A “scorecard” for service excellence

Abstract

Gulf Bank’s service excellence “scorecard” was developed to support the Bank’s delivery of superior service in its market sector. The “scorecard” provides focus for a “service excellence” program, setting standards and measuring performance against customer focused objectives. The approach identified the “drivers” of customer satisfaction, related these to the Bank’s service delivery channels, set performance standards, and implemented measurement and reporting systems embracing external customer feedback and internal process measurements. Performance was measured against 16 key “drivers” of customer satisfaction identified independently by the local industry institute and related to the Bank’s delivery channels (branches, ATMs, telephone, Internet). Key measures were: customer satisfaction, complaints, comments and attrition, plus internal process delivery performance for critical products (consumer loans and credit card services). Reports were produced weekly and monthly with “drill downs” from bank to individual branch and/or employee levels. Reports are reviewed by management from chairman down to branch manager level. Results are incorporated in business KPIs and have become factors in employee incentive schemes. The approach adopted by the bank demonstrated that a practical, comprehensive service quality management system could be implemented and used to drive service improvement. The approach can be adopted by other banks and financial institutions and adapted to the needs of other service industries. The process implemented by Gulf Bank is believed to be unique in the Kuwait banking community and has scope for application in many similar environments outside the local area. © 2004, Emerald Group Publishing Limited