business builder customer service
Investment in customer
service can set small
companies apart
by Lavon Dennistoun
ALMOST EVERYONE has experienced bad customer service: A rude flight attendant, an impatient waiter or the automated voice that too frequently says, “I’m sorry, I didn’t understand you.”
For a business, one negative experience can shape the long-term perception for the consumer and is often retold among friends, family and colleagues. As a consumer, having a good customer experience shouldn’t be as likely as winning the lottery – it should be expected and routinely delivered.
For more than 30 years, I’ve been in the customer service business, and know from experience that it’s not always an easy aspect to manage. There are only a few firms that do it right.
Telecom, in particular, is an industry rarely associated with outstanding customer experiences. Overrun with automated voice attendants, it’s become an industry beset with impersonal conversations and, as a result, frustrated consumers.
It is absolutely critical to create a customer service program that defies standards and puts the personal element back into the relationship. Spend the time and the money to create a service program that knocks your customer’s socks off. It’s worth every penny.
Begin with employees
Customer-facing employees can deliver great customer service only when it is reinforced as part of the corporate culture, expected as normal behavior in their day-to-day work and improved with training programs and measurement tools.
A program that leaves customers talking in a positive way is a strategy many small and midsized companies can use to beat competitors in industries where big businesses seemingly dominate.
In order to create an industry-leading customer service program, a business needs to identify and develop corporate values and goals for the program, train their customer service representatives well and then implement tools to measure the success of the program.
Hiring and training smart, thoughtful and qualified employees is an essential step in building a foundation for your business. It’s the first, and quite possibly, the most critical step.
When hiring, you may recruit employees with previous customer service experience. It’s important to remember, however, that despite their experience, your company is new to them.
Train your employees so that they feel empowered and knowledgeable to solve a problem and can find pertinent information when a customer needs it. By creating a focused and comprehensive training program, the transition for your new employees and your customers will be a smooth one.
Without training, motivating and treating your employees properly, outstanding customer service will be very difficult to achieve. It’s worth repeating: Only employees who are treated with respect will treat their customers that way.
Get inside their heads
Now you need to audit the current customer experience. A company should think about how to get inside their customers’ heads and learn their customers’ opinions regarding their service quality and needs. Discover the good and the bad and share it with your employees.
A long-term successful plan can only be created after you’ve received feedback from your customers. No one’s opinion matters more than those of your customers.
Obtaining honest feedback can be done through surveying customers directly or through an independent, third-party firm. It’s our policy to measure customer service levels within two weeks of setting up a new account or service.
Sure, it may seem too soon to gauge the long-term success of the relationship, but we feel that it’s never too early to start.
Obtaining feedback further into the relationship is just as important. Follow up with a survey annually to see how well you’re meeting the needs of your clients.
It’s also important to make sure customers are educated and trained in your services. Walk them through all service options, help them understand how to read their invoice or explain how all their features work.
Creating a local customer care team is another way to customize your business. A local approach is especially critical in the telecom industry, known for its automated answering services, centralized customer care centers and long waits for customer service representatives.
No matter what your business is, connecting your customers with a live, local voice will do wonders in providing exceptional customer service and dramatically improving your business’s bottom line. It’s customer service 101: Customers need attention, especially when a problem arises, and deserve immediate attention.
And for everyone who thinks they will save money by not staffing their call center with live humans, reconsider. This single area is so neglected by so many organizations, that companies that employ people to answer phones really stand out.
Inspect what you expect
There’s nothing more revealing than an in-depth and honest look at your program.
How accessible are your customer service representatives for the customer? How quickly are your calls answered? Are issues resolved on the first call? If not, when? How quickly and accurately do you install and bill services? How adept are you at resolving customer troubles or service issues? These are some of the key questions your measurement system should answer.
Of course there’s more than quantitative methods to determine the success of your program. Explore other ways to evaluate customers’ satisfaction and learn if their experience has been a positive one.
One way to do this is by appointing a dedicated customer service representative to make scheduled visits throughout the year, not to sell them anything, but simply to build a relationship and gather feedback.
A well thought-out and executed customer service program can set your company apart from the competition. Invest in making your program the best in the industry.
You may be surprised to learn that customers are willing to pay more for great service, especially after receiving less than satisfactory service from a previous vendor.
A customer-centric program is a priceless component of running a successful business. No company can afford to operate without one.
[contact] LaVon Dennistoun is vice president of customer operations for Minnesota for Integra Telecom in Bloomington, an integrated communications carrier: 952.746.7410; lavon.dennistoun@integratelecom.com; www.integratelecom.com
