23+ Sample Service Delivery Plans

What Is Service Delivery Plan?

Service delivery plans describe the level and types of services you provide. It helps you manage your service and make sure you are meeting the needs of your community. Every Multi-Purpose Service (MPS) should have a current plan in place and have a process to regularly review and update it.

A service delivery plan outlines the level and types of services you will provide. It should be able to:

Your organization’s planning framework—which your state or territory government manages—should outline who develops this plan and who you share it with.

What Is the Importance of Service Delivery Plan?

The term is pretty much self-explanatory. Service delivery management refers to all the necessary steps that need to be taken to ensure the effective delivery of IT services to a client. If done right, the work you do here can positively influence your agency’s image and customer satisfaction rates.

The processes you define here should serve as:

By creating a clear service delivery mechanism, software companies can get a better understanding about how to meet their client’s wishes. Moreover, service delivery management can also help software development companies with proper staff/resources allocation. Companies can figure out if they can do the entire project in-house or if they need to hire additional help to see certain tasks through.

What Are the Elements of Service Delivery?

Running a successful service company should be synonymous with delivering excelling service.

Service Culture. This is built on elements of leadership principles, norms, work habits and vision, mission and values. Culture is the set of overriding principles according to which management controls, maintains and develops the social process that manifests itself as delivery of service and gives value to customers. Once a superior service delivery system and a realistic service concept have been established, there is no other component so fundamental to the long-term success of a service organization as its culture.Employee Engagement. Includes employee attitude activities, purpose driven leadership and HR processes. Even the best designed processes and systems will only be effective if carried out by people with higher engagement. Engagement is the moderator between the design and the execution of the service excellence model.Service Quality. Includes strategies, processes and performance management systems. The strategy and process design are fundamental to the design of the overall service management model. Helping the client fulfil their mission and supporting them in the pursuit of their organizational purpose, must be the foundation of any service provider partnership.Customer Experience. Includes elements of customer intelligence, account management and continuous improvements. Perception is king and constantly evaluating how both customer and end-user perceive service delivery is important for continuous collaboration. Successful service delivery works on the basis that the customer is a part of the creation and delivery of the service and then designs processes built on that philosophy—this is called co-creation.

The order that these four points are listed in is not random and there is a logical sequence in first defining the service culture, then employee engagement, which will then foster a high level of service quality, which will then develop the right customer experience – a virtuous circle.

What Are the Models of Service Delivery?

Here are the four actual delivery models that are a must-know before starting a delivery business. Each of these has their own functionalities, advantages, and challenges, which will redefine the way delivery businesses are viewed:

On-demand has been the buzz in the services industry for quite some time now. On-Demand delivery includes delivering a product or a service to the customer almost immediately once the order is placed. Service Models mostly in the food sector have incorporated on-demand to fulfill the growing customer need for quick service.

Scheduled On-Demand Delivery have evolved from the age-old scheduled deliveries. It is much suited for the convenience of the customers, where you can select the time for the delivery. Scheduled On-Demand Delivery works on a specific time basis where either the customers pre-plan the order delivery time (Uber for Laundry Pickup, Uber for Home Services) or the delivery service provides slots for delivery or pick-up (Uber for Garbage)

This Hybrid model is a combination of the above models. The Ice-Cream Truck model incorporates Dynamic Order Insertion. Dynamic Ordering Insertion is when you have an ice-cream truck which carries its regular inventory from stockists to retailers (or end users) for a scheduled delivery and carries extra inventory (Say 5%). So while the truck is out for delivery, if it gets more orders in real-time it can use the 5% inventory for order fulfillment. Dynamic Route Optimization will help the delivery truck select the best route for the deliveries.

Some businesses are also offering the customers the option for self-pickup. Businesses create differentiated pricing based on whether the customer opts for delivery or self-pickup. This is employed by businesses who do not have a separate work-force for delivery. Uber for Flowers is one such model, where the business would charge extra for delivery. In case of self-pickup, the pick-up address is sent to the customer. This helps the customer locate the store easily and then confirm via proof of receipt. Dynamic route optimization can assist the customer through traffic in real-time and provide the quickest possible route.

How Do You Do Service Planning?

You do service planning by setting up the right service delivery strategy. As with everything else, the goal here is to set up a working skeleton and then fine tune it as you go. However, there are certain elements that you need to bear in mind from the start when you decide to work on the first draft of your service delivery strategy:

Proper measurement of the quality of service should be on the top of your list. You need to make sure that you and your customer are on the same page regarding when it comes to expectations and your service offerings. This includes what your services do and don’t encompass, eligibility, potential limitations, costs, how to get assistance when needed, and more.

The more detailed you get here, the better. The goal is to make sure that the client understands exactly what to expect from your company. Never sell what you cannot deliver and never undercharge for the quality of the service you provide.

