A large national residential real estate company had acquired approximately 80 new offices within a 6-month time frame. The acquisitions had strained the existing infrastructure, resulting in reduced service responsiveness and low morale.

Senior management retained Robinson & Associates to assist them in improving operational efficiencies and building a unified corporate culture and identity.

We facilitated a task force of internal cross-functional managers and external branch managers to identify high impact service improvement recommendations. Once senior management approved the recommendations we created implementation teams whose charters are to implement the recommendations throughout the organization. Team leaders were provided individual and peer coaching throughout the implementation phase to ensure the accomplishment of desired team results.

We also provided ongoing consultative support to senior management to assist them in making needed organizational changes, which included:

• Defining service performance standards
• Developing a performance management system that links every employee's role to achieving service standards
• Clarifying new decision making roles and responsibilities for managers
• Providing customer service skill building for all employees
• Redesigning key business processes
• Developing new corporate communication vehicles and processes

Branch managers began to report significantly improved service to the branches within the first 4 months of this initiative.

Ten months after launching this service improvement initiative, an internal service evaluation task force surveyed all of the office managers and office administrators to assess their satisfaction with recent service improvements. Each department received a satisfaction score for the key services they provide to the branch offices. Satisfaction scores for each department showed overall improvement ranging from 25% to 71%.