CUSTOMER CENTER

Drew Stevens asked:


(c) 2008 Drew Stevens PhD

Finding Solutions that otherwise puzzle organizations

Organizations believe that they provide exactly what customers desire. Ask any firm and the Paretto Principle prevails. 80 percent of most organizations believe they deliver exemplary customer service. Ironically, less then 20 percent do. According to research by consultancy Bain and Company, only 8 percent of companies really deliver on customer service.

Our present environment exists with a gap in delivering service. There are numerous reasons for the gap, however, we believe two issues contribute to this gap, a) greed and b) the inability of customer relationships.

Greed Many statements by management consultant Peter Drucker are famous. However, in the book The Practice of Management, Drucker clearly states, “There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer.” Organizations today are trumped by two fundamental issues- competition and productivity. The focus is so acute that raising revenue, higher profits and increasing productivity all ignore the necessary myopia of customer concentration.

Exemplars of avarice include Starbuck’s, the airline industry and retail establishments. Anytime an organization believes they can achieve higher growth they raise fees, not one CEO or analysts stops to ask what the impact of the client is. Prior to heightened fees, customer remain for two purposes 1) either first mover advantage in the case of Starbuck’s or 2) value such as American Airlines. Yet when fees increase, customers tend to jump ship for cheaper and more appealing alternatives.

The solution for any firm is to thoroughly conduct an impact analysis to determine potential market losses. New revenue means nothing when you lose a core customer base. Customer dissonance cannot be taken for granted.

Customer Relationships Customer connections are very difficult to build- that is to say unless you are focused on your core asset. First, as mentioned earlier, an organizations entire strategy must exist for the client. Strategic questions to ask are, “Who is the customer? Why does the customer buy? What is the value that our firm provides? How do reach disseminate product, service and announcements to our customers? These questions all told focus all beliefs, all values and all attitudes for the company asset. Further, it is imperative to treat the client as such- an asset. Nothing happens, no one gets paid and the electricity does not provide power to the plants unless a customer is involved.

Herein are several techniques to align with your clients-

Refrain from CRM. We do not challenge the power and functionality of Customer Relationship Management. Yet too much resource is placed into these trivial software systems. Stop trying to augment human interaction with software. Just like a political candidate if you desire to press the flesh then do so, do not leave an email to chance.

Interaction. The proliferation of the Internet and technology has taken away the most precious asset of any relationship- interaction. Avatars such as Proctor and Gamble and Southwest Airlines discovered long ago that the better part of customer service is being there! Get off your carcass and stop administering start speaking. Make it a plan to meet with your clients as often as possible.

Enculturation. The entire organization must holistically focus on customer service. Everyone must focus on one thing, why you are in business. Exemplars here are FedEx where the culture suggests, everyone’s employment is based on guaranteed overnight delivery.

Value and Brand. There is little doubt that a housewife buys appliances for service. She buys because of the experience others have had. Speed, cost and service become part of the customer experience relative to value. Cadillac and Coca Cola have become industry standards because of this success. Not many claim to be the Taurus of the business.

Avatars and Advertising. When the service you provide is so strong, your established customer base speaks for you. When the time arrives that prospective clients speak higher than your advertising creating new customer arrivals, your customer gap is immensely narrowed. Crocs the apparel company created a billion dollar entity with little advertising.

Value Again it is so important. What does the customer consider value? The default is price but this is untrue. Price is only part of value. The concept of value is complicated and rather than surmise, the only person to respond is the customer himself. Management must refrain from board meetings and speculation, if your organization desires the response then ask the customer.

Feedback loops. In addition to client visits, ensure success with Customer Briefings, Focus Groups, Interview, 360 feedback and other imperative mechanisms. Customer Service is not one-dimensional and requires that organizations connect the dots between what they learn about customers and what they currently offer to customers. This also includes organizational functions and customer response times.

The roads to customer service and customer loyalty are rocky, uncharted and complex. And, today’s competitive matrix further complicates the issues. There are numerous paths to take and numerous bridges that must be built to close the gaps. However, the most imperative is not discussing matters in the boardroom and leaving the issues amongst the silence. Broken promises are the missing puzzle pieces as they become the keys to future growth. Customer gaps are filled when the culture of the organization from top to bottom, exemplify with admiration and energy an emphasis to a key corporate asset- the customer.

