AltaPointe established the Five-Star Customer Service program to guarantee the continual improvement of customer service. Five-Star employs various evaluation methods to identify behaviors that require additional training.

The Five-Star Customer Service Evaluation Work Group conducts “secret shopping” to measure the effectiveness of the program. The shopper utilizes job-specific checklists to measure the employee adherence to customer service standards. Employees are not aware they are being “shopped” until the shopper tells them.

Shoppers gather data and compile reports for supervisors. When there is a positive result from a “shopping” event, the employee’s supervisor may publicly recognize the employee for excellent customer service performance. When there is a negative result, the supervisor works privately with the employee to correct customer service issues.

Job evaluations and satisfaction surveys
The integration of Five-Star standards into employee performance evaluations reinforces the organization’s commitment to customer service. Employee annual performance evaluations provide an opportunity for supervisors and their staff members to address any customer service issues.

AltaPointe also relies on customer and employee satisfaction surveys to gauge effectiveness of the Five-Star program. AltaPointe’s Performance Improvement Department conducts these surveys monthly.

Any customer service program must implement training that builds an understanding of the concept of service and creates a service excellence culture. As of October 15, 2009, more than 600 full-time AltaPointe employees have undergone Five-Star Customer Service training, which began in the spring of 2008. The training emphasis shifted to quarterly training sessions for new employees when the introductory training portion concluded.