Customer service is about treating the customer is appropriate way, with the goal of satisfying them and ensuring they will return to you. Some research suggests that customer service is the quality of marketing mix, in other words, the special attention to the four elements: Product, Price, Place and Promotion.
It is believed therefore, that the organisations which can master a perfect balance between them categories will be good at customer service.
One of the challenges with customer service however, it that is can be very subjective. This is because people pay attention to all different things, but one common thing that is running across the customer service concept is customer satisfaction.
Customer satisfaction is generally described as meeting and exceeding customers needs and expectations. Often it is also perceived as the gap between what is expected by the customer and what is actually received.
Having all the background information we can determine few things which can be the baseline of our focus when looking at customer service. These are:
- Efficiency - customers will expect from those who providing the service to know what they are doing and being provided with relevant service information or product effectively
- Honesty - customer do not like to be lied to, therefore our engagement need to be honest, open and ethical
- Manners and etiquette - customers want to be dealt with politely, especially when they are expressing dissatisfaction and complains
- Respect - customer wants to recognise them as another human being and respect their individuality, requests and expectations.
- Follow-through - they expect us to keep up to our promises and do what we say we will do
What I really want to say is that providing good customer service is not enough.
Why?
Because people want excellence!
Customer service is a competitive place as any other business departments. So what are the points to consider now an excellent customer service?
Commitment to time - how quickly can we respond to customer requests, needs and wants?
Ability to change - are you limited with your service provision and lack flexibility?
Politeness - does your customer feel friendliness and feel welcomed?
Truthfulness - are you honest and open with your customer on what they can and cannot have?
Keep your promises - does your staff meet up the expectations lied down by you or their own?
Quality - are there any measurable targets your company is trying to achieve and improving continuously to provide the best service you can on time, right the first time?
Problem solving - are you able to deal with customer issues effectively and in timely manner?
Adding value - are your goods and services helping customers to achieve their goals?
Improvement - are there any channels of communications and feedback you have developed to help and listen your customers?
Number of studies reviled that customers are willing to pay for quality.
And excellent quality customer service plays big part in it. Having that it can be said, that a great customer service will lead to improving financial performance of the organisation.
Poor customer service leads to waste in time, money and resources because you spend your time dealing with complaints often. It has been suggested, that poor customer service and insufficient customer service communications can lead to one third of the total workload in the organisation. Poor service quality will also increase the costs of sales, because customers will not want to come back and higher customer turnover costs the business. Additionally, bad customer service will save on advertising and marketing costs because one customer will tell others about you.
Great customer service is also building a strong barrier for competitors to enter the market you are in already and persuade your customers to switch to them. And finally, effective compliance management has been proven to built more loyalty in customers. It is often said that customer will have more loyalty if an issue was dealt with efficiently than before a negative incident has happened.
Doesn't it persuade you that an excellent customer service will put you in a great position and bring the competitive advantage?
How do I know my customers are satisfied?
There is one dilemma, however, often we do not know how to measure the customer satisfaction.
We often think that evaluating customer complaints would be the best way. However, there is a lot of issues with using only customer complaints to evaluate the level of customer satisfaction. This is mainly because, it is a very reactive process. Additionally, using only customer complaints, we can be badly misled.
More effective than using customer complaints is using customer surveys.
The role of people and process
I would like to explore further the customer service concept particularly in the service provision. Let's look at the role of people and process and find ways to improve customer's loyalty.
The strength of service industries is linked to number of factors. Firstly, investment in marketing communications, secondly, contributing to wider community, thirdly, enhancing internal communications and lastly, continuously improving their customer service. This is the reason I wanted to look closer into the service provision as opposed to manufacturing for example. The good thing is, that everybody can learn from this approach. It is because even a physical product is highly dependent on the customer service provision.
Additionally, from the customer's view point the risk of buying a service will be higher than risk of buying a physical product, therefore the service companies need to work on their excellence. Manufactured products can be easily returned if they do not meet the expectations, but services cannot be easily compensated. This is resulting in customers spending more time in gathering information about the service we have to offer. They would also rely more on the "word-to-mouth" recommendations than when searching for a physical product. Often, they will evaluate the credentials and experience of the service provider.
