Improving Customer Service

How would you respond if you saw senior management on the front line getting involved in doing your job?  This will not only remind directors of the challenges faced, it will ensure the overall corporate strategy has a direct connection to the way customers are dealt with on a daily basis.

Creating a good balance between senior management and the workforce is critical.  It’s a relationship in which all parties need to have an understanding of the daily challenges everyone is facing and what they need to do to achieve success in their roles.

Customer Satisfaction at a Profit is what it’s all about no matter what your role!  What do your customers experience from the moment they pick up the phone?  What do they experience when you call them?

Senior management should consider undertaking a mystery experiment, where they put themselves in customers’ shoes.  They can come up with a number of scenarios ranging from placing orders, contract enquiries and disputed invoices.  This will really test staff and help find out where the knowledge gaps are and the training needed. 

How do your teams perform under pressure?  What are their general attitudes to customer enquiries?  Are they performing to the level of service you expect?  Key findings will most certainly help improve the customer experience in large organisations.

The Front Line

More often than not front line customer service agents are tasked with simply taking brief details and passing customers on efficiently to the right department or account manager.  In many cases however, initial sales enquiries could quite easily be dealt with by the person who first takes the call, providing they have had the right amount of training on products, prices and promotions.  This will not only incentivise front line staff, but will allow account managers to spend more time working alongside their key customers to provide excellent customer satisfaction.

Be Honest

It sounds simple, but it’s vital staff are providing an honest picture of when customers can expect a resolution to enquiries.  Front line staff need to be aware when account managers are on holiday or out of the office, to enable them to make a reasonable assessment of timescales.  There’s nothing worse than promising something and not delivering, so it’s essential to quickly assess the time needed to resolve a problem.

Thinking like a Customer

Some companies I come across encourage role plays across the workforce to help them put themselves in customers’ shoes.  It’s a great way of getting people thinking on their feet, responding to questions, queries and complaints in the right tone, manner and correctly.  This should not be limited to front line staff, it should involve everyone including senior management.  This will provide valuable insight that could further improve the customer experience.

What’s Your Goal?

Feedback needs to relate back to your company’s overall vision.  Too many companies rely on an annual presentation of their aims, objectives and corporate strategy, but unless you can relate this back to everyday interactions between staff and customers, the message could easily become diluted.  Again, I believe everybody’s goal should be ‘Customer Satisfaction at a Profit’ and this also relates to staff (internal customers).  The message really is ‘Treat Your Employees Well and Value Your Customers’

Be Open 

Share your findings, encourage healthy debate, get feedback from everyone on how they think the customer experience can be improved.  It’s the service you provide that will make the difference in competition with others in your marketplace.  It’s improving the customer experience that will create the ‘WOW’ so ‘Work on Winning’

ACP - Membership Satisfaction at a Contribution

The ACP wants to respond to members’ needs, we want to put on free events for members, we want to develop a new, exciting, interactive website and provide new, innovative services for our members, we want to give ‘Member Satisfaction at a Contribution’  We are not a profit making organisation, Board Members give their time freely and don’t claim expenses.  Membership Fees contribute to growth and success.

We invite you to join today.  Go to www.aocp.org.uk, to download, complete and send in, with your membership fee, an individual or corporate membership form.  We are here for you.

Steve Savva

ACP Chairman

 

 

 

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