BSG LeatherLink

We have excellent commutation means - nice “Golden Quadrangle” roads. But what is itching is do we follow any system or rules while using these roads - I will ask the question differently - do we know what those Yellow lines, Two Yellow lines, White lines and Dotted White lines that are drawn on roads mean - you will be sure that it is not for appeal - what it means - let me share whatever I have heard from our Overseas friends

Basically they are for separation of lanes

White dotted lines - you can change lane if required (one should not drive on two lane simultaneously (most of indian driver’s favorite driving style - driving with dotted lines as center)

White lines - don’t cross if any one travels in the other lane - this will be drawn between two wheelers lane (do we know that) and main lanes and in places of short curves where one is not supposed to overtake - or overtake with care

Yellow lines - Never cross such lines - these will be drawn in places where there is crossings or other major roads are joining and in places where there is long curvatures - blind view for overtaking - never ever overtake in these places

Two Yellow lines - Its a pseudo physical separators - Never and never cross such lines - these appears in long curvatures where other roads crossing or joining is also happening

Can we follow these rules and educate others on these essentials

Before defining SLAs we need to have an infrastructure to support the defined goals and responsibility in SLAs. SLM process takes cares of that.

Please tell me ,exactly what is service level management (SLM)?

SLM is the process of setting, measuring, and ensuring the maintenance of service goals. Whatever may be the service, SLM helps companies make sure that the key targets for service success—such as performance, quality, are being met. SLM defines the metrics for measuring service success, and a process for responding when the metrics are not being met or are at risk of not being met.SLM is a concept often associated only with IT operations, but it can be applied to any business or service.

SLM -Best example Mumbai’s Dabbawalas.

Dabbawalla or Dabbawallah is a person in the city of Mumbai who is employed in a unique service industry whose primary business is collecting the freshly cooked food in lunch boxes from the residences of the office workers (mostly in the suburbs), delivering it to their respective workplaces and returning back the empty boxes by using various modes of transport.heir entire system depends on teamwork and meticulous timing. Tiffins are collected from homes between 7.00 am and 9.00 am, and taken to the nearest railway station. At various intermediary stations, they are hauled onto platforms and sorted out for area-wise distribution. There are lot of case management studies available. Still top level management gurus are wondering about the Dabbawala’s service success. http://www.mydabbawala.com/

Their SLM concepts are very simple.

• • • Defining the service (delivery of lunch boxes)
    • Providing metrics for measuring the service (delivering before 12:30 PM)
    • Making a guarantee of performance (Their current rating indicates a 99.999999 accuracy percentage of correctness, meaning one error in every six million transactions—an astonishing degree of exactness.)

SLM Concepts and Terminology

To ensure end-user satisfaction, or to meet overall cost and efficiency goals, an enterprise IT team must define the services it intends to deliver, metrics for measuring their success, a means for monitoring and ensuring service performance, and a method of responding if service levels are not met. ervice provider companies have a great need to set up, deliver, manage, and report on services for their customers. This requires additional capabilities, such as penalty calculation, SLA contract tracking, differentiable service levels, and customizable reporting by customer.

SLM is a tool to craft best service.

Service level management, or SLM, is a set of tools and disciplined, proactive procedures used to ensure that adequate levels of service are delivered to users in accordance with business priorities and at acceptable cost. It requires IT to define parameters, establish a baseline, set objectives, monitor and assess objectives, and refine and improve service levels. Clear and open communication between customer and service provider is essential for effective SLM. The service provider, whether internal to the enterprise or an external third party, must understand what the customer perceives as good service. In tandem, the customer must understand what is reasonable to expect of IT, given limitations in hardware, staffing, and other resources.

Service Level Agreements (SLAs)

Service level agreements, or SLAs, are an agreement between the customer and the service provider.An SLA usually contains:

A description of the service
The approval process for changes to the agreement.
A definition of terms.
Responsibility of service providers and customer.
Service metrics, which are defined in service level objectives (SLOs) and indicators (SLIs)

Service Level Objectives (SLOs)
Service level objectives, or SLOs, define the level of service that is to be provided, as agreed to by the parties involved. An SLA covering a service typically contains several SLOs. LOs include:

• Availability of support.
• Performance.
• Response Time.
• Service Level Guarantees.

Service Level Indicators (SLIs)
Service level indicators (SLIs) are at the heart of any SLA. It helps to find out ,whether the service functioned as well as it was supposed to. They allow SLM to be measured and quantified, and provide the assessment of whether or not a commitment is being met. SLIs should contains:

• Performance, and accuracy metrics
• Measurable quality definition.
• Necessary metrics for measurement.

Who is responsible for defining and monitoring SLM?

Here with I have attached a simple ORG_Chart.jpg to illustrate the organization structure to support SLM. There should be a separate department for Customer Service irrespective of the company size and business. In a small company, where there is no middle level management then, CEO/MD can play a dual role or first level management can play a dual role.

The roles defined here are place holders and any person can play that role. Companies must identify some one to play the defined role for successful SLM.

