Good customer service is key to job satisfaction

Customer service job satisfaction

Whilst the focus is very often to reduce costs and offer the minimum service to customers, there is a great source of productivity which is often ignored. Employees who are given the means to offer a good service such as replacement products or ability to alter existing arrangements will not have to deal to the same extent with the wrath of customers and therefore will be much happier and much more committed to their jobs and their employers. Customer service skills and training are clearly important but the explicit policy to deliver good customer service is critical to employees job satisfaction and their attitude will make the real difference in terms of actually improving customer service.

Picture courtesy of Andy Newson with our thanks - http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=5

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 - 

Encouraging customer service feedback through social media

Customer service feedback

After a long session of surf or for that matter a good or bad customer service occurence, most clients want to share what they experienced. The choice for companies is either to encourage this desire for communication so that it creates the right swell when positive or to put their head in the sand and hope the bad press goes away. Social media is making a two tier system more difficult to organise as the good mixes with the bad. To counter this, some companies are starting to set up dedicated accounts on Twitter for the problem areas such as delivery issues or service outage. But, is this segmentation approach going to succeed by containing the less positive stories or is it a serious threat to the holistic nature of social media?

Picture courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/beachball2007/ 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

Customer service: the risk of social media fatigue

Social media customer service

Social media is still a black and white world, customers like it or they don't. Interestingly a shade of gray has appeared recently with a number of social media converts complaining of fatigue and returning to more traditional ways of communication such as handwriting. If the trend setters are already considering a switch away from social media, customer service executives have to consider very carefully their customer relationship management strategy: heavy investment in the new digital marketing world should be matched with proper stocking up of pens and paper.

Picture courtesy of http://www.wearesnook.com/ with our thanks. Snook is a new initiative that service designers Sarah Drummond and Lauren Currie have launched in Scotland.

Making your customers feel welcome

Welcome customers:

Maintaining good customer relationship is all about making customers feel welcome. Even if the door looks good it is much better when it is open.

Picture copyright - The Real Flower Company -http://www.realflowers.co.uk/ with our thanks.