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What is (REAL) customer service?
The reason a good number of top quality organisations fail their customers is that the premise of Customer Service is not communicated throughout the organisation. Business leaders are fast catching on that great customer service is the route to a successful business. Even if you are bit more expensive, customers will remain loyal because they value the service. Find out here more about how you too can deliver exceptional customer service.
Like me I expect you have all had platitudes from suppliers and peer groups extolling the virtues of their "Excellent customer service", "Our Customer service is second to none." "We pride ourselves in our customer service," etc. Yet when you test it, not out of any premeditated desire to see them fail, you ............see them fail at the first attempt.
Why? The simple reason a good number of top quality organisations fail their customers is that the premise of Customer Service is not communicated throughout the organisation. Customer Service (CS) responsibility is not down to just the CS Department. It runs from the owners, senior managers and right on through to the part-time cleaners. That’s why during my tenure at Franklin Covey Co. we practised Uncommon Customer Service!!
Our Catalogue sales staff had frontline decision making authority, as did our staff in the 180 + Retail stores; our Ecommerce site had a complaints button where you were guaranteed to get your problem RESOLVED within 8 hours of making a complaint. That to me is making a real attempt to provide true customer service. Not the lip service that is too often the only type available; the endless telephone voice mails, the seemingly countless number of commands telling you where to press (and you still aren’t given the answer you want). To have a smile on your face when you greet a customer, a warm welcome on the phone, a genuine desire to help you when you have a problem. These are the vital ingredients needed to be even on the right road, let alone feeling as though you are the finished article.
Uncommon Customer Service is not a ‘coat’ you can put on when you come to work; it is an internal strength and gift that anyone can acquire, providing they want to be successful! The entrepreneurs and business leaders of today are catching on fast and they know how to stand out in a crowd because they realise, when it comes to a choice, their clients will stay with them, even if they are slightly more expensive because they love to do business with them.
If you want to find out how your product, service and company's reputation is perceived and regarded put it to the test and get someone to do some Mystery Shoppig, that will show you and I am afraid you may not like the results but you will learn and beneft from them.
Call me, Charles Macadam, Business Developer and Coach and I will help you make customer service an asset not a liability!
