Good customer service attributes (Take 2)

Customer service attributes: Back in September, we thought that a tree was the best way to illustrate the qualities and attributes of customer service. Here is a serious new contender though: serene, calm, collected, elegant on the outside and apparently swimming effortlessly, but peddling frantically below the waterline to make sure that things happen. The other quality that the swan brings to customer service attributes is the ability to transfer knowledge and skills and train the next generation, seamlessly.

We would love to hear your views on what you believe the most important attributes are so please don't hesitate to leave a comment with your top three.

Picture courtesy of http://www.peterstephens.co.uk with our thanks

Customer service: clients want to have their cake and eat it too

Customer service clients

With the incredibly rapid development of social media, customers believe that they can have their cake and eat it too. It is going to prove increasingly difficult for companies to manage customers' expectations. Consumers are now looking for a fuller set of quality attributes when selecting where to shop and how to obtain customer service. New social media channels are being opened everyday. No-one is prepared to pay to use them yet more and more people expect them to be available 24/7. Financing this new service delivery channels and maintaining an appropriate level of quality for each of them will prove to be a challenge. Customers will not accept that companies remove the icing on the cake to pay for better customer service so it will have to either be an increase in price which might reduce demand or a reduction in margins to finance social media development.

Picture courtesy of  Gower Cottage with our thanks - 

Over the moon because of good customer service

Customer service moonlight

It is all about setting the right expectations:
"reaching for the moon" is probably too ambitious and "once in a blue moon" does not happen often enough. The attributes of a good customer service programme need to take into account the fact that customers like to know what to expect and do hope to receive more each time.


Picture courtesy of http://www.lukeaddison.com with our thanks