When customer service makes all the difference

23 December 2012 06:30 pm Views - 3676

Addressing a group of company executives, Warren Buffett once said, “It might take 20 years to build a reputation of a business and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”
As consumers, we all have stories about when we were treated exceptionally well or extremely poorly. We tend to share these extraordinary stories with others. We all know that word of mouth marketing can be the absolute best advantage or the worst drawback for a company.

Good customer service is the lifeblood of any business. You can offer promotions and slash prices to bring in as many new customers as you want, but unless you can get some of those customers to come back, or recommend to others, your business won’t be profitable for long. A widely quoted statistic gets to the heart of the value proposition behind customer service: The cost of acquiring a new customer is five times that of retaining an existing one. For businesses that succeed by forming a bond with the customer, the disparity is surely even greater.

In my opinion, good customer service is essentially a variation on the golden rule: You want to meet the same expectations you would have if you were the customer.  The basic things will never change.  If people believe that they’re being remembered and are known to the business, that will have a positive impact on their disposition toward your business.

Three steps
While taking good care of customers and clients can be individualized, there are three steps that can provide some guidance for how to take really great care of the customers and clients you need to serve:

• Be clear with policies, expectations and service agreements

Ambiguity can breed discontent. Take the time to be really clear about your policies- refund, service, how long people can expect to wait, etc. By having set policies and posting them prominently and sharing them liberally, you will be able to cut down on a great many misunderstandings before they start. Once something is in writing, stick to it. Of course, there will be times when you need to be flexible and make accommodations, but by having things posted clearly, customers will understand what is expected and what is possible.

• Ask for comments and feedback and actually listen

It is not enough to put out surveys and customer-satisfaction forms. It is important not only to ask people about how they perceive your products or services, but you also need to take that feedback seriously. There are different ways that you can let people know that you are listening to them- give a follow-up phone call or e-mail acknowledging the situation. Personal attention is one of the key elements of excellent customer care. You can also offer a discount or gift to those who share their opinions or comments or for those who have had difficulties.

• Fix problems (immediately) so they do not occur again

While a customer or client might be disgruntled at something that happens once, if you work hard to fix the situation and make it better, most people will forgive and forget. If it happens again, however, or they have habitual problems, they will lose patience and spread some fairly damaging word-of-mouth stories about your product, service or company. Fix problems or situations that arise and enhance what you do well. This way, negative experiences will fade from memory and customers will be well cared for.

Models
There are many models of customer service but all agree that organisations should have clear answers to the following basic questions:

• Have you made it easy for customers to complain and make suggestions?
• Do you have competent and well trained staff?
• Do you gather information about your customers and what they want on a regular basis?
• Do customers have a clear idea of the service they can expect from you?
• Can you be contacted easily?
• Do you respond quickly to queries and requests?
• Do you involve your customers in the development of products and services?

The organisation with the ideal customer service unit will have ‘Yes’ as answers for all seven questions.



Framework
Customer service can be used as a framework to look at all aspects of your business:

• Resolving customer problems
• Service delivery
• Promotion of services
• Image and presentation
• Contact and communication with customers
• Monitoring and improving services
• Customer relationship management

Benefits
The central aim of effective customer service is retaining customers, which produces many positive benefits for the organisation aside from the obvious revenue and profit results:

• The whole organisation can focus more on proactive opportunities (growth, innovation, development, etc.) rather than reactive fire-fighting, crisis management, failure analysis and the negative high pressures to win over the disgruntled customers.
• Retaining customers enables easier growth, indirectly and directly, for example by sustaining healthier volumes and margins and by business expansion from word-of-mouth referrals.
• No one enjoys working for an organisation where stressful arguments or pressures prevail. When customers are happy, all the staff are happier too - and more productive.
• Having a culture of delighting and retaining customers fuels positive publicity and reputation in the media and increasingly on the web in blogs and forums, etc.

Training
Are you happy that all of these aspects of your business are as effective as they could be?
Key to customer service is getting all members of your organisation to embrace it through training and development, at individual and team level. Creating a culture of customer satisfaction starts with effective management and leadership and having clear measures for customer satisfaction in all aspects of the business.

Customer service training refers to teaching employees the knowledge, skills and competencies required to increase customer satisfaction. Customer service classes can be taught in a traditional classroom setting with workbooks or DVD and a trainer, through various methods of e-learning (web-based training), or a blend (blended learning) of the two.
An advantage of classroom training is that participants can discuss best practices with each other and build a solid team foundation. Drawbacks include workforce management when scheduling a large number of people off the job at one time and the cost of travel if participants need to travel to the training location.

A main advantage of e-learning is that participants can be scheduled for training in a staggered fashion to allow for job coverage. Another is that participants can work at their own paces and take whatever time is needed in order to develop a thorough understanding of the content. A drawback of e-learning is that without management oversight, there may not be a satisfactory completion rate.

It matters
Good or bad, customer service leaves an indelible impression on potential and existing customers, even in today’s fast paced, technological environment. And truth be told, most customers will endure more, pay more and show fierce loyalty for courteous treatment, small perks and the feeling of being valued.  The small perks can take the form of liberal ‘return policy’, businesses that acknowledge and reward your ‘relationship anniversary’ with them, or service with a smile.

Remember that the big money isn’t as much in winning customers as in keeping customers. Each individual customer’s perception of your company will determine how well you do this and that perception will depend on the level of customer service you provide. Your relationship with your customers is at the heart of your business; you ignore them at your peril. Think about ways that you can develop a good relationship with your customers and you will reap the rewards. And that just makes good business sense even on bad days!

(The writer is a corporate director with over 25 years’ senior managerial experience. He can be contacted at lionwije@live.com)