FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Tom Ellis
April 13, 2004 Ellis Communications, Inc.
Phone: (417) 881-5635
Email: tom@elliscomm.com
PHOENIX, Ariz. – Customer-service standards are only as good as the people who
enforce them. Utilities may have good intentions when it comes to delivering
service, but only one thing counts – the customer’s actual experience.
“If a company boasts about its customer-service policies and then fails to
deliver the promised service, it actually does more damage than if it had never
created the standards in the first place,” says David Saxby, president of
Phoenix-based Measure-X, a company that specializes in helping utilities improve
their customer service and sales. “When this occurs, customer trust is replaced
by skepticism.”
Saxby offers the following
five tips on how utilities can make good on customer-service expectations.
Tip No. 1. Develop realistic standards. “When you
create customer-service standards for your utility, make sure they can be
supported through current staffing and the budget,” Saxby says. “And the
standards should be simple and easy to implement.”
Tip No. 2. Provide appropriate training. Saxby
says training should be provided at all levels of the company so every employees
knows the following:
-
What customer-service actions
are expected of them.
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How to deliver great service.
-
When to make exceptions in order to keep the customer
happy.
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Why their role in customer service is important to their
career and the success of the company.
Tip. No. 3. Adopt a recognition program. “A
recognition program needs to be in place in order to reward employees for
delivering great customer service,” Saxby recommends.
Tip No. 4. Define accountabilities.
“Accountabilities need to be defined so employees know how their workplace
behavior will be measured,” Saxby notes. “They also need to clearly understand
the consequences when they fail to meet the service standards.”
Tip No. 5. Make all employees responsible.
“Customer service is the responsibility of every employee,” Saxby says. “Many
companies are task oriented rather than relationship oriented. Employees are
rewarded by the volume of calls they take instead of the quality of those
calls. Many of us forget about building relationships with the very people who
keep us in business – our customers.”
Whether or not a utility is in a competitive market,
creating and then breathing life into customer-service standards impacts the
company’s bottom line, Saxby says. “Creating and nurturing service standards
that are consistently delivered creates both satisfied and loyal customers and
employees.”
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Measure-X is a measurement, training and recognition company that specializes
in customer service and sales skills. For more information on Measure-X,
call 888-644-5499 or visit its Web site at www.measure-x.com.
