Recruit for attitude, train for skills, managers advised
Sep 12 2008 by Peter McCusker, The Journal
SUCCESS comes through service excellence, the region’s businesses have been told.
A line-up of leading international business speakers gave that message to the service excellence 2008 conference, hosted by eaga plc, Muckle LLP and The Journal at the Hilton Gateshead.
Chaired by Sir Michael Darrington ex-managing director of Greggs, the conference examined how businesses can achieve service excellence by engaging their employees.
Sir Michael described how Greggs’ success in the past 25 years had largely been a result of its emphasis on service and said all businesses with a reputation for customer service had a similar approach towards their employees. “They all treat their staff really well and have the maxim, ‘Recruit for attitude, train for skills’.”
Jocelyn Maxfield, creative director of Tom’s Companies and Serenity in the City, told the conference that service excellence was best defined as, “going way beyond the customer’s expectations” and explained how this had been achieved in Tom’s Companies.
Chief executive of World Class Benchmarking Jeff Kober described the service ethos of one of his main clients, the Disney Institute.
He told the conference: “One of the most difficult and important things to achieve is that the people in your organisation all have a shared vision and all point in the same direction.”
After the conference, Muckle managing partner Steve McNicol said: “This has been our third service excellence conference and each one has been better than the one before.”
