The rise and fall of customer service

Anyone who’s tried to contact a service provider via its 800 number likely will have encountered other customer-service problems. After wading through long introductory messages about which keys to press for which problems (none of which usually addresses the reason for one’s call), you either get disconnected or told it’ll be up to two hours (or more) before a representative can speak with you, so you may want to call back later (at which time, of course, you get the same message).

When I first entered the customer-service consulting field years ago, a colleague told me about an event he’d seen in which a customer confronted a particularly unfriendly and unhelpful employee. The customer said, “You may want to always remember that in the eyes of your employer you represent overhead expense and I represent profit.” For customer service to return to the esteemed levels it was at not that long ago, both employers and employees would be well-served to remember those words. Customers interact with organizations because they want or need a product or service. And they want their experience to be as pleasant and fast as possible. Refocusing on the well-known tenets of customer service will benefit the organizations that do so and, certainly, the customers they serve.

So, upfront (in ads, websites, etc.), make clear: (1) what services/products you provide, (2) what your hours are — if in-person visits are required, and (3) how customers can easily contact an actual person to get answers to questions they may have. Then focus your efforts on delivering what you promise to deliver. Doing these things, although not always simple, is possible if one is focused on the customer and committed to providing superior service.

As far as customer research goes, it should take four phases: (1) in-depth conversations with current, past and potential customers to identify why they act as they do, (2) measuring across the customer base how well those reasons are being addressed, (3) forming action teams to identify how to address the shortcomings that exist, and (4) continued measurements to fine-tune needed actions.

These steps used to be commonplace, and organizations should return to them if they want to prosper and provide what people want and need.

Doug R. Berdie, of Minneapolis, is a retired marketing/social research professional who co-authored the text “Questionnaires: Design and Use” and has taught survey research techniques.

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