New York City Sales And Marketing Guy asked:


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Allan Thomas asked:


Today car becomes very essential for every human’s life. There are many people who have their own car but many people don’t have a car. They have not enough credit to buy a new branded car so they need car finance to do so. Car finance UK is so simple but it is not simple to get it in cheap interest rates. So that when you search for car finance UK you should try to get financed from that company who can offer you a cheap rate loan. It is necessary to minimize your burden on your finances and repaying ability.

In UK there are various lenders who offer cheap car finance for new and used car. You should try to get various loan quotes from various lenders and have to compare it for cheap rate finance before searching for car finance UK. There are a large numbers of lenders who offers cheap car finance in UK. It is suitable that you should not recognize a lender’s propose without comparing the car loan quotes. Before financing a car you need to check all the documents and the deals that are offered by your car financier. It would be your best decision to shop around for the best loan deal.

Many people can not have enough cash or saving to buy a car but they need car also so they wander for finance companies to get their dream car. Some of them get cheap rate finance but some of them pay higher for their finance. So they need to search online for various car finance UK companies. There are a lot of car finance websites available in which they provide various scheme and their other information related to car finance. So don’t wander hither and thither and go online search for best car finance UK.

If you have a bad credit history and you are unable to find car finance company that offer cheap rate finance, you should go online and search a website that can fulfill your need. For guaranteed cheap rate on car finance UK, prefer borrowing it aligned with your esteemed asset like home. So pertain to an online lender for cheap car finance in the UK. But ensure that you have compared well the online financier so that you have a proposal of how cheap rate loan can be getting in the UK.

Darius Matthews asked:


Almost all business houses want to successfully offer promotional products to their clients as acts of gratitude, appreciation and market building. However, many are initially afraid of the costs related to this type of investment. Advertising through promotional gifts has got a wide range of benefits. And the advantages of ordering promotional products and wearable from an online store are endless.

Many businesses prefer to buy promotional products online since it allows them to compare quotes and rates of various websites. Discounts and accessibility to easily customized products is another reason for online deals on promotional items.

There are various benefits of investing on promotional gift products. Some of the important ones are:

Creating Impression: The first and foremost benefit of gifting is retention of interest. With promotional products you give out useful and durable items. Recipients generally use them for a long time. The imprinted logo or brand name on the promotional products constantly reminds them of how they got the product in the first place. As a result, the retention of your company brand or product in your mind becomes stronger.

Trade Show and Traffic Generation: Another key benefit of promotional products is that if you joining or organizing a trade show, offering promotional products is one way of encouraging people to visit your booth. To ensure mutual benefits make sure that you attach a pamphlet to the gift.

Free Samples as Promotional Products: Giving free samples is another strategy. If you recently launched a new product or a new branch office, you can give away samples. This is a very effective and affordable marketing strategy as most people associate inherent curiosity with new products and the brand awareness gets a boost.

Promoting through Corporate Giveaways: Next benefit of promotional products is that whenever your company celebrates an important milestone such as anniversaries, acceptance of any award, or achievement of a special goal, you can use the occasion to “subtly” market your products and services. And this can be done through corporate giveaways or promotional products.

Abovementioned are some of the main advantages of distributing promotional products. It is advisable and also advantageous that you use promotional products as tool of business promotion. You can leave long lasting impression in clients’ and customers’ mind by gifting promotional products. Market awareness is increases with the use of promotional products. So promotional products can be become a great instrument to expand your business.

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Sam Miller asked:


To determine how a company is performing in terms of customer service, some customer service measurements are used regularly. These measurements are designed to assess how satisfied customers are with the services provided by a company.

Customer service is commonly defined as a series of activities that are organized to increase customer satisfaction levels so that a product or service will exceed customer expectation. Customer service may be extended in an automated manner through self-service means like support Internet sites, or by persons like sales and customer service representatives. Usually, the main basis of customer service is customer data collection or demographics. Today, a wide variety of customer service tools are now available. Aside from support websites, databases that determine individual customer preferences and buying patterns and specialist software are now used. Moreover, companies also have come up with new ways to capture feedback from customers. A few of these new feedback channels include mobile email and text messages. By knowing the perceptions and opinions of customers, companies are able to find ways to enhance the quality of the services they provide as well as improve the experience of their customers.

