twelve solutions

Many people are unaware of the importance of customer service in attaining success. Organisations never stop to ask what type of service are we offering our customers or how do our customers see us? When we get into brainstorming sessions on how to increase our revenue, we should think along the lines of implementing a customer service culture.

Singapore Airlines is one company known for its high customer service standards. They remain one of the most profitable airlines to date and a lot of analysts feel that their superior customer service culture has been the primary reason for this success. Its management team has always given maximum attention to establishing and maintaining a good customer service culture. They believe its the simple and most cost effective way to remain profitable even in a recession.

Let’s think about it this way, its one thing for a waiter to serve food at a restaurant without being rude. Its another thing for the waiter to serve with a smile. Customers definitely don’t want rude attendants but the experience will last longer in our memory if the attendant has a pleasant disposition. We will also be more attuned to talking about it and definitely be happy to return again.

But just to sound a note of caution, for a customer service culture to succeed, everyone in the organisation must be involved. Its not enough for management to provide the funds and expect magic to happen. We all learn better from our elders/superiors. So if you want your staff to truly embrace a new culture why not start with yourself. How you treat them becomes a reflection of how they will treat your customers.

I read a post online and noted the writers surprise to find a top executive of one of the major courier companies on a ride with the truck driver handling deliveries to their customers. He asked the executive why he would put himself through such a tough task when he didn’t need to. The executive laughed and told him he enjoyed it and often made these trips. He said he wasn’t about to stop either. This top executive knows that without the customers being served with delight the organisation will not exist. He knows exactly what they are serving because he’s serving too.

The question we need to ask ourselves is what are we serving our customers?

In the past service providers were unconcerned with collating customer data and were okay having to obtain data from their customers at every interaction point thereby treating each transaction as a first. With customer loyalty being identified as a key success factor, organisations have gradually implemented technology to enable them keep a database of customer information.

Some large organisations are able to invest in off the shelf customer relationship management applications (CRM) which allow them effectively collect customer data and also integrate with other existing applications in-house.

However, the question here is how useful is customer data and what do organisations not keeping customer data stand to loose,if anything at all?

An organisation with a customer database gives every customer a personalised experience each and every time they interact with the organisation. Customers have been profiled and their concerns are addressed quickly. Products are tailored to suit their needs making the experience more pleasurable. Therein lies the edge for organisations with customer data, for as they saying goes “knowledge is power”. Thus we must use what we have to our advantage.

Most medium and small sized companies are discouraged by the huge sums required to facilitate data gathering. However it is important that you start a database, no matter how small or cumbersome it may look. It feels good when you walk into a store or call into a helpline and give your name or phone number and get service exactly how you want it.

Need an affordable custom built customer database? Email sales@12solutions.com for more information.

Its Christmas time again; my favourite time of the year. The season when we all engage in some form of shopping, gifts for friends and families, cards to send out our warm wishes and trips back home to meet our loved ones.

Its also the busiest time of the year for all customer service representatives. Demand for products and services doubles or sometimes triples for some companies. How are we coping with the traffic? Do we go through the same steps to ensure we give top service to all our customers or is there a drop in the service we offer?

Some of us may feel drained and snap off at our customers. Lets remember that we are all at some point (especially during this season) customers and treat all those whom we have the opportunity to serve as we would like to be served. Most especially, lets remember the reason for the season.

In the spirit of love this season, lets ensure we leave smiles on the faces of our customers as we attend to their needs.

This month we’ll take a look at another customer service buzz phrase “customer retention”. Customer retention is often used to refer to strategies employed by organisations to ensure that the keep their existing customers while trying to acquire new ones.

The true measure of customer retention should come from the following key factors: are you getting repeat business from the customers, do they buy your add-on products, are they happy to recommend you to their families and friends or do they do these things because they have no better choice? When an organisation is able to place high marks beside these questions then it may consider itself being on the right part.

For an organisation to have an effective customer retention programme in place it must routinely offer training to key customer facing staff, sharpening their customer service skills along with emphasising their value proposition as an organisation.

A relevant question is how do we as individuals contribute and ensure that the organisation is indeed scoring high marks against these questions; we must focus on giving consistent and excellent customer service, utilise any up sell or cross sell opportunities that come our way during any customer interactions. Also politely ask existing customers for referrals, when the opening emerges during our interactions.

All these things are necessary on your part as CSR’s because the bottom line remains that the customer pays the bills. Any pay rise or personal development you require from the organisation will only come easily if the organisation has a healthy balance sheet.

