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

Good customer service attributes (Take 2)

Customer service attributes: Back in September, we thought that a tree was the best way to illustrate the qualities and attributes of customer service. Here is a serious new contender though: serene, calm, collected, elegant on the outside and apparently swimming effortlessly, but peddling frantically below the waterline to make sure that things happen. The other quality that the swan brings to customer service attributes is the ability to transfer knowledge and skills and train the next generation, seamlessly.

We would love to hear your views on what you believe the most important attributes are so please don't hesitate to leave a comment with your top three.

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

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