Is your customer service good or great?

Tuesday, August 30th, 2011

All customer service should be good–anything less will have negative repercussions on your business. However, there is good customer service and there is great customer service. Great customer service goes above and beyond, it is memorable and will work to help promote your business, not just maintain it.

The article “15 Truths About Great Customer Service“  provides a list of what defines “great” service. Some qualities are the following:

• Consistent
• Sustainable
• Treats all customers equally (does not reserve good service for A listers)
• Available 24/7
• Proactive, not reactive

As we have mentioned before, each industry has different criteria for customer service. You may not need to have customer service 24/7.

Think about your industry and what separates the good from the great. Make your own checklist.

Tags: good vs. great customer service
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Responding to particular needs

Thursday, August 25th, 2011

All customer service should not be built equal. Depending on the industry, there are different considerations to be taken, and needs to be met.

In some industries (retail, hospitality, etc), the primary function of customer service is to respond to issues dealing with sales. In others (service providers), it has to do with billing. For the restaurant business, customer service may have to do with reservations and responding to diners concerns.

In order to be effective, customer service must understand what its users need and demand. What are the most likely issues?

According to an article in the American Medical News, the health insurance industry has very poor customer service. Why? Because:

Management consulting firm Accenture published a report that found expectations of good customer service have risen sharply in the past five years, but insurers are failing to meet those expectations. The report’s authors say insurers are investing in technology instead of understanding the needs of their customers.

Perhaps if health insurance companies surveyed what their members needs are, they could be more responsive. What kinds of issues do health insurance customers need help with? Starting with that question could make insurers be more responsive.

Not every industry serves their customers in the same way. It stands to reason that depending on what customers need from a particular organization or company, that customer service would be customized to those needs.

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A simple way to build customer loyalty

Tuesday, August 23rd, 2011

The first goal of customer service may be to ensure the customer-company relationship is working. The second goal might well be to build customer loyalty. After all, if a customer has issues, and those issues are handled WELL, then the customer will be more likely to stick around.

Many companies use loyalty programs to encourage customer retention. There is nothing wrong with this of course–it is the idea behind frequent flier mile programs, and frequent buyer discounts. However, there is something much less programmatic, and perhaps less costly: send PRINTED (not electronic) thank you notes.

According to the article “How Thank You Cards Build Customer Loyalty” on the American Express Open Forum website, these cards can serve several purposes:

• They show, in a tangible way, that you care
• The break through the digital clutter
• Help build relationships
• Are memorable

In a world where email and text have taken over printed communications and phone calls, an old-fashioned thank you card has become so unusual that it takes customers by surprise. There are other small tokens that a company could also undertake to thank a customer, such as gift cards to national stores.

The most important part of the thank you card is the thank you. Many companies forget to thank their customers for their business–there is no quicker way to feel like you have been taken for granted.

Tags: thank you cards in customer service
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Believing the customer or not

Thursday, August 18th, 2011

Last week, we discussed a customer service philosophy in which a company can set forth how it views customer service. One of the issues to explore is how the customer (and his/her complaints) is viewed.

Some companies automatically choose to NOT believe the customer’s complaints, placing the burden of proof on the customer. Other companies automatically choose to believe the customer and take all the blame for the problem. We discussed Nordstrom’s for instance. The customer is always right at Nordstrom’s. A customer can return any item for any reason, no questions asked. Other retailers are not so accommodating–customers will have to provide proof of purchase, and ID, and a reason. BestBuy took some heat early this year for requiring all sorts of identification. Why? Because BestBuy does not believe the customer.

There are companies that will resist the customer’s explanations. For instance, if there is a billing error, it must be the customer that ordered a product or service. Other companies will clear a billing error and provide a credit without questioning the customer.

Some companies are suspicious of all customers, and put into effect systems that put the customer on the defensive. The customer is never going to like this. A company may protect its bottom line this way, but at the expense of a good customer interaction.

Choosing to believe the customer (always) will be something a company has to decide to do. The systems and interactions will follow.

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Common courtesy in customer service is not common

Tuesday, August 16th, 2011

According to the article “Customer service all about common courtesy” in the Idaho Press Tribune,  so-called “common courtesy” is the backbone of good customer service.  Courtesies that define personal interactions, such as greeting someone, answering the phone,  being helpful, should define customer service interactions as well.

Sadly, however, common courtesy is not common. How many times have you walked into a store and had the clerk ignore you? How many times have you phoned an organization and gotten voice mail, and your call never returned? As the author of the article above says, courtesy should be a priority and will result in repeat business.

Nordstrom’s, the department store, has certainly embraced the concept of customer service. In the article “Nordstrom’s customer service catalyzes growth” in the San Francisco Examiner, the author explains how the retailer’s focus on the customer has propelled it forward and helped the bottom line.  In fact:

For the most part, industry observers says, the Nordstroms have succeeded by making customer service the good they’re really selling.

“Nordstrom’s claim to fame has been customer service,” says Richard Dickson, president of Jones Group, which owns Jones New York, Anne Klein, and other apparel brands. “They led the charge and to some extent invented” the concept, he says.

