What's so hard about Customer Service?

"You'll never believe what happened to me today." Everyone's got a customer service story. One of the problems with customer service, though, is that everyone has a unique view of what it entails. It's the epitome of a moving target.

One person's excellent service may represent barely adequate service to someone else. What impresses one customer may make absolutely no impression on another. To complicate matters, what a customer believes to be good service in one context may be unacceptable in another situation or at another time. Service is perceptual; it is individualized; and it is situational.

So, how can you figure out what customers want from you in terms of service? The kind and level of service that you must deliver depends on who the customer is, what her expectations are, what experience she has had with you and other firms, what your strategy is and what role customer service plays in its delivery—along with a host of other things.

Many managers and executives are uncomfortable with this notion of variable service delivery; they would much prefer to be able to pin down service and to be able to standardize it so that it can be consistently delivered. But I don't believe service should be the same for everyone. In fact, the value of service as a relationship-building tool is its customizability. Simply out, some customers require and deserve better service than others. In some situations, you will want to be able to provide service that will impress customers so as to make an emotional connection. Whenever your employees can say to a customer, "Let me take care of that for you," you are delivering a higher level of service than the customer was expecting.

Yet customer service gets far less attention than it deserves in many companies, simply because managers do not realize or accept its importance in influencing customer satisfaction and loyalty. Many view customer service provision as a cost, rather than an investment. Many spend a great deal of time looking for ways to reduce that cost, without appreciating the impact it has on the customer's feelings toward the firm.

At the same time, managers tend to focus on what I call the functional side of service provision: the speed and accuracy of service delivery, in particular. Do we arrive on time? Do we have things in stock? Do we answer incoming calls within 20 seconds? These are the aspects of service with which managers in many firms are most comfortable, mainly because they are most easily and frequently measured in conventional customer satisfaction surveys. But they are a dangerously limiting view of service and not nearly as all-encompassing as the customer's view of service.

Four levels of service

Another element that gets in the way of impressive service delivery is management's very simplistic view of customer service. I can think of at least four levels of customer service, each of which involves the creation of progressively more emotional value for customers.

To the customer, service involves more than just the functional delivery of service (the first level, which, in a world where companies like FedEx have practically perfected technical service provision, customers take as a given). Customers care how easy you make it for them to communicate with you. This opens the door to a discussion of your phone system, your web site and your customer service center—not to mention whether customers can find someone to serve them in your store. Increasingly, when you keep them on hold for 20 minutes, don't respond to their email inquiries and ask them to deal with unknowledgeable and unhelpful staff, they will walk away.

At the third level, companies need to understand how customer service is linked to the people they employ. My experience suggests that customers are most likely to equate the notion of service with the way they are treated by employees.

Finally, the level of service that customers experience is a powerful influence on how customers feel emotionally toward a company. Poor service can make a customer feel neglected, unimportant, frustrated, angry or even humiliated. Surprisingly good service leads to emotions such as comfort, relief, delight or excitement.

That holistic view again

Yet, many companies have a less-than-holistic view of their value proposition. Customer service must be seen to be an integral part of what we offer the customer. I recently encountered a major company that has separate marketing, sales and customer service departments, each of which prepares its own annual plan and sets its own budgets, without consulting with the others. In that firm, customer service is defined mainly as the operation of the call center. To the customer, service means much more.

It is far too simplistic to ask customers to rate your customer service on the predictable 10-point scale. It's much too complex a concept for customers to reduce it to a single number. You can't interpret it, anyway. So last month they gave us a rating of 8.1 on customer service. What does that mean? Very little. There's no direction on how we can improve. Anyway, the only people who are rating you are current customers. How would those customers who stormed out or hung up in disgust rate your customer service? You will never know. Yet theirs is a much more important number.

Customer service is not optional. It's not trivial. And it's not easily standardized. Don't make the mistake that one Canadian bank made of treating customer service as a promotion. That bank offered customers $5 if they had to wait in line more than five minutes in its branches. Customers were generally not impressed. To them, a wait time of five minutes was not the issue. Of course, wait time is important—but not nearly as important as being served politely and efficiently once you reach the counter.

Customer service is extremely complex, much like value, satisfaction and the increasingly popular customer experience. To apply such concepts effectively, management must appreciate their complexity. To utilize customer service to increase customer loyalty, to reinforce the positioning of the brand and to gain a competitive advantage, companies much have a strategy to guide its development and implementation.


What say you? Comments? Ideas?


