If you are a service organization without a Service
Catalogue, you are like a restaurant without a menu. This implies that any customer can order
anything and the restaurant staff will operate in a reactive manner, any time,
inefficiently to prepare the food and deliver a non-consistent food menu which
may or may not taste good, and in a none cost-effective way.
What would be the customer retention look like in a
restaurant like this? What would
customer satisfaction look like? Would
they be operating efficiently? Would they know what to keep in inventory? Would they be efficient in delivery? And so many
more questions to follow an operation like this.
Creation of a Service Catalogue is the number one priority
if you are a service providing company.
What do you offer? The cost of delivery? The efficiency of delivery? Etc… The Service Catalogue talks to one or more
descriptions of the services offered and perhaps future service abilities. The customer will be using the Service
Catalogue to request and negotiate the services and desired levels of
service. Going back to the restaurant
analogy, it makes a difference if you decide to dine in, take out, or have it
delivered. The Service Catalogue then
becomes our first level of entry in negotiations and the management of
expectation.
The Service Catalogue is a member of a family of
catalogues. We have Goal catalogue in
which we describe the entire Service Provider and Enterprise objectives. We have Activity Catalogue in which all major
activities are listed. There is Process Catalogue, outlining and documenting the
cross-functional processes. The Infrastructure
Catalogue describes the pre-designed and proven infrastructure that provides
guaranteed levels of service.
Keep in mind that a Service Catalogue is NOT a service
portfolio. Service portfolio deals with
managing service as investment with a profit and loss perspective. Service Catalogue co-exists to support the
Service Portfolio. A Service Catalogue
can even be integrated with a shopping cart technology. You might even decide on different Service Catalogues
designed to cater to different audiences.
A Service Catalogue contains a simple schema of:
introduction; signatories; dominant contracts and governance; glossary of
terms; positioning statement; features and scope of service; service level
statements; management of standard and non-standard requests; change procedures
and authorization.
Behind the scene of course, will be a combination of content
management, service order management, subscription management, shopping cart
and reward systems, cooperating as a part of a holistic service management
team. A Service Catalogue normally helps set or influence expectations, manage
the customer and service provider encounter, and present a key moment of
truth. Keep in mind that a Service
Catalogue runs the risk of becoming quickly outdated and stale if it is not maintained and kept
alive.
Hope this has been of some help.
EL
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