General Customer Service Observations
by Richard Gorham
(Portland, OR USA)
Richard Gorham
The good news, and the bad news, is that most organizations fail miserably to fully leverage each customer interaction.
On the positive side, if you are a business owner or team leader - you have the opportunity to blow away your competition if you can effectively focus your team on delivering "best in class" customer service.
Service is the ONE SINGLE THING that you have 100% control over, and you can improve it dramatically overnight if you manage it closely. If you do so effectively, you WILL grow your business and reap the rewards of having a highly loyal customer following.
Unfortunately, most organizations are so totally focused on managing costs and dealing with internal personnel issues, they make the mistake of allowing the "service focus" to drop down the list of priorities.
Customer service delivery is in fact the one key area that will most directly determine the future of your organization. If you get it wrong, your business is at tremendous risk. But, if you get RIGHT - the sky is the limit in terms of your growth potential.
How much of a priority does your organization place on customer service delivery? The following questions can help you think through this question:
1. Would you be willing to place your name/reputation on the customer service provided at your company?
2. Does the company place a "premium" on delivering quality customer service? In other words, in there an incentive plan that rewards them for their pro-active service efforts?
3. When employees are hired, are they tested fully for service "traits"? Are their references specifically questioned about their service "instincts"?
4. Are employees trained to provide "needs based selling"? In other words, employees ask key questions of customers to fully identify their needs in order to ensure that they only suggest products that fit a need, not just push product for the sake of selling product for profit.
5. Are customers considered part of your team? Does the company regularly ask customers for feedback via focus-groups or surveys to ensure that their needs are being met and that the quality of service being delivered is top-notch?
The above questions should have got you thinking about just how much better your company can do toward becoming a "best in class" service organization.
As a consumer, it's our job to hold businesses accountable for poor service. If we are not being treated properly, we need to tell them why we will no longer be doing business with them.
Thanks for your website on Customer Service, I'm sure many readers find it just as helpful as I do.
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