Eric Fraterman
eric@customerfocusconsult.com
www.customerfocusconsult.com

#4: Ten ways for turning the most demanding customers into most delighted.

Kelly Mooney wrote these Ten Demandments: Rules to Live By in the Age of the Demanding Customer by . I felt they were worth sharing with you.
Beyond all the hype about delighting customers by meeting and exceeding their expectations, is the simple reality that most businesses just don't come close to knowing what customers care about. Today's consumers expect more and tolerate less, in part because they have so many options. With the ever-expanding explosion of information readily available and easily accessible via the Internet, modern consumers are able to research and comparison shop an endless array of both products and services from the comfort of their own homes or offices. Welcome to the age of the demanding consumer.

Mooney's Ten Demandments for turning the most demanding consumers into the most delighted customers are:

1. Earn my trust through respect, integrity, advocacy and quality.
2. Inspire me through immersive experiences, motivating messages and related philanthropy.
3. Make it easy with simplicity, speed and usefulness.
4. Put me in charge of making choices and give me control.
5. Guide me with expert advice, education and information.
6. Give me 24/7 access, from anywhere, at anytime.
7. Get to know me — listen, learn and study me, the real consumer, not just data.
8. Exceed my expectations with uncommon courtesies and surprising services.
9. Reward me with points programs, privileges of access or other worthwhile extras.
10. Stay with me with follow through and meaningful follow-up.

A detailed description of four of the key demandments follows in this series of blog entries. Mooney provides specific action items you can use to tackle the challenges of the ever-demanding customer and secure your company's future.

Demandment #10: Stay With Me
The final demandment brings these guidelines full circle, with the concepts of follow-through, follow-up, and maintaining a following — even during the quiet periods when companies and consumers are apart. One of the most difficult demandments to achieve, Stay With Me is the most open-ended and the least defined in terms of specific time-periods, traditional tactics and experience drivers.

At the same time, it's one of the most critical elements for success as it's all about retention — keeping the customers inside the loyalty loop as long as possible. Wrap things up neatly and beautifully and you'll set the stage for further interactions. Research indicates that improving retention rates can increase profitability by 25 to 50 percent.

In order to improve your customer retention rates, Mooney presents five methods from the consumer's point of view.

1. It's not over until it's over. Make returns hassle-free, including gift returns, and issue immediate credit. Stores such as Sears, Old Navy and The Gap offer gift receipts, as well as providing 30-day return policies.
2. Keep your promises. Make promises and honor your warrantees without hassle or delay.
3. Give me an out. Clearly communicate easy options for customers to cancel transactions or relationships with your company.
4. Keep up with me. Provide a way for consumers to easily update their information, lodge complaints or offer suggestions. Offer user-friendly websites that promote contact with your company. Quarterly newsletters, such as Ford's No Boundaries or Nike's NikeGoddess, which offer information based on the target audience's interests help maintain relationships.
5. Be there for me. Evolve to meet customers' ongoing needs through innovative products and unrelenting helpfulness. With the aging population and changing demographics, a hip clothing company, for example, could market roomier yet stylish clothing to accommodate the "middle-aged spread." Reinvent your relevancy in consumer lives and find ways to celebrate the things that matter to you and your customers.

One iconic American company that embodies the concepts of retention with persistent and persuasive branding is Hershey's. This simple, inexpensive chocolate has emerged as a brand with a legacy, a destination and an experience. Consumers can't pay for groceries, buy gas, or rent a video without being tempted by a Hershey Bar or Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. There are Hershey's Kisses wrapped in colorful foil to match every holiday and season. Guests can visit the spa at the Hotel Hershey, in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and be treated to whipped cocoa baths and chocolate fondue wraps. Visitors can wander down the streets of Hershey, named Chocolate and Cocoa Avenues, explore the Hershey Amusement Park, and delight in the Chocolate World Visitor's Center, topped off with free samples.

What say you? Comments? Ideas?


Eric Fraterman
eric@customerfocusconsult.com
www.customerfocusconsult.com

#3: Ten ways for turning the most demanding customers into most delighted.

Kelly Mooney wrote these Ten Demandments: Rules to Live By in the Age of the Demanding Customer by . I felt they were worth sharing with you.

Beyond all the hype about delighting customers by meeting and exceeding their expectations, is the simple reality that most businesses just don't come close to knowing what customers care about. Today's consumers expect more and tolerate less, in part because they have so many options. With the ever-expanding explosion of information readily available and easily accessible via the Internet, modern consumers are able to research and comparison shop an endless array of both products and services from the comfort of their own homes or offices. Welcome to the age of the demanding consumer.

