One of the most important lessons learned by companies early in the 21st century is that to continue to grow and thrive, the customer needs to come first. It sounds simple, but successful organizations recognize that customer satisfaction stems from a series of interconnected events and customer loyalty drives profitability and growth. This complete experience can cause a customer to become a champion for your organization. Good service results when the provider exceeds the customer’s expectations. Quality service is one of those concepts that is easy to talk about but difficult to deliver. Delivering quality service requires tremendous energy, skill and determination.
Creating Loyal Customers
What’s new in customer service? Automated phone menus with the multiple voice prompts, listening to endless choices and starting over if we miss our cue, and service calls placed half way around the world which can create unique communication difficulties.
We’ve all experienced the frustration. Imagine your customer having that same experience trying to get service from your organization. According to experts, more than 50% of customers will discontinue doing business with a company not because of price or quality, but because of negative experiences in dealing with the human side of doing business.
Today’s customer is more educated, better prepared, and has more alternatives than ever before. In this regard, research indicates that merely satisfying customers is not enough. In order to turn customers into fans who will not only remain loyal to your product or service, but will spread the good word, you need to exceed expectations and provide exceptional customer service.
Challenges to achieving high levels of customer focus and loyalty generally fall under one or more of the following areas:
P Process: How the company or organization operates on a daily basis. This includes how the company communicates and aligns the features and value of the product or service with customer expectations.
R Roles: Who does what in the company or organization? This includes agreement on tasks and responsibilities and holding people accountable to these.
I Interpersonal Issues: How customer service personnel get along with each other and with other departments. This includes such things as attitude, teamwork and loyalty.
D Direction: How the company defines and communicates the overall and departmental vision and mission.
E External Pressures: The resources available to the customer service department, such as time and money. These may or may not be out of our control.
Keys to creating top-notch customer service are: BE SURE!
B Broad product knowledge
E Extreme desire to help
S Sincere interest in customer situation
U Understanding of customer expectations
R Respect for customer point of view
E Empowered with authority to provide