Several companies have integrated Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technologies to their operations. CRM is a multifaceted process that allows companies to have better knowledge of the needs, wants, and buying patterns of their customers. By making these data available for customers, companies are better able to anticipate the needs of existing and prospective customers. However, CRM initiatives should be aligned with customer-based strategies, as this technology will be useless if its implementation ends up with its installation. CRM usually supports several business processes including sales, marketing, and customer service. This technology enables a company system to compile a customer’s contact history and allows customer service representatives to retrieve these data when needed. By keeping tabs of a customer’s contact history, customers would no longer need to disclose the subject of his previous interactions with a company customer service representative.

Setting customer service standards is a crucial step in assessing the quality of service provided to customers. When setting these standards, managers and other mid-level managers should make sure that they are realistic. These standards should not be too low for these would just encourage complacency and idleness. At the same time, they should not be too high that they are impossible to achieve. Moreover, the company must determine the standards that they need to measure and the most efficient way to measure them. When establishing measurements, it is recommended that managers determine why key customers patronize their product or service instead of the competition. Also, obstacles that hinder the company’s internal customers, or employees, from providing quality customer service should be identified. Processes that are critical for product and service delivery should also be regularly evaluated so that bottlenecks are eliminated early. Lastly, there should be balance between production cost, product or service quality, and cycle time. When fully and effectively utilized, customer service measurements will be instrumental for companies to achieve higher profit margins.

Sam Miller asked:


Customer service metrics are performance measures that will aid the company in realizing profits with every customer contact. With the right system and adequate employee training, profiting from every revenue opportunity would not be a problem.

Customer service, or client service, refers to the services accorded to customers before, during and after a purchase. These may come as a series of services that are meant to improve the customer satisfaction level of the target market. These supplemental services may be provided by employees like sales or service representatives or they may be provided by automated devices like self-service Internet sites and Integrated Voice Response (IVR) devices. As a response to tighter competition, a company gain competitive advantage by providing superior customer service. Recent advancements in technology have made it easier for companies to provide customer support to their customers. Some of the most common customer service tools used by companies are support websites, live chats with technicians, customer preferences databases, service levels specialist software and call centers. Companies have also devised various ways of obtaining customer feedback to help them improve their products and services.

Various research undertakings have shown that good customer service is instrumental to having more loyal and happier customers. These studies also show that with satisfied customers come happier employees. Potentially, these two conditions will lead to increased profits and revenues because satisfied customers tend to increase their purchases and make recommendations to other people. Most customers appreciate having vendor support after spending their money on a product or service. Most companies provide this kind of support through face-to-face interactions like email, telephone calls, and chat. Often, the customers choose which interaction channel they are most comfortable with. Call centers or contact centers are often hired to provide this kind of customer support. Companies that are not capable of providing customer service often take advantage of outsourcing. To minimize operating costs, other companies use offshore call centers that usually operate outside of Europe and North America.

When asking about customer service standards that make some call centers stand out, replies such as, “Our target goal is to have 80 percent of calls answered within 30 seconds” or “We strive to respond to all customer requests within 24 hours” are very common. Indeed, customer service standards may differ from company to company depending on the call center capability and the interaction channels used. However, the bottom line of these services is that they enhance the experience of the customers with a specific brand. The interaction becomes an extension of the company’s relationship with the customer. In order to do this, employees should be properly trained so that they can effectively address the various concerns and problems of the customers.

To assess the effectiveness of the services provided to customers, managers use customer service metrics. These metrics will serve as performance indicators so that the company will know what needs to be improved and what needs to be maintained. Among these metrics, fast customer service resolution (FCR) rate stands out because of its correlation with customer satisfaction.

Scott Oliver asked:


When you first buy something, whether you realize it or not, you are asking questions about the product in your head. These questions are used in the decision making process of whether or not you are going to buy something from a seller. If you are looking to start an online business, you need to anticipate these questions for a buyer so that you can be sure your customer is making the decision to buy. Since you can’t be physically present for your customer to ask these questions, you need to ask them of yourself first. Here are four questions that your product needs to be able to answer for the customer.

What Will It Do for Me?

