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July 05, 2006
Customer Service? How May We Help You?
It's interesting, but lately I have been focusing aggressively on customer service. This is, at least in part, due to my blog being listed on Globat.com's home page as a way for customers to get to me directly to provide valuable feedback (good and bad) about how my companies are doing. Many customers do take advantage of this feature and I feel that I am now more "in the loop" as to what is going on in the different departments than I have ever been. Many changes have been implemented based on the feedback I have received and this blog has become a valuable tool for me.
Customer service cycles
One observation of mine is that customer service and a company's dedication to it goes in cycles. At one point everybody focuses on it and things couldn't go better, than everybody starts to relax and before you know it you're back in the dog house.
Understanding the balance
We, as much as many other companies, struggle at times with consistency in the customer service area. As described in my "Difficult 2%" post a few months back, we have a large number of customers who love us to death and are major supporters of Globat by recommending lots of new business to us. At the same time we have some customers (luckily only a limited number) who feel that we are completely substandard and should never be in business to begin with. These extreme case are mostly due to a technical failure of either our or the customer's end combined with a customer service rep who did not clearly understand to customer's concern. Keeping the balance between meeting the expectation of the vast majority of customers and overshooting/missing the goal is a requirement for a profitable company that will be around for years to come.
At a recent entrepreneur seminar someone asked what I would do (and have done) to build up a customer service-centric organization. So, here's my take on this issue that most entrepreneurs have to face at one point or another in their quest to business success.
Keep your friends close
The key to a positive customer experience is your staff, and I don't mean just the customer facing staff. In the web hosting service industry most employees are "servicing" customers in one way or another, while only a certain number of them are in direct contact with customers. All are equally important, and you need to make sure they know that.
To improve customer service you need to concentrate on developing motivation for your staff. The most powerful motivator is not necessarily monetary (although money has its place). Other motivators include a variety of things, such as:
- A sense of achievement
- A feeling that the job is worthwhile
- Thanks or recognition from respected people
- A sense of having made a difference
- Contributing to a long term vision
- Developing a new understanding
- Bringing organization into a situation of chaos
- Building up knowledge, skill or experience
Not all of these are of the same importance for each individual - different people are motivated by different things. This is of particular importance when deciding how to tackle the issue, because there are (generally speaking) two approaches:
1. Developing a standard approach
2. Enabling staff to develop their own approach
The problem with option (1) is that it often presumes that employees have a particular type of motivation. If they do, then the approach you introduce will work. But if they don't, then your standard approach will not win their commitment (at most you will gain 'compliance' with your approach which, in a customer service-centric environment, is just not good enough). Proponents of this option may argue that a standard approach is required to achieve quality - but if supposed "quality" is achieved at the expense of staff commitment, then the level of customer service will be poor.
The value of option (2) - which enables your staff to become the architects of their own customer service - is that you staff can incorporate the things that motivate them into that approach. You need standards as well - but if your staff is involved in the development of those standards then they are much more likely to be committed to them.
Customer service workshops
Your staff can become architects of your customer service through a workshop-based approach. Take your team offsite for a day or a couple of days, and take them through a syndicate-based process where they:
1. think about their own experiences - good and bad
2. define what is (generically) good customer service
3. apply those definitions to their own environment
4. ask your customers for their feedback (i.e. through a survey) on "the type of service I got and I want from you". Have syndicate discussions afterwards to review the issues raised.
5. get to produce an action plan to follow up on the workshop.
6. appoint a follow-up manager or champion to make sure that all the output from the workshops is supported by management, and progress on actions are regularly communicated to everyone involved
This approach gives your staff:
- Direct exposure to customers' views of the service they provide
- The opportunity to shape the future customer service (and thereby implicitly include what motivates them)
- Full support from management
- An efficient communication mechanism to see that their suggestions are being acted upon
These are some essential components for winning commitment of your staff to better customer service and I hope some of you will find them helpful.
Posted by Ben at July 5, 2006 05:49 PM
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Comments
You've offered some great food for thought here. I like your approach regarding the associates becoming the "architects" of their own customer service. Empowering your employees gives them motivation and makes them feel valuable and part of the team.
Posted by: Maria Palma at July 10, 2006 12:55 AM
I have enjoyed reading your blog. Hiring good employees, giving them clear direction thru updated job descriptions and evaluations, empowering them thru delegation, continued training in their areas and allowing for change/growth and rewarding their achievements will bring a company the rewards of efficiency, increased productivity and in turn, higher profits and/or outcomes.
Customer service is vital to any organization - regardless of the quality of the product/service offered.
Posted by: Melanie Paul at July 25, 2006 06:13 AM