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Archive for the ‘Customer Service’ Category

Who says service is serious? Customer service can be silly too. Take this fun quiz to test your customer service knowledge. You may be a service ace if you both pick the correct answer to each of these ten questions, and understand why these answers are correct.

1. A complaining customer is:

A. Always right

B. Almost right

C. Often lying

D. Always the customer

2. Customers who complain:

A. Had unhappy childhoods

B. Are genetically predisposed to be sourpusses

C. Have trouble in their primary relationships

D. Are doing you a service in identifying what isn’t working in your business or organization

3. The best reward for your customer service representatives is:

A. Earplugs and punching bags

B. Valium or other mind-numbing drugs

C. Recognition and appreciation on your part

D. Anger management seminars

4. CRM stands for:

A. Customers Rarely Matter

B. Can’t Remember Much

C. Communicating Random Meaning

D. Customers Rudimentarily Managed

E. Customer Relationship Management

5. Customers who complain want . . .

A. Something for nothing

B. To be heard and have their experience validated

C. To vent for the sport of it

D. To be made majority shareholders in the company

6. Customer Service departments:

A. Are the afterthought that cleans up messes other departments cause

B. Build customer loyalty

C. Are leaders in understanding customer behavior patterns and market research

7. For a company to be considered service-oriented:

A. It must mention customer service in its mission statement

B. At least 18.3% of its employees must work in the customer service department

C. Its managers must at one time have been CSRs

D. Customer service must be addressed by all departments

8. A Call Center is defined as:

A. The midpoint in duration of a telephone call

B. A revenue sink hole

C. A place where middle-of-the-road calls coexist with liberal and arch-conservative calls

D. A location where complaints and problems are converted into successful saves for your customers and your company

9. Customer Care is:

A. A managed care medical program for customers

B. A nifty alliterative phrase that looks good in company brochures

C. A new program where customers care for themselves

D. A philosophy wherein the customer is wrapped in service even before a problem arises

10. Customer Service Culture is

A. A new form of yogurt where the lid removes itself for you

B. Behavior being analyzed in a Petrie dish for contagions

C. A mythical civilization in which everyone smiles and welcomes you when they meet

D. An environment where customer service permeates the thinking of the entire company

KEY

1. D. Customers are often wrong but they never stop being the customer. Right or wrong they are to be accorded respect and cared for. Focus on the insights their complaint offers.

2. D. Complaining customers alert you to systemic problems before they drive off more customers. Their complaints represent many more customers who may not spend the time to tell you about problems, instead just leaving you for your competitors.

3. C. Your staff deserves and thrive on recognition and appreciation. Take the time to celebrate them collectively and individually. Whether through cards, gifts, surprises, outings and acknowledgements at company functions, let them know how important, valued and appreciated they are to you and the company.

4. E. CRM refers to systems designed to track and cater to each customer’s whims and preferences over a lifetime. CRM is about managing customer relationships over the long haul by attending to their individual needs.

5. B. Complaining customers have several needs. Implicit in their actual complaint is also a need to be heard and their unhappiness acknowledged. Fixing the problem is important. So is letting them know you understand their displeasure and feel for them. One without the other is an incomplete remedy for customer complaints. Don’t forget the emotional component in complaints.

6. B and C. When you solve a problem for a customer you actually build confidence and allegiance. You’ve proven you stand behind your products or service, giving customers a warm and fuzzy feeling of safety and protection. As well, you tap the pulse of the customers. Their complaints and feedback give valuable insight into how well your products are assembled, documented, sold and hold up. Listening to customers tells you a great deal about your company’s products and services (and your competitors’ too) from real life customers. That’s invaluable!

7. D. A Customer Service orientation must transcend the service department. All departments must understand and model good customer service for the company to be considered strong in service. Many problems can be avoided outright by attending to customer service. Why should the customer service department carry the weight of service for the entire company. Don’t operate under the adage “never enough time to do it right but always enough time to do it over.” Get it right at the source, in all departments.

8. D. Make your call center is a shining example of your company’s commitment to its customers. Your center is a visible symbol of your company’s commitment to customer success.

9. D. Customer Care is a philosophy wherein customers are cared for by a company – the entire time they’re customers. Care isn’t just to be administered as a salve for problems. Demonstrate care from the start and your customers will flock to your products and services.

10. D. Customer Service Culture is the infusion of service ideals into every department, from sales, shipping and receiving to legal, human resources and beyond.

The advent of the Internet as a medium of global communication brought along with it many revolutionary changes in international business. With global communication becoming extremely efficient and amazingly cheap, distances became inconsequential. People began doing commerce in a scale never thought possible before the Internet. One the boons of online communication was call center customer service or customer service centers providing comprehensive product support and after sales business processes. BPO companies provided effective call center customer service for the producing company saving time and costs.

