As we approach the dawn of an eventful year; it seems a good idea to stop for a while and take stalk of the situation and try and analyze what this year had in store for us. What learning's can we take from it and try and improve on them in future and ensure that we do not repeat the same mistakes all over again. This extends to every aspect of life and business's can be no different. In fact it can be a very useful tool for business as it helps to know what the market and customers want and what all areas they try and explore to take advantage of the situation and the business's vulnerability. It is worthwhile to analyze what the top 5 customer service myths of the year have been. This will help companies in dumping these useless procedures and thoughts which instead of adding value to the chain become more of an exploitation tools for a certain percentage of guests and in the overall scenario gives a bad name to the business.
So what are the top 5 customer service myths of the year?
Treat customers like god and employees like beggars:
Almost every employee would have heard adage which sounds like "Customer is always right" or better still "Customer is king" and employees are not given a slightest of a chance to explain their side. In fact most of the training sessions in customer services start with these phrases and these words are drilled in employee’s minds day in and day out.
There is no doubting the importance of these words and their literal meanings. In fact, these have been considered the basics for companies in customer service industry. This kind of vision and thinking pattern has reaped rich rewards for companies in the past and have helped in coming up with solutions with customers focus in mind. On the hindsight; like all things must come to an end; time has now come for such strategies to be canned for good.
Over the years, customers have realized and very well understood that the companies who deal with them rate customer satisfaction experiences very high on their agenda and would go out of their way to ensure that any irate or dissatisfied customer gets his way no matter how realistic or unrealistic his demand is. Yes this is true. There have been numerous instances which have been reported where customer have got the better of certain set of policies and employees who are trying to implement such policies by making a huge hue and cry about them and projecting themselves as dissatisfied with the companies service standards. Companies on the other hand under various pressures tend to agree with whatever the guest asks; irrespective of whether it is a genuine or an unrealistic demand.
In actual practice what it does is that if such situations happen regularly and customers are given preference over everything in an effort to give them that ultimate "wow" experience; the hardworking employee who is trying to practice a process because of which the complaint has come in tends to get disheartened. They would get de-motivated and dissatisfied and will start questioning the purpose of their being present in the value chain if they do not get respect in their jobs. This in turn will affect their ability to perform their roles effectively and degrade the service standards.
To increase the customer service standards; increase the salary of the employees
The most common answer that people sitting at the top give when faced with the question of depleting customer service standards; is to increase the salary of the employees or better still hire people in higher salary bracket. They think that by hiring a higher paid employee; the service standards will increase.
In nine cases out of ten; such steps do not bear fruit and situation gets even worse. The correct solution for this is to ensure that the existing staff is made to undergo meaningful training programs which analyze and highlight the current set of problems and then provide effective solutions with the help of which employees are able to increase their effectiveness. Also utmost care should also be taken while hiring employees as possessing or having a customer service oriented mindset and thinking pattern should be given importance in hiring. It is much easier to train employees who have a customer service focused approach rather than employees who fret at the mere sight of a guest.
Ensure effective customer service by increasing the number of employees:
Most often team leaders or people in strategic positions within an organization think that the answer of decrease in service standards is to increase the headcount of employees and have additional people in the setup who can take care of the guests and their requirements.
Employees without service orientation and lack of effective training will only add to the companies' wages bill rather than making a positive contribution in capturing a larger market share. Having the right employees with the right attitude and mindset is what matters rather than merely increasing the headcount. "Quality matters over Quantity".
Service excellence ensure repeat customers:
Companies think that by making sure that they have one of the best trained employees who handle tough and demanding customer situations effectively will ensure repeat customers as they will be able to provide "wow" experience time and again.
Service excellence no doubt is one the most important criteria but not the only one for a customer to decide or fix his loyalties. In fact; in today's age of the internet; there are practically zero royalties of customers towards a particular business. It is more a matter of convenience and the customer will shift onto a provider who will be able to offer convenience in doing business. So it could be a large format retail store or a remote online shopping store; it is convenience which rules the roost along with service excellence.
Concentrate more of competition than on customers:
Most companies make this mistake of concentrating more on what their competition is up to. In fact; they go to an extent of strategizing and coming up with products and processes which will help them to look much better than their competitors.
This mistake is committed once too often by companies. The real catch of attracting customer's attention is to come up with products and services which are made keeping the customers in mind and not the competition. What a customer desires his needs and expectations from a brand or a product is what should be the base of the company’s operations and not what the competition is up to.
Companies should introspect their systems and processes and their entire operational line of thoughts in accordance with these top 5 customer service myths of 2009 and the results will show that in all probability they would have some serious changes to make in the way that they do business.
