Customer service skills: simplicity is key

What customer service skills do you really need? Good service, delivered well, will always win the day. The rule book should establish the basic customer service definition: for a restaurant, this can be as simple as a bottle of (cold) water and a couple of glasses on every table. Much of the perception about the quality of service, however, will be determined by the service skills, factors such as the human interaction between the customer and staff... Assuming that the quality of the product is beyond reproach and not over priced, if the staff attitude is good, the overall service assessment will be positive, irrespective of its level of sophistication.

Picture by verygoodservice.com

Update customer service skills 2013

We have prepared a list of customer service skills which we consider to be essential when implementing an effective customer service strategy. They can be found by reading this blog post: list of customer service skills

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

Invest in customer service to cut the waste

Customer service waste

Cut the waste: The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has published amazing statistics about the amount of food and drinks wasted every year in the UK. The total avoidable waste represents £12 bn a year according to the Waste and Resources Action Programme. In your business, can you quantify the waste directly attributable to poor customer service? And, more importantly what is needed to capture this enormous source of added productivity?

Picture courtesy of WRAP with our thanks

Customer service excellence: does the client perspective matter?

The client will drive the score in customer satisfaction survey and he/she will decide whether to remain loyal and recommend the company. From the company point of view the same metrics will be used to measure customer service performance: whichever way you look at it,

the winner should be the same. Do not hesitate to visit our website for good customer service examples by award-winning companies

For more customer service excellence examples, visit our blog: blog.verygoodservice.om

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/

Why is customer service so important?

The importance of customer service

We were interviewed by Social Small Biz on the topic. Here is the link to the post:

http://www.socialsmallbiz.com/2010/03/22/why-is-customer-service-so-important/

A lot has already been written about customer service and I will not attempt to give you the full 50 pages answer: that can easily be found in text books. Instead I would like to focus on 3 aspects which all have critical impact on the financial health of a business.The first point is that customer service can be instrumental in managing the price sensitivity of customers. At a time when the economy is struggling and the fiscal pressure is increasing, everyone wants a good deal, but the explosion of voucher sites, discount codes and special sales is disorientating customers. They do not know when to shop, are constantly being moved around by comparator sites and