Mooney's Ten Demandments for turning the most demanding consumers into the most delighted customers are:

1. Earn my trust through respect, integrity, advocacy and quality.
2. Inspire me through immersive experiences, motivating messages and related philanthropy.
3. Make it easy with simplicity, speed and usefulness.
4. Put me in charge of making choices and give me control.
5. Guide me with expert advice, education and information.
6. Give me 24/7 access, from anywhere, at anytime.
7. Get to know me — listen, learn and study me, the real consumer, not just data.
8. Exceed my expectations with uncommon courtesies and surprising services.
9. Reward me with points programs, privileges of access or other worthwhile extras.
10. Stay with me with follow through and meaningful follow-up.

A detailed description of four of the key demandments follows in this series of blog entries. Mooney provides specific action items you can use to tackle the challenges of the ever-demanding customer and secure your company's future.

Demandment #8: Exceed My Expectations
Managing expectations can be a tricky business: set them too high and they're hard to meet, set them too low and undersell what you offer. From the consumer perspective, Exceed My Expectations is about sending consumers on an exciting journey that takes them from trust to loyalty, from expectation to delight. In forging an invisible but tenable bridge to the opposite side of the transactional equation, you prove that your company delivers on its original promise, and then goes above and beyond. Doing something out of the ordinary, even far more than necessary, proves again and again that your customers will get more than they pay for, or even anticipate, each and every time they do business with you.
Exceeding expectations encompasses things such as offering an apology before anyone even complains about a minor problem, being proactive rather than reactive, fixing those little things that aren't quite right, and making amends in big ways when even a small response would suffice. In Mooney's words: "it's about being better than you have to be, not only because your consumers expect or demand it, but because they deserve it."

Mooney presents several methods for successfully exceeding your consumer expectations.

• Overcompensate. Put services and features in place to make up for channel or competitive deficiencies or weaknesses. For example, Mooney's favorite local toy store stands out from the industry giants by offering free gift-wrapping on all purchases year-round.
• Do more than you should. Make "delivering more than we promise" the philosophy of your company. Remember the idea of the "baker's dozen," giving a regular customer thirteen instead of twelve rolls? Little things can go a surprisingly long way like the little static sticker Jiffy Lube puts on your windshield as a reminder of your next oil change.
• Surprise me with extras. Promote extras designed to delight consumers even when they seem happy and satisfied. Small, on-the-spot incentives can inspire spending — one successful "extra" was Victoria's Secret offering $5 off any purchase simply for trying on a Body by Victoria bra.
• Uncommon courtesies. Have employees willingly extend apologies and have definitive guidelines for immediately satisfying a customer. In other words, turn on the charm, dial up the sincerity, and you will win customers over. And train your employees about the importance of customer appreciation. Target's sales associates are trained to make eye contact and offer a warm "Thanks so much for shopping with us."
  Exceeding expectations is about delivering an experience that transcends the actual purchase or service — it's that intangible "WOW!" And, exceeding expectations isn't about providing perfection, but rather it's about enthusiastic, relevant responsiveness to consumer needs.

What say you? Comments? Ideas?


Eric Fraterman
eric@customerfocusconsult.com
www.customerfocusconsult.com

#2: Ten ways for turning the most demanding customers into most delighted.[2]

Kelly Mooney wrote these Ten Demandments: Rules to Live By in the Age of the Demanding Customer by . I felt they were worth sharing with you.

Beyond all the hype about delighting customers by meeting and exceeding their expectations, is the simple reality that most businesses just don't come close to knowing what customers care about. Today's consumers expect more and tolerate less, in part because they have so many options. With the ever-expanding explosion of information readily available and easily accessible via the Internet, modern consumers are able to research and comparison shop an endless array of both products and services from the comfort of their own homes or offices. Welcome to the age of the demanding consumer.

Mooney's Ten Demandments for turning the most demanding consumers into the most delighted customers are:

1. Earn my trust through respect, integrity, advocacy and quality.
2. Inspire me through immersive experiences, motivating messages and related philanthropy.
3. Make it easy with simplicity, speed and usefulness.
4. Put me in charge of making choices and give me control.
5. Guide me with expert advice, education and information.
6. Give me 24/7 access, from anywhere, at anytime.
7. Get to know me — listen, learn and study me, the real consumer, not just data.
8. Exceed my expectations with uncommon courtesies and surprising services.
9. Reward me with points programs, privileges of access or other worthwhile extras.
10. Stay with me with follow through and meaningful follow-up.

