Is your customer service at the heart of a virtuous circle?

Customer service virtuous circle

The growth of social media and viral propagation remind us everyday of the positives of a virtuous circle. Customer satisfaction is a natural source of endorsements, which in turn create further purchases, and increase customer loyalty whilst reducing the risk of post purchase dissonance. On the contrary below par customer service could be at the origin of a vicious circle where the company's reputation and future profits are at risk. So which curve is your customer service following? Beware, it might not be easy to determine at first sight...

Customer service: are you trading on thin ice?

Is your company trading on thin ice?

Any company's approach to customer service must be solid. Whilst it might be tempting to go to market quickly, putting only limited care in assessing the environment might present some serious risks. If the customer fundamentals  have been misjudged, a sunny start to trading activities might quickly turn into a disaster scenario. So it might be wiser to proceed with caution and as soon as the first cracks appear, making it back to safer ground might well be the only option.

With our thanks to Katja Lucas for the picture

Customer service balance

Customer service balance

A successful customer service delivery is made of many building blocks. A solid policy, firmly grounded, constitutes the cornerstone of the strategy. But it is not enough: adding more elements and finding the right balance is a necessity in the long run. Balancing the policy with innovation, initiative, the right level of human touch, a positive culture and some degree of creativity will make it all stick together. It should resist the test of time and be strong enough to sustain external challenges but when the time comes, one must be ready for the fact that it could crumble and one should be ready to rebuild it in a way which is appropriate for the current business environment.

Olympics: Does your customer service deserve the gold medal?

Olympic Motto and customer service:

If you wish to reach Customer Service Excellence why not simply adopt the Olympic Motto:

“Citius, Altius, Fortius” (1)

(1) Often translated as “Swifter, Higher, Stronger” 

Customer service: should you blow your own trumpet?

With the increasing emphasis on customer service, more and more companies claim that they offer a very good service, the very best service even. But is it wise to blow your own trumpet? Any service delivery hick-up could then lead to a severe back clash, with many customers using the high quality service expectations set by the company as an excuse for complaining, mocking the company and thereby damaging its reputation. An alternative course is to let the customers do the talking and use forums, social media platforms and the many other tools available to ensure that the positive feedback is noticed by many. So next time you are thinking about blowing your own trumpet, make sure you can last the distance.

Will your customer service leave a long lasting impression?

Giving a good impression is the ambition of many companies and it is fair to say that with the investment in technology, social media and training much progress is being achieved across the board. The basis for competition has shifted though and with no immediate prospect of a sustained improvement in the economic environment, customer service's importance keeps growing. At the end of the day it is no longer enough to assess if your service performance was good enough. The key measure will be to what extent your customer service has left a long lasting impression and as a result existing customers will become promoters of your products and services