Customer service: Now more than ever...

Enterprise organisations often think of customer service as an unavoidable fact of business, a necessary expense. Rethink customer service, however, and it can become a strategic weapon that fosters growth and competitive advantage.

Some common steps can turn customer service into a strategic weapon that can be especially valuable during difficult economic periods.

Alignment and vision

If customer service is going to be strategic to your company, the entire company must be aligned around that vision, especially the senior-most levels of the customer service department, marketing department, and ideally, the CEO and executive team. Without that alignment and clarity, a company can only pay lip service to the goal.

For example, if a company gets 80% of its business from 30% of its customers, the alignment decision may be to focus primarily on that 30%. After all, that group not only represents the most business, but also the most complaints. Here, the company wants to retain its best customers. Other companies might want to improve the loyalty of the second-tier customers. Or they might want to upsell their customers. Each company will have its own strategy and goals. To succeed, every company must align around its defined strategy.

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