A detailed description of four of the key demandments follows in this series of blog entries. Mooney provides specific action items you can use to tackle the challenges of the ever-demanding customer and secure your company's future.

Demandment #2: Inspire Me
According to Mooney, inspiration is the ultimate form of communion between a company and its consumers. Brand survival depends on creating an emotional bond with consumers, and the companies that successfully establish this bond are the ones that map the products, services, experiences, or ideals that resonate with their customers. Without doubt, creating long-term and meaningful connections with consumers is far from easy. While people cry at commercials featuring newborn babies or reunited relatives, and kids get excited about the latest toy from a blockbuster movie, the brands that become part of customers' lives evoke far more passion and loyalty than simple tearjerker advertising or tie-in marketing.

A fine example of brand passion is all about doughnuts: The mere fact that consumers can find inspiration in a hot doughnut truly is a remarkable thing, but it is also remarkably true in the case of Krispy Kreme. The once-small Southern chain has emerged as one of America's most beloved brands by tapping the natural enthusiasm of its loyal customers and their endless delight at talking about doughnuts. Largely through word-of-mouth, the company has been wildly successful, with more than 200 stores in 33 states (and now growing internationally). Importantly, even with its tremendous expansion and success, Krispy Kreme remains true to the homespun brand and its dedication to community giving, inspiring its loyal customers to continue talking and consuming.

Inspiration moves consumers to be both long-term and loyal. Here are a few of Mooney's guidelines your company can employ to inspire customers.

Have a heart. Support philanthropic organizations relevant to your customers. The Avon Breast Cancer Crusade has raised more than $150 million since 1993 — it's the right cause with the right message — we care about our customers and their lives.

Connect with me. Stand for something meaningful that reaches consumers on an emotional level. Krispy Kreme's brand promise of "magic and memory" achieves this beautifully.

Create the theater. Offer a sensory-driven environment that engages consumers. The House of Blues, whether it's in the Vegas hotel or the New Orleans nightclub, offers an authenticity of experience whereby consumers are immersed in a world of blues music and genuine memorabilia rather than just a staged setting.

Motivate me. Provide encouragement and stimulation for achieving self-enhancement and positive results. The astounding effect of Oprah's Book Club has rejuvenated the flagging book publishing/selling industry across North America.

Companies able to reach and inspire the spirits of their consumers deliver experiences that extend beyond simple consumerism and commercialism. Products and services can garner experiences that are deeply felt, genuine and enchantingly memorable. Just as true believers are not born but rather are inspired, so too are loyal customers inspired. Don't just try to grab your customer's attention, seek a real connection with them.

What say you? Comments? Ideas?


Eric Fraterman
eric@customerfocusconsult.com
www.customerfocusconsult.com

#1: Ten ways for turning the most demanding customers into most delighted.

Kelly Mooney wrote these Ten Demandments: Rules to Live By in the Age of the Demanding Customer by . I felt they were worth sharing with you.

Beyond all the hype about delighting customers by meeting and exceeding their expectations, is the simple reality that most businesses just don't come close to knowing what customers care about. Today's consumers expect more and tolerate less, in part because they have so many options. With the ever-expanding explosion of information readily available and easily accessible via the Internet, modern consumers are able to research and comparison shop an endless array of both products and services from the comfort of their own homes or offices. Welcome to the age of the demanding consumer.

Mooney's Ten Demandments for turning the most demanding consumers into the most delighted customers are:

1. Earn my trust through respect, integrity, advocacy and quality.
2. Inspire me through immersive experiences, motivating messages and related philanthropy.
3. Make it easy with simplicity, speed and usefulness.
4. Put me in charge of making choices and give me control.
5. Guide me with expert advice, education and information.
6. Give me 24/7 access, from anywhere, at anytime.
7. Get to know me — listen, learn and study me, the real consumer, not just data.
8. Exceed my expectations with uncommon courtesies and surprising services.
9. Reward me with points programs, privileges of access or other worthwhile extras.
10. Stay with me with follow through and meaningful follow-up.

A detailed description of four of the key demandments follows in this series of blog entries. Mooney provides specific action items you can use to tackle the challenges of the ever-demanding customer and secure your company's future.