 

 

 

W hen we say agreement, it is an understanding and commitment between tow parties or more than one party. Parties involved thru an agreement must respect and honor the agreement, otherwise the purpose of this agreement will never be met. When an individual take a New Year resolution, it is not bounded by any laws or agreement. Violation or not respecting that New Year resolution won’t harm any one else other than the person who took the resolution.

In a corporate world, dishonoring any agreement will result in dissatisfaction and affect the entire business. For example if we are not able to meet the customer expectations agreed thru SLAs , that will lead to permanent damage to the client relationship. Before making the SLAs we must set up the internal resources that are capable of managing Service Level Management (SLM) process. Only using this structured process, we as a service provider can define very specific SLAs for each customer and follow that.

In coming days we will lay foundation for SLM by appointing Vice President, Technical Support and Customer Service. Foundation stone cannot be put up in the air, we need some solid soil to shoulder the responsibility. Now identified the solid soil, let build the SLM.

Marriage registration certificate will not have any terms and conditions. Few marriages comes with single commitment, “living together in ups and downs of life”. Again, the Severity and Complexity of the acceptable ups and downs are open; no one can measure that against commitment.

Since marriage is not a business but is about sharing the love and life, it can not be defined in any SLAs. As long as both the partners in a marriage relation are committed, it can survive. Often marriage comes with full of surprises which makes partners to get disappointed.Even if you wish, babies never come with user manual and so marriage is?

Customer Service is also a relationship building but it has definite goals and pre-set expectations. To make that relationship more healthy and committed, SLAs helps.

Setting the level of expectations is important in Service Level Management. There should not be any fine prints are any assumptions or if and else things. Service Provider and the customer must work together in SLA process so there should not be any blame game later. Open ended SLAs (verbal discussions /assurance) will lead to assumptions and wrong expectations.

Even after setting the SLAs , do not use that as a excuse to turn the customer away. SLAs help to identify and set the boundaries. Going beyond the SLAs and helping the customer is good. Using the same SLAs we can measure, how hard we worked to help the customer. Never argue with the customer. Customer came to you, thinking that you can help him magically to get rid of their current problem. Listen to them and comfort them. Even the mistake is their side, do not confront them, and let them save their faces.

What is Service Level Agreement (SLA)?

Service Level Agreement (SLA) is a contract between the service provider and the customer. This agreement is reviewed and signed by both the parties.

Why SLAs are needed?

Service Level Agreements bring true accountability to service provider – customer relationships. It sets the correct expectations level for clients and set parameters for accurately measuring the service. It is a formal expression of a relationship between two parties. SLAs are Bible in service business and it is the key for achieving and measuring customer satisfaction and functional efficiency.

What is in SLA?

SLAs may include following and/or more. Since this is a contract between Service Provider and the Customer on their own terms, it can include any terms per their agreement.If SLAs are very complicated then no one can understand that. We must understand that we as a service provider exist for the customer and there should not be any fine prints on SLAs which will surprise the customer.

1. Help desk response time for various classes of problems.
2. Time that services will be available.
3. Named responsible management participants.
4. Defined and measurable commitments.
5. Escalation procedures when the response is not met.
6. Regular and scheduled communication.
7. etc

What is Service Level Management (SLM)

Service Level Management (SLM) is a process. Using this structured process, service provider can define very specific SLAs for each customers. SLAs are part of the Service Level Management (SLM) process.To start this SLM process company must designate a Service Level Manager(SLM) who is empowered to negotiate with the customers. He must be very knowledgeable about the company services and clients business needs.

Excellent communication and negotiation skills are important for SLM. Even after signing initial SLAs , Service Level Manager should review the performance of service with customer on regular basis . The main idea is to build and improve the customer relationship.

What is Service Level Requirements (SLR)?

The Service Level Manager (SLM) meets with individual customer and understands their requirements. Then SLM crafts a Service Level Requirements (SLR) document that identifies in business terms what the customer needs. Once the business terms are understood by SLM, they work with the team who deliver the services to the customer. This team could be internal, external or a mixture of both. This team validates the SLR and come with their suggestions on service possibility.

How do we handle customer complaints?

A complaint from a customer is a major wake-up call for the team. The chain of events following receipt of a complaint is :

1. Acknowledge promptly to the customer and say “Sorry”. We may feel that we are not to blame for a specific complaint. Since, customer experiences an in-convenience, let us say sorry.

2. Let us discuss with the concerned Customer Account Manager and determine the serverity of the issues.  We will send a message to the customer explaining the analysis and giving a definite time frame when the complain will be resolved.

This email will be sent within the end of working day in which the complaint is received.

3. We will make sure that the deadline is met for resolution of the complaint. After resolution we will update the status to the customer.

4. Let us fix the issue twice. First, resolve it to the satisfaction of customer, followed by actions to prevent such issues from recurring again. For the second part we find out the root cause and fix it.

5. In the weekly review meeting, let the concerned person bring up the issue and share the details with everyone. It is not to fault individuals, but to address the system and process failures which led to the complaint.

Customer Complaint is to be avoided by interacting regularly with the customer and identifying issues before they explode. When a complaint comes, let us use it as an opportunity to show our commitment and dedication to our customer.