Localized customer service centers provide an essential part of international business. In fact the necessity for customer service call centers is so great that in a 2010 survey, 50% of these companies were consumer oriented. Another 35% were concentrating on latest trends and services while the rest were more cost based processes. But even more revealing is that 80% of American businesses identify client services as a distinct area of their process. This explicitly elaborates just how important contemporary call center customer services are in the global economy.

But customer service call centers have had to adopt more contemporary trends developing in the market. The use of telephonic help lines and 24/7 product support is slowly fading. Customer service centers are adopting the changing trend towards Internet based product support. Customer service used to be controlled exclusively by companies while clients had little participation in the process. Using social media like Twitter, Facebook, blogs, online magazines, forums, and these social interactive amenities is now preferred. Producing companies are increasingly finding it best to involve Customer to Customer support over only telephonic help lines. But training and technical knowledge about a product is also an important look out.

Call center customer service has also changed its dynamics to be a part of the Internet revolution. With product trained executives having a continual online presence via live chats, social media, and SMO activities, customer service centers have deeper impact. Clients are being helped continually, but without the need for the conventional telephonic approach. With consumers searching Google more than any print medium; marketing and Internet presence are more important than advertisements. That is why companies are turning to customer service call centers to manage the online support well.

Providence Business Services provides the best contemporary and comprehensive international customer service center for your business. With a range of processes and packages offering the latest SMO and web based solutions, we at Providence help your business to be more secure. Our Call center customer service is equally incorporated with other services like data management to give you the winning edge in an International market.

Customer service representatives (CSRs)

Interact with customers to provide information in response to inquiries about products and services and to handle and resolve complaints. First point of customer contact for general inquiries like pricing, products, scheduling etc maintain business relation with clients by providing accurate service so as to promote customer loyalty.

CSRs are people employed by companies to serve as a direct point of contact for customers. In the 24/7 worlds today companies need to secure their customers receive an adequate level of service or help with their questions and concerns. Such customers may be individual consumers or other companies each with different needs. Many companies provide customer service to path of the telephone through call centers. The Customer service representatives interact with customers to provide information in response to inquiries about products or services. They also handle and resolve complaints and communicate with customers through a variety of means. Telephone is the most famous but increasingly customer service is supplied by e-mail. Faxes and regular mail parallelism and even a direct meeting can also be used by the CSR. Some customer service representatives handle general questions and complaints, whereas others particularize in a particular area.

Customer Service Representative is explain by the following points: –

1. Customer Services

Good customer service is the lifeblood of any business.

Excellent customer service is one of the few ways to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. Customers are satisfied or dissatisfied with the level of customer service provided by CSRs. Good customer service is the lifeblood of any business. You can offer promotions and slash prices to bring in as many new customers as you want, but unless you can get some of those customers to come back, your business wont be profitable for long. Customer Services are increasingly changing the way customers interact with firms to create service outcomes. Good customer service can increase your customer loyalty rate, leading to greater profitability.

2. Customer Satisfaction

No business can exist without customers.

Customer Satisfaction may be measured directly by survey and expressed as a percentage, such as Percent of Customers Completely Satisfied. Providing good service in a pleasant manner and meeting the customer’s expectations is also known as Customer Satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is the fulfillment of customers requirements or needs.

Consider this, only 4% of all customers with problems complain. The average customer with a problem eventually tells 9 other people.

In other side, three types of relationship were identified:

1. Satisfaction-as-love

2. Satisfaction-as-trust

3. Satisfaction-as-control

Each responded to the same failure in different ways. Satisfaction-as-love customers had emotional bonds with the product category and thus reaffirmed their loyalty following the failure. Satisfaction-as-trust customers saw the service failure and inadequate recovery as a breach of the brand’s implied promise and thus excited the relationship. Satisfaction-as-control customers took charge of the situation, using their status to improve their situation and then defended the brand.

3. Customer loyalty

Multiple regression analysis assessed the impact on customer loyalty of four key constructs of relationship marketing: -

1. Trust,

2. Commitment,

3. Communication,

4. Conflict Handling.

These four variables have a significant effect and predict a good proportion of the variance in customer loyalty.

The stairs of Customer Loyalty shows you how to consciously shape a plan for developing your customer relationship skills in a more congruent manner and is a benchmark in fostering and promoting permanent customer relationships for businesses of all sizes.

