Metrics_ How to Improve Key Business Results - Martin Klubeck [119]
Service/Product Health Service Catalog
You will need to take the following steps in order to create the catalog.
Step 1: Identify the service
This can be as simple as writing down the name of the service. What is it known as? How does the customer refer to it?
Step 2: Determine if the service fits within your predefined categories
If the service does not fit within your predefined categories—is it because you missed the inclusion of a particular category? Or is it a service that doesn't fit within your mission? If the service doesn't fit, perhaps you should stop providing it.
Step 3: Identify the service providers
Who within the organization is responsible for the delivery of the service? It may be a cross-unit effort, or it could be part of the definition of the org chart. The ideal situation would require finding the product/service providers meant going across the org chart to identify the different places where contributors exist. Rarely is a service provided by only one person or unit—even in a functionally-focused organization.
Basically, what are the assets involved in the provision of the service or product? What and who goes into satisfying the customers' needs? These insights are some of the benefits a service catalog gives the organization.
Step 4: Identify the customer base
A simple way to look at identifying the customer base is to look at who uses the outputs from the service/product. It really doesn't matter if the final customer is internal or external to the organization. It doesn't matter if the service/product is a “for-profit” or “not-for-profit” endeavor. You need to know who the customers are. Is it a large customer base? Is the customer base a niche market?
Step 5: What is the service environment?
What is the service's competition? Is it a “monopolized” service? Does the customer have choices in who provides the service?
Is it a local market?
Is it a geographic market?
Is it a national market?
Step 6: What is the service level agreement?
Service level agreements are essentially contracts between the organization and its customers. It clearly defines, for anyone interested, what will be delivered and how it will be delivered. If possible, it should be more than what is agreed to be provided—it should capture the customers' expectations.
If you can't directly ask customers about their expectations, which is the case when you have a large customer base, you need to determine the expectations from existing information. You can glean expectations from sources that explicitly state the requirements. Written agreements, statements of work, or contracts are good sources of information. Many times your own marketing literature will capture the level of service promised or wanted. Sometimes you have to find expectations from implied or suggested inputs like informal promises made by one department for another or requests by the customer.
Another source is the feedback you'll receive in the data collection process when you are measuring the health of the service. Even though you haven't developed your metrics program yet, you very likely have already been using customer satisfaction feedback tools like surveys, comment cards, or unsolicited feedback.
Regardless of where you get the information, the goal is to determine what the customer expects of the service. This will be useful when developing expectations for the metrics.
Step 7: Costs
If it's a fee-based service, what is the cost? Even when you are not a profit center, there may be “costs” to obtaining the service. It could require a membership of some type or that you are a registered purchaser/owner of a product. Some of our services had no other associated costs beyond customers being either a faculty, staff, or student at our institution.