Going in for Dubai Service Excellence Scheme, what were Eros Group’s expectations? Did you win the award on your first try?
We have always believed that participation in various excellence programmes helps us benchmark our practices and drives continuous improvement in our customer-handling standards. We did not win on our first try and that is a validation of the cliché: Learn from your mistakes and failure. When we finally did win the Best Service Performance Brand award in the electronics category in 2014, it not only reaffirmed our commitment to continuous improvement but also our intention to stay true to our core value of driving customer delight. Besides, it was truly a morale booster for the service team within the organisation.
What were the gaps that were identified during your assessment?
Assimilating and unifying customer service standards across our multiple retail stores were a core element that we identified. The task required constant calibration of our teams’ technical and soft skills through training and sharing of good practices. We recognised the need to ensure a seamless experience for our guests at the store and other channels. This has been the guiding principle for setting up policies and procedures at Eros. Keeping up the momentum is a challenge but we see it more as an opportunity to strive for innovation and constantly raising the bar for performance.
What were the innovations you introduced to win the award in 2017?
Winning is the first step. The next big challenge is to maintain the status and continue to innovate. We wanted to stay as the preferred partner of our customers for their retail and service requirements. Hence we hired an independent team to closely monitor customer interaction at every touchpoint and ensure service levels were maintained. We review our customer service standards performance every year and introduce key changes in structure and processes to achieve evolving goals. Some changes include comprehensive checklist, enhanced online training and testing for customer handling, and internal mystery shopping, to name a few.
What are the HR initiatives and incentives you have introduced to keep your personnel motivated?
We always emphasise the importance of service to all our team members, even at the time of recruitment. To achieve higher standards we have introduced key changes in our feedback incentive structure. Heroes of Eros and Customer in my Heart were introduced to celebrate excellent service performance as a team or at individual level. Quality service is one of the core values of Eros and is a competency on which every employee is appraised every year. We invest in keeping an open communication with the team and focus on employee engagements because we believe that only motivated employees will ensure happy customers.
