Which of these best reflects your views, in general, of dealing with customer service issues: ‘‘I tell the whole truth, all the time’’ or ‘‘I play by the rules, but I bend them to my company’s advantage whenever I can.’’
The Tiered Service System
In years past, most thriving companies gave all their customers special attention, regardless of the size of their purchase. The thinking then was that a customer who makes a small purchase today might make a large purchase tomorrow. Today, however, the mindset of treating customers differently is based on certain criteria—their actual or potential value, for example.
This idea is beginning to make economic sense to more and more businesses. In other words, many companies today are asking themselves, ‘‘Why invest the same amount of customer service effort and expense in a onetime customer as we would in a customer who has a multimillion-dollar history with our business?’’
This increasingly popular approach to serving customers is referred to as a tiered service system and is used with a database of customer transaction records, which have been stored and analyzed with the help of computers and customer relationship management (CRM) software. The concept and use of CRM software will be discussed in depth in a later; however, the underlying principle of CRM is that every interaction with a customer is part of a larger relationship that the company should be able to maximize and use in helping increase customer loyalty.
What does tiered service look like? Whether we realize it or not, we are already being served by this concept each time we choose to fly. Airlines, for example, usually place their customers into three tiers of service: basic, or coach-class; enhanced, or business-class; and premium, or first-class. For the customer, the good news is that a tiered service system has a lot more choices on price, convenience, and comfort.
Also, consumers have the option of upgrading if they choose to. On the other hand, companies can invisibly identify individuals who don’t generate profits for them and may decide to provide them with inferior service.
Although tiered service exists, customers should never feel that they are getting a certain level of service because they are buying a certain level of business. All customers should feel that they are receiving the same level of customer service when it comes to assistance with problems or the handling of complaints.
Describing the Role of Customer Service Representatives
Superior service doesn’t just happen; it is a process. Next to a company’s product, excellence in customer service is the single most important factor in determining the future success or failure of a company. Regardless of what products or services a company offers, the company is also in the business of providing customer service.
If you look at companies that are not doing well or have gone under, a common thread is failure to deliver superior customer service. Today’s successful companies show that they understand and deliver what their customers want. More important, they are believers in the value of hiring the right people and providing customer service training not only for frontline employees, but for management and all other support workers as well.
Top organizations carefully select people to fill the position of customer service representatives. CSRs are trained well and are provided a supportive working environment because CSRs count in these companies. A customer service representative can work in a variety of settings and have any number of job titles. For instance, a CSR might work in a telephone call center, at a help desk, with customers at a counter face-to-face, on the phone in the role of telemarketing, or on the Internet, providing hospitality and technical information to both internal and external clients. Regardless of the setting or job title, the CSR’s role, in general, is to answer questions, solve problems, take orders, and resolve complaints.
Ethics / Choices
Assume you are answering a customer’s inquiry about a product. After an amicable conversation with you, the customer realizes she cannot afford your product and thanks you. You know that a competitor offers the same product in her price range. What do you do?
Required Customer Service Skills and Competencies
Although the responsibilities of a CSR are many and varied, most companies write the job description to include the following duties:
· Provides in-house support for salespeople whenever a customer requires information or assistance
· Provides communication between levels of management and customers
· Represents the customer’s interests, rather than those of a department within the company
· Helps develop and maintain customer loyalty
· Handles customer complaints and strives to have the company set them right
· Alerts upper management to trends or any conditions within the company’s products or services that lead to customer dissatisfaction and recommends solutions to problems
The fundamental service skills needed by all customer service professionals involve knowing how to build rapport, uncover needs, listen, empathize, clarify, explain, and delight customers.
· handle customer complaints, irate customers, and challenging situations.
· avoid misunderstandings, manage expectations, and take responsibility.
· work in teams and build internal cooperation and communication within the organization.
· show a positive customer service attitude.
Hiring the Right Person
The CSR’s task is always to resolve the customer’s problem as quickly and completely as possible. This requires three critical skills: (1) exercising judgment, (2) possessing knowledge of the product, customer history, company information, and competitive data, and (3) using that judgment and knowledge, along with common sense.
When hiring customer service professionals, companies should look for a helping attitude. You can teach anyone almost anything, but the feeling of customer service has to come from within a person. First-rate CSRs sense what irritates their customers. For example, seemingly minor issues such as the way a carton is labeled or type of packaging are not minor, if they bother the customer.
The most important task in hiring CSRs is to select individuals who fit in with the company’s customer service culture and have a demonstrated skill and interest in working with the public. Companies look for a variety of character traits, abilities, and experience levels for customer service jobs. The profile for an exceptional CSR includes the following characteristics.
INITIATIVE Takes the initiative to resolve issues before they become problems; ensures that customer needs are met RESPONSIVENESS Looks for speedy solutions to problems; goes the extra mile to please the customer; responds quickly and effectively
RELATIONSHIP BUILDING Is friendly and courteous; easy to talk to; tactful and diplomatic; respectful and considerate
SENSITIVITY Shows an understanding of and an interest in customers’ needs and concerns
OBJECTIVITY Is open-minded; is respectful to others; treats others equally and fairly; tolerates different points of view
RESISTANCE TO STRESS Works effectively under stressful conditions; remains calm; copes well under pressure
RESILIENCE Is open to criticism; feelings are not easily hurt; tolerates frustration well
PROBLEM SOLVING Provides appropriate solutions to problems; capably handles customer requests; finds positive resolutions to problems
POSITIVE ATTITUDE Is optimistic; maintains a cheerful attitude; looks for positive resolutions to problems
Not too long ago, most customer service representatives worked at retail stores or corporate headquarters. Today, if you work in customer service, you might be located in a retail store or an office, but CSRs are just as likely to work at a remote call center, at a help desk for a computer software company, or for a web-based company. As the number of web-based companies grows almost daily, a need for more CSRs to professionally and accurately take orders, answer questions, handle complaints, and track customer information is growing steadily. You might be called by any of the following job titles: customer service representative, customer care representative, client services representative, customer service specialist, account manager, account service representative, call center representative, claims service representative, helpdesk assistant, telesales representative, telemarketer, or by another job title.