4. Customer Orientation

There are seven keys that strongly indicate a customer orientation attitude:

Thinking and talking about clients a lot

Continually assessing your customers perceptions

Resolving priority issues in favor of the customer

Giving in, compromising, adding value for the customer

Making amends to customers for poor treatment

Employing a “whatever it takes” policy to satisfy special needs

Redesigning processes, re-deploying resources and when they get in the way of service quality

5. Mass customization

Mass Customization is a way of building and selling products such that the product features are broken down and offered to the consumer as choices. Mass customization, in marketing, manufacturing, and management, is the use of flexible computer-aided manufacturing systems to produce custom output. Those systems combine the low unit costs of mass production processes with the flexibility of individual customization.

The flourish surrounding mass customization increased dramatically with the advent the Internet. Companies saw how e-commerce could allow an individual customer to tailor a product to his or her own specifications and then order it. The vision of mass customization seemed to promise manufacturers several benefits: They could offer service, achieve greater levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty, gather advance information on market trends, and reduce inventory levels.

So, what I learned from my research was delivering consistently good service quality is difficult but profitable for service organizations. In many services, quality occurs during service delivery, usually in an interaction between the customer and contact personnel of the service firm. So, that service quality is highly dependent on the performance of employees.

Contact Us : Call Centers India

Email : sales@callcentersindia.com

Phone : 206.384.4669

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Customers of every kind of business imaginable these days bemoan the state of customer service. While the global economy and the Internet have given businesses the opportunity to serve more clients than ever before, the trend has also given way to impersonal, lackluster customer service. Its unfortunate that most businesses today dont realize that they are regularly losing valuable customers if they dont focus on providing an exceptional customer service experience.

In most businesses, once a customer begins dealing with the customer service department, he or she is already in a negative mindset. The best customer service representatives arent those that simply neutralize the problem. Outstanding customer service representatives take a negative and turn it into a positive that ensures the customer is not only happy, but is convinced he or she has had an outstanding experience the Wow Factor that he would not have gotten with any other company.

The key ingredients of the Wow experience are:

Seamless Service

Trustworthy Service

Attentiveness

Resourcefulness

Courtesy

Pro-active Service

Seamless Service means providing everything the customer needs, not just what is required to meet the minimum standards. Its about making sure that they dont have to wait and wonder. Customers will appreciate a smooth, seamless process for addressing their needs. If there are several steps needed to take care of their concerns, keep them in the loop update them by email or with a quick phone call so that they know you are working on the situation and progress is being made. By keeping them abreast of what is going on, you are letting them know you havent forgotten about them and that you understand their concerns reassurance and communication are powerful customer service tools.

Trustworthy Service is essential to retaining customers. Promising a customer anything and delivering nothing is the surest way to not only lose a customer, but get the kind of word of mouth bad press that can ruin you. Under promise and over deliver If you promise a satisfactory solution and then go the extra mile to not only satisfy the customer, but gain their appreciation and Wow them, you will get word of mouth that will bring new customers to you.

Attentive Service means paying attention during and after the initial contact. How many times have you contacted customer service and been subjected to an obviously scripted response from the customer service representative? Does it give you the feeling they arent really listening, but just trying to get to the end of their canned presentation?

Attentiveness should run through every customer service experience, from listening carefully to the customers concerns to following up after the exchange is over to make sure their needs have been met. Listening isnt just about hearing it is about understanding what is really being said. The words are just the beginning what about the customers tone of voice? Her mood? Is she disappointed, angry or frustrated? Keying in to the customers mood and responding appropriately is essential, and it means not following a script.

Resourcefulness means finding solutions when there appear to be none. Many companies have iron-clad policies that must be followed whenever a problem arises; however, sometimes a customer wont be satisfied by the company line approach. Resourceful customer service representatives know that there is always a way to move beyond the standard procedures in order to make a customer happy. Resourcefulness involves finding a solution when a solution isnt apparent. This may mean moving up the chain of command before the customer demands to talk to your superior. Companies with excellent customer service also give their representatives some leeway so that they can come up with creative solutions on their own. When a customer senses that you are going beyond the norm to help them, they will feel valued and respected.

Courtesy is a commodity that is becoming rarer every day. It takes so little to be polite but it is becoming a lost art. Say please when you ask a customer a question, thank them for their information and take your time talking to them. Nothing makes a customer feel more devalued than being treated like a number. Use the persons name, make requests rather than demands and know when to apologize. When something goes wrong for a customer, they want to hear that you understand their frustration and that you are genuinely sorry that they are being inconvenienced. It takes nothing to say, Im so sorry you arent satisfied and I hope we can do something to correct this.

Pro-Active Service means not waiting for the customer to come up with a solution that you simply follow through on. A pro-active customer service representative anticipates the needs of the customer and follows through. Dont wait for the customer to ask you what you are willing to do anticipate the question and answer it before they can ask. If they call and say they arent satisfied, apologize and immediately suggest some solutions. Customers want you to take the lead acknowledge their unhappiness, offer a solution or solutions and explain to them how you are going to follow through. Pro-Active service means taking the lead, which will reassure your customers that you know what you are doing and that you will follow through.

