Consider the following scenario: you receive a call from a salesperson (or business owner) who has been trying to get a meeting with you for months. Eventually, you consent. You have a highly productive discussion in which you discover that some of what they're offering might be beneficial to your company. Not wanting the entire product, you ask them to send you a quote for the portion that's most relevant to you. And you never hear from them again.
If it sounds familiar, you're not alone. So many good intentions and 'hot' customer leads end in precisely this way. Across businesses there seems to be a general service delivery problem at all stages in the customer service interface.
The question is why? In an economic climate where new customers are so thin on the ground, how can an organisation afford to pass up on opportunities that they themselves have worked so hard to create? And where do the solutions lie?
Given the much higher cost of recruiting new customers, most companies recognise the value of retaining existing ones, but this is only achieved if your staff are on board and have the necessary tools and systems in place.
An effective system is important to any business task and the management of customer service is no exception. The system should help you to manage your time as well as the tasks that you need to complete.
In the example of poor customer service quoted earlier, the salesperson was thrown by my request for an out-of-the-ordinary quote. Without a system to incorporate such requests, they were unable to manage what was probably a relatively easy task.
The main reason why many customer service systems fail is because they impose a one-size-fits all system onto their staff.
For example, the 'Influencer' in the office, whose strengths lie in relationships, might be active and work quickly, but they frequently lack discipline when it comes to managing their time. The 'Driver' is disciplined with their time but will frequently interrupt other people's schedules to meet their own deadlines, while the 'Analyst' is methodical and needs lots of time to complete tasks . The 'Steady Amiable' worker is structured and methodical but will readily interrupt their own schedule for others.
When managers recognise the different personalities of their staff, they can accept the need for different systems.
For one employee, this might mean using the Outlook calendar reminder function as a prompt to follow up with a particular customer query, while for another an Excel spreadsheet of tasks with a status update on each customer service interaction might work better.
The important thing is to encourage staff to choose one, simple system that doesn't take too much time to manage and that fits in with their normal way of working during the day.
As important as systems are however, when it comes to dealing with customers they need to be complemented by strong people skills. When your system fails, you still have to be able to pick up the phone and provide your customer with an explanation. Research shows that one of the biggest complaints customers have is the lack of feedback on the status of their query or complaint.
Helping employees to develop these important people skills is critical to the success of any customer service. The successful manager is one who can identify weaknesses and provide clear direction, motivation and support to help staff improve on these areas.