Believe it or not, but service excellence can be defined as what a business chooses not to do well. It is your management’s job to determine what are your company’s strongest and weakest links. This choice, of course, can’t be based on a simple gut feeling. It needs to come from experience with working with customers and your team. This is a great way to manage capacity. If you want to provide excellent service, you need to ensure that you have the resources to satisfy the needs of people who are actually paying for your services. You need to ensure that all your assets are effectively used and that the risk factor of late delivery is reduced.

Onboarding clients can be quite a difficult process, especially if you do it every time from the ground up. Since communication is different with each client and it has a natural tendency of getting a bit all over the place, maintaining focus and getting the right type information out of clients can be a challenge.

That is why it is of great importance to have a framework in place and clearly documented processes that automatically “force” the client to go through the necessary onboarding steps. To meet the client’s wants and needs, you need to ensure that you extract all the necessary information out of them and that they understand what you are selling them.

So, to make sure that important information does not get lost in the noise, here are some created frameworks that clearly:

Skills needed for Service Delivery:

Service Delivery requires a certain set of skills. As a position of immense responsibility, having and developing the following skills will help greatly with your career:

Technical skills:

Soft Skills:

FAQs

Who are the delivery managers?

Delivery managers are part of the delivery management task force. They are responsible for clarifying requirements and setting up realistic expectations about the project’s scope, quality, and risk factors. Delivery managers are tasked with reporting of the project’s status. They are trained to identify and overcome unnecessary project risks, polish all unplanned or unforeseen changes, tackle hidden small problems before they become bigger ones. A delivery manager is usually a person that has the most back-and-forth with a client. He or she assures clients that issues will not be left unresolved for any length of time. Being proactive is definitely a trait that is greatly appreciated in this position.

What are the responsibilities of delivery managers?

In general, the responsibilities of a Service Delivery Manager cover a wide range of applications including but not limited to:

These services change based on the field of specialization or the industry the company belongs to. Some other tasks include: providing a service plan to companies that manage and aggregate all relevant services; leading the service delivery team, managing conflict, and ensuring the team’s processes and tasks are carried out efficiently; honing and leading improvement team for the delivery infrastructure; maintaining positive relationships with customers by identifying customer needs and overseeing service delivery within the company context; managing finances and budgets; determining ways to reduce costs without sacrificing customer satisfaction; assessing customer feedback and using their expertise to establish, improve, and refine services; and building partnerships and liaising with team leaders to determine the company’s services, delivery criteria, and solutions for issues that may arise.

What is a service delivery role?

Service Delivery is about the delivery of services to clients of a company. This is done through managing projects, correcting reliability issues, tracking progress and KPIs, managing budgets, and ensuring the proper delivery of services by professionals in charge.

How to improve a company service delivery?

  • In order to improve on your company service delivery, the following steps should be taken:
  • Improve the system of communication.
  • Set rules of service management.
  • Use new forms of technology.
  • Increase opportunity of employment in the field.
  • Improve system of management in the service department.

What are the pros and cons of service delivery?

Here are the pros and cons of using a delivery service:

You will Save Time. Receiving door-to-door service and carving out extra time for yourself to take care of other errands rather than lugging heavy grocery bags is certainly a key advantage of using a grocery delivery service. So, if you use a delivery service every day, you’d save, on average, more than four hours per week.

Convenience Comes at a Cost. The individual prices of the food you buy may be slightly more than if you shopped for it yourself. When it comes to having a car delivered, car delivery websites tend to charge a transport fee, which can cost several hundred dollars.

You will Have Added Time for Other Tasks. Sometimes a delivery service may end up giving a consumer more choices. While the delivery service charges can add up, in some cases – like if you are sick and don’t feel up to going out—a delivery service can be a huge benefit.

You Still May Need to Go to a Physical Store or Branch. As with paying for any service, the experience can vary, and sometimes you may give up something substantial or innocuous for getting extra time. For instance, if you completely give up visiting your supermarket, you may miss out on seeing a sale or new products that you might have purchased. You also may need to go back to a physical store if something was delivered to you that wasn’t what you expected or you need to make a return.

Service delivery has become increasingly popular over the past decades. In a highly competitive market, service-based businesses need to capitalize on any opportunity to set themselves apart from their (often very similar) competitors. While implementation, system details, and service management are all important, perhaps the best way to distinguish your business is to foster strong customer relationships based on the quality of your service.

Remember that your culture is strictly internal — it shows up in your service delivery, your methodology, and your relationships and interactions with customers. And customers know this, it is one of the reasons why people ask for RFPs. The better you understand your value prop and what your company’s about, the more that translates to your customers. More often than not, your customers will know if you and your employees are not on the same page.