An interruption to service often times exposes organisations without service recovery processes in place as being incompetent and inefficient. Customers don’t expect things to be perfect always but they expect that whenever a problem occurs their first point of contact with the provider should be able to effectively fix the problem.

A key point we must remember always as CSR’s is that a problem occurs when the customer says it does. Don’t try to argue it out with the customer. An incident may appear mild to you but if the customer feels that its a serious issue then by all means treat it as such.

Service recovery simply means to return service to its normal state. And good service recovery begins when you recognise and admit that the customer has a problem. It scores you lots of points.

As CSR’s we need to be remain attentive at all times to spot a service failure from afar and begin the recovery process. Some organisations do have a process in place that serves as a guide for recovery from those blips. No one process fits all customers and problems but a guide surely helps CSR’s work within the confines of what is allowed in each organisation.

Questioning is a key customer service component that people tend to pay little attention to. As CSR’s, the key to exceeding the customers expectations lies in your ability to appropriately identify the customers needs. You must however bear in mind that the needs of your customers are not for the product or service (product features)rather their needs are for what the product or service will and can do for them (product benefits).

As CSR’s you also act as sales people for the organisation even though your job description may not explicitly say so. Identifying the needs of your customers enables relationship building and good relationships bring about some element of trust and this is a main ingredient for selling successfully.

So while you’re assisting that customer fix a problem, try and understand their needs by asking intelligent questions. They’ll definitely appreciate you a whole lot more and while your at it you might be able to increase your organisation’s market share.

This month’s feature article will focus on the internal customer. Every job function within an organisation requires rendering some form of customer service. For some of us, we may only be dealing with other departments or units within our organisations. These group of people are those we refer to as our internal customers and also deserve our best in terms of service.

Some organisations fail to focus on the primary path to exceptional customer service which is internal customer service. When we build a good internal service culture as individuals within an organisation then we set the tone for success.

As external customers,often times when we encounter problems with the product or service on offer, the most common excuse is oh, its so and so department that has failed to finish what you asked for or is taking their time to deal with the issue. This is often referred to as passing the buck. However, we believe that passing the buck is often times a manifestation of poor internal customer service.

If all departments correctly apply all the do’s and don’t s of exceptional customer service then the front line staff will never have cause to pass the buck. Communicating internally is also a key part of good internal customer service. It puts us all on the right part and reminds us all that we all have one common goal within the organisation.

This month we’ll be discussing listening and how it impacts on the customer experience. Customers expect active listening from CSR’s at every service point and watch for the slightest change in body language to determine their next course of action.

Listening isn’t just about hearing the customer; it’s also about understanding what the customer is saying. Listening involves making eye contact with the customer (or in phone conversations having a pen and paper to jot down details from the call), keeping an open and positive body language and generally making the customer know that you are listening and trying to understand what he/she is saying.

How can we achieve good listening skills? To achieve good listening skills, we need to listen to what our customers are saying with an open mind, check their voice tone so that we can try to determine what emotions they would be experiencing and listen to their body language. When we listen to our customers and actually understand what they are telling us, we can never go wrong as CSR’s.

I’ve come to realise lately that most organisations don’t give much thought to who works in their customer service departments. Recruitment is done based on “who knows who” and “he/she just needs a job”. Most CSR’s are not people who like to serve but they are thrust in the “limelight” and often times fall short of the required standards. 

Recently I met with a friend who works with one of the top banks in our country and while we were talking she spoke with excitement on how she had been moved from sales to customer service. And when I tried to probe deeper with specifics on the interview for the switch between units, her response was, “there was no interview; it was just an internal posting”.

Alarm bells rang in my head and I was wondering “gosh, what are these people up to”. Reason being that my friend is definitely not the best of “helpers”. She can be pleasant when she feels like it but a bit sassy at times and that part will be sure to tick customers off.

Customer service should be treated as a career and not just a job. Recruiting customer service personnel is a very complicated process. Some people have the passion to serve, the patience to listen, a ready smile; they make excellent customer service personnel.

It’s not enough to have this long list of questions to use during recruitment of CSR’s; rather you need to interact informally with your candidates. This interaction process allows them be themselves and affords you a rare glimpse into their personalities.

Organisations need to run frequent health checks on their customer service personnel. Always advice your staff to make a plan to leave the service environment as soon as they find that they’ve lost their initial passion for service or can no longer just bear to listen to the whines of customers.

How do we fare as organisations with our customer service personnel? As customer service managers, do we respond to our staff with a ready smile, an open ear? Or are we grouchy and unhelpful and yet expect them to be the friendly face of the business with our customers?

In a nutshell, who is serving your customers?