Customer service guide

Customer service guide: 

When designing a new customer service guide, executives could usefully draw parallels between customers finding their way in the market place and sailors navigating across unknown waters.  More often than not, difficulties can be avoided by learning from the experience of others who have just followed the same path. The key to success is to capture that experience and make judicious use of all modern technologies and tools to guide customers through the buying process. Sailors made good use of lighthouses and hand-drawn maps, what customer service guide and tools are you making available to your customers?

Bread and butter customer service

Is it the end of bread and butter service? The increasing sophistication of marketing tools and techniques mean that many businesses have upped their game to improve the shopping experience they offer to their customers.
These activities can lead to the creation of extra layers of costs and inefficiencies which are not always fully valued by the customers. As a result they develop a bargain hunting instinct whereby they wait for heavy promotional periods and sales during which they are prepared to buy at what they believe is a fair price. In turn, such behaviour leads retailers to invest in yet more marketing tools to game the system and increase prices so that they can be better discounted later. Complicated and confusing. So wouldn't it be better to adopt a simpler approach, cut out the fuss and make sure that the service delivery to clients is of quality but simple enough so that it does not take too much value away from the product.

Picture courtesy of Peter's Yard with our thanks 

Customer service success

Customer service success should be celebrated. Why not send away your customer service team to one of the 5 star best hotel getaways so that they can celebrate their success in style, maybe with a bottle of Champagne? Customer service success only comes after a lot of innovation, passion and hard work. If your organisation is successfully delivering its customer service strategy it is critical that the teams responsible are properly thanked and rewarded in the same way as sales and marketing teams are. The benefits of a successful customer relationship management strategy are well known but often under-stated. Isn't it time to adopt a new approach?

Customer farming

customer service farm

The farming community knows a thing or two about delivering real results despite unpredictable and changing market conditions. The parallels which exist between agriculture and customer service and marketing are not used enough and yet they could assist in the design and delivery of a clear customer-focused strategy. Chose the best food to grow, select the crops, prepare the soil, plant the seeds, use (or not) fertilizers, provide water when needed, harvest, select, calibrate, taste, store... Wouldn't it be great if our local farmers could engage in workshops to develop these simple concepts and help us adapt them to the way we handle customers. Unfortunately they are far too busy producing tangible results.....the first lesson maybe?

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

Spinning the customer service wheel of fortune?

Wheel of Fortune Customer Service

Delivering good customer service should not be like spinning the Wheel of Fortune. Companies have to find a way to make sure that customers win at all times. It might require educating clients and make them appreciate the value of all prizes. Above all, they should not leave disappointed and certainly not feel as if they were victims of the luck of the draw. The customer service lottery is definitely one  to avoid...

Customer service examples

Customer service examples: Here are a few quotes by @Thoughtbuddy giving us his take on good customer service:

"For me, an example of @verygoodservice is when the shop assistant walks around from behind the counter/till to hand over your purchase(s)."

"Also think it's @verygoodservice when assistant refers to you by name using details on your payment / loyalty card."

"It's better to take the customer to where the product they're after is on the shelf/rail rather than just give directions."

"A basic: staff engaging in friendly banter with the customer rather than talking to their colleagues/pals."

Thank you Simon

Bridging the gap in customer service

Customer service gaps

A major challenge for service companies is to bridge the gap between customer expectations and service provision. This is actually extremely difficult to achieve as there is little reward for over delivery when the expectation is low but potential for a massive back-clash when the service levels are judged to be insufficient in the eyes of customers. This may result in a dramatic misallocation of resources which can cost companies much in terms of lost sales. The solution has to be to think hard about the service design, to relax rigid procedures and to introduce flexibility in the customer service provision by placing more reliance on employees.

Picture courtesy of Matt Rhodes with our thanks - http://twitter.com/#!/mattrhodes

Tailored customer service or one size fits all

Tailored customer service

One of the challenges when defining the attributes of a customer service strategy is to decide whether the approach should be the same for all customers or whether a degree of flexibility is possible. If companies chose to offer a tailored customer service to all, costs are becoming a major issue and the products and services become uncompetitive, unless the client is prepared to pay for it. Interestingly, recent experiences have shown that an award-winning company which claims to offer a very good customer service actually failed to deliver when pushed beyond its normal boundaries. On the other hand, two companies which do not specifically claim to offer a great service actually adapted their standard procedures to accomodate. The difference between these companies is even more striking as one company initially said yes but did not deliver whilst the other two started by saying no but actually came up with the goods. Is it true therefore that companies which say "no" actually have the greatest ability to deliver tailored customer service?

Picture by verygoodservice.com/

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 - 

Good customer service delivery: changes afoot

Customer service delivery

With the growth of internet shopping being experienced at the moment, ways of delivering customer service are evolving rapidly. The number of parcels being shipped is increasing exponentially and customers are having to adapt and make different choices for their delivery. A little while ago the main issue was whether the internet based virtual shop was trustworthy. Nowadays the main concern is to choose which organisation can be relied upon to deliver the goods on time. Is delivery becoming a key buying criteria to the extent that good customer service will become known as good service delivery?