Delivering customer service is a very crucial part of every business. A lot of elements have to be considered in order to ensure that all customers are satisfied with service of products that they have paid for. All customers expect to get the best value for their money, in fact they always asked for something they can get in exchange for their hard earned money. Reasonable enough because consumers are the ones that keep the business to grow and when a customer is not satisfied enough with the service they tend to find someone else that can match their expectations. Being said that, it is important that every company should practice delivering what they called D.F.I.O.T or otherwise deliver-in-full-on-time. Some might question how it is important to focus on D.F.I.O.T? The answer is simple it is all about commitment, companies have to have a commitment to deliver the best service they can offer in full and on a very timely manner.
First of all it is a must that a business should understand what customer service is and able to define the elements that makes its qualities. There is what we call service winners, those who have positive outlook and cheerful attitude. Those who posses genuine enjoyment on what they do and loves working with other people. Those that always treat the customer as a very important person and puts them on the center stage at all times. Those that are human relations experts and lastly, those who bear in mind those customers are always right even if in some instances they are not. Service is determined when someone enters a restaurant and is looking for more than a meal or a hotel guest that is looking for more than just a room. In other words all customers doesn’t only buy what you sell, they also look forward into a nice and friendly treatment.
The best customer service provider should have the following intangibles like satisfaction, attentiveness, tone, sensitivity, good attitude, flow, tact, guidance, understanding and knowledge. Along with the aforementioned tangibles comes the element that makes up customer service such as assurance, reliability, responsiveness, tangible and sense of empathy (Businessballs.com customer service).
There are a lot of businesses that are service oriented; in this case we will talk about a Satellite TV company. This type of business sells services, the core product of the company is to provide TV programming through satellite driven technology. The challenge at hand is to keep their satellite signal at the best possible strength in order to maintain a good TV reception to their customers. Any circumstances that may threat to disrupt the signals will result in customer complaint because of the lost of service. Disruptions happen especially when experiencing technical difficulties or uncontrolled situations brought by natural calamities. Natural calamities are inevitable and as such the satellite TV service company has no control of the situation and the only thing they can do is to keep their customers to stay patient. This is when customer service comes in the picture and pretty much the best defense mechanism the company is need of.
Scenario number 1: There was a weather forecast that a storm is about to hit the metropolitan area and thunderstorms are expected. Such weather condition will cause the signal from the satellite to be disrupted and result to the customer’s lost of signal error on their TV’s. Of course not all people understand the connection of the weather condition to the quality of paid service they are getting. As a result they will call the satellite TV Company and burst out their frustrations on the service they are getting and complain. Now, what are the rules of thumb that the company has to put in play in order to pacify angry customers and eventually convince them to stay loyal? Because there are customers who threatens to switch provider if the problem is not resolved, of course the company cannot afford to lose customers.
Planning will make it easier for the TV Company to deal with such situation. First is to set up a division or a dedicated department to deal with costumer service relations. The company should make it a point to hire a person that shows positive attitudes and the Human Resources department must be abreast with the right qualifications to look for in every candidate in accordance to the company’s culture. After hiring the right people, the next step is to put them into two separate trainings first is personality development. It is important that all customer service representatives are well equipped with positive personality and fundamentals of customer service. Teach the new hires on how to handle different sorts of customers and develop their communication skills. There are important qualities that the new hires has to develop such as excellent verbal communication skills, excellent non-verbal communication skills (to be used on internal communications), excellent listening skills, proper greetings, professionalism, empathy, sense of duty and paraphrasing. Next step is to assign mentors to each new hires, the mentors will act as a guiding individual to ensure that the person being trained was able to practice what was taught in the class and also to provide relevant pointers.
After the personality development training there has to be a final examination to gauge what the new hires had learned from the beginning until the last discussed module. Setting a passing mark will ensure that the new hires are all screened for the individuals only. Set an expectation to the trainees that passing marks must be met in order to continue with the training. After examination that is the time that the trainees will go through the product training. At this stage they will be learning all about the products and services of the company, feeding information should be balanced and all trainees must sign confidentiality agreement to ensure that they will not divulge delicate information about the company’s business practices. After learning about the product the new hires will be certified and will be assigned in the customer service department to do the task of customer relations. They will be assigned with a coach and team leader that will monitor their work behaviors. QA or quality assurance will also ensure that the customer service representative provides only the best quality service to the customers. Anyone who fails to meet the standards must be endorsed to the team leader or mentor for coaching or re-training.
Going back to the given scenario about the satellite TV Company’s lost of service problem. The customer service representative must answer the customer’s call on the following flow. Prompt greetings on an upbeat tone, listen to the customer’s concern and allow them to vent their frustrations and do not interrupt, identify the problem and search for the best answer, show empathy and apologize for the inconvenience, educate the customer that the company is already aware of the lost of service problem and ensure that everything is being taken care of, provide a time frame as to when the service will be restored, provide assurance to the given information, compensate customers according to the company’s allowable limit, offer extended help by asking for anything else the customer needs help with and then end the call.
In the battle for the best service provider in the market the company can rely on how good their customer service is if the product being sold is a common commodity. In the competition having an edge in customer service gives a higher advantage (Talley and Axelroth Talking about Customer Service).
Works Cited
Businessballs.com. customer service. N.D. Web. customer service, customer support and skills training guide, standards and customer service code of practice, and complaints handling tips, and poor customer service case study. Retrieved November 20, 2011 from http://www.businessballs.com/customer_service.htm
Talley, Mary and Axelroth, Joan. Talking About Customer Service. Information Outlook, Vol.5, No. 12. 12, December 2001. Web. Sla.org. Retrieved November 20, 2011 from http://www.sla.org/content/Shop/Information/infoonline/2001/dec01/axelroth.cfm