Demandment #1: Earn My Trust
The first demandment, Earn My Trust, is the single most important demandment. Not only is it the heart of the new consumer experience, it is also the center of the old-school consumer experience. Regardless of where a buyer interacts with a brand, be it a store, a service center, online or on the phone, trust is a fluid commodity that ebbs and flows with each experience. As Mooney points out, a bad experience is often more memorable than a good one and consumers tend to remember when they've been treated poorly more often than when they've been treated well.
In this era of seemingly endless options, with an infinite number of stores and brands and choices, companies possessing an historical relationship with customers and who have provided generation after generation with products and services are ahead of the game in maintaining and extending consumer loyalty. For example, in Harris Polls, consumers frequently rank Johnson & Johnson, makers of Johnson's Baby Shampoo, at the top of the list of most trusted brands. Any brand that succeeds in getting millions of consumers to entrust their babies to its products is clearly onto a good thing.
Earning trust, from the consumer point of view, can be achieved by following these edicts.

• Straight talk, not slick talk. Make clear and honest claims. For example, Land's End guarantee: "Guaranteed. Period." is simple, clear and true.
• Prove you're on my side. Adopt policies that reflect a philosophy of customer advocacy, even if it means losing a sale. Progressive Insurance is an excellent role model, offering free price comparisons and assisting consumers in shopping for insurance rather than simply selling their own products.
• Don't be pushy getting information. Make questions optional, relevant and understated. Ponder this: Why does Radio Shack need a ZIP code before a customer can buy a battery?
• Align your marketing and sales channels to present a unified face to customers. Clearly communicate key information and sales conditions across all channels. According to Jupiter Media Metrix, Inc., 70 percent of online shoppers said that poor online communications could lead them to spend less time and money at their retail store.
• Protect me. Employ a Chief Privacy Officer to ensure consumer privacy and security. One example of a protective response was when IKEA's online catalogue sign-up list was compromised, IKEA sent out an email notifying their customers of the breach.
  This final trust-earning behavior is particularly salient with today's information sharing technology. American Express is a terrific example of a corporation protecting its customers: In early 2001 the company sent all cardholders a comprehensive and easy-to-understand notice explaining how they protect cardholder privacy when collecting and using personal information. American Express also provided customers with easy and actionable opt-out choices. These proactive protective measures clearly illustrate the truth behind the opening sentence of the privacy notice mailing: "At American Express, maintaining our customer's trust and confidence is a high priority."
  

Next blog entry deals with Demandment #2; stay tuned.


What say you? Comments? Ideas?


Eric Fraterman
eric@customerfocusconsult.com
www.customerfocusconsult.com

Customer service quotes for inspiration...

If the Customer is King why do so many treat their customers as republicans, with a tendency to chop off their heads.
UNKNOWN

There are no traffic jams along the extra mile.
ROGER STAUBACH

Quality in a service or product is not what you put into it.
It is what the client or customer gets out of it.
PETER DRUCKER

Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends.
WALT DISNEY

If we don’t take care of our customers, someone else will.
UNKNOWN

Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify!
HENRY DAVID THOREAU

If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell 6 friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends.
JEFF BEZOS

Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong.
DONALD PORTER

Give trust, and you'll get it double in return
KEES KAMIES

The quality of our work depends on the quality of our people.
UNKNOWN

One of the deep secrets of life is that all that is really worth doing is what we do for others.
LEWIS CAROL

The goal as a company is to have customer service that is not just the best, but legendary.
SAM WALTON

The longer you wait, the harder it is to produce outstanding customer service.
WILLIAM H. DAVIDOW

Mistakes are the portals of discovery.
JAMES JOYCE

Being on par in terms of price and quality only gets you into the game. Service wins the game.
TONY ALESSANDRA

Our greatest asset is the customer! Treat each customer as if they are the only one!
LAURICE LEITAO

People expect good service but few are willing to give it.
ROBERT GATELY

Well done is better than well said.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

To my customer:
I may not have the answer, but I’ll find it.
I may not have the time, but I’ll make it.
UNKNOWN

Here is a simple but powerful rule - always give people more than what they expect to get.
NELSON BOSWELL

In business you get what you want by giving other people what they want.
ALICE MACDOUGALL

You’ll never have a product or price advantage again. They can be easily duplicated, but a strong customer service culture can’t be copied.
JERRY FRITZ

Although your customers won’t love you if you give bad service, your competitors will.
KATE ZABRISKIE

It's about People, stupid.

A few days ago I wrote about findings by Ken Blanchard that good customer service requires inspired people. Let me share this story with you that totally underlines the point.


