Accountability in customer service taught by Nugget

Customer service gets a lot of lip service.

But putting customer service into practice and figuring how to hold folks accountable is notoriously challenging.

An award-winning program undertaken by John Ascuaga's Nugget this year shows the effort that good customer-service programs require.

And it also shows that the work can produce results that can be tracked.

The hotel casino was honored this month for its innovations by the Northern Nevada Human Resource Association.

Larry Harvey, executive vice president for human resources at John Ascuaga's Nugget, says the company's executives decided this year that their program for customer service needed a fresh shot of energy.

They developed a three-step process that they dubbed "POP Stars,"with the initials standing for "Positive, Outstanding Performers." First, they created light-hearted skits about customer service for the Nugget's twice-a-year all-employee meetings.A takeoff of television's "American Idol,"for instance, featured a character dubbed Simon Scowl who put employees' customer-service skills to the test.

"It was a way to demonstrate good and bad customer service in a fun way,"Harvey says.

Next up: Monthly training in one aspect of customer service lead by first-line managers during meetings of their teams.

The Nugget's long-standing "Five Star" program of customer service sets these five standards:

* Look at the customer.

* Smile.

* Acknowledge the customer.

* Thank the customer.

* Bring your own spirit to the interaction.

After coaching their teams on one of the points of the "Five Stars," the Nugget's managers were required to regularly watch each of their employees as they interacted with customers.

The manager focused specifically on the skill that had been spotlighted during the month's coaching session and reported back to the employee.

That, Harvey acknowledges, sometimes was a challenge for managers who already face hectic schedules.

But it was a critical piece of the Nugget's program.

"Accountability is the most difficult part," he says.

But it paid off, as demonstrated by the property's tracking of guest satisfaction.

"We actually moved the needle on customer service,"Harvey says.