July 15th, 2008
What is Good Customer Service
What is Good Customer ServiceBy Andrew Porter, Customer Service Boot Camp
As the general level of customer service continues its rapid descent across the country the question arises, what constitutes good customer service today?
Part of the answer lies in the reasons that customer service in general has down trended for so long.
One cause is simply more people. There are more of us and we are all clamoring (sometimes impatiently) for service.
Then there is the fact that smaller, locally owned businesses have tended to vanish and be replaced large national chains. The advent of the "super stores" such as Circuit City or Barnes and Noble have taken the place of the home town local stores. This causes service to be less personal. In the past, a store owner may have known the names of many customers; this is not the case today.
New technology can also have an effect of lessening customer service. There are more and more companies with complicated phone answering systems. No person actually answers the phone. So you have to enter your account number, phone number, address, social security number, password, and secret code (assuming you remember it!) before you get to speak to a real person.
Also each piece of new technology has its own terms and "you have to do this before you can do that" to it. So understanding how things work can be a little overwhelming to a new customer. Often technical customer service people forget that many people don't understand gigabytes, bandwidth and what an IP address is. So there is an understanding gap.
Flashy advertising also promotes the idea of how great the customer service is to get new customers. Unfortunately these words and images are not always backed up with the correct actions to actually deliver what is promised. But the advertising tends to create a higher expectation of good service.
All of these points and more tend to lower the level of service to customers.
But what is good customer service?
The keynote of all good service is caring about the customer. Caring to see that the client leaves happy. Caring to see that the problem is taken care of for good.
Good service is personal. It can’t be done by robots. Each person needs to be treated as an individual.
Speed of service is certainly part of the equation as well. No one likes to wait!
Patience, kindness and understanding are what really sets one company above another regarding great service.
The goal of customer service has been defined in many texts as "a satisfied customer". But any business that wants to receive good word of mouth from its customers realizes that the goal needs to be loyal customers. A satisfied customer will come back for more service until they find a more convenient location or a better deal. A loyal customer will drive by as many as 10 customers to come in for service. And they will refer others often!
So this leaves us with a very simple question: Is my service or product provider doing just enough to make me a satisfied customer or are they trying to go the extra mile to make me a loyal customer?
As the general level of customer service continues its rapid descent across the country the question arises, what constitutes good customer service today?
Part of the answer lies in the reasons that customer service in general has down trended for so long.
One cause is simply more people. There are more of us and we are all clamoring (sometimes impatiently) for service.
Then there is the fact that smaller, locally owned businesses have tended to vanish and be replaced large national chains. The advent of the "super stores" such as Circuit City or Barnes and Noble have taken the place of the home town local stores. This causes service to be less personal. In the past, a store owner may have known the names of many customers; this is not the case today.
New technology can also have an effect of lessening customer service. There are more and more companies with complicated phone answering systems. No person actually answers the phone. So you have to enter your account number, phone number, address, social security number, password, and secret code (assuming you remember it!) before you get to speak to a real person.
Also each piece of new technology has its own terms and "you have to do this before you can do that" to it. So understanding how things work can be a little overwhelming to a new customer. Often technical customer service people forget that many people don't understand gigabytes, bandwidth and what an IP address is. So there is an understanding gap.
Flashy advertising also promotes the idea of how great the customer service is to get new customers. Unfortunately these words and images are not always backed up with the correct actions to actually deliver what is promised. But the advertising tends to create a higher expectation of good service.
All of these points and more tend to lower the level of service to customers.
But what is good customer service?
The keynote of all good service is caring about the customer. Caring to see that the client leaves happy. Caring to see that the problem is taken care of for good.
Good service is personal. It can’t be done by robots. Each person needs to be treated as an individual.
Speed of service is certainly part of the equation as well. No one likes to wait!
Patience, kindness and understanding are what really sets one company above another regarding great service.
The goal of customer service has been defined in many texts as "a satisfied customer". But any business that wants to receive good word of mouth from its customers realizes that the goal needs to be loyal customers. A satisfied customer will come back for more service until they find a more convenient location or a better deal. A loyal customer will drive by as many as 10 customers to come in for service. And they will refer others often!
So this leaves us with a very simple question: Is my service or product provider doing just enough to make me a satisfied customer or are they trying to go the extra mile to make me a loyal customer?