No, I am not offending my readers but clearly remember this as a title of someone's presentation which I use to make my point here.

I live in Toronto, Canada. Over the years the same 'postie' has always delivered the mail at the house and I have gotten to know this very nice chap. I talked to him on many occasions and we always waved to each other when I was walking the dog which he liked and often he even carried dog treats with him. Last year I moved house and bought from Canada Post a 6-months forwarding subscription. A couple of months after it expired I happened to park my car in my old street on my way to a lunch appointment and saw 'my postie'. I said Hello and he was delighted to see me and of course asked about my dog. He then mentioned that at the station some more of my mail had piled up since the subscription had expired. Although I told him that I was quite certain that by now only junk mail would continue to be sent to my old address he made a really surprising offer to me. He said: "I know where you live now… this is on my way home… I am not supposed to do this but I will drop it off for you… ". Lo and behold, that afternoon the promised mail was in my mail box!!! [never mind that I was right about it being junk mail].

Now, Canada Post is heavily unionized and the postal unions were for years very antagonistic, in the face of antagonistic management. But, things have changed fortunately. In this environment, here is a real customer service hero doing what he believes is right for 'his customers'. There is actually an old saying in this business: "Good People are stopped by Bad Management and Bad Process".

Of course, great service begins and ends with good people, such as "my" postie. They have the right stuff between their ears and are unsung customer service heroes. Actually, this experience made me determined to continue to point out to my clients early in my engagements that they need to take a look at their hiring policies and process.

If you want to create a customer focused culture where service excellence is the norm, throughout the organization [externally as well as internally], you have to hire right. Everybody needs to have "the right stuff". I always recommend pre-employment testing and not even to interview a person unless (s)he has passed a basic service aptitude testing hurdle. Skills can be trained but not aptitude.

Of course the People dimension of Customer Focus has more to it, but if in creating great customer service experience "It's about People, stupid…", then this is a great starting point.


What say you? Comments? Ideas?


Eric Fraterman
eric@customerfocusconsult.com
www.customerfocusconsult.com

Customer service training is not a panacea.

I would like to share with you that often I receive calls that reveal that the prospective client experiences the need to provide better service or that front line staff want to be better equipped to deal with 'difficult' customers. This then leads to the conclusion that training will help solve the problem and the organization undertakes a search for a customer service training resource.

It is often revealing if the question is raised what causes the perceived service pains and I suggest that we should first investigate the causes before addressing the symptoms. Quite often we end up conducting a Customer Experience Workshop first to get a handle on what the customer contact or touch points are (Moments of Truth). We systematically analyze the customer experience for each contact point and define what is happening and what should happen. We pay attention to the presence of, or needs for standards and measures. We observe the occurrence of any non-value added activities (for which the customers would not pay you if they knew you were doing it). We harvest numerous improvement opportunities. And, Yes, (customer service) training is often identified here.

When I put forward this approach my prospective clients realize that training is a piece of the puzzle and that the total puzzle is larger. Now we have a better context for training and we are in a position to tailor our existing program (Customers Forever) to specific needs and context. We also use this workshop to harvest anecdotes and real stories and take note of the specific language used in the organization or industry.

So, the lesson is that if you think you want training, your real need maybe to identify causes first and then address symptoms with a variety of interventions, of which training is one.


What say you? Comments? Ideas?


Eric Fraterman
eric@customerfocusconsult.com
www.customerfocusconsult.com

Good customer service requires inspired employees

See also my blog entry: It's about People, stupid.

Organizations that have excited and passionate people are more likely to create a service-focused culture that delivers great customer service.

That’s the conclusion of a new study by The Ken Blanchard Companies, which also concludes that employees are in fact an organization’s most critical customer service asset — one that requires focused development and nurturing.

Research found that most organizations agree that customer loyalty is a powerful driver of organizational success and one that ties directly to the bottom line. Blanchard survey data shows that 74 percent of respondents declared that their organizations were highly focused on customer service improvement.

But only 44% indicated that their organisation had a formal process for achieving these desired service improvements and only 48% said that their customer-facing employees are truly empowered to take action to resolve a negative customer experience.

The survey indicates that the most critical service improvement skills to address include:

1. Developing systems and processes that make it easy to do business with the organisation.
2. Improving the skills of customer-facing employees to diagnose the customer issue.
3. Improving problem solving skills.
4. Empowering people to utilise their scope of authority.
   

What say you? Comments? Ideas?


Eric Fraterman
eric@customerfocusconsult.com
www.customerfocusconsult.com