As part of WINNS ongoing CPD and our commitment to providing the best service possible, WINNS Head Office Managers were presented with the task of identifying which, in their opinion, was the most important of the 5 key strategic operations objectives that lead to customer satisfaction:
By focusing on the five operations performance objectives we are also now better placed to understand how market requirements drive their importance.
This task and resulting discussions highlighted the need for WINNS to convey to its clients and potential clients the efforts it makes to ensure we provide an exemplary service for all our clients all the time as a result of skilled staff with high levels of knowledge about the processes and the products and tools that are used to perform our service and the very high levels of customer service we provide.
Previous tasks had highlighted that it is not our perception of quality that mattered, but rather our customer's perception of the quality achieved that is important and we had therefore updated our client feedback process and included the NPS.
Quality is more than just the high specification of service we supply, it also includes skilled staff who are well presented, have a positive attitude and a good face-to-face relationship with the client. Quality means that things are being done correctly and to the level agreed with the client.
Quality affects marketing. Even if frontline staff do an exemplary job, their appearance or attitude face-to-face with the client can detract from that. Equally, if the Manager is not respectful or presented well, this too will detract from the quality perception of core service provision.
In order to consistently meet our clients' expectations, we recognise that behind the scenes we have to have agreed standards in place (KPIs & SLAs), a fully trained skilled workforce, processes in place to ensure continuity in the level of service, accurate job specifications, proper technologies and effective communication. To address this, WINNS have adopted the blueprinting process to ensure all supporting processes are at an optimum and remain so.
WINNS operates mainly on a preventative basis and therefore speed is only really an issue when unforseen instances occur, i.e. an alarm activation, a flood, etc. and it is only in these instances that it becomes a contract winner. During covid speed became the biggest factor on securing new work.
A speedy response to ad-hoc requests necessitates that behind the scenes we have contingency plans, guidelines and processes to:
WINNS makes every effort to do things on time and keep the promises we make to our clients to form positive relationships. We believe that we achieve dependability with our clients through effective communication, efficient scheduling systems, a motivated workforce, etc. By being dependable we reduce the likelihood of our clients looking elsewhere for an alternative service provider because whilst we may consider ourselves to be the best cleaning and security service provider, we know there are other really good ones out there as well.
WINNS prides itself on providing a flexible service that can react quickly to our client's ad-hoc requirements and feels that it is imperative to sustain our ability to serve customers when the need for a service occurs thereby reducing our customers' need to shop around. We believe that our continued success during COVID was due to us providing a one stop shop for our existing clients and their colleagues.
During the recent pandemic, WINNS also demonstrated its ability to adjust their operations processes to facilitate the accelerated introduction of new and modified services as necessitated by the needs of our clients, by extending its services to include, minibuses, COVID testing, social distancing guarding, installing number plate recognition readers.
We recognise that our flexible operations objective is possible due to our multi-skilled staff and the good relations within our organisation and our excellent relationship with clients.
Low cost is a desired objective for all. The profit margins within the cleaning and security industry are very small and there is not much room for variation. This means that in order to provide a high level of service, WINNS has to constantly monitor costs spent by operations on staff, materials, facilities, equipment and technology. In order to improve costs, WINNS maintains good relationships with its suppliers and ensures it gets the right mix of resources and facilities, keeping overheads to a minimum.
Whilst we initially considered the five operations objectives singularly, we quickly appreciated that they are in reality interrelated.
For example, dependability provides stability and makes a contribution to the performance objectives of speed and costs by keeping our promises and is therefore associated with delivering products and services on time and within cost. Equally, if we do not get things right the first time, then our profit disappears, and if the profit margins are tight, this limits the quality and flexibility of service provision.
Flexibility requires a thorough understanding of the organisation's processes and the context in which it operates. Attention to flexibility may create value by reducing the response time (and with that, reduces the cost of delay and missed opportunities, contributing to the cost objective). Flexibility also contributes to achieve the objective of dependability, in that it underscores the organisation's ability to deliver despite unforeseen circumstances.