By David Saxby
If you interviewed 100 people on the street, how many would tell you they
think customer service is alive and well at the companies they patronize?
Having asked such a question of thousands of people over the years, I’m sorry
to say most people do not find that to be the case.
According to the American Customer Satisfaction Index established by the
University of Michigan Business School, customer satisfaction with service has
decreased as much as 12 percent in the last six years.
That’s amazing because many experts will tell you the only thing that
separates you from your competition is customer service. This being the case,
wouldn’t it then make sense, particularly in an unstable economy, that you
work even harder to retain the customer base you have invested countless hours
and dollars to develop? It sounds to me like customer service is nothing more
than a convenient slogan at many companies.
The most valuable asset any telecom has is its customer base, and steps
must be taken to protect this asset from diminishing in value. Those in the
know understand how significantly assets impact their bottom line and they
will do what it takes to protect them.
So how do they do that? When it comes to customer service and how it
affects the customer base asset, they turn to their employees.
Look at it this way. Most telecoms view delivering reliable telephone
service as a necessity and most will do everything within their power to make
that happen. But when you throw the human element into the picture, there are
many opportunities for things to go wrong. Have you ever stopped to figure out
the variety of ways your staff interacts with your customers? Here are a few:
- Billing questions
- Establish new service - residential, business or cellular
- Request maintenance - residential, business or cellular
- Payments - residential, business or cellular
- Internet service - residential or business
- Field technicians - residential, business or cellular
These front-line employees have the greatest opportunity to influence your
most important asset. The manner in which they treat your customers plays out
very simply in one of two ways: your customer found the experience to be
positive or negative.
The better question to ask is how many customers have you lost because of a
poor attitude or lack of skills on the part of your staff? How many customers
went to your competition, never to return, because someone didn’t have the
skills to proactively resolve a cellular customer’s dropped call complaint or
to listen attentively to a frustrated Internet customer?
And don’t forget, each of those customers that defected and took their
cellular, Internet and other services to your competition is likely to tell 10
or more people about the experience they had with your company. If a friend of
yours tells you that the latest Hollywood movie is a bomb and not worth your
time, are you going to have second thoughts about whether you go see it?
Thanks to the Internet, both good and bad customer service stories spread like
wildfire.
The investment you make in training your staff to provide quality customer
service doesn’t cost your company, it actually pays your company! Many
companies see training as an expense because they see it as a cost. They have
a difficult time understanding how it positively affects their bottom line.
One way to become a believer is to call your customers and ask them what
they think of your level of customer service. I’m guessing some of you might
be concerned about what they tell you. Most companies have no idea how many
customers they have lost because of poor service.
If you spend money on advertising and marketing to attract customers, why
wouldn’t you make a continual investment in training your staff to make sure
that every customer has a great experience when they contact your company? If
your business is a revolving door of new customers entering and existing
customers leaving, something needs to change!
Skill development is an ongoing process. A one-time training program or the
class you gave last month will not give your employees all the training they
need to provide first-class, top-notch service. Creating a memorable
experience for each and every customer requires continual reinforcement and
coaching.
Consistency of service is the true key to a successful customer service
program. It should make no difference to a customer whether they are the first
or last call of the day, whether they are calling with a simple question or
whether they are frustrated and don’t understand their telephone bill. They
should be treated with an attitude and concern that clearly leaves them with
the impression that they are valued and appreciated.
Many telecoms fail to create a culture that expects and rewards consistent
top-notch service. Every person on your staff, whether or not they deal
directly with your clients, needs to clearly understand the dollar value of a
customer. Education will help your staff more easily relate to and appreciate
that value. Knowledge is power and this power will, in turn, be reflected in
how employees choose to treat your customers.
The old-school management philosophy that “you lead from the top” still
holds true today. Front-line employees won’t honor service standards imposed
on them if it’s their perception that management fails to adhere to the same
requirements in dealing with internal and external customers. Actions speak
louder than words. Nothing is more true than “walk your talk”! Management must
become the coach and the model for the corporate culture you wish to create.
It’s the small things companies do to provide a consistent level of
customer service that help them exceed customer expectations. Your staff must
be able to go beyond just using the customer’s name. They need a variety of
skills that empower them to actually hear what your customer is saying and
then make appropriate decisions to effectively respond in a manner that leaves
the customer feeling valued and appreciated.
Are the right people taking care of your customers? How many people have
you hired because they had previous experience with the product or service you
provide? When you hired those people, were you sure they had the appropriate
skills to take care of your most valuable asset, your customers? Make a
commitment to personality profile your job applicants to find out before you
hire them if they have the attitude to treat people they way they should be
treated. You can teach customer-friendly people the skills to do the job. You
can’t always teach people to be customer friendly. Is there a possibility that
you have someone with years of experience who’s tired of dealing with
customers who ask questions? Don’t you want to employ a friendly and caring
person who will do whatever they can to help satisfy the needs of your
customers? In the current job market, people may tell you what you want to
hear to get hired.
Customer loyalty starts with appreciation. I have to dig deep into my
memory to remember a time when I received a genuine and sincere thank you from
a company that sold me a product. Actually, there’s one exception. I recently
received a card from Amazon.com telling me it has
been a year since I made my first purchase. In honor of my anniversary, they
gave me $10 off my next order. How do you think that made me feel? Here’s a
company that deals with hundreds of thousands of customers a year but it
values my business so much it gave me a gift certificate to use on my next
purchase. Other than Amazon.com, I have not had one
single company that I have ever done business with remember when I started
buying from them as a customer. Guess who I’m going buy from next time I want
a book?
If your staff does not possess these skills, then top-notch customer
service really is just a slogan at your telecom! Are you satisfied with lip
service or do you really want to develop a culture in your company that truly
separates you from your competition?
David Saxby is president of Measure-X, a Phoenix, Ariz.-based measurement,
training and recognition company that specializes in customer service and
sales skills training for utilities. He can be reached at 888-644-5499 or via
e-mail at
david@measure-x.com. Visit the Measure-X Web site at
www.measure-x.com.
