Celebrating Customer Service Week 2021

There is much anxiety being generated concerning the effective delivery of Customer Service across every sector as the discipline rapidly evolves in today’s dynamic Covid 19 environment. Significant modifications are necessitated and should be employed at this time, primarily due to the heightened demands and expectations of a possibly forever changed internal and external customer. This new situation has also significantly affected and in some instances removed the customary brick and mortar face to face methods of Customer Relations and embraced a mostly online approach, to better serve the changed customer who is now demanding an even higher level of customer service delivery. Many customers are also unemployed and face significant losses and hardships which threaten their relationships and commitments as customers. Buzzwords such as reliability, empathy, confidence, responsiveness, efficiency, consistency, organisation and acceptance of and adherence to new policies and procedures are being bandied about and as such, customers have become increasingly frustrated with the level and quality of customer service now on parade in many areas. Companies are therefore challenged to adapt, think outside of the box regarding their approaches and juggle their available resources in order to safeguard, satisfy and retain their customer base in a quest to remain competitive and indeed viable. The following are three of the many critical tips which should be considered to achieve such:-

1.?????Personalising Customer Service With Empathy: Reach out to your customers, focus on their needs, identify ways to help based on their feedback and offer assistance as necessary. Be empathetic, touching the hearts of customers in a positive way. Understand customer challenges. Never use negative language and make exceptions. Minimise conflict between customer needs and changes in company policies and approaches and resolve any issues amicably. Reassure customers that you are doing everything to keep commitments and promises made. Reduce or in some cases remove penalties attached to services which are difficult to manage at this time. Provide additional customer service support and offer opportunities for easy access and personal interactions with customer service personnel for example, through email, voice and messaging applications. Build customer trust by keeping up with their desires and how they like to be treated while reassuring them of their value to the business. Meet and in some instances exceed the desired level of satisfaction based on customer expectations. Celebrate your customers by demonstrating how importantly they are viewed by your business. Place them on your mailing list not only to keep them abreast of changes regarding fees, new products and services, policies etc. but to keep them close ?showing?that you care. Send congratulatory messages, cards, safety tips, life facts etc. Finally, just keep customers happy and make them feel important through an exceptional customer service experience.

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2.?????A Safe and Healthy Environment for the Delivery of Customer Service:- There are several gains including higher productivity, lower absenteeism and economic improvement which can be derived from a safe, healthy and professional workforce and environment. Customer service areas are transaction-based areas and must allow for easy accessibility and for the safe exchange and sharing of information on both sides. Work stations and service counters for customer interaction must be clean, comfortable, flexible, and adjustable and must also allow for the safety of both the internal and external customer as these areas are usually the focal points on entering any building or business organisation. Customers must be made to feel safe and that their safety is important to you. Internal customers working from their home offices must also be operating in an environment conducive to effective customer service interaction and delivery with reliable telecoms connection and equipment and in areas where customers’ business can be transacted in the strictest privacy and confidentiality.

3???????Customer Loyalty and Retention:- There are some important concepts regarding loyalty and retention demanded by customers which should be taken in consideration, especially at this difficult time – a) Value: Customers place value on the benefits gained from doing business with your organisation versus doing business elsewhere. You must therefore add value to your product and service offerings which encourage customer loyalty. ?b) Satisfaction: ?Customer satisfaction is key and depends on the perceived performance and reliability of both the organisation and the product or service delivered relative to the customers’ expectations. The higher the expectations, the higher your level of service delivery should be. Meet and in some instances exceed the desired level of satisfaction based on these expectations. c) Quality: The process of consistently communicating to every customer whether it is an internal or external that they are valued and that their satisfaction is paramount to the organisation. Therefore, there must be a thrust towards the delivery of the desired quality of service at every customer touch point whether face-to face, on the telephone or ?through other online mediums to avoid customer defection.

?Velma Wiltshire MBA, BSc. Hons.

Customer Relations Specialist

TouchPoint Customer Solutions