Get Smart Values

On a lot of web sites there is a page dedicated to the firms “values” and customer service philosophies. We suspect that all to often these are just words that are neither lived nor delivered on a day to day basis.

In our case we sat we down one Friday afternoon (with a cool drink and some nibbles) and made a list of the things we strive to do and those things that make us different. As is common in such endeavours we started with somebody else’s ideas but by the end of the evening we felt we owned our own. This has been polished a few times since but remains at the core of how we want to work internally and with our clients. We are pleased to share it below:

1. We seek delighted clients and that is all we will settle for – anything less and we want to try harder, for the client and ourselves.
2. We practice teamwork to create a positive work environment, always maintaining healthy, honest relationships with each team member.
3. ‘Smile – We are on stage’. We always maintain positive eye contact. We use the proper vocabulary with our guests. We use words like ‘Good Morning’, ‘Certainly’, ‘I’ll be happy to’ , ‘My pleasure’ and ‘Not a problem’.
4. We apologise and put it right if someone is upset by our actions.
5. We’re always willing to improve. We will give and receive constructive feedback to help each other succeed.
6. We demonstrate a positive ‘can do’ attitude at all times.
7. We take ownership of challenges and focus on solutions.
8. We have fun whilst working and learning.
9. We celebrate the small individual wins (ring the bell) but also acknowledge our business is a team sport.
10. We are flexible in our attitude and with our time to get the task completed.
11. We are willing to go the extra mile for the benefit of the team, the business, our clients and each other.
12. We always do our best. When things go wrong we do NOT blame a person – instead, we fix a system or process.
13. We are creative and innovative in our approach to our work.
14. We speak up if we don’t like something or are unhappy. We take responsibility for making things right.
15. We always act with integrity and respect and use empowering conversation.
16. We process all service registrations and finance applications the same day received.
17. We enclose a sweet with every single letter (even bill payments) as our way to brighten somebody’s day.
18. We answer our telephones within 4 rings and with a smile. We say.. ‘Good morning/afternoon – welcome to Get Smart, you are speaking with FIRSTNAME’.
19. We greet and farewell everyone by name, with eye contact and with a smile. Visitors to the office are introduced to whole team.
20. We always acknowledge all written communication (emails, letters, faxes) the same day and a full reply is always given no later than 1 business day from receipt.
21. Any queries or complaints are owned by the team member who receives them and are resolved within 24 hours of receipt.

These are the things we say we will do. It made us feel good about our business and our clients as we developed this list – it makes us feel even better as we deliver it in practice.