Because it is not common, Nordstrom’s approach to customer service has set it apart.

Tags: common courtesy and customer service, importance of courtesy, Nordstrom's and customer service
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What do your customers want to hear?

Thursday, August 11th, 2011

Every business has different customer issues. Some businesses have issues with billing, others with product, some with delivery and so forth.  This is why it is important for your business to define what your customers are going to want help with, and what would that help sound like.

In essence, you want to put yourself in your customer’s shoes. What would your customers want to hear from you when they contact you with any type of issue?

Christopher Elliot who writes on customer service issues for BNet.com has the following article: “5 Simple Things to Say to Win Over a Customer.” Elliot counsels businesses to start with a personal greeting (how many times are customers greeted with a phone tree and a request for information instead?). Then he suggests these steps:

• Asking “How may I help you?”
• Remaining with the customer until the issue is fixed
• Providing contact information
• Ending by thanking the customer for his/her business.

Clearly, these are basic yet crucial steps, which help the customer feel that his/her issue is being taken seriously and being resolved, and also that he/she is important to your business.

Another exercise is to think, again as if you are the customer, what you would not want to hear. Examples of what customers don’t want to hear are: excuses, “that’s not our problem,”  “we can’t/won’t help you,” or “call later.”

Tags: what to say to customers
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Developing a customer service philosophy

Tuesday, August 9th, 2011

Perhaps there is no more important task in improving customer service than developing a customer service philosophy. This philosophy would encompass everything your company believes about customer service. Here are some guiding questions:

• How important is customer service to your organization?
• How do you want customers to feel when dealing with your company?
• What is the perfect customer service interaction?
• What type of customer service experience do you want to create (friendly, efficient, quick, in depth)?

Once you have decided what your customer philosophy is, you can go create policies to enforce your views.

John Foley has written a great article on AllBusiness entitled: Customer Service: More Than Just Icing on a Cake. In it he provided ten tips to perfect customer service. The first two are:

1. Define how you view customer service: Is the customer always right? Is the customer entitled to equal compensation? Is the customer contacted by management on every complaint? These are important steps to define.

2. Outline a customer service policy based on how you as an owner perceive customer service. Make sure the outline is based on common sense. If the customer is upset, make them happy. When little Jimmy cries, Mommy does anything to make him stop. The same holds true with customers.

Having guiding principles and policies will ensure that your customers know where they stand and where you stand in relation to their needs.

Tags: customer service philosophy, customer service policies
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What motivates good customer service?

Thursday, August 4th, 2011

Good customer service should be motivated by an honest desire to attend to your customer’s needs. However, in most cases good customer service is motivated by other factors like the bottom line or bonuses or public relations.  Does it matter what is the motivation as long as the customer gets good service? Perhaps not, but it does indicate what values the organization/company has.

Social media networks like Twitter have increased pressure on companies to provide efficient and effective customer service, not only because of the instantaneous nature of communicating via social media, but because of the shame factor. Social media allows people to broadcast their thoughts to virtually the whole world. Social media allows sharing, which really amplifies the message. If a customer is disgruntled or unhappy with a company, he/she can let many others know.  It is no longer a one to one interaction.

Sadly, many companies (mostly the monopolies) had hidden behind the one customer vs. big company service model, meaning that whatever the company said or did, the customer had to accept with little or no recourse. With social media shame, these companies have had to adjust because they are no longer dealing with one customer but with thousands of others. They are no longer dealing with a problem, but rather with their image.

Does it matter if the shame factor/image upholding is what is motivating improved customer service? As mentioned above, it says more about a company’s values, but what matters is that the effect is customer satisfaction. Increased customer satisfaction is good for all parties involved.

Tags: customer satisfaction importance, motivation for customer service
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Perception, reality and its impact on customer service

Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011

Perception–they way your customers and other stakeholders see you–affects whether they do business with you or not. At times perception does not match reality, and at times it does.  Businesses and organizations should strive to have positive perceptions, and to have the reality match with the perception.

If a business is perceived to be unethical, for instance, customers will think twice about being tainted by association. But on the other hand, if a business is perceived as trustworthy, customers will feel better about providing their credit card numbers.

How do you make sure your customers have a good perception of you? According to Christopher Elliot on Bnet.com there are “5 Wasy to Earn A  Customer’s Trust.” These include:

• Live up to your promises
• Be available for customer interaction
• Listen to your customers (surveys are a great way to do this)
• Always be ethical

People prefer doing business with people (organizations) they trust. Trust is earned, but if you are perceived as unethical or unreliable, you will not be building trust based relationships with your customers.

Trying to create a perception of trust that is not backed by reality will backfire. Take a look at any of the scandals that involved unethical actions of the main players (ENRON, Bernie Madoff, etc.). People trusted these organizations and individuals–in some cases with large sums of money–only to find that in reality, things were not as they seemed. The damage was deep and long-lasting.

If your customers perceive your services to be not trustworthy, they will also not trust your customer service. This creates a whole slew of  problems, including a downgrade of employee morale and will eventually impact your bottom line.

Tags: building trust with customers, perception of a company
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