May 2009 Newsletter

Rejuventate your customer service this May with some tips fom industry experts. Join us as we also explore a raging debate unravelling about customer care in the NHS.

5 Essential Elements of Excellent Customer Service

If you Google 'Customer Service Tips' you will find a flood of articles that offer advice on dealing with dissatisfied and angry customers. Does this mean that customer service is only deserving of attention when it starts failing?

Damage control should be a rarity and mediocrity should be almost as unacceptable as an outright failure.
Aspire to provide a level of service that evokes amazement in customers and trepidation in the competition. Here are the 5 laws of excellent customer service:

1. Assemble your own customer
Your organisation actively markets to, attracts and shapes the experience of customers. Through the actions of your staff and company structures you elicit a specific behaviour and outcome from your customers. With the exception of the odd unreasonable individual you can generally shape:

• How the client interacts with you
• How much time of yours they take up
• How much energy is required to keep them happy
• What they say about your service to others

A transition from the mindset of the organisation as a passive entity at the mercy of customer behaviour to understanding the degree of influence you possess can be liberating.

There is a strong chance that your customer service staff will feel as if they are more in control and customers are likely to feel more secure as they are guided through the experience.

Always try to keep in mind that you determine the type of customers with whom you work.

2. Treat your staff like customers
Your company does not service the needs of customers – the people you employ do. If your employees are unhappy there is a strong probability that there will be a mirror-effect as customer dissatisfaction reflects the unhealthy dynamics in your organisation.

Allow for open dialogue with people on the frontline of customer service. You can do this by suspending judgment and making a concerted effort to listen to your employees’ needs.

Respect is contagious and if exercised within a company is more likely to be exercised with its customers.

3. Avoid habit
There can be a temptation to categorize customers into one homogenous group. Although there may be repeated queries and issues when dealing with customers the people behind them are as unique as you are.

When we repeatedly encounter a similar situation or stimulus we may default to dealing with it in the same way every time. The problem with assumption is that it has a nasty habit of impairing judgment.

Respect individuality and in turn your company becomes unique. How do you do this?

4. Pay close attention
Here’s how:

• Consistently get customer feedback to identify and act on general trends
• Encourage active listening and strategic questioning among your staff
• Use the above information to diagnose and treat problems before they escalate.
• Monitor how many prospects are converted to customers - if they don't convert find out why.

The above tips are essential for quality control in customer service. You don’t get a second chance at creating a good first impression.

5. Understand their needs, wants and desires.
If you travel by plane your minimum need is to get from A to B safely and on time. You would probably also want some form of entertainment to pass the time and friendly service from the onboard staff. You may even desire to travel first class and stretch out in decadence.

The three important terms that surface from this analogy are:

Needs: fundamental expectations which set the minimum level of required performance. They can be rational (functional requirements) or emotional (deeper, more implied needs such as the implications of a brand). Ask:

What are the basic Needs of my customers? What can they not do without in terms of our basic service?

Wants: are added extras that are considered when needs have been addressed. Meeting these leaves customers happy and satisfied. Ask: What are their 'wants' regarding our service? What are the things that they don’t absolutely expect but which would make them happy as a part of your service provision?

Desires: can be thought of as ‘latent expectations.’ They are the extras which set some services apart from others. Repeated over time they become wants. In this way you ‘raise the bar’ on expectations. Ask:
What are the Desires of my customers? What are the extra special measures that, if I were to take them, are likely to delight my customers? .

These points should help you in determining how far you should be going in terms of meeting the specific Needs, Wants and Desires of your clients. Through looking at these you can tailor a type of service that fits your clients like a glove

In conclusion:
• Mold the type of customer with whom you want to work
• Invest in your staff’s job-satisfaction
• Encourage an individualistic approach to customers,
• Actively listen to and analyze what your customers say
• Know their needs, wants and desires

Exercise a conscious empathy and follow the above steps to give your organisation the type of credibility and exposure advertising can’t buy. These are simple, yet powerful, tools to ensure happy customers.

Find out more by clicking Customer Service Training Courses, or contact Linzi. Alternatively  you can give us a call on: 0207 407 0044

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What on Earth is going on with Customer Care in the NHS?

There is currently a powerful debate unravelling about the future of the NHS. Opinions have been split regarding the merits of promoting private sector methodologies in a public organisation. One of the major development plans for the NHS is a movement to viewing patients as customers and allocating budgets based on performance.

Whatever the outcome of this is it will undoubtedly have an impact on how the 1.5 million employees of the NHS approach their jobs and the type of care that over 50 million people receive.

Some fear that promoting private sector methodologies will be the tipping point that leads to a full privatisation of the Health Service. Others welcome the reformation as a way of promoting healthy competition that will lead to an elevation of care standards.

Through their tax contributions the majority of people in Britain are NHS shareholders. In most businesses shareholders are generally concerned with whether change will result in measurably improved structures, efficiency and staff engagement.

The majority of us are also patients /customers through the use of the services offered by the NHS. As customers we are generally concerned about the quality of the product and service we receive.

The point is that whether you look at this from the perspective of a customer or shareholder the real value of change is in whether it improves service delivery, efficiency and produces happier customers. Change can only be measured by the results it yields.

With the correct approach, methods that have taken the private sector decades to formulate and perfect could be imparted to NHS staff in training interventions with tangible results for staff and patients.

This is a unique opportunity for the NHS to assimilate the sharpest tools from the private sector without blunting the vision of free health care for everyone.

To get a better idea of how private sector training has already been used to implement concrete results in the NHS take a look at:

Customer Service Training in the NHS  

 

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