up sessions to address revisions, questions, and training on specific tools.

Preparation

Before your first session, review the just-in-time information tools we discussed in Chapter 5:

1. Answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs)

2. One-page customer handouts

3. Basic service and product facts

4. Written standard operating procedures (SOPs)

5. “Go-to” people list

6. Complaint process guidelines and forms

Also, review any preexisting materials in your company that are pertinent to your team. Organize them by category and prepare a packet with tab dividers that you can add to your team’s customer service binder. As

tools are revised or created, insert them behind the appropriate tab.

For materials too lengthy for a binder, devise another strategy to ensure that front-liners have easy access to what they need when they need it. For example, create a “road map” describing where and how to find specific

information—in a database, file cabinet, catalogue, or one-pager near the cash register. Of course, if you are using computer technology, “binders and tabs” become common files accessible to everyone.

Remember, “just-in-time” means precisely that: quick, easy access to information as needed. Merely having information is insufficient; people need to know how to access it immediately and use it consistently.

If you decide to use our recommended handouts, be sure that you prepare them for distribution or add them to your workbook. If computers are available, deliver the handouts electronically.

Program Outline

After a kick-off session on your company’s current information tools, you may want to create standard operating procedures for addressing and tracking customer complaints.

Next, focus on a “go-to” list and FAQs. Finally, prioritize the remaining tools. Throughout this chapter, we offer suggestions for developing each, but the order is up to you.

Below is an outline of suggested topics presented in a workshop format. Our time frame for each workshop —60 to 90 minutes—can be adapted to your needs and priorities. Plan time between sessions for shorter meetings (20 to 30 minutes) to check on assignments, make revisions, and ensure your people know how, when, and where to use the specific tools.

— PROGRAM OUTLINE —

Workshop A: Kick-Off Session 60–90 min.

A1. Introduce the program 5–8 min.

A2. Evaluate the company’s current information tools 45–70 min.

A3. Assign homework and schedule follow-up session(s) 10–12 min.

Workshop B: Create an SOP for Problem Solving 60–90 min.

B1. Review the six keys to successful problem-solving 10–15 min.

B2. Create the SOP 45–70 min.

B3. Wrap up the workshop 5 min.

Workshop C: Create an SOP for Tracking Customer Complaints 60–90 min.

C1. Review previous workshop and present introduction 10–15 min.

C2. Create a complaint tracker and an action plan 45–70 min.

C3. Wrap up the workshop 5 min.

Workshop D: Create a “Go-To” List 60–90 min.

D1. Review tools 20–30 min.

D2. Introduce “go-to” list of key people 35–50 min.

D3. Wrap up the workshop 5–10 min.

Workshop E: Create FAQs 60–90 min.

E1. Introduce the process 5–10 min.

E2. Facilitate answering FAQs 45–70 min.

E3. Wrap up the workshop 10 min.

Workshop F: Create One-Page Information Sheets 60–90 min.

F1. Introduce the process 5–10 min.

F2. Facilitate creating one-page information sheets 45–70 min.

F3. Wrap up the workshop 10 min.

Workshop G: Create SOPs for All Positions 60–90 min.

G1. Introduce the process 5–10 min.

G2. Facilitate the SOP process 45–70 min.

G3. Wrap up the workshop 10 min.

The following leader’s guide covers each workshop and includes notes and suggested scripting. To make the guide easier to use, handouts are grouped at the  guide’s conclusion. There are five handouts in all:

• Analyzing Our Current Information Tools

• Most Frequent Customer Issues

• Complaint Tracker

• Answering Customer FAQs

• One-Page Information Sheet

SIX JUST IN TIME INFORMATION TOOLS

The following six tools will provide significant support to front-line personnel in delivering service to your customers:

1. Answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs)

2. One-page customer handouts

3. Basic service and product facts

4. Written standard operating procedures (SOPs)

5. “Go-to” people list

6. Complaint process guidelines and forms

JUST-IN-TIME INFORMATION TOOLS

1. Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

By its nature, this may be the most useful of all information tools.

Here is the best way to develop it:

1. Ask employees to pay close attention over the course of a week to the questions customers most frequently ask. Have them submit those questions to you.

2. Use the submissions as a basis for a training session. In the session, teach front-liners how to write short, concise answers to the questions, and have them practice delivering the answers—it’s

one thing to write answers and another to deliver them orally with ease and confidence.

3. Finally, create a process for the ongoing documentation of FAQs. Most information tools require continuous development. You may not know you need additions or corrections until situations arise

that demand them.

By initially investing time in training front-liners on this tool (and, as we suggest in Part 2, on all information tools that you develop), they become active participants in customer service improvement. Not only will they be a valuable resource to you, but they will be learning valuable skills in the process.

2. One-Page Customer Handouts

After FAQs, this is the next most important resource to create. Sometimes a handout is the best answer a front-liner can provide to a customer. Among the many

virtues of handouts is that you can ensure they will be graphically appealing, thorough, and accurate, with all the i’s dotted and t’s crossed.

Consider preparing one-pagers for every service, product, process, or issue that generates a lot of customer questions. Get team members involved in creating them. Assign one to each member—or pair of members—and let them create drafts that you finalize.

3. Basic Service and Product Facts

If your service and product inventory is too broad to provide a comprehensive resource, focus on two categories of services and products:

• Your leading services and products

• The services and products that routinely generate customer questions

Suppliers often provide brochures that contain most of the information your front-liners need. However, ensure that the most important information about any service or product is clear and available to them:

What is the service?

How do customers access it? Where is the product?

How do customers get their hands on it and buy it?

4. Written Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)

SOPs should be prepared for every task and responsibility that front-liners might be expected to perform. No task or responsibility is too small to warrant SOPs. That doesn’t mean SOPs have to be long or complex, though.

Often they can be as simple as a few bullet points.

Here is the best way to develop this tool:

1. Brainstorm a list of all the tasks that front-liners must perform and all the responsibilities that they must meet. The list must be comprehensive.

2. Split up the list among team members and ask them to draft bullet-point SOPs for several tasks.

Make sure to assign members tasks with which they have direct experience.

3. Circulate the drafts and ask team members to improve on the SOPs for each task.

Again, as the manager, you have the responsibility to review the SOPs and finalize them.

5. “Go-To” People List

This is simply a list of the names of key people and their contact information. Key people include other employees, managers, product/service suppliers, consultants, and service providers. They should correspond to

every issue—problem or opportunity—that could possibly arise. Ideally, for every potential issue, you should include a minimum of two “go-to” people. If something comes up that a front-liner cannot personally deal with, he or she should always know whom to contact for help.

6. Complaint Process Guidelines and Forms

There are two key components to the complaint process information tool:

1. Guidelines for handling small matters, that is, matters which lie within the discretion of front-line personnel. These guidelines should define the parameters of that discretion (for example, a dollar limit, flexible policies) as well as the steps to follow when exercising it.

2. A written form for documenting customer complaints that are beyond the front-liner’s discretion.

This form should provide space to record the date, time, customer’s name, contact information, specific complaint, and requested solution.

Ensure that front-liners know they must immediately give the filled-out complaint form to a person with sufficient authority to solve the problem—this is most important.

Finally, as mentioned earlier in our discussion of problem solving, front-line employees must be prepared to follow up with the complaining customer.

Developing each of these just-in-time information tools requires an investment of time and energy. However, the return on that investment can be tremendous.

As the supervisory manager, you’ll have to lead the charge. In guide, you’ll learn how to charge up your team members by involving them in this development process.