When I was growing up in Ohio, we had a corner drug store called Revco, which was based out of Twinsburg, OH. I can still visualize their store signs in mind that highlighting the Revco Service Standards, “Every Customer, Every Time”. In researching this company as an example of developing service standards, I found details of how the service slogan and focus came to be. It all started with a simple question: “What do we want to happen to every customer every time in order to promote good customer service?”  It was broken down to 3 behaviors or actions:

1. Greet customers every time they enter the store
2. Every time a sales person sees a customer searching for a product – the employee will ask the customer if they need assistance
3. Make eye contact with customers every time you speak to them

They then developed a training guide with typical interactions and expectations and sent it out to store managers with directive to lead a team meeting to review the new standards. Each store manager was responsible for conveying the information, observing and coaching the best practice of the service standards. The next step was to send out Mystery Shoppers to assess performance of the 3 “behaviors”. The results were positive at 90% plus the number of complaints began to decrease as well as the percentage of positive feedback was on the rise!

In my opinion, the keys to success of this service story are that the service standard was realistic, specific and was consistently measured. So you can see the “Every Customer, Every time” became more than just a company slogan – it launched a whole new service culture within Revco. 

Question: What are your service standards? What are the specific behaviors that matter the most to the resident? If you had a service slogan what would it be?