At some point in most of our private or professional lives we all deal with
some aspect of Customer Service.
As Customers, do we really look forward to the electronic call filtering
procedures, which require us to "..Press one for a lobotomy..." or "...Press two
for irritating music.."?
How many of us have stories of either disinterested staff or of staff who seem
to do no more than take a message with little evidence that our problem has been
understood or valued?
Come on, own up!
As providers of services in an extremely competitive marketplace, we cannot
afford to be associated with poor service. Managing complex packages of services
has never been easy, but our customers evaluation of that service and
particularly how we respond to his off-the-cuff demands, is vital to our getting
repeat business.
How does your service measure up? " Our business has grown year-on-year and we
meet our clients targets. Our staff have all the tools at their disposal to
ensure that our links with the Customer are cared for!"
Is your Customer Service operative a decision-maker or an answering service?
Does your contact system give the operative feedback on service provided? How
many layers stand between the customer and real service? Are you streets ahead
of your competitors or only marginally better? Is yours a really quality system?
Heard the one about the customer prepared for the morning visit of a technician,
when nobody arrived? The technician had done his work at a remote electronic
access point, but failed to tell the customer, who had had his own staff waiting
at their place of business to assist in getting the Building Management System
fault identified.
Result? Service restored - Contract lost.
Or the one about the major telecommunications faults service that thought it
clever to ignore a customer's advice of possible problems on the system in his
area? The Customer Service operative had no way of processing that sort of data.
" No known problems in your area, Sir."
Result? System failure - lost revenue - lost customers.
Or the one about the customer whose Software, hardware, and Telecom suppliers,
had no structure for resolving a customer complaint, where they all had some
degree of responsibility in solving the problem?
" It's not our fault" was the defensive response from all three. The weeks of
intermittent service was disastrous and did nothing for the reputations of the
three suspects.
Result? Cost to the Customer - and three contracts not renewed.
Before anybody starts to think that I am simply having a good moan, just
consider that when somebody out there gets the customer service response right -
and keeps it that way, they will gain a very powerful position in the market.
There is evidence of an awareness of the issue among leading providers, but not
universally.
In related sectors such as Relocation and Inward Investment, where Facilities
Management practitioners are being increasingly involved, it has long been the
case that the most successful locations are singled out by the quality of their
offer, initial
response, commitment and significantly their follow through. They may not have
discovered a service Holy Grail, but what is clear is the intelligent way in
which the
best locations have given their Sales teams not only the best tools, but also
the authority to use them creatively to meet the customer/investor's
requirements.
For those of us who have experienced such a high quality delivery in that
sector, should we not take that seriously?
Can we afford to be complacent about who is being served?