The essential principles of customer service are timeless. Customers want a friendly voice at the other end of the conversation that will help them solve their problems. They want to feel the service is personalized just for them.
When prospects decide to purchase a product from a company, they become a customer from that moment on. Customer service is the providing of service to customers during and after a purchase.
From the perspective of service, the company is linked to the customer, providing them support in the life cycle of the product and creating opportunities to sell them more at some later time.
If the customer feels their needs are being met by skilled representatives of the company, they will stick with them forever. Without
…show more content…
Customers have little patience with companies that don't have the information they need at their fingertips. They have their own social media audiences. Fail them and it becomes a publicized company disaster. They will sometimes try to use their leverage to gain better deals or service. They expect representatives of the company to remember them, their preferences and the conversation they had a week ago, even though they are calling using a different contact channel.
Customers are becoming more sophisticated with the advancement of technology and their expectations for service have increased. Metrics gathered recently include facts that 95 percent of unsatisfied customers tell others about their bad experience, costing the companies 80 billion dollars in sales. On the other hand 71 percent of customers with a positive experience are likely to recommend a brand, all happening through social
…show more content…
An applicant will be put through an automated application process where voice and tone are recorded and simulated calls are answered and handled. In this way candidates with the most aptitude for Customer Service Reps (CSR) are hired. Customer calls ebb and flow with seasons and the economy, and a flexible, well-trained staff should always be available. Notwithstanding the positive aspects of technology to make customer calls a positive experience, the most important part of call center solutions is reaching a knowledgeable agent trained in the way the company wants it to run.
But call centers are being asked to do more with less, while facing increasing call volumes (growing at 20% per year). Call center staffing is an enormous overhead cost for companies, and reducing staffing is not ideal call center solutions. Call abandonment is on the rise as call volume exceeds the call center capabilities.
A recent Microsoft study showed that 43 percent of U.S. Customers are willing to wait on hold for 1 – 5 minutes, while only 18 percent will hold for 10
Having prior knowledge of a customers needs, habits, and questions before or during every interaction and transaction can boost customer satisfaction. (Zueschner, Raymond. (1997). Communicating Today. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Comcast Corporation is a company that specializes in cable networking and high speed internet access for residential and commercial customers. “Comcast Creates More Than 5,500 New Jobs as Part of Multi-Year Customer Experience Transformation” (Comcast.com, 2015). I spent a total of three years working for them in a call center atmosphere before relocating my family. This job was one of my most memorable and enjoyable mainly because they followed the management practices which allowed everyone to function efficiently. Nominally “The primary function for most call centers, also known as ‘inbound’ call centers, is to receive telephone calls initiated by customers. Inbound call centers typically spend 60–80% of their budget on staff members who handle phone calls” (der Horst, et al., 2012, 435). My days were spent with between eight to twelve hours a day attached to a desk and phone system monitoring all aspects of job performance. Comcast “today announced a new, multi-year plan to reinvent the customer experience and to create a culture focused on exceeding customers’ expectations, at all levels of the company. The plan centers on looking at every decision through a customer lens and making measureable changes and improvements across the company” ...
Customer service is valued as a competitive tool by many organisations. It gives you the ability to gain customer loyalty while meeting the customer’s expectations. Staff will have many skills and knowledge that will provide a competitive edge. Most organisations are known for the quality of their customer service. This means that they are known for good customer service or poor customer service. However, being known for good customer service will attract customers. It will also attract customers who are usually hard to reach.
Taylor, P. and Bain, P. (2003) 'Call Centre Organizing in Adversity: From Excel to Vertex' in G. Gall (ed.)
Close to the Customer: Customer satisfaction is very important throughout all the roles that the business plays. Many companies forget about their customers, whereas successful companies have an obsession with their customers. Excellent product quality and reliability will make a satisfied customer. Great service will keep the customer coming back.
...ain productivity. It is important that the unique form of occupational stress in call centers is addressed within all call centers to increase the awareness of these finding. The need for call center is steadily increase therefore; it is possible that occupational stress with continue to be an issue within this setting.
a) Good customer service is a critical component of a quality product. Collier (2011) states that service needs to be consistent, continuous, thoughtful and available. These are crucial in meeting and exceeding customer expectations. Collier also continues on to state that staff providing customer service must have appropriate skills, knowledge and personal attributes to execute a high standard of service. These skills have been identified by Collier as listening skills, punctuality, courtesy, integrity and grooming. The skills and qualities identified are reflected by the five key components of customer service tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. The five components have been provided by the SERVQUAL service measuring
Customer service by definition is the ability of knowledgeable, capable, and enthusiastic employees to deliver products and services to their internal and external customers in a manner that satisfies identified and unidentified needs and ultimately results in positive word-of-mouth publicity and return business (Lucas, 2012, pg.7). In other words, it’s making the customer pleased so that they keep doing business with you all while making sure that the employees get along and work together well. In every business there is a form of customer service. Unfortunately, it is not always excellent or even decent. Some businesses just either don’t care or possibly just don’t have the training to deal with some of the obstacles that come with dealing with customers on a daily basis. I’ve been in the restaurant business for over 13 years and I can tell you that there are skills that some are born with and others need training on, yet either way they should be used whenever interacting with customers.
Customer service is constantly evolving. A few decades ago, businesses considered customer service an unnecessary expense. Now, companies view it as a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Research reveals that “80% of CEOs believe they deliver a superior customer experience, but only 8% of their customers agree”.
It's very well known that a companies success is not only dependant on the possession of a good product or service, but the key aspect to a successful business is excellent customer service. As the market grows, now more then ever companies are emerging, they are offering very similar types of products and services. Successful customer service can be a way a business becomes original and unique, it can be the key to attracting and maintaining loyal customers. Good customer service can start-up a business while bad customer service can harm a company. An average customer that experiences an issue will complaint to 9-10 people about the problem. A customer that received support to their problem and a potential solution will tell at least five
Customer service has been around for many years. When customer service first came into place in the business world, it was in stores. In society today customer service is with any job with any company. “Customer service is not a department, it’s everyone’s job. -Anonymous”. (Walter). Customer service is taking care of your customers. Every customer needs to be treated the same with excellent customer service no matter the business or the age of the customer. All employees need to adapt to each customers’ needs in order to provide the best experience possible.
Customer service is used to set the direction for the business. In any organization customers should be first priority. Excellent customer service promotes customer satisfaction, employee motivation and gives the business a competitive edge among other businesses. (Adam Toporek, 2012). Excellent customer service is about creating a relationship of trust and loyalty with customers that transcends the interaction of the firm. Customers should be an organization’s number one priority. After all, without customers there will be no business and no income.
MAKLAN, S. & KLAUS, P. 2011. Customer experience: are we measuring the right things? International Journal of Market Research, 53, 771.
Customer Service is the act of dealing with the customers needs by giving and delivering professional, helpful, high quality service and help some time recently, amid, and after the customer's requirements are met.
When organization always provide high-quality products and good services, customer will create their satisfaction and increased customer loyalty.