June 17th, 2005

Hello!

Superb customer service is key to make loyal advocates out of your customers.

In this issue:

1. How do you handle Illness?
2. Three more articles
3. CustomerServicePoint.com Info

How do you handle Illness?

However, this made me think:

How well is your customer service operation equiped to handle illness?

If you don't have someone to back you up (like in my case) your customer requests stay unhandled. This could mean big trouble.

So you have to think about it beforehand.

Maybe your customer service department has enough "body" to spread the workload of the person who's sick, to other reps. Or you have the means to hire an extra hand when needed.

But it isn't all just about the manpower. There's much more that can be done.

Here are some questions to ponder:

• Do you know the skills needed for a good customer service rep (tip: check Customer Service Job Descriptions. Don't put just anyone in front of your customers...
• Have you done all that you can to reduce customer requests to a minimum? (consider the possibility of offering some self help function to your customers, fi. an online Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section on your company's website)
• Are the procedures straightforward, so new customer service reps don't need 3 weeks to learn them?
• Is for all types of customer questions clear where you can get an answer internally?
• How empowered are the customer service reps? In other words, can they offer worthwhile solutions to customers without having to check with "the boss" all the time? If not, the whole process can grind to a standstill if the boss is ill.
• Are customer remarks used as input to improve products and/or services, or are they just logged?
• Is it fun to work here?

That's all for now.

Stay Well,

Marjan.
http://www.customerservicepoint.com/

Three more articles in the Vault

Sweat the Small Stuff for Great Customer Service by Katleen Wheelihan
it’s important not to make the mistake of overlooking the little things that can be critical to achieve wildly successful customer service in your business.

First Contact: The Source of Customer Loyalty by Leanne Hoagland-Smith
With customers being smarter, more cost conscious, more product knowledgeable and more demanding, improving customer service has become a major focus within many businesses.

Everyone talks in code! by Graham Harris and Julie Harris
How often have you left a meeting with a customer or your boss telling yourself he likes my ideas. Only to find later that you didn’t get the sale or your boss has told everyone that you are crazy.

All can be found in the Article Vault.

Have a good read!

CustomerServicePoint.com Info

Customerservicepoint Weblog
Keep track of the weblog at http://customerservicepoint.blogspot.com and you are informed of changes to the site as soon as they are made.

At your service,

Marjan Steneker.

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Customer Servings is the e-zine for www.customerservicepoint.com, your resource on improving customer service. The newsletter is sent at irregular intervals.

Customer Servings is for you!

If you have any suggestions for subjects you would like to see in future issues, or have comments in general on Customer Servings or Customer Service Point, please e-mail me at customer_servings@customerservicepoint.com.

I welcome your remarks!

(C) 2005, Marjan Steneker