Because services involve direct contact between the seller and the customer, the attitude of the people involved are integral part of the product. Customer is also present during the process of providing the service, therefore the process becomes very important.
People and training
There would be different types of people engaged with the customer:
1) Contractor - these are generally customer service employees and they should be suitably trained in people skills as well as on their business skills. The resourcing of contractors should be based on people and social skills. Those employees should be able to enjoy working with customers.
2) Modifiers - these do not have direct marketing role but deal with customers regularly, for example a truck driver or receptionist. These employees should be trained on their social skills and be able to measure their performance. They should generally should have clear policies and code of conduct to follow.
3) Influencers - these employees have no contact with customers. Many backroom staff would be linked to this category. They have impact on customer without direct engagement.
4) Isolateds - these employees have no customer contact. They role would involve creating the right conditions under which their customer focused staff can do their job. For example cleaners. They do not need to be trained specifically on customer service skills or how to deal with customers.
Creating shared values and having clearly defined way of working will ensure that employees deal with customer in respectful and correct manners.
Empowerment
Empowerment is very important for those who directly deal with customers. It means of giving them the authority to sort out issues without continuously escalating to senior management and asking for permission. This will also make them responsible for their own actions. Empowerment in the in the business system is important to ensure the customer service operates smoothy and customers do not have to wait for decisions being made by upper management. It cannot also be expected that the managers can manage every aspect of each employee job.
The main goal of employee empowerment are:
* deal with issues faster,
* make employees accountable for their jobs
* saving costs with removing the senior management time and effort
* managers can spend more time on coaching staff
* employees who create closer links with customers will strengthen the competitiveness
* employees will be more motivated
However, there are several risks with empowerment that need to be considered:
* some people are not happy to accept responsibility for decisions and manners may need to offer some extra support
* a culture of blame can develop where staff is blamed for wrong decisions, in this case mistakes shouldn't be seen as failures but opportunities to learn,
* employees may not be ready and resist of making decisions because there are not clear boundaries
* some research suggests that empowerment can have a negative effect on the culture because it could be seen that managers avoiding the responsibility.
Therefore, there are general policies how to successfully empower your staff:
1) Empowerment need to be on the horizon when recruiting , training and coaching staff
2) employees need to be given clear guidelines but not being overloaded with too many rules and requests
3) teamwork should be trained, encouraged and cultivated, because they can receive support from other employees as well as access to the second opinion where management is not always available
4) employees should be suitably rewarded for their actions and taking responsibility
5) Mistakes are opportunities to learn and not an opportunity to blame
6) managers are available to motivate, coach and give helping hand where it is needed
Process
Every process consist of the following resources: Basic resources (cash, equipment, buildings etc), Knowledge ( intellectual property, customer information), Tactics (these result from training and skills) and Procedure (system by which all the resources are brought together to create unique value).
service processes also fall into 3 main categories: Before-service processes, During-service processes and After-service processes. Each company will have more or less complex services at any stage. The main goal when designing the process is to ensure it brings the value customer expects and their needs can be made. At times, customers will be happy to pay for more luxurious services, but some choose the cheaper option to save some money.
The processes therefore need to be designed to the correct audience and target customer.
Additionally, when defining processes focus should be kept on reducing costs and efficiency, remove complexity.
Physical evidence
Because services are intangible, it is often difficult to provide physical evidence of the fact that a service has happened. But in today's world more and more companies provide physical evidence for different reasons. Sometimes it is required for example a certificate of training.
Often companies intentionally create physical evidence to maintain customer loyalty using vouchers, ornaments or loyalty cards.Some businesses produce their documents on beautiful cards or shiny paper. And finally, some use physical evidence to create further sale. For example desk calendars, notepads and pens. Those reminders help consumers to act as a reminder.
Summary
Customer service plays major part in the business success. It relies on people, process, and we have learned physical evidence plays an important role these days. Companies rely heavily on staff therefore empowering and motivating them become very important.
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