To excite customers is not an easy thing. Especially if the basic requirements are not (yet) met by companies. Therefore, customers, but also companies, would often be happy if "only" customer
satisfaction were achieved. Nevertheless, industry leaders or not -those who want to become involved, must consider how they can provide the famous “little extra” or “more”, with more or better
service in order to convince and inspire customers, ultimately binding them to their own company.
This requires a long-term investment and cannot be realized "on the run". Companies wishing to go this difficult, elaborate and challenging way, need to gain a better understanding of the terms,
objectives, benefits and use of a corresponding management system in order to achieve customer excellence through service excellence and
“ Ser|vice|wüs|te “ (Entry in the German Reference “Duden” for the complete absence of acceptable services). Thus, the spelling defines the term "service desert", which was introduced into the
reference in 2004 with the geographic assignment to Germany dating back as far as 1995, when marketing expert Professor Hermann Simon stated, that products were becoming more and more similar and
could be distinguished from one another by service alone. "The companies could therefore not abstain from services in their competition strategies," the researcher warned at the German Marketing
Day in Wiesbaden, and at the same time warned that Germany would become a "service desert".
And what is the situation today, more than two decades later?
From an economic perspective, service providers in Germany have long since taken a leadership role. Approximately 73% of all employed persons are employed in the service sector, the share of
gross value added is just as high. However, does this make Germany already an oasis of service satisfaction?
“No”, Accenture, a management consultancy, noted in a study published in 2010: "Consumers worldwide have never been so dissatisfied with the quality of customer services as in the year of the
economic crisis. According to Accenture, the study showed that the expectations of the customers and the reality of the service experience were even further removed from one another and
concluded, "German companies need to close this gap quickly".
Reason enough for the Center for Service Excellence (CSE) of the Department of Service Marketing at the EBS Business School to approach this dilemma scientifically. In a research project funded
by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, the CSE initiated and coordinated a panel of twenty renowned organizations from business and science. Since then, the result has been
presented as DIN SPEC 77224, subtitling: to achieve customer excellence through service excellence, a model that strengthens serviceability in both service and manufacturing sectors.
It is the world's first specification, which is the complex theme of building and expanding service excellence. Starting from the premise that "customer satisfaction" as a company's goal of
global competitiveness is no longer sufficient for companies, the guide focuses on the "enthusiastic customer" as a new company goal. "Customer Enthusiasm" is defined as "the intense pleasure of
a customer, which results in surprising surprises in a surprising way". Above and beyond compliance with core performance, promises effective management of customer feedback, the much desired
"personal touch" and sought after "extra mile", which are the most important success factors for service excellence.
As in many management system standards, DIN SPEC 77224 is the starting point of all efforts in a clear commitment of top management to a service excellence strategy. The excellence responsibility
of management is thus the most elementary part of the seven-component service excellence model:
• Excellence responsibility of the management
• Excellence-oriented resources
• Avoiding mistakes and waste
• Recording (all) customer experiences
• Customer enthusiasm through service innovations
• Measurement of enthusiasm and its effects • Efficiency analysis.
Extensive checklists allow users of DIN SPEC 77224 to self-assess their services. Although DIN SPEC 77224 does not require proof of a quality management system as compared to ISO 9001 and a
professional complaint management according to ISO 10002, nonetheless, the application of both regulations should be considered a sensible basis for an expansion towards service excellence. DIN
SPEC 77224 is not a certification standard. Notwithstanding, companies need to take a look beyond "operational blindness", in an investigative view in order to identify and close evident service
gaps. On the other hand, the implementation of service excellence also offers the opportunity for a clear differentiation from the competition.