Customer Care and Service
Customer service is what your business delivers to achieve customer satisfaction. Some businesses deliver physical products and may not see themselves as being a service business. However, their customers still measure the business on the service that they experience both pre-sale and after-sale. So customer service is an increasingly important part of a business' activities.
Customer satisfaction
The goal of customer service is customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is what the customer feels subjectively and sometimes irrationally. There is all the difference in the world between a customer being 'satisfied' and being 'not dissatisfied'.
Marketing has moved from 'transactional marketing' to 'relationship marketing'
- Transactional marketing focused on attracting new customers and simply getting the sale.
- Relationship marketing focuses on getting customers and keeping them in the longer term using a combination of marketing, quality and customer service.
Excellence in customer service, using the idea of relationship marketing, can help you to retain customers.
- They are less likely to go to your competitors in the increasingly competitive markets where customers have more choice than ever.
- As satisfied customers, they will recommend you to others, resulting in an increase in new business. It is said that it costs up to 10 times as much to win a new customer than to keep an existing one.
- They are less likely to tell other people of bad experiences. Customers experiencing poor service are likely to tell up to 20 people about their experience, which is not a good advertisement for your business. This may deter others from even trying you out, and so you will not get the chance to impress them, even with the best or most innovative products and services.
- By focusing your attention on the customers that have the highest potential lifetime value, you can improve profitability.
- Your staff will have a 'feel good' factor because of the environment and atmosphere that leads to happy customers. This can help to attract further new customers over time.
Satisfying the Customer
Marketing is about identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer needs. It applies to customer service delivery as well as to the products and services you offer. To introduce a customer service programme, you need to take four main steps:
- Identify which of your external customers are the most valuable.
- Identify your internal and external customers.
- Find out what level of service customers want.
- Develop customer service standards and a programme to provide customer satisfaction and help build loyalty.
Step 1 : Identify which of your external customers are the most valuable
Identify which of your external customers are the most profitable. This may help you to put them into groups. This helps you to do two things:
- Prioritise the level of customer service you offer.
- Develop a profile so that you can target more new customers in the profitable groups. The lifetime value of different customer groups will differ, as will the expectations of these groups.
Step 2 : Identify your internal and external customers
Identify all 'internal customers' involved in getting your product or service to the end-customer. Ensure that they all understand the impact they have on others in this 'chain' and are able to put themselves in other employee's shoes.
The person who buys your product or service (the 'external customer') is not the only customer. The service given to other departments within your business will also impact on the level of service given to the external customer, so it is important to identify all 'customers' in the chain.
Step 3 : Find out what level of service customers want
Carry out customer satisfaction surveys with all external customer groups to identify an appropriate service level for each. If you have just a large customer base, use just a sample in each group. Since different service requirements have resources and cost implications, carrying out separate surveys will allow you to focus your attentions where they will be most profitable.
Areas to check include:
- Quality of service.
- Accuracy of service.
- Promptness of response.
- Satisfaction with facilities - e.g. parking, opening
hours, payment methods available, etc. - Staff attitude and behaviour.
- Complaint handling.
Carry out staff satisfaction surveys of internal customers to identify issues that are important to your staff. This works on the principle that happy staff make happy customers.
Step 4 : Develop customer service standards and a programme
Develop customer service standards that reflect the findings of the above surveys. Even if you are a very small business, even a few basic standards will contribute to customer service. You could start by asking those employees who deal with customers regularly, such as receptionists, to write down what they do already as a foundation.
Some pointers to help:
- Involve customers and staff in developing the standards.
- State standards clearly and document them.
- Ensure all standards link to company goals.
- Check them back against your survey findings.
- Make all standards achievable and easy to understand.
- Give all standards and the programme the support of all your management team.
- Communicate standards clearly to all involved on an ongoing basis.
- Once the standards are established, develop a culture in which deviation from the standards becomes unacceptable.
- Review standards on a systematic basis to make sure they are still relevant and appropriate.
- Carry out customer satisfaction surveys with all external customer groups to identify an appropriate service level for each. If you have just a large customer base, use just a sample in each group. Since different service requirements have resources and cost implications, carrying out separate.
- Add new standards as necessary with the full approval of all staff involved in delivery.
- Produce service standards that are clear, concise, measurable and achievable.
Some points to remember are:
- Involve the whole of your team in setting service standards.
- Include the personal dimensions of customer service in the standards such as appearance, body language, tone of voice, advice given, problem solving approach used, attentiveness, etc.
- Deliver a personalised service wherever possible. Train staff to use the customer's name in all communications with them.
- Train all employees in communication skills, and to handle customer complaints positively. Complaints should be considered opportunities to keep a customer by changing something to improve customer service.
- Rate the behaviour of your customer service staff in each of the above areas and give training where appropriate.
- Consider rewarding staff for significant contributions to customer service. Rewards do not need to be costly but, once a programme is in place, it must be maintained to be meaningful and credible. Such schemes help to maintain the motivation and interest of staff. 'Employee of the Month' schemes, where the photo of the employee is displayed prominently and the employee given half a day off with full pay are ways of giving an incentive at a relatively low cost.
Managing customer programmes
A Customer Service Programme needs to be managed, maintained and reviewed. Surveys need to be carried out systematically - this is not a 'one-off' exercise. Put a plan in place to ensure that your Customer Service Programme works in the long term.
Your customer has a right to:
- Professional, courteous and prompt service.
- Expect competent and well-trained staff.
- Attention to detail.
- Fair prices for quality products and services.
- Open channels of communication for feedback.
- Your full and undivided attention when they choose to do business with you.
- Appreciation for their continued custom.
Make sure they get it!
Look for ways to add-value to your service. For example, a hairdresser may offer a discounted cut after five appointments, or a garage may offer to collect the car for its regular service. This type of service makes you more memorable than the competition and helps to retain your customer.
