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| We are pleased to bring you Leadership Matters, a monthly publication designed to explore workplace issues that face today's managers and supervisors. Our topic this week is Customer Service: It's NOT a Department, it's an Attitude!. Feel free to pass it on to anyone in your organization who you think may benefit. |
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Customer Service:
It's NOT a Department, it's an Attitude!
Organizational Challenge
Below are some commonly quoted customer service statistics.
Maybe you have seen them before:
- A
typical business hears from about 4 percent of its dissatisfied
customers, while 96 percent just go away ... and 91
percent will never come back.
- It
costs five to six times as much to get a new customer as it does
to keep a current one.
- It
takes 12 positive service interactions to make up for one
negative interaction.
Whether or not these can be
substantiated is another story, but it is safe to say that your
organization's customer service culture is critically important to
growth and profits. According to a study by The Wharton School,
stakes are high as reducing customer attrition by 5 to 10 percent can
increase annual profits as much as 75 percent. Author Jerry
Fritz is quoted as saying, "You'll never have a product or price
advantage again. They can be easily duplicated, but a strong customer
service culture can't be copied."
More focus is being placed on the power of customer
service lately. One of the huge drivers of renewed attention is
the impact of technology and the demand from consumers for instant
access to goods and services. This carries over directly to the
delivery of customer service in meeting those demands, especially in
responding to e-mail. Technology can't, and never will, replace the
human touch. Does your customer service culture touch your customers
in the right way?
Slowing Economy ... Growing Customer Service
A study released by the Jupiter Research Corporation in August
of 2007 entitled, "Experience-Driven Service Expectations,"
indicates that customer service must consider the impact as online
marketing matures. And, a 2008 Contact Center Satisfaction Index
released by Claes Fornell International indicates that as consumer
spending weakens and the economy slows, organizations
should focus more on retention and less on the more expensive
customer acquisition. Contact centers, being on the frontline of the
customer relationship, carry the bulk of the load in keeping
customers.
Jupiter Research, in its US Customer Forecast, 2007 to 2012, shows
that spending on customer service will continue to rise with
companies dealing with consistent increases in the number of customer
service contacts. A national employment projection report from the
Department of Labor backs this up: Employment of customer service
representatives is expected to increase 25 percent from 2006 to 2016.
This is much faster, the report stated, than the average for all
occupations. This same report echoes the call for customer service
people who can, "build sales, visibility, and loyalty as
companies try to distinguish themselves from competitors."
Retention will become more important, especially in industries that
already employ large numbers of customer service representatives,
including those in the industries of financial services,
communications and utilities.
OK, so let's examine these ramifications. Word of mouth is powerful and
it is causing change. The speed of technology increases the viability
and impact of sharing customer service experiences. The spiraling
economy sends organizations scrambling to retain customers, save
dwindling profits and strive for growth. In the next 10 years, and
probably beyond, customer service will be the differentiator as
organizations staff up to meet the demand.
A Solution
My vote would be to train and re-train. And then do
it again. Take a look at your culture: What is it demonstrating to
your customers? Training customer service representatives should be
seen as a must-do in any organization. It is possible to
create a program that fits into busy schedules. Your training
representative can help make this work. Two products fit into this
scenario: STAR
Service and Winning
Through Customer Service, both from Vital Learning Corporation.
What I like about STAR
Service is that it is a solid half-day program that isn't
fluffy. It teaches a clear, practical, four-step process to transform
negative and neutral customer experiences to positive and memorable
ones. That is right on the mark for retention of customers and the
increase of customer referrals. That ties us back to the power of
word of mouth.
What I like about Winning
Through Customer Service is the flexibility of the
program for delivery, either online or in the classroom. Your
training representative can additionally help you with some
blended learning ideas. There are four modules that can help
turn on your representatives to problem-solving, successful
communicating, adapting to different behavioral styles and more.
I leave you with this thought. Having a customer service
culture will lead to long-term customers who are generally more
profitable. In a Whitepaper published by CISCO, the headline reads:
"Are you providing your customers with the satisfying
experiences that will keep them coming back?"
Thought for the Day:
If we don't take care of our customers, someone else
will.
-- Unknown |
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Sincerely,
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