Customer service is in the eye of the beholder

Beauty has long been recognised to be in the eye of the beholder. Could the same be said about customer service? The ideal customer service standards have been established for many different services across all sectors but do we give customers enough choice? Do they have the ability to put emphasis on certain element of the service and totally ignore others. Technological developments enable more and more refined analysis of customers, encouraging them at best and, directing them in the worst cases, towards purchases that they did not want to make in the first place. Could a totally reverse approached be engineered, the blank canvass. Or will it prove too difficult for customers to decide what they want? After all, the canon of beauty is often determined by the media so why shouldn't the canon of customer service be determined by business executives?

Fishy customer service

What is the link between a fish and customer service? 

Better hope that there are none. Unless you operate in the fish industry, it is better to avoid fishy customer service practices. There are no clear universal pointers as to what 'fishy' means but it could include known sub-standard operations, unfair practices, insufficient documentation, misleading advertising and many more horrible items that we can not quote in a blog dedicated to good customer service. Next time you review your customer service, someone should explicitly be tasked with the  objective to ensure that there is nothing fishy going on.

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?

Customer watch

At all times, it is crucial that your customer watch is in place. If your customers are in need of simple advice or find themselves in serious difficulty, you should be at hand, ready to provide immediate assistance. This will prevent a situation from deteriorating and causing irreparable damage. If successful, a rapid intervention will contribute to the establishment of a real bond which could last a lifetime. So, who is watching over your customers right now?

Customer service innovation

Customer service innovation 

Innovation in customer service has become increasingly valuable as a way to differentiate from the competition and avoid an all-out price war. But, which is the best way to innovate? The challenge for companies is to determine to what extent the service innovations should be radical and if they are not a rehashed copy of what someone has done before, are they achievable? To succeed management needs to be daring yet make sure that every element has been perfectly assessed and calculated so that the newly built process stays in place for many years to come and delivers the best results. Are you brave enough to have a go?


Recent examples of customer service innovation:

- publish in real time the expected response time of customer service agents on Twitter (innovation by KLM - 2013)
- delivery of products with 30 minutes of order using un-manned flying drones (innovation by Amazon - pilot 2013)
- enabling shoppers to see a season catwalk show through live streaming and to order personalised versions of clothes and handbags within minutes of seeing them (innovation by Burberry - 2013)

Customer service: take the helicopter view

Your understanding of the environment where your company offers its business services will be crucial in determining the success of your operation. What are the constraints?