If you keep these six keys in mind seamless service, trustworthiness, attentiveness, resourcefulness ,courtesy and pro-active service you will be able to offer every customer the Wow Customer Service Experience that inspires loyalty and keeps customers coming back for more.

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Having worked for the USPS for thirty-six years and spending the last twenty-five years in Customer service with the United States Postal Service, I believe that I do have an opinion on this subject. And, the answer is, Im not certain if Customer service is becoming as thing of the past; but, generally speaking, todays Customer service doesnt come close to that of my Fathers or my Grandfathers days.

I mean seriously, when you have to ask for silver ware or ask to have your water glass refilled, you get the idea that Customer service is lacking. Ive been in upscale restaurants where when you call on the wait staff for anything, they make you feel like youre an imposition or an interruption in their day. Excuuuuse Me! Isnt it because of folks like you and me that these folks have a job? Leon Leonwood (L.L.) Bean says it pretty clearly; “A Customer is not dependent on us, we are dependent on him. A Customer is not an interruption of our work, he is the purpose for it.”

From a recent Customer service survey on Restaurantowner.com, the conclusion that they came up with is, most restaurant owners believe that Customer service is as important as 9.5 on a scale from 1-10, yet those same owners rated their establishments at less than 7.5. Less than 7.5! Why is that? Lets focus first on what factors create consistent high levels of Customer service. Imagine this; you have to hire the right people. 84% surveyed believe that this is very important. Heres another eye opener; 70% of the owners say that it is important to teach employees basic social skills such as smiling, eye contact or even conversational skills and 61% believe that it is important to educate the servers on the correlation between great service and higher tips. What about teaching owners the correlation between great Customer service and revenue, profits, repeat business, and word-of-mouth advertising. All of this is covered in my ENCORE Performance Evaluations and the ENCORE Performance training course offered by Maximum Authenticated Solutions to be explained later.

So what are the factors that cause poor levels of Customer Service? Here are a few reasons cited on the Restaurantowners.com survey by operators that rated their own level of Customer service at 7 or below. I mean come on – if you dont satisfy your Customers, your competitors will. If youre running a restaurant and you evaluate your Customer service at 7 or below, you got problems. Here are a few of the qualities cited; inadequate management, poor quality labor force, poor leadership, training not a priority, and complacent employees. All of these qualities can be corrected if management makes Customer service the number one priority.

Why is it important that Customer service be given so much attention? Because Customer service will make or break your restaurant. With bad Customer service you may survive, but, with great Customer service you will thrive. Again, why is Customer service so important? From the most recent survey, the 2008 U.S. Customer Experience Impact Report, performed by Harris Interactive and RightNow Technologies, let me share some very alarming numbers and from these numbers I will answer my own question; Why is Customer service so important?

Did you know that in the past two years, discontinuing business with a company, restaurant, or service after a negative Customer experience jumped from 68% in 2006 to 87% in 2008 and that the number of U.S. adults who will tell others about a bad Customer experience increased 25% from 67% in 2006 to 84% in 2008.

But wait, it doesnt stop there. Outstanding Customer service is the #1 reason that consumers recommend a restaurant to others. Its a simple equation; Great Customer service = better revenue+better profits+better tips+a better Customer experience.

It is because of my interest in dining out and my interest in getting great Customer service that I developed ENCORE Performance Evaluations and the ENCORE Performance Training Course. Yes, to me, great Customer experience is that important. The evaluation is a four hour visit that evaluates everything from the Valet (if applicable) to the Check. Nothing is left to the imagination, as the evaluation is in depth and concise. A few days following the evaluation, the results are shared with management and from that meeting future steps are discussed. If the restaurant does fall below a 75% rating, the ENCORE Performance Training Course is an option for any and all of the employees. Because Customer service is a learned quality, it does not come naturally in most individuals. ENCORE Performance validates the Customer Value Proposition (CVP) and plays an integral part in the restaurants ability to generate revenue, increase profits and tips, retain current Customers, and gain new ones.

With ENCORE Performance Evaluations and ENCORE Performance training I want to make certain that Customer service is not a thing of the past. My training will teach the most important part of Customer service; Your Customers are people first, they are not just looking for a meal and a drink – they are looking for a dining experience. Your Customers will savor the experience that you will learn to provide after an ENCORE Performance Evaluation and my ENCORE Performance training being conducted now by the Lancaster PA based company.

To schedule an ENCORE Performance Evaluation for your restaurant, contact me at masheely@comcast.net or call 717-587-6470.