The use needs to be clear for your product. When you don’t specify the use or many uses of an item, the customer will wonder why they even need to purchase it in the first place. You will want to think about what the product is going to do for the customer – you can even make a list. Then, this list, or perhaps shorter descriptions, should be on your website to guide the reader to the answers they are looking for. Perhaps you can show pictures of how the product can be used or you can have testimonials from previous customers about how the item was useful in their life as well. By clearly showing the usefulness and how the product works (as well as its limitations), you will increase the chances of it being sold in the first place.

How Will It Help My Life?

The question that many budget-conscious people are asking is how the product will help in their everyday life. If there isn’t a clear benefit to the product, there is no reason to buy it. You want to show that your product can save time, reduce stress, increase health, or whatever it is able to do. Show test results, statistics of satisfied customers or perhaps even detail how the product helps you in your life. For example, if you are selling vacuum cleaners, you might want to talk about how the canister is bag-less or that the HEPA filter is going to clean the air from pollutants or allergens. Think about real life ways that your product will change a customer’s life.

Is the Price Reasonable?

Along with showing what and why a product does what it does, you are establishing the value of the product for the customer. If you aren’t able to clearly show this connection, you will cause a customer to wonder why they should spend the money in the first place. The price you set will begin to show the value that you see in your product, but alongside the uses and the method of use, you will truly begin to answer the customer’s concerns about whether the price is right.

Is this Product High Quality?

Of course, no one wants to buy anything that isn’t high quality. You want to buy something that will last a long time, or at least as long as you will need to use it. In order to show this, you will want to have clear pictures of the products on your site as well as accurate listings of the ingredients or the components of the item itself. This will help your customer compare other similar products and it will also help you demonstrate what a quality product looks like to you.

The more questions you can think of before your customer, the better prepared you will be to answer them.

Stephen Milford asked:


What is customer service? Have you ever stopped to really think about this question? We have trained literally thousands of people and hundreds of organisations in customer service. No matter who the person or what the organisation, the answer to this question is always generic. They will say: “Customer service is about giving customers what they want” or perhaps “it’s about satisfying customers” some times they will say that it is about “making customers happy.”

While at first glance these answers may sound correct, nothing could be further from the truth. Say for example that you ran a restaurant. If a customer were to enter your restaurant and ask for some office supplies would you be able to give the customer what they want? Would you be able to satisfy a customer who was looking for some jewellery if you worked in a hardware store? No, it would be impossible. The best that you could do would be to politely tell the customer where they can go and get Jewry. Obviously, customer service is not about giving customers what they want, or even satisfying customers.

The same is true for the way we give customer service. When we ask the question: what is the most important thing for good customer service, almost everyone we ask will answer: smile. While this may be good in some cases it is not appropriate in all cases. Just imagine if a distressed mother came up to you and told you that she had lost her 2 year old child in your store. Imagine how she would respond if you were to smile at her? Or imagine if a customer told you that he/she slipped while climbing the stairs or escalator in your store and as they explained their excruciating injuries you smiled back at them.

The truth is that customer service is not about practicalities, it’s about principles. The practicalities may change but the principles stay the same. Staff are not meant to smile all the time, to give customers everything they want, or to satisfy all their needs. Staff are meant to promote the organisation and its values. If you want to increase the impact of your customer service teach staff to represent your organisation and its unique traits.

When we teach customer service training modules we first focus on what the organisation values, what it’s all about and what does it want customers to see. Once we have done this, we move on to how to serve in light of these values. This is a very easy way of getting staff to change the way they serve, it produces better results and is a lot more fun to teach.

Here is something you can do to help your staff engage in effective customer service. Take a black/white board and draw a very basic house. Ask staff to take a piece of chalk or the white board marker and to take turns to turn this basic house into your organisation/company. They may add pictures or words to the basic drawing. Some will add words like: quality, professionalism, friendliness, service, money, speed, or simplicity while others may draw things like customers and staff.

Now ask staff this simple question: in light of this picture, what does a good customer service representative do? The participants will now find it easy to see what customer service is really about in your organisation. They may say for example, in light of us being a friendly company we should smile. Or perhaps they will highlight the organisation’s professionalism and explain that it’s professional to stand up straight and to dress appropriately.

Instead of teaching staff practicalities teach them principles and the practicalities will follow naturally.

We have a free, 2 hour course which you can download and run with your staff to help them improve their customer service, just visit www.griffin.ie.