A call center is a location where groups of people use telephones to provide service and support to customers. Increasingly, this area is also referred to as a contact center, because it uses more technologically sophisticated devices when interacting with customers.
Contact center representatives don’t only answer the phones; they also respond to customers’ e-mail messages and participate in chat sessions via a chat room set up for the purpose of live customer interaction.
Call centers can be inbound, outbound, or both. That is to say, some call centers handle only inbound calls, such as customer orders and questions or complaints about service issues. Others are outbound centers, where CSRs call customers to promote products or services or to conduct polls about anything from product testing to opinions about recent purchases. Some call centers perform both inbound and outbound functions.
At a help desk, customer service representatives answer customer questions by phone, fax, e-mail, and the Internet. Help desk software automates the help desk and is available to assist CSRs in quickly finding answers to commonly asked questions about particular products and services. Typical functions of this software include call management, call tracking, knowledge management, problem resolution, and self-help capabilities.
The Customer Service Challenge
Customer service begins with putting the right people in place. Teaching customer service skills to employees who don’t have a service-oriented attitude is difficult. As the workforce changes, identifying the specific skills employees need to learn about serving customers becomes more important. For instance, simple acts of kindness that we used to take for granted—such as smiling and saying ‘‘thank you’’—may now have to be taught. A major challenge of customer service today is the shortage of customer-oriented employees.
An additional challenge most companies face is finding and training staff that can keep up with the technology in the industry. Consider the changes in technology that CSRs have seen in the past few years: e-mail, text-based Internet chatting (the ability to hold a real-time conversation over the web by typing back and forth), voice-over Internet protocol (the ability to have a real-time verbal conversation over the Internet), and push technology (the ability to send a specific image over the Internet directly to the customer’s computer screen).
With the growth of the Internet and online companies, CSRs must be able to manage digital contacts effectively. Quick, accurate, and appropriate responses by e-mail that adequately address customer concerns can prevent the risk of losing customers to a competitor in seconds with just a few clicks of the mouse. If call center representatives aren’t familiar or comfortable with instant messaging, chat rooms, and customer-friendly e-mail responses, they may be left behind in these critical skill areas.
Is it any wonder that customer service training— especially with the new generation of workers—is taking on greater importance? The new breed of CSR will need to be able to handle not only the latest technology, but also the most complex customer interactions—those requiring extensive problem-solving and negotiating skills. Making matters even more challenging, these CSRs will have to be able to communicate both verbally and in writing.
Increasingly, companies are realizing that the most significant investment they can make is not in purchasing their databases or computer systems, but in making the best decisions when hiring their customer service staff.
Moreover, once customer service representatives are hired, often the challenge is to keep them trained and ready to do their jobs in this technology-driven society.
B U S I N E S S j i n a c t i o n
T-MO B I L E
When Sue Nokes joined T-Mobile as the Senior Vice President of Customer Service, the cell-phone company, based in Bellevue, WA, had a big problem. Lousy customer service was driving T-Mobile users crazy.
When calling with a question or complaint, they were often placed on hold for what seemed like eons and then spoke with customer service reps who weren’t very helpful. J. D. Power’s customer-satisfaction surveys ranked T-Mobile dead last in the industry, trailing Verizon, Cingular, Nextel, and Sprint. Nokes launched a total overhaul.
The first step was getting T-Mobile’s human resources people and its marketing department to sit down and talk. The idea was to revamp the company’s hiring practices, thus increasing the odds of picking customer service staffers willing and able to follow through on the marketing mavens’ promises.
Sounds like common sense, doesn’t it? But surprisingly few companies do it.
Concluding Message for CSRs
Marshall Field, founder of the Chicago-based department store Marshall Field and Company, said, ‘‘Those who come to me with a complaint teach me. Right or wrong, the customer is always right.’’ He was saying that a complaint gives a service provider the chance to show just how good he or she can really be. Field wasn’t saying that the customer is truly always right; some customers are very wrong. What Field meant was that, in dealing with complaints, you’re dealing with people’s perceptions.
Although a customer’s perception of a problem may be shortsighted or distorted, in the customer’s eyes that perception is right. Most people who complain truly feel they have a legitimate concern.
A customer service representative is often the customer’s first impression of the competence, quality, and tone of the company. The CSR serves as the company’s first line of defense against an unhappy customer. Further, customers are more likely to listen to reason and to a different perspective of their problem if frontline providers have product knowledge, express understanding, and treat each customer as if he or she were unique. To a consumer, that human touch of being treated as a valued individual is often more important than price.
Summary
Customer service is the process of satisfying a customer relative to a product or service, in whatever way the customer defines his or her need, and then delivering that service with efficiency, understanding, and compassion.
The power shift from companies to their customers underlies the new customer economy, in which the depth of relationships and loyalty to customers are critical to an organization’s success.
Regardless of the setting or job title, the customer service representative’s duties are to answer questions, solve problems, take customers’ orders, and resolve complaints.
One of the most important tasks in hiring CSRs is selecting an individual who has a service-oriented attitude and a demonstrated skill and interest in working with the public. The new breed of CSR will need to be able to handle the latest technology and the most complex customer interactions—those requiring extensive problem-solving and negotiating skills.
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