Introduction:
This article focuses on customers who have purchased a product or service from a company and how they should be treated with respect by providing excellent customer service. Many terms have evolved around Customer Service, including Customer Satisfaction, Customer Relationship Management, Customer Delight, Customer Loyalty, Customer Advocacy, and so on. These buzzwords emphasize the focus and importance that product/service organizations place on Customer Service Excellence.
Customer Service Excellence – The Foundation for Business Growth:
Customer service is the key differentiator in today’s competitive world. Customers who are pleased with our services will become our advocates, and their positive feedback will assist us in maintaining and expanding our business. Many product/service organizations get more business from existing customers than new ones, and customer satisfaction has become the foundation for any organization’s business growth.
If your organization highly values customer service, you should consider the critical success factors listed below.
- Put yourself in your customer’s shoes to understand their needs and expectations:
Putting ourselves in our customers’ shoes is the best way to understand their needs and expectations and provide best-in-class service support to them. We must provide our customers with the same level of service, care, and support that we would expect from a product/service organization if we were their customers. - Listen to your customers with patience, empathy, and respect for their opinions: Organizations can be impatient when it comes to listening to their customers. This occurs when the service support staff is overburdened. However, suppose service managers assist their service support personnel in balancing their workloads and allowing them to spend quality time with customers while listening to them with patience, empathy, and respect for their opinions. In that case, the customers will truly feel wanted and cared for. This will also assist us in better understanding and resolving customer issues.
- Be responsive to customer service requests and uphold your service commitments:
We must be responsive to customer service requests and uphold our service commitments and service level agreements. Even if it takes time to resolve an issue, we should keep the customer informed about the delay and revise the expected time for resolution rather than burdening the customer with repeated follow-up. - Invest quality time in educating your customers:
Customers often only use a small percentage of our product features and service options because they are unaware of their full potential. The best way is to spend quality time educating our customers by demonstrating all of the features of our products/services and assisting them in making the best use of them while also seeing business value (e.g. cost savings, employee productivity, ROI). This will contribute to customer satisfaction. - Consider customer reviews as opportunities for improvement rather than problems:
Customers have their tasks to complete, and they do not have time to keep complaining to us. Once we understand this fundamental fact, we will view each complaint as an opportunity to improve our products and services. Many times, we learn about a specific defect in a product/service (that would have escaped our testing) or a new feature idea (that we might not have considered) from end users, who use it daily. - Talk to your customers to show that you remember and care about them:
Most of the time, we only talk to our customers when they have a problem. Instead, make it a point to speak with your customers regularly when there is no problem and ask them if everything is fine. This will be a pleasant surprise for them and will allow you to demonstrate that you truly care about them, which will increase their loyalty to your organization. - Ensure consistent customer service across all access channels:
The user experience must be uniform and consistent regardless of which access channel the customer uses to contact your organization for service support (e.g., visit to your office, Website/Online, Mobile Apps, Contact Center Channels – Phone, E-Mail, Chat, SMS, etc). Customers would appreciate a user-friendly and personalized experience when interacting with your organization via various access channels, from anywhere, at any time. Organizations can achieve this by implementing the appropriate technologies and business processes. - Offer competitive pricing for your AMC services, spare parts sales, and additional services:
Some product/service providers attempt to compensate for the low initial order value by charging a higher AMC (Annual Maintenance Contract) renewal fee and charging a higher price for spares and additional services. They do this under the assumption that their current customers are reliant on them. However, in today’s competitive world, customers will eventually tire of this approach and migrate to our competitors. - Take customer feedback regularly and work on it continuously:
To ensure customer satisfaction, it is critical to solicit periodic feedback from customers and to work on areas for improvement while maintaining our strengths in providing customer service support. - Involve your customers in the evolution of your customer service support strategy:
We see customers getting involved in the product strategy of the company. Similarly, including them in the review and improvement of your customer service strategy will help you meet or exceed their expectations. - Treat your customers equally and grow alongside them as partners:
We occasionally see product/service companies treat their customers differently based on their volume of business. However, we must keep in mind that our small customers may gradually expand to medium and large customers over time. So, treat them equally, be their partner, assist them in growing by making the best use of your products/services, and grow alongside them. - Your customer service representatives are just as important as your sales and marketing personnel:
Marketing and sales functions are given more weight in some organizations than service functions. Instead, as the pillars of good customer service support, the customer service function and people must be treated equally, as important as the marketing and sales functions. Significant investments must be made on an ongoing basis to train customer service team members in their areas of work on technology, domain, functional, behavioral, and other required skills. - Encourage and mentor your customer service team members to become customer advocates:
Service managers/supervisors should encourage and mentor their customer service team members to become customer advocates. Allow them to speak on behalf of the customers because they are on the ground, in direct contact with the end customers, and are familiar with their needs and problems. This would significantly improve the customer relationship and their level of satisfaction. - Customers’ contact people:
We are dealing with people, whether they are individuals or groups of people, who deserve to be treated with the utmost respect and care, whether they are consumers or organizations who use our products and services. - Make your customers proud of your products and services:
Our goal is to make our customers proud to use our products/services. This will occur when they like our products and services and begin to recognize their true value and benefits through personal experience.
Conclusion:
Finally, as the saying goes, if we do not treat our customers well, our competitors will. On the other hand, if we invest quality time and effort in caring for our customers as their trusted partners, they will take care of us by contributing to our business growth through their loyalty and advocacy for our products and services.
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