Service First: Commitment To Quality, Environmental Care Inc.

Every green industry contractor realizes they are in a service industry. Obviously, then, a company’s success will be greatly influenced by the attentiveness and responsiveness it displays toward its clients’ needs and concerns.

A number of contractors have some type of customer service program in place, and there is probably a correlation between that program’s efficiency and that company’s success. However, the majority of contractors probably aren’t satisfied with the breadth of their customer service programs.

Environmental Care has turned customer service into a science, developing a program over time that generates regular feedback from customers, both new and old, and gives these clients - especially those who are unhappy with their service -- the chance to share their thoughts directly with the corporation.

LOOKING FOR ANSWERS. The drive behind ECI’s initiation of the customer surveys isn’t necessarily a new idea. "We started conducting the surveys to generate information for the service centers to use to take action," explained Pam Stark, vice president, customer service and training, who oversees the survey program. "Over time, we’ve expanded the program to include measurable objectives for the service centers so that we have another measure of the account manager’s performance and service line success."

ECI uses two different surveys: one for new clients, which is mailed to them within 60 days after ECI started on the job; and one for long-term clients, which is mailed to them annually in the month that they initially hired ECI.

"The new client surveys are very critical because they provide us immediate feedback about how we’re doing," Stark commented. "This lets us make sure we are meeting the expectations that we sold the client and identify any areas where there may have been a miscommunication."

All of the surveying and tabulation is taken care of by the corporate staff in order to minimize the administrative responsibilities of the service centers and to ensure that the surveys are conducted. Clients grade the service centers in varying degrees of satisfaction, which are then translated into a numerical ranking between one and five.

"Our goal is to have everyone scoring somewhere in the four to five range," Stark shared. Stark said a typical response rate for an ECI survey is between 30 and 40 percent, and when the information is tabulated every six months, the results for every service center are distributed throughout the company. "We graph the results comparing the scores for all of the service centers and the different regions," Stark explained, adding that the results are presented in graph form because ECI has found that people have a better understanding and respond more effectively to graphed results vs. a purely statistical presentation.

When negative surveys are returned, someone from the service center -- generally the service center manager -- is required to follow-up with the client. Stark will also get in touch with that client three to four weeks later to make sure the service center got in touch with them and to see if the problems have been resolved.

GETTING PERSONAL. Stark’s various training responsibilities for ECI take her to each service center at least once a year. On those occasions, the service center manager or an account manager can request that she follow-up with a specific client regarding the completed survey that client sent in. When this occurs, it’s generally because a client has returned a survey which is particularly critical, complimentary or constructive, or one which may indicate that the contract is in jeopardy. This follow-up is done through a one-hour personal interview by Stark.

"These interviews serve a couple of purposes," she explained. "First off, it’s a chance for me to try to climb behind the client’s eyes and see exactly how they perceive Environmental Care and how we can improve the service we’re providing. We’re trying to identify contracts that might be in trouble and take care of the client’s concerns before they get to the point where they cancel our service.

"In addition, the fact that we send someone out from our corporate office to personally interview a client can have tremendous public relations benefits for the service center," she continued, noting that she has conducted more than 200 of these interviews herself over the past six years.

Stark has even conducted interviews with clients after they have cancelled a contract with ECI in order to gain more insight into what the clients want. "We really examine the surveys from anyone who terminates a job," she noted. "You can’t just put that information away in a drawer and forget about it."

PUTTING IT TO WORK. Despite the potential for falling short against the other service centers or encountering critical feedback, employees at the service centers welcome the survey tabulations they receive.

"The surveys provide a qualitative and quantitative analysis of what your accounts are saying about you," recognized Maureen Anami, service line manager. "There’s no more useful information out there."

"We use the surveys to see if there are any trends going on that we need to be aware of in terms of crews that aren’t getting the job done or services that are being requested more," commented Rob Johnson, vice president and service center manager. "But the best use of the survey reports is to get them into the hands of the account managers so they can continue to work on their relationship with that client. The people in client contact positions are the ones that the information is truly valuable for."

"I think what’s really great about the surveys is that they give us a chance to find out what’s bothering the clients that they might never actually say to us," added Lisa Smith, Arbor Care client representative. "A lot of times, we’ll find out there’s a problem that’s actually just something minor that we weren’t aware of, but the client didn’t feel comfortable bringing up to us directly."

And if any respondents have marked the area on the survey asking that they be contacted by someone handling their account, they will get a phone call from the service center manager. "I make sure to call them myself," noted Johnson.