Customer service organisations often find themselves caught up in a battle of words with external customers because service professionals fail to execute their functions effectively. Customer service resolution is defined as finding the most commonsense strategy is resolving outstanding issues between the external and the internal customer.
There is a law of customer service that was used in the early 1970s-1980s. It says the first law of customer service is “the customer is always right”. The second law of customer service says, “Refer back to the first law of customer service”. In other words, the most effective way to start the process of resolving customer service issues is to come to the conclusion that the customer is always right.
Customer service professionals are keenly aware that the customer is wrong and instead of resolving the issues they would “press- salt- into- a- wound” and only to discover that they have sent the customer to a point of no return. When customer service professionals frustrate customers just prove a point, they are wasting company resources and exerting energy that could have been positively channeled to resolve the issue. Customer service professionals must remember “Customers Rule”. It is the customer who pays the light bill, water bill, telephone, salaries and even the life assurance premium of employees.
Service professionals who are committed to providing effective customer service should take proactive steps to be on the winning side of customer service resolution. Customers should always be treated with respect and service professionals must remember to serve customers as if it was their first. Why is customer service resolution necessary?
* It maintains a level of communication and respect to external customers
* It maintains an open door policy environment in the event issues arise
* It sets a precedent for the entire organisation that every problem must be resolve
* It allows service professionals the opportunity to fairly retained customers before they decide to switch to the competition
Service organisations significantly contribute to creating crisis with the goose that laid the golden egg. Three key problems external customers face on a daily basis:
* Customer service procrastination: Failing to take action
Customer service professionals fail when they procrastinate to service external customers. Service professionals intentionally do this in an attempt that the problem or the customer will go away. Sometimes, the customer goes away and the customer service professional thinks that he has solved the problem and adds a trophy to his customer service resolution collection. In reality, the customer goes away feeling that his or her problem was never resolved. The customer decides the best revenge is not to complain and never to return.
* Service through avoidance: “The ducking method”.
Customer service professionals also fail when they resolve the problem by avoiding the customer, often called “the ducking method”. The methodology is rampant is our service sector because it takes little effort to indirectly resolve. For example, when a customer calls and complains regarding a service issue and they do not get any resolve they ask to speak to someone with authority. The customer is transferred to the manager’s office and often gets a voice mail. The customer continues to call and then when the manager hears that customer is calling again they ask the customer to leave a message. If the customer calls again they advise the secretary to inform the customer they will return a call when their meeting ends. Unfortunately, the meeting never ends and the customer never hears from the manager.
* Service through “The Name and blame game”
Customer service professionals also fail when they service external customers by using playing the name and blame game. When customers call into a customer service department for assistance sometimes they usually ask the name of the person as a point of reference. When the problem is not resolved and they call back, they ask for that person. Coincidently, that person is not available to speak to the customer because of the magnitude of service issues. The customer service professional who answers the phone instead of trying to resolve the problem starts to play the name and blame game and discretely avoids the customer and tells them, sorry madam, because you started dealing with Susie Resolution, and she understands your problem, I will give her the message and she will get back to you as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the customer service professional does not return the call until two or three weeks later.
Customer service organisations should invest heavily in relevant training to ensure that customer service professionals play a vital role in resolving outstanding issues. The following strategies constitute a workable and viable roadmap to resolving customer service issues.
* Do not try to determine whose fault it is
* Identify the problem
* Avoid buttering up the customer
* Identify the problem
* Avoid the name and blame game
* Agree on the problem
* Agree on how both parties can resolve the problem
* Implement a strategy to resolve the problem
* Give the strategy time to work
* Follow-up to ensure customer satisfaction
* When every strategy fails remember,” The Customer Rules”
The information contained in this article is partial excerpts from the following training programmes:
Principles of customer service
The Power of Teamwork
Customer Service Management
Developing Customer Service Delivery Systems
Developing Customer Service Delivery Management Systems
Developing Customer Service Management Systems
Delivering Effective Customer Relations
Developing Effective Customer Relations Management
Re-engineering Employee Performance
By Bert Mullings
Mr Mullings, is a corporate trainer and business consultant. His columns can be found regularly in The Nassau Guardian
