:: Jeremy Lee | Knowledge, Skills and Ability for the Service Professional (Part 1 of 2)

Knowledge, Skills and Ability for the Service Professional (Part 1 of 2)
By Jeremy Lee

In any service organization, it is critical that the right individuals are hired to service customers, as the human element plays a key and significant role in the creation and delivery (production) of service products. Failure to ensure this element will lead to ineffectiveness in the organization’s service quality

The term “Right Individual” is made in reference to three aspects that need to be available to ensure an individual has the ability to perform a job. These three aspects are the right knowledge, the right skills and the right attitude to perform their job. For this article, we will discuss on service professionals having the right knowledge and skills to perform their job. Having the right attitude will be discussed in the next article.

Right Knowledge
Knowledge is having the right actionable information for use within a certain context. It involves the application of intuition, involvement of experience and values within a person or a group of people.

Knowledge can be segregated to two types, explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge.

Tacit Knowledge has a cognitive dimension to it, making it highly individualized. It is hard to formalized and therefore expressed in words. Tacit knowledge is also partly based in technical skills that have been captured through "know-how".

Explicit knowledge is knowledge that can be articulated.

For the service professional, they need to have what is considered as current and specialized knowledge relevant to their work. With customers from all walks of life, it is also essential that these service related professionals are knowledgeable in other related areas in anticipation of what customers may ask or want.

A Service Professional should have current and specialized knowledge in the following areas:

Organization's product and its usage
The company that they represent and the customer
Competitors in the industry and their offerings
The internal workings of the company, to know what to do and where to seek for assistance.

All these are considered basic knowledge, critical to the performance of the job and achieving their respective objectives. Such knowledge should be given and taught to service professional prior to their delivery to customer. This is to minimize the errors that will arise during the production of service with the customer, leading to customers leaving the organization for another.

Right Skill
Skill is the ability to use the right actionable knowledge within a certain context proficiently. This implies that skills needs to be practiced until a person becomes proficient at it and does it instinctively.

A good example is swimming. A non-swimmer can be taught the knowledge of how to swim, however without ever literally swimming in a pool; the non-swimmer has not developed the skills to swim as he has not had the opportunity to used the knowledge learnt.

Servicing a customer is the same thing, regardless whether it is sales or customer service; it is a skill that needs to be developed. Essentially there are techniques available that will assist a service personnel, however ultimately they still need to internalized these techniques and develop their own style to suit their personality for them to ensure their success.

Therefore it is of utmost importance that organizations impart the right knowledge and skill to their service personnel. Additionally it is essential that the service personnel are able to practice and hone their skills prior to delivery to customers.




	Knowledge, Skills and Ability for the Service Professional (Part 1 of 2) By Jeremy Lee In any service organization, it is critical that the right individuals are hired to service customers, as the human element plays a key and significant role in the creation and delivery (production) of service products. Failure to ensure this element will lead to ineffectiveness in the organization’s service quality The term “Right Individual” is made in reference to three aspects that need to be available to ensure an individual has the ability to perform a job. These three aspects are the right knowledge, the right skills and the right attitude to perform their job. For this article, we will discuss on service professionals having the right knowledge and skills to perform their job. Having the right attitude will be discussed in the next article. Right Knowledge Knowledge is having the right actionable information for use within a certain context. It involves the application of intuition, involvement of experience and values within a person or a group of people. Knowledge can be segregated to two types, explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge. Tacit Knowledge has a cognitive dimension to it, making it highly individualized. It is hard to formalized and therefore expressed in words. Tacit knowledge is also partly based in technical skills that have been captured through "know-how". Explicit knowledge is knowledge that can be articulated. For the service professional, they need to have what is considered as current and specialized knowledge relevant to their work. With customers from all walks of life, it is also essential that these service related professionals are knowledgeable in other related areas in anticipation of what customers may ask or want. A Service Professional should have current and specialized knowledge in the following areas: Organization's product and its usage The company that they represent and the customer Competitors in the industry and their offerings The internal workings of the company, to know what to do and where to seek for assistance. All these are considered basic knowledge, critical to the performance of the job and achieving their respective objectives. Such knowledge should be given and taught to service professional prior to their delivery to customer. This is to minimize the errors that will arise during the production of service with the customer, leading to customers leaving the organization for another. Right Skill Skill is the ability to use the right actionable knowledge within a certain context proficiently. This implies that skills needs to be practiced until a person becomes proficient at it and does it instinctively. A good example is swimming. A non-swimmer can be taught the knowledge of how to swim, however without ever literally swimming in a pool; the non-swimmer has not developed the skills to swim as he has not had the opportunity to used the knowledge learnt. Servicing a customer is the same thing, regardless whether it is sales or customer service; it is a skill that needs to be developed. Essentially there are techniques available that will assist a service personnel, however ultimately they still need to internalized these techniques and develop their own style to suit their personality for them to ensure their success. Therefore it is of utmost importance that organizations impart the right knowledge and skill to their service personnel. Additionally it is essential that the service personnel are able to practice and hone their skills prior to delivery to customers. Last